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Skriven 2005-05-24 23:33:04 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0505248) for Tue, 2005 May 24
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Mrs. Bush's Briefing to the Press
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For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
May 24, 2005

Mrs. Bush's Briefing to the Press
Aboard Plane
En Route Shannon, Ireland


3:00 P.M. (Local)

MRS. BUSH: Okay, well, I think we had a very, very good trip. It was a --
we got to see a variety of things, a lot of schools, which I think is
really encouraging, girls' schools, which was fun for me to get to visit,
but also I think really encouraging about the places we visited, especially
Egypt and Jordan with the schools there.

I really think the overriding issue that everyone had, all the people I
talked to, was the situation between Israel and the Palestinian
Territories, and how each country, Jordan and Egypt, are both working on
the peace process. And then, of course, when I met with Israelis and
Palestinian women, that was the issue they were most concerned with,
obviously, it would be their most important issue; but also how important
the United States is to the peace process, how everyone, people that I
talked to in civil society who talked about the Palestinian-Israeli issue,
want the United States to stay involved, they want the United States to
push, actually, to make sure there is a withdrawal from the Gaza this
summer, but also that the road map is followed. And I heard that from Crown
Prince Abdullah and Princess Rania, and of course, from Suzanne Mubarak and
from a lot of other Egyptian women who are -- that I had a chance to talk
to today and yesterday at the luncheon.

But I think it was a terrific trip. I think we met all the goals we had,
but first, just a trip of friendship. Both King Abdullah and Queen Rania
I've met before. We hosted them at Camp David. I've seen them several times
and they're good friends. And then Suzanne Mubarak has been a friend
literally for years. I told Suzanne [Malveaux] that in Barbara and Jenna's
baby book is a picture of Mrs. Bush showing a baby picture of Barbara and
Jenna right after they were born to Suzanne Mubarak when she happened to be
in Washington at the Vice President's house.

So both -- and also, I think, obviously, in Israel, meeting with Mrs.
Katsav, that was very important; and then especially important to go to
Jericho and meet with the Palestinian women there. Some of those women had
been at the State Department for International Women's Day, so I'd already
had the opportunity to meet with them and talk with them, and it was nice
to see them again.

But each one of the women we met, including at the big reception this
morning in Egypt, are very distinguished women in their own rights. They're
college professors, they're deans of universities. A lot of times, they're
the first woman dean in their university's history. Many of them run NGOs
or have started NGOs of their own. A lot of them are concerned with
politics. There was actually an opposition woman there this morning. And
all of them are very concerned about freedom and democracy, and they're
particularly concerned about peace in the Middle East.

So overall, I think it was a very, very good trip. And I had a great time,
besides that. It was especially fun to get to go to the Pyramids, to get to
go to Mount Nebo, to get to go to all of the sights that we got to visit.

Q Mrs. Bush, this was a trip where we saw you step out as First Lady in a
way that we really haven't before, getting involved in some international
issues here. Is that something that you plan to continue? Can you talk
about what other countries you might want to visit, what other issues you
might want to get involved in?

MRS. BUSH: I actually have already for a number of years spoken out about
international issues. If you'll remember, I did the radio address about the
treatment of women in Afghanistan. I spoke at the OECD in Paris two years
ago. I visited Europe separate from George, went to Prague. So this isn't
the first time I've traveled alone. Of course! , I traveled to Mexico and
to a number of South American countries for the Summit of the -- Summit of
the Americas Spouses meetings over the first four years.

But sure, I'm interested in this. I'm particularly interested in women's
rights. I've always been interested in education. It's what I've spent my
lifetime working on, and I think particularly girls' education is one of
the most important issues facing the world, that if women have the chance
to be educated as girls, or as women if they have grown -- if they are that
old and haven't had a chance to be educated, civil society will prosper,
democracies can prosper, economies will prosper. Women are very, very
important to the economy of their country.

And besides the human rights issue, the women want to be involved, the
women want to be able to contribute to their countries and contribute to
civil society, and, just like men, want to do that. And education affords
women the opportunity to do that. And so that's something I've always
worked on.

