[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book I)]
[May 23, 2006]
[Pages 993-1000]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
The President's News Conference With Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel
May 23, 2006
President Bush. Thank you. Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. I'm
particularly pleased to welcome Mrs. Olmert to
the White House as well. Thanks for coming.
The Prime Minister and I have known each other since 1998, when he
was the mayor of Jerusalem and I was the Governor of Texas. And I
remember you greeting me in your office there, and you probably thought
you were going to be the Prime Minister--I wasn't sure if I was going to
be the President. [Laughter]
We've just had a really productive meeting. We reaffirmed the deep
and abiding ties between Israel and the United States. And those ties
include our commitment to democracy and our strong belief that everybody
has the right to worship freely. The ties include growing trade and
economic relationships. The ties include important educational exchange
programs that allow
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Israeli students to study at American colleges and universities and
American students to travel and study in Israel.
In our meeting, the Prime Minister and I recalled the great
contributions to peace made by Ariel Sharon. I
asked the Prime Minister to convey my very best wishes to Ariel
Sharon's sons.
Prime Minister Olmert and I discussed peace and security in the
Middle East, which the people of Israel seek and the American people
support. In 2002, I outlined my vision of two democratic states, Israel
and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. Prime Minister
Olmert told me that he and his Government share this vision. The
international community seeks to realize this goal to the roadmap, which
calls for a comprehensive settlement that resolves all outstanding
issues between Israelis and Palestinians. I believe, and Prime Minister
Olmert agrees, that a negotiated final status agreement best serves both
the Israelis and the Palestinians and the cause of peace.
Palestinian Authority President Abbas favors and speaks out for peace and negotiations. Yet
the Hamas-led Palestinian Government does not. Hamas needs to make a
strategic choice for peace. The United States and the international
community have made clear that Hamas must recognize Israel's right to
exist, must abandon terror, and must accept all previous agreements
between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. No country can be expected
to make peace with those who deny its right to exist and who use terror
to attack its population.
Today Prime Minister Olmert shared with me some of his ideas; I
would call them bold ideas. These ideas could lead to a two-state
solution if a pathway to progress on the roadmap is not open in the
period ahead. His ideas include the removal of most Israeli settlements,
except for the major Israeli population centers in the West Bank. This
idea would follow Prime Minister Sharon's
decision to remove all settlements in Gaza and several in the West Bank.
I look forward to learning more about the Prime Minister's ideas.
While any final status agreement will be only achieved on the basis of
mutually agreed changes, and no party should prejudice the outcome of
negotiations on a final status agreement, the Prime Minister's ideas
could be an important step toward the peace we both support. I'm
encouraged by his constructive efforts to find ways to move the peace
process forward.
And finally, the Prime Minister and I shared our concerns about the
Iranian regime's nuclear weapons ambitions. The United States and the
international community have made our common position clear: We're
determined that the Iranian regime must not gain nuclear weapons.
I told the Prime Minister what I've stated publicly before: Israel
is a close friend and ally of the United States, and in the event of any
attack on Israel, the United States will come to Israel's aid. The
United States is strongly committed, and I'm strongly committed, to the
security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state.
I look forward to our continuing discussions after this press
conference. I'm not sure the delegations realize this yet, but we're
going to shed ourselves of our delegations, and the Prime Minister and I
are going to go up to the Residence and sit down and have a continued
dialog. And if we decide to brief our delegations on what we discuss, we
will do so. But if not, they're going to have to guess. [Laughter] And
then I'm looking forward to dinner.
Welcome.
Prime Minister Olmert. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank you for
your kind invitation to visit Washington and for the opportunity to meet
with you and discuss the many issues on our common agenda. Our meeting
was enlightening, and I look forward to working closely with you in the
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coming years to deepen the friendship, understanding, and bilateral ties
between the United States and Israel.
