Out of focus
While Washington opposes any Israeli action to expel or kill Arafat, it is in no rush to revive the roadmap. Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington
With its hands full in Iraq, the US administration moved swiftly to restrain Israel from carrying out its outrageous decision last Thursday to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from his headquarters in Ramallah. Pugnacious statements by Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, declaring that assassinating the Palestinian leader was one option under consideration, were calmly downplayed by the Bush administration.
US officials insist that their position towards Arafat is essentially unchanged -- they refuse to deal with him because he proved to be an "obstacle" to peace in previous talks, but they oppose his assassination or expulsion from the occupied West Bank. "The United States does not support either the elimination of him or the exile of Mr Arafat," US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a television interview on Sunday. "I think you can anticipate that there would be rage throughout the Arab world, the Muslim world, and in many parts of the world, and I don't see how, at this delicate moment, that would serve the cause of moving forward the roadmap," he added.
During the recent lull in US efforts to implement the roadmap following the resignation of former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, there has been a bloody tit-for-tat between Israel and Hamas. A series of Israeli strikes in densely-populated civilian areas in Gaza has targeted the Islamic movement's prominent leaders, while retaliatory bombings by Hamas in West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv killed more than 20 Israelis. Throughout all this, the US administration has nominally maintained that it remains committed to the implementation of the roadmap. This latest peace plan, backed by the EU, Russia and the UN, outlines obligations by both sides to restore peace and realise President Bush's vision of establishing a Palestinian state by 2005. Facing criticism that the latest escalation of violence marks the administration's failure to pressure both sides to carry out their obligations, US officials insist that there is no other alternative to the roadmap.
American officials also pragmatically retracted earlier statements warning that President Bush would only deal with Abbas, although they clearly backed him in his power struggle with Arafat. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Powell said they had taken note of the appointment of Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurieh, known as Abu Alaa, as prime minister and promised to deal with him if he fulfilled the requirements of his position. These US-imposed requirements, which proved too much for Abbas to tackle, primarily consist of uniting Palestinian security services and cracking down on the so-called "terrorist" organisations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Officials and observers in Washington acknowledged that the Israeli cabinet decision to expel Arafat might have actually backfired and harmed American and Israeli efforts to isolate the Palestinian leader. With thousands of Palestinians flooding to his headquarters daily to express their support, Arafat has re-established both his authority and his indispensable role in reaching any possible peace deal with Israel.
In his interview on Fox Television on Sunday, Powell was asked how the US can proceed on the roadmap now that Arafat is the man in charge. Powell replied that the US will not deal with Yasser Arafat. "We are hoping that the prime minister designate, or whoever takes the reins of prime minister, will take it over with political authority to act against terrorist organisations and with the tools necessary -- all the security organisations within the Palestinian Authority."
The Bush administration said on Monday it would withhold some funds from Israel because of its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories. The deductions would come from a nine billion dollar package of US loan guarantees to help Israel weather a deep recession and fiscal crisis stemming in large part from the three-year-old Palestinian uprising and aggravated by the recent war in Iraq. But the administration said it has yet to decide whether to penalise Israel over construction of a wall that separates most of the West Bank from Israel and a number of Jewish settlements, confiscating more Palestinian territories and tearing up villages and towns in the process. President Bush considers the "fence" to be "a problem", but US officials said they were still considering whether building the wall was part of settlement activity punishable by deductions from Israel's loan guarantees. Israeli diplomats in Washington and its supporters in Congress said the administration's decision, which has yet to make an estimate for the amount to be deducted, had been anticipated and did not mark a shift in the US position.
Despite trying to portray itself as even-handed, there is little expectation that the Bush administration will push Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to fulfil his roadmap obligations. Particularly crucial steps include freezing settlement activity, handing over more cities to the Palestinian Authority, and removing illegal settlement outposts built by Israeli extremists in the occupied West Bank. Instead, the priority right now seems focussed on quieting the situation on the ground and renewing peace talks between the two sides.
In an interview with the Associated Press marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Camp David agreement, former US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter, said the Bush administration must push harder -- and be genuinely even-handed -- to invigorate sagging peace hopes in the Middle East. "The likelihood the two sides are going to come together voluntarily and make very troubling concessions is nil," Carter said on Tuesday. "The only way this can be done is by the extreme, concerted commitment of the president of the United States or his top representatives -- preferably himself -- and a balanced approach between the two adversarial groups," he added.
But with many foreign policy problems on his desk, including Iraq, Iran and North Korea, "it is not possible for him to devote the time and attention to the Mideast peace process that would be required," Carter said. "If I was in his place, I could not spend 13 days in isolation," a reference to his marathon negotiating session at Camp David in 1978 that led to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
Carter indicated that the US administration should also be blamed for favouritism towards Israel. "The United States is not being even-handed," Carter said in the interview. "You have to have a mediator, willing to negotiate freely with both sides, and equally firmly with both sides."
Israel's cabinet decision to expel Arafat and Olmert's threat to assassinate him also drew strong criticism from Carter. "It just sends a wave of increasing animosity not only through the Palestinians but the entire world," he said. The octogenarian Carter also defended the Palestinian leader. "I don't think he has ever had control over Hamas," he said of Arafat. "And I presume Hamas leaders will not accept his authority," he added. Noting that Arafat has been isolated in his headquarters in Ramallah, Carter said, "I don't think he is in charge of everything among the Palestinians."
