Bush Welcomes Palestinian
President Abbas to the White House
(October 20, 2005)
Thank you all, thanks. It's my honor
to welcome the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian Authority to the White House for the second time this year. We
just had some good talks. Mr. President, thanks. A good,
open, exchange of ideas.
President Abbas is a man devoted to peace and to his people's aspirations
for a state of their own. And today the Palestinian
people are closer to realizing those aspirations. It's
a really interesting period of history, I think. I was
just commenting to the President when we were in the
Oval Office how much things have changed in the Holy
Land. After all, he got elected in January; there were
successful Palestinian
municipal elections, and then we witnessed the completion
of Israel's disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West
Bank. It's been an eventful year.
And I say it's an eventful year because
the ultimate objective is there -- for there to be two
states, living side-by-side in peace; two democracies
living side-by-side in peace. And I believe that's where
we're headed. Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts
of West Bank was a bold decision, with historic significance.
President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority contributed
to the success of the withdrawal in significant ways.
Mr. President, thank you.
Through the active coordination and
ground-level cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian
security forces, the disengagement has been completed
successfully and calmly. Israeli withdrawal creates
new opportunities, creates responsibilities for the
Palestinian people.
The way forward must begin by confronting
the threat that armed gangs pose to a genuinely democratic
Palestine. And those armed gangs must confront the threat
that armed gangs pose to lasting peace between the Israelis
and the Palestinians.
Now, Mr. President, you ran on a platform
of peace. That's why the people voted for you. I strongly
support your rejection of terror and your commitment
to what you have called one authority, one law, and
one gun. The United States, in cooperation with the
international community, has helped you achieve this
through the efforts of our senior U.S. security coordinator,
General Kip Ward. I appreciate your service, General
Ward. Thank you for being here, and thank you for all
your hard work to help the Palestinian security forces
at a critical time. Job well done.
In the coming days, I'll be naming
our new coordinator to build on the progress General
Ward has made. This person will take on an enhanced
mission to help President Abbas and the Palestinian
Authority carry out their responsibility to end terror
attacks, dismantle terrorist infrastructure, maintain law and order, and, one day,
provide security for their own state.
The way forward must include rebuilding
the Palestinian economy. This goal has the support of
the Quartet: the United
States, the United
Nations, the European Union, and Russia.
Quartet Special Envoy Jim Wolfensohn is coordinating
a broad effort to generate economic and financial support
from the international community for the Palestinian
Authority, and he's doing a good job. I'm going to continue
to consult with our Quartet partners to ask Jim to extend
his mission until next spring.
It's important that we make quick
progress on the issues that Jim has identified as most
critical for the Palestinian economy, including opening
the Rafah crossing, connecting the West Bank in Gaza,
improving the ability of Palestinians to travel in the
West Bank, and beginning work on the Gaza seaport. These
are all practical steps that will help the Palestinian
economy grow and flourish. I believe that Arab states
have a particular responsibility to help the Palestinians
build a strong and prosperous economy, and I urge them
to create an environment in the region that strengthens
the possibility of peace.
The way forward must continue to include
democratic elections. The upcoming elections for the Palestinian Legislative
Council offer an opportunity to open the door to
the next generation of Palestinian leaders. They'll
be responsible for building a peaceful and hopeful future
for their country.
In the short-term, the Palestinian
Authority must earn the confidence of its peoples, by
holding elections and having a functioning government
that delivers economic opportunity. The Palestinian
Authority must also earn the confidence of its neighbors
by rejecting and fighting terrorism.
As I have stated in the past, achieving
peace demands action from all parties. Israel must continue
to work with Palestinian leaders to help improve the
daily lives of Palestinians. At the same time, Israel
should not undertake any activity that contravenes its
road map obligations, or prejudices the final status
negotiations with regard to Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.
This means that Israel must remove unauthorized posts
and stop settlement expansion. It also means that the
barrier now being built to protect Israelis from terrorist
attacks must be a security barrier, rather than a political
barrier. Israeli leaders must take into account the
impact this security barrier has on Palestinians not
engaged in terrorist activities.
This is a time of great possibility
in the Middle East. And the people of the region are
counting on their leaders to seize the opportunities
for peace and progress. This work isn't going to be
easy, but the path forward is clear. I want to thank
President Abbas for his hard work. I appreciate your
service, Mr. President. I assured him that the United
States will use our influence to help realize a shared
vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine,
living side-by-side in peace and security.
Welcome.
PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.)
Thank you. Mr. President, I would like to thank you
for your warm welcome, and I would like to express my
satisfaction with the talks that I conducted with you
and your senior aides.
