Mideast - AFP
Washington gives nod to Sharon ahead of elections
Date: Wed, Aug 25, 2004
WASHINGTON (AFP) - In signaling its consent to construction of new homes in Israel's West Bank settlements, Washington is playing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s card and avoids a damaging dispute with Israel ahead of a US presidential election.
But that does little to promote the "roadmap," an international peace plan that Washington remains formally committed to and that calls for a freeze on settlement activity, said commentators and US experts.
Washington also runs the risk of facing growing resentment among Palestinians and the Arab world, which is already critical of US Middle East policy that is seen as tilted toward Israel in general and Sharon in particular.
The State Department has refused to take a position on recent an Israeli plan to build about 1,500 new houses in the settlements, limiting itself to saying Tuesday that it will dispatch a technical team to Israel for closer examination of the project.
US and Israeli media have reported that Washington has taken a de facto decision to accept Israel's argument about natural growth of the settlements, as long as it takes place within their established boundaries, without adding new land.
"What the administration is clearly doing is throw some support to Ariel Sharon who is obviously in a pretty serious political battle" with hardliners within his own Likud party, said Steven Cook, a Middle East expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.
He said that by avoiding placing Sharon in a difficult position on West Bank settlements, Washington wants to help him convince the right wing of his party to swallow a more bitter pill -- Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
And US politicians would rather avoid a quarrel with Israel before the November 2 presidential elections, he said.
"Any US president -- whether it is George W. Bush, Bill Clinton (news - web sites) or, potentially, John Kerry (news - web sites) -- would want to avoid having one sort of confrontation with an Israeli government before the elections, given the importance of the American Jewish community as a constituent," Cook said.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post noted a possible link between Washington's low-key approach toward West Bank settlements and the White House's push to get Jewish votes in key battleground states, particularly in Florida, where the contest, like the one in 2000, remains very close.
However, the United States runs the risk of weakening the roadmap, which is supposed to result in the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.
The White House has reaffirmed its commitment to the roadmap plan, which Bush personally endorsed and which he would now find difficult to reject openly.
Washington's implicit green light on settlement activity could deal a new blow to America's image in the Arab world, which is already roiled up over the war in Iraq (news - web sites), Cook said
"This would further compromise US standing and claims to being working to secure both Israel goals and Palestinian-Arab goals," said Cook.
"Once again the Bush administration will be seen as uncritically supporting a move by Israel to expand settlements regarded by the rest of the world as illegal, in contradiction to stated US policy and commitments to allies in Europe and the Middle East," The Washington Post said in an editorial.
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