APRIL 2004

May 4

U.S.: Defeat withdrawal referendum is 'setback' for Sharon

By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is considering the option of evacuating just five settlements as part of his revised disengagement, instead of the 26 slated for removal according to the plan resoundingly rejected by his Likud party on Sunday.

The five settlements are Morag, Netzarim and Moag in the Gaza strip, and the northern West Bank settlements of Ganim and Kadim. The prime minister has not ruled out, however, a more extensive evacuation, but it is clear that the revision will drastically reduce the number of settlements to be removed.

The Yesha Council of Jewish settlements said that the new version of the initiative was still rewarding terrorism.

Even before three-fifth of the members of the Likud voted against the original plan, Sharon had offered leaders of the Yesha Council of Jewish settlements a deal, whereby seven settlements would be voluntarily removed. The proposal was rejected by the settlers.

Some 59.5 percent of Likud voters opposed the plan, which calls for a withdrawal from all Gaza settlements and from four settlements in the West Bank. Some 39.7 percent voted in favor of the plan. Just 51.6 percent of registered Likud members participated in the referendum.

Sharon said earlier Monday he would consult with coalition members and the Likud's Knesset faction to formulate an alternative to the plan in the wake of its defeat.

Sharon was due to meet Justice Minister Yosef Lapid and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as part of these consultations. The prime minister met Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Monday.

Following the meeting, Mofaz said that the outcome of Sunday's poll must be respected, adding that the security aspects of the disengagement plan would obviously be incorporated into any new initiative, "which will take into consideration the wishes of Likud members and the public."

The prime minister told the Likud Knesset faction on Monday that the summer session of the parliament would have to deal with difficult decisions that will shape everyone's future.

Essentially reiterating a statement he made Sunday after exit polls showed his disengagement plan had suffered a resounding defeat in the Likud Party internal referendum, Sharon said he was disappointed with the result, but accepts it. Sharon has rejected suggestions that he might resign. (Click here for the full text of Sharon's statement.)

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher on Monday termed Sharon's defeat a "setback" for the prime minister. Boucher said the plan, publicly welcomed by President George W. Bush during Sharon's visit to Washington last month, could still be a way to move peace talks forward, but added.

"What we do have now is a political situation that will be dealt with by the political leaders in Israel," Boucher said. "We note, however, that the population of Israel by and large appears to be supportive of the Gaza withdrawal plan."

"I don't think we've hitched our wagon to any single effort," he said. "Certainly we recognize that many other - a lot of the other things were not moving forward and we saw this as an opportunity, but it's not necessarily the only opportunity."

About 200 students demonstrated at Tel Aviv University on Monday against the Likud and the defeat of the disengagement plan.

Friday April 30, 2004

Main Headline

PM: Rejecting disengagement likely to mean new elections

By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service

New elections will likely be held if Likud members reject the disengagement plan in the party referendum to be held Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday.

Speaking in an interview on Channel 2 television, Sharon said that defeat of the plan, which calls for evacuating all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and some isolated ones in the northern West Bank, would create "very, very difficult conditions" for him to lead the country.

Recent polls show that more Likud members were planning to vote against the plan than for it. A Haaretz-Dialog poll published Friday found 36 percent of Likud voters in favor of the plan and 43 percent against it.

The prime minister said that he did not know "how it will be possible to lead the country" if Likud members reject the disengagement plan.

"We will lose very good achievements which we received," Sharon added. The prime minister also repeated his message of recent days that "whoever votes for the plan, supports me; whoever votes against the plan, votes against me."

In the interview, Sharon made an appeal to members of his own Likud party to vote for the disengagement plan in Sunday's referendum. He referred to the Memorial Day events held early in the week, and said that "every effort needs to be made to reduce this suffering. The plan I brought forth is the only one that, with God's help, will allow us to reach peace. It will result in fewer casualties, fewer losses and less suffering."

In a separate interview broadcast Friday evening on Channel 1 television, the prime minister said that if Likud members want "to help Arafat and Hamas" and to "increase terror" they should vote against the plan. According to Sharon, the settlers are a minority in Israel, and Likud members need to understand this.

