Protesters hold signs depicting
Palestinian Authority leader
Yasser Arafat as a Nazi during
a demonstration in front
of Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's office in
Jerusalem on Sunday.
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Sharon Under Pressure
Cracks seen in Israeli government over _proposals in the Mitchell report.
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
T
Jerusalem
he Mitchell Commission
report on ongoing Israeli-
Palestinian violence appears
to be widening cracks in
Israel's unity government, as well as in
what has been the Israeli public's solid
support for government policy.
Among its recommendations, whicn
drew the support of the Bush adminis-
tration in the United States on
Monday, the report calls for an imme-
diate cease-fire followed by a cooling-
off period and a series of confidence-
building steps.
Among those steps is a (-ill to halt all
Israeli settlement activity in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip, including the
"natural growth" of existing settlements.
Analysts parsed the words of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, the leader of
the Likud Party, and Foreign Mir:ster
Shimon Peres — leader of the Labor
Party, which joined ..he unity govern-
ment that Sharon formed following
his election in February — for signs of
.
dissension.
Peres has said Israel will agree to a
T V
AA geographic settlement freeze — that i,
5/25
2001
16
directive to cease firing on Palestinians,
adding that Israeli troops should only
open fire "when lives are endangered."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer
said President Bush was "encouraged" by
Sharon's comments and would welcome
similar remarks by Palestinian Authority
leader Yasser Arafat.
Palestinian official Ahmed Abdel
Rahman, an aide to Arafat, later told
the Associated Press that the
Palestinians "reject everything Sharon
said about a cease-fire."
Israel and the Palestinian Authority
got copies of the report in early May,
Bush 'Encouraged'
Opinion polls continue to reflect a high when the report's findings were leaked
to the press. Former Sen - . George
level of respect for Sharon. But at the
Mitchell officially released the report
same time, the polls indicate that most
Monday in New York.
Israelis favor a halt to settlement con-
Mitchell's blue-ribbon commission
struction and a withdrawal from some
was conceived as part of a peace package
settlements in exchange for a truce.
at a summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt,
On Tuesday, Sharon called for a
last October. Central to the package was
truce and a cooling-off period, after
an immediate cease-fire, so that the
which the two sides could begin
commission could examine the roots of
implementing the Mitchell
a violent Palestinian uprising that pre-
Commission report. "I propose to our
sumably would have ended long before
neighbors to work together for an
the commission began its work.
immediate cease-fire and hope the
In the end, the report was the only
Palestinians will answer the call posi-
element of the package that was imple-
tively," Sharon told a news conference.
mented, infuriating Israeli officials.
Shortly after Sharon spoke, Defense
Panel members include Mitchell, the
Minister Benjamin Ben,Eliezer issued a
it will not expand settlements' bound-
aries — but cannot freeze demograph-
ic growth within existing settlements.
Sharon, too, has insisted on the set-
tlements' right to "natural growth,"
and pledged in comments on the
Mitchell report Tuesday that Israel
would not expropriate any more
Palestinian land for the settlements.
Some analysts, however, wondered if
that meant Israel might take land to
blaze roads in the West Bank.
group's chairman; Turkish President
Suleyman Demirel; Thorbjoern
Jagland, Norway's minister of foreign
affairs; and Javier Solana, the
European Union's top diplomat.
Among the report's other recom-
mendations:
• The Palestinian Authority should
crack down on terrorism;
• The Palestinian Authority should
prevent Palestinian gunmen from fir-
ing on or from populated areas, and
establish a clear chain of command for
all armed personnel operating in areas
under its control;
• Israel should lift closures on
Palestinian areas, permit Palestinian
workers to return to their jobs in Israel
and transfer to the Palestinian
Authority all tax revenues owed; and
• Israel should ensure that its securi-
ty forces avoid destroying homes,
roads and trees in Palestinian areas.
Cabinet Dissent
By spotlighting the settlement issue,
the report had the effect of exacerbat-
ing existing tensions within the Israeli
government between moderates and
hardliners.
These tensions already were running
high after Sharon responded to a ter-
ror bombing last Friday that killed five
Israelis by launching Israel's first jet
strikes on the West Bank and Gaza
Strip since the 1967 Six-Day War. The
strikes by the F-16 warplanes —
which killed 12 Palestinians and
woundecrdozens of others — were
widely condemned around the world.
While Sharon and Peres are trying to
keep the differences between them as
muted as possible in the interests of gov-
ernment stability, other Cabinet mem-
bers have been outspoken in their reac-
tion to the settlement construction issue.
This has sparked speculation that
the unity government may be seriously
threatened by the Mitchell report,
especially if the United States energeti-
cally pushes to have it implemented.
Infrastructure Minister Avigdor