WASHINGTON, 4 February 2005 — Unlike President Bush’s previous State of the Union addresses, which were dominated by foreign-policy “axis of evil” themes, last night’s speech was dominated by domestic policy, specifically, revamping Social Security.
The president also called for reforming US immigration laws, and pledged to make his “guest worker” proposal a top priority for his second-term agenda. But the president has yet to convince many members of his own party, who say he is proposing an amnesty for many illegal aliens in the country, and are loath to reforming the Social Security system. But his 55-minute speech, interrupted for applause 63 times, also focused on the Middle East. Although he offered words of reassurance, saying he had no empire building agenda, Bush called for the spreading of democracy to other Middle East regimes, and outlined what sounded like a push for regional transformation on two tracks: Confrontation with those he views as hostile authoritarian regimes, Syria and Iran; and the gentle prodding of allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which he said needed to reform their systems and move toward democracy.
On peace efforts in the Middle East, Bush said: “The goal of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace is within reach — and America will help them achieve that goal.”
He pledged $350 million to the Palestinian Authority to support “political, economic and security reforms.” Bush said the aid would help Palestinians prepare for Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, but this money is subject to approval by Congress, where lawmakers are skeptical of American aid to the Palestinians. The Bush administration had real difficulties persuading Congress to approve a mere $20 million last December.
Aid from Arab countries to the Palestinians is another sore subject for Washington, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and finance minister, Salam Fayyah. American officials say Saudi Arabia, Libya and Algeria have delivered promised aid but Kuwait and other Gulf countries have not.
The president’s address came on the same day as the announcement that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Abbas will meet in Egypt on Tuesday to hold the first summit between the two sides in four years. And the new US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left today for Europe, Israel and the West Bank, and is due to meet both Sharon and Abbas separately.
“The much-talked about ‘window of opportunity’ is real but finite. All of us will do whatever we can to make it succeed and we are gratified for the commitment of the president’s vision, time and money to lead the world to create a Palestinian state along side Israel,” said Ziad Asali, president of American Task Force on Palestine.
Although he talked at length about Iraq, Bush said the election “opens a new phase of our work in that country,” but he did not focus on Al-Qaeda nor mention the frustrated hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
Bush declared that American troops would increasingly play “a supporting role” to fledgling Iraqi security forces. But he categorically rejected calls to set a specific timetable for pulling the roughly 150,000 US troops from that war-torn country, saying: “That would embolden the terrorists and make them believe they can wait us out. In the end, Iraqis must be able to defend their own country — and we will help that proud, new nation secure its liberty.”
