The Wanderer
Kid A
Bush: Sharon A 'Man Of Peace'
-Israel 'Responded' To Call for Pullout
By Peter Slevin and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 19, 2002; Page A01
President Bush strongly endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "man of peace" yesterday, crediting him with taking satisfactory steps to end Israel's three-week-old military assault despite Sharon's rejection of the president's demand for an immediate withdrawal from Palestinian cities.
Two weeks after he declared that "enough is enough," Bush said he understood why Israeli forces were laying siege to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has his headquarters. He said the United States would demand that Arafat deliver results to match his recent condemnation of terrorism.
"Israel started withdrawing quickly after our call from smaller cities on the West Bank. History will show that they've responded," Bush said in greeting Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who returned early yesterday from a 10-day Middle East mission. "And as the prime minister said, he gave me a timetable and he's met the timetable."
White House officials later insisted that Bush did not intend to tip the scales for Israel. A senior adviser said the president continues to insist that Israelis and Palestinians alike must take steps to end the conflict.
But with Israeli tanks and troops continuing to enforce a tight cordon around the West Bank's major cities, the president's remarks risked further inflaming Arab opinion a week before he entertains Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch.
"When I hear the president saying that Sharon is a man of peace after he has destroyed our way of life, and after the Jenin refugee camp, I don't know if this is not a reward for Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people," said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator.
"And when he says history will prove that Sharon is withdrawing," Erekat continued, "all I can say is that President Bush is as wrong as wrong can be."
An Israeli official here said Bush was simply acknowledging that Israel deserves to end its offensive against Palestinian militants on its own terms. Bush, who has received considerable criticism from conservatives for pressuring Sharon, understands that "letting us finish the job is a recipe for greater stability," the official said.
On a day when United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan reiterated his call for an armed international force to keep the peace, Bush and Powell discussed the administration's next steps following Powell's mediation mission that ended with a failure to win a cease-fire or an Israeli withdrawal.
Bush and Powell discussed prospects for an international peace conference designed to move the warring parties beyond the immediate violence toward the security issues and political ambitions that have bitterly divided them. While the administration is receptive to the idea, officials must figure how to corral participants who have different ideas about the structure and substance of such a gathering.
U.S. emissaries will renew security contacts with Palestinian authorities in coming days, both to assess the abilities of Palestinian security services after weeks of assaults by Israeli forces and to establish a measure of their performance. CIA Director George J. Tenet, who last year negotiated security steps that have gone unfulfilled, is prepared to return to the region.
Most immediately, U.S. emissaries intend to work with the Israelis and Palestinians to end Israel's siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Bush said he recognizes that the Israelis will withdraw from Bethlehem only after a negotiated surrender of an estimated 190 Palestinians who took refuge in the church, located on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Powell, seated next to Bush in the Oval Office, described his efforts as an "integrated strategy" to link the promise of political negotiations with action on security. He said Arafat and other Palestinian leaders must take action against individuals who urge violence and commit acts of terrorism.
But Powell, unlike the president, also maintained the continued Israeli military campaign was causing problems and said the Israelis should speed up their exit from occupied lands.
"I'm pleased that the Israeli government is now continuing withdrawal," Powell said. "I hope it will be accelerated and we will bring that to an end as quickly as possible because that is one of the difficulties that we have now in moving forward in the integrated strategy."
White House officials said Bush is open to the peace conference idea, but reported that no decision has been made. There remains a debate over who would attend and how various issues should be packaged. The administration believes the participation of other Arab states is essential.
"Will it accomplish anything, or will it be a waste of time?" one official asked. "If there is going to be one, the parties have to be sufficiently invested in it. Some of those conferences just turn into sessions where nations beat up other nations."
Bush intends to explore possibilities next week in Texas with Abdullah, who launched an Arab plan to recognize Israel in return for a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal from lands seized in 1967.
