This Week
Analysis
Mending Fences?
Sharon must compete with Abbas for Bush's ear.
BY LESLIE SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem
A
even adopted Palestinian terminology, calling the
fence a "wall" and saying he would speak to Sharon
about the route, urging changes wherever it causes
hardship for Palestinians or cuts too deeply into the
West Bank.
fter President Bush's late July meetings
with the Israeli and Palestinian prime
ministers, one thing is clear: Ariel Sharon
no longer will have things all his own way Aimed At Terrorists
Sharon came to his meeting with Bush armed with
in Washington. Bush pointedly expressed admiration
aerial photographs showing that only 10 percent of
and respect for Mahmoud Abbas, the new
the security barrier actually is a wall, in areas where
Palestinian Authority prime minister, whom he
snipers in Palestinian cities along the West Bank bor-
called "a leader of vision and courage and determi-
der could fire at drivers on a major Israeli highway.
nation.
The rest of the barrier consists of an electronic
Still, Sharon was able to deflect American pressure
fence,
barbed wire obstacles and patrol roads, like the
on Israel over the security fence it is building along
the border with the West Bank,
and to underline Israel's insis-
tence that the Palestinians
must crack down on terrorist
groups like Hamas and Islamic
Jihad.
The fact that Bush was effu-
sive in his praise of Abbas —
despite Abbas' refusal to dis-
mantle terrorist groups — wor-
ries the Israelis.
In his meetings with Bush
and White House national
security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice, Sharon made it clear that
unless the Palestinians disman-
tle terrorist groups — as they
are obliged to do in the first
phase of the road map peace
plan — Israel will not move on
to the second phase.
And, Sharon added, he
A section of a security wall Israel is building near the West Bank city of
doubts that the Palestinians
Tulkarm is set into place. Tulkarm is roughly nine miles from Netanya,
will act without considerable
Israel, which has suffered many Palestinian terror attacks.
American pressure.
So far, such pressure has not
been forthcoming. Israeli ana-
security fences along Israel's borders with Lebanon
lysts believe Bush went easy on Abbas because, hav-
and Jordan.
ing invested so much in Middle East peacemaking,
For weeks, Israeli officials at all levels have been
he wants to show the Palestinians that America is an
trying
to convince their American counterparts of
"honest broker" who can deliver a fair deal.
the need for a barrier to stop terrorists from infiltrat-
Bush also hopes his overt show of support will
ing Israeli cities. In almost three years of the terrorist
shore up Abbas' shaky status among the Palestinian
intifada (uprising), they note, not a single suicide
public, analysts say.
bomber
has successfully infiltrated from the Gaza
Ironically, Abbas' weakness on the Palestinian
Strip
—
which is fenced off— while more than 250
street is proving to be his strength: Against the back-
have
entered
Israel from the West Bank.
drop of that weakness, he has been able press for
In
their
meetings
with Sharon, Bush and Rice
American support and Israeli gestures of compro-
mise. Nowhere has the new American "even-handed- raised two concerns: that the fence creates political
facts on the ground in advance of a territorial settle-
ness" been more apparent than on the issue of the
ment with the Palestinians, and that it encompasses
security fence. After his meeting with Abbas, Bush
too much Palestinian land.
Sharon has said that the fence is not meant to have
Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the
any
political significance, and in the future it could be
Jerusalem Report.
8/ 1
2003
16
moved depending on where the final borders are drawn.
Moreover, he said, the most-controversial segment
— a sizable bulge into the West Bank to include the
city of Ariel, one of Israel's largest in the West Bank
— is not scheduled for construction until early next
year, leaving time for disagreements to be resolved.
Bush did not pressure Sharon to stop construction
of the fence or move it back to the Green Line —
the pre-1967 border between Israel and Jordan's West
Bank — but the two sides agreed to hold further
consultations on the route with the aim of minimiz-
ing hardship to Palestinians.
The American intervention on the fence may not
have stopped its construction, but it certainly ended
any notion Sharon might have entertained of build-
ing a second fence along the Jordan Valley to protect
Jewish settlements there.
Major Achievement
The fear of being left with a minuscule Palestine,
enclosed by fences on all sides, was one reason Abbas
sought an American-led peace process. Pre-empting a
two-fence plan is the first major achievement of the
new Abbas strategy — though Sharon also can claim
that the fence galvanized the Palestinians into choos-
ing diplomacy over war.
For Sharon, though, it's not the fence or its route
that is likely to undermine the peace process. It is the
Palestinians' failure to disband terrorist groups.
Getting that point across was the main objective of
Sharon's Washington visit. He told President Bush he
believed the peace process would collapse in a matter
of months if Abbas failed to act against the terrorist
groups.
"We are concerned that this welcome quiet will be
shattered any minute as a result of the continued
existence of terror organizations, which the
Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to eliminate
or dismantle," Sharon said at the news conference.
In the meeting, he showed Bush Israeli intelligence
assessments that Hamas and Islamic Jihad intend to
launch a new wave of terror attacks when their- cease-
fire expires in late September. In the meantime, he
said, the terrorists are using the lull to rearm and to
test-fire longer-range, more-accurate Kassam rockets
into the sea off the Gaza coast.
Far from disarming the terror groups, Abbas is
doing nothing even to stop their rearming, Sharon
argued. The cease-fire, he warned, could prove to be
the trap Israel feared, simply giving the terrorists a
breather to regroup.
Bush, he said, should press Abbas to take action
before it is too late.
In the news conference, Bush demanded that the
Palestinian Authority undertake "sustained, targeted
and effective operations to confront those engaged in
terror, and to dismantle terrorist capabilities and
infrastructure."
But Israeli analysts point out that, in his meeting
with Abbas, Bush did not lay down a timetable for
such action, nor did he specify how the terrorists
should be confronted.
The question is whether, in the wake of the meet-
ings, Bush will find ways to persuade both sides to
do what is needed to advance the diplomatic
process and rebuild mutual trust. ❑