Bush Kicks Off November Middle East Summit

Jerusalem – U.S. administration sources confirm that President George W. Bush plans to launch his Middle East Summit on Nov. 15 at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the 300-year-old city that once hosted the early days of the U.S. Continental Congress.

The choice of Nov. 15 coincides with the annual “General Assembly” of more than 3,000 well-organized Jewish community councils and Jewish federations from all over the United States, which convenes under the aegis of the United Jewish Communities. The General Assembly takes place this year in Nashville, Tenn., between Nov. 13 and Nov. 15.

Representatives of the Bush administration and the Israeli government are scheduled to address the UJC general assembly on Nov. 14. It is hoped that those speeches will generate grassroots enthusiasm amongst American Jews for the planned summit.

As a matter of policy, the UJC promotes the policies of the government of Israel, no matter how unpopular the policies are in Israel itself or how unwise they may be.

Throughout the 1990s, the UJC enthusiastically supported Israel’s controversial initiatives with the PLO terror organization with great alacrity.

The UJC even decided to honor PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat with the Isaiah Peace Award in October 1999. Only after the UJC decision to bestow an award on Arafat was publicized prematurely did the UJC decide not to grant Arafat that award.

Meanwhile, although the list of prospective invitees to the November Middle East Summit has not been finalized, assessments are that Syria will be invited and will send representatives to the conference. U.S. officials said they believed that Syria would try to exact a number of preconditions before announcing its acceptance of the invitation.

Aside from Syria, representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the Quartet-Russia, the European Union and the United Nations will also be invited.

The decision to invite Syria constitutes a reversal in U.S. foreign policy, since the administration has refused to engage in any contact with Damascus, which it has accused of being a member of the “axis of evil” and of sponsoring terrorism.

The reason for the change in the American position apparently lies in the American recognition that it would be better for Syria to be part of the process than to have it try to torpedo it. American sources who were quoted by the wire services said that the decision to invite Syria was geared to spur the other Arab states to attend the conference. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas also asked to have Syria invited so as not to break Arab unity.

Regarding Saudi Arabia, the U.S. administration considers it to be of great importance to have the kingdom attend the conference and play an active role in it. Riyadh has yet to announce whether it intends to attend. What complicates matters is that Saudi Arabia remains in a formal and active state of war with Israel since 1948, having never agreed to any peace treaty (like Jordan and Egypt) or truce (like Syria and Lebanon).

Preparations for the conference are to begin next week. A sophisticated media center is being constructed to house the thousands of journalists who are expected to cover the conference. In public statements, administration spokesmen have been trying to lower expectations, but behind the scenes feverish efforts are being made to make the summit a grandiose and significant event, an event that will earn President Bush a few diplomatic points at the end of his term.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is going to chair the summit. However, President Bush intends to play an active and meaningful role in the talks. The assessment is that the president’s expected presence will spur the invited countries to send high-ranking delegates.

King Abdullah of Jordan hinted this week that he intended to send his foreign minister to attend the conference. “Only if it becomes evident that the conference is going to deal with substantive issues and the final settlement will we agree to send a high-ranking delegation, which will be headed by the prime minister,” he said.

Egypt has also hinted that it intended to dispatch its foreign minister to attend the Summit, but this weekend Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks with the Saudi king about the possibility of raising the level of the delegation sent. Syria, if it accepts the invitation, is expected to send Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who formerly served as its ambassador to the U.S.

Message To The Palestinians From Rice: Compliance Not A Priority

News analyst Aaron Lerner, director of Independent Media Research Associates, (www.imra.org.il), has analyzed Secretary Rice’s recent statements and has discerned a policy shift in U.S. policy toward Palestinian Authority compliance and cooperation in the war on terror.

During Ms. Rice’s remarks on Sept. 23, she at first said:

“If you look at the phase-one commitments, it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian state in which the phase-one commitments have not been realized or have not been carried through. And so, absolutely, those phase-one commitments have to be met.”

But then she said: “But it is absolutely the case that you’re not going to be able to establish a Palestinian state if you don’t have a commitment to end terror, if you don’t have a commitment to end settlement activity, if you don’t have a commitment to non-violence. All of those things have to be achieved.”

Phase one of the road map requires the Palestinian Authority to implement a policy to crush terror. That policy has yet to be created or implemented

Mr. Lerner notes that Ms. Rice doesn’t make it a red line. Instead the red line is “commitment” rather than action. While the road map spoke of action, Ms. Rice’s red line appears to be only declarative in nature.

Ms. Rice repeats over and over that she envisions an independent, sovereign and armed Palestinian state to emerge from the November Middle East Summit. She downplays the Palestinian state’s role in the war on terror.

Abbas Canard In ‘Washington Post’ Interview

On Saturday, on page B4 of the Washington Post, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was interviewed by the Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth.

In answer to Ms. Weymouth’s question “Will Israelis agree to go to final-status talks when they are constantly threatened with attacks on their cities?” Mr. Abbas answered, “Last night, [our security forces] seized two rockets. We handed [them] over to the Israelis. We are very worried about these deeds and I think we can put an end to all this. Our security apparatus is ready to stop all kinds of violence.”

However, Khaled Abu Toameh, Palestinian Affairs correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, reporting on the same day, uncovered Mr. Abbas’ answer to be less than truthful: “It later turned out that the ‘rockets’ were simple pipes that had been set up by children who were trying to imitate Hamas.” In the assessment of Abu Toameh, “Fatah managed to sell another hoax to reporters when it claimed that its security forces had discovered rocket launchers in Bethlehem that were directed against Jerusalem.” Both Palestinian and Israeli security sources confirm that the Palestinian Authority did not seize any rockets or rocket launchers.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2007