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Powell Criticizes Sharon's Policies Toward Palestinians
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| The U.S. is always hesitant to criticize Israel |
WASHINGTON,
March 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
explicitly criticized hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies
towards the Palestinians on Wednesday, advising him to take a "hard
look" to see if they will work, news agencies reported.
Powell,
in an appearance before a House of Representatives committee, also demanded more
action from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to crack down on violence,
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. "Mr. Arafat has to do more, he can do
more, he must do more," Powell said.
"At
the same time, Prime Minister Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies and
see whether they will work," Powell said in some of the most explicit U.S.
comments on Sharon's tactics against the Palestinians.
"If
you declare war against the Palestinians and think you can solve the problem by
seeing how many Palestinians you can kill, I don't know that that leads us
anywhere. I am not satisfied that both sides have thought through the
consequences of the policies they are following," he added.
For
the past several months, the U.S. has been pressuring Arafat to "exercise
leadership" and bring Palestinian attacks against Israel under control,
seeing those attacks as the core and immediate problem of the region's violence.
The
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has kept criticism of Israel
low-key throughout Israel's strikes and repeated incursions into Palestinian
autonomous territory, saying only that the Israelis were well aware of the U.S.
positions on incursions and "targeted killings."
However,
as the deadly spiral of violence has skyrocketed sharply over the past week or
so, voices from the administration have been heard issuing unusually direct
calls for restraint. On February 28, the State Department called on Israel to
exercise "utmost restraint" in its actions.
"We
have been in touch with the Israeli government to urge that utmost restraint be
exercised in order to avoid harm to the civilian population," State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
However,
restraint on both sides has been apparently thrown to the wind; by Tuesday, more
than 80 people on both sides had been killed, and on Wednesday alone, nine
Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip and West
Bank.
Over
the course of this bloody week, other U.S. officials, including Powell, have
echoed the call for “utmost restraint” on the part of the Israelis although
Washington still stresses the importance of Arafat's responsibility in ending
the violence.
Saying
that the U.S. was "deeply troubled by the escalating violence,"
Boucher said Tuesday "Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must
act now to confront those responsible for terror and violence."
He
insisted on the administration's respect for Israel's right to self-defense, but
said it was "imperative" for Israeli forces to exercise "the
utmost restraint and discipline."
"In
this context, Israeli military actions in densely populated civilian areas and
attacks on or near Palestinian Authority administrative and security facilities
clearly work against the overriding objective of reducing the violence and
returning to negotiations," Boucher said.
He
also noted that a Palestinian school had been bombed Tuesday morning, saying,
"We strongly condemn all such terrorist acts, including this targeting of
innocent Palestinian children."
The
unusual criticism of the Israeli action as "terrorist" and as
"targeting" innocent schoolchildren came a day before Israeli air and
land attacks on Gaza City Wednesday, that severely damaged another school, a
U.N.-run school for the blind, according to reports in the Israeli daily
newspaper, Ha'aretz.
Boucher
also reiterated the U.S. position on Israel's assassination policy, in light of
an Israeli "targeted attack" on Monday that missed its target and
killed civilians instead. "We have made clear that we strongly oppose the
Israeli policy of targeted killings," he said.
"The
events on Monday that left six civilians dead I think demonstrate quite clearly
why it's important to oppose this practice and the potential effects that we
deeply regret."
Boucher
stressed, as Powell did Wednesday, the necessity for both sides to
"consider the consequences of their actions. "Both sides have an
obligation to halt the ongoing tragedy, to avoid escalation, to desist from
provocation and incitement, and to cease immediately attacks that harm
civilians," he said.
With
additional reporting by Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
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