WASHINGTON, 4 June 2008 — US President George W. Bush does not worry much about Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s future and remains focused on “the big picture” of Middle East peace, the White House said yesterday.
“Our focus hasn’t been on that, I know that there has been a lot of attention, especially in the Israeli press and some international press, about Israeli politics,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
“But President Bush has to keep his focus on the big picture, and so he is not spending a lot of time worried about that, he is focused on how do we get the Palestinian state defined before the end of the year,” said Perino.
Bush and the Israeli premier are due to meet today for talks in Washington that have yet to appear on the US president’s publicly released schedule amid mounting calls for the Israeli prime minister to resign over corruption charges.
The spokeswoman said it was unclear how much media access there would be to the two leaders when they meet — usually a sure sign of a behind-the-scenes dispute over how much publicity a meeting should get.
“I think that our goal, for whenever an Israeli leader comes, is to, one, reaffirm out commitment to Israel,” she said.
The other key aim is “to push, especially now that we are in the middle of the negotiations with the Palestinians — or, I should say, the Israelis are in the middle of the negotiations with the Palestinians — on trying to define a state before the end of the year,” said Perino.
