US President Bush expressed hope Sunday that scrutiny of Yasser Arafat's leadership by fellow Palestinians could lead to changes in the Palestinian Authority, which White House advisers say is rife with division. "There's a new attitude emerging," Bush said.
Hoping to increase pressure on the Palestinian leader, the president and his foreign policy advisers cast the Arab world and factions of the Palestinian Authority as eager to reform the organization and ease tensions in the Middle East - with or without Arafat's help.
"You're beginning to see talk of reform," the president said outside a synagogue he visited before departing for Paris. He wraps up his European trip Tuesday.
"People are beginning to question out loud as to why there hasn't been a success" under Arafat, he said. "Evidently, there's a new attitude emerging among the new leadership in the Palestinian Authority."
The president's remarks may have been designed to deflect criticism that he has failed to ease tensions in the Middle East. But they also reflect a strategy, described by officials traveling with Bush, to encourage Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab nations - as well as Palestinian leaders inside Arafat's circle - to either force Arafat to change or make the reforms themselves.
"I'm beginning to hear - publicly, I'm beginning to hear, I might add - discussion about, `Well maybe we ought to reassess how to make the Palestinian Authority more accountable,'" Bush said.
The message was echoed by his top foreign policy advisers.
"There is indeed a lot of ferment and a lot of talk about reform in the Palestinian Authority," Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, said on "Fox News Sunday."
"It's a process that is beginning with discussions among the Palestinians themselves about why they have not had the kind of leadership that is going to bring them security and prosperity and peace with their Israeli neighbor," she said.
Appearing on "CNN's Late Edition" from here, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Palestinian leaders are "suggesting that there is a need for reform within the authority in order for them to do a better job."
(China Daily May 27, 2002)
