[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
[June 4, 2003]
[Pages 595-605]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
[[Page 595]]
Interview With Members of the White House Press Pool
June 4, 2003
The President. First of all, it's progress. Great success happens
when there's two states, living side by side in peace. And this is
progress. I thought I would--since this is an historic trip, I thought I
would just have you up and share thoughts and answer questions. We'll go
around for a while.
First, I'm pleased with what happened yesterday and today. The first
signs of peace happen when people make up their mind to work toward
peace. And that's what you saw. You heard some pretty firm statements
yesterday. The statements yesterday by the bin Isa Al
leaders were ``Abu
Mazen'' to hear that. This is a man who is a newly elected
Prime Minister, new to office. He gets sworn in, and the roadmap gets
released. All of a sudden now he finds himself in a serious effort, the
creation of a Palestinian state, which puts enormous responsibilities on
him.
And one of the things we're saying is, you're ``Abu
Mazen'' now responsible. But it helped a lot to have
the Arab bin Isa Al
leaders ``Abu Mazen'' to hear that.
Then we come to today. The way the day worked is that I met with the
King of Jordan. I assured him that security was at the top of our
agenda, like security is at the top of his agenda. One, we're in a war
against terror, or a war against terror on the homefront; we're chasing
down these people around. But we also recognize that there are some who
would like to blow up the process and that we want to work to create the
conditions for a Palestinian state to emerge, which means jointly
working with all parties to work on the security issue.
I also told him, though, he's got
responsibilities. The fact that he showed up meant that he believes
Prime Minister Abbas ``Abu Mazen'' can
deliver. And therefore, we've got to work together to help the Prime
Minister achieve his stated objectives, which, one, he had a very clear
statement on terror. The other thing that was very interesting was his
statement on incitement. And it was a fact statement, for those who
follow the process. He needs time to get his security forces set up. And
I reminded the Prime Minister--I also reminded
him that I wasn't caught by surprise by his statement on the outposts,
the issue of the outposts. He said
[[Page 596]]
he would dismantle them; we expect him now to dismantle them.
People say, ``Well, what's the first step?'' Well, you just heard
the first step today in the speeches. And the--you also heard me say
that we would help the Palestinian Authority develop a security force.
Minister Dahlan will be in charge of that
security force. We intend to work with them. We assured the Israelis we
intend to work with them. We want this man to be successful. The Prime
Minister ``Abu Mazen'' absolutely rejected
terror. In order for him to be effective in rejecting terror, he's got
to have an effective security force. And so that's what we discussed.
And then we met, all of us together, our delegations. It was good.
We had a--the discussion was very interesting is the Prime Minister
asked members of his Knesset to speak, Minister of Defense, the Deputy Prime Minister, the
equivalent of the Attorney General, Minister of Justice. And then Prime Minister Abbas spoke; I spoke.
And then I suggested that the three ``Abu
Mazen'' of us just go outside and
visit, rather than having the formal settings of the old roundtable
discussion. And so we went out and sat on the lawn there for about 30
minutes and discussed a lot of matters. What I wanted to do is to
observe the interplay between the two; did they have the capacity to
relax in each other's presence, for starters? And I felt they did. In
other words, it was--the body language was positive. There wasn't a lot
of hostility or suspicion.
There was a--it seemed like to me, from the conversation, that there
was a mutual desire to work toward the vision. And obviously I'm not
going to betray confidences, but it was a very interesting and positive
conversation, is the best way to say it. I didn't need, for example, to
be Mr. Chatty--you know, kind of, ``Hey, fellows.'' [Laughter] There was
a natural tendency to want to talk about common matters and common
desires.
And then after that, we gave our speeches, and here we sit. I will
tell you that I'm pleased with the last 2 days. We have made a good
beginning. And I emphasize beginning, because there's a lot of work to
do. Let me just review some of the work that must take place. Obviously,
there needs--there needs to be a focused, complete, 100-percent effort
to fight off the terrorists. I believe the Palestinian--I know the
Palestinian leadership wants that, has got that desire. And so,
he ``Abu Mazen'' must help them put the
institutions in place to do that.
