From Tony Snow’s Press Briefing Today

Presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow held a press briefing in St. Petersburg, Russia today as President Bush prepares for the G-8 summit. There was a range of questions, but these should be of particular interest.

Q: Now, [Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad] Siniora is describing the President’s comments as promising to get Israeli to rein in its attacks. Did the President say anything like that?

Presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow held a press briefing in St. Petersburg, Russia today as President Bush prepares for the G-8 summit. There was a range of questions, but these should be of particular interest.

Q: Now, [Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad] Siniora is describing the President’s comments as promising to get Israeli to rein in its attacks. Did the President say anything like that?

MR. SNOW: No. The President reiterated his position. Prime Minister Siniora at one point – I think he’s been public about this – has wanted a ceasefire. It is unlikely that either or both parties are going to agree to that at this juncture, although we certainly hope that we get to a ceasefire soon and we hope that all parties work toward it.

But, again, as the President said, this began because Hezbollah crossed into Israeli territory, kidnapped two soldiers and, furthermore, has been engaged in a long series of rocket attacks on people in Northern Israel, although we have been focusing on it – that is, “we” collectively, and especially the American press in the last couple of days – this has been going on for a long time, it just hasn’t reported. It’s been a much keener and sustained interest in Israel.

The Israelis have decided to try to have targeted attacks against rocket launch sites, many of which are deliberately placed in civilian neighborhoods. And they regret the loss – or they’ve expressed regret for the loss of innocent life, but they also pointed out that military necessity compels them to hit where the launchers are, but I will let the Israelis speak for themselves on this.

Q: The President didn’t make any promises or anything to the Lebanese Prime Minister? Did he give him any idea of what he might try to do with Israel, as far as making them hold back a little bit on attacks?

MR. SNOW: The President is not going to make military decisions for Israel.

MR. SNOW: Let me re-emphasize something that’s important about what’s going on. What Hezbollah has done is to force people to make choices. And quite often in protracted situations like this you have forcing event, and in many ways this is a forcing event. And what you’re beginning to see is Arab nations coming to the realization that independent actors and terrorist organizations like Hezbollah are an active threat to everybody, because they can – a small number of people can work to destabilize not only a nation, but to aim at destabilizing a region. And that has been a focus of a lot of the talks.