Bush calls for end of ‘occupation’ of Arab lands

updated 10:17 p.m. ET Jan. 10, 2008

RAMALLAH, West Bank - President Bush called for a halt to Israel's military occupation of land the Palestinians claim for a state and an end to the terrorist threat over the Jewish homeland, spelling out the U.S. bottom line Thursday for ending the long and bloody Mideast conflict.

"Now is the time to make difficult choices," Bush said. An agreement will require "painful concessions" by both sides, Bush said, but he predicted one could be reached within a year, putting himself more firmly on the line than ever for an achievement considered unlikely by many experts.

The White House said Bush would return to the Mideast at least once and possibly more this year, including another stop in Israel for its 60th anniversary celebrations in May.

Bush came away with no breakthroughs or apparent concessions from two days of separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian West Bank. There was no joint meeting of the three leaders, but Olmert and Abbas assured Bush they were serious about reaching an agreement.

Bush's peacemaking checklist, combining existing U.S. policy with a few new elements, was his most detailed summary yet of U.S. expectations for resolving some of the hardest issues in a final peace accord. He outlined his position in a five-minute statement to reporters summoned to a room in the King David Hotel, overlooking Jerusalem's holy and historic Old City.

The sticking points
The biggest hurdles to an agreement are:

• Conflicting claims to the holy city of Jerusalem.
• Different views about the outlines of a future Palestinian state.
• The fate of Palestinian refugees and millions of their descendants.

Bush pointedly dodged the Jerusalem question, simply calling it "one of the most difficult challenges on the road to peace."

Video   Bush: 'Now is the time' for Mideast peace Jan. 10: President Bush makes a statement from Jerusalem on Mideast peace efforts. MSNBC

As if to jolt Israel into action, Bush deliberately used a loaded term — occupation — to describe Israeli military control over the West Bank, the territory that would eventually form the bulk of an independent Palestinian state.

This is how Bush described the opening point for peace negotiations:

"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the state of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent."

By any Arab definition, the way Bush described occupation would include East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Golan Heights. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the president was talking just about the West Bank.

In a nod to Israel, Bush said borders would have to be adjusted by mutual agreement "to reflect current realities" since Israel's formation. He was referring primarily to Israeli neighborhoods on disputed lands, essentially saying Israel would keep these settlements when an independent Palestinian state is formed.

But he also said a Palestinian state must be "viable and contiguous." Earlier in the day, Bush said Palestinians deserve better than a "Swiss cheese" state fitted around Israeli land and security bulwarks.

One new element was the suggestion that the international community should help compensate Palestinians and their descendants who claim a right to return to land they held before Israel's formation.

"It is vital that each side understands that satisfying the other's fundamental objectives is key to a successful agreement," the president said.

Bush's remarks evoked scant reaction in Israel. Polls show a majority of Israelis support a land-for-peace agreement and are uncomfortable with the notion of a long-term occupation. In 2003, two years before Israel withdrew from Gaza, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that "keeping 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation is bad. Occupation is bad."

More details, but not enough for critics
In Washington, Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Bush's statement was "more detailed than he has been so far about the shape of a negotiated solution, but there is a lot of opposition on both sides even to his vague principles." He said Bush didn't spell out enough specifics to answer critics on either side.

Bush spent the morning in the Palestinian West Bank, unexpectedly riding by car and getting a firsthand look at two Israeli checkpoints on his way to talks with Abbas at his government's headquarters in Ramallah. The president said he understands Palestinian frustration over roadblocks and barriers that have made travel difficult for Palestinians and, according to the World Bank, crushed the Palestinian economy. But Bush said the checkpoints were necessary for now to give Israelis a sense of security.

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