Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Saturday praised the US-Israel “friendship” after he was rebuked by US Secretary of State Colin Powell for warning the US not to "appease" the Arabs at Israel’s expense.
Using the same tone as Sharon’s statements, Washington on Friday described his comments as “unacceptable,” according to AFP.
"Those comments made by the prime minister are unacceptable in the president's opinion," President George W. Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, was quoted as saying by the Tel Aviv-based daily Haaretz.
"Israel has no better friend than the United States and will have no better friend than the United States," Fleischer reportedly said.
Sharon expressed his "appreciation" for Israel's special relationship with the United States, AFP reported.
"During a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Sharon expressed his appreciation for the "profound friendship and special relations that unite the United States and Israel, and especially of President George W. Bush," the Israeli government press office said in a statement cited by AFP.
According to Haaretz, Sharon asked Powell during the telephone call he initiated to pass on his blessings to President Bush for his "courageous and daring decision to fight terror."
Sharon told Powell that Israel had suffered from terrorism since its creation and that the government of Israel was obligated to protect its citizens and prevent all acts of terror against innocent civilians, according to Haaretz.
Sharon advisor Dore Gold said in a conciliatory tone Friday after Washington's scathing criticism that "what the prime minister is saying is that he must protect the security of Israel given the escalating violence that it is facing.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called for his country and the United States to "overcome the crisis.”
"We must overcome this crisis and return to the fundamental things, like the profound and true friendship which links Israel and the United States," Peres told public television.
"The United States is waging a war against terrorism that is also our war. [US] President George W. Bush has shown friendship toward Israel. We should go past the words that were spoken and return to fundamental things" which unite the two countries, Peres said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian leadership called on their people to respect the fragile ceasefire with Israel to protect "the national interest,” AFP reported.
"Those who violate the decision to cease fire commit a serious act which harms the national interest and gives ideal cover for the Israeli government to complete its expansionist project," the leadership was quoted by the agency as saying after its weekly meeting in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians are resisting a 34-year Israeli military occupation of land conquered and illegally "settled" with tens of thousands of Israelis.
Five Palestinians were killed and 17 others wounded after Israeli tanks, backed by helicopters, entered Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank city of Hebron before dawn on Friday, police and hospital sources told AFP.
Sharon, however, had accused the Palestinians of breaking the hard-reached and ever-fragile ceasefire.
“All of our efforts to reach a ceasefire were foiled by the Palestinians and the fire did not stop, not even for a single day. We can only rely on ourselves” Sharon was quoted by Haaretz as saying on Saturday.
During his phone conversation with Powell, Sharon told him: "Arafat is not doing anything to prevent terror, attacks, shooting and incitement,” Haaretz reported.
According to the daily, Sharon repeated his request to Powell to include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah on the list of terror organizations "to be addressed immediately," because "that is the one thing that will put pressure on Arafat to take action."
SMALL PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE GROUP REJECTS CEASEFIRE
Contrary to the Palestinian Authority’s conciliatory tone, a Damascus-based militant group vowed to intensify its armed struggle against Israel in the bid to secure a Palestinian state, AFP said.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) "will pursue and intensify the struggle by all available means," senior member Maher Taher was quoted by AFP as saying in a meeting at the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk, south of Damascus.
The meeting marked the 40th day since Israel killed PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa in a helicopter missile attack in the West Bank on August 27.
Taher rejected the ceasefire announced by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, saying that it "serves Israel and not the objectives of the Palestinian people."
Taher also said that the current Intifada, or uprising, would continue for “a few years more,” according to AFP.
The hard-line Palestinian movement Hamas also called late Friday for the Intifada against Israel to continue, and said it expected the violence would only end after "a few years."
Hamas has also rejected the truce.
"It won't take more than a few years for the occupier to leave," the head of the Hamas political wing, Khaled Meshaal, was quoted by AFP as saying during the DFLP meeting in Damascus.
He said the uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was continuing despite calls by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority to respect a ceasefire he declared on September 18.
Fatah and the PLO executive committee had warmly welcomed remarks Bush made on Tuesday in favor of a Palestinian state as "a cornerstone to security, stability and peace in the Middle East."
The praise for Bush came hand in hand with Arafat's renewed condemnation of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, which have led to its efforts to build an international coalition against terrorism.
Israel, meanwhile, was still reeling Friday from the previous day's twin disasters of a Russian airline exploding in midair with dozens of Israelis aboard and a Palestinian gunning down three people in northern Afula.
The gunman, who was disguised as a soldier, was identified by his family as Nazer Hamad, 27, from Al Araqa, in the northern West Bank. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, another Fateh armed wing, claimed Hamad as a member.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Brigades, a faction of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, claimed responsibility in a fax received by Albawaba.com for the killing of an Israeli near the West Bank town of Tulkarem on Friday.
The Israeli was killed in a drive-by shooting on the road that leads to a settlement close to Tulkarem, while another was seriously wounded.
The death toll for the year-old Palestinian uprising now stands at 862, including 664 Palestinians and 175 Israelis.
Israel's large Russian-immigrant population was in shock at the explosion and crash into the Black Sea of a charter jet carrying at least 50 Jews who had recently moved to Israel.
The cause of the mid-air blast remained unclear. The plane was bound from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in western Siberia – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
