BUSH IN ISRAEL - TORNADOS IN USA - HINT BUSH

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

AS OF 2PM TODAY (JAN 10,08) GEORGE W THERES 12 TORNADO SCARES IN TENNESEE, MISSISSIPPI AND VARIOUS OTHER PLACES. THE MORE GEORGE COMES AGAINST ISRAEL IN THE MIDEAST THE WORSE THE STORMS GET IN AMERICA. BUSH YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED NUMBEROUS TIMES ABOUT GOING AGAINST GODS WILL FOR JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL. HOW MANY TIMES DO PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY JERUSALEM IS ISRAELS CAPITAL, GOD GAVE THE LAND OF ISRAEL TO ISRAEL NOT TO BE DIVIDED TO THE PALESTINIANS (ARABS). JUST LOOK GEORGE W AT THE WORLD DESTRUCTION IN THE LAST 2 DAYS SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN IN ISRAEL TRYING TO FORCE YOUR ROADMAP DOWN ISRAELS THROAT.

Colder weather ices flood fears in Quebec
Thu Jan 10, 10:25 AM

ST..JOHNS (CBC) - The fear of flooding from unseasonably warm weather across Quebec has abated after the mercury dropped on Wednesday night.Public security officials were monitoring several engorged rivers in the Mont?r?gie and Beauce regions where two communities were temporarily evacuated this week because of flooding - but water levels have stabilized in waterways under watch.However, gale-force winds as high as 100 kilometres an hour caused a major blackout across the province, leaving more than 100,000 Hydro-Qu?bec customers without electricity late into Wednesday night.About 53,000 clients in Quebec City and the Eastern Townships were still without power Thursday morning, Hydro-Qu?bec said.

In Ste-Brigitte-de-Laval, east of Quebec City, about 200 people were forced to leave their homes as a precaution after a large chunk of ice fell into the Montmorency River, causing the water level to rise rapidly.In Huntingdon, southwest of Montreal, about 10 households were given evacuation orders Wednesday morning when floods from two nearby rivers inched towards their homes. But they were allowed to return home a few hours later when water level subsided, Mayor St?phane Gendron said.A school bus filled with children also got a scare Wednesday night outside Huntingdon when the driver lost control on a flooded highway and careened into a water-filled ditch.A nearby farmer helped rescue the 481 children on the bus, and then towed the vehicle out of the ditch with his tractor.The town will remain under flood watch until at least Friday, but it seems a crisis has been averted, Gendron said.Any victims of flooding will be compensated, assured Quebec Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Beno?t Pelletier, during a brief stop in Huntingdon on Wednesday.

Violent winds tear through the province

Several Quebec rivers spilled their banks Wednesday when temperatures reached as high as 10 C.Wind gusts caused by the rapid temperature rise left a trail of damage across Quebec. A century-old tree was uprooted and crushed a car on St. Denis St. in Montreal's Rosemont district.On Montreal's South Shore, there were reports a roof blew off a co-op distribution centre, while windows on several older buildings were blown in.At least half a dozen transport trucks flipped over on the highway, Transport Quebec confirmed. Trucks carrying light loads in strong winds are vulnerable to tipping, said spokesman Mario St-Pierre.With files from the Canadian Press

Wind storm leaves 100,000 without power in New York
Wed Jan 9, 6:07 PM

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Utilities in New York restored electric service to more than 20,000 customers in the northern part of the state on Wednesday after a fast-moving wind storm interrupted power to more than 100,000 customers throughout the day, companies said.The National Weather Service reported winds exceeding 50 mph (80 kph) and gusts of 75 mph at the airport in Rochester, New York early Wednesday. High winds snapped power poles and toppled trees, knocked limbs into power lines and cutting service to homes and businesses.Syracuse-based National Grid had about 50,000 customers without power Wednesday afternoon, down from 70,000 earlier in the day, said spokesman Al Bianchetti.The company, which normally posts outage information on its Web site, blamed the sustained high winds during the day for an inability to disclose county-by-county outage numbers in a timely manner.Energy East's Rochester Gas and Electric unit said 33,000 customers lacked power in the afternoon, said spokesman Dick Marion.Crews were out all day working to restore power and they will be out all night, Marion said.He could not predict how long restoration work would take.
(Reporting by Eileen O'Grady; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Strong winds lash southern Ontario
Wed Jan 9, 3:36 PM

