Bush Says World Owes Israel's Sharon a 'Thank You' Wed Apr 21, 4:07 PM ET Add Politics to My Yahoo!
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday rejected international condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) and said world leaders owed him a "thank you" for his plans for the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) and the West Bank.
Bush blasted the Palestinian leadership as having "failed the people, year after year after year" by not preventing terrorism against the Jewish state.
Bush sparked a backlash in the Arab world last week by endorsing Israel's right to hold on to some West Bank settlements on land captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
He also said a right of return by Palestinian refugees to Israel was unrealistic, while backing a Gaza Strip pullout plan in a historic U.S. policy shift.
"Ariel Sharon came to America, and he stood up with me and he said, 'We are pulling out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank,"' Bush told a newspaper conference in Washington.
In "my judgment, the whole world should have said, 'Thank you, Ariel. Now we have a chance to begin the construction of a peaceful Palestinian state,"' Bush added.
Bush's support for Sharon may have gone over well with conservative and Jewish voters in the U.S. presidential election, but it inflamed the Arab world.
This week, Jordan's King Abdullah abruptly postponed a scheduled meeting with Bush at the White House because of concerns over the U.S. stance on the peace process.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (news - web sites), in comments published on Tuesday, warned that Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever following the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) and Israel's assassination of two leaders of the militant Palestinian group Hamas.
Bush urged world leaders to seize the moment to bridge their differences.
"Responsibility is hard. It's hard to be responsible for promoting freedom and peace when you're used to something else. If you don't have the aspirations of the people firmly embedded in your soul, it's hard to take a gamble for peace," Bush said.
"Now's the time for the world to step up and take advantage of this opportunity, and help to build a Palestinian state that's committed to the principles of individual rights and rule of law and fairness and justice, so the Palestinian people have a chance to grow a peaceful state and so Israel has a partner in peace, not a launching pad of terrorist attacks on her border," Bush added.
Like a democratic Iraq, Bush said, he believes "a free Palestinian state will be a major change agent for world peace."