I also recall our meeting in the city hall when you and I were
strolling around the beautiful building, at the terrace on the sixth
floor, watching the walls of the city of Jerusalem. At that time, you
were the Governor; I was the mayor. And I think none of us thought that
the day would come that I will have the honor and the privilege of being
hosted by you, as President of the United States and Prime Minister of
Israel.
I could sense then your deep connection to the Holy Land and your
friendship and commitment to the State of Israel. I must say, Mr.
President, that my instincts did not fail me. I, and the entire people
of Israel, appreciate your true friendship and unwavering commitment to
Israel's security and its well-being as a vibrant Jewish state.
Your involvement in the Middle East and personal contribution to the
efforts towards resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict has been
significant. The vision, which you outlined in your historic speech of
June 2002, of two democratic states living side by side in peace and
security, is the basis of any progress towards the solution in this
region. Your unreserved support of the disengagement plan and your
letter of April 14, 2004, to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon--and I join you
in praying for his recovery--were the basis for the success of its
implementation. What you immediately recognized to be an historic step
was later adopted by all those who were skeptical in the beginning.
I intend to exhaust every possibility to promote peace with the
Palestinians according to the roadmap, and I extend my hand in peace to
Mahmoud Abbas, the elected President of the Palestinian Authority. I
hope he will take the necessary steps which he committed to in order to
move forward.
Unfortunately, the rise of Hamas, a terrorist organization which
refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and regards terrorism as a
legitimate tool, severely undermines the possibility of promoting a
genuine peace process. As you stated, Mr. President, the Palestinian
Authority headed by Hamas Government must abandon the path of terrorism,
dismantle the terror infrastructure, honor agreements, and recognize
Israel's right to exist. By doing so they will find us a willing partner
in peace. However, we will not enter into any kind of partnership with a
party which refuses to recognize our right to live in peace and
security.
Despite our sincere desire for negotiations, we cannot wait
indefinitely for the Palestinians to change. We cannot be held hostage
by a terrorist entity which refuses to change or to promote dialog. If
we come to the conclusion that no progress is possible, we will be
compelled to try a different route.
I presented to the President ideas which I believe could help
advance his vision and prevent a political stalemate. According to these
ideas, we will remove most of the settlements which are not part of the
major Israeli population centers in Judea and Samaria. The settlements
within the population centers would remain under Israeli control and
become part of the State of Israel as part of the final status
agreement. This process of realignment would reduce friction between
Israelis and Palestinians, ensure territorial contiguity for the
Palestinians, and guarantee Israel's security as a Jewish state with the
borders it desires.
The implementation of these ideas would only be possible with the
comprehensive support of the United States and the international
community. I anticipate working with you to explore ways to advance
this.
We discussed the Iranian issue. The Iranian regime, which calls for
Israel's destruction, openly denies the Holocaust, and views the United
States as its enemy, makes every effort to implement its fundamentalist
religious ideology and blatantly disregards the demands of the
international community. The Iranian threat is not only a threat
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to Israel, it is a threat to the stability of the Middle East and the
entire world. And it could mark the beginning of a dangerous and
irresponsible arms race in the Middle East.
Mr. President, we appreciate your efforts to curb Iran's nuclear
ambitions, including through the U.N. Security Council. They are of
crucial importance. The international community cannot tolerate a
situation where a regime with a radical ideology and a long tradition of
irresponsible conduct becomes a nuclear weapons state. This is a moment
of truth. It is still not too late to prevent it from happening.
I thank you again for your gracious hospitality and for our
discussions. I look forward to continue working with you, Mr. President.
Thank you very much.
President Bush. We'll take two questions a side, starting with Steve
Holland [Reuters].
Middle East Peace Process
Q. You mentioned that the West Bank plan could be an important step.
Doesn't this sweep away the U.S. principle of a negotiated two-state
solution? And should the Palestinian side approve any plan that would
establish Israel's final borders?
President Bush. You just heard the Prime Minister say that he's
going to exhaust all options to negotiate, that he wants to reach out a
hand to President Abbas. And I
agree. I said in my opening statement that the best solution is one in
which there's a negotiated final status. And we discussed--we spent
ways--we spent some time discussing about how it's important to get a
Palestinian President to the table. And the Prime Minister says he looks
forward to discussing the issue.
