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October 31, 2003/Cheshvan 5 5764, Vol. 56, No. 6
U.S. frustrated with Israel, Palestinians
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is frustrated with what it sees as increasingly bold Israeli actions to assert sovereignty in the West Bank, admini-stration and Jewish officials say - but it will not take action until the Palestinians rein in terrorism.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon confirmed last week that Israel is considering building a security fence in the Jordan Valley, though he emphasized that the plan has not yet been approved.
Administration officials clearly were irked by the announcement. President Bush has been moved by Palestinian presentations that suggest a Jordan Valley fence will be the basis for a per-manent border that would cut off a future Palestinian state from Jordan and leave it wholly surrounded by Israel.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Jordan Valley plan made the problem worse, not better.
"As the fence goes deeply into Palestinian areas and starts to put more and more Palestinians outside of their normal traffic patterns and being able to get to their fields and farms and workplaces, and as it seems to prejudge what a future Palestinian state might look like, then that's troublesome to us," Powell told CNN on Oct. 26.
Over the weekend, two senior Washington Post columnists also weighed in, with Jim Hoagland advising Bush to tell Sharon, "Enough."
U.S. officials have suggested that one way of dealing with their dissatisfaction with the fence would be to transfer administration of the "road map" peace plan to the U.N. Security Council, something Israel vehemently opposes because of what it considers the United Nation's pro-Palestinian bias.
The United States currently takes the lead on the road map, but a Russian initiative announced this week - to have the Security Council formally sanction the plan - could open the door to a leading U.N. role.
Israeli officials are closely watching the Russian effort but say they're not overly worried that the United States will cede control to a body Bush profoundly distrusts.
In any case, Israel says the fence is not necessarily permanent and accuses the Palestinians of overreacting to it.
"We tore down more cement in Sinai than will ever go up with this fence," said Mark Regev, the Israeli Embassy spokesman in Washington, referring to Israel's 1982 withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula as part of its peace agreement with Egypt.
Such assurances have done little to assuage Bush administration officials, who know that Sharon - like most Israeli leaders - long has regarded the Jordan Valley as a vital strategic asset.
President Bush was especially blunt when asked about the barrier Oct. 28 at one of his rare news con-ferences, the 10th of his ad-ministration.
"I have said the fence is a problem to the extent that the fence is an opportunity to make it difficult for a Pale-stinian state to emerge," he said. "There is a difference between security and land acquisition."
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