Washington | Thursday
US President George Bush cannot wave a ”magic wand” to get Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territories and will not use sanctions to get Israel to do so, the White House said on Wednesday.
Asked whether Bush might use Israel’s annual three-billion-dollar US aid package as leverage to force it to heed his repeated appeals for a troop pull-out, representative Ari Fleischer firmly replied: ”The answer to that is no.”
He also denied that Israel’s refusals and the failure of Palestinians to crack down on anti-Israeli violence — another unmet Bush demand — were ”a matter of a personal prestige” for the US leader.
”I don’t think it surprises the American people that this is a challenge, that this is difficult, and that people in the region don’t simply stop, salute the United States and say, ‘Yes, sir,”’ said Fleischer.
”This has been a region that has been racked by violence for far, far too long,” he said. ”And the president understands that no American president can simply wave a magic wand to make it all go away overnight.”
The White House meanwhile welcomed Israel’s troop withdrawal from three West Bank towns by placing increased pressure on the Palestinians and Arab nations to ”step up” efforts to battle terrorism.
”The withdrawal the president called for is continuing,” Fleischer told reporters after Israel’s defence ministry said its forces were pulling out of Kabatiyeh and Yatta in the north and Al-Samoha in the south.
”Now the Palestinian Authority and the Arab nations have to step up to their responsibilities to denounce terrorism, to disrupt the financing, to stop the incitement to violence through state-owned media and to implement” US-brokered accords aimed at crafting a ceasefire and pushing ahead with a political solution, added Fleischer.
Subsequently, Israeli tanks rumbled into the Palestinian West Bank town of Bir Zeit, near Ramallah, overnight, Palestinian security sources said.
The operation was carried out just hours before the scheduled arrival in Israel late on Thursday of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, seeking to negotiate an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
Washington is leading international efforts to persuade Israel to end the military offensive launched on March 29.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday Washington should apply ”no pressure” to end what he said was the Jewish state’s ”war for survival.”
”It’s our right to defend our citizens and there should be no pressure put on us not to do that,” the Israeli leader said. ”I hope our great friend the United States understands that this is a war of survival for us.”
Sharon’s tough line was delivered hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed eight Israelis on a crowded bus near the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, the first such attack since April 1.
The attack cast a cloud over the peace mission of US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was set to arrive in Israel late on Thursday after stops in Morocco, Cairo, and Madrid.
While a Sharon aide tarred a possible Powell meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a ”tragic mistake,” Fleischer strongly suggested that the United States had Israeli assurances that the meeting could take place.
”The secretary always said he would meet with Arafat if the circumstances permit, and we have every indication that the circumstances will permit, in terms of his being able to have access to Chairman Arafat,” said Fleischer.
Last week, Israel prevented European officials from meeting Arafat in his embattled West Bank office, where he has been trapped by Israeli troops since March 29. – Sapa-AFP