Bush Set to Welcome Abbas to White House

President Bush is registering his faith in Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas with a red-carpet welcome to the White House, a sharp contrast to Bush’s shunning of Yasser Arafat for 2 1/2 years.

Their Oval Office meeting and luncheon Friday could help shape Bush’s strategy for advancing his proposal for establishment of a Palestinian state in 2005 and a peaceful accord with Israel.

Where Bush viewed Arafat a failed leader entwined in corruption and terror, he sees Abbas as a moderate who is determined to end violence and promote reform within the Palestinian movement.

In an interview broadcast Friday on NBC’s “Today” program, Abbas said he remained optimistic the peace process could work.

“If we look at public opinion polls among both peoples we find that they indeed want peace,” he said. “That is why both peoples are holding on to this opportunity.”

Speaking in Arabic through an interpreter, Abbas said Palestinians want the Bush administration to “push the Israeli government to fulfill its commitments. And I do not object to have the administration use the same thing with us if we did not fulfill those commitments on our end.”

Next Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calls at the White House for another pivotal meeting.

Abbas approaches Bush with a long list of demands, topped by U.S. help in stopping Jewish settlement activity on the West Bank, winning the release of up to 3,000 Palestinian prisoners and stopping Israel from completing a security fence separating it from Palestinian areas.

Speaking Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations, a private group, Abbas asked the administration to “play its role forcefully.”

He said Israel “continues to grab Palestinian land” and the burden of preserving a cease-fire against terrorist attacks rests on Israel’s shoulders.

If occupation of the West Bank continues, the Palestinian Authority, which negotiated the cease-fire with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, “will be put in a very embarrassing situation that no one will envy,” Abbas told the assembled foreign policy experts, government officials and journalists.

On a positive note, Abbas also said “we will establish a Palestinian state. This state will be democratic. This state will be a good neighbor for Israel.”

Earlier Thursday, Abbas told congressional leaders that Israel was undermining Bush’s vision of Mideast peace by continuing to build Jewish settlements on the West Bank and constructing a security fence.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters he was impressed with Abbas’ “sense of determination and optimism.”

Biden then issued a statement saying “the committee welcomed his emphasis on the need to build bridges between Palestinians and Israelis and his willingness to denounce and marginalize Hamas and other terrorist organizations.”

The committee chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said he had promised to help in securing more U.S. assistance for the Palestinians. This year’s aid exceeds $200 million.

Abbas said the administration should tell Israel “it is key” that all Palestinian prisoners be released from Israeli jails.

Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian security chief, held an unannounced meeting with Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

Dahlan told her the administration should set a timetable for Israel to implement the U.S.-backed road map for peacemaking. He also called for the lifting of Israel’s confinement of Arafat to his headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank, sources close to Dahlan said.

Rice later called on Abbas at his hotel.

Secretary of State Colin Powell told the Lebanese Broadcast Corp. and the London-based Arab newspaper Al-Hayat that meeting the goal of a Palestinian state by 2005 would be difficult but could be achieved.

“I think it is still possible to keep going and then speed things up as more confidence is gained,” Powell said.

Powell said Hamas and Islamic Jihad retained the capacity to conduct terror attacks – but did not insist that the Palestinian organizations be broken up. He said they had to eliminate “all capability to conduct terrorist activity” if they wanted to play a role in the future.

Elaborating later at a news conference, Powell said Hamas “has a social wing that does good things.” He said Hamas would be a different organization if it gave up its weapons and abandoned terrorism.