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Washington Post:
White House backs Israel’s response
Officials insist they aren’t backing off earlier criticisms
By Glenn Kessler
THE WASHINGTON POST
June 13 — The Bush administration signaled strong support for Israel’s crackdown on militant groups yesterday, effectively abandoning its earlier criticism of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that had sparked an outcry from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and pro-Israel lobbying groups.
IN COORDINATED STATEMENTS, White House and State Department officials tried to shift the diplomatic focus from Israeli actions to the commitment made by Arab leaders at a summit last week in Egypt to cut off funding and support for terrorist attacks against Israelis. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made that point in a round of phone calls to Arab foreign ministers, officials said.
“The issue is not Israel. The issue is not the Palestinian Authority,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. The issue is “terrorists who are killing in an attempt to stop a hopeful process from moving forward.”
Arab officials placed the blame for the renewed violence on Israeli’s botched assassination attempt Tuesday of a senior leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. “We were very close to an agreement with the Palestinians to end the suicide bombings,” said a senior Arab diplomat who spoke to Powell yesterday. “But every time we come close to an agreement, the Israelis launch a disproportionate attack.”
Adel Jubeir, chief foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, said the kingdom “condemned terrorism in all its forms.” But he also faulted Israeli actions. “When you engage in assassination attempts in the midst of efforts to try to broker an agreement that I would think would be beneficial to the Israelis, that’s not wise leadership,” he said.
The Israeli attack dismayed U.S. officials, and President Bush said Tuesday he was “troubled” by it. But his comments infuriated Israel’s supporters, especially after a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem on Wednesday killed 16 Israelis.
Administration officials insisted yesterday they were not backing off their earlier criticism of the Israeli attack. But they refused to repeat it, even as Israel launched several more strikes against Hamas militants.
“I’m just not saying anything new here today on that particular subject,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said after repeated questioning by reporters.
In signs of stepped-up diplomatic activity, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice also contacted Israeli and Palestinian officials yesterday and John Wolf, a senior State Department official assigned to oversee the new peace initiative — known as the “road map” — prepared to head to the region. Powell also called Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. The State Department said Powell would meet with U.N., European and Russian diplomats in Jordan on June 22 to discuss the road map, while sources said Sharon’s chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, was contemplating a visit to Washington next week.
Bush was not planning on calling Sharon or Abbas to try to revive the peace plan, Fleischer said. “It’s not as if a phone call will get Hamas to stop being terrorists,” he said.
One administration official said the White House wants to get past the controversy over the Israeli military strikes to press Sharon to restrain settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories. He said that was the surest way to demonstrate progress to the Palestinians, while action against terrorist groups by the Arabs and Palestinians would show progress to the Israelis.
“What we really could use is focused comments from the Arab world denouncing these terrorist attacks,” the official said. He added that U.S. officials also were looking for some sort of symbolic step that Abbas could take on security, before he builds up his forces, that would be akin to the Israelis dismantling settlement outposts.
One pro-Israeli source in touch with administration officials attributed the initial White House criticism of Israel to a “human reaction” after administration officials awoke to discover that the glow of last week’s Middle East summits attended by Bush had been shattered by the Israeli strike against Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi. “But by Wednesday they realized it was not the natural place of the United States to rush to the defense of Rantisi,” he said.
The Arab official said the Israeli attacks this week have dramatically undercut Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen. “There is no question he has been weakened by this. This gives ammunition to his critics,” who had charged he was too accommodating to the Israelis last week, the official said. “It is very serious. If Abu Mazen fails, no other Palestinian will step up to the plate.”
Edward S. Walker Jr., president of the Middle East Institute and a former State Department official, said, “Two people have been weakened by this — Abu Mazen and the president of the United States.”
The president “makes a statement and it rolls off Sharon’s back,” Walker said. “He has a credibility problem.”
Walker, who just returned from the Middle East, said Arabs were “just in a very black mood” after the euphoria of last week. “People in the region see Bush as backing away and not standing up for the road map,” he said. “The question is whether the president is serious or not.”
*sigh*
I'm not exactly suprised... My opinion of Bush was low to start with, the odds of him standing up for what is right were slim to none... Yet I feel disapppointed... I was hoping that just this once Bush's pigheadedness would actually generate somthing good...
Oh well. What was peace in the middle east against a few million dollars from special interest groups. Obviously not much.
