Accusing Hamas of “extremism and murder,” President Bush on Monday called for an international conference between Palestinians and Israelis to jump-start the stalled peace process.
He also pledged $80 million in new U.S. funding to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party controls the West Bank, and denounced the Hamas party for seizing control of Gaza.
“In Gaza, Hamas radicals betrayed the Palestinian people with a lawless and violent takeover,” Bush said in the Cross Hall of the White House. “By its actions, Hamas has demonstrated beyond all doubt that it is devoted to extremism and murder than to serving the Palestinian people.”
Speaking nearly five years after a Rose Garden address in which he called for the creation of a Palestinian state, Bush said such a state cannot be created unless Palestinians reject Hamas.
“This is a moment of clarity for all Palestinians, and now comes a moment of choice,” he said. “There is the vision of Hamas, which the world saw in Gaza, with murderers in black masks and summary executions and men thrown to their death from rooftops.
“By following this path, the Palestinian people would guarantee chaos and suffering and the endless perpetuation of grievance,” he said. “They would surrender their future to Hamas’ foreign sponsors in Syria and Iran, and they would crush the possibility of a Palestinian state.”
Bush said the alternative is for Palestinians to embrace the government of Abbas and his new prime minster, Salam Fayyad, who “are striving to build the institutions of a modern democracy.”
The president, who in December 2004 predicted a Middle East peace settlement within four years, announced Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would chair a peace conference that would include Israelis, Palestinians and neighboring Arab nations.
“The world can do more to build the conditions for peace,” Bush said. “So I will call together an international meeting this fall of representatives from nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties.”