You have emphasized, Mr. President,
from this place, about five months ago, the basic counters
for the U.S. position regarding the various aspects
of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This position,
which you have reiterated today, contributes fundamentally
to advance the chances of reviving and resuming the
peace process in the region.
In the last few months, the dismantling
of settlements and the withdrawal of Israeli forces
from the Gaza Strip was concluded. The Palestinian Authority
have worked very hard with all its energy, in order
to make sure that this will happen without any incident,
in order to have this as a window of an opportunity
that will help us to move faster toward achieving additional
steps on the way toward realizing just peace, based
on your vision and on international resolutions.
This window, Mr. President, must remain
open. And this opportunity must be strengthened through
resolving all the outstanding issues -- as you have
mentioned, the Gaza crossing point and the establishment
of a permanent link between Gaza and the West Bank.
At the same time, we must immediately start implementing
what the road map and the Sharm
el-Sheikh agreements regarding the cessation of
settlement activities and construction of the wall in the West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem, in addition
to withdrawal of the Israeli forces to positions prior
to September 28, 2000.
With the removal of the roadblocks,
which, unfortunately, turned the lives of Palestinians
into hardship, suffering, humiliation, and also a very
important sensitive issue, which is the release of prisoners
of freedom from Israeli jails. The implementation of
these requirements, Mr. President, represents urging
the talks on permanent status issues regarding Jerusalem,
refugees, settlements, borders, in order to reach, at
the end, peace, which would allow for the establishment
of an independent, democratic Palestinian state, on
all the territories occupied in 1967. That state that
would live in a good, neighborly relationship in peace
with the state of Israel.
Mr. President, there is approximately
100 days between us and the elections for our legislative
council, where the Palestinian people would go to the
ballot box to elect for the first time since their --
for the first time in 10 years their representatives.
This, for us, represents a very important landmark.
On one hand, it comes a whole year since I assumed office,
and also these elections would represent a renewal process,
rebuilding process of our political process.
Also, these elections would consolidate
and reinforce the slogan I ran on during my presidential
election, which emphasized clearly the one authority,
the one law, the one legal, legitimate law and political
pluralism. The new legislative council would be mandated
by the people to legislate and issue these slogans and
make them a reality.
Once again, we repeat our pride of
our democratic experience that has been undertaken by
the Palestinian people, and we repeat and we say that
democracy can lose a lot of its momentum in the absence
of freedom and with the continuation of occupation.
Mr. President, our discussions today
have allowed us to inform you of what the Palestinian
National Authority is doing and what we are doing in
terms of various policies in various spheres. We have
worked and we will continue to work to continue to ensure
the calm and maintain it. We are also intensifying our
work in the field of security. We have taken active
steps in imposing the rule of law and public order and
banned armed demonstrations.
Our measures are continuing to reinforce
the judiciary branch, as well as the administrative
reform. We have said and we did during the last week
start launching a series of economic projects in the
infrastructure and in health and education and agriculture
in both Gaza and the West Bank.
And here I would like to salute the
United States for its contribution, and also the help
that came from a variety of Arab countries and countries
around the world. And we hope that all these projects
will be activated by the donors' countries in order
to increase the number of projects that our people are
in need of.
Our discussion of the overall situation
in the region has afforded us the opportunity to point
out what we reaffirmed repeatedly through the past few
weeks on behalf of the Palestine
Liberation Organization: We are determined not to
interfere in domestic Lebanese affairs. We reiterate
that the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are subject to the authority and the laws of Lebanon
as temporary guests awaiting the resolution of the refugee
problem in the accordance with the international resolutions.
Mr. President, we reaffirm again here
today our commitment to peace and negotiated settlement.
We expect that our people's quest in this direction
will be supported. The time has come to put an end to
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The time has come
that the Palestinian people will attain their freedom
and independence. The time has come to move quickly
towards the resumption of permanent status negotiations.
Peace requires a departure from the
policies of occupation and the adoption of the principle
of freedom. Peace requires departure from the policies
of settlements construction, the collective punishment,
unilateral acts that undermine your vision toward two
states and replace that with progress towards negotiations.
Peace and security cannot be guaranteed by the construction
of walls, by the erection of checkpoints, and the confiscation
of land, but rather by the recognition of rights.
Peace cannot be attained by the enforcement
of discriminatory road policies and by the policies
of imposition and creation of facts on the ground, but
rather through belief in the principles of partnership,
parity and mutual respect.
We are presenting, based on wide public
support, our positions that call upon the Israeli side
to join us in a real partnership for making peace. We
are calling for a Palestinian-Israeli partnership for
the sake of creating a better future, and for the entire
region that can end decades from wars, occupation, and
open the doors wide open. We were promised peace, independence
and freedom, and we hope that all of this will be achieved.
