Bush Calls for ‘Fresh Thinking’ on Middle East

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Saturday called for “fresh thinking” to combat the daunting challenges that remain in the Middle East a decade after the historic accord between Israel and Egypt.

Bush said in a statement released by the White House that the treaty that ended more than 30 years of war between the two countries 10 years ago today was “the product of vision, statesmanship, courage and persistence on the part of all the participants.”

Bush was spending the weekend with his family at Camp David, the presidential retreat where Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat worked out the historic agreement with then-President Jimmy Carter.

“Recognizing the historic achievement of 10 years ago, however, turns our minds toward the still more daunting challenges ahead,” the President said. “We need to complete the work they began. We must commit ourselves, as Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin did, to fresh thinking.”

Bush said there is “growing understanding that a settlement can be reached which both satisfies Israel’s security needs and addresses the legitimate political rights of the Palestinians.”