Bush Praises Olmert’s Land Plan

President Bush on Tuesday praised Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s controversial plans to redraw the West Bank’s borders as “bold ideas” that could open the way to a Palestinian state, even without agreement from Palestinian leaders.

In his first White House meeting with the new Israeli leader, Bush emphasized that he was only beginning to learn about Olmert’s plan, which would remove some smaller Jewish settlements in the West Bank while absorbing larger settlements into Israel. But Bush said the ideas could lead to a Palestinian state if the U.S.-backed peace plan known as the road map continued to face obstacles.

Some U.S. officials have said recently that they did not expect Bush to publicly embrace Olmert’s plan, for fear of alienating European and Arab allies who criticized it as a land grab.

Bush’s enthusiastic, if preliminary, review seemed to signal his hope for beginning the same kind of strong relationship he had with Olmert’s predecessor, Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since suffering a massive stroke in January.

Bush emphasized that he wanted the two sides to reach an agreement through negotiations, and made it clear that he wanted Olmert to reach out to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But during a news conference he expressed concern about the militant group Hamas, which dominates the Palestinian government and says it wants to destroy Israel.

He praised Olmert’s “vision,” his willingness to reach out to Abbas and, if talks failed, his readiness “to consider other ways to move the process forward.”

Olmert, who had been acting prime minister since January and was sworn in to the full-term post this month, sought to emphasize his willingness to deal with the Palestinians. Although he has criticized Abbas as ineffective, Olmert praised the Palestinian leader Tuesday as “genuine” and “sincere.”

“We hope that he will have the power to be able to meet the requirements necessary for negotiations,” Olmert said.

He said he wanted to meet with Abbas, but added, “we will not wait indefinitely.”

Before Bush and Olmert met, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to further restrict aid to the Hamas-led government, over the objections of the White House.

The measure, approved 361 to 37, will make it difficult for nongovernmental organizations, except those providing healthcare, to receive U.S. funds. The bill also denies U.S. visas to members of the Palestinian Authority, prohibits official U.S. contact with Palestinian government officials and limits the president’s ability to waive the aid ban.

The administration, which has already cut off direct aid to the Palestinian government, said the bill went too far. It is expected to try to weaken the restrictions in legislation coming before the Senate.

Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.) faulted the bill’s prohibition on aid to “all nongovernmental groups, private groups and organizations, many of whom are diametrically opposed to Hamas’ philosophy.”

But Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a chief sponsor, said the United States “must make it unambiguously clear ... that we will not directly or indirectly allow American taxpayer funds to be used to perpetuate the leadership of an Islamist jihadist group.”

Hours before the start of the Bush-Olmert talks, Israel announced that it had captured a senior Hamas commander linked to a string of attacks that killed nearly 80 people, including five Americans at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University in July 2002.

The Israeli military said Ibrahim Hamed, who had been near the top of most-wanted lists since 1998, surrendered before dawn Tuesday to troops who surrounded his hide-out in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack inside Israel for more than a year, but the army said Hamed masterminded many deadly attacks in the course of the Palestinians’ five-year uprising, or intifada.

Hamed emerged after troops used loudspeakers to threaten to demolish the building with him inside, a tactic Israel has used in the past when suspected militants refused to surrender. An army bulldozer was standing by.

In the Gaza Strip, representatives of competing Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Abbas-aligned Fatah, gathered for reconciliatory talks a day after a thunderous gun battle in Gaza City. But it was unclear whether the meeting would mark an end to two weeks of intensifying strife.

“We want to end this crisis,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, told reporters in Gaza City. “The term ‘civil war’ does not appear in our lexicon.”

As Abbas prepared for more talks this week, he said: “All of us feel our national cause is in danger. We all must work to ensure that this dialogue succeeds.”

In the streets of Gaza, rival militiamen from Fatah and Hamas kept a close eye on each other, standing yards apart with their weapons at the ready. Hamas angered Fatah with its deployment last week of a 3,000-member police force that reports only to the Hamas interior minister, Said Siyam.

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Richter reported from Washington and King from Jerusalem.