Bush exalts ties to Israel

JERUSALEM — President Bush brought Israel’s parliament to its feet yesterday with a rousing speech that described U.S. ties to the Jewish state as a biblical bond and the two nations as eternal allies in the war against terrorism.

But the speech — celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary — failed to mention ongoing U.S.-backed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks or the president’s goal of achieving a peace deal during his remaining eight months in office.

Instead, Mr. Bush introduced a new time frame — another 60 years — to achieve peace in the Middle East.

“Israel will be celebrating the 120th anniversary as one of the world’s great democracies, a secure and flourishing homeland for the Jewish people.

“The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved — a democratic state that is governed by law and respects human rights,” he said.

That was Mr. Bush’s only mention of the Palestinians in his 23-minute speech.

As in the past, Palestinians marked Israeli’s birth by releasing black balloons to the wail of mournful sirens. They call the anniversary the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, because Israel’s 1948-49 war for independence displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press that Mr. Bush’s speech wasn’t the one for which he had been hoping.

“He could have been much different. We expected the president to really tell the Israelis that to really live in peace and security … the occupation must end and an independent Palestinian state must be created,” he said.

Gershon Baskin, the co-president of the Israel Palestinian Center for Research and Information, called it a “worrying sign” that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was excluded from the speech.

“Maybe Bush has come to the conclusion that before negotiations can really advance, that maybe they have to get rid of Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

The Islamist Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force last June. Rocket attacks against Israel have become common since then. A missile that struck a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Ashkelon on Wednesday injured 16, including three critically.

Israeli lawmaker Yossi Beilin, a member of the dovish Meretz party and one of the prime architects of the 1993 Oslo peace accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians, called Mr. Bush’s speech “embarrassing” and “a collection of slogans that somebody wrote for him in order to be nice to Israel, or what he thinks is Israel, and to steer well clear of anything concrete.”

“It’s a shame and a scandal, in my opinion,” Mr. Beilin told the Associated Press.

Mr. Bush spoke to a rowdy parliamentary chamber full of Israeli and foreign dignitaries, as well as nearly all of Israel’s 120-member Knesset.

He assured Israel of near-blanket U.S. support and won a standing ovation when he said: “Israel’s population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong because America stands with you.”

Mr. Bush also used biblical language in describing bonds between Israel and the U.S. that go beyond an alliance.

“The source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. It is grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul,” he said.

The address, the centerpiece of the president’s three-day visit to Israel, was carried live on Israel’s major television and radio networks.

One commentator said it was as if the president and Mr. Olmert had traded speeches, noting that it was the Israeli prime minister and not Mr. Bush who issued the call for peace.

“Israel has no stronger desire than to achieve peace with our Palestinian neighbors,” Mr. Olmert said in his speech.

Yaron Dekel, a commentator from Israel Channel One television news, said, “It was so hawkish and so unilateral for standing alongside of Israel, I’ve never heard this from Bush or any American president.”

Earlier in the day, Mr. Bush and first lady Laura Bush flew by helicopter with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to tour the remains of Masada, the ancient fortress on a plateau in the desert overlooking the Dead Sea.

The Herodian-era mountaintop fortress was the site where a band of Jewish rebels committed suicide en masse after holding off the Roman army.