    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
    [December 5, 2008]
    [Pages 1415-1421]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Saban Forum
    December 5, 2008

        Thank you. John, thank you very much. I
    thought for a minute you were going to say I was your favorite rabbi,
    but--[laughter].
        I appreciate you giving me a chance to come. I too want to thank Mr.
    Saban for his vision and for sponsoring this
    forum. I am honored to be with you. Madam Secretary, thank you for joining us. Justice Breyer, I am pleased to see you yet again. I thank
    Ambassador Indyk. Minister Mofaz, it's good to see you, sir, and I appreciate you being
    here for this forum.
        I want to thank the Members of Congress who have joined us, members
    of the diplomatic corps, and of course, the distinguished guests.
        The Saban Forum is one of the world's premier venues for discussion
    on the Middle East. I thank you for the debates you provoke and the
    differences you have made. And I'm honored to be with you.
        Over the past 8 years, I have had the privilege to see the Middle
    East up close. I have stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and I
    have hiked the cliffs of Masada. I have enjoyed dinner in the desert of
    Abu Dhabi and prayed at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I have
    looked into the eyes of courageous elected leaders from Iraq, Lebanon,
    Israel, and the Palestinian Territories. I have been convinced that no
    region is more fundamental to the security of America or the peace in
    the world than the Middle East.
        This evening I will share some thoughts on our policies in the
    region these past 8 years, and our vision for the future: a Middle East
    where our friends are strengthened and the extremists are discredited,
    where economies are open and prosperity is widespread, and where all
    people enjoy the life of liberty that is the universal gift of an
    Almighty God.
        From our earliest days as a nation, the Middle East has played a
    central role in American foreign policy. One of America's first military
    engagements as an independent nation was with the Barbary pirates. One
    of our first consulates was in Tangiers. Some of the most fateful
    choices made by American Presidents have involved the Middle East,
    including President Truman's decision to recognize Israel 60 years ago
    this past May.
        In the decades that followed that brave choice, American policy in
    the Middle East was shaped by the realities of the cold war. Together
    with strong allies in the Middle East, we faced down and defeated the
    threat of communism to the region. With the collapse of the Soviet
    Union, the primary threat to America and the region became violent
    religious extremism. Through painful experience, it became clear that
    the old approach of promoting stability is unsuited to this new danger,
    and that the pursuit of security at the expense of liberty would leave
    us with neither one. Across the Middle East, many who sought a voice in
    the future of their countries found the only places open to dissent were
    radical mosques. Many turned to terror as a source of empowerment. And
    as the new century dawned, the violent currents swirling beneath the
    Middle East began to surface.
        In the Holy Land, the dashed expectations resulting from the
    collapse of the Camp David peace talks had given way to the second
    intifada. Palestinian suicide

    [[Page 1416]]

    bombers struck with horrific frequency and lethality. They murdered
    innocent Israelis at a pizza parlor or aboard buses or in the middle of
    a Passover Seder. Israeli Defense Forces responded with large-scale
    operations. And in 2001, more than 500 Israelis and Palestinians were
    killed.
        Politically, the Palestinian Authority was led by a terrorist who
    stole from his people and walked away from peace. In Israel, Ariel
    Sharon was elected to fight terror and pursue a
    ``greater Israel'' policy that allowed for no territorial concessions.
    Neither side could envision a return to negotiations or the realistic
    possibility of a two-state solution.
        Elsewhere in the Middle East, Saddam Hussein had begun his third
    decade as the dictator of Iraq, a reign that included invading two
    neighbors, developing and using weapons of mass destruction, attempting
    to exterminate Marsh Arabs and many Kurds, paying the families of
    suicide bombers, systematically violating U.N. resolutions, and firing
    routinely at British and U.S. aircraft patrolling a no-fly zone.
        Syria continued its occupation of Lebanon, with some 30,000 troops
    on Lebanese soil. Libya sponsored terror and pursued weapons of mass
    destruction. And in Iran, the prospect for--of reform was fading, the
    regime's sponsorship of terror continued, and its pursuit of nuclear
    weapons was largely unchecked.
        Throughout the region, suffering and stagnation were rampant. The
    ``Arab Human Development Report'' revealed a bleak picture of high
    unemployment, poor education, high mortality rates for mothers, and
    almost no investment in technology. Above all, the Middle East suffered
    a deep deficit in freedom. Most people had no choice and no voice in
    choosing their leaders. Women enjoyed few rights, and there was little
    conversation about democratic change.
        Against this backdrop, the terrorist movement was growing in
    strength and in ambition. For three decades, violent radicals had landed
    painful blows against America: the Iranian hostage crisis, the attacks
    on our Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, the destruction of Pan Am
    Flight 103, the truck bombing of the World Trade Center, the attack on
    Khobar Towers, the bombing of our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and
    the strike on the USS Cole.
        And then came September the 11th, 2001, when 19 men from the Middle
    East carried out the worst attack on the United States since the strike
    on Pearl Harbor 67 years ago this weekend. In the space of a single
    morning, 9/11 etched a sharp dividing line in our history. We realized
    that we're in a struggle with fanatics pledged to our destruction. We
    saw that conditions of repression and despair on the other side of the
    world could bring suffering and death to our own streets.
        With these new realities in mind, America reshaped our approach to
    the Middle East. We made clear that we will defend our friends, our
    interests, and our people against any hostile attempt to dominate the
    Middle East, whether by terror, blackmail, or the pursuit of weapons of
    mass destruction. We have carried out this new strategy by following
    three overriding principles.
        First, we took the offense against the terrorists overseas. We are
    waging a relentless campaign to break up extremist networks and deny
    them safe havens. As part of that offensive, we pledged to strengthen
    our partnership with every nation that joins in the fight against
    terror. We deepened our security cooperation with allies like Jordan and
    Egypt, and with our friends in the gulf. Saudi Arabia, long a breeding
    ground for radicalism, has become a determined partner in the fight
    against terror, killing or capturing hundreds of Al Qaida operatives in
    the Kingdom. We dramatically expanded counterterrorism ties with
    partners in North Africa. And we left no doubt that America would stand
    by our closest ally in the Middle East, the State of Israel.
        Second, we made clear that hostile regimes must end their support
    for terror

