Author: Tim Weiner
Publication: The New York Times
Date: October 24, 2001
Israel today rebuffed President
Bush's personal request to withdraw its forces from Palestinian-controlled
territory, putting new pressure on American-Israeli relations and the United
States' counterterrorism coalition with Arab allies.
The impasse became clear after President
Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met separately today with the
Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres.
They renewed the United States'
demand that Israel pull out of Palestinian-controlled areas of the West
Bank. Mr. Peres said Israel would not do so until the security forces of
Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, arrested the men who murdered Israel's
tourism minister last week.
Mr. Peres said President Bush warned
that violence in the Middle East made it harder for the United States to
maintain its antiterrorism coalition. "He would like very much the flames
to go down, and I told him we shall do whatever we can to reduce them,"
Mr. Peres said.
Mr. Bush said, "I would hope the
Israelis would move their troops as quickly as possible." And Secretary
Powell reiterated his demand, made on Monday, for an immediate pullout,
a spokesman said.
Mr. Peres said: "We would like to
withdraw immediately. The minute the Palestinians will take the necessary
steps, this may happen."
[But the violence continued Wednesday
in the West Bank, as three Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers
in the town of Tulkarem, Agence France-Presse reported.]
Israeli forces began to reoccupy
parts of six Palestinian-controlled cities and towns last week after an
assassin shot Rehavam Zeevi, the tourism minister, in Jerusalem on Oct.
17. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular group
with Marxist-Leninist roots, said it killed Mr. Zeevi to avenge Israel's
assassination of its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa, in August.
The ensuing tensions placed the
region at its "most dangerous moment in a decade," the United Nations special
envoy for Middle East peace, Terje Roed-Larsen, said in a statement released
today.
Mr. Peres, who also received Mr.
Bush's condolences on Mr. Zeevi's death, took pains to convey the impression
that no differences existed between Israel and its strongest ally, the
United States.
"I didn't discover any contradiction
in the American policy and the Israeli policy," he said.
The call for an immediate Israeli
withdrawal was balanced by American demands on Mr. Arafat for arrests in
Mr. Zeevi's murder, along with suspects in terrorist attacks on Israelis.
"We continue to call upon Chairman
Arafat to do everything he can to bring the killer to justice," Mr. Bush
said. "It's very important that he arrest the person who did this - or
those who did this act - and continue to arrest those who would disrupt
and harm Israeli citizens. He must show the resolve necessary to bring
peace to the region."
Mr. Bush stopped short, however,
of calling for Mr. Arafat to turn over the accused killers to Israel for
trial there, a demand made by some Israeli officials.
In Ramallah, on the West Bank, the
Palestinian information minister, Yasir Abed Rabbo, said, "The Palestinian
Authority is determined to find those responsible for the murder and to
take them before Palestinian tribunals." He said that it had made arrests,
though he did not provide any details, and he said Mr. Arafat had recommitted
Palestinian groups to a cease-fire.
The Palestinian leadership, he said,
had held "an intensive dialogue with all factions telling them that this
is the end of the game and that everyone should abide by the rules and
the obligations that we have made."
Addressing Israeli criticism that
the United States was pressuring Israel to build support among Arab nations,
Mr. Abed Rabbo said, "What's wrong with getting support from the Arab world?"
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the
United States has tried to build a coalition against terrorism that embraces
as many Arab allies as possible. But each of those Arab allies demands
some progress toward peace in the Middle East. Each, in varying degrees,
sides with the Palestinians.
Israel, long seen as the United
States' staunchest ally in the Middle East, and the recipient of billions
of dollars in annual American military and economic aid, is also a crucial
counter-terrorism partner. Its national security has been a fundamental
part of American foreign policy since Israel's creation.
So the American effort to strike
a balance is delicate at best. In the days before the killing of Mr. Zeevi,
the United States hoped for a return to political talks between the Israelis
and Palestinians, said Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman.
The killing, the Israeli reaction and Israel's rebuff of the United States'
demands today appeared to have damaged those hopes.
The American demand for an Israeli
withdrawal was viewed by many Israelis as an effort to score points in
the Arab world at Israel's expense.
Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli
foreign minister and a critic of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said: "Imagine
now that Sharon says, `Well, all right, I withdraw.' Then what will be
the image of Israel in the Arab world?"
Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli
ambassador now visiting the United States as Mr. Sharon's envoy, said the
American demand "will again encourage the Palestinian side to draw the
wrong conclusion, that the pressure is now on Israel and not on them."
"When people speak of a crisis in
the relationship, that's perhaps nonsense," said Mr. Shoval, who also has
met with senior American officials. "But there are differences of opinion
which I have not gotten an answer to from the United States.
"A senior Israeli political person
is assassinated by people who are well known," he said. "So what do you
advise us to do? What would you have done in our place? I did not so far
hear anything beyond `wait.' "
Arab governments have questions
for the United States too, Mr. Boucher said.
"Are we really trying to end the
violence?" he said. "Are we really trying to create conditions where Palestinians
can live better? Are we really trying to offer a path back to negotiations?"
The answer, he said, is, "definitely yes."
Mr. Peres, speaking at the Brookings
Institution in Washington today, said the United States expected Israel
"to calm down as much as we can the situation in the Arab world, namely
in the conflict between the Palestinians and ourselves."
"We are asking ourselves how to
do it," he said. But Israel cannot do it without clear signs that Mr. Arafat
can control militants or arrest suspects within Palestinian-controlled
areas, Mr. Peres said.
"If there is a leader that can do
nothing, why do we need him?" he asked. "If a leader cannot lead, who needs
him? If he can lead and doesn't, again, what is the value of him?"
