CIAO DATE: 09/2008
January 2008
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
President Bush's recent visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories came six weeks after the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis. That parley marked the first time the United States did not mandate a purely sequential approach to the peace process. Instead, Washington now wants issues to be solved in parallel, with the implementation of past obligations occurring simultaneously with final agreement on the core issues of Jerusalem, refugees, and security. Bush's reiteration of this policy approach during his trip suggests that he has adopted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's peacemaking approach as his own.
Resource link: PolicyWatch #1328: Bush's Middle East Trip: The President Embraces Rice's Approach [PDF] - 13K