He also said that the same right-wing elements of the party now opposed to the disengagement plan were responsible for the fall of previous Likud governments under former prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. worried disengagement plan won't pass
Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon informed Prime Minister Sharon that senior White House officials are concerned that the disengagement plan might not be approved, Israel Radio reported Friday, citing government sources in Jerusalem.

In his conversation with the prime minister, Ayalon said that the same U.S. officials also told him that such a development, in their opinion, would likely lead to a political stalemate and silence between Israel and the Palestinians, and that in such a case Washington could retract its commitments to Israel regarding West Bank settlements and the right of return, as expressed by President George W. Bush in his letter to Sharon.

This is because the administration sees the disengagement plan and the president's letter as one package, they explained. The senior officials also told Ayalon that the administration will not understand if the plan is shelved, because the Bush letter was, in the president's opinion, a historial step that greatly benefited Israel, as was reflected by the harsh response the letter received in the Arab world.

Pullout opponents say they'll rally behind PM after vote
Likud members who oppose the disengagement plan will rally behind Prime Minister Sharon, but only after Sunday's referendum is over, Likud Deputy Minister Michael Ratzon, a leading opponent of the disengagement plan, said Friday.

"We will wave the flag of unity no matter what the result is," Ratzon said at a press conference about the anti-disengagement campaign ahead of Sunday's party referendum. "The Likud will be unified after the referendum. We are committed to accepting any decision."

Likud Minister Uzi Landau criticized Sharon and his aides for presenting opponents of the disengagement plan as extremists who will cause the downfall of the Likud government.

"All we're saying is what Sharon said half a year ago," Landau said.

The disengagement opponents said their campaign has been successful so far, but warned against complacency. They decided that each minister and Knesset member would be responsible for a particular region during the referendum vote, and that a family from the Gaza settlement bloc of Gush Katif would stand outside each polling station.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz conducted a meeting of disengagement supporters in Netanya.

PM to push plan no matter what
Sharon will continue to push for disengagement regardless of the results of Sunday's Likud referendum on the pullout plan, one of his top advisers said Friday.

The adviser, Lior Horev, also said referendum supporters were worried about mustering enough support to gain a majority of votes in favor of the plan.

"We're certainly worried, we're certainly concerned," Lior Horev told Army Radio.

But he said Sharon's supporters had no doubt Likud voters would "show confidence in the prime minister."

"If they understand that this is a vote of no-confidence for the prime minister, I have no doubt that Likud members will, at the end of the day, vote in favor," said Horev.

Meanwhile, the Haaretz poll, which was carried out by the Dialog institute on Wednesday, showed an increase in opposition to the plan.

Thirty-six percent of Likud members in the most recent poll said they would vote for the plan, a dip from the 47 percent who expressed support in last week's poll. The percentage of those who said they would vote against the plan rose from 40 percent last week to 43 percent this week.

Eight percent said their vote would change if the referendum were turned into a vote of confidence in Sharon; of those, only 2 percent said they would then go over to Sharon. It appears that the voters do not believe he will retire to his ranch to await the outcome of the attorney general's probe into the bribery allegations against the prime minister.

If the disengagement plan fails to muster sufficient votes, Horev said Friday, Sharon will nonetheless continue to advance the plan.

Responding to a question asking whether Sharon was bound to the decisions of the Likud, Horev told his Army Radio interviewer, "Certainly." However, he then added that Sharon heads the entire country and not just the Likud.

"He will accept the results of the Likud, and in addition to that, he will try to act in the ways that are open to him in order to move the plan forward," Horev said.

Sharon has recently said the referendum has no legal standing, and Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid sent Sharon a letter this week demanding that he bring the plan to the cabinet and Knesset for approval even if it fails to pass the referendum.

Thursday April 29, 2004

Main Headline

IDF admits it killed Palestinian lecturer by mistake

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

The Israel Defense Forces admitted on Thursday that it accidentally shot and killed Dr. Yasser Abu Laimun, 32, a resident of the village of Taluza, north of Nablus in the West Bank, over the weekend. The army apologized for the death of Abu Laimun.

Abu Laimum, a lecturer in hospital management at the Arab-American University in Jenin, was killed on Friday when troops were pursuing two Hamas operatives. An investigation into the event by the IDF Central Command and the coordinator of government activities in the territories found that the lecturer accidentally wandered into the area of the chase and had no connection to the wanted men.