On the Palestinian side, there needs to be an emergence of a state,
the institutions of which are larger than the participants. And that is
essential. I assured the Prime Minister of the Palestinian ``Abu Mazen'' Authority--and this was when we were
sitting out on the lawn--that there is plenty of help coming. At the G-8
meeting in Evian, there was a lot of discussion about how we can help,
``What can we do?'' I said, ``Well, when the time is right, there's
going to be need for money and commercial development and enhancement of
the entrepreneurial spirit.''
There's just a lot of things to be done--better education systems.
Israel has got to recognize that Prime Minister Abbas
``Abu Mazen'' is desirous for peace and, without compromising
security, must make decisions necessary to help the Palestinian people.
And they're doing that. Money is--more money is now in circulation. They
collect revenues, Israel does, and now they're--they've got great trust
in the Finance Minister of the Palestinian Authority, a guy who went to the University of Texas, by the way,
for a while.
He came to Washington as an intermediary on
behalf of Prime Minister Abbas, ``Abu Mazen''
and Condi and I met with him in the Oval
Office. I spent a lot of the time on Palestinian finances, cashflow
matters, making sure that aid and money actually end up helping the
people and not either bank accounts of individuals that--where it
doesn't belong. I'm absolutely convinced he's an honest and upright man
who believes in
[[Page 597]]
the future of the Palestinian people, believes that a democratic
Palestinian state is possible.
It's important for Prime Minister Sharon to
recognize that. I think he does. I'm confident he recognizes that. The
$100 million that had been held in arrears was released, and the process
of talking about more money going through, which--25,000 workers now
that were not allowed in Israel now allowed in Israel. In other words,
what I'm telling you is, is that it's important for the life of the
Palestinians to improve in measurable ways.
And as confidence is built, as institutions are in place, I assured
Prime Minister ``Abu Mazen'' Abbas--and this
was important for Prime Minister Sharon to hear
as well--that there is going to be a lot of help, financial help, from
around the world. People want this effort to succeed.
And so it's--it's a bit of--2 good days, but there's a lot to
happen.
Let me just go around the table.
President's Cautious Optimism
Q. You sound cautious still.
The President. I am cautious, because--and I'm cautious because
history tells you to be cautious. I don't know where you were in 2000. I
guess it was--they were close. There are killers lurking in the
neighborhood. There are people who have declared their--openly declared
their hostility to Israel and their desire to destroy Israeli citizens.
There are people that, you know, would rather have chaos than a state.
And so long as you know they're there, you've got to be cautious.
And on the other hand, we've now got a partner in peace, Prime
Minister Abbas, ``Abu Mazen'' who is--wants
the tools necessary to chase them down. It's going to be one of the
accountability measures, by the way. That's one of reasons why we put
Wolf.
The news today, of course, from our side was, besides having the
meeting, was Ambassador John Wolf and his team.
It's not just Wolf. It is not Wolf and one administrative assistant.
It's Wolf and a team of people that the Secretary will be glad to explain to you. We have a security team
there to help the Dahlan. Their job is to find out what's needed and to
also hold people to account, both sides to account, reminding people of
promises made in meetings and insisting them that in order for progress
to be made, people have got to deliver it.
And so, yes, I've cautious, but optimistic. Perhaps we should say,
cautiously optimistic. [Laughter]
Prospects for Peace/War on Terror
Q. Mr. President, previous efforts at making peace in the Middle
East did not succeed. You believe you now have a chance. Did you--and
you also mentioned that it's historic--this was an historic meeting.
Could you try to put this in history? What do you think has changed
since you took office, and how did we get to this point?
The President. I think a couple of things have changed. One, I think
there is--I think Prime Minister Abbas ``Abu
Mazen'' is willing to make the necessary decisions and take
the necessary steps to fight terror and to develop institutions
necessary for a state to emerge, a genuine effort. I believe he is, and
that's a change.
Secondly, there is a universal recognition that the war on terror is
just that, a war on terror and not empty words, that September the 11th
or bombings in Riyadh or the terror that has plagued Israel, these are
terrorist acts that must be defeated, and they must be defeated at its
source as well. So there's a different--frankly, a different attitude
toward terrorism. It's no longer isolated terrorism, it is terrorism
that is beginning to affect a lot of people and can affect a lot of
people. So in other words, the meeting yesterday, for example, with the
Arab nations, it seemed like to me the new reality was reflected in
their statements, which will make it easier for a Palestinian state to
emerge. There's a
[[Page 598]]
vested interest to fight terror. It's people's self-interest now. And so
I think that's been one of the changes.
