(22 Mar 2008) SHOTLIST
AP Television
Tel Aviv
1. Mid shot, plane taxiing
2. US Vice President Dick Cheney disembarking and being greeted by Israel foreign minister Tzipi Livni
3. Various, motorcade driving away
AP Television
Jerusalem
4. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert enters news conference with Cheney
AP Television
Jerusalem
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ehud Olmert, Israeli Prime Minister:
"We are going to discuss, naturally, many things tonight and Monday. There are many items on a common agenda of America and the state of Israel. We are both very concerned about Iran. We are anxious to carry on the peace negotiations with the Palestinians. We are watching very carefully the northern front, the behaviour of Syria and the Hezbollah. And naturally, I know how much concerned America is with the continued terrorist attacks against Israel coming from Gaza against innocent civilians in the south part of the state of Israel. All these matters will be discussed while you are visiting here."
AP Television
Jerusalem
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dick Cheney, US Vice President
"The United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security. As successful democracies the US and Israel have a basic confidence in the power of freedom to lift up whole societies and to lay the foundation for peace. We will defend ourselves and protect our people. But, as President Bush said here in January, we will do more than defend ourselves, we will seek lasting peace."
7. Olmert and Cheney shake hands and Exit
STORYLINE:
US Vice President Dick Cheney reassured Israel on Saturday that Washington wouldn't pressure it to take steps that would endanger its survival, and expressed hope for a new beginning for the Palestinian people in their own state.
US President George W. Bush has dispatched Cheney to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the next two days to try to get rocky peace talks moving, despite recent bloodshed.
The vice president, who is on a 10-day trip to the Mideast, arrived in Jerusalem after two days in Saudi
Arabia.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged at a US-sponsored conference in November to try to forge a peace deal by the end of the year, before Bush leaves office.
But little visible progress has been made because of ongoing violence and Israeli construction on land Palestinians claim for a future state.
"The United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security," Cheney told reporters shortly after arriving for a meeting with Olmert at his Jerusalem residence.
Israel is conducting peace negotiations with Abbas' West Bank-based government, while waging a bloody battle with Hamas militants in Gaza, who have fired rockets at Israeli communities in southern Israel.
Israel has retaliated with attacks that have killed scores of civilians in Gaza, which Hamas has controlled since routing Abbas-allied security forces in June.
There has been a recent lull in the Gaza violence, however, amid Egyptian efforts to broker a truce.
The US publicly shuns Hamas because of its history of suicide bombings and its commitment to Israel's destruction. Privately, however, it appears to be quietly supporting the truce attempts, hoping a halt to violence would give peacemaking a better chance.
In Jerusalem on Saturday, Cheney also reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In welcoming Cheney, Olmert mentioned Iran first when outlining the subjects he planned to discuss with the vice president.
She plans to return in April.
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