Bush Surprisingly Firm in Middle East

The French newspaper, Liberation, claims that Bush is taking a surprisingly firm stance with both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, increasingly free to do so now that he is approaching the end of his presidency.

On the one hand,

Bush demanded, in perhaps the strongest terms of his presidency, “the end of Israeli occupation”. The creation of a Palestinian state “is long overdue,” he said

On the other,

Bush challenged President Mahmoud Abbas challenged to stop attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. “You can not expect the Israelis […] to accept a state on their border as a base for terrorist activities”

And although,

On the most sensitive issue, the status of Jerusalem, Bush made no specific proposal.

Yet,

His trip has, however, already produced a concrete result: direct negotiations on the key issues of the conflict, which had hitherto been excluded by the Israelis, will be launched next week

Is there a hopelessness about the whole attempt by virtue of how late in Bush’s term it has been left, or is ten months still a long time, in which something serious could be accomplished on the back of Bush’s small success over the last few days?

Read “Bush Increases the Pressure…” on Watching America.com, the aggregator of news and views about the United States.