And so our preferred option, of course, is there to be a negotiated
settlement. On the other hand, as the Prime Minister said, that if he's
unable to find a partner in peace, if nothing can go forward, he is
willing to think about ways to advance the process forward.
And in order to solve this problem, there needs to be willingness to
take the lead and creativity and the desire to follow through on the
vision. The most important aspect about peace is to have a vision for
peace. And I appreciate the Prime Minister's vision of two states side
by side--two democratic states side by side in peace. That's possible.
And so what I come away from the meeting with is that the Prime
Minister, one, has a vision; two, willing to reach out to determine
whether or not that vision exists with the Palestinian President, which
I think it does; three, is willing to work to see whether or not it is
possible for two sides to come together, and if not, is still willing to
consider other ways to move the process forward. That's, to me, a very
positive statement.
Q. You said you wanted to hear more. Is there anything that worries
you about this plan?
President Bush. No, the only thing that worries me about the plan is
that Hamas has said they want to destroy Israel. And the reason that
worries me is how can you have two states side by side in peace if one
of the partners does not recognize the other state's right to exist?
It's illogical for somebody to say, I'm for a state side by side with
another state, and yet I don't want the state to exist. And so we spent
time talking about Hamas, and I assured the Prime Minister that our
position is steady and strong, that Hamas must change.
Now, we care about the Palestinian people--and I say, ``we,'' both
of us--he can speak for himself on this issue--but we are trying to set
up a mechanism that supports the Palestinian people. Our beef is not
with the Palestinian people. Our beef is with the Government that--a
group in the Government that says they don't recognize Israel. And so
the United States, we're working with the Europeans--Condi's people in the State Department are working with
the Europeans to come up with a
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mechanism to get food and medicine and aid to the Palestinians.
You may want to comment on it yourself, Mr. Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Olmert. Thank you, Mr. President. Indeed, the
Government, Sunday, decided to spend 50 million shekels buying medical
equipment--50 million shekels, about $11 million--for the time being, to
buy medical equipment and drugs needed for the hospitals in Gaza. And as
I said during the Cabinet meeting, we will spend any amount of money
needed in order to save lives of innocent Palestinians suffering from
the indifference of their Government. We will not hesitate to do it. We
will use the revenues that we have collected, and more if necessary. We
will make arrangements, together with our friends, so that the supplies
will arrive directly to those who need them.
This is a humanitarian commitment. We are absolutely committed to
help innocent people that suffer from the brutality and the
intransigence of their own Government, and we will continue to do it at
all times.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Iran
Q. Mr. Prime Minister, are you satisfied from what you have learned
out of your meeting with the President with regard of the Iranian issue?
And what's your message to the Israeli public about this issue?
And, Mr. President, with your permission, there is a military
option, from your point of view, to solve the threat of the Iranian
problem, their work on--to getting nuclear weapons?
Prime Minister Olmert. The Iranian issue was discussed, indeed,
between the President and myself. And we'll continue to talk about it
later. Obviously, there is a major threat posed, as I've said already
and the President said, by the Iranians and their attempts to have
nonconventional capabilities and also to build up delivery systems and
the ballistic missiles that can hit major centers all across Europe, not
just in the Middle East.
This is something that needs to be stopped. We discussed this issue
at length, and there is a total agreement and understanding between the
President and myself that there is a need to stop it. And we reviewed
the different ways how to do it, and I am very satisfied with what I
heard from the President and on what we agreed that we would continue to
do in order to achieve this goal.
President Bush. Our primary objective is to solve this problem
diplomatically. I've told the American people that I will, on all
issues, will try diplomacy first and exhaust diplomacy. And I explained
to the Prime Minister that--about our diplomatic efforts--the most
important thing in diplomacy is that there be a shared goal and--in
other words, you have to have a common objective, a common goal in order
to get people to come together around it. And now we have got a common
goal throughout most of the world, and that is, Iran should not have a
nuclear weapon. And that's important, and we are now working the
diplomatic front around that goal.