CALGARY (CBC) - Strong winds roared through southern Ontario on Wednesday, downing power lines, damaging homes, delaying flights and flipping over a tractor-trailer and two planes.Hydro One estimated that at the peak of the storm, 140,000 customers across the province were without power, as winds gusted violently in communities from Windsor to Cornwall.The worst winds were recorded in Point Petre, near Belleville, where gusts hit 133 km/h. Port Colborne on Lake Erie saw winds gusting at 117 km/h, while in Toronto the gusts hit 107 km/h.CBC meteorologist Nick Czernkovich said the winds in Toronto nearly broke a record set in 1978, when winds gusted at 115 km/hour.The winds caused destruction across the province, knocking down a house under construction in the Toronto-area city of Whitby and wrecking the roofs of homes and buildings in Prescott, east of Kingston.

Near Prescott, on the international bridge between Johnstown, Ont., and Ogdensburg, N.Y., the wind flipped a tractor-trailer. No one was seriously injured, but the bridge was closed to traffic in the morning.Meanwhile, two small airplanes at the Buttonville airport, near Toronto, were knocked over by gusting winds, while 20flights were delayed at Toronto Pearson International Airport after winds closed runways.Go Trains transporting commuters into Toronto were also delayed when wind blew debris, including a chain-link fence, onto the tracks.

Changing temperatures cause winds

Czernkovich said the winds were the result of the drastic change in temperature, as Tuesday's warm weather was replaced by Wednesday's cooler temperatures. In Toronto, for example, temperatures rose to 15 C on Tuesday, then plunged to 3 C on Wednesday.Usually big changes in temperature in a short period of time often go hand-in-hand with strong winds, Czernkovich said.He said the winds were expected to die down Wednesday night.Emergency hydro crews were assessing the damage Wednesday evening, especially in the hard-hit areas of Strathroy, Peterborough, Kingston and the cottage country north of Toronto, said Hydro One spokeswoman Danielle Gauvin.The utility expected to restore power to most customers by the end of the day, but warned that some remote areas might be without electricity until later in the week.
With files from the Canadian Press

At least 34 killed in Afghan snowfalls
Wed Jan 9, 9:14 AM

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Authorities said Wednesday that at least 34 people had been killed in days of heavy snowfall across trouble-torn Afghanistan.Hundreds of isolated communities were cut off after days of constant snowfall and rain blocking their roads to the major cities, authorities said.Afghan health officials meanwhile have called on tens of thousands of health workers to stay on a state of alert.In the worst incident, eight members of one family died when their mud-brick house collapsed under the weight of snow in western Herat province Monday night, Nooruddin Ahmadi, head of the Afghan Red Crescent in Herat, said.Among others killed were six shepherds from a mountainous region in the province and two people in an avalanche nearby, he added.Seven others, including two female health workers, were killed in another avalanche in central Ghor province, an official said, while five others perished in another avalanche in neighbouring Farah province.

Most parts of poverty-stricken Afghanistan is mountainous and extremely vulnerable in winter.Officials in western, central and northern parts of the country said that most roads leading to small towns and villages were closed.Our roads are blocked and we can't access communities in the districts, Sultan Uruzgani, the governor of the central province of Daikondi, said. He said two people were killed from cold and heavy snowfall there.The Red Crescent's Ahmadi called on the Kabul government and the international community for urgent support before it turns into a real disaster.

Swollen rivers receding in hard-hit Ind. By KEN KUSMER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jan 9, 11:10 PM ET

MONTICELLO, Ind. - Troy Nice looked out over the swollen Tippecanoe River and the houses surrounded by its spilled water. He wondered how his own home had fared as the water began its slow retreat on Wednesday. I didn't think it would come up like this, said Nice, 39. I managed to get my guitar, dog, and I got my cell phone charger, and some little things. This is the worst it's ever been.Nice returned to this stretch of river a day after fleeing the rising water with hundreds of other residents. The Tippecanoe reached record levels along the 20-mile stretch from a storm that dumped as much as 7 inches of rain in parts of northern Indiana.