The probe also found that Abu Laimum was shot by one of the back-up forces after the troops received a report of what the wanted men were wearing and the report match Abu Laimum's description.

A total of eight Palestinians were killed in the West Bank over the weekend. Military sources claimed that all the men were involved in terrorist activities, even though only a handful of them were armed.

Palestinian sources said on the weekend that Abu Laimum had been walking with his sister on their way to the family home when he was shot. Military sources, however, claimed that there was intelligence information showing that Abu Laimum was linked to the two wanted Hamas men.

The IDF said that soldiers spotted two armed men in the area and opened fire. The army said there was no sign of the sister. One of the men was injured, but both suspects managed to flee. An attack dog was then released, who gave chase, but for some reason attacked Abu Laimum. The soldiers then fired at him from a distance, believing he was one of the wanted men. He was not armed.

France's Chirac: Disengagement plan 'doomed to failure'

By Nathan Guttman and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies

Israel's proposed withdrawal from Gaza, like any unilateral Mideast peace move, is "doomed to failure", French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday.

"We cannot achieve peace without negotiation," Chirac told some 200 French and foreign journalists gathered to hear him speak primarily on the May 1 enlargement of the European Union.

"Only a negotiated agreement will allow Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in peace and security," Chirac said. "Any other procedure is doomed to failure."

It was not the first criticism by the French head of state of the proposal by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out of the Gaza Strip.

Chirac went on to criticize Bush's approval of the plan by saying, "You can neither change international law unilaterally nor preempt the results of negotiations, negotiations that will be necessary sooner or later."

The questions of the borders of an eventual Palestinian state and of the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel must be negotiated by the two parties, Chirac said.

"This cannot be imposed. It can only be negotiated," he said.


Annan to push for world involvement in Gaza pullout

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will press for greater international involvement in Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza at next week's meeting of the Middle East Quartet in New York, Annan said Wednesday.

The Quartet of the United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations will be trying at the May 4 gathering to keep alive its road map to Middle East peace after an apparent major shift in U.S. policy and Israel's assassination of two Hamas leaders.

Some Arab and European leaders have expressed fear that the road map may be dead after U.S. President George W. Bush said he would allow Israel to hold on to West Bank settlements in a future Palestinian state and deny Palestinians the right to return to land lost to Israel more than half a century ago.

Annan said he believed the road map was "in distress but not dead" and that he would encourage Israel and the Palestinians to stick to it, particularly with regard to Israel's plan to unilaterally pull out of Gaza.

But if it is to succeed, the international community will have to help shore up the Palestinian Authority so it can ensure security, law and order "because this is also one of the concerns of the Israeli side," Annan told a news conference.

To help carry out the withdrawal itself, he suggested the United Nations could play a role similar to its coordination of Israel's May 2000 pull-out from southern Lebanon.

In that instance, the world body sought to ensure the withdrawal was orderly, then confirmed it had taken place and worked thereafter with the Lebanese authorities to encourage them to assert control over the vacated land.

Saturday April 24, 2004

Main Headline

UN envoy says Israeli pullout from Gaza requires monitors

By Shlomo Shamir, mazal Mualem and Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service

The Security Council should consider sending international monitors into the Gaza Strip as Israel carries out its planned withdrawal from the Palestinian territory, Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process said on Friday.

Israel should also make its pullout "full and complete," and the UN Security Council should formally acknowledge the end of the Jewish state's occupation of the area, the UN's top Middle East envoy, told the 15-nation Security Council.

Israel says it plans to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements and all troops from the Gaza Strip by late 2005, but to continue to control Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and the border between Gaza and Egypt until it is confident the Palestinian Authority is stamping out militant activity.

Roed-Larsen said that if Israel "retains control over territory in - or international access to - Gaza, the occupation continues and so would, most probably, violent acts against Israel. This would defeat the very purpose of the withdrawal plan."

"Occupation will end only when Palestinians gain control over their affairs in Gaza, when they go about their daily lives without being subjected to Israeli controls, and when they live free from the fear of yet another military incursion in their cities and villages," he said.

While it appeared Israel did not now intend to fully end the occupation, Roed-Larsen said in an interview later it was not too late for its plans to change.

Deployment of an international security presence in Gaza would help because a withdrawal in the current atmosphere of hostility and mistrust could still leave Gaza a "launching pad" for more attacks on Israeli territory, he said.