I'm sure this is--other Presidents have said this; other leaders
have--but there is now battle fatigue. People are sick and tired of it.
People are sick and tired of the death, suffering, of the humiliation.
In other words, there's--hopefully history will show whether or not I'm
right, but hopefully we have reached the point where a lot of good
people have begun to realize that the immediate past will lead to
nothing but more suffering and humiliation and death. And people are
beginning to change their attitudes on the ground.
Q. Do you think September 11th had an impact in the region, as well,
in helping--did it just galvanize American views about terrorism, or did
it also carry through into----
The President. I think it--the terror attacks shocked the world. And
it frightened a lot of people, because they realized that if America can
be hit, they could be hit. And then terror began to--I just said, the
attacks in Riyadh or the attacks in Indonesia, Bali, a nice secure
resort community. The next thing is, people wake up the next day and
realize--around the world realize that there's no such thing as a nice,
secure resort when we have terrorists willing to kill innocent lives in
the numbers they did.
So not just September the 11th. September the 11th made the world
aware of the new war. And then the other acts of terror that have taken
place since made the issue come even closer to home for many countries.
And then the combination of that plus the terrorist activities in the
Palestinian territories and in Israel made people realize the effects of
terror. It kind of brought it all home, I think. So, yes, I think
September the 11th mattered, but it wasn't the only event that was--
helped galvanize thought. People are frightened about terror in the
Middle East, not just in Israel. And they've got to get after it.
And we're going to help them get after it. It's a part of this war.
One of the hardest things I knew that I would have to do as the
President is to remind the American people, and for that matter, people
around the world, the nature of the war in which we find ourselves. And
it's different. There's a couple battlefronts that are noticeable,
Afghanistan and Iraq, but this war goes on. I mean, today, as we speak,
we've got intelligence sharing going on, we've got people on the hunt
trying to find them, one at a time. It's that same effort that will take
place in the Palestinian territories, but it requires the desire by all
leaders to want to fight it. I think that's changed some. I think it's
changed a lot mentality.
President's Personal Diplomacy
Q. Mr. President, you seem to value and even enjoy the spontaneity
and informality that you brought in your meetings with these leaders.
Could you dwell for a moment on your personal style of diplomacy and how
you see it working?
The President. I try to tell the truth, put it right out there on
the table for everybody to understand what's expected. I do; I like
people.
You know, I remember, I think it was--Ron Fournier [Associated
Press] asked me the question, ``Do you trust Vladimir It was one of the really interesting
questions, to fire up the President standing next to Vladimir Putin.
Well, the answer is yes, I didn't hesitate, because during my meeting
with him, I had developed an interesting
rapport. My instincts were such that, this is a guy I can trust. History
will prove me right. It doesn't necessarily mean he has to agree with
everything that I say, but trust his word.
I've spent enough time with Ariel Sharon to
know he's the kind of guy when he says something, he means it. I'm
getting the same sense about Prime Minister Abbas. ``Abu
Mazen''
And therefore much of the conversations, particularly as I get to
know somebody, is to figure out whether or not you can--
[[Page 599]]
whether or not, when they say something, they mean it. You can tell
that, pretty much, during a conversation, which means trying to get
people off their script, and as you discuss things, make it as informal
as possible, because I think people in an informal setting tend to show
their heart and/or their conscience in a lot better way.
I'm not a very formal guy to begin with. Condi and the Secretary of State, Colin, can give you a better sense of what my style is like. I'm
also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking
about myself, about why I do things. The meetings are informal; they're
kind of relaxed. I think one of my styles is trying to relax people.
National Security Adviser Rice. Direct,
I would say.
The President. Yes, I am a direct person. I mean, there's no--we
don't have a lot of time, and therefore I like to get to the point. I
like to ask people--I can challenge people. I believe I can do so in a
way that's not offensive to them. It's about as encouraging as it was
discouraging. And I hope they sense my sense of optimism. I mean, I'm an
enthusiastic person when I believe that something is possible.
I believe peace is possible. I know it's going to be hard, but I
think the fact that I'm representing a great country and am willing to
sit down with these leaders and give them a sense, ``We're all in this
together,'' is helpful. The best way to do that is in a more informal
type setting where there's not a lot of prepared notes. I've been in
meetings where people read speeches. It's not as productive as a meeting
in which people can sit down and actually--one of my jobs is to try to
help relax people in a setting. I hope I'm pretty good at that. How do
you feel? Do you feel relaxed right now?
