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PM Ariel Sharon: "Without quiet, it will be impossible to move forward on the peace process." (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 22, 2005 |
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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has arrived in the US in order to participate in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference in Washington.
Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon flew to New York to welcome Sharon and is set to accompany him during his visit with the New York Jewish community and at the AIPAC conference.
While AIPAC's annual conference is set to open in Washington Sunday, an FBI investigation into allegations that several AIPAC personnel transferred classified documents to Israel, has placed a shadow over the conference.
This is AIPAC's first policy conference since a FBI investigation against two senior AIPAC officials was made public last summer. The officials are being investigated for allegedly receiving classified information from Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin and conveying it to Israel.
The organization claims the investigation is ongoing, and that the dismissal of the senior officials who were involved in the affair, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, did not affect the organization's work on Capitol Hill and with the U.S. administration.
"AIPAC is focused on its one central mission -- strengthening Israel-U.S. ties," AIPAC's spokesman Josh Block said last week.
It may be for this very reason that Sharon has decided to make the trip to Washington, and not televise his speech from Jerusalem as he has done in previous years.
However, the FBI investigation is not Sharon's primary concern for this trip -- he is more concerned with rallying support for the disengagement plan scheduled for summer.
Sharon's office said they are convinced most American Jews support the plan, but are also aware of a split in the community regarding the issue.
This is an opportunity to spread Sharon's political doctrine, and Israel's national objectives following pullout, like aliyah and developing the Negev and Galilee, sources close to Sharon said.
In fact, the PM already said that the disengagement will be carried out on time, rebuffing reports that senior Israel Defense Forces officers requested that it be put off by several months. He dismissed as "baseless" Israeli media reports that the pullback could be delayed beyond mid-August. Sharon said the forced evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza would begin Aug. 16 of Aug. 17. "Disengagement is to be carried out exactly at the time it has been set," he said.
This, after he demanded an end to recent Palestinian attacks in the Gaza Strip, saying there must be "complete quiet" for peace-making to move forward.
Sharon reiterated that Israel would launch a harsh military response if Israeli troops came under fire during the planned withdrawal from Gaza in the summer. However, senior Israeli officials said no major military operations in Gaza were currently planned.
In recent days, there has been a flareup of fighting in the Gaza Strip that left three Palestinian terrorists dead. Terrorists fired rounds of mortar shells and rockets at Israeli communities.
"Abu Mazen knows what he has to do," Sharon told reporters on his plane to America. "There certainly has to be complete quiet. Without quiet, it will be impossible to move forward on the peace process."
Sharon has not managed to met with many Jewish communities in the US for several years, due to a heavy work load and terror attacks, which have cut his visits short, they said.
This year's conference is set to be the largest ever, with Sharon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Senator Hilary Clinton and Republican and Democratic leaders scheduled to address the 4,000 pro-Israel supporters during the three-day conference.
The AP contributed to this report.
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