It was a long day in the press pool, with several presidential movements that lasted most of the day.

I left President Bush's hotel, the King David, and walked through a sea of police and security vehicles that resembled the end of a Diehard movie.

I walked back to the press hotel, the Dan Panorama, about two blocks away, but at the entrance, a slight man wearing a yarmulke stopped me and asked to speak with me.

He told me he was with a group called "American Citizens in Israel," and later told me his name was Shmuel Wolfson.

Mr. Wolfson wanted me to know that the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are "lunacy," because the Fatah party headed by Mr. Abbas does not truly believe Israel is a legitimate state.

"The whole thing is hot air," Mr. Wolfson said.

If Israel were to cede control of Gaze to the Palestinians, he said, "that will put every major city in Israel within rocket range."

— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times