While he said it was too early to say what form the international security presence should take, he called on the Security Council to take an active hand in coordinating the withdrawal on behalf of the international community, as it appeared direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians were not possible.

If well executed, the withdrawal "can usher in a new era of peacemaking in the Middle East," he said. If carried out the wrong way, "it will lead to more violence, quite possibly bringing us to a new low in the dismal annals of the Palestinian-Israeli tragedy."

U.S.: Israel must abide by past pledge not to harm Arafat

By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies

The White House bluntly told Israel on Friday that it must abide by a past pledge not to harm Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Channel Two that Israel was no longer obligated to a commitment not to harm the Palestinian leader.

"We have made it entirely clear to the Israeli government that we would oppose any such action and have done so again in the wake of these remarks," said a senior Bush administration official. "We consider a pledge, a pledge."

During the interview granted on Friday evening, Sharon said he informed President George W. Bush at their meeting last week that his commitment not to physically harm Arafat is no longer valid.

Shortly after Sharon's comments, the U.S. State Department said it stood by its opposition to the assassination of Arafat. "Nothing has changed in the U.S. position and I will look at the statement and see what we have to say," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

According to Sharon, he told Bush that at their first meeting, three years ago, he accepted the president's request not to inflict physical harm on Arafat. The prime minister said that during a meeting last week he told Bush that he understands the problems involved, but that he is not longer obligated to that agreement. Sharon did not disclose what Bush's response was.

According to Israel Radio, top State Department and White House officials called the Israeli ambassador in Washington and sought clarifications on Sharon's statements.

In recent months, Israel has repeatedly threatened Arafat, but has taken no action. In September, the cabinet decided Arafat should be "removed" - an intentionally vague statement that could mean he would be expelled or killed.

Palestinian officials have expressed concern that Israel might attack Arafat, especially following the killings of the Hamas leaders in recent weeks.

Arafat's national security advisor Jibril Rajoub said on Thursday that if Israel harmed Arafat it would constitute a declaration of war on all Palestinians, all Arabs and the entire Muslim nation.

Arafat himself said he did fear for his life, Israel Radio reported.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Arafat, warned that Sharon's "dangerous statements ... could push the whole region into tremendous danger." "We call upon the U.S. administration to clarify its position on these statements and to bear its responsibility toward this escalation," he said.

In an interview that will be broadcast in its entirety on Independence Day, Sharon discussed the Likud referendum on his disengagement plan. According to Sharon, "I won't even try to think about what may happen if the plan isn't approved. I will see such a thing as a victory for Arafat and Hamas. It would damage our relationship with the United States."

According to some analysts, remarks and comments made by Sharon in recent interviews are aimed at influencing those who will take part Likud referendum on May 2.

Inquiry after Israeli forces caught using boy as shield

By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem

A photograph of a Palestinian boy tied to an Israeli police jeep has been handed to justice officials charged with investigating complaints over the use of "human shields" against demonstrators.

The boy, 13-year-old Mohammed Bedwan, and three adult protesters were tied to border police vehicles last week during one of what have become almost daily demonstrations against the routing of the Israeli government's barrier through Palestinian land.

The photograph, taken by human rights activists in the village of Biddo, north-west of Jerusalem, shows Mohammed tied by an arm to a mesh on the jeep windscreen - a mesh intended to protect the vehicle and its driver against stones and rocks. Police said last night that the Justice Ministry's police complaints unit was investigating the case.

At least four Palestinians have been shot dead in Biddo this year in rock-throwing protests against the barrier. An elderly man also died of heart failure after inhaling tear gas. Palestinian activists say border police had in two separate instances this month used villagers as shields to prevent stone-throwing, and that forces had also repeatedly used both rubber and live bullets to disperse protesters.

The Supreme Court barred the use of Palestinians as human shields in 2002 after an incident in which soldiers forced the neighbour of a suspected militant to knock on his door and deliver their ultimatum to surrender. The militant shot and killed the man.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who heads the organisation Rabbis for Human Rights, says he was also tied to the front of a separate jeep, along with a Palestinian and a Swedish activist from the International Solidarity Movement, after they protested that the boy had been beaten after he was detained. He said he himself was head-butted by the border police unit commander when he was arrested.

