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May 28, 2004/Sivan 8 5764, Vol. 56, No. 36
Gaza turmoil giving U.S. headaches
RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - If Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was wondering how much time the White House would give him to come up with a new exit strategy from Gaza, the answer came last week: As little as it takes to wipe those photos off the front pages.
The Bush administration's swift and tough reaction to Israeli tank fire that killed at least seven Palestinian protesters - including four children - in the southern Gaza Strip on May 19 made it clear that Bush sees Israel's presence in Gaza as an albatross around the neck of U.S. and Israeli interests. Israel's operations in the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, which were aimed at uncovering arms-smuggling tunnels and clearing out sniper nests, "have worsened the humanitarian situation and resulted in confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians, and have not, we believe, enhanced Israel's security," a White House statement said.
The United States also allowed to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel's operations in Gaza and demanding "the complete cessation" of house demolitions in the Rafah refugee camp.
Usually, the U.S. delegation vetoes such resolutions - especially if they fail to mention the Palestinian terrorism that elicits Israeli incursions - but this time the United States abstained.
That in itself was significant: A Security Council "demand" to end home demolitions could carry the force of international law.
The same Jewish and pro-Israel groups that exulted last week in Bush's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where Bush likened Israel's war on terrorism to the United States' own, were taken aback.
"The United States must maintain its consistent policy of vetoing one-sided anti-Israel resolutions," said Bernice Manocherian, AIPAC's president.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said the U.N. resolution was especially galling coming just weeks after terrorists in Gaza murdered a pregnant woman and her four small children.
"A family was killed at point-blank range, and there was no Security Council resolution," Hoenlein said. "Here, almost a similar number was killed, and the whole world rises in indignation."
Pro-Israel lobbyists were unlikely to draw succor from Democrats in Congress, usually eager to exploit wedges between the president and Jewish voters in an election year.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, hewed close to the White House line. Israel has a right to defend itself with a "proper measure of restraint," Kerry told The Associated Press.
A senior Democratic staffer on Capitol Hill said Bush needed to make a strong statement because of U.S. national security interests. Bush is in an especially sensitive position in the Middle East. His hopes of handing over Iraq to civilian rule next month have been frustrated by increased insurgency, a prison abuse scandal and the deaths of some 40 Iraqi civilians in a U.S. airstrike on what Iraqis said was a wedding party. "He had to do something," said the staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This is a case where, through no fault of its own, what Israel has done not only threatens Israel's self-interest but America's self-interest."
Also, the bloodshed in Gaza has not helped efforts by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to bring Arab allies of the United States on board for the Iraqi transition.
Sharon presented a withdrawal plan to Bush last month, in return winning important U.S. commitments on Palestinian refugees and Israel's West Bank land claims. But Sharon's ruling Likud Party later rejected the plan.
Sharon has said he is working on a new plan but has not set a firm deadline to present it, frustrating U.S. officials.
JTA Washington correspondent Matthew E. Berger and Staff Writer Rachel Pomerance in New York contributed to this report.
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