Bush defends Sharon from campaign-trail attack

NEW HAMPSHIRE: US President George W Bush on Monday staunchly defended Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from a surprising attack at a Bush campaign event in this battleground state.

President Bush also recommitted himself to the internationally drawn “roadmap” to Middle East peace and blamed the Palestinian leadership for stalled efforts to create an independent Palestinian state living at peace with Israel. “Ariel Sharon is a duly elected official in a democracy. “We would hope that the Palestinians would have that same kind of democracy, which would lead to a more peaceful world,” the US president said. A young woman had asked Bush in a question-and-answer forum how he could have called Sharon “‘a man of peace’ if he causes death and torture among innocent Palestinians.”

“That’s a good question,” he said. “First of all, Ariel Sharon is defending his country against terrorist attack, just like we all are,” President Bush said. Sharon “has made the conscious decision that a Palestinian state is in his nation’s interest,” said the president, who insisted that the best way to reach that outcome is the tattered roadmap to peace. “There’s a leadership question involved in whether or not a Palestinian state will emerge. In order for a Palestinian state to emerge, there must be Palestinian leadership that believes in the hopes and aspirations of the people,” he said. President Bush said Palestinian leaders must be willing to establish institutions and the rule of law “as opposed to a system in which one person pretty well dictates the fate of the Palestinian people.” afp

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