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Gaza strip alone { May 10 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62810-2002May9.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62810-2002May9.html
Israel Alone Sets Attack Response, Bush Contends
U.S. Officials Say Sharon Urged To Weigh Need to Protect Peace
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 10, 2002; Page A21
As Israeli military forces massed outside the Gaza Strip, the Bush administration insisted that the response to Tuesday's suicide bombing was Israel's decision to make but recalled that President Bush had urged Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to lose sight of larger peace objectives.
"Israel is a sovereign nation," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "But at all times America's message to Israel is we are all in this together, and Israel has to be very mindful of its responsibilities to protect peace in the region."
Fleischer said that Bush had given Sharon neither a red nor a green light for a military response: "Israel does not ask the United States for lights of any shade or color, and the United States does not give Israel any lights."
The administration appeared determined to treat the bombing, which killed 16 people in a pool hall outside Tel Aviv, as a lamentable but only temporary setback in peace efforts. "No one here needs to be reminded that the path to lasting peace is difficult," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in a speech prepared for delivery to the American Jewish Committee last night. "Indeed, it requires us to see through our pain again and again. This journey can only be navigated with determination."
In his own brief comments to reporters, Bush acknowledged that Palestinian security forces had arrested some members of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which reportedly claimed responsibility for the bombing, and warned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to "keep them in jail."
But in an apparent effort to counterbalance yesterday's description of Arafat's bombing condemnation as an "incredibly positive sign," Bush continued: "What is an accurate reflection of my opinion is that Mr. Arafat has let the Palestinian people down. He hasn't led. And as a result, the Palestinians suffer and my heart breaks for the Palestinian moms and dads who wonder whether or not their children are going to be able to get a good education and whether or not there's going to be a job available for their children."
Following on statements his aides made Wednesday, Bush said Sharon's contention that Bush had agreed that Middle East peace talks should be postponed until Arafat was removed from power were "not an accurate reflection of what went on in the Oval Office" when the two leaders met Tuesday.
Bush referred to his conversations with Sharon and Arab leaders on the need to reform Palestinian institutions, including what he described as "a single command security force that can be held accountable for arresting terrorists."
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority's U.S. representative, Hassan Abdel Rahman, said that all the Palestinian officials knew about the much-discussed reforms was what they had read in the newspapers. "We were not approached by anyone to ask us for that," said Rahman, who spoke to reporters at the National Press Club.
The Palestinians themselves want "good governance and democracy and . . . efficient institutions," he said, "and we do not need advice from abroad on our need for that."
But, he said, "we will use technical assistance from anyone who offers it to us." Rahman said CIA Director George J. Tenet, whom Bush has said he would send to help organize a new Palestinian security force, would be welcome.
Despite Sharon's reported comments on the substance of his meeting with Bush, "the message we get from the administration [is] that Yasser Arafat is essential for the peace process," Rahman said. "His role is important, being the elected leader of the Palestinian people. We have not been told by the Americans any other position."
But stopping the terrorist bombings "does not depend on Yasser Arafat alone," Rahman said. "It depends also on the way the Israeli government and the Israeli army behave towards the Palestinian people. You cannot tell every Palestinian whose mother or father or children are killed not to react. . . . If they cannot walk, if they cannot go to their businesses, if they are humiliated on a daily basis . . . they are not going to listen to you."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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