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Merkel says international community must stay united to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
By Jocelyne Zablit - WASHINGTON
President George W. Bush said Thursday that the United States has an "unshakeable" commitment to defend Israel and pledged that his administration would have no contact with the militant Palestinian group Hamas so long as it refuses to recognize the Jewish state.
"America's commitment to Israel's security is strong, enduring and unshakeable," Bush said in a speech in Washington to the influential American Jewish Committee (AJC), which is marking its 100th anniversary.
He said the United States and Israel were "natural allies and these ties will never be broken".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also addressed the gala event along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, evoked the horrors of the Holocaust and vowed that her country would not waver in its support for Israel.
"The right of existence of the state of Israel must never be questioned," Merkel, who was the first German chancellor to address the AJC, said to loud applause by the audience of some 2,500 Jewish leaders, US politicians and diplomats.
"This is why it is intolerable for any German government when the Iranian president questions the right of Israel's existence."
She was referring to repeated anti-Israel comments by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In October he said that the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map".
Bush said the United States was "concerned because the Iranian regime is repressing its people, sponsoring terrorists, destabilizing the region, threatening Israel and defying the world with its ambitions for nuclear weapons".
"America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats," he said.
The United States is leading a bid to make the UN Security Council take action against Iran over its nuclear programme, which Washington and its allies fear hides an attempt to make an atomic bomb.
Iran insists its programme is for civilian purposes.
Merkel said the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program was of great concern and added that it was essential for the international community to be united on the issue.
"Iran must be prevented from getting nuclear weapons," she said. "We need to stand together and show a united front."
Both Merkel and Bush also urged Hamas to choose the path of peace by recognizing Israel and thus offering a better future for the Palestinian people.
"Hamas has made it clear that they do not acknowledge the right of Israel to exist, and I've made it clear that so long as that's their policy, we will have no contact with the leaders of Hamas," Bush said.
Merkel said it was up to the militant group to "reject violence and acknowledge without ambiguity Israel's right to exist".
Annan said that despite enormous obstacles to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, he remained hopeful.
"I refuse to despair," he said. "There is still abundant evidence that peace is what the majority of both Israelis and Palestinians want, even if each is reluctant to believe that the other wants it too."
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Posted: 2006-05-11 13:56:12
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On 2006-05-11 13:56:12, dealer3 wrote:
"Iran must be prevented from getting nuclear weapons," she said. "We need to stand together and show a united front."
And so we should!
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Posted: 2006-05-11 18:21:48
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Israel only has a right of existence if they accept that a Palestinian state should exsist.Over the last 50 years or so all the Israeli's have done is nothing but steal land from the palestinians and murder innocent men,women and children and bulldoze their homes.The U.S has always aided Israel with money and weapons in order for them to carry out the continueing genocide on the palestian people.
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Posted: 2006-05-11 19:26:41
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Merkel & Bush are not in the level to speak about Iran's nuclear program, they both support Israel. the regime who kills innocent people, the regime which has nuclear bomb. it is a great paradox!
they say we can not trust Iran. but why there is no one to ask them who trust you?
you that bombed Hiroshima, you that sold chemical weapons to Saddam to kill Iranians, you that ...
a gloomy joke...
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Posted: 2006-05-11 23:52:00
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i dont know why they did and are doing such many things to make the world more complicated.
both bush and middle east may think wars can make more profit? it really sucks. harmony has not tured out yet.
as the mate below me said, a real joke, but gloomy...
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Posted: 2006-05-12 04:41:46
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axxxr wrote:
". . . Over the last 50 years or so . . . have done is nothing but . . . murder innocent men,women and children . . . "
same can be said for the Palestinians, from the middle east to airports to the Olympics
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Posted: 2006-05-12 08:58:35
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This is old news. For the last 50 years or so Jewish, no Zionists have been shaping the USA's foriegn policys. The Zionist lobby in America (Jewish lobby to those not in the know). Have been pulling every string possible to insure that they are the powerhouse of the middleast. Personally I don't reconise the exsitence of Israel. To me it's still Palestine under occupation, the same as any country under occupation.
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Posted: 2006-05-12 11:04:09
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agreed!
i do not recognice israel either...
never will...
its palestine under occupation...a brutal one, which will come to an end very soon...(just wait and see...)
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Posted: 2006-05-12 16:57:36
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Damn, you guys are hardcore. I don't care about Israel myself but it's a reality that Arabs will have to deal with merely wishing it away or nuking it away ain't going to happen. Israelis, have for the large part accepted that Palestine exists and the Palistinians won't go away. The best way forward is to follow the path of mutual respect.
I don't have the solution to the problems but through dialogue between the two peoples there should be a solution...the problem though is overwhelmingly the American Jewry and it's lobby in Washington which has held a hawkish stance over peace efforts
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Posted: 2006-05-12 17:12:52
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Israel has a right to exist, just as much as the Palestinians have a right to exist and live their lives in peace in a land of their own.
We will never have peace if people make statements like you two have just made. Just like if someone came on and refused to recognise the Palestinians and their right to land and to live free.
I don't know about anyone else but I am just starting to get heartily sick of these types of threads and the perpetual arguments and points that are made in them.
(Sorry to Dealer3 and Soulframe, nothing personal as I respect you both a lot
)
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Posted: 2006-05-12 17:14:19
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