WASHINGTON, 7 May — This is an interesting week to be in Washington. Tomorrow Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon meets with President Bush, followed by a visit to the White House by Jordan’s King Abdallah on Wednesday. King Abdallah is coming to town with his Palestinian wife, Queen Rania.
Sharon, who is making his fifth visit to the White House, says he has brought documents that will show direct complicity by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism.
The lengthy dossier will allegedly show the Palestinian leader’s signature on payments to terrorists who organized suicide attacks and arranged weapon purchases. The 100-page intelligence file accuses Arafat of routinely diverting American and European aid to finance these terrorist operations.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called the documents “lies, forgeries and fabrications.”
Meanwhile, President Bush’s top officials were busy setting the official climate by outlining Middle East policy on the airwaves over the weekend. Bush’s policy, unfortunately, seems to differ depending on who’s talking about it. Yesterday the president’s key foreign-policy advisers expressed sharp disagreement over the importance of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
In interviews yesterday on network news talk shows, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice, the president’s chief national-security adviser, expressed sharply different views on the settlements, which are regarded as a key issue in the “peace process.”
Powell said the Bush administration will urge Sharon to end Israeli “settlement activity” in Palestinian areas because the settlements are an impediment to peace.
“Something has to be done about the problem of settlements. The settlements continue to grow; they continue to expand It’s not going to go away,” Sec. Powell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’m sure this will be part of our discussion with Prime Minister Sharon.”
Miss Rice, in several appearances on the Sunday interview shows, said the administration will not pressure Israel on the settlements at least until Palestinian terrorism ceases.
On “Fox News Sunday,” Miss Rice said, “Let’s take one thing at a time. Settlements will eventually be an issue. But I think we have to get the context right here. We need to end the terror, create a situation in which there is better security and no violence.”
Miss Rice said the U.S. government “has long been concerned about the potential ties between the terrorists and the Palestinian Authority.” She said these ties could make a Palestinian state impossible.
“The Palestinian leadership that is there now, the Authority, is not the kind of leadership that can lead to the Palestinian state that we need,” she said.
Erekat, simultaneously being interviewed on Fox, expressed outrage, calling her comments “unacceptable arrogance and interference.”
“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves and talk about pressuring anyone,” she said on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.” She said settlements would be one topic of discussion.
Sec. Powell’s emphasis on settlements and Miss Rice’s emphasis on ending Palestinian terror reflects a split within the administration between those who support Israel’s tough actions against the Palestinians and those, such as Sec. Powell, who would first address Palestinian concerns.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” Sec. Powell said he recognizes that a resolution of the settlement issue could take a long time. But he said resolving it is essential “in due course.”
President Bush said last month that “Israeli settlement activity in occupied territories must stop. And the occupation must end through withdrawal to secure and recognized boundaries.”
Bush has declared his support for the creation of a Palestinian state, without offering specific details of how this would be accomplished.
Last week, Sec. Powell announced that the United States was planning an international peace conference at an undetermined location this summer. Yesterday on “Meet the Press,” he said the meeting “should be at ministerial level” and that revamping the Palestinian Authority would be considered for discussion.
