Bush offers praise but no endorsement to Israel

updated 6:19 p.m. ET May 23, 2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday praised Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s plan for a unilateral redrawing of West Bank borders, saying it could be “an important step toward the peace we both support.”

But Bush, in his first White House meeting with the new Israeli leader, stopped short of a full endorsement. He said a negotiated agreement “best serves Israelis and Palestinians and the cause of peace.”

Bush also urged Israel to reach out to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as an alternative to dealing with the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority.

Abbas “speaks out for peace and negotiations,” Bush said.

“Hamas must recognize Israel’s right to exist, must abandon terror, must accept all previous agreements,” Bush said. “No country can be expected to make peace with those who deny its right to exist, and who use terror to attack its population.”

Olmert said that if Hamas abandons its refusal to recognize Israel and its embrace of violence, “they will find us a willing partner in peace.”

But he said Israel would not enter an agreement with any party that refuses to recognize its right to exist. “We cannot wait indefinitely for the Palestinians to change,” he said.

Under his West Bank plan, Olmert intends — in the absence of a Palestinian peace partner — to remove isolated Israeli settlements in the territory, bolster major enclaves Israel says it intends to keep and draw a border by 2010.

Negotiations with Abbas encouraged
Bush administration officials have been urging Olmert to negotiate with Abbas over the West Bank withdrawal plan. However, it is unclear how much authority Abbas wields.

Bush called Olmert’s ideas “bold.”

While any final peace agreement must be the product of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, “the prime minister’s ideas could be an important step toward the peace we both support. I am encouraged by his constructive efforts to find ways to move the peace process forward,” Bush said.

On another major issue, both Bush and Olmert said Iran must not be allowed to build a nuclear arsenal.

“We determined that the Iranian regime must not obtain nuclear weapons,” Bush said. For his part, Olmert said, “This is a moment of truth. It is still not too late to prevent it from happening.”

Olmert was elected in March, taking over from Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke in January and has not recovered. Olmert, a career politician without close ties to the Bush administration, won election to succeed Sharon on a platform of expanding the withdrawal to include most of the Jewish settlements on the West Bank.

It was his first meeting with Bush since becoming prime minister, although Bush noted that they had first met in 1998 — when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and Bush was governor of Texas.

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