White House backs Israel’s response
Officials insist they aren’t backing off earlier criticisms
By Glenn Kessler
THE WASHINGTON POST
June 13 — The Bush administration signaled strong support for Israel’s crackdown on militant groups yesterday, effectively abandoning its earlier criticism of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that had sparked an outcry from lawmakers on Capitol Hill and pro-Israel lobbying groups.
IN COORDINATED STATEMENTS, White House and State Department officials tried to shift the diplomatic focus from Israeli actions to the commitment made by Arab leaders at a summit last week in Egypt to cut off funding and support for terrorist attacks against Israelis. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made that point in a round of phone calls to Arab foreign ministers, officials said.
“The issue is not Israel. The issue is not the Palestinian Authority,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. The issue is “terrorists who are killing in an attempt to stop a hopeful process from moving forward.”
Arab officials placed the blame for the renewed violence on Israeli’s botched assassination attempt Tuesday of a senior leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas. “We were very close to an agreement with the Palestinians to end the suicide bombings,” said a senior Arab diplomat who spoke to Powell yesterday. “But every time we come close to an agreement, the Israelis launch a disproportionate attack.”
Adel Jubeir, chief foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, said the kingdom “condemned terrorism in all its forms.” But he also faulted Israeli actions. “When you engage in assassination attempts in the midst of efforts to try to broker an agreement that I would think would be beneficial to the Israelis, that’s not wise leadership,” he said.
The Israeli attack dismayed U.S. officials, and President Bush said Tuesday he was “troubled” by it. But his comments infuriated Israel’s supporters, especially after a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem on Wednesday killed 16 Israelis.
Administration officials insisted yesterday they were not backing off their earlier criticism of the Israeli attack. But they refused to repeat it, even as Israel launched several more strikes against Hamas militants.
“I’m just not saying anything new here today on that particular subject,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said after repeated questioning by reporters.
In signs of stepped-up diplomatic activity, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice also contacted Israeli and Palestinian officials yesterday and John Wolf, a senior State Department official assigned to oversee the new peace initiative — known as the “road map” — prepared to head to the region. Powell also called Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. The State Department said Powell would meet with U.N., European and Russian diplomats in Jordan on June 22 to discuss the road map, while sources said Sharon’s chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, was contemplating a visit to Washington next week.
Bush was not planning on calling Sharon or Abbas to try to revive the peace plan, Fleischer said. “It’s not as if a phone call will get Hamas to stop being terrorists,” he said.
One administration official said the White House wants to get past the controversy over the Israeli military strikes to press Sharon to restrain settlement expansion in the Palestinian territories. He said that was the surest way to demonstrate progress to the Palestinians, while action against terrorist groups by the Arabs and Palestinians would show progress to the Israelis.
“What we really could use is focused comments from the Arab world denouncing these terrorist attacks,” the official said. He added that U.S. officials also were looking for some sort of symbolic step that Abbas could take on security, before he builds up his forces, that would be akin to the Israelis dismantling settlement outposts.
One pro-Israeli source in touch with administration officials attributed the initial White House criticism of Israel to a “human reaction” after administration officials awoke to discover that the glow of last week’s Middle East summits attended by Bush had been shattered by the Israeli strike against Hamas official Abdel Aziz Rantisi. “But by Wednesday they realized it was not the natural place of the United States to rush to the defense of Rantisi,” he said.
The Arab official said the Israeli attacks this week have dramatically undercut Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen. “There is no question he has been weakened by this. This gives ammunition to his critics,” who had charged he was too accommodating to the Israelis last week, the official said. “It is very serious. If Abu Mazen fails, no other Palestinian will step up to the plate.”
Edward S. Walker Jr., president of the Middle East Institute and a former State Department official, said, “Two people have been weakened by this — Abu Mazen and the president of the United States.”
The president “makes a statement and it rolls off Sharon’s back,” Walker said. “He has a credibility problem.”
Walker, who just returned from the Middle East, said Arabs were “just in a very black mood” after the euphoria of last week. “People in the region see Bush as backing away and not standing up for the road map,” he said. “The question is whether the president is serious or not.”
*sigh*
I'm not exactly suprised... My opinion of Bush was low to start with, the odds of him standing up for what is right were slim to none... Yet I feel disapppointed... I was hoping that just this once Bush's pigheadedness would actually generate somthing good...
Oh well. What was peace in the middle east against a few million dollars from special interest groups. Obviously not much.
Says the guy whose nose is parked so far up Bush's butt he can smell his colon.
now the Zionist machine of dominating the middle east and killing palestinians can move on. 
Nice troll. You are doing pretty good Zylka trolls.
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