Bush's visit also came at the time when Egypt is exerting efforts on reaching a ceasefire deal between Israel and various Palestinian groups.

As for the current indirect talks between Israel and various Palestinian groups with the mediation of Egypt, Elafa said the major difficulty for the talks is that Israel doesn't care about the rights of the Palestinians.

On May 12, Egyptian intelligence chief Omer Suleiman held talks in Tel Aviv with Israeli leaders on a proposal to reach a six- month truce in the Gaza Strip first.

Hamas has expressed readiness to halt all kinds of attacks against Israel in exchange for opening the border crossings and stopping all Israeli military operations and targeted killing against militants in the Gaza Strip.

Israel, however, insisted that any truce deal should include the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by three militant groups led by Hamas, in the summer of 2006 near an Israeli army base southeast Gaza Strip.

Despite Egypt's efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Gaza militants, fresh violence between Israeli troops and Palestinians militants continued.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said last Thursday Israel would be able to obliterate rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in the near future, which cast shadows on Bush's efforts on Mideast peace.

Elafa said "If Israel doesn't change its current practices against the Palestinians, there is no hope for the two sides to reach a truce."

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2008)