Bush Plan for Palestinian State on Hold

June 21, 2002
By Barry Schweid, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP)– President Bush's senior advisers debated Friday how to create a Palestinian state in the violent Middle East, which left an anticipated presidential announcement on hold.

"There are still discussions going on," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. He offered no prediction when unsettled issues might be resolved.

Bush had been expected to disclose this week his prescription for launching a Palestinian state. He held back as terror attacks against Israel hardened Israelis' attitudes toward settling with the Palestinians.

"The president and his advisers continue to meet to discuss various elements of the way forward," Boucher said. "The president will decide when he wants to speak and what he wants to say at the appropriate time."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, whom Bush probably would send to the area once he concludes his review, is among the senior advisers the president is consulting.

House Democratic leader Dick Gephardt suggested Thursday that Bush delay his proposal for creation of a Palestinian state in the midst of "barbaric suicide attacks against Israelis."

"It is fine to set out the dream and the goal and to hope that will give people on the Palestinian side some hope," Gephardt said. "But it isn't going to change anything, in my view."

Instead, Gephardt said, "we ought to be sitting down with the Israelis, with the others in the region, and saying, 'What can we do to stop the terrorism, to bring an end to the violence,' and then 'How do we build a government on the other side?'"

Gephardt, D-Mo., said using American or other peacekeepers in the region is a possibility "we ought to be talking about," but he did not commit himself to the proposition.

for full article see
© 2002 The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23994-2002Jun21.html