    [[Page 1417]]

    and their pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, or face the concerted
    opposition of the world.
        This was the approach we took in Iraq. It is true, as I've said many
    times, that Saddam Hussein was not connected to the 9/11 attacks. But
    the decision to remove Saddam from power cannot be viewed in isolation
    from 9/11. In a world where terrorists armed with box cutters had just
    killed nearly 3,000 of our people, America had to decide whether we
    could tolerate a sworn enemy that acted belligerently, that supported
    terror, and that intelligence agencies around the world believed had
    weapons of mass destruction.
        It was clear to me--it was clear to members of both political
    parties and to many leaders around the world--that after 9/11, that was
    a risk we could not afford to take. So we went back to the United
    Nations Security Council, which unanimously passed Resolution 1441
    calling on Saddam Hussein to disclose, disarm, or face serious
    consequences. With this resolution, we offered Saddam Hussein a final
    chance to comply with the demands of the world. And when he refused to
    resolve the issue peacefully, we acted with a coalition of nations to
    protect our people and liberated 25 million Iraqis.
        When Saddam regimes fell--when Saddam's regime fell, we refused to
    take the easy option and install a friendly strongman in his place. Even
    though it required enormous sacrifice, we stood by the Iraqi people as
    they elected their own leaders and built a young democracy. When the
    violence reached its most dire point, pressure to withdraw reached its
    height. Yet failure in Iraq would have unleashed chaos, widened the
    violence, and allowed the terrorists to gain a new safe haven, a
    fundamental contradiction to our vision for the Middle East.
        So we adopted a new strategy and deployed more troops to secure the
    Iraqi people. When the surge met its objective, we began to bring our
    troops home under the policy of return on success. Yesterday, building
    on the gains made by the surge, the democratic Government of Iraq
    approved two agreements with the United States that formalize our
    diplomatic, economic, and security ties and set a framework for the
    drawdown of American forces as the fight in Iraq nears its successful
    end.
        After 9/11, we also confronted Libya over its weapons of mass
    destruction. The leader of Libya made a wise choice. In 2003, Colonel Qadhafi announced that
    he would abandon his weapons of mass destruction program. He concluded
    that the interests of his people would be best served by improving
    relations with America, and Libya turned over its nuclear centrifuges
    and other deadly equipment to the United States.
        The defeat of Saddam also appears to have changed the calculation of
    Iran. According to our intelligence community, the regime in Tehran had
    started a nuclear weapons program in the late 1980s, and they halted a
    key part of that program in 2003. America recognized that the most
    effective way to pursue--persuade Iran to remove its nuclear weapons--
    renounce its nuclear weapons ambitions was to have partners at our side,
    so we supported an international effort led by our allies in Europe.
    This diplomacy yielded an encouraging result when Iran agreed to suspend
    its uranium enrichment.
        Sadly, after the election of President Ahmadi-nejad, Iran reversed course and announced it would begin
    enriching again. Since then, we've imposed tough sanctions through
    United Nations resolutions. We and our partners have offered Iran
    diplomatic and economic incentives to suspend enrichment. We have
    promised to support a peaceful civilian nuclear program. While Iran has
    not accepted these offers, we have made our bottom line clear: For the
    safety of our people and the peace of the world, America will not allow
    Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

    [[Page 1418]]

