Sharon pledge to help Abbas 'just for show': analysts
AFP
Date: 05-25-05
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's pledge in Washington to bolster the peace process, notably by freeing 400 prisoners, is widely seen back home as little more than a ploy to impress George W. Bush on the eve of the US president's summit with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
While Sharon has been Bush's guest in the United States on 10 occasions, Abbas is paying the first visit to Washington by a top Palestinian leader since the US president came to power.
Bush completely blanked Abbas's late predecessor Yasser Arafat, and followed Sharon's line that the icon of the Palestinian nationalist cause had become an obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
When the Israeli premier held talks with Bush last month at his Texas ranch, Sharon tried hard to paint Abbas as the villain of the peace for