Rabbi Ascherman said the group's subsequent complaints to police had been treated "politely and efficiently", but the Justice Ministry's investigation would be a test of whether police were prepared to conduct a fundamental rethink of "violation of police rules" in the handling of demonstrations.

He said the danger was that the inquiry would treat the case as an isolated incident, which, he said, it was not. He also wanted the inquiry to examine whether such tactics were an inevitable consequence of the "pressure- cooker atmosphere created by the occupation" of Palestinian territories.

The Israeli High Court is due to pass judgment on 2 May on a series of petitions from both Palestinians and some of their Israeli neighbours about the planned route of the fence which would cut off Biddo, Beit Surik, and other Palestinian villagers from their olive groves and fruit orchards.

Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman said last night: "As a general rule we do not willingly expose civilians to physical damage. In this case there was prima facie evidence that procedures were carried out which were incorrect, and this has been passed to the Justice Ministry."

Saturday April 17, 2004

Main Headline

EU Warns About Dangers of Sharon Plan

By CONSTANT BRAND
Associated Press Writer

TULLAMORE, Ireland (AP) -- President Bush's endorsement of Israel's unilateral withdrawal plans damaged the peace process and could play into the hands of Palestinian extremists, European Union foreign ministers warned on Saturday.

In a statement at the end of a two-day conference, ministers from the 15-nation union called on Israelis and Palestinians to start negotiating a peace settlement based firmly on the 2002 "road map" peace plan.

They also voiced concerns over the precarious security situation in Iraq and called for an end to the hostage-taking of aid workers, journalists and soldiers.

Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the EU ministers said "a just, lasting and comprehensive peace must meet the legitimate aspirations of both the Israeli and Palestinian people and must include Lebanon and Syria."

The ministers called on both Israel and the Palestinian Authority "to fulfill their obligations" under the peace plan, which envisions Israel's withdrawal from parts of the West Bank.

The plans presented Wednesday by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - and endorsed by President Bush - proposed that all Jewish settlements should be removed from Gaza but would remain in the West Bank, an anathema to even moderate Palestinians.

Bush and Sharon also agreed that Palestinians with family roots in Israeli territory would have no automatic right to resettle within the Jewish state, another fundamental Palestinian demand that Washington had traditionally left open for debate.

The EU communique offered no blunt criticism of the Bush-Sharon accord and, indeed, welcomed the prospect of an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as "a significant step towards the implementation of the road map, provided it is carried out in accordance with certain conditions."

However, prominent EU figures offered direct criticism of the impact of Bush's endorsement on Palestinian opinion.

"There are an awful lot of people in the Arab world on the whole who take the view that what this week means is that America has turned its back on what has been its policy for almost 40 years," said EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten.

"There is an awful lot of damage to repair," Patten said, "and I think we in Europe have to assist in doing that."

EU chiefs stressed that any withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlements from the Gaza Strip, if not coordinated with Palestinian and international authorities, could encourage greater instability. They suggested renewed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should precede any Israeli withdrawal steps.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Wednesday April 14, 2004

Main Headline

Qureia says Palestinians reject U.S. statement

By Haaretz Staff, Haaretz Service and Agencies

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Wednesday rejected statements made by U.S. President George W. Bush implying that Israel would be allowed to keep some West Bank settlements in a final peace agreement.

After meeting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Washington, Bush said that a peace agreement must take into account realities on the ground. Bush said that the existence of Israeli population centers - referring to settlements - must be taken into account.

Minutes after Bush spoke, Qureia harshly criticized the U.S. president's stand. "He is the first president who has legitimized the settlements in the Palestinian territories when he said that there will be no return to the borders of 1967," he said. "We as Palestinians reject that, we cannot accept that, we reject it and we refuse it."

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat also dismissed Bush's statement. "This is like someone giving a part of Texas' land to China," he said, adding that over the years, U.S. administrations have assured the Palestinians that issues like borders and settlements would be handled in negotiations between the two sides.

Erekat said, "If Israel wants to make peace, it must talk to the Palestinian leadership."

Other Palestinian officials also slammed the U.S. statement, including Yasser Abed Rabbo, who said "Bush and Sharon are trying to protect each others' political future but are endangering the political future of Israel, the Palestinians and the whole region."