Mr. President, once again, I thank
you, and reaffirm to you, as we did in our last visit,
we are leaving Washington more sure and more confident
of the possibility of reviving and resuming the peace
process, and more determined to forge ahead along with
the path of peace, democracy and freedom. Thank you,
Mr. President.
PRESIDENT BUSH: We'll take two questions
a side. Terry.
Q Thank you. Mr. President, there
are a lot of distractions for your White House. The
CIA leak investigation, a conservative uproar and congressional
criticism over the Harriet Miers nomination, and even
investigations of top Republican leaders in Congress.
How preoccupied is the White House by these problems,
and how are you dealing with them?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I've just finished
a very constructive dialogue with the President of the
Palestinian Authority, talking about how to achieve
peace.
And I've got a job to do. Part of
my job is to work with others to fashion a world that
will be peaceful for future generations. And I've got
a job to do to make sure this economy continues to grow.
I've got a job to make sure that there is a plausible
reconstruction plan for cities affected by Katrina.
I've got a job to make sure this hurricane headed toward Florida is --
the federal response is prepared for it.
So to answer your question -- there's
some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot
of speculation and opining. But the American people
expect me to do my job, and I'm going to.
Want to call on somebody, Mr. President.
Oops. We've better go one at a time here.
Q President Bush --
PRESIDENT BUSH: Who do you work for?
Q AFP. The road map that your administration
backs calls for the creation of a Palestinian state
in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. Yet, the Israelis' settlement activities, despite your repeated calls, included today,
still continue in the West Bank. What is your administration
planning to do to get Israel to put an end to those
activities?
And then, President Abbas -- (as translated)
-- what are the practical steps that they want Bush
-- President Bush to take in order to establish the
Palestinian state before the end of his term?
PRESIDENT BUSH: As I said in my --
in my comments, that we expect all parties to adhere
to the road map.
And we are holding people to account on the pledges
that most of the Palestinians and the Israelis have
made on the road
map. And we do so publicly and we do so privately.
It's -- a lot of these issues that
have been very difficult for a long period of time become
easier to resolve as there's more trust between the
parties. And trust becomes a permanent part of the political
process as action on the ground takes place. The Gaza
withdrawal is a magnificent opportunity to help develop
trust. It's an opportunity to develop trust between
the Palestinians and the Israelis. And after all, the
world watched strong cooperation between two willing
governments to help good disengagement of Gaza, which
is a -- right now, I guess, we take it all for granted.
You look back -- I think prior to
the disengagement, there was a lot of consternation,
a lot of concern. I suspect some of you might have even
reported that, you know, better watch out, this disengagement
could end up being a very difficult period. And yet
thanks to the President's leadership and Prime Minister Sharon's leadership, the disengagement worked, which established
trust.
Mr. President has got an -- a job,
and that's to establish trust with the Palestinian people.
He is a man who said, "I'm running on a peace platform,"
and therefore, he has talked to us about using security
forces to make sure that armed gangs don't disrupt the
democratic process. And our job is to help him do that.
And so to answer your question, yes, we hold people
to account for their promises made on the road map.
And many of those promises will be easier to keep for
all parties as there's progress on the ground. And we
have seen remarkable progress during the past year.
And there's -- and the progress isn't
over this year. There will be elections. This is a very
hopeful period. I'm very upbeat about being able to
achieve this vision. I understand it's hard. Things
don't happen overnight. Old feuds aren't settled immediately.
And it takes a while.
The key thing, as far as I'm concerned,
is that there are partners in peace. Prime Minister
Sharon wants there to be peace. President Abbas wants
there to be peace. And both men are showing strong leadership
toward achieving that objective. And that's why I'm
confident. I'm a heck of a lot more confident today
than when -- I was when I first came into office. I
know it's nearly five years ago, and that's an eternity
for some, but there has been remarkable progress in
this part of the world. And we'll continue to work with
the parties to achieve this important objective: two
democratic states living side-by-side in peace.
PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.)
Thank you. The truth is, our answer to that question,
we have to change the question: What are we supposed
to do -- as Palestinians and Israelis -- to do.
First of all, we have to work. We
have to do our part. We have to think as partners. So
many years passed by, more than four years we did not
have any dialogue. We did not have any talks. And now
we have confidence. We need to rebuild and build on
that confidence and on the relationship.
And on our side, we are extending
our hand to be true partners in the peace process, and
we hope that the Israeli side also will do the same,
so we can do our parts. And what we ask President Bush
to do is what he mentioned during his remarks, the road
map and the achievement and the realization of his vision.
