Exerpts: December 30 Press Briefing

Mr. Reeker: Well, maybe you missed the recent meeting here of the Quartet and the statement that was put out. We would be happy to get you a copy of that, where we talked about how we want to move ahead, talked about work being near completion on the roadmap. The Secretary talked about this a bit in his interviews yesterday, as well, and made quite clear that we're trying to put down a roadmap, put it down in a way that it will be received with favor by both sides; and when the Quartet met, we made a judgment that we were close to finishing it, that it's a pretty good way forward, but that to introduce it at this time wasn't in the best interests, so we'll keep working on it and refining it.

And I think we've been quite clear in what we support. The international community and the parties, themselves, support the vision that the President set out in his June 24th speech. We support the vision that the Arab League adopted and has said is our vision of two independent states living in peace, side by side.

In the meantime, we've got to see that terror and violence stops. We certainly condemn the attack on a settlement in the West Bank on Friday that killed four students, wounded ten other Israeli civilians. We urge Palestinian leaders to do all they can to end the violence and terror that has so undermined Palestinian national aspirations.

And at the same time, we're seriously concerned about civilian casualties, especially Palestinian children, that continue to result from Israeli military actions in the West Bank and Gaza. And we've approached the Israelis to urge them to keep in mind the consequences of their actions and reiterate our call for Israel to take all appropriate precautions to prevent the death or injury of innocent civilians and damage to civilian and humanitarian infrastructure.

So we'll continue to be in close touch with Israelis and Palestinians to calm the situation and prevent further bloodshed.

Jonathan.

Question: Well, also, there was that attack the other day. The Israelis did some more house demolition work. Do you have any comment on that?

Mr. Reeker: I'm not sure if this is something we covered last week or --

Question: No, this was something they did this morning.

Mr. Reeker: I hadn't seen those reports. I mean, our positions on that have remained the same in terms of Israel contemplating, considering, taking into account the consequences of their actions and taking appropriate precautions, as I said to prevent --

Question: Are you going to condemn it?

Mr. Reeker: I don't know what you're talking about, Jonathan, so I'm not going to make a statement on something that I haven't seen yet just because you came out here having read something that I haven't.

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Question: There's been a flurry of stories in the Israeli press regarding corruption among higher levels of the Likud -- vote buying, in fact, involvement of the Russian mafia, money in the primary elections which brought Mr. Sharon again to power -- and I'm wondering if the US, in the light of all this which has been exposed now in the Israeli press, if there's any concerns that the elections, the upcoming elections, will be fair and above board.

Mr. Reeker: I haven't seen those stories. Sorry, I didn't read my Israeli press over the weekend and that sounds like an Israeli domestic matter. Israel is a democracy which deals with issues like that in their own methods, and I'm sure the Israeli press will play its important role in that domestic discussion, but it's not one I'm going to enter into.

Matt.

Question: And a follow-up on that. The Labor Party officials have indicated that they have a difficult time in getting in touch with any of the higher level US officials and that they feel that they're getting the cold shoulder. I realize that, you know, the primary contact, foreign contacts are with the governments in charge, but there are also, usually, some level of contact also with opposition parties.

Mr. Reeker: Absolutely.

Question: Even when the President visits a country, he'll talk to or have some kind of a meeting.

Mr. Reeker: Certainly. Right.

Question: Why is this -- what kind of contacts do we have with the mix of people (inaudible)?

Mr. Reeker: We have regular and normal contacts with a broad variety of the Israeli political spectrum. Obviously, we have to deal with the government in office, but I can assure you that our Embassy has regular contacts with representatives of opposition parties, of other parties across the cultural, social and political spectrum of Israeli life, and we'll continue to do that because that's what our diplomats do. It's what officials in Washington do. I can't give you a specific breakdown or readout of all the meetings we have, but I reject the suggestion that any particular group is not -- doesn't have access and I haven't seen those specific reports that you site.