Abbas Zaki, a leading member of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, called Bush's statements a serious strategic mistake. Bush should not have touched on final-status issues such as the return of Palestinian refugees and borders, Zaki said on Al Jazeera television.
 

Arafat: U.S. support for settlement blocs would signal end of peace process
Earlier on Wednesday, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said that U.S. assurances that Israel could keep some key West Bank settlement blocs and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees would signal the end of the peace process.

In a statement issued by Arafat's office at the end of a meeting in Ramallah with Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and the rest of the Palestinian leadership, the PA chairman expressed concern about the meeting between Sharon and Bush.

A statement, on behalf of Arafat and the entire Palestinian leadership, said such an agreement would "lead to the destruction of the chances for the peace process and security and stability in the region. It will also restart the vicious cycle of violence in the region and end all the agreements and commitments that have been signed."

Arafat urged rejection for any such deal from Arab states, Islamic countries and the world in general, saying it would violate international laws and cancel the road map peace plan that Bush has backed.

Commenting on the proposed Gaza pullout, Arafat dismissed it as no more than a project to turn the territory into a "big prison" because Israel aims to keep control of borders as well as air and sea access.

"This deal which Sharon is seeking will take place at the expense of the Palestinian people and without the knowledge of the Palestinian people's legitimate leadership," the statement.

Bush recognizes settlement blocs, says no to right of return

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

President George W. Bush said on Wednesday Israel had a claim on some West Bank areas, and that "new realities on the ground" would have to be taken into consideration during final status negotiations.

Bush was speaking at a press conference following a two-hour meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House.

Bush said Palestinian refugees should be settled in a Palestinian state and not in Israel, adding that he was committed to the security of Israel as a vibrant Jewish state.

"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," Bush said during a news conference with Sharon.

An elated Sharon said his disengagement plan would create "a new and better reality for the state of Israel" and emphasized it would improve the country's security and economy.

Sharon, who smiled ebulliently during the exchange with reporters, said he was encouraged by Bush's support for his plan, which the Israeli leader had sought as a way to boost his own party's support.

The statement and letters Bush and Sharon exchanged could go a long way toward helping the Israeli leader push his plan to scrap 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank through a binding vote in his right-wing Likud party on May 2.

"These are historic and courageous actions," Bush said about the Gaza withdrawal. "If all parties choose to embrace this moment, they can open the door to progress and put an end to one of the world's longest-running conflicts."

Both the Palestinians and Israelis have responsibilities to undertake in the search for peace, Bush said. Today, Israel "stepped up to those responsibilities," he said, and Palestinians must do the same.

The U.S. president said working together could help build democratic Palestinian institutions, and said that Sharon's plan, which he termed as 'courageous,' could lead to a peaceful, democratic, viable Palestinian state.

He also said it is up to responsible Palestinian, Europeans and Americans to play a role in developing such a state.

Regarding the separation barrier being constructed by Israel in the West Bank, Bush said it should be security barrier and should be temporary rather than permanent.

When asked by a reporter if America policy in the Middle East favors Israel, Bush responded by saying the U.S. was "tilted" towards peace. He also challenged the Palestinians to match Sharon's boldness and courage.

Answering questions from a reporter, Sharon said he is not looking for ammunition against his friends in the government and in the Likud Party.

Thursday April 8, 2004

Main Headline

London's mayor calls for Sharon to be jailed

By Sharon Sadeh, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and DPA

London - Ken Livingstone, the left-wing mayor of London with a reputation for outspoken comments, has called for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to be thrown into jail.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper published Thursday, Livingstone predicted there would be no peace in the Middle East until "the West shows it is taking on board the injustice of what's happening to the Palestinians, and looks at the financial network of corruption between some of the oil sheikhdoms, the oil companies and the White House."

Livingstone said he would like to see Sharon locked up in the cell next to former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, the nationalist Serb strongman on trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity and genocide.

Ignoring the unease shown by his aides, Livingstone said, "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts and they've got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia."

Livingstone gave his backing to attempts by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to press the Palestinian issue with U.S. President George W. Bush, but was scornful of Bush's foreign policy skills.

"I'm not even sure he was aware there were any Palestinians before he was elected, any more than he knew the name of the president of Pakistan," he said, repeating a jibe often made about the U.S. president.

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