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State Department Says Arafat Must Commit to Ending Violence
By Ayesha Ahmad and Neveen A. Salem, IOL State Department Correspondents
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (IslamOnline) - Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat must take definite steps to show his commitment to the peace process after this weekend's bomb attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa, a U.S. State Department spokesman said Monday.
"Our message is that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority must act immediately to bring the violence to an end," deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said, adding that Arafat must target both the individuals responsible for the attacks and the groups behind them.
"Chairman Arafat can do more to dismantle the infrastructure of groups that engage in terrorism," he said. He repeated the same statement when asked whether Arafat was still regarded by the U.S. as a partner for peace.
He suggested that Arafat should do more than just arresting activists in a "revolving-door" manner, such as freezing their assets and dismantling cells.
Reeker echoed the White House's earlier statement that the U.S. did not give Israel a green light to respond recklessly, saying that the U.S. has urged both Israel and the Palestinians to "consider the repercussions" of their actions and think through what will happen in the future as a result of those actions.
"The U.S. gave no green light. This is not a game of red light, green light," he said.
At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer, when asked whether Washington backed Israel's strikes, repeated that, "the president understands that Israel has a right to defend herself."
In response to the same question, Reeker told IslamOnline that the U.S. position remains unchanged, despite the fact that the U.S. did not issue any appeal to Israel for restraint in its response to the attacks.
"Israel is responsible for providing security for its citizens,"said Reeker, who added that the U.S. still opposes Israel's policy of assassinating Palestinian leaders.
He would not comment on repeated questions regarding the Palestinians' right to defend themselves against attacks by Israel with U.S.-supplied weapons.
When asked whether Arafat could feasibly control Palestinian resistance groups, especially when the Palestinian leader's headquarters and police departments have been systematically attacked, Reeker refused to comment. Instead, he repeated that Arafat had the responsibility to take out the infrastructure of those groups.
"There's no excuse for failure to take immediate actions," he said.
But one expert says that Arafat's crackdown on resistance groups requires some promises from the Israeli government as well.
"Arafat has no incentive to crack down," said Bill Quandt, a professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. "There are no positive incentives [for Arafat], it's all stick. He must have something to point to [in order to] justify a crackdown."
Quandt, a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and National Security Council member under former presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, said that Palestinian leaders had limited options in helping to forge a viable peace.
"To gain popularity, they must deliver results, which means catering to the Israelis, or following the popular mood, which is angry," he said.
But the State Department said that the U.S. is working with both parties to define a path for the peace process.
Reeker said that Washington's priority right now was to help establish a ceasefire and implement the Mitchell and Tenet plans, with the help of the U.S. envoys currently deployed in the region.
"We believe that peace can still be achieved," he said. "Whatever actions the parties take, they have to consider the repercussions of tomorrow, the day after and the day after that."
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