        Third, America identified the lack of freedom in the Middle East as
    a principal cause of the threats coming from the region. We concluded
    that if the region continued on the path it was headed, if another
    generation grew up with no hope for the future and no outlet to express
    its views, the Middle East would continue to simmer in resentment and
    export violence.
        To stop this from happening, we've resolved to help the region steer
    itself toward a better course of freedom and dignity and hope. We're
    engaged in a battle with the extremists that is broader than a military
    conflict and broader than a law enforcement operation. We are engaged in
    an ideological struggle. And to advance our security interests and moral
    interests, America is working to advance freedom and democracy as the
    great alternatives to repression and terror.
        As part of this effort, we're pressing nations across the region,
    including our friends, to trust their people with greater freedom of
    speech and worship and assembly. We're giving strong support to young
    democracies. We're standing with reformers and dissidents and human
    rights activists across the region. Through new efforts like the Middle
    East peace partnership initiative and the Broader Middle East and North
    Africa Initiative, we're supporting the rise of vibrant civil societies.
        We're also advancing a broader vision that includes economic
    prosperity, quality health care and education, and women's rights. We've
    negotiated new free trade agreements in the region, supported Saudi
    Arabia's accession to the World Trade Organization, and proposed a new
    Middle East free trade area. We have signed Millennium Challenge
    agreements with Jordan and Morocco to grant American assistance in
    return for anticorruption measures, free market policies, and
    investments in health and education. We're training Middle Eastern
    schoolteachers, translating children's school books into Arabic, and
    helping young people get visas to study here in the United States.
        We're encouraging Middle Eastern women to get involved in politics
    and to start their own businesses and take charge of their health
    through wise practices like breast cancer screening. Efforts like these
    extend hope to the corners of despair, and in this work we have had a
    lot of help, but no finer ambassador of good will than my wife, Laura
    Bush.
        Finally, to advance all the principles that I've outlined--
    supporting our friends and pressuring our adversaries and extending
    freedom--America has launched a sustained initiative to help bring peace
    to the Holy Land. At the heart of this effort is the vision of two
    democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace
    and security. I was the first American President to call for a
    Palestinian state and support--and to build support for the two-state
    solution has been a top priority of my administration.
        To earn the trust of Israeli leaders, we made it clear that no
    Palestinian state would be born of terror, we backed Prime Minister
    Sharon's courageous withdrawal from Gaza, and
    we supported his decision to build a security fence, not as a political
    border but to protect the people from terror.
        To help the Palestinian people achieve the state they deserve, we
    insisted on Palestinian leadership that rejects terror and recognizes
    Israel's right to exist. Now that this leadership has emerged, we're
    strongly supporting its efforts to build institutions of a vibrant
    democratic state.
        With good advice from leaders like former Prime Minister Tony
    Blair and Generals Jones, Dayton, Fraser, and Selva, the
    Palestinians are making progress toward capable security forces, a
    functioning legal system, Government Ministries that deliver services
    without corruption, and a market economy. In all our efforts to promote
    a two-state solution, we have included Arab leaders from across the
    region, because we

    [[Page 1419]]

    fully understand that their support will be essential for the creation
    of a state and lasting peace.
        Last fall at Annapolis, Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab leaders came
    together at an historic summit. President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert
    agreed to launch direct negotiations on a peace agreement. Nations
    around the globe, including many in the Arab world, pledged to support
    them. The negotiations since Annapolis have been determined and
    substantial. Secretary Rice has encouraged
    both sides by hosting a series of trilateral meetings. And while the
    Israelis and Palestinians have not yet produced an agreement, they have
    made important progress. As they stated to the Quartet, they have laid a
    new foundation of trust for the future.
        On this issue, and on our overall approach to the Middle East these
    past 8 years, America has been ambitious in vision, we have been bold in
    action, and we have been firm in purpose. Not every decision I've made
    has been popular, but popularity was never our aim. Our aim was to help
    a troubled region take the difficult first steps on the long journey to
    freedom and prosperity and hope. Some have called this idealistic, and
    no doubt it is. Yet it is the only practical way to help the people of
    the Middle East realize the dignity and justice they deserve. And it is
    the only practical way to protect the United States of America in the
    long term.
        As with any large undertaking, these efforts have not always gone
    according to plan, and in some areas we've fallen short of our hopes.
    For example, the fight in Iraq has been longer and more costly than
    expected. The reluctance of entrenched regimes to open their political
    systems has been disappointing. There have been unfortunate setbacks at
    key points in the peace process, including the illness suffered by Prime
    Minister Sharon, the Hamas victory in the
    Palestinian elections, and the terrorist takeover of Gaza.
        Despite these frustrations and disappointments, the Middle East in
    2008 is a freer, more hopeful, and more promising place than it was in
    2001.
        For the first time in nearly three decades, the people of Lebanon
    are free from Syria's military occupation. Libya's nuclear weapons
    equipment is locked away in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Places like the UAE
    and Bahrain are emerging as centers of commerce. The region--the regime
    in Iran is facing greater pressure from the international community than
    ever before. Terrorist organizations like Al Qaida have failed
    decisively in their attempts to take over nations; they're increasingly
    facing ideological rejection in the Arab world.
        Iraq has gone from an enemy of America to a friend of America, from
    sponsoring terror to fighting terror, and from a brutal dictatorship to
    a multireligious, multiethnic constitutional democracy. Instead of the
    Iraq we would see if a Saddam Hussein were in power--an aggressive
    regime vastly enriched by oil, defying the United Nations, bullying its
    Arab neighbors, threatening Israel, and pursuing a nuclear arms race
    with Iran--we see an Iraq emerging peacefully with its neighbors,
    welcoming Arab ambassadors back to Baghdad, and showing the Middle East
    a powerful example of a moderate, prosperous, free nation.
        The most vexing problem in the region--the Israeli-Palestinian
    conflict--there is now greater international consensus that at any point
    in modern memory. Israelis, Palestinians, and Arabs recognize the
    creation of a peaceful, democratic Palestinian state is in their
    interests. And through the Annapolis process, they started down a path
    that will end with two states living side by side in peace.
        In fits and starts, political and economic reforms are advancing
    across the Middle East. Women have run for office in several nations and
    been named to important Government positions in Bahrain and Oman and
    Qatar, the UAE and Yemen. Trade

