George Bush on the Annapolis Conference

Today's Washington Post report on the Mideast peace conference held yesterday in Annapolis, Maryland, says that:

The conference, held at the U.S. Naval Academy, marked the most intensive U.S. effort to restart talks in the seven years since they collapsed at the end of the Clinton administration.

Or as George Bush put it:

Q: But your role -- again, back to you -- what do you do?

A: I work the phones, I listen, I encourage, I have meetings. I do a lot of things.

But before Mr. Bush began his intensive effort to make phone calls and be encouraging, he had to begin the peace process itself:

And therefore, the first step in getting to the process we ended up on today is to -- for me to have recognized that the problem is terror, and states cannot accept terror on their border, particularly democracies, nor can a state be formed because of terror.

Yes, it took a George Bush epiphany on what the problem was between Israel and Palestine before there was any chance for peace.  Of course Bush ignores the inconvenient fact that three quarters of Palestinians won't support a peace deal that doesn't include the right of return, and that more than three quarters of Israelis won't support a peace deal that does include the right of return. But that's okay, because Bush had a vision:

So the vision is the beginning -- today was the beginning of the outline of a vision, so that people have something to be for. And it's an important step. Today was an important step, and it's going to be hard work to be done...In other words, there has to be something more positive than that which is being -- that which is on the horizon today.

But what about the internal problems that Abbas and Olmert both face?  

Generally, if a leader is able to promote peace, genuine peace, it will help their standing with the people. I'm not a great analysis of polls, but I do believe that leadership is rewarded, and particularly leadership that leads to the prospect for peace.

There's a deep thought straight from the horse's ass mouth.  And if Bush ever does become a, "great analysis," perhaps he'll finally understand why he's being rewarded with approval ratings that hover around 25%.

Seriously though, besides his visions and his reading of the document of Joint Understanding between Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, today the sleeves are rolled up and Bush really begins that, "most intensive U.S. effort," to broker a peace deal, right?

Q Presumably the President offered encouragement and inspiration when he met with the two leaders yesterday. I wonder if he gets down to negotiating tomorrow, if he starts to look at specific issues when he talks with them?

MS. PERINO: Well, we'll see. But my instinct is that that's not the intention of these meetings.  [...]

But by having the document, it helped define the -- it helped define the launch of the negotiations, which then helps define the success of the conference, so that others wouldn't define it for them.

Because we wouldn't want anyone else defining how successful the conference was.

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, said Bush's speech seemed jarring next to the more uplifting visions of Olmert and Abbas. "It plays so badly in the region when he tries to make this an anti-terrorism conference," he said.

After all, George Bush did read a document. And he is, "only a phone call away."