Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon begins a US visit Monday for talks with President George W. Bush expected to focus on Israel's so-called policy of "restraint" in dealing with the Palestinians.
According to Haaretz newspaper, Sharon’s visit aims at convincing the Americans to keep up the pressure on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to end the “violence,” and also persuading his American hosts to accept his ceasefire timetable.
Israel Radio reported Sunday that Sharon wants a ten-day period to follow the end of all “violence and incitement” and only then will a six-week cooling-off period go into effect, after which a series of confidence-building measures included in the Mitchell report are to be implemented.
The Palestinians are demanding that the cooling-off period last no longer than two weeks.
Sharon, who is making his second visit to the US since becoming prime minister, will make a stopover in Britain where, contrary to previous reports, he will meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Army Radio reported last week said that Blair was refusing to meet with Sharon because of the BBC's Panorama program on the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre.
Arafat, on the other hand, has yet to meet with the US president.
Sharon's visit comes as his government has increasingly said it is willing to break the June 13 ceasefire negotiated by CIA director George Tenet that has failed to stop the bloodshed.
Each side accuses the other of failing to honor the accord.
Sharon will be looking to reap some political benefits for sticking to the ceasefire, as he is under mounting pressure at home from settlers and hardliners to resume retaliatory attacks against the Palestinians.
The settlers have borne the brunt of recent Palestinian violence and many are crying for an all-out war, in the process getting support from hardliners in Knesset and the Sharon cabinet.
Sharon recently said the army was free to act to defend Israelis, sparking fears that a heavy army retaliation could set in motion a chain of events leading to a regional conflict.
That nightmarish scenario seems to have convinced Bush to welcome Sharon to the White House as well as send Secretary of State Colin Powell back to the Middle East, according to AFP.
Under the Israeli policy of "restraint," since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, CNN reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 112 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
Also under the Israeli policy of "restraint," according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 458 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded, and over 500 killed.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