Q If I could follow up on that. Do you have plans to travel for this term?
Any specific regions that you want to go to?

MRS. BUSH: I don't have specific plans right now. But of course, I'll
travel with the President when he does to the G8 this summer in Scotland,
and maybe do some trip around that, as well.

Q Mrs. Bush, I'm interested in what you said yesterday about democracy and
the need to take it slow. Shouldn't we be encouraging reformers to press --
should we be on the leading edge of reform and encouraging speed?

MRS. BUSH: We are on the leading edge, believe me. We're on the leading
edge. And if you listened to the President's inaugural address, if you know
what we've already done in Afghanistan and Iraq, I mean, those are issues
that we are pressing countries, all around the world.

But let me say this, it has to come, to some extent, from inside. It can't
come always from us, from us trying to tell other countries. Other
countries have totally different cultures, different traditions. They're
not going to have a democracy that looks like ours, and we shouldn't expect
them to have a democracy that looks like ours.

In every country we've gone to, steps are being made. We have already a
very, very thriving democracy in Israel. Israel is a leader in democratic
reform around the world. Now the Palestinian Territories have the
opportunity to do the same thing. They had a vote there. They elected Prime
Minister Abbas, the first time they have really had a chance to have an
election like that. We've seen an election in Iraq, we've seen an election
in Afghanistan. Those are all very important. President Mubarak is taking a
first step for free and fair elections in Egypt. That's also a very, very
important step.

But you know as well as I do that the United States has been a leader in
this, especially during the time that my husband has been President. He's
the first President who's called for a Palestinian free state.

One of the great things about all the discussion about peace between Israel
and Palestine that I had with women all over this region is that everyone
really believes we have a chance. They believe that there are two leaders
right now, in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories, that are taking
huge risks, that are taking huge personal risks to come to the table with
each other to try to figure out a way to solve this age-old problem.

And as you know, you've seen it or you've read about it if you're not that
old, there have been a lot of times, there have been a number of attempts
to have a peace between Israel and the Palestinian Territory. This is the
first time there's been an attempt to have a free Palestinian state, and I
think that's a very, very important piece of the whole peace process. And I
think that's why so many people are encouraged about what will happen. But
also -- and I can't reiterate this enough -- they want the United States to
be involved. And when your different reporters or you ask about the
anti-American feeling, the fact is, each one of these countries want the
United States to be involved. We are also an important part of the peace
process.

Q Is there a danger, when you talk about how it took so long for the United
States to abolish slavery or to give women equal rights -- you talk about
how it took over a hundred years -- is there any danger that we're sending
a signal to these fledgling democracies that you can go really slow and you
can do it in a way that does not actually comport with sort of all the --
the message of the President on what a free country actually would look
like?

MRS. BUSH: No, I don't think so at all. I think what we're telling them,
which is what I quote Vaclav Havel as saying, is that democracy is not
easy. It's much harder to have everyone in a society know that they are
responsible, that they are responsible for their towns, that they are
responsible for their schools, that they have a civic responsibility and a
duty in a democracy to not just vote, although that's certainly a very
important part of it, but to be involved in civil society, to be tolerant
and respectful of other people's opinions, to come to the table with
dialogue and let other people tell you what their opinions are without
taking offense, for instance, or trying -- first, a free press. I mean, all
of those are things that you know specifically, and that is how important
dialogue is, how important it is to have a free press in each one of these
countries.

And that's one of the pillars of a democracy. One thing is a free press,
another thing is the right to free speech, for everyone to have the right
to free speech. And these are values that we know. But we also know that
we're not perfect, and I think that's a very important message to get out,
especially as we press countries to try to open up their societies and to
build democracies. And that is, we -- it's a constant vigilance to have a
democracy, and we know that, and we know it from our history. And
fortunately for them, and for all of these other fledgling that we're
seeing in central European countries and the former Soviet countries, is
they don't have to take as long as we did. They can learn from the mistakes
we made and other democracies have made in their long histories.

