Cheney In Israel To Discuss Peace Process

Vice President Reiterates U.S. Support For Both Israel's Safety And A Palestinian State

(AP)  U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney reassured Israel on Saturday that Washington wouldn't pressure it to take steps that would endanger its survival, and expressed hope for a "new beginning" for the Palestinian people in their own state.

U.S. President George W. Bush has dispatched Cheney to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the next two days to try to get rocky peace talks moving, despite recent bloodshed. The vice president, who is on a 10-day trip to the Mideast, arrived in Jerusalem after two days in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged at a U.S.-sponsored conference in November to try to forge a peace deal by the end of the year, before Bush leaves office. But little visible progress has been made because of ongoing violence and Israeli construction on land Palestinians claim for a future state.

"America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is our commitment to Israel's right to defend itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other forces dedicated to Israel's destruction," Cheney told reporters shortly after arriving for a meeting with Olmert at his Jerusalem residence.

"The United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security," he added, without elaborating.

Israel is conducting peace negotiations with Abbas' West Bank-based government, while waging a bloody battle with Hamas militants in Gaza, who have fired rockets at Israeli communities in southern Israel. Israel has retaliated with attacks that have killed scores of civilians in Gaza, which Hamas has controlled since routing Abbas-allied security forces in June.

There has been a recent lull in the Gaza violence, however, amid Egyptian efforts to broker a truce.

The U.S. publicly shuns Hamas because of its history of suicide bombings and its commitment to Israel's destruction. Privately, however, it appears to be quietly supporting the truce attempts, hoping a halt to violence would give peacemaking a better chance.

In Jerusalem on Saturday, Cheney reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and assured Palestinian leaders that "they, too, can be certain of America's goodwill" as it tries to help Israel and the Palestinians reach an accord.

"We want to see a resolution to the conflict, an end to the terrorism that has caused so much grief to Israelis, and a new beginning for the Palestinian people," he said.

The vice president also said "we must not and will not ignore darkening shadows of the situation in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria and in Iran, and the forces there that are working to derail the hopes of the world."

In welcoming Cheney, Olmert mentioned Iran first when outlining the subjects he planned to discuss with the vice president. Israel considers Iran to be the greatest threat to its survival, and rejects Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is not designed to produce arms.

Olmert also said the two would discuss peacemaking and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia that waged war with Israel in 2006.

Bush asked Cheney to visit Israel to discuss the peace process and other regional issues in advance of Bush's trip in May to mark the 60th anniversary of the modern state of Israel, according to Cheney spokeswoman Lea Ann McBride.

Bush hosted a Mideast peace conference in November in Annapolis, Maryland, to kick off the latest effort to resolve the decades-old conflict, and visited the region in January, followed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in March. She plans to return in April.

After Olmert and Abbas agreed at the Annapolis conference to return to peace talks, they resumed along the outlines of a plan that calls for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state through several stages. In the first phase, Israel was supposed to freeze all settlement construction. The Palestinians were to dismantle militant groups such as Hamas that attack Israel.

Neither side fulfilled those initial obligations and recent violence has threatened progress.

In Saudi Arabia, Cheney held talks with King Abdullah on stabilizing the volatile energy market. It was not immediately clear whether Cheney asked the Saudi leader to increase oil production to hold down rising gasoline prices.

The White House contends that oil producers could suffer because of economic slowdowns in the U.S., where pump prices are topping US$3 per gallon, and other major oil customers as a result of high energy prices.

Cheney and the king discussed some short-term, but mostly medium- to long-term ways, to affect the energy market, a senior Bush administration official said. The official spoke on conditions of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the private talks.

[rhs648]

American Presidents and diplomats have wasted their time for over fifty years with the Middle East. It was great to see that President Bush would not play the game and waste his time. Now, we are back at it. What a waste!

[killtheliars]

What will be said when Obama gets inot office:

Israel you are on your own, the troops will be totally out of the middle east in six months, if you can survive on your own great, if not don''t call us for help, we are going back to fix our economy, take care of the middle class so they can maintian thier two cars, nice homes, high def tv''s, vacation homes ect.. instead of spending money to protect your country which does nothing to repay the service provided.

[forthepeopl1]

"The Fed had a pretty unusual role in helping the two banks get together to begin with," says Bolton. "The idea was really supposed to be to stabilize the markets, but the Fed can''''''''''''''''t be seen using taxpayer money to bail out shareholders and has already drawn criticism on that account." THIS AFTER WE THE PEOPLE HAVE GIVEN THEM OVER 1 TRILLION IN LOANS..THIS WOULD OF PAYED OFF ALL THE MORTGAGE MESS..AND NONE WOULD BE ON THE STREETS
TO EVERYONE,

WE THE PEOPLE DO HAVE THE RIGHT TO SHUT THIS GOVERNMENT DOWN. AND THEIR IS A WAY TO MAKE OUR GOVERNEMNT STOP IN THIER TRACKS..

