Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday January 11, 2008

Sunrises and rainbows for Bush in Israel

by ron kampeas
jta

For years President Bush has described the transformative experience of seeing the sun rise over Jerusalem’s Old City during his first visit in 1998, when he was Texas governor.

“You know, my first trip to Israel, and only trip to Israel, was in 1998,” Bush said. “And I remember being in a hotel room and opened the curtain over the Old City, and the sun was just coming up, and it just glowed. It was golden. And I told Laura, ‘I can’t believe what I’m looking at.’ And after she got her contacts on, she came and looked.”

That would have been the view east from the King David Hotel, where Bush stayed then and where he is staying this week.

At Bush’s request, Jerusalem’s municipality is shutting down the Old City’s familiar strobes Jan. 10 at dawn to give the president an unfettered look at the sun rising over its walls, spires and cupolas.

Bush landed at Ben-Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv shortly before noon Jan. 9, kicking off his first visit as president to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The visit is the first leg of an eight-day tour to the Middle East that includes stops in the Persian Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“The United States and Israel are strong allies,” Bush said after a red carpet reception at the airport by Israeli political and religious leaders, and by an honor guard.

“The source of that strength is a shared belief in the power of human freedom. Our people built two great democracies under difficult circumstances.

“The alliance between our two nations helps guarantee Israel’s security as a Jewish state,” he added.

As of j.’s press deadline, Bush was scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the King David Hotel on Jan. 9, and again after he visits Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Bush’s first stop was the residence of Israeli President Shimon Peres, where he was serenaded by a group of Jerusalem schoolchildren singing a medley of Israeli songs and “Over the Rainbow” in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

The U.S. leader initially tried to contain his laughter before giving up and embracing the children afterward. The children were chosen from a pool of English speakers so Bush could converse with them.

Bush is scheduled to leave Jerusalem on Jan. 11 after visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. He is scheduled to tour Christian sites in the Galilee before continuing to Kuwait.

His planned sunrise vantage was one of many revealed by Israeli officials. A comprehensive PowerPoint presentation mapped every detail of his convoy’s travel routes. The curious can track the president in real time on the Jerusalem municipality Web site, www.jerusalem.muni.il.

Such details stunned White House officials, who are used to keeping the president’s movements under wraps. Israeli officials said that because the visit is shutting down Jerusalem for three days, Jerusalemites deserve to know where and when they can travel.

Authorities have dedicated a police presence of more than 10,000 to secure the city for three days. That doesn’t include the security detail the president brought with him, particularly after al Qaida figures called on local Palestinians to kill him.

Israel will hand over security to the Palestinian Authority for Bush’s visit to Ramallah in the West Bank on Jan. 10, an American-urged nod to Palestinian sovereignty. Nonetheless, Israel shut down the West Bank as of Jan. 7, a closure that applies to internal movement as well as to entering Jerusalem and other areas in Israel.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.