The road map talks about settlements, about the barrier;
all these issues that will facilitate the road to achieving
true peace, and will facilitate building the confidence
between the two peoples, the Israelis and the Palestinians.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve.
Q Thanks very much, sir. Senator Specter
called the rollout of the Miers nomination "chaotic."
Is that a fair criticism? Are you satisfied with the
way the nomination has been handled? Would you be willing
to release any more documents about her if it would
help?
PRESIDENT BUSH: First of all, it's
an unusual nomination because she's never been a judge.
And so, generally, people are used to looking at different
court opinions and how one ruled on this case, or how
one ruled on that case. That's not the case with Harriet.
I picked Harriet for a lot of reasons.
One reason was because she had never been a judge. I
thought it made a lot of sense to bring a fresh outlook
of somebody who has actually been a very successful
attorney -- and not only a successful attorney, but
been a pioneer for women lawyers in Texas.
I remind you that she was one of the top 50 women lawyers
in the United States; she's consistently ranked that
way. And so this is a little different process than
the norm. I understand that.
Secondly, the questionnaire that she
filled out is an important questionnaire, and obviously
they will address the questions that the senators have
in the questionnaire -- or as a result of the answers
to the questions in the questionnaire. But one thing
the questionnaire does show -- if people look at it
carefully -- is Harriet's judicial philosophy. And it's
the main reason I picked her to serve on the bench,
if confirmed, and that is that she is not going to legislate
from the bench. She will strictly interpret the Constitution.
I said that when I ran for President
-- I said, if you elect me, I will name people that
will have that judicial philosophy. I've now had two
chances -- one, John Roberts, and now Harriet Miers.
And they share the same judicial philosophy. That's
what the questionnaire says.
And so Harriet will answer all the
questions asked, and -- but out of this will come a
clear picture of a competent, strong, capable woman
who shares the same judicial philosophy that I share.
Do you want to call on somebody, Mr.
President?
Q Thank you, President Abbas. As President
Bush referred and said, that the only way to achieve
progress and the peace road is combating armed gangs.
And you are facing difficulties in doing this. Are you
going to seek help and support from American President
George Bush, to help you in disarming the resistance
movements?
And, President, you say you wanted
to see the Palestinian state made before the end of
your presidency. Are you still hoping to see something
like that? This is number one. Number two, don't you
think the time has come to talk about timetables to
get the two parties to the issues of final status negotiations?
PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.)
Regarding your questions, I am saying that we are truly
in need of help from the United States in a variety
of issues -- economic issues, and financial issues,
and also security support. And the reason is having
General Ward among us, a man who has done a magnificent
job, and we appreciate him and appreciate his work very
much.
Regarding our internal issues, we
are following a policy. I believe it is a successful
policy. When we started and we asked everyone to accept
the hudna, or the calming, all the organizations that
are recognized accepted that. Then we moved into another
phase, and that is the phase of banning all public demonstrations
with fire arms. All groups accepted that.
Now, all groups are underway to the
electoral process, so all groups will become a part
of the political Palestinian fabric. I believe this
will create a new phase in the life of Palestinian people.
It's a phase of democracy and pluralism in full fledge
in order to be a solid base for peace in the region.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I believe that two
democratic states living side-by-side in peace is possible.
I can't tell you when it's going to happen. It's happening.
And the reason I can't is because there will be moments
of progress, and there will be moments of setback. The
key is to keep moving forward, is to have partners in
peace to move forward.
But one thing that will not happen
is that we will try -- the United States will try to
conform and force parties to make decisions based upon
the political schedule in America. That doesn't make
any sense. What matters is the decisions made by the
Palestinians and the Israelis, and the confidence earned
as we move forward.
And so you said I would like to see
two states before I get out of office." Not true. I'd
like to see two states. And if it happens before I get
out of office, I'll be there to witness the ceremony.
And if it hadn't -- if it doesn't, we will work hard
to lay that foundation so that the process becomes irreversible.
Timetables are interesting -- an interesting
thing. Everybody wants a timetable, it seems like, on
different issues. And these are very complicated matters
where years of conflict and years of mistrust are being
resolved by some basic truths. And one of the basic
truths is free societies are peaceful societies. And
so we can look forward to working with a partner in
peace, a person who said, vote for me, I'm for peace,
and a man who declares his understanding that the Palestinian
people, the long-suffering Palestinian people, will
be well served by a democracy, a truly functioning democracy.
And so, Mr. President, we're glad
you're back. I want to thank you for your strong leadership,
and we wish you all the very best. Thank you, sir. Appreciate
you.
Sources: The White House |