By Xinhua
Gaza : It is less than 48 hours before U.S. President George W. Bush pays a historic visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, which is aiming at moving forward the Mideast peace process and nurturing a final agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
On Sunday, President Bush said in an interview with the Israeli Television that he wants to urge Israel and the Palestinians to reach a final agreement on establishing an independent Palestinian state to live side by side with Israel before the end of his political career.
For the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials, the Palestinian government officials, peace negotiators and many Fatah leaders, Bush’s first visit to Israel and the West Bank as part of a nine-day trip through the Middle East is “a golden opportunity for both Israel and the Palestinians.”
Bush will kick off his Middle East tour on Wednesday and will also visit Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the only nation on the course that he has visited before.
“President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are going to ask President Bush to pressure Israel to stop expansion of settlements and its ongoing military operations in the West Bank and Gaza,” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
Erekat said President Abbas hopes that Bush would continue to impose pressure on Israel in a bid to keep the negotiations go smooth until Bush’s goal of seeing a Palestinian state becomes a reality.
There is a long list of what the Palestinians would like Bush to do for them, including preventing Israel from expanding settlements and launching incursions, ending the closure imposed on Gaza and reopening the crossings.
Some hope that President Bush would complete his promise before he steps down and help the Palestinians put an end to the occupation and their long history of pain and suffering.
“Although I’m sure that President Bush will be the same as former U.S. presidents, but I’m still not losing hope that he would end the conflict and help the Palestinians end their misery,” said Khaled Abu Ne’ma, a Palestinian who lives in the Beach Refugee camp in western Gaza City.
The Bush administration hosted a high profile conference in Annapolis, Maryland in late November to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinians on an independent Palestinian homeland.
Negotiating teams held two rounds of talks in December, but failed to yield any tangible progress mainly due to the disputed settlement activities.
In the eyes of many Palestinians, Bush is still the American President they dislike, “because during his presidential period, peace was not achieved in the Middle East and this man had only brought disasters and massacres to the Arab and Islamic world.”
“Why should we welcome him? He is the man who ordered to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, and he is the one who helped kill President Saddam Hussein and he is the one who gives tremendous support to Israel,” said Gaza resident Ahmed al-Shoubaki.
Al-Shoubaki said that he has heard that when Bush visits Ramallah, he does not intend to lay a wreath at the tomb of late President Yasser Arafat in al-Muqata’a.
“It is really ridiculous and unfair. Late Arafat and late (Israeli) Prime Minister Yitzhaq Rabin were brave leaders of peace, why doesn’t President Bush reward them by placing wreathes on their tombs,” said al-Shoubaki.
Bush visit also faces degradation from the opposition groups and Islamic movements, mainly the Gaza ruler Hamas and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War).
For Hamas which wrestled control of the Gaza Strip by force from rival Fatah movement last June, the visit was not more than an attempt by Bush “to put his final touches and enhance his image before he quits the White House.”
“Bush’s promises of creating a Palestinian statehood are illusions that won’t come true,” said Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoom.
Barhoom implicitly slammed President Abbas and some officials of his Fatah movement for welcoming Bush, saying “those are a few people who only represent themselves and put themselves among the American-Zionists.”