Vice President George Bush began his three nation tour of the Middle East Sunday affirming the Reagan Administration’s commitment to pursue an end to the Arab-Israel conflict.
Referring to last week’s meeting between King Hassan of Morocco and Premier Shimon Peres, Bush said, “I can’t think of any better time to come here …. We in America will do all we can to help bring true peace to the Middle East.”
Bush’s comments were made in a colorful welcoming ceremony at the Rose Garden near the Knesset and the government’s office complex in Jerusalem. Bush had flown into Israel Sunday morning.
Israel Defense Force soldiers fired a salute as Peres and other Israeli leaders, both political and spiritual, shook hands with the visiting American guest while dozens of cameras recorded the event.
Israeli media reports have noted that Bush’s political action committee, the Fund for America’s Future, sent a film crew with Bush to record the visit here for possible use during his expected Presidential campaign.
Bush then proceeded to visit Yad Vashem, Israel’s museum to the victims and martyrs of the Holocaust, and later to the Western Wall, guided by Minister for Religious Affairs, Yosef Burg.
Bush met briefly Sunday evening with Peres and later, in a seperate meeting, with Vice Premier Yitzhak Shamir, who will in October take over the Premiership from Peres under terms of the power-sharing agreement reached at the outset of the formation of the unity government.
WORKING SESSIONS SCHEDULED FOR WEDNESDAY
Officials here said the meetings with Peres and Shamir were courtesy calls and that full working sessions were scheduled for Wednesday. Bush is to visit Egypt and Jordan, and possibly Morocco during his Mideast tour.
Israeli sources said Sunday night that the negotiations over Taba with Egypt had suddenly undergone a dramatic acceleration, and they held out the prospect of a ceremony marking an agreement on the compromise or arbitration document during Bush’s visit to the region. There was also the possibility raised of a summit meeting between Peres and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Peres is understood to have sent a message to Mubarak this weekend concerning his trip to Morocco, and he was expected to meet with Egyptian journalists and Presidential confidant Anis Mansour Monday to receive a message from the Egyptian leader.
After the meeting with Peres, at the Premier’s residence, Bush and Peres, accompanied by their wives, rode together to the Knesset where Peres and Knesset speaker Shlomo Hillel and his wife gave a dinner in honor of Bush.
GREETING BY PERES
At the arrival ceremony in Jerusalem, Bush noted the especially felicitious timing of his visit — just after Peres’ visit to Morocco. Peres, welcoming Bush, said, in part:
“The people of Israel welcome you with open arms, deep feelings and sincere friendship. We welcome you as an outstanding leader of your nation. We welcome you as a representative of a nation whose friendship we cherish and for whom our friendship is unqualified.
“We welcome you as the senior emissary of the Reagan Administration, that has gone a long way in enabling us to defend ourselves and in lending a firm, supportive hand to the search for peace — recognizing that the two efforts complement each other.
“We welcome you, Mr. Vice President, as a true friend — a friend of our people who has played a critical role in bringing home sons from afar, in the struggle against international terrorism, in strengthening U.S. Israel relations, and in the search for peace. Thus, your coming is very timely.”
RESPONSE BY BUSH
Bush, in response, said: “…. there is so much that underpins the friendship between Israel and the United States: we are both committed to democracy. We are both committed to advancing the rights of all mankind, we are both peace-loving people. And we both find our ethics in the common body of teaching derived from the scriptures. And, so, because of these many intangible, and in a sense spiritual, ties, a multitude of wordly bonds have developed between us.
“Particularly in the last five years there has been a blossoming of the relationship between our countries. In commerce, we’ve recently signed a free trade agreement. In defense, we have for three years engaged in strategic cooperation and will be joining together in strategic defense research. And our countries and our peoples have cooperated in education, in medicine and in almost every area of human endeavor ….
“And we want to see Israel’s neighbors accept Israel’s right to exist, and make peace with Israel. And just this last week, in your mission to Morocco, you have shown again your dedication to peace. And that mission captured the imagination of everybody in my country. I can’t think of any better time to have come here to say once again that we in America will do all we can to help bring the peace to the Middle East.”
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