[iwar] [fc:US.calls.an.end.to.Israel.row]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-06 21:40:55


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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 21:40:55 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:US.calls.an.end.to.Israel.row]
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US calls an end to Israel row

 From Phil Reeves in Jerusalem,  Independent, 07 October 2001

The United States yesterday called an end to its diplomatic squabble
with Israel, hurriedly extinguishing the dispute despite the virulent
nature of the remarks by Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister. 

Just over a day after Mr Sharon's outburst urging the US and its allies
not to repeat the mistake of appeasement in 1938 - comments which cast
Mr Bush in the role of Neville Chamberlain and Israel as Czechoslovakia
- a US official announced the row was over. 

As he did so, Israeli troops were fortifying their positions after
invading Palestinian-run areas in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday
in a so-called "incursion" - a practice usually condemned by the US. 

Mr Sharon has been allowed to escape with a slap on the wrist, although
he has repeatedly annoyed Washington since the 11 September atrocities. 
In the first few days, Israel's army stepped up invasions into
Palestinian areas.  Then he blocked truce talks and, when they finally
happened, undermined the results. 

The Israeli leader labelled the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
"Israel's Bin Laden" and put the attacks on New York in the same bracket
as Palestinian attacks against Israelis. 

On Friday, the White House called Mr Sharon's remarks "unacceptable in
the President's opinion", which is a notch above its usual wan response
to Israeli transgressions, but not exactly blistering. 

The standard feeble admonishment used by Washington when Israel
misbehaves is "provocative" - a term last deployed just under two weeks
ago, when Israel's tanks went on a wrecking raid in Gaza only a few
hours after Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, and Mr Arafat had
at America's behest agreed the first stages of a truce.  Since then
several score people have died and the ceasefire has collapsed. 

Mr Sharon had sought to lessen the damage caused by his "appeasement"
remarks which were made a day after scores of Israelis of Russian origin
were killed in a Black Sea air crash which at the time was seen as a
possible terror attack. 

He was already needled by Mr Bush's recent references to Palestinian
statehood, remarks which were insubstantial but clearly designed to prod
Mr Sharon.  On Friday Mr Sharon telephoned Colin Powell, the US
Secretary of State, to patch matters up.  An announcement from his
office said that he expressed his appreciation for the "special
relationship" between the US and Israel. 

The row would not have lasted very long, as Mr Sharon undoubtedly
calculated.  President Bush is in a comparable position to his father in
1991, when the United States faced the task of keeping Israel out of the
Gulf War, even after Saddam Hussein attacked Tel Aviv with missiles. 
Bush Senior was fearful that Israeli involvement would increase Arab
support for Iraq, fracturing his fragile Middle East coalition.  Israel
complied, soothed by gifts of aid and Patriot missiles. 

A decade later, Bush Junior is equally keen to do what he can to
persuade Mr Sharon not to damage the support he and his allies are
trying to build among Arab and Islamic states.  His underlying fear is
that the Israeli leader will mount a major assault on the Occupied
Territories, inflaming public opinion in the Muslim world.  So he is
prepared to go to considerable lengths to keep Israel sweet. 

President Bush may feel that the usual political conditions - such as a
president's need to work with a pro-Israeli Congress - have been altered
by the 11 September tragedy, and that the mood of national unity has
engulfed the tireless American Jewish lobbyists.  But he also knows that
will not last for ever.  Mr Bush has his father's experience in mind. 
He will remember the politically damaging row started by the pro-Israel
lobby when Bush Senior declined to support $10bn in loan guarantees to
Israel unless Israel halted illegally building settlements in the
Occupied Territories.  Some believe the episode cost him the next
election. 

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