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Bush wont pressure israel during election season Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/461216.htmlhttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/461216.html
Last update - 03:40 06/08/2004
Sharon promises U.S. envoy he'll remove illegal outposts
By Aluf Benn
The U.S. National Security Council's Mideast envoy, Elliot Abrams, focused on the political situation and coalition-expansion proceedings during talks yesterday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
"If the Likud members would vote for the disengagement plan, it wouldn't be necessary to expand," Sharon told him. The premier also described the struggle developing between secularist Shinui and ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism parties. "Their main issue is who will disqualify whom, and I'm not prepared for there to be disqualification here," he said.
Abrams discussed the coalition with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as well, and will meet with Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres today.
The U.S. envoy also discussed the assurances Sharon has made to U.S. President George W. Bush over evacuating illegal West Bank outposts and freezing settlement construction. American and Israeli sources said yesterday that the Bush administration does not plan to exert pressure on Israel over these issues during election season which is in full swing in the United States.
Sharon told Abrams he would keep his promise to remove illegal outposts. "I am steadfast in my promise on the issue of the outposts," he said. "It's true that the pace of evacuation until now is not alright, but I hope that we will move the issue forward quickly."
American criticism of Israel, which was aroused this week after the release of the Defense Ministry's permission to build about 600 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, has been quite moderate, and both sides were trying to minimize the issue to the level of a "communication problem."
Israeli sources said Abrams did not raise the issue in his talks with Sharon, Shalom or other officials. Sharon's bureau chief, Dov Weisglass told Abrams that the hundreds of units were part of an old construction plan for the expansion of an existing neighborhood in the built-up area of Ma'aleh Adumim.
Sharon responded to yesterday's Maariv report that work was beginning on an "A-1 plan" to build Jewish communities connecting Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, which lies a few kilometers to the east of the capital. He told Abrams the idea was 10 years old and stems from the time of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. The most recent decision in connection with the plan was made in May 1999, during the transition between the Netanyahu and Barak governments, and related to the construction of hotels and tourist sites, not residential areas.
Sharon said that during his tenure as prime minister, the only relevant decision involved transferring police headquarters of the Judea and Samaria district from Ras al-Amud in Jerusalem to the A-1 zone. In any case, Sharon said: "They're not working [in that area], and I don't anticipate activity in the near future."
Abrams also met with the defense minister's adviser, Baruch Spiegel, who is organizing Israel's commitments to the United States, and attorney Tali Sasson, who has been appointed to formulate legislation for the evacuation of outposts. Spiegel described the delineation of construction lines in the settlements.
Abrams told his hosts about his meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, saying he received the impression there has been no change in the Palestinian Authority. He said Qureia and his government are not in control and have not progressed in carrying out internal reforms.
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