The National Weather Service estimated that it could be three days before the Tippecanoe retreats within its banks.Seven deaths in all were blamed on flooding and tornadoes across the Midwest as unseasonable temperatures fueled severe weather on Monday and Tuesday.Snow in the forecast for Thursday hastened cleanup efforts in southeastern Wisconsin, where tornadoes destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes.It's pretty hard now with this snow coming, said Brent Spiewak, who lives near where a tornado hit in the town of Wheatland. Once that snow falls, what's not in your house could be gone for a while, maybe forever.Volunteers and friends and relatives of homeowners were working to clear debris and salvage what they could, said Fire Chief Alan Kaddatz.In Indiana, roads were still blocked by water in the Monticello area, said White County emergency management director Gordon Cochran. He had no immediate estimate for how many homes were damaged.About 200 homes were damaged in nearby Carroll County, according to the estimates of Dave McDowell, the county's emergency management director.

Gov. Mitch Daniels viewed the flooding from a helicopter Wednesday, stopping in Monticello and talking with local officials in a county government building where there were still cots and blankets used by evacuees the night before.We're talking about a big area here, but even a few miles south of here they seem to have escaped significant damage, Daniels said.Utility workers were trying to repair a leak in a gas main that runs beneath the Tippecanoe River. Some 400 customers in Burnettsville were without service, said Jim Fitzer, spokesman for Northern Indiana Public Service Co.We have crews on site monitoring the gas, and there are no dangerous levels of gas in that area, he said.As remnants of the storm system moved eastward, thunderstorms early Wednesday knocked out electricity to at least 127,000 homes and businesses in western New York. Gusts as high as 85 mph were clocked at the Thousand Islands Bridge in northern New York, the National Weather Service said.An empty U.S. Airways regional airliner briefly lifted off the ground at the Rochester, N.Y., airport as wind gusted to 75 mph. The 50-passenger aircraft's tail and front landing gear were damaged, airport officials said.The same system produced wind gusts to 63 mph during the night in Ohio, where at least 50,000 customers were blacked out Wednesday.

Flood warnings remained in effect Wednesday in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri, the weather service said. In Illinois, Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared two counties state disaster areas and directed the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to work with local authorities elsewhere to provide help where it was needed. This is one of the worst floods to hit this part of the state in the past 30 to 40 years, Blagojevich said in a statement. Elsewhere, search teams set out in a snowstorm Wednesday in the southwest Colorado mountains to look for two snowboarders missing since Saturday, but helicopters were grounded. You can't see; it's snowing, the wind is blowing, Mineral County sheriff's spokeswoman Sandy Kroll said. The area got more than 4 feet of snow during the weekend. Spokane, Wash., was expected to get heavy snow again Thursday after more than 7 inches fell Tuesday and Wednesday, a record amount. The city declared a condition red snow emergency Wednesday, meaning crews will be plowing snow 24 hours a day, seven days a week until they remove the snow from streets. Associated Press writers Emily Udell and Tom Davies in Indianapolis, Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., Ben Dobbin in Rochester, N.Y., and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Powerful storms, tornadoes hit Midwest By Bob Burgdorfer
Tue Jan 8, 1:32 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Midwest was battered by rain, thunderstorms, and tornadoes late on Monday and early on Tuesday, while the central Plains was spared much of the harsh weather, which was a relief for cattle already stressed by previous storms.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday had a tornado watch and severe thunderstorm warnings for parts of southwest Arkansas and flood warnings for much of northern Illinois and northern Indiana.
This is a dangerous storm. If you are in its path, prepare immediately for damaging winds, destructive hail, and deadly cloud to ground lightning, the NWS' Web site said of southwest Arkansas early on Tuesday.A tornado reportedly killed one person in Arkansas and demolished some houses. Tornadoes were also sighted or suspected in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, according to TV and news reports.

Considerable rain fell overnight in central and northern Illinois, northern Indiana, and western Ohio flooding some roads. More rain was due through the day on Tuesday, before the storm moves out, said Mike Palmerino, meteorologist for DTN Meteorlogix.Pork production was briefly halted on Monday at Cargill Inc's pork plant in Beardstown, Illinois, when thunderstorms knocked out power to the plant, said Cargill spokesman Mark Klein.