In his remarks yesterday, Bush angered Palestinians when he spoke of the "Zeevi Five killers," five men suspected by the Israeli government in the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The men are believed to be hiding in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by Israeli tanks and snipers.
"I can understand why this prime minister wants them brought to justice," Bush said, referring to Sharon. "They should be brought to justice if they killed this man in cold blood."
Palestinians pointed out that three of the five suspects in Zeevi's murder had been given safe passage to Arafat's compound in Ramallah by U.S. officials, escorted by Israeli troops. They also insisted that, under an agreement signed in 1995, Arafat is under no obligation to deliver suspects to Israel, provided they are arrested and tried by the Palestinians themselves.
Israeli officials contend that Arafat has no intention of prosecuting them, and therefore they must be handed over for trial in Israel.
Arafat's security forces arrested the three suspects Feb. 21 in the northern West Bank town of Nablus. Informed sources said U.S. Embassy officials brokered a deal under which the three were transported through Israeli checkpoints to Ramallah in a vehicle provided by the embassy and escorted by two Israeli army jeeps.
"This was done with the knowledge and consent of the Americans and Israelis," said Erekat. "So now to hear the president of the United States talking about the Zeevi killers and justifying the siege of President Arafat's compound this way."
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine killed Zeevi in revenge for Israel's assassination of the PFLP's chief. The three men from the PFLP arrested in Nablus were Basel al-Asmer and Hamdi Koran, who are suspected of killing Zeevi, and Ahed Abu Gholmi, the PFLP's military chief. Two other suspects, including the current PFLP head, were detained by Arafat's security forces elsewhere.
Bush's comments at the end of Powell's visit could make future mediation efforts by the secretary of state more difficult, said Robert Malley, a Middle East adviser to President Bill Clinton.
"This will only confirm in the Palestinians' eyes the sense there is a division within the administration," Malley said. "This will reinforce the impression in the Arab world that Powell was not fully backed in his mission by the administration as a whole."
Correspondent Lee Hockstader in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
? 2002 The Washington Post Company
-Israel 'Responded' To Call for Pullout
By Peter Slevin and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 19, 2002; Page A01
President Bush strongly endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a "man of peace" yesterday, crediting him with taking satisfactory steps to end Israel's three-week-old military assault despite Sharon's rejection of the president's demand for an immediate withdrawal from Palestinian cities.
Two weeks after he declared that "enough is enough," Bush said he understood why Israeli forces were laying siege to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has his headquarters. He said the United States would demand that Arafat deliver results to match his recent condemnation of terrorism.
"Israel started withdrawing quickly after our call from smaller cities on the West Bank. History will show that they've responded," Bush said in greeting Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who returned early yesterday from a 10-day Middle East mission. "And as the prime minister said, he gave me a timetable and he's met the timetable."
White House officials later insisted that Bush did not intend to tip the scales for Israel. A senior adviser said the president continues to insist that Israelis and Palestinians alike must take steps to end the conflict.
But with Israeli tanks and troops continuing to enforce a tight cordon around the West Bank's major cities, the president's remarks risked further inflaming Arab opinion a week before he entertains Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch.
"When I hear the president saying that Sharon is a man of peace after he has destroyed our way of life, and after the Jenin refugee camp, I don't know if this is not a reward for Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people," said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian negotiator.
"And when he says history will prove that Sharon is withdrawing," Erekat continued, "all I can say is that President Bush is as wrong as wrong can be."
An Israeli official here said Bush was simply acknowledging that Israel deserves to end its offensive against Palestinian militants on its own terms. Bush, who has received considerable criticism from conservatives for pressuring Sharon, understands that "letting us finish the job is a recipe for greater stability," the official said.
On a day when United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan reiterated his call for an armed international force to keep the peace, Bush and Powell discussed the administration's next steps following Powell's mediation mission that ended with a failure to win a cease-fire or an Israeli withdrawal.
