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Bush Proposal No Plan Forward

Posted on Monday June 24, 2002

WASHINGTON—Although Arab Americans held out great hope for the President’s Palestinian initiative, today our community is gravely disappointed. Instead of supporting a realistic resolution of the current Mideast crisis, the President laid out stark ultimatums for the Palestinian people, totally ignoring the desperate reality brought about by the occupation. Although there was a clear effort by the President to demonstrate compassion with the Palestinian people, the overlay of neo-conservative ideology had the net effect of canceling out any understanding that may have been displayed.

Once more, the President’s plan ignores any responsibility on the part of Israel and asks the Palestinians to create a fully functional democratic state before they earn the right to a provisional state.

“The President has set U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-Arab relations back with today’s announcement. There is nothing here that could give the Palestinians hope, in fact, as we are already seeing, what the President did was allow the Sharon government to continue its repressive military occupation of Palestinian land. The United States has failed this test of leadership in the Middle East,” said AAI President Dr. James J. Zogby.