Bush pivots to Arab side of Mideast peace dispute

Bush opened two days of talks with a string of leaders in this Red Sea resort town by sitting down with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The two smiled and shook hands but said nothing to reporters.

Egypt was the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel and has long been seen as a key mediator in the Mideast dispute that Bush has said he wants to solve by the time he leaves office next January.

But Egypt's state-owned newspapers, which are run by government-appointed managers, greeted Bush with stinging criticism. Bush is seen in the Arab world as tilting much too far toward Israel, and Bush's two-day stay in Israel earlier this week seemed to reinforce that view.

In a much-anticipated speech Thursday to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Bush showered Israel with praise, strongly reiterated its right to defend itself and only gently urged leaders to "make the hard choices necessary," without mention of concrete steps. By contrast, he did not visit the Palestinian territories nor mention the Palestinians' plight. He spoke of them only in one sentence saying that Israel's 120th anniversary -in 2068 -would see it neighboring an independent Palestinian state.

"Bush aims to do nothing but appeasing Israel," wrote Mursi Atallah, the publisher of Al-Ahram, the flagship daily of the state-owned press.

A front page editorial in Al-Gomhouria, another Egyptian state-owned daily, described Bush as "a failed president who delivers nothing but a lousy speech."

Akhbar Al-Youm also on Saturday published a picture of Bush hugging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and captioned it "lovers."

There was a similar reaction while Bush was in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

"We are all aware of the special U.S.-Israeli relation and its political dimensions," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said. "It is, however, important also to affirm the legitimate and political rights of the Palestinian people."