Bush slams Iran in Knesset speech
I'm putting the parts that intrigued me the most in bold, so you know exactly which parts I'm talking about in this article when I give my two cents at the end of this post.
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JERUSALEM - U.S. President George W. Bush told the Israeli Knesset Thursday that those who would talk with Iran or Syria were guilty of "appeasement" of a kind that once emboldened Hitler.
The remark was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has said the U.S. should not exclude talking with Iran or Syria.
"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided."
"We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Much of the president's speech to the Israeli legislators was about Iran's nuclear ambitions, the menace of terrorism and how democracies would defeat it.
"To permit the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations," Bush said during a speech that was the focal point of a three-day trip to the Holy Land to share in Israel's celebrations of the 60th anniversary of its creation.
"For the sake of peace the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
Bush again pledged to help Israel remain secure. Israel was not a nation of seven million alone against its enemies, he said, but rather "when you confront terror and evil, you are 307-million strong because America stands with you."
Bush described Israel as "the freest democracy in the Middle East" and said that it was his "bold vision" that by the time the Jewish state was another 60 years older there would also be democracy in Syria and Iran.
The president also forcefully denounced anti-semitism.
"We believe that religious liberty is fundamental to civilized society so we condemn anti-Semitism in all forms whether by those who openly question Israel's right to exist, or by others who quietly excuse them," he said. "Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away."
In his second visit in four months after not setting foot here during the first seven years of his presidency, politicians and commentators alike have hailed Bush as one of the country's most loyal friends ever. At the same time there has been much comment that the next U.S. president may not be nearly as supportive of Israel as Bush has been.
Before Bush addressed the Knesset, his host, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, also spoke of the scourge of extremism and described Iran as "the greatest threat to world peace."
The prime minister, who is fighting for his political life against mounting bribery allegations, singled out "the murderous, fundamentalist threat of terror, which is devoid of any moral inhibitions, (as) the most important challenge currently facing democratic societies around the globe.
"The outcome of this confrontation will have far-reaching repercussions on the future and the way life of the free world. You, Mr. President, will be remembered as the man who courageously and without hesitation took the reins of leadership and stood firmly and determinedly against this formidable challenge."
Referring to Iran, Olmert said that while Israel did not rule out military action, "presenting a united international, political and economic front (and) more severe and effective sanctions is a necessary even if not final step" to curb the threat.
The Israeli leader recalled that it was the U.S. which was the first country to recognize his country when David Ben Gurion declared its independence in 1948; that the U.S. had provided arms when the Soviet Union gave weapons to Israel's enemies; and that when Bush's father was president he had helped Ethiopian Jews emigrate to Israel.
"The deep-rooted friendship between the United States and Israel is not an accidental one, and it cannot be taken for granted," Olmert said. "It is a friendship predicated on shared values and on a moral, human and social destiny, the main principles of which are individual liberty, social justice and peace."
Bush spent the morning touring the ruins of a 2,000-year-old Roman fortress at Masada near the Dead Sea. He, Olmert and their entourages rode a cable car up a steep cliff to the place where nearly 1,000 Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman legions trying to maintain control of Judea.
Back in the U.S., Obama, who has favoured direct diplomatic engagement with Iran, condemned Bush for what he perceived as a political smear against him delivered on foreign soil.
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack," Obama said.
"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people - or our stalwart ally Israel."
He said the U.S. needs "to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power - including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria."
The White House denied Bush was singling out Obama for criticism, saying the president's remarks were addressed at all politicians who favour talks with radical regimes.
"I would think that all of you who cover these issues . . . have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that President Bush thinks we should not talk to," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino to reporters. "I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you - that is not always true and it is not true in this case."
Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he agreed with Bush's characterization about the dangers of appeasement.
While McCain did not directly accuse Obama of appeasement, the Republican senator slammed the Democratic front-runner for proposing talks with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terrorism, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, that wants to wipe Israel off the map, who denies the Holocaust," McCain said in Columbus, Ohio. "That's what I think Senator Obama ought to explain to the American people.''
While Bush and Olmert were sightseeing, Palestinians, who have often accused the U.S. of being too close to Israel to be an honest broker in Middle East peace talks, held marches and launched black balloons in the air over the West Bank to recall events of 60 years ago, which they recall as the Nakba or the Catastrophe.
Bush did not specifically mention the struggling Annapolis peace process, which he initiated last fall, but he did state that he believed the Palestinians would realize their dream of having a state.
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