05/15/2008
President George Bush has gently urged Mideast leaders to “make the hard choices necessary for peace,” leaving it to embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to stand before a divided parliament and forcefully declare that this war-weary nation is ready for a historic agreement with Palestinians.
On a day mourned by Palestinians as the 60th anniversary of their uprooting by Israel's independence, Bush mentioned the Palestinians only once in Thursday's 23-minute speech to the Knesset, and then only in the context of what a Palestinian state would look like six decades from now.
Some Israelis and Palestinians were disappointed that Bush failed to use his high-profile appearance to push the two sides to take the concrete steps to achieve his own goal of a peace deal before the end of his presidency.
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