Angry Israel sees U.S. support for Palestinian statehood as rewarding terrorism

By STEVE WEIZMAN
Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Ariel Sharon's blistering attack on U.S. policy – that Washington is selling out Israel to appease the Arabs – may have been surprising in its harshness but was not entirely unexpected.

The Israeli leader is frustrated by Washington's apparent unwillingness to target anti-Israeli militant groups in the global campaign against terrorism. Sharon was also stung by this week's U.S. declaration of support for Palestinian statehood.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Tsipi Livni said Friday that President Bush's endorsement of eventual Palestinian statehood was seen by Israel as a reward for Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, coming as it did on the same day as a fatal Palestinian raid on a Jewish settlement.

"The message that the Arab world is getting now is that terror pays," said Livni, who acts as a spokeswoman for the government.

The Bush administration has been trying to win the support of Arab and Muslim states for a possible military strike against Islamic militants suspected of having carried out the Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.

As part of this campaign, the U.S.-led alliance has approached several hard-line Arab states, including Syria, a country listed by Washington as a sponsor of terrorism. Israel has protested vehemently, but with little success.

Israel has also been concerned that anti-Israeli militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinians' Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have not been named as targets of the emerging anti-terror coalition.

Sharon on Thursday angered Washington by likening U.S. Mideast policy to that of Britain and France in 1938 when they allowed Nazi Germany to take over part of Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise of peace that was quickly broken.

"Do not try to placate the Arabs at Israel's expense. We are not Czechoslovakia," Sharon told a news conference.

Opposition lawmaker Ran Cohen said Sharon was acting irrationally.

"Israel, in Mideast terms, is a major power," he told Israeli television. "The United States is not acting against the state of Israel. The United States stands behind the state of Israel. Sharon's problem is that he is helpless. He promised peace and delivered hell."

Israel's mass circulation newspapers were quick to chide Sharon.

"This was an unfortunate statement, historically mistaken, politically damaging and factually incorrect and it deepens the sense of threat and strangulation that Israelis feel," wrote analyst Sever Plotzker in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily. "It weakens us and insults our friends."

Washington was indeed deeply insulted. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer called Sharon to pass on the administration's displeasure and White House spokesman Ari Fleischer publicly denounced Sharon's attitude.

"The prime minister's comments are unacceptable," he said. "The United States is not doing anything to try to appease the Arabs at Israel's expense."

Sharon's office on Friday issued a conciliatory statement saying that Sharon had called Secretary of State Colin Powell to reaffirm Israel's bonds with the United States.

"The prime minister requested to forward to the president his appreciation of the bold and courageous decision of the president to fight terrorism," it said. "Israel fully supports this position and cooperates with it."

Maariv newspaper's Hemi Shalev suggested Sharon had been burned out by the strain of a year of unrelenting fighting with the Palestinians, the shock waves still resounding from the attacks in the United States and the loss on Thursday of a Russian airliner carrying Israelis and Russian Jews to Siberia.

Shalev said Sharon needed to talk tough to deflect criticism from conservative supporters of his coalition government who see him as too soft in his dealings with the Palestinians.

"It sounds good on the Israeli right, where Sharon is rapidly losing stature and also to American Jews, whom Sharon will need if he is to persist in his collision course with the American administration," Shalev wrote.

Palestinians who have long complained about what they see as U.S. bias toward Israel appeared to take quiet pleasure from the tiff.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat spoke of the 25 Palestinians killed in fighting with Israelis since the two sides agreed to a truce on Sept. 26.

"It is very ironic for Sharon to speak about Czechoslovakia in 1938," he said. "I wonder, in this case, who's Hitler?"

APNP-10-05-01 1457CDT