Israel must 'make hard decisions'

JERUSALEM -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, proclaiming that "a time of optimism" had arrived in the Middle East, conferred with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday and called on Israel to make "hard decisions" in negotiations with Palestinian leaders as they wage their own fight against militants.

"We will have to, all of us, make certain that there is an effective fight against terrorism, because security and terrorism are at the core of peaceful existence," Rice said after a meeting with Israeli leaders. The hard decisions, she added, "must be taken in order to promote peace and to help the emergence of a democratic Palestinian state."

She did not elaborate on these decisions to be made by Israel, but Bush administration officials say Israel needs to proceed with its withdrawal of forces from West Bank towns, its lifting of road blocks and checkpoints throughout the occupied territories, and the possible release of Palestinian prisoners. Dismantling West Bank settlements or curbing their growth were not discussed, various officials said.

Rice spoke to reporters after she met with the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, and before a working dinner with Sharon. She planned to meet with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, at Palestinian headquarters in Ramallah, the burial spot of Yasser Arafat, on Monday.

It was Rice's first visit to Israel as secretary of state after traveling here many times as national security adviser, and considerable publicity surrounded her arrival. But no disclosures were made of new steps by either Israelis or Palestinians.

Instead it was a moment for everyone to call attention to the recent momentum toward eased tensions and to hope that Rice's presence might produce still more movement. At the same time, American and Israeli officials said it would be better now for the United States to stand aside and let Israelis and Palestinians work together.

For example, though there had apparently been some discussion of whether Rice would go to Sharm el Sheik, the Egyptian resort, on Tuesday for a meeting of Sharon, Abbas, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan, the idea was dropped, an administration official said.

"It's a good thing when the parties and the regional leaders can push this forward on their own," Rice told an Israeli television interviewer. "You needn't worry. The United States will be there whenever needed."

At the Sharm el Sheik meeting, Abbas is expected to announce a long-term cease-fire with the Israelis and an end to the Palestinian uprising known as the intifada. Israel is expected to reciprocate by formalizing an agreement not to hunt wanted Palestinian militants unless they are engaged in planning or carrying out an attack on Israel.

The two sides have agreed that wanted Palestinians will be asked to sign a pledge to stop their attacks, to surrender their weapons and to remain in their hometowns. Other militants would be granted conditional amnesty and invited to join the reformed Palestinian police.

An Israeli official said that Rice had urged Israel to act to ease conditions for Palestinians to shore up the political standing of Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. Specifically, he added, she warned Israel not to take unilateral steps, such as expanding settlements in Jerusalem, that would undercut the Palestinian leader.

Shalom, in turn, assured Rice that Israel was pleased with certain actions Abbas had taken, such as deploying Palestinian security forces in Gaza, stopping rocket attacks from Gaza to Israel and lowering the level of incendiary talk aimed at inciting attacks on Israelis, the Israeli official said.

On the other hand, he said, Shalom warned that the Palestinians had yet to dismantle the "terrorist infrastructure" of militant groups and were relying instead on accommodating these groups with a cease-fire, which Israel views merely as a "time out" from attacks with the potential for renewing them.

After the dinner between Sharon and Rice, another Israeli official who was in attendance asserted that the secretary of state indicated that U.S. officials were satisfied with steps Israel had taken to ease conditions in the West Bank and Gaza but that "they would like to see more down the road."

"If anyone hinted at pressure on Israel, I saw none of it," said the official, adding that Sharon and Rice also discussed threats to the peace negotiations, including what they said was concern over a Russian plan to sell shoulder-mounted missiles to Syria that could eventually get into the hands of Hezbollah or other anti-Israel groups.

Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said that Rice and Sharon also discussed an American proposal for a "security mechanism" to help the Palestinians improve control over their security forces, but it was unclear whether any such entity would have the power to monitor threats or incidents or oversee exchange of intelligence between the two sides.

Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.