OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, June 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. President George W. Bush has pushed back his eagerly awaited announcement of a new strategy for Middle East peace and may not make it at all, Israeli sources said Wednesday, June 19.

Bush had been expected to unveil his blueprint, based on the declaration of a Palestinian state, on Wednesday. But the sources said U.S. officials were having second thoughts, especially after the latest Palestinian resistance attack.

A well-informed Israeli source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the speech had been put off until at least Thursday, June 20, or Friday, June 21, “and there is strong pressure not to deliver it all.”

The source said the debate in Washington between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who favors a peace initiative, and hardliners such as Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had sharpened.

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the rumblings within the U.S. administration and said of the Bush speech, “I’m thinking that it will be postponed.”

The official suggested Bush might make his remarks next week and doubted that he would scrap the address altogether: “They have trumpeted this speech so much it wouldn’t look good if he didn’t give it.”

U.S. daily newspaper, the Washington Post, also reported that “sources cautioned that the contents will not be final until Bush delivers his remarks. Many of the details are still being fine-tuned, they said, and the volatile situation on the ground still threatens to change the administration’s plans.”

The Washington Post said that although Arab leaders have not been given a draft of the speech, they have apparently been involved in ongoing high-level discussions about it.

U.S. officials have said that the latest operation would not affect Bush’s peace efforts. Aides have said he may back the creation of a “provisional” Palestinian state and call an international conference to discuss the matter.

Powell had been expected to travel to the Middle East shortly after Bush showcased his initiative.

Meanwhile, Palestinians launched Wednesday their first attack near the fence Israel is building to seal off the West Bank, setting off a bomb and firing at police guarding the site, AFP said.

Palestinian guerrillas detonated the bomb as a patrol of border guards protecting the workers building the fence was passing, the Israeli army radio said.

An intense gun battle followed, but there were no casualties on the Israeli side, it added.

The radio said work on the site near Kfar Salem, where bulldozers began leveling the ground on Sunday, June 16, was temporarily halted while troops launched a hunt for the gunmen towards the nearby West Bank town of Jenin.

The controversial barrier will eventually stretch some 360 kilometers (225 miles), roughly following the Green Line marking the boundary between Israel and the West Bank.

The fence, which has been considered a racial act, is supposed to stop Palestinian resistance fighters from launching attacks against Israel.