Q. More relaxed than I should.
The President. It worked.
Meeting ``Abu Mazen'' With bin Isa Al
Q. Is that what happened when you were in
the the anteroom with the Arab leaders, you just decided that it was a
more relaxed setting and that you prefer to keep talking----
The President. Exactly, yes.
Q. Could you tell us a little bit about that meeting and what went
on in that meeting?
The President. Sure, I'd love to. First of all, I understand that
there was a little bit of hard feelings. I was told last night about
certain press wasn't in. We had no idea. I'm available for any photo op.
[Laughter] But it was not an intention, if that's--that's the meeting I
think you're talking about, the informal meeting.
Q. Multilateral. But we'd like to know what happened in the private
meeting that you had with the heads of state before you came out.
The President. Before we came out, the thing that was not supposed
to be on TV, that one. It was just a roundtable discussion about--let me
make sure I get it right here. I told them, I said, look--all four of
those leaders, except for Prime Minister Abbas, were--Prime Minister
Abbas was there. The other four leaders are leaders who I obviously
talked to during the Iraq war. Before the Iraq war and after the Iraq
war, I assured them that I was going to be involved in moving the Middle
East peace process forward, particularly after the emergence of the
Prime Minister, Abbas.
This was my chance to go around the table and look him in the eye
and say, ``I'm here to make it happen, but I need your help.'' The first
thing was to--is to let them know about the intent of this
administration. I shared with them--well, you know Colin's involvement and Condi's
involvement. I didn't share with them the Wolf--I knew they would read
about it today. There wasn't any great secret. On the other hand, you
occasionally try to hold
[[Page 600]]
back some news--you've probably learned it before I did, anyway.
And then we listened to them, and Crown Prince Abdullah. And they
had a lot of interesting thoughts about different issues. Oh, and by the
way, it wasn't just--the discussion wasn't just on the Middle East peace
process. The other thing I told them, I asked them, was to help Prime
Minister Abbas. I directly said, ``We need your help on this fellow. If
he is to succeed, if peace is to succeed, he needs your help.'' And they
were willing; they expressed their desire to help. And I went to Iraq
and talked about what was happening there.
Then I encouraged them to continue on their paths to reform and
about how that would make a significant difference in the lives of their
citizens. So it was more than--and they commented on all that, different
aspects. I'm not going to tell you what they told me. If they want to
tell you what--if they want to say what is theirs, they'll put it in
their own press. It was a long discussion. It took a lot longer than we
thought.
And part of it had to do because a lot of it needed to be
translated. Therefore, a normal conversation--all of it had to be
translated. The Crown Prince does not speak English very well, so
therefore every word that was spoken had to volleyed. And so that's--we
had a good conversation, again, not structured. People said what they
felt like, and there was no--it wasn't just, ``Okay, you speak; you
speak; you speak, and then we're through.'' There was a lot of
interchange. That's positive.
And I met bilaterally with them as well. I met with--Colin and Condi
and I went over to President Mubarak's house that night. We had a
bilateral with him in the morning, and afterwards we ate. I had a
bilateral with the Crown Prince at the hotel after the sauna bath.
It was very hot outside when I spoke. [Laughter] Thank you for
clarification. It was hot. I'm sweating. I was really hot.
Q. I know, I know there was one place where you were talking about
it, figuratively----
The President. Figuratively, that's right. Just to see if you were
paying attention. And it's very useful to have those kind of
conversations.
Palestinian Authority Leadership
Q. Mr. President, a big part of why you were here, and you made
clear, is because Mahmoud Abbas is the person who is Palestinian Prime
Minister, and Yasser Arafat is not the person who you chose to
negotiate. But Palestinian leaders, some of their senior officials, made
clear that they still think Yasser Arafat--they made clear that they
still think Yasser Arafat is somebody who needs to be dealt with, who
needs to negotiate. I'm wondering what kinds of conversations you had
with the Arab leaders and maybe with Mahmoud Abbas about Arafat's role?
The President. Well, it's clear that I'm going to deal with Prime
Minister Abbas, ``Abu Mazen'' so there wasn't
much conversation.
