As more violence was reported in the West Bank, President Bush Monday backed Israel's right to defend itself and insisted Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat move further down the road to reform before a Middle East peace summit could be held.
"Israel has a right to defend herself, and at the same time that Israel does so, the prime minister is willing to discuss the conditions necessary to achieve what we want, which is a secure region and a hopeful region," Bush told reporters as he met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the White House.
Violence did not let up as the two leaders conferred. Israeli military sources said a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a convoy of Israeli civilian cars escorted by an army jeep along a road near a settlement in the Gaza Strip. He was killed when they returned fire.
The incident came after Israel sent tanks into the West Bank town of Ramallah to encircle Arafat's already battered headquarters and drive home a message that the Palestinian leader had failed to stop suicide attacks against Israelis.
Bush met with Sharon as part of consultations with Middle East leaders and as Washington planned its next moves aimed at ending Israeli-Palestinian violence and laying the groundwork for a Palestinian state.
Bush said he and Sharon discussed "reforms necessary that would enable a Palestinian Authority to emerge" that would give Israel and the Palestinians confidence to move ahead in peacemaking to end more than 20 months of bloodshed.
Bush said Arafat's administration still had a long way to go toward reform before a possible Middle East peace summit could convene.
"The conditions aren't even there yet (for a summit). That's because no one has confidence in the emerging Palestinian government," he said.
"I think we got what we wanted on this trip," a senior Israeli source said after the White House talks.
COOL RESPONSE
Israel has responded coolly to Arafat's decision at the weekend to reshuffle his Cabinet, the appointment of a general to head a streamlined security force and the arrest of a leader of Islamic Jihad, a group behind a suicide bombing that killed 17 Israelis on a bus last week.
Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters Bush's comments were "a disappointment to all those who seek to make peace, and to all those who are trying to put the peace process back on the right track."
If Bush could not set a date for an international summit, this indicated an absence of seriousness and a willingness to take the easy way out by blaming the Palestinian people, Erekat said.
About two dozen tanks and armored personnel carriers, backed by helicopter and machine-gun fire, thrust into Ramallah before dawn, surrounding Arafat's compound and imposing a curfew on the city, residents said.
The senior Israeli source said the army had planned to launch the operation to seize 100 Palestinian militants in Ramallah several days before Sharon headed to Washington, but postponed the mission when it emerged they had gone into hiding.
However, the source added, the suspects had returned home by Sunday apparently believing Sharon would not give the green light for any politically sensitive West Bank incursions while he was in the United States.
The source said 53 militants had been detained, including a would-be suicide bomber.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office, Sharon repeated his familiar stance that no progress on ending the violence was possible until Palestinian attacks against Israelis ceased.
Sharon, who has been seeking to sideline Arafat, said: "We must have a partner for negotiations. At the present time we don't see yet a partner ... with whom we'll be able to move forward."
NO OBJECTION
The White House did not raise any specific objection to Israel's West Bank operation except to remind Sharon his moves could effect long-term efforts to secure a peace.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said Israel was trying to undermine the Palestinian Authority and that Sharon's visit to Washington "shows that the U.S. administration supports this occupation and operation."
Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian West Bank security chief, said the first meeting of the revamped Cabinet, scheduled for Monday, was canceled because of the Israeli troop presence in the city.
The Israeli army said that in Ramallah its troops found two cars "packed with ... explosives ... and documents linked to the Palestinian Authority."
Aides said Arafat was in the compound but was unharmed. Palestinian security sources said Israeli forces killed a Palestinian policeman in the raid.
Sharon came to Washington on Sunday riding high after Bush snubbed an appeal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to jump-start the creation of a Palestinian state and again criticized Arafat for failing to do enough to combat terror.
Bush held talks with Mubarak over the weekend at Camp David but rebuffed the Egyptian leader's call to support a declaration of Palestinian statehood early next year and declined to commit to any peacemaking calendar.
Sharon's tough line on security has drawn praise in the U.S. Congress, whose leaders he meets on Tuesday before flying to London for talks on Wednesday with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
At least 1,388 Palestinians and 508 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000.
(China Daily June 11, 2002)
