U.S. media emphasized two points regarding the Bush-Sharon understandings: One, that President Bush's diplomatic assurances provided a "victory" for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and two, that the Bush-Sharon negotiations were carried out behind the back of the Palestinians, thus infuriating them. The Washington Post summed up both these points in its opening sentence:
"President Bush yesterday endorsed Israel's claim to parts of the West Bank seized in the 1967 Middle East war and asserted that Palestinian refugees cannot expect to return to their homes inside Israel, an explicit shift in U.S. policy immediately attacked by Palestinian political leaders."
A CNN television caption: "Bush Endorses Israeli Plan, Departs From Past U.S. Policy."
"For the first time in American diplomacy in the Middle East," wrote the New York Times' analyst James Bennet, "Mr. Bush announced that major Jewish settlements on the West Bank had achieved the status they aimed for: rooted 'facts on the ground,' or, as Mr. Bush called them, 'already existing major Israeli population centers.'"
In concentrating only on the precise terminology, however, Bennet ignored the fact that past American presidents have often recognized that Israel would not return to the pre-1967 borders. As former Israeli liaison to Congress Yoram Ettinger told Arutz-7 this week, "Even if Bush says that Israel will not have to return to its pre-1967 borders, so what? Many American Presidents have said this in the past - such as Johnson in 1968 and Reagan in 1982." In addition, former President Clinton oversaw negotiations in Camp David in 1999 with then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak according to which Israel was to have withdrawn from most, but not all, of Judea and Samaria.
Regarding past American Presidential commitments, Ettinger also noted that Richard Nixon promised Israel in 1970 that Egypt would not bring its missiles towards the Sinai. When Egypt did just that, however, the Americans backtracked on their word, leading to the Yom Kippur War and 2,800 Israeli deaths.
"President Bush yesterday endorsed Israel's claim to parts of the West Bank seized in the 1967 Middle East war and asserted that Palestinian refugees cannot expect to return to their homes inside Israel, an explicit shift in U.S. policy immediately attacked by Palestinian political leaders."
A CNN television caption: "Bush Endorses Israeli Plan, Departs From Past U.S. Policy."
"For the first time in American diplomacy in the Middle East," wrote the New York Times' analyst James Bennet, "Mr. Bush announced that major Jewish settlements on the West Bank had achieved the status they aimed for: rooted 'facts on the ground,' or, as Mr. Bush called them, 'already existing major Israeli population centers.'"
In concentrating only on the precise terminology, however, Bennet ignored the fact that past American presidents have often recognized that Israel would not return to the pre-1967 borders. As former Israeli liaison to Congress Yoram Ettinger told Arutz-7 this week, "Even if Bush says that Israel will not have to return to its pre-1967 borders, so what? Many American Presidents have said this in the past - such as Johnson in 1968 and Reagan in 1982." In addition, former President Clinton oversaw negotiations in Camp David in 1999 with then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak according to which Israel was to have withdrawn from most, but not all, of Judea and Samaria.
Regarding past American Presidential commitments, Ettinger also noted that Richard Nixon promised Israel in 1970 that Egypt would not bring its missiles towards the Sinai. When Egypt did just that, however, the Americans backtracked on their word, leading to the Yom Kippur War and 2,800 Israeli deaths.