If you want a good summary of Bush's trip to Europe, suprisingly you can find it here.
Refreshing news in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict:
Feb. 21, 2005 JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture Monday and President Bush pledged to support efforts to resolve the conflict, saying peace based on a two-state solution was within reach.
"Our greatest opportunity, and our immediate goal, is peace in the Middle East," Bush said in Brussels, Belgium, on the first day of a fence-mending trip to Europe.
"Bush also promised to back Palestinian reform, which he said would give momentum to changes throughout the Middle East."
The article goes on to say:
"In a historic Cabinet vote Sunday, Israel voted leave Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank and approved a revised West Bank separation barrier closer to Israel's pre-1967 frontier.
With the vote, an Israeli government agreed for the first time since capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war to dismantle some of the dozens of Jewish settlements it has built there. "
Will Bush be able to form the alliances we should have, although many would argue we don't need?
Are we finally seeing the beginning of some sort of peace between the Israeli and Palestinian blood bath?
What I see is EFFORT. What I see is action and not just talk. Will all of it work? God knows. But it is nice to see the action. It is nice to see some work being put into these issues.
I think the alliances are important and I hope Bush succeeds.
We need to focus on the big picture. These are the important things. Not the gossipy stuff that bloggers have been ranting about.
There may not be alot we can do from here about the big things above, so maybe it would be a good time to bring a little civility to the blogpsphere. Let's try to be a bit nicer. How about that? Try a little alliance building of our own.
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