KANSAS CATTLE AREAS GET LIGHT SNOW

Cattle feedlots in central Kansas and western Oklahoma, already soggy from previous storms, had been bracing for three to six inches of snow, but by Tuesday morning the actual amounts ranged from one to two inches.It was very minimal. The only accumulating snow was in Dodge City (Kansas), which picked up an inch, said Palmerino.That is a relief for many Kansas feedlots, where cattle had been stressed by having to trudge through the mud caused by the previous storms.The sun is shining and it is melting already, said a receptionist at one western Kansas feedlot.The ground was white, but no big accumulation, said a staffer at another Kansas feedlot.The storm system should vacate the central United States late on Tuesday, followed by mostly dry weather and normal to above normal temperatures, said Palmerino. There may be instances of light snow or rain in the Midwest later this week, he said.

Essentially, we are looking at fairly dry conditions for the next week or so, with temperatures at or above normal. It looks like the whole central part of the country is going to be under pattern that is going to be drier, he said.(Reporting by Bob Burgdorfer; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Floods displace more than 30,000 in east Sri Lanka
Thu Jan 10, 12:32 AM

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Monsoon flooding has forced more than 30,000 people in eastern Sri Lanka from their homes, with many taking refuge in temporary shelters like huts, schools and mosques, officials said on Thursday.Flooding and ensuing mass displacement are common in Sri Lanka, fuelled by monsoon rains. In December, 175,000 people took refuge in welfare centers and temples in the eastern and central parts of the country following flash floods.

The latest flooding hit the eastern district of Ampara, a largely flat agricultural area with a coastline that was hammered by the 2004 tsunami and where infrastructure has long been neglected because of a protracted war between the state and Tamil Tigers, after heavy rains began on Monday.Due to the activation of the northeastern monsoon, 31,042 people have been displaced and of that 10,869 people are in 20 IDP camps, said H. Dharmapriya, assistant director at the National Disaster Management Centre, referring to shelters for Internally Displaced People.The water levels are receding and there are no heavy rains as such at the moment, he added, saying one third of the displaced were in temporarily shelters while the rest were housed with relatives.The Meteorology Department forecast continued rainfall in coming days, but said it would not be heavy.Flooding and drought are cyclical in Sri Lanka, where a southern monsoon batters the island between May and September, and a northeastern monsoon runs from December to February.In early December 20,000 people were displaced in Ampara as a depression over the Bay of Bengal compounded monsoon rains.(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal, Editing by Simon Gardner and Sanjeev Miglani)

Rare winter tornadoes in Midwest flatten houses, knock railroad cars off tracks Tue Jan 8, 5:28 AMBy The Associated Press

WHEATLAND, Wis. - A freak cluster of tornadoes raked across an unseasonably warm Midwest, demolishing houses, knocking railroad cars off their tracks and even temporarily halting justice in one courthouse. Record temperatures were reported across much of the country Monday, and storms continued to pummel the nation's midsection as darkness fell. More warmth and storms were in store for Tuesday. Tornadoes were reported or suspected Monday in southwest Missouri, southeastern Wisconsin, Arkansas, Illinois and Oklahoma. Two people were killed in Missouri. Eleven houses in Wisconsin's Kenosha County were destroyed, five others had heavy damage and four had moderate damage, authorities said. About 13 people were injured, none seriously. I have never seen damage like this in the summertime when we have potential for tornadoes, Sheriff David Beth said. To see something like this in January is mind-boggling to me. This is just unimaginable to me.

Tim Carpentier was among the Kenosha residents whose homes had tornado damage. He said he and his daughters, 13 and 15 years old, heard storm warnings just after getting home. Then he heard a roar. I was just running down the stairs as the front windows blew out, he said. The front of his house was flipped over the roof, and neighboring houses had collapsed roofs and natural gas leaks.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce E. Schroeder, presiding over opening testimony in a murder trial, said he couldn't believe it when a deputy said the courtroom had to be evacuated because of a tornado warning. It's a first, he said while waiting with 300 people in the basement. I've actually had.... warnings occur during jury trials before and frankly I just ignored them. But not in January.Beckie Gilbert, a secretary who works in Wheatland, watched from her company's back door as wispy funnel clouds grew and the tornado uprooted about five trees. We saw it in the distance, which wasn't far, and it was pretty scary, she said. We were watching as it picked up dirt and got really dark, and then it disappeared over some trees.Meteorologists said the unusual weather was the result of warm, moist air moving from the south. It brought temperatures hovering near 70 degrees on Sunday and Monday. It's very unseasonable for this time of year, said National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Sipprell. The atmosphere is just right.

