Bush Visits Israel's Holocaust Memorial
By Chris Mitchell
CBN News Mideast Bureau Chief
January 12, 2008
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - President Bush completed his three day visit to Israel and Palestinian areas on Friday. He left with a promise to return and help ensure his goal of a peace treaty by the end of the year.
Spelling Out His Two-State Solution
Bush began his last day in Israel with an emotional visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's national holocaust memorial.
On Thursday night the President attended a dinner with Israeli leaders and spelled out his how his vision for a two-state solution could be achieved.
"The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear. There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," he said. "The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people."
During Thursday's dinner, the President plunged into the middle of Israeli politics and urged two key members of Ehud Olmert's coalition not to leave the government over their major differences with the current negotiations.
He also addressed the issue of dividing Jerusalem.
"I know Jerusalem is a tough issue. Both sides have deeply felt political and religious concerns. I fully understand that finding a solution to this issue will be one of the most difficult challenges on the road to peace."
Netanyahu: The Jews Will Ensure Jerusalem Stays Undivided
Earlier in the day, Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told Bush, "Jerusalem has belonged to the Jewish people for 3,000 years and the Jewish people will ensure that it will remain undivided under Jewish sovereignty forever."
He told the President not to divide the city of Jerusalem and that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was a "virtual" peace partner.
Meanwhile, more than 20 rockets landed in southern Israel and the town of Sderot.
"While he is visiting his friends, the Qassam rockets continue to fall on the town and to make damage and fear and killing," Sderot resident Shalom Halevy.
Bush ended his visit with a trip to the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum and the Mount of Beatitudes before leaving Israel for the rest of his Middle East trip with stops to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Egypt.
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