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US President George W. Bush will visit Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in May, a trip intended to hail Israel's 60th anniversary but also shove along Mideast peace talks that have stalled as Bush's term winds down.
The White House on Monday released details of Bush's trip, the broad outline of which had been expected for weeks. Bush, who was in the Middle East in January to try to advance peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, had indicated at that time he would return in May to honor Israel's founding.
Israeli defense officials say an amnesty program meant to get Palestinian militants to surrender their weapons has been a success.
Under last year's program, Israel offered to stop hunting down dozens of West Bank militants if they agreed to halt violent activities. The men are required to surrender their weapons, serve a brief sentence in a Palestinian jail and pass a probationary term.
A senior Israeli security official says 281 gunmen accepted the offer. He says just six have returned to violence.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said on Tuesday any possible truce with Israel would not restrict its right to respond to strikes by the Jewish state in the West Bank.
Abu Emad al-Rifaie, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, said the group told Egyptian mediators that it approved -- with qualifications -- a Hamas proposal for a truce with Israel that starts in the Gaza Strip.
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday said that returning the occupied Golan Heights to Syria would give Iran a foothold in the strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel.
"Any Israeli withdrawal will lead to an Iranian presence on the Golan Heights," Mofaz told Israeli army radio in a telephone interview from Washington, where he was attending an Israeli-American security conference.
Differing accounts have emerged of what caused four Palestinian children and their mother to die during an Israeli air raid on the Gaza Strip. While Palestinian witnesses blamed Monday's deaths on an Israeli missile, the Israelis say the blast was caused when explosives carried by Palestinian fighters detonated during the raid.
The latest slaughter in the Gaza Strip is generating the predictable claims and counter-claims about responsibility for the loss of innocent lives. The Palestinians say a mother, her four children and another youth were killed by Israeli tank fire, while the Israelis insist that explosives belonging to militants were accidentally set off.
His Majesty King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday warned against reluctance in peace efforts, stressing that the Palestinians should see tangible results on the ground as soon as possible.
Lukewarmness and reluctance to push the peace process forward, they said at their Sharm El Sheikh summit, would exacerbate the situation and lead to further tension and frustration in the region, a Royal Court statement said.
Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations issued a joint statement Tuesday, demanding that Israel lift all the restrictions imposed on the transfer of fuel into the Gaza Strip.
According to the statement, these restrictions "severely and unprecedentedly harm the health and welfare of the Strip's residents," while "seriously violating international law."
It seems too good to be true. But when the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, comes out of a meeting with the president of Syria with the news that Bashar Assad is prepared to work out a peace agreement with Israel and make the region a safer place, it's worth a try.
A sustainable peace in the Middle East will have to factor in a viable and just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a United Nations meeting convened in Paris to assess the condition of the refugees and examine the role of the world body in alleviating their plight.
Links:
[1] http://www.americantaskforce.org/print/5930
[2] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printmail/5930
[3] http://www.americantaskforce.org/printpdf/5930
[4] http://www.americantaskforce.org/rss/wpr
[5] http://www.americantaskforce.org/world_press_roundup/20080429t000000
[6] http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1208870518072
[7] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/979047.html
[8] http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2926868920080429?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
[9] http://www.metimes.com/Politics/2008/04/29/israel_pullout_risks_iran_foothold_on_golan_minister/afp/
[10] http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D693C984-2AF8-4FF7-8310-A0E7E55558B3.htm
[11] http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=91519
[12] http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=7486
[13] http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3537442,00.html
[14] http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=978757&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4
[15] http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KKAA-7E75KU?OpenDocument
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