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Joy in Sharon’s Office over Bush’s “Likud” Speech
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| Bush’s blueprint for regional peace is
virtually identical to the views of Sharon.
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, June 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israelis
claimed victory Tuesday, June 25, and pressed their crackdown on
Palestinian resistance activists after U.S. President George W.
Bush’s speech, seen in Israel as support for their tough stand in
the Middle East conflict.
Officials
and the press in Israel hailed Bush’s blueprint for regional peace
as virtually identical to the views of hawkish Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon. Even Israel’s extreme-right came away satisfied.
Bush
linked the eventual creation of a “provisional” Palestinian state
to sweeping reforms and called clearly for the ouster of Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat, whom Sharon has been trying for months to
dump as a negotiating partner.
Communications
Minister Reuven Rivlin, who is close to Sharon, exulted that the Bush
speech could have been written by someone from Sharon’s hard-line
Likud Party.
The
Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot called Bush “a new Likud
member” while the Ma’ariv daily newspaper spoke of “joy in
Sharon’s office” and cited an unnamed senior minister as calling
for Bush to be given the “medal of Zionism”.
A
commentator for Israel’s army radio said Bush had given Sharon a
margin of political and military maneuver that was unprecedented since
the start of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising against
Israeli occupation, in September 2000.
“From
now on, Ariel Sharon can banish Arafat in a matter of days without
running up against the United States,” the commentator said.
Israeli
daily newspaper, Ha’aretz, quoted Minister Dan Naveh, speaking on
Israel Radio as saying: “The American president apparently
understands what we know well: A Palestinian state in the current
conditions will be quickly defined as a terror state and the United
States itself will be forced to include it on its list of states that
support terrorism.”
Barely
hours after the U.S. president finished his speech in Washington,
Israeli forces seized the West Bank’s largest city of Al-Khalil
(Hebron), killing four Palestinian security officers and abducting
more than 100 others, Palestinian sources said.
The
reoccupation left the Israelis in control of seven of the eight major
West Bank towns, in the latest move of an Israeli plan to reoccupy the
entire West Bank, which came in the heels of a deadly March offensive
that triggered a series of Palestinian resistance bombings and attacks
that left 31 Israelis dead last week.
Bush’s
address drew kind words even from Avidgor Lieberman, one of the
leaders of Israel’s extreme right who is usually critical of the
United States.
“He
[Bush] has arrived at the logical conclusion that nothing can happen
as long as Yasser Arafat is in the picture,” Lieberman told the army
radio.
Publicly,
Sharon’s office was more discreet about Bush’s speech, which also
spoke of Israel’s eventual obligation to withdraw from occupied
Palestinian territories and dismantle Israeli settlements.
A
statement said the Palestinians had to renounce terrorism, reform
their administration and change leaders before “it will be possible
to discuss how to make progress on the political tracks.”
The
prime minister’s office did not say what everybody else in Israel
was saying, namely that Bush had moved to the same position.
“Ariel
Sharon wants to avoid displaying his satisfaction so as not to
embarrass the United States in the eyes of the Arab countries,” the
army radio said.
Among
the “positive” points seen here was the lack of a specific
timetable in the Bush speech for creation of a Palestinian state. It
spoke of a possible final accord in three years, tied to a variety of
conditions.
The
U.S. leader made no criticism of Israel’s “Operation Determined
Path” launched against resistance activists in the West Bank,
including the town of Ramallah where Arafat’s presidential
headquarters is under siege.
Also
missing from the Bush blueprint were plans to call an international
conference and to send U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on a
Middle East tour, which could have put pressure on Sharon to end the
military offensive.
While
most of Israel was applauding Bush, the leader of the country’s
political left-wing sounded a discordant note.
“The
speech by President Bush does not reflect the realities of the Middle
East,” said Yossi Sarid. “The goals are correct, but there is not
the least indication of how they will be met, no timetable, no action
plan.”
“Blood
will continue to flow in Jerusalem and Ramallah,” Sarid added.
Click
here to read the full text of Bush’s speech
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