Bush and Powell discussed prospects for an international peace conference designed to move the warring parties beyond the immediate violence toward the security issues and political ambitions that have bitterly divided them. While the administration is receptive to the idea, officials must figure how to corral participants who have different ideas about the structure and substance of such a gathering.
U.S. emissaries will renew security contacts with Palestinian authorities in coming days, both to assess the abilities of Palestinian security services after weeks of assaults by Israeli forces and to establish a measure of their performance. CIA Director George J. Tenet, who last year negotiated security steps that have gone unfulfilled, is prepared to return to the region.
Most immediately, U.S. emissaries intend to work with the Israelis and Palestinians to end Israel's siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah. Bush said he recognizes that the Israelis will withdraw from Bethlehem only after a negotiated surrender of an estimated 190 Palestinians who took refuge in the church, located on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Powell, seated next to Bush in the Oval Office, described his efforts as an "integrated strategy" to link the promise of political negotiations with action on security. He said Arafat and other Palestinian leaders must take action against individuals who urge violence and commit acts of terrorism.
But Powell, unlike the president, also maintained the continued Israeli military campaign was causing problems and said the Israelis should speed up their exit from occupied lands.
"I'm pleased that the Israeli government is now continuing withdrawal," Powell said. "I hope it will be accelerated and we will bring that to an end as quickly as possible because that is one of the difficulties that we have now in moving forward in the integrated strategy."
White House officials said Bush is open to the peace conference idea, but reported that no decision has been made. There remains a debate over who would attend and how various issues should be packaged. The administration believes the participation of other Arab states is essential.
"Will it accomplish anything, or will it be a waste of time?" one official asked. "If there is going to be one, the parties have to be sufficiently invested in it. Some of those conferences just turn into sessions where nations beat up other nations."
Bush intends to explore possibilities next week in Texas with Abdullah, who launched an Arab plan to recognize Israel in return for a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal from lands seized in 1967.
In his remarks yesterday, Bush angered Palestinians when he spoke of the "Zeevi Five killers," five men suspected by the Israeli government in the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The men are believed to be hiding in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by Israeli tanks and snipers.
"I can understand why this prime minister wants them brought to justice," Bush said, referring to Sharon. "They should be brought to justice if they killed this man in cold blood."
Palestinians pointed out that three of the five suspects in Zeevi's murder had been given safe passage to Arafat's compound in Ramallah by U.S. officials, escorted by Israeli troops. They also insisted that, under an agreement signed in 1995, Arafat is under no obligation to deliver suspects to Israel, provided they are arrested and tried by the Palestinians themselves.
Israeli officials contend that Arafat has no intention of prosecuting them, and therefore they must be handed over for trial in Israel.
Arafat's security forces arrested the three suspects Feb. 21 in the northern West Bank town of Nablus. Informed sources said U.S. Embassy officials brokered a deal under which the three were transported through Israeli checkpoints to Ramallah in a vehicle provided by the embassy and escorted by two Israeli army jeeps.
"This was done with the knowledge and consent of the Americans and Israelis," said Erekat. "So now to hear the president of the United States talking about the Zeevi killers and justifying the siege of President Arafat's compound this way."
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine killed Zeevi in revenge for Israel's assassination of the PFLP's chief. The three men from the PFLP arrested in Nablus were Basel al-Asmer and Hamdi Koran, who are suspected of killing Zeevi, and Ahed Abu Gholmi, the PFLP's military chief. Two other suspects, including the current PFLP head, were detained by Arafat's security forces elsewhere.
Bush's comments at the end of Powell's visit could make future mediation efforts by the secretary of state more difficult, said Robert Malley, a Middle East adviser to President Bill Clinton.
"This will only confirm in the Palestinians' eyes the sense there is a division within the administration," Malley said. "This will reinforce the impression in the Arab world that Powell was not fully backed in his mission by the administration as a whole."
Correspondent Lee Hockstader in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
? 2002 The Washington Post Company
