April 18, 2004: "The road map is dead," wrote "Die Welt" in an editorial on April 16 after President George Bush and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon met two days earlier in Washington. The comments were prompted by Bush's acceptance of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. All of his predecessors – regardless of party affiliation – supported the position that Israeli settlements in occupied territories are "an obstacle on the road to peace."

The sudden change in previous U.S. policy prompted harsh criticism in Europe. "15 years after his father proclaimed in Madrid that there would be no peace as long as the Palestinians are not at the [negotiating] table, George W. Bush has announced with a bombshell that there is no negotiating partner besides the Israeli government" (ibid.). In an editorial the "Deutsche Welle", the German government's shortwave broadcast station, chided the Bush administration for siding with Sharon: "Sharon's approach is a tactical trick which was to be expected. Washington's support for it is political stupidy and narrow-mindedness."

The European Union commission emphasized that the withdrawal plan proposed by Sharon and endorsed by Bush is at variance with the EU position, which was restated just three weeks ago at an EU summit meeting. Irish foreign minister Brian Cowen, the spokesman for EU foreign ministers during Ireland's six month EU presidency, repeated that position for reporters on Thursday: "The European Union will not accept any change in the 1967 borders that is not agreed upon by the parties to the conflict." On the same day EU foreign policy spokesman Javier Solana announced the EU summons for an urgent meeting of the Middle East quartet, composed of the EU, Russia, the U.S. and the United Nations. The meeting is to take place April 28 in Berlin.

Former German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher criticized President Bush's unilateral decision. The Middle East situation is "not a problem just anywhere in the world," but one close to Europe, Genscher told the Berlin "Tagesspiegel". "The American unilateral approach does not consider that at all. It creates additional problems not only for the peace process in the Middle East, but also for the European-American relationship" (April 16, 2004).

Belgium's foreign minister Louis Michel warned against denying the existing differences on Middle East policy between Europe and the U.S. "We have to identify these differences clearly and not act as if they don't exist" (SPIEGEL ONLINE, April 18, 2004).