MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian and Israeli officials react to Bush speech on Middle East

An Israeli government spokeswoman and a minister in the new Palestinian government welcomed U.S. President George W. Bush's call for revived peace talks and an international conference on the conflict Monday (July 16), while a spokesman for Hamas discounted Bush's Monday speech. Hamas Islamists, who seized control of the Gaza Strip last month, accused Bush of planning a "crusade" against the Palestinian people. Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, took notes during the Bush speech as it was televised in Rafah, in southern Gaza. "Bush statement came in the course of supporting the government of Fayyad against the legitimacy of Hamas,. The Bush promises have always proven to be nothing but lies," Abu Zuhri said. But the tone was different in Ramallah on the West Bank where Dr. Samir Abdullah, Minister of Labour and Planning in the new Palestinian government watched the Bush speech. He welcomed the tone of the speech, but took a cautious outlook on the future of any type of peace process. "The tone and the content of the statement is positive towards us, towards the Palestinian state. He repeated the establishment of the Palestinian state many times and we hope that this, this might include a more determination to implement the Bush vision, but of course we have to wait and see," Minister Abdullah said. "In terms of the peace process he of course he said what he used to say before, but there is not change in the forum or in the modality of the negotiation. He said that the meetings between the Palestinian and the Israeli leaders will continue and he did not call for something that might be more active, or more efficient in terms of pushing the peace process forward," Minister Abdullah added. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said Bush's initiative "adds to the momentum" of bilateral talks already underway between Olmert and Abbas. The two leaders met earlier in the day in Jerusalem. Eisin said the proposed conference could be "an excellent umbrella to support the moderate Palestinians and to give a real push" to those bilateral talks. "The talk about the fight against terror, sidelining of Hamas, the importance of building Palestinian institutions, the mission of ex-Prime Minister Blair - all of these Israel sees eye-to-eye with, and we hope that this will add more momentum in the process which has already started between Israel and the Palestinians. We heard the idea of an international meeting - Prime Minister Olmert sees this as an interesting idea, which could add and contribute to the present momentum if we would see moderate Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, like Morocco, like Bahrain who would come openly within the conditions as they were outlined by President Bush, sitting around and giving an umbrella of support to the Palestinian moderates. All of these could be an important aspect which would add to the growing bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," Eisin said. In the speech, Bush called for a Middle East peace conference bringing together Israel, the Palestinians and some Arab neighbours and led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Aiming to break years of stalemate and under pressure from Arab allies to pursue the issue, Bush set the conference for later this year and announced $190 million in aid to the Palestinians' Fatah-led government. Bush said the conference -- meant to pave the way to a Palestinian state alongside Israel -- would take place in the autumn but he specified no date, location or which neighbours would attend.

ITN Source | July 17, 2007

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