McCain visits rocketed Israeli town

By Adam Entous

SDEROT, Israel (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Wednesday visited an Israeli town hit frequently by Palestinian rockets from the Gaza Strip and voiced doubts a peace deal could be reached this year.

"I am not sure whether it will succeed in that period of time," McCain said, referring to a U.S.-brokered peace process which Washington hopes will lead to a Palestinian statehood accord before President George W. Bush leaves the White House in January. "But I do believe that the administration is making every possible effort to do so."

McCain, on what he described as a fact-finding mission to the Middle East, backed Israel's right to respond to rocket fire against Sderot and other southern towns by Palestinian militants just across the frontier in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

"The fact is that I come from a border state, and if people were rocketing my state, I think that the citizens from my state would advocate a very vigorous response," the Arizona senator told reporters.

"When one is attacked, one responds and retaliates. One has to respond to attacks."

He said the Gaza crisis lent urgency to U.S. involvement in trying to end Israel's conflict with the Palestinians: "We've got to have the peace process move forward."

Earlier, Israeli and Palestinian leaders briefed McCain on prospects for a peace agreement in negotiations launched at a summit in Annapolis, Maryland last November.

"I again believe that President (Mahmoud) Abbas wants to get this (peace) process started," McCain said in Jerusalem after speaking by telephone to the Palestinian leader, who is based in nearby Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.