(IsraelNN.com) A report in a Saudi newspaper Saturday confirmed rumors that it was Israel's insistence that the Palestinian Authority recognize it as a Jewish state that prevented both parties from agreeing on a joint statement before the Annapolis conference – and was the reason President Bush was forced to intervene to pull together a quick joint statement minutes before the end of the conference. The issue, said the report, had no place in the negotiations, since it is an “internal Israeli issue.” According to the report, Israel itself has not yet decidedly concluded “who is a Jew.” The report reviews the history of the issue, and calls Israel's “sudden” inclusion of the issue as a negotiating point “strange.”