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America in the Middle East

Condi flares at Israel: 'Get it done already!'


By Stan Goodenough
May 09, 2008

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, appearing increasingly desperate to see an Israeli-Palestinian Arab agreement signed before her president leaves office at the end of the year, reportedly used less than diplomatic language speaking to a reporter last Monday.

Both sides "need to draw a map [showing their agreed-upon borders of Israel and "Palestine"] and get it done," she said tersely, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post Friday.

Rice was on her way back to Washington from a two-day visit to Israel when she let her irritation show.

She appears to have failed in her quest on that visit, where her brief was supposedly to try and get something substantial for President George W. Bush to work with when he arrives in Jerusalem next week.

Instead, after meeting with a newly-scandal-plagued Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and ineffectual PLO terror chief Mahmoud Abbas, Rice was forced to leave empty-handed.

Bush is due to arrive Wednesday on a 60-hour visit.

His schedule has him addressing the Knesset, meeting with Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres, taking a tour of Masada, hosting a reception in honor of Israel's 60th Anniversary, which on the Gregorian Calendar falls on May 14, and meeting with young Israelis at a roundtable event.

Most importantly from his point of view the president will, according to US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley "reaffirm his personal commitment to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and encourage continuing efforts for a two-state solution, a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security."

Bush will also hold a meeting with the so-called Quartet's special Middle East envoy Tony Blair, to discuss how to push for the achievement of this goal.

On Friday, the president plans to fly to Saudi Arabia next Friday to mark the 75th anniversary of formal US-Saudi relations, and to hold meetings with Saudi King Abdullah at his private farm, according to Ha'aretz.

The rest of his tour has Bush traveling to Sharm e-Sheikh for meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Sunday he meets Jordan's King Abdullah II, then holds separate bilateral meetings with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

He will participate in the World Economic Forum in the Sinai before returning to the US on May 18.

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