Rumsfeld backs Israel's retaliation...

Jerusalem Post ^ | 09/10/01 | Janine Zacharia

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Rumsfeld backs Israel's retaliation

By Janine Zacharia

WASHINGTON (September 10) - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld voiced support yesterday for Israel's retaliatory attacks against Palestinians terror, saying: "I think that any time people are doing suicide bombings and blowing up your people at bus stops and in restaurants, you certainly cannot sit there and tolerate that."

He told Fox News Sunday that "you have an obligation to your people to take action to try to reduce that level of violence or to eliminate it if humanly possible."

On another morning talk show, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice left open the possibility that President George W. Bush will meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat at the UN General Assembly later this month, but she said no meeting is planned right now.

"The president has said that he will meet with people when it is necessary to meet with people to advance the cause," Rice said on NBC's Meet the Press. "But at this point in time there are no plans for the president to meet with Yasser Arafat in New York."

On Friday, senior administration officials had recommended to Bush that he meet Arafat at the UN as part of a fresh basket of Middle East diplomatic initiatives. The idea is to use the General Assembly to repair US-Arab relations that have been strained by US support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians. Bush is still mulling over the idea.

It was not clear whether yesterday's series of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians will affect prospects for a Bush-Arafat meeting. The US is first waiting to see if sessions between Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres go ahead and succeed in producing a cease-fire and resumed security cooperation.

In her interview, Rice expressed regret over the deaths of innocent Israelis. "Let me express condolences to the families of the people who lost their lives today," she said.

"The violence against innocent civilians is really senseless, and it just shouldn't continue. And we're working every day with the parties to try and lower the level of violence."

Rice also said the US had recently received "new assurances from the Palestinian Authority that they are trying to stop the violence," but she added that the administration still believes the PA can and needs to do more.

PLO Ambassador Hassan Abdel Rahman said the PA has frequently conveyed to the Americans through direct and indirect channels that it is trying to halt the violence. Last week, Arafat spoke by telephone to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Rahman said Arafat communicated to Powell "that always the Palestinian Authority will do what they can, but there has to be the right environment. That as long as the Israeli army continues its execution-style assassinations of Palestinians and bombardment of Palestinian institutions... that environment is not conducive."

The US, under pressure from Arab countries and the international community to more deeply engage, is trying to figure out a way to use the General Assembly that opens September 23 to display American leadership. Rice said yesterday that the US is "very engaged." But her predecessor, former president Bill Clinton's national security adviser Sandy Berger, said the US needs to do much more.

Writing in the Washington Post, Berger warned that the deepening conflict in the Middle East threatens to"radicalize the region with far-reaching consequences for the United States."

Berger said the US needs to join with the international community and insist on "seven days of accountability, with a high-level diplomatic presence on the ground demanding compliance each step of the way and prepared to turn the international spotlight brightly on any temporizing."

Berger, who had a direct hand in the failed Camp David peace talks, said the goal now is much narrower than a broad peace deal. Now the sides need to as rapidly as possible establish a political process that will lead to "mutual disengagement," he suggested.

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FYI.

[dennisw]

Good...... And put Colin Powell on the back burner

[veronica]

I doubt they were senior members and I doubt Bush will meet with Arafat at the UN. Probably just the same old State Dept. Arabist wags. Not in much favor with the Bush admin. it seems.