Palestinian Leader Makes Political Gains During Washington Visit

Forward, June, 2005 by Nir, Ori

Nir, Ori Forward 06-03-2005 WASHINGTON -- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas left the White House last week with plenty of political gains, which Israeli pundits and some high-profile Israeli officials were saying came at Jerusalem's expense. Still, Jewish groups remained silent. As he welcomed Abbas last week, Bush seemed supportive of the Palestinian leader's strategy of taking gradual steps to transform the Islamist Hamas terrorist organization into a legitimate political party rather than seeking to crush it.

For the first time, Bush mentioned Jerusalem as a place where Israel should not create facts on the ground that may prejudge final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. And --in an apparent reversal from assurances given to Israeli...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.