We have a variety of options, one of which, of course, is the United
Nations Security Council, if the Iranians aren't willing to show
progress toward that goal. We're working very closely with what's called
the EU-3. That's Germany, England, and France. And I've been pleased and
Secretary of State Rice has been pleased
about their willingness to stay tough on the goal, of achieving the
goal. Sometimes when you've got a variety of negotiating parties, it's
easier for one--a nontransparent negotiator to pick off a weak link. And
yet they've been firm, and that's important for Israel to know. It's
important for me to praise our partners for that strength of purpose.
Obviously, there's other parties we have to work with, including
Russia and China. In other words, you can't get anything out of the U.N.
Security Council unless there's
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an agreement that the Iranians are not negotiating in good faith and
aren't willing to go forward. And so we're spending a lot of time
working with our Russian friends, in particular, to make it clear to
them that Iran is showing no good faith.
And one of the interesting issues that the Iranians have tossed out
in this debate is that they believe they have the sovereign right for
civilian nuclear power. And my position has been, fine, it's just you
just don't get to enrich the fuel necessary for the plant. And so we
provided a--I thought--a very interesting opportunity for them--to say,
if you want civilian nuclear power, you can have your plant and the
international consortium will provide the fuel for the plant. And we'll
pick up the spent fuel from the plant. And this was a very realistic and
reasonable approach--and has been rejected by the Iranians.
And so I say to our friends in our consortium, I'm not so sure these
people really do want a solution, and therefore, let us make sure that
we're willing to be working together in the U.N. Security Council.
That's where we are. We're headed--we're on the cusp of going to the
Security Council. And I repeat to your question, obviously, we'd like to
solve this issue peacefully and diplomatically. And the more the
Iranians refuse to negotiate in good faith, the more countries are
beginning to realize that we must continue to work together.
Martha [Martha Raddatz, ABC News]. Yes, you.
Progress in Iraq
Q. If we can switch to Iraq, sir.
President Bush. Iraq. Okay.
Q. I know that this is something you're leaving up to your
commanders, but from what you've heard from your commanders, how
confident are you that you can start drawing down troops by the end of
the year?
President Bush. First of all, we are making progress in achieving
our objective of training the Iraqis to take the fight to the enemy. And
the reason I know that is because I talk to our commanders quite
frequently. And we're making good political progress, as the world saw
in the formation of a unity government. The Government has yet to get
their full Cabinet in place, although we think that will happen
relatively quickly. And then this sovereign Government is going to
assess their security situation and their security forces and their
needs and work with our commanders. We haven't gotten to the point yet
where the new Government is sitting down with our commanders to come up
with a joint way forward.
However, having said that, this is a new chapter in our
relationship. In other words, we're now able to take a new assessment
about the needs necessary for the Iraqis. And when I get that report
from our commanders, I'll share it with others and you.
Q. Sir, can I just add----
President Bush. Please----
Q. The U.S. has the most powerful military in the world, and they
have been unable to bring down the violence in any substantial way in
several of the Provinces. So how can you expect the Iraqis to do that?
President Bush. If one were to measure progress on the number of
suiciders, if that's your definition of success, I think it gives--I
think it will--I think it obscures the steady, incremental march toward
democracy we're seeing. In other words, it's very difficult--you can
have the most powerful army of the world--ask the Israelis what it's
like to try to stop suiciders--it is a difficult task to stop suicide
bombers. That's the--but that's one of the main--that's the main weapon
of the enemy, the capacity to destroy innocent life with a suicider.
And so I view progress as, is there a political process going
forward that's convincing disaffected Sunnis, for example, to
participate? Is there a unity government that says, it's best for all of
us to work together to achieve a common objective, which is democracy?