About six homes were destroyed in the small town of Poplar Grove, Ill., where authorities rescued motorists trapped by downed, live electrical lines and crews searched damaged structures to make sure no one was trapped. Three people suffered minor injuries, Boone County Sheriff's Lt. Perry Gay said. About 24 kilometres away in Harvard, Ill., a suspected tornado derailed one locomotive and 12 freight cars. A tank car containing shock fluid leaked for hours before it was contained, and another derailed car contained ethylene oxide, a flammable material widely used to sterilize medical supplies, but was not leaking, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said. Authorities ordered about 500 residents to evacuate the nearby unincorporated town of Lawrence, said Capt. David Shepherd with the McHenry County Sheriff's Office. No injuries were reported, he said. Elsewhere, the heat was making history. By about noon Monday, Chicago's temperature already had hit 18 degrees, breaking a previous record-high of 15 degrees set on Jan. 7, 1907, according to the weather service. The high in 15 N.Y., of 59 degrees beat the old record for the date by 5 degrees. The high was 19 in Toledo, Ohio, a record that led some University of Toledo students to stroll to class in T-shirts, flip-flops and shorts. In New Jersey, the Atlantic City International Airport recorded a high of 20 degrees, breaking a 10-year-old record by 10 degrees.

Six snowmobilers missing in the Colorado mountains for 2½ days while a howling blizzard swirled around them were rescued Monday - hungry and cold but unhurt - after taking shelter in a cozy cabin and calling 911 on a cell phone when the storm eased up. The group, consisting of two couples and two teenagers, broke into the cabin, where they huddled around a gas grill and dined on popcorn and chicken bouillon they found inside. We counted 18 blankets. We were cozy, 31-year-old Shannon Groen said after rescue crews on snowmobiles brought the group to safety. God was looking out for us.

Australians battle fires and floods By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 7, 2:42 AM ET

CANBERRA, Australia - Australians battled both fires and some of the worst flooding in decades Monday that stranded residents in several communities after days of intense summer heat and storms.
Bureau of Meteorology hydrologist Gordon McKay said some parts of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, had experienced their worst floods in more than 50 years after a week of rain.
Those trapped included 1,000 music fans attending a four-day music festival in the state, officials said.Flood waters also isolated several communities in Queensland and the Northern Territory, which was lashed by a cyclone over the weekend, emergency services reported.The major highway from the east to the west coast city of Perth remained closed Monday because of a blaze that remained out of control, eight days after three truck drivers died in an attempt to drive through a wall of fire.

Federal lawmaker Barry Haase, whose 890,000-square mile Outback electorate is described as the largest in the world, called for the Great Eastern Highway to be reopened despite the danger so interstate trade could resume.But state official Peter Keppel said the fire, which has burned 101,300 acres of scrubland since it started Dec. 28, remained dangerous.With temperatures expected to reach 104 degrees Monday and northerly winds forecast, the fire could again cross the highway, he said.In southeast Australia, water-dropping aircraft were used Monday to attack a 25-acre fire in steep terrain in a national park in Victoria state.North of Victoria in New South Wales state, thousands of people could remain cut off by floods for up to a week, State Emergency Service spokesman Phil Campbell said.About 1,000 music fans attending the music festival near Tenterfield would remain trapped by a washed-away bridge until Tuesday, Campbell said.Further north in Queensland state, flood waters were receding from weekend peaks.
Emergency volunteers were being airlifted to Queensland farms isolated by floods to deliver supplies to stranded residents, the State Emergency Service reported.

Nigerian militants threaten more attacks By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press Writer JAN 10,08

ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigeria's main militant group said Thursday it fired on six oil industry ships and threatened an attack that will cause an economic tsunami in the world's oil market. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, whose attacks have crippled oil production in Africa's top exporter, said it fired at the ships Tuesday on the Bonny River, but provided no details.The group, known as MEND, also warned in an e-mail sent to journalists that an attack on the Nigeria oil industry that will cause an economic tsunami in the world oil markets is imminent.Militant groups in Nigeria's oil-producing states say they are fighting for a greater share of the country's oil wealth. Although the Niger Delta produces billions of dollars in crude oil a year, its people live on an average of less than $1 a day.