    [[Page 1420]]

    and foreign investment have expanded. Several nations have opened up
    private universities, and Internet use has risen sharply. Across the
    region, conversations about freedom and reform are growing louder.
    Expectations about government responsiveness are rising, and people are
    defying the condescending view that the culture of the Middle East is
    unfit for freedom.
        There are still serious challenges facing the Middle East. Iran and
    Syria continue to sponsor terror. Iran's uranium enrichment remains a
    major threat to peace. Many in the region still live under oppression.
    Yet the changes of the past 8 years herald the beginning of something
    historic and new. At long last, the Middle East is closing a chapter of
    darkness and fear and opening a new one written in the language of
    possibility and hope. For the first time in generations, the region
    represents something more than a set of problems to be solved or the
    site of energy resources to be developed. A free and peaceful Middle
    East will represent a source of promise and home of opportunity and a
    vital contributor to the prosperity of the world.
        Those who ask what this future will look like need only look around.
    We see the new story of the Middle East in Iraqis waving ink-stained
    fingers, with Lebanese taking to streets in the Cedar Revolution. We see
    it in women taking their seats in elected Parliaments and bloggers
    telling the world their dreams. We see it in the skyscrapers rising
    above Abu Dhabi and living--and thriving Middle Eastern businesses that
    are now connected to the global economy. We see it in a Saudi king sponsoring an interfaith
    dialogue, Palestinian reformers fighting corruption and terror, and
    Israelis who love their ancient land, but want to live in peace.
        These are striking images, and they do point the way to a brighter
    future. I believe the day will come when the map of the Middle East
    shows a peaceful, secure Israel beside a peaceful and democratic
    Palestine. I believe the day will come when people from Cairo and Riyadh
    to Baghdad and Beirut to Damascus and Tehran live in free and
    independent societies, bound together by the ties of diplomacy and
    tourism and trade. The day will come when Al Qaida and Hizballah and
    Hamas are marginalized and then wither away, as Muslims across the
    region realize the emptiness of the terrorists' vision and the injustice
    of their cause.
        Earlier this year, I laid out this vision in my address to the
    Israeli Knesset and then in my address to the World Economic Forum in
    Egypt. It was not a Jewish vision or an Arab vision or an American
    vision; it is a universal vision. It unites all who yearn for freedom
    and peace in the Middle East. And if we lead, and if we persevere, and
    if we keep faith in our ideals, that vision will become a reality
    someday.
        Thanks for letting me come, and God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:09 p.m. in the Newseum. In his remarks,
    he referred to John L. Thornton, chairman of the board of trustees,
    Brookings Institution, who introduced the President; Haim Saban,
    chairman and chief executive officer, Saban Capital Group, Inc.;
    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former U.S. Ambassador to Israel
    Martin S. Indyk, director, Saban Center for Middle East Policy; Prime
    Minister Ehud Olmert, Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, and former
    Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel; former Prime Minister Tony Blair
    of the United Kingdom, Quartet Representative in the Middle East; Gen.
    James L. Jones, Jr., USMC (Ret.), Special Envoy for Middle East
    Security; Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, USA, U.S. Security Coordinator to
    Israel and the Palestinian Authority; Gen. William M. Fraser III, USAF,
    Vice Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force; Lt. Gen. Paul J. Selva, USAF,
    assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; President
    Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority; and King Abdallah bin Abd
    al-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.

    [[Page 1421]]