Q. Do you think it will come up?
The President. Not really. The Secretary of State is----
Secretary Powell. It didn't come up in
any of the conversations with the President that I'm aware of. And they
know our views on this.
Q. Do you have any concern that he might be a hindrance to the
process at all?
The President. Not if he has the
Palestinian people's interests at heart. We'll see. I certainly hope
not.
Secretary Powell. Can I just----
The President. Yes, please.
Secretary Powell. In conversations with
the Arab leaders, particularly the Foreign Ministers, we made it clear
to them that one of the things we expected them to help with was to make
sure that Mr. Arafat does not become an obstacle to the execution of the
roadmap.
[[Page 601]]
Q. Did they seem to say that they were willing to do that?
Secretary Powell. They understood. They
will help.
The President. I think they understand.
Secretary Powell's Role
Q. [Inaudible]
The President. It really didn't--I mean, he's handled most of that.
It did not come up during my conversations with the Arab leaders. What
came up was, how do we help Prime Minister Abbas? ``Abu
Mazen'' Now, Colin may have had different--with the Foreign
Ministers, since they have some frank discussions. A lot of times you'll
find out that the underbrush has been cleared by the--and by the time
the President arrives, everybody kind of understands. And one of his
jobs is to clear out underbrush. That's an old ranch term. [Laughter] In
other words--I don't know what he told the Foreign Ministers, but I just
heard what he told the Foreign Ministers.
Q. He's watching the calluses on his hands.
The President. Yes, that's it. [Laughter]
Q. Can I ask you, just a followup?
The President. Sure.
Red Sea Summit
Q. What do you consider sort of the importance of the role of the
President in this kind of process? For example, this is the first time--
it's been 2\1/2\ years since you've been President. It's the first time
you've had this kind of summit, where some of your predecessors had
multiple summits by this time.
The President. Well, you know, first of all, we've had a lot of
meetings but not summits. I've had a lot of discussions with every one
of the parties that have been around the table, with the exception of
Prime Minister Abbas, ``Abu Mazen'' and he's
just showed up. He just emerged as a leader. I called him immediately
upon--I think immediately or soon after he became Prime Minister.
I mean, so--let me--just because we haven't had the summit doesn't
mean this administration hasn't been working toward achieving the
conditions necessary to move forward. And that's really an important--
there has to be--I can remember saying this to the press corps early on
in my administration. People want to have to--peace, want peace. In
order to move the process forward requires a--there's no need to spend
capital and energy and time if there is not a commitment to peace. And
the conditions are such now that there is a commitment to peace by a lot
of people that are ready to see if we can't make it happen. That's
what's changed.
And therefore the timing of this summit was really based upon the
attitudes of the decisionmakers. We're not the decisionmaker. Oh, the
American President or the American Secretary of State is--I wish we were
the decisionmakers. You know, ``Okay, this is it.'' That's not the way
it works. There's terrorists to deal with. If we could, we'd say, ``All
the terrorists, put down your arms and become useful citizens, peaceful
citizens.'' But that's not, unfortunately, reality.
Banding together, though, we can deal with the ticket--you know,
build up the will necessary to deal with the terrorists. And so what the
role of the United States is, is to lay out the vision, encourage people
to accept the vision, and then help implement the vision. In this case,
we call it a roadmap to achieve the vision. And that's exactly what
we're going to do. We can be stewards of accountability. And we can say
to somebody, ``You said you'd do this. You haven't done it. You say you
want to do this, and what do you need to get it done?''
So today we asked Dahlan, ``What is it
you need? How can we help you? This is a security matter. What exactly
can we do to help?''
Secretary Powell. Mr. President, can I
give four data points to show the President's involvement? Just a couple
of quick
[[Page 602]]
data points to show you how we got here and how the President caused us
to be here. Twenty-four June speech you're very familiar with. On the
18th of July, the President had Arab Foreign Ministers in the Oval
Office--Muasher of Jordan, Saud of Saudi Arabia, Maher of Egypt. And at
that meeting, the President said to them, we will now structure a way to
go from my vision to reality. And that was the beginning of the work on
the roadmap.
Work went on all summer, all fall. And then on the 20th of December,
the European--the Quartet came together to finalize it. The President
met with the Quartet, finalized it, and then we waited for the Israeli
elections to be over, which were just about finished at that time, and
then we said, with the appointment of new leadership in the Palestinian
Authority, the President is ready to act, and he did.
