Deaths May Mar Bush Mideast Visit

[unhappycamper]

Deaths May Mar Bush Mideast Visit
Associated Press | December 31, 2007

JERUSALEM - A new snag to President Bush's peacemaking efforts has appeared in the aftermath of the killing of two Israeli hikers in the West Bank by Palestinian gunmen: Israel's premier declared that no peace moves would be carried out until the Palestinians crack down on militants.

The Dec. 30 setback came after the two sides decided to paper over another spat - Israel's plan to build 307 new apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, the section claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital - clearing the way at that point for Bush to push for progress.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to restart serious peace talks at the Mideast conference convened by Bush last month in Annapolis, Maryland, aiming for a peace agreement by the end of 2008. But periodic crises are already hampering the efforts.

The latest was the Dec. 28 killing of the two hikers, off-duty Israeli soldiers, shot dead by Palestinian attackers in a valley near the West Bank city of Hebron. There were two claims of responsibility - a joint statement from Hamas and Islamic Jihad and another from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has ties to Abbas' Fatah movement.

Speaking before the weekly meeting of Israel's Cabinet, Olmert denounced the killings.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,159151,00.html



uhc comment: Death seems to follow him around.

[livvy]

1. Really. Too bad there's not some island somewhere...

with zero carbon-based organisms. We could ship him and Darth, and the rest of the crew there, where they could do no harm, except to each other.