Q Mrs. Bush, some of the opposition groups in Egypt were not happy when you
made your comments yesterday. They think you're giving cover to Mubarak to
take half-steps. What do you say to them?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I said exactly what I meant, which is he has taken a first
step, a very, very important first step. And what we all have to see is
whether or not -- how this works. As you know, there's still several steps
-- they have an amendment, they have a constitutional vote that their
parliament will vote on. And so there are a number of steps between what he
first said and what will happen with an election.

President Bush has asked that election monitors be allowed to come in to
make sure it's a free election. But that -- when you think about where you
start and where you end up, every part of it is a step, and every step is
important. And to act like you can just go from here to there overnight is
na ve, for one thing. And especially I don't want Americans trying to tell
people how you're going to go from here to here in no time, because we know
that that's not easy and we know that it's, in many cases, not even
possible. So I applaud President Mubarak for taking the first step.

Q What message will you take home to your husband? Is there anything that
you've learned that you'll ask him to take additional steps?

MRS. BUSH: I'll talk to him about a number of these things, but I'll also
take home other requests that I've heard from a lot of different people. I
don't know that you know that most of the schools we visited were
USAID-funded or partially funded by USAID. There is a lot of work that we
do as a government, the United States government does, in Israel and Jordan
and Egypt that we've done for a number of years to fund education,
particularly girls' education, an! d to fund civil society work and
certainly work in building democracies. And that's really important and I
want him to know that.

The Governor of Alexandria, who rode with me to the event and back, thanked
me again for the aid that comes from the United States, USAID funding,
particularly for schools. And I think that's important, and I think it's
important for the President to know that. I think it's important for the
American people to know that, that we are spending their money, taxpayers'
money, in a good and wise way in these countries to make sure particularly
girls are educated but that all people are educated.

Q Mrs. Bush, you said that the people you talked to, they said it was very
important for the U.S. to get involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace
process --

MRS. BUSH: The U.S. is already involved. They just want the U.S. to
continue to be involved. They want the U.S. to press both Prime Minister
Sharon, of course, and Prime Minister Abbas as they come to the table. And
on the other hand, they are also doing the same thing. President Bush
Mubarak has been very, very active in the peace process for years, as you
know, since the peace between Egypt and Israel, and they are also a very
important part of it.

Q Did they give you a timetable, did they press, did they want the U.S. to
become more involved right away, or any kind of sense of the pace of this?

MRS. BUSH: No, the only timetable they -- the urgency they feel is because
they think there's a chance right now with these two leaders, with Prime
Minister Sharon and Abbas, that there is a -- that they are willing. And
because they are, we need to seize this opportunity to move as quickly as
we can possibly move to get this peace.

Q You heard some comments from the Palestinian women when you were in
Jericho about the wall and how it was preventing them from getting through.
What do you think now about these obstacles that Israel has put up that are
affecting these Palestinian women? Is Israel doing enough? Are you
concerned -- more concerned than you were before you came here?

MRS. BUSH: No, I think that it was very important for me to hear the issues
that they have, but I also understand for Israel that if you think
terrorists are coming into your country to blow up a pizza parlor every
day, then there is a lot of hesitancy. And one very important part of a
peace there is to reject terrorism. And that's one of the reasons that
Prime Minister Abbas -- that people feel so hopeful right now, because
Prime Minister Abbas has done that, he's asked the Palestinian people to
put terrorism aside. And that's a very important piece of it.

The road map -- I'm not all sure what's in the road map -- but every step
is going to be very, very important. But one of the first steps is to put
aside terrorism, to reject hatred. I mean, those are the two first steps
that have to be made so that both countries will feel like -- or the
Palestinian Territory and Israel -- will feel like they can come together
to work together for a peace.

And that's, actually, what, of course, we're asking for all around the
Middle East, and that's to reject terrorism. And I thought it was very
interesting today at the Bibliotheca at Alexandrina, when he talked about
the Arab group that met there, and one of the things they did was, in their
manifesto, was to reject terrorism. That's what we're seeing in Iraq now
every day. We're seeing Iraqi people dying because of these acts of
terrorism. And everyone in every civil society rejects that.

Thank you all, thanks for going with me.

END 3:18 P.M. (Local)
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