Q. Mr. President, in the events of the last 2 days, have they
exceeded what you expected coming over here?
The President. That's a good question. I'm supposed to say--that's
an interesting question. [Laughter]
Q. You're supposed to say what you think.
The President. I'm the master of low expectations. I think they--we
did what we wanted to--I think we--we accomplished what I hoped we would
accomplish, but I don't think we necessarily exceeded expectations. I
think ``met expectations'' is a better way to put it.
I was hoping to have honest dialogs. The statements that came out--I
think when you analyze the statements, you'll find them to be historic,
I guess is the right word to use. Amazing things were said. The
Palestinian--the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority ``Abu Mazen'' talked about the suffering of Jewish
people. It's a strong statement. The Prime Minister of Israel talked about a Palestinian state which was free. The
statements were strong.
It's hard to answer, exceeded expectations. I had a little bit of an
understanding of what might take place, because we worked hard. These
trips, obviously, don't just happen. The statement just doesn't show up
out of the blue. It requires--[laughter]----
National Security Adviser Rice. Oh, no, they just appeared
magically.
The President. I'm a great delegator; I'm a great delegator. And so
they met expectations. However, the cordial atmosphere--I'll tell you
what else was interesting, that I would say met expectations or was
pleasing to see, was the interface between the Palestinian Cabinet and
the Israeli Cabinet. When we went out to sit on the grounds--and I
witnessed some of it but not all of it since I was actually on the
grounds--Colin and Condi told me that there was very interesting
discussions and dialog going on. There was--people were frank with each
other. They were able to joke with each other. They were able to kind of
bring up a little history with each other.
But the main thing that came out of it, at least to our delegation,
appeared to be the desire to work together. You two witnesses, maybe you
want to----
National Security Adviser Rice. That's
absolutely the case.
Preparations for the Red Sea Summit
Q. If I could follow up, Mr. President, were there any time going
into this that you were hearing things, that you were thinking to
yourself, uh-oh----
The President. Look, I wasn't going if we weren't going to make
progress. I mean, there's no need to go and stand up there by myself and
say, ``Let's work for peace,'' and look around, and nobody would be
there with you. So I was--I think there were some times where--we've had
some--in the runup to the process, there was some--there was a lot of
work, let me put it to you that way, and a lot of frank discussion and a
lot of convincing of parties that we need to get on this path, and we
need to work hard, and we need to make commitments. The speeches that--
[[Page 603]]
there were some commitments made in those speeches which now put people
on the record, not only on the record, all across the world. I mean, a
lot of people were watching this today. And I guess it was live in
America. So you had these leaders stand up and say, ``I commit''--not
just commit to--I mean, the Prime Minister of Israel saying, ``I commit to knock down or get rid of illegal
outposts.'' That is a strong commitment.
So the process was really to work hard to get people to make
commitments toward peace. And Condi's staff
and Colin's staff worked very closely
together. And Colin went out to the region, as you may remember. Part of
what you saw today was his hard work. They always look at the President,
but the truth of the matter is that there have been a lot of people
working hard to work with all parties to get to where we got today. I
just happen to attract more cameras than most of them. So I stand up
there, and everybody watches.
National Security Adviser Rice. We
actually had a team in the region for almost a week, Bill Burns and
Elliot Abrams for almost a week.
The President. Elliot Abrams is her staff.
Bill, of course, is an Under Secretary.
Secretary Powell. Assistant Secretary.
The President. Runs the NEA, is very capable. And then of course
we--we had to make the decision on the man who is going to run the deal
on the ground and how his team was going to be formed. Again, the
Secretary had to move him in his Department and had to come up with the
right structure and the right people so that when the Palestinians and
Israelis see who was sitting out there and what they represent, they
realize that it's serious business. All that took a while to get to
where we are.
To answer your question, I'm pleased with the start, is the best way
to put it. I mean, this--we are going to go through a tough process,
because we're dealing with a lot of history. And you're right, a lot of
Presidents have tried. Every President should try. We ought to use the
prestige of America to try for peace. I fault no President of the United
States for trying to achieve peace. Maybe history is such that now we
can achieve it. I'm optimistic.
