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APN Commends Bush for Pushing to Advance Mideast Peace

APN commended President Bush for continuing to prod Israeli and Palestinian leaders toward a peace deal, and urged him to follow through with his peacemaking efforts.
Shimon Peres - George W. Bush - Ehud Olmert

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 11, 2008
CONTACT:  Ori Nir - (202) 728-1893

Washington, D.C. - Americans for Peace Now (APN) today commended President Bush for continuing to prod Israeli and Palestinian leaders toward a peace deal, and urged him to follow through with his peacemaking efforts.
 
"The President's visit to Israel and the West Bank was encouraging. Bush made bold statements, which underscored that with Israeli, Palestinian and American political will, advancing toward peace is not a dream. They also underscored, however, how essential it is for Bush - together with Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas - to translate promising words into real action," said Debra DeLee, APN's president and CEO.
 
"If the Annapolis Conference laid the structural foundation to the current peace process, Bush's visit provided a general framework for final-status talks, addressing 'third-rail' issues such as borders, refugees and Jerusalem," DeLee added.
 
"We support the President's unequivocal assertions that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories must end, that the establishment of a Palestinian state is overdue, and that the United States remains steadfast in its commitment to Israeli security. Bush correctly pointed out, as our organization has for years, that Israeli security is a Palestinian interest just as much as the viability of a Palestinian state is an Israeli interest," said DeLee.
 
APN has repeatedly pointed out - including in a letter to Bush on the eve of his trip - that Mideast peacemaking is not for the irresolute or faint-of-heart. Rather, APN has stated, it requires courage, vision, determination, tenacious leadership and a clear focus on the end-game .
 
"In addition to tenacity, Mideast peace leadership of the kind that the President is promising to assume imposes responsibility. It requires presidential commitment, through the 2008 November elections and beyond, into the term of our next president, to drive this effort to completion," DeLee said.
 
APN is a Jewish, Zionist organization dedicated to enhancing Israel's security through peace and to supporting the Israeli Peace Now movement.