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U.S. President George W. Bush announced that he was sending Sec. of State Colin Powell to the Middle East next week. (Reuters)
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| By Ellis Shuman June 21, 2001 |
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The White House announced yesterday that Secretary of State Colin Powell would return to the Middle East next week in an attempt to strengthen the tenuous cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians.
The announcement of Powell's visit followed another day of intense Israeli-Palestinian violence. Homesh resident Ilya Kirivitz was shot and killed in an Arab village near his home, the third fatal shooting attack by Fatah terrorists in Samaria this week. Israeli troops shot and killed a suspected attacker at a checkpoint near Ramallah. A large pipe bomb containing corrosive material exploded near a crowded intersection in Hadera but miraculously caused no injuries. Mortars continued to be fired on Israeli targets from Gaza, where more clashes between IDF troops and Palestinians were reported.
Powell's trip is planned to immediately follow Prime
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"Israel will continue its efforts to implement the Tenet document"
- Israel cabinet announcement
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Minister Ariel Sharon's upcoming trip to Washington early next week. A diplomatic wrinkle in Sharon's planned trip arose when the British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office turned down Sharon's request to meet in London, ostensibly because of scheduling conflicts but reportedly due to political discomfort caused by the BBC's critical documentary about the Israeli Prime Minister.
George W. Bush's announcement of Powell's plans came after a series of phone calls by the American president to regional leaders. In his first telephone conversation in weeks with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, Bush urged the Palestinian leader to comply with the cease-fire. Bush later said, "The parties must continue to work in an all-out effort to bring peace'' and not make excuses to stop trying.
Bush also spoke to Sharon and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush "thanked Mubarak for his indispensable role... in assisting our efforts to bring an end to the violence in the Middle East."
The Egyptian President also called Sharon yesterday. Israel Radio reported that Mubarak urged Sharon to maintain the cease-fire and to begin discussing diplomatic measures with the Palestinians.
The increased diplomatic efforts by the Bush administration and Mubarak appeared to be last-minute attempts to rescue the U.S.-brokered cease-fire from total collapse. According to media reports, the President is well aware that Israel's government cannot continue much longer with its policy of restraint in the face of continuing Palestinian terror.
Arafat on a limb
PA Chairman Arafat told reporters in Ramallah yesterday that Israel's support of the cease-fire was "an attempt to deceive international public opinion." Arafat claimed that Israeli troops "were still firing from their tanks and machineguns and are still using internationally banned weapons, and the settlers are pursuing their crimes under the protection of the Israeli army. So their claims to be committed to a cease-fire are a lie," Arafat said.
Writing in today's Ha'aretz, commentator Akiva Eldar suggests that the "U.S. wants Israel to help Washington get Arafat down from the limb he's crawled onto. Washington has also reached the conclusion that only a ladder with political steps - and it doesn't matter which ones - can maybe halt the fire."
Eldar also suggests that Powell's visit next week to the region is intended to "launch the second stage of the Mitchell rocket - the political negotiations." And as a first step, Israel would have to announce a complete settlement freeze.
But Eldar's opinion seemed to be disproved by the words of the American president, when he announced sending Powell on his truce-keeping mission to the Middle East. "We cannot start (to carry out) Mitchell, the Mitchell plan, until the cycle of violence has been crushed and broken,'' Bush said yesterday.
Israeli restraint wearing thin
Yesterday morning, Israel's security cabinet voted to continue to maintain the cease-fire. In an official announcement, the cabinet declared that "the Palestinian Authority has still not fulfilled its obligations specified in the Tenet document: halting terrorism, arresting terrorists, stopping incitement and preventing attacks." Despite this fact, the cabinet announced, "Israel will continue its efforts to implement the Tenet document."
IDF Radio reported one unnamed ministerial source as saying that while Israel did not turn off the clock -- a reference to the timetable set forth by the Tenet work plan -- for easing the closure on Palestinian areas, "the clock is moving very slowly."
An additional clause in the cabinet announcement, stating "Israel reserves the right of self-defense to prevent attacks aimed at its citizens and soldiers," was seen by some analysts as an indication that Israel would renew its policy of initiated military actions against Palestinian terrorist leaders and commanders.
The security cabinet reportedly did authorize Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to execute certain pre-approved military actions. In other cases, Ben-Eliezer would need to consult Sharon and Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres before taking action.
One Palestinian leader apparently quite worried was Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti. In an interview with ynet, Barghouti charged that Israel was setting the stage for his assassination.
Barghouti was referring to the announcement last night of the arrest of the killers of Georgios Tsibukakis, the Greek monk who was shot dead while driving along the Jerusalem-Maale Adumim road last week. The killers, members of the Force 17 organization, claimed they had approached Barghouti and had asked him for weapons to carry out attacks against Israel. Barghouti reportedly referred them to a different person, who sold them the weapons used in the attack.
Barghouti denied a connection to the Force 17 members. "I don't know these people, nor have I seen them or met them," Barghouti said. "I didn't recruit them or give them weapons," he added, charging that Israel was inciting against him in order to harm the Intifada's cause.
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