Last update - 00:00 17/10/2007
U.S. National Security Advisor to visit Israel for first time next week
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley is slated to make his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories next week as part of an increased U.S. effort to push forward the stalled peace process.
Hadley, who replaced current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her former position in 2005, will be escorted by his deputy Elliott Abrams, in charge of Middle Eastern affairs on the security council.
Rice, who is currently in the region, is scheduled to return in early November as part of the White House's diplomatic initiative.
On Wednesday, Rice took a respite from her sceduele to tour Bethlehem, visiting the Church of the Nativity and meeting Palestinians residents.
"Being here, at the birthplace of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has been a very special and moving experience," Rice said.
After her visit to Bethlehem, Rice was to travel to the West Bank city of
Ramallah for further talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, whom she last met on Monday.
It was a rare sightseeing tour for Rice, who arrived in the region on
Sunday to prepare the ground for a Middle East conference on Palestinian
statehood expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland in November or December.
"Peace Be With You," read an Israeli Tourism Ministry sign on a high
concrete wall section of the West Bank fence Israel has constructed near the entrance to the city of Jesus's birth.
Residents of Bethlehem, in the West Bank just outside Jerusalem, looked on with seeming indifference as Rice's motorcade swept into the city with sirens blaring.
"Normally we ... come in and we have a series of official meetings. She's
been uncomfortable with that for the last several trips. The reason is she doesn't feel like she gets out and touches the societies very much," a U.S. official said.
The smell of incense wafted through the air of the hushed church as Rice
visited the grotto revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
Tourism, the lifeblood of Bethlehem's economy, has fallen sharply over the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The average number of visitors to Bethlehem has plunged to as low as
20,000 a month from about 100,000 before the Palestinian uprising began in 2000. Unemployment in the town is estimated at about 65 percent.
More than 3,000 Christians, about 10 percent of the community in
Bethlehem, have left the city since 2000, according to United Nations
statistics.
Rice held talks in Egypt on Tuesday, where a senior U.S. official
travelling with her said she had made progress in mustering Egyptian support for the Annapolis conference, making it easier to mobilise broader Arab backing.
She visited Egypt after two days trying to persuade Israeli and
Palestinian leaders to narrow their difference on a common document that would serve as the basis for the international gathering.
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