MEND said a few days earlier it was receiving training from U.S. and European mercenaries on ambush techniques and the use of anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles.The group said Thursday that, for now, our tactics of attack on these enemies of peace and freedom will be limited to remote explosive devices.But it warned Niger Delta residents living under the flight paths of military helicopters to be vigilant because the aircraft could be shot down.
We will not spare helicopters from oil companies as they have been used for military surveillance and logistics support, MEND said.
Militant tactics have included kidnapping expatriate oil workers and attacks on oil installations and government buildings. Copycats have jumped into the fray led by criminal gangs seeking ransoms.Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer and the fifth-biggest source of U.S. oil imports. Militant attacks have cut production by 20 percent, helping keep oil prices high.

Bush predicts Mideast peace treaty before he leaves White House By Anne Gearan, The Associated Press JAN 10,08

RAMALLAH, West Bank - U.S. President George W. Bush, summing up meetings with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, said Thursday that a peace accord will require painful political concessions by each. Resolving the status of Jerusalem will be hard, he said, and he called for the end of the occupation of Arab land by the Israeli military. Now is the time to make difficult choices, Bush said after a first-ever visit to the Palestinian territories, which followed separate meetings with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem the day before. Bush is in the Mideast for eight days, trying to bolster his goal of achieving a long-elusive peace agreement by the end of his presidency in a year. Speaking at his hotel in Jerusalem, he said again that he thinks that is possible.

I am committed to doing all I can to achieve it, Bush said. Within minutes, Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley said the president would return to the Middle East at least once and maybe more over the next year. He wouldn't elaborate on possible destinations, but another White House official said Bush is likely to attend Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations in May. Bush gave his most detailed summation yet of what a final peace should include, including U.S. expectations for the resolution of some of the hardest issues in the violent conflict, one of the world's longest-running and most intractable. He used tough language intended to put both sides on notice that he sees no reason they cannot get down to serious business, starting right now.In his set of U.S. bottom lines were security for Israel, a contiguous state for the Palestinians and the expectation that final borders will be negotiated to accommodate territorial changes since Israel's formation. He also suggested international compensation for Palestinians and their descendants who claim a right to return to land they held before Israel's formation. He made a point of using a loaded term - occupation - to describe Israeli control over land that would eventually form the bulk of an independent Palestinian state. That he did so in Jerusalem underscored that he is trying not to seem partial to Israel.

On borders, Bush said any peace agreement will require mutually agreed adjustments to the lines drawn for Israel in the late 1940s. He was referring primarily to Israeli neighbourhoods on disputed lands that Israel would keep when an independent Palestinian state is formed. Earlier in the day, Bush had said Palestinians deserve better than a Swiss cheese state fitted around Israeli land and security bulwarks. The point of departure for permanent status negotiations to realize this vision seems clear, he said. There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people.White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush was referring to the West Bank when he spoke of occupation. Bush offered no specifics to resolve the fate of disputed Jerusalem, but urged both sides to work toward a solution in what he said could be the most difficult issue to settle in a long list of them.

I know Jerusalem is a tough issue, Bush said. Both sides have deeply felt political and religious concerns.It is vital that each side understands that satisfying the other's fundamental objectives is key to a successful agreement, the president said. Security for Israel and viability for the Palestinian state are in the mutual interests of both parties.Hadley said that Bush wasn't announcing new U.S. policy with any of his statements, but was trying to reiterate the American position all in one place. The important thing ... is what he's beginning to hear from the Palestinian and the Israeli side, he said. Bush spent most of his day in the Palestinian West Bank, seeking to counter Palestinians' skepticism about his commitment to Mideast peace. He undercut that message somewhat by saying it may not be possible to resolve this year the current, violent split in Palestinian leadership - vital to a deal establishing an independent state. The militant group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June, meaning the Palestinian people - and the land that could eventually form an independent Palestine - are split between governance by Hamas there and by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah-led government in the West Bank. The president is not stopping in Gaza. Bush had harsh criticism for Hamas, which does not recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas, he said, was elected to help improve the lot of Palestinians, but has delivered nothing but misery.

The question is whether or not hard issues can be resolved and the vision emerges, so that the choice is clear amongst the Palestinians, Bush said at Abbas' side at his government's headquarters in Ramallah. The choice being, 'Do you want this state? Or do you want the status quo? Do you want a future based upon a democratic state? Or do you want the same old stuff?We want a state, of course, Abbas said in English. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called Bush's comments a declaration of war.Bush's visit and remarks today have indicated that his visit came to support the occupation and has brought nothing to the Palestinian people but evil, the Hamas spokesman said.