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February 13, 2004/Shevat 21 5764, Vol. 56, No. 21
Bush embracing Sharon proposals
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - For Ariel Sharon's government, Washington is a town where once unimaginable dreams can come true.
The Bush administration is on board with the West Bank security barrier, officials who could once barely contain their impatience with Israel have shut out the Palestinians, and the president wants to learn more about the Israeli prime minister's plans for unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians.
The problem with answered prayers, Israel is finding, is that they lead to more questions.
In recent meetings with their Israeli counterparts, top U.S. officials have asked Israel to fill in the gaps in Sharon's broad outlines of a break with the Gaza Strip and pullouts from remote areas of the West Bank.
"The Americans want details," an Israeli official said.
Israelis are scrambling to provide those details ahead of a visit to the region by two top White House officials: Steve Hadley, second-in-command at the National Security Council, and Elliot Abrams, the top Middle East official at the NSC.
The two were to have gone to the Middle East this week, but administration officials said the visit has been postponed for the time being - possibly until next week, possibly later.
When they do visit, Giora Eiland, who heads Sharon's National Security Council, will present them with an array of options. After getting feedback from his U.S. counterparts, Eiland, top Sharon adviser Dov Weisglass and others on the Israeli security council will further refine the plans and arrive in Washington for more consultations a week later.
Sometime after that - as soon as early March - Sharon himself will arrive in Washington to present Bush with a detailed plan.
Americans were skeptical at first when Sharon announced his plans earlier this month for a unilateral withdrawal of Jewish settlements from Gaza, but a barrage of Israeli reassurances melted resis-tance.
The speedy evolution from the United States on the fence to the United States on Israel's side was evident in U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher's initial statements.
On Feb. 2, Boucher's position was pronouncedly wait-and-see: "What needs to be looked at is the overall commitment that they had made and the need to move on those specific commitments that they've made so far," he said. It took just a day for him to sound more convinced: "We certainly welcome action on settle-ments," he said on Feb. 3.
Three elements contributed to U.S. openness to Sharon's surprise announcement: Deepening disappointment with the Palestinians' failure to control terrorists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; the Israeli Labor Party's pledge to back the Gaza plan from the opposition should hard-line pro-settler parties bolt the ruling coalition; and reassurances from govern-ment officials that the withdrawal would hew to Bush's vision of working toward a viable Palestinian state.
The Americans showed their pleasure with Sharon by shoring up support for him in the United States and abroad. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan enthusiastically endorsed the removal of Gaza settlements - not coin-cidentally, Jewish officials said, a day after meeting with Bush.
"Withdrawal from Gaza that has been announced by the prime minister, if it does take place, can really give us a very important moment - a new dynamic that can propel the process forward," Annan said.
Other U.S. carrots for Sharon's pledge had to do with newly vigorous support for a security barrier reviled not long ago by Bush himself.
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