Following accusations from around the world that the United States has allowed violence between Israel and Palestine to spiral out of control, US President Bush said Thursday he will dispatch Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East to find consensus for cease-fire.
The Palestinian leadership responded by saying it accepted "without conditions". Bush demands that attacks on Israelis be stopped and that Israel in turn withdraws from Palestinian-ruled territory. Israel welcomed Powell's visit, but indicated that it had no intention of withdrawing immediately.
The Cabinet statement issued by the Palestinian Authority came as Israel's military tightened its control on all but two major West Bank towns in an aggressive campaign to flush out militants.
The offensive, which started a week ago, also has Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat trapped in his Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by Israeli forces, while gun battles rage throughout the territory.
Bush's speech, marking a significant move toward deeper US involvement, came as allies throughout the Middle East and Europe pressed Washington to be more even-handed, and take on a bigger role in halting the escalating conflict.
A short time later, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to permit US envoy Anthony Zinni to meet with Arafat, despite his determination to keep the Palestinian leader isolated.
Bush administration officials said Zinni would try to see Arafat on Friday. Powell will travel to the region next week to "seek broad international support" for "an immediate and meaningful cease-fire," Bush said.
Israel's Mixed Message
Sharon avoided a direct response to Bush's speech, however. His office issued a statement saying, "Operation Defensive Shield will continue." Officials said this was not a reaction to the US president's announcement.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry welcomed Bush's statement. "We heard positively the words of Bush about the need to stop the terror. We welcome Powell's mission to the region and we will do everything so that his mission will be successful," the statement said on behalf of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
A statement from the office of Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer suggested Israel had no plans for an immediate withdrawal from the West Bank, however.
It said the military chief "emphasizes that Israel will cooperate in US efforts to cease terror and fire. In the absence of a true willingness to do the same on the Palestinian side, Israel will continue in its actions to stop terror."
In the last 18 months, more than 1,600 people have died, most of them Palestinians. However, the number of Israelis killed has been mounting in recent weeks, in a series of deadly suicide bombings.
"The Storms of Violence Cannot Go on"
With Israeli troops tightening their grip on Palestinian cities in the West Bank and a tense standoff continuing in Bethlehem, Bush demanded an immediate cease-fire by the Palestinians, severely chided Arafat and called for Israel to pull out of West Bank areas previously ceded to the Palestinian Authority.
"The storms of violence cannot go on," Bush said in a televised speech from the White House Rose Garden with Powell at his side. "Enough is enough."
"During the course of one week, the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated dramatically," he said. "When an 18-year-old Palestinian girl is induced to blow herself up and in the process, kills a 17-year-old Israeli girl, the future itself is dying - the future of the Palestinian people, and the future of the Israeli people."
A White House official said Powell's trip would most likely include Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
New Balance
Bush's frankly pro-Israeli comments over the weekend had drawn enormous fire from inside the United States and overseas. Many critics, like Judith Kipper, a leading Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, criticized Bush for a "simplistic" handling of the Mideast conflict that has destroyed America's position as an honest broker.
With Israeli forces rolling through cities that had been handed over to the Palestinian Authority during the peace talks of the 1990s, world public opinion turned sharply against the Bush administration's stance, which had previously insisted that the two parties conclude a cease-fire before any high-level American officials became deeply involved.
On Thursday, Bush asked Israel to "halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas and begin a withdrawal from those cities it has already occupied."
"Israel must understand that its response to these recent attacks is only a temporary measure," he said. "I speak as a committed friend of Israel, I speak out of genuine concern for its security. The outlines of a just settlement are clear: Two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. This can be a time for hope, but it calls for leadership, not for terror."
Harsh Words for Arafat
Despite his decision to press for Israeli restraint, Bush made it clear that he held Arafat responsible for the most recent collapse of US efforts to win a cease-fire.
"Since Sept. 11, I've delivered this message: Everyone must choose. You're either with the civilized world, or you're with the terrorists. All of the Middle East also must choose, and must move more decisively in word and deed against terrorist acts."
"The chairman of the Palestinian Authority has not consistently opposed or confronted terrorists," Bush said.
"The situation in which he finds himself today is largely of his own making," the president continued. "He's missed his opportunities and thereby betrayed the hopes of the people he is supposed to lead."
Reaction to Pressure
In some parts of the world, anger over US policies boiled over this week. Street protests rocked several Islamic capitals, moderate Arab states protested Israel's retaking of West Bank territory, and Egypt announced it would limit ties with Israel.
On Wednesday, the European Union's Executive Commission urged the United States to step aside as primary mediator and make room for a broad alliance of nations - including the EU, the Russians and moderate Arab nations - to mediate a comprehensive peace deal for the region.
But on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique cut short their trip to press for a Mideast cease-fire after Israel barred them from meeting Arafat.
Standoff at Holy Site
There was more violence in the West Bank on Thursday, focused particularly in the holy town of Bethlehem, where there were unconfirmed reports that Israeli soldiers blew open a door leading to the Church of the Nativity.
Armed Palestinians holed up inside the church said the soldiers blew open a small back door of the shrine and fired inside, but the Israeli military denied the claim.
Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, an Israeli military spokesman, said soldiers had not made any move on the church and had no intention of entering it. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer also said the shrine, one of Christianity's holiest, was off-limits to Israeli forces.
There are thoughts to be about 240 Palestinian police officers and militiamen hiding inside the massive stonewall.
"Operation Defensive Shield"
Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield last Friday to crush Palestinian militias that have carried out deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, including seven suicide bombings in the past week. The trigger was an attack at the start of the Passover holiday that killed 26 Israelis attending a Seder, a ritual meal, in a hotel.
Since then, Israeli forces have taken over six major West Bank towns and cities - Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Jenin, Tulkarem, Bethlehem and Nablus - and have arrested more than 1,100 Palestinians. The towns of Jericho and Hebron remained the last islands of Palestinian control.
The incursion into Nablus began late Wednesday, with dozens of tanks rolling into the city of 180,000. Gunmen took refuge in Nablus's Casbah, or old city, and in four adjacent refugee camps, where alleys are too narrow to allow tanks to enter.
The heaviest fighting raged in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold where hundreds of gunmen are holed up. Israeli commandos moved house-to-house, under fire cover from helicopters and tanks.
The Palestinian Authority urged all Palestinians to mobilize against Israel for a "prolonged struggle" Wednesday and accused the United States of backing "criminal aggression."
A statement carried by the official news agency, WAFA, accused the United States of willfully refusing to rein in Sharon and "the massacres committed by the occupation army."
The Israeli army has dismissed accusations that it has massacred Palestinians in the latest offensive.
(China Daily April 5, 2002)