Are we able to meet
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the needs of the 12 million people that defied the car bombers? To me,
that's success. Trying to stop suiciders--which we're doing a pretty
good job of on occasion--is difficult to do. And what the Iraqis are
going to have to eventually do is convince those who are conducting
suiciders who are not inspired by Al Qaida, for example, to realize
there's a peaceful tomorrow. And those who are being inspired by Al
Qaida, we're just going to have to stay on the hunt and bring Al Qaida
to justice. And our Army can do that and is doing that right now.
Israel's Disengagement Plan/Middle East Peace Process
Q. Mr. President, the Prime Minister just said that the settlement
blocks, the major population centers will be part of Israel, annexed to
Israel in the future. Do you support that? Would the United States
sanction that?
And, Mr. Prime Minister, can you give us some assessment of the time
that you are willing to wait for the emergence of a Palestinian partner?
President Bush. My answer to your question is, refer to my April 14,
2004, letter. I believed it when I wrote it, and I still believe it.
[Laughter]
Q. [Inaudible]
President Bush. ----rare that I wrote the letter, or rare that I
believed what I wrote? [Laughter]
Prime Minister Olmert. First of all, I want to emphasize again what
I said before--and what I said before the elections and immediately
after the elections in Israel and when my Government was inaugurated in
the Knesset just a couple of weeks ago. I said that we will make a
genuine effort to negotiate with the Palestinian side on the basis of
the roadmap, which is the framework for future negotiations towards,
hopefully, a peace agreement between us and the Palestinians.
I meant precisely what I said. I'll make every possible effort. And
in order to examine it carefully and seriously, I will certainly meet
with the elected President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
We haven't yet decided about the timing. It will be in the near future.
And I will do everything that I can in order to help create the
necessary circumstances for such negotiations to take place, providing,
of course, that the Palestinian partner will have to not just to make a
public commitment but to be able to deliver on the basic requirements of
the roadmap and the Quartet decisions, namely to recognize the State of
Israel and its right to exist as a Jewish state, to unarm the terrorist
organizations, and to implement all the obligations of the agreement
signed between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
So we will make an effort. And I say time and again that we accept
the sincerity of Mahmoud Abbas as the elected President of the
Palestinian Authority. He is genuine; he is sincere; and we hope that he
will have the power to be able to meet the requirements necessary for
negotiations between us and the Palestinians. How soon it will be? The
sooner the better. I don't want to prejudge it at this point. I think
it's too early. And I didn't come with a timetable to meet with the
President of the United States.
We shared our observations. I entirely agree with the vision of the
President as it was outlined so brilliantly in the famous speech in June
of 2002, which really set the course for all the developments that took
place in the Middle East since then and created the possibility for,
ultimately, the disengagement, which was a turning point in the history
of the Middle East. And we are grateful to the President for the courage
that he manifested then in presenting this outline and in being the
first to support the disengagement, and carry on in spite of the
difficulties and the skepticism and the question marks posed by
different countries at the beginning. Most of them joined in later.
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So we are anxious to have negotiations. And we will look and find
every possible avenue to help establish a process of negotiations on the
basis of these conditions. However, as I said, we will not wait
indefinitely. If we will reach the conclusion that in spite of all these
efforts, it is impossible to implement the principles of the roadmap
through a negotiating process, we'll look for other ways to implement
these principles and to ultimately create a situation where there are
secured borders for the State of Israel with the population centers in
the territories as part of a State of Israel and with a contiguous
territory that will allow the Palestinians to establish their own
Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel. And hopefully, this is
something that will happen within the next 3 to 4 years.
Again, I am grateful to the President for the efforts that he was
making and for his willingness to examine together with me these new
ideas--as he called them, bold ideas--in the event that all other
options will not be possible.
Thank you.
President Bush. Good job.
Note: The President's news conference began at 5:05 p.m. in the East
Room at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Aliza Olmert,
wife of Prime Minister Olmert; former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of
Israel, and his sons, Omri and Gilad; and President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Mazen) of the Palestinian Authority.