WASHINGTON?”Palestine” entered the U.S. government lexicon with President Bush’s speech to the United Nations.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday that it reflected the administration’s vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, side by side.
Until now, U.S. officials have referred to the possibility of a “Palestinian state,” but have never called it “Palestine.” Powell said Bush’s use of “Palestine” in his speech Saturday was deliberate.
“If one is moving forward with a vision of two states side by side,” Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “it’s appropriate?to call those two states what they will be, Israel and Palestine.”
Bush told the U.N. General Assembly that the United States is “working toward the day when two states?Israel and Palestine?live peacefully together within secure and recognized borders as called for by the Security Council resolutions.”