THE GREAT AMERICAN WALK OUT..THATS RIGHT FOR 3 OR 4 DAYS LIKE A THURSDAY THRU MONDAY..EVERY AMERICAN IN THIS COUNTRY DO NOTHING...I MEAN NOTHING BUT STAY HOME AND ENJOY THE FAMILY. ALL TRUCK,TRAIN,PLAINS,EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO TAKE A FEW SICK DAYS FOR THIS..

IN ONLY A FEW DAYS OF NOTHING MOVEING IN THIS COUNTRY WOULD TELL CONGRESS AND THE WHITEHOUSE WHO REALLY RUNS THIS COUNTRY..THATS US AMERICANS... SO WHEN WOULD BE A GOOD DAY TO START THIS..

AND I MEAN IT DONT BUY ANYTHING....DO ANYTHING...DONT GO ANYWERE TO SPEND A DIME...

IT WOULD PUT THIS COUNTRY ON ITS KNEES..LIKE WE SHOULD

the great american STIKE.................

[e-mail]

[leftyintexas]

If cheney thinks he can achieve peace in the Middle East without being impartial to both sides, he is a lot dumber than he looks. But knowing him from past experiences, he will fail to achieve anything. This has been the standard operating procedure of the Doofus administration the past seven years. Only 302 days left! Enjoy!

[titletrack]

The IDF has killed many more innocent civilians in the past few years, than ANY terrorist group in Israel has.

Why aren''''t you condemning Israel?

Posted by hungry1968

People like winners

[patriotic9]

Should we continue sacrifising GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN MONEY, GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICAN LIVES, GOD-NEGLECTED LIMBS of 19-20 years old GOD-NEGLECTED AMERICANS and UNHOLY LAND "UNITED STATES" for a NON-AMERICAN CAUSE, NON-AMERICAN GOD-CHOSEN PEOPLE and a NON-AMERICAN HOLY LAND far away from the CONCENTRATION CAMPS in GERMANY in order to buy HATRED, TERRORISM and 9/11 for our nation?

[patriotic9]

What was the justification of founding Isreal on Plaestine anyway, when Concentration Camps were in Germany?
What was the justification of punishing poor innocent Palestinians for the crime committed by Hitler?
Any muslim who justifies occupatiuon of American land by using his religion deserves to be deported or get killed for illegal occupation.
Same thing applies to the European invaders in Palestine who were brought into Palestine from different European countries to occupy the land of those Palestinians by force who can''''t even speak the language spoken by Hitler.
Irrespective of the race and religion, all the European invaders brought into Palestine after WWII to occupy Palestinian land far away from the Concentration Camps in Germany in the name of any religion, deseverse either to be deported or killed for illegal occupation.

[patriotic9]

So what, international law says that Hamas, PLO won''''''''t try to kill innocent Israeli women and children, but they do and the world of international law doesn''''''''t even criticize them when they shoot rockets and kill children.

If Israel stopped everything this minute and did nothing defensively does anyone believe the Muslims/Arabs would stop trying to kill them.
Posted by hungry1968 at 10:31 AM : Mar 23, 2008

Irrespective of race and religion, any body who was brought from any European country to Palestine after WWII to occupy the land of those Palestinians by force who had nothing to do with the actions of Hitler, deserves either to go back to his original European country, or to get killed for illegal occupation period.

Crimes committed by Hitler and price paid by those Palestinians who can''t even speak the language spoken by Hitler, Concentration camps in Germany and Israel founded in Palestine, is the continuation of same PSYCHOSIS according to which if sins were committed by Adam and Eve, sinners are those new born children born in sins who can''t differentiate between what is a sin and what is not a sin and the price is paid by a third party free of sins, named Jesus; It''s the continuation of same PSYCHOSIS according to which JESUS-LOVER are GOD-NEGLECTED and JESUS-HATERS are GOD-CHOSEN.
CHRISTIANITY is PSYCHOSIS and CHRISTIANS are PSYCHOTICS.

[hungry1968]

So what, international law says that Hamas, PLO won''''t try to kill innocent Israeli women and children, but they do and the world of international law doesn''''t even criticize them when they shoot rockets and kill children.

If Israel stopped everything this minute and did nothing defensively does anyone believe the Muslims/Arabs would stop trying to kill them.

Posted by hhroams at 09:49 AM : Mar 23, 2008





The IDF has killed many more innocent civilians in the past few years, than ANY terrorist group in Israel has.

Why aren''t you condemning Israel?

[armydog2]

darth vader talking peace, yeah right,this will get totally f-u-c-k-e-d up one way or another.