Bush Blesses Israeli Pullout Plan

Breaking with long-standing U.S. policy, President Bush on Wednesday endorsed Israel's retention of part of the West Bank in any final peace settlement with the Palestinians.

In a strong show of support for Israel's leader that brought immediate condemnation from the Palestinians, Mr. Bush also ruled out Palestinian refugees ever returning to Israel.

An elated Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said his plan would create "a new and better reality for the state of Israel."

But minutes after Mr. Bush spoke, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said in Ramallah that "he is the first president who has legitimized the (Israeli) settlements in Palestinian territories."

Qureia added: "We as Palestinians reject that. We cannot accept that. We reject it and we refuse it." Separately, anticipating what Mr. Bushwould say, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had earlier called it "the complete end of the peace process."

Mr. Bush, in a historic news conference with a broadly smiling Sharon, endorsed as "courageous" the Israeli leader's plan to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

The president said there were "new realities" on the West Bank since Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war. Mr. Bush said major Israeli population centers in the West Bank now make it "unrealistic to expect the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return" to pre-war borders.

Past U.S. administrations had anticipated only minor changes in the old borders as part of a final peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Mr. Bush's statement went much further, amounting to a clear endorsement of Sharon's proposal that some large Jewish settlements must remain on the West Bank temporarily, and a backing of the Sharon position that some Jewish settlements must always remain there.

Me. Bush's endorsement of Sharon's plan came with no Palestinian leaders present — in what was sure to be seen by the Arab world as a strong favoring of Sharon and a slight to the Palestinians.

Palestinian leaders had previously said they had been assured by the Bush administration that they would be consulted before any Bush endorsement of Sharon's plan.

Mr. Bush urged the Palestinians to match Israel's "boldness and courage."

Specifically, Mr. Bush said a final peace deal should call for Palestinian refugees to be settled in a Palestinian state, not in Israel.

Mr. Bush said the "realities on the ground and in the region have changed greatly" and should be reflected in any final peace deal — a key concession, sought by Sharon, to the fact that Israel has large groups of settlers in the West Bank.

Sharon said he was encouraged by Mr. Bush's support, which the Israeli leader had sought as a way to boost his own party's support. The Israeli leader said his "disengagement" plan would improve Israel's security and economy, and set the right conditions for negotiations with the Palestinians.

Asked outright if the United States recognized Israel's right to keep some settlements in the West Bank, Mr. Bush said Sharon had started the process of removing settlements from the West Bank.

He said final decisions about Israeli settlements in the West Bank had to wait for "final status" negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians on a Palestinian state.