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Washington Watch

Cool V isi t

Sharon, Bush take different approaches;
U.N. agenda pretested; a push for faith.

JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent

I s the honeymoon over?
That's what pro-Israel leaders are privately
asking themselves after a rough encounter
between Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
and U.S. President George W. Bush at the White
House on Tuesday.
The two leaders reaffirmed the strong connection
between their two countries and Bush expressed
understanding of the "pressure the prime minister is
under." But they differed sharply on exactly what is
required to begin the sequence of confidence-build-
ing measures spelled out in the report by an interna-
tional commission headed by former Sen. George
Mitchell.
Several Jewish leaders noted that Sharon bluntly
laid out his differences with Bush in a photo op with
the president even before their Oval Office meeting.
"There does seem to L a change in tone and in
substance," said a top pro-Israel official, "but it's
very hard 1_3 interpret exactly what this means." One
possibility is that Sharon was playing to his hardline
constituents at home — and this could signal that
he may be preparing for further concessions down
,
the road.
During the meeting, Bush expressed his view that
"progress is being made" in implementing the cease-
fire with the Palestinians, and implied that Israel and
the Palestinians are nearing the next phase in the
sequence spelled out by the Mitchell Commission.
Shoring up that "progress" is the top goal of
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who left for the
region Tuesday evening.
Sharon bluntly insisted that Israel would not move
forward without a 10-day period of "absolute quiet."
Daniel Pipes, head of the Philadelphia-based
Middle East Forum and a peace-process critic, said,
"It's difficult to make judgments on the basis of a
single meeting. But it does seem to indicate a change
in tone and in substance. It does sound like we're
back to where we were — negotiations for the sake
of negotiations, and U.S 'evenhandedness."'
The meeting took place amid growing pressure
from U.S. allies in the Arab world for a more active
and less pro-Israel U.S. stance. In particular. Arab
governments are pressing the administration to end
its boycott of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who
has not been invited to the White House.
Mitchell himself weighed in on that issue this
week. Asked if he thought the administration should
invite the Palestinian leader, he said "Yes, I do, and I
think that it is the intention of the administration at
the appropriate time."
Sharon was also greeted by about 200 Muslim-
American activists protesting what they claimed is his
record of war crimes. Six were arrested outside the

White House. The protestors also included members
of the Jewish anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect.

Racist Conference

Jewish groups continue their quiet, but urgent strug-
gle to alter the agenda for an upcoming United
Nations conference on racism that has been hijacked
by anti-Israel forces.
Next week, the World Jewish Congress will host a
meeting in London to map out a strategy that will
involve Jewish groups in the U.S. and abroad to
counter efforts by Arab and Muslim countries —
mostly successful, so far — to put Israel's treatment
of the Palestinians at the top of the agenda at the

World Conference Against Racism, Racial '-
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance, scheduled for late August in Durbin,
South Africa.
Jewish leaders are eager to ger out the word that
they are not pushing for a U.S. boycott of the first-
of-its-kind international gathering.
The reason: growing concerns about a backlash
among members of the Congressional Black Caucus,
who want more U.S. involvement in the conference,
not less.
Making the issue even more explosive is another
issue on the conference agenda: reparations for the
descendants of African slaves.
Administration officials are opposing both the
"Zionism is racism" and the reparations thrust of
conference planners.
Last week, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said that the administration has "not decid-
ed at what level we would participate."
Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that
both issues — reparations and the revival of the
"Zionism is racism" slur — could jeopardize U.S.
participation in the conference.

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Aziz Tsalha, a Palestinian suspect in a
brutal murder of two Israelis, is seen as
he holds his cuffed hands in front of him
in this posed undated photo released on
June 25 by Israers Shin Bet security serv-
ice. Tsalha's pose in the picture is the
same as that of a Palestinian who held
his hands high, covered with blood, as he
leaned out the window of a Palestinian
police station in the West Bank town of
Ramallah, where two Israeli soldiers were
beaten and mutilated on Oct. 12, 2000.