Israeli Security/War on Terror
Q. You were pretty blunt yesterday that Israel must deal with the
settlements.
The President. Yes.
Q. Sharon made--I don't think we were supposed to hear that. Sharon
made his pledge today. If there's a suicide bombing, does he reserve the
right to move back into those settlements?
The President. Look, I think the operative statement from the
Israeli Prime Minister, not necessarily in this
speech but recently, was he wants to see a complete effort to fight off
terror. In other words, he wants an equal partner. He wants a partner in
the battle on terror, not somebody who will say they're going to fight
terror and then turn a blind eye to terror, somebody who wants to join
him. And that's one of the things that came clear. It should have been
clear in my speech, too, that we will fight terror.
And security is--we'll never compromise on Israel's security. That's
one of the reasons why I believe the Israeli Knesset members over there,
the Prime Minister, wants to follow us, work
with us, because they know I will never compromise Israel's security.
And I've made that clear. As Condi said,
one of the things about our discussions, they're frank. There's no
question in the Palestinian Authority's mind, either, I can assure you.
Now having--so therefore--what the Prime Minister of Israel has said is, he expects to see a complete effort by the
Palestinian Authority to fight off terror. Prime Minister Abbas ``Abu Mazen'' said today in his statement, there is
no place for terror. And he is going to put together a security forces
necessary fight off the terrorists, because he knows that there will be
no state if
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terror prevails. And he knows his people will suffer. The terrorists
think they're hurting Israel, and they are when they kill Israelis. But
they're also hurting their own people, and Prime Minister Abbas
understands that.
Plus the people in the region know what terror now means. They've
lived with terror in the region, but they've now begun to put it in
context. And that's--I'm trying to put it as clearly as I can. The
context of terror now has changed. The death hasn't changed, but it's
now--it's easier for everybody to see how it fits into a larger scheme
of things. And the larger scheme of things is the war on terror, because
it's beginning to strike in lethal ways in unexpected places, which
therefore means that your place could be next, I guess is one way to put
it.
President's Role in the Peace Process
Q. What's your role? What do you do? You talked about giving the
Secretary and Dr. Rice specific obligations. What's your obligation?
The President. I show up when they need me to call people to
account, to praise, or to say, ``Wait a minute. You told me in Jordan
that you would do this. You haven't done it, why? How come? What is
it?'' It's to keep the thing moving, keep the processes moving. They've
got the man on the ground that is going to--he's just going to--I used
the expression ``ride herd.'' I don't know if anybody understood the
meaning. It's a little informal in diplomatic terms. I said, ``We're
going to put a guy on the ground to ride herd on the process.'' See them
all scratching their heads.
Q. Meanwhile, in Arabic and Hebrew, exactly how does that translate?
The President. Listen, I've got to make a phone call, but I want to
thank you all for your interest. It's been a great trip. Have a good day
tomorrow, and then we'll get to go home. I'm looking forward to it,
looking forward to getting to see my family.
Summit Photograph
Q. What happened when you--the three of you walked out for the
photograph, and did you hear the Israeli photographer screaming, ``Are
you going to shake hands?'' Did you hear that?
The President. No. Where was it?
Q. It was the photographer screaming----
The President. Oh, yes. How do you shake hands with three people? I
couldn't understand--first of all, I had a little trouble hearing. My
hearing is not as good as it used to be, and then sometimes I don't want
to hear anything to begin with, like the questions you yell. [Laughter]
Q. Well, it was a pleasure to talk to you.
The President. Yes, thanks for coming over.
Note: The President spoke at 4:40 p.m. aboard Air Force One en route to
Doha, Qatar. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas
(Abu Mazen), Minister of State for Security Affairs Mohammed Dahlan, and
Finance Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority; Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Deputy Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert, and Justice Minister Tommy Lapid of Israel; Crown
Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia; King Abdullah II of Jordan; Assistant
Secretary of State for Nonproliferation John S. Wolf; and President
Vladimir Putin of Russia. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell referred to
Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher of Jordan; Foreign Minister Saud al-
Faysal al Saud of Saudi Arabia; and Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher of
Egypt. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice referred to William J.
Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs; and Elliot
Abrams, National Security Council Senior Director for Near East,
Southwest Asian, and North African Affairs. A reporter
[[Page 605]]
referred to Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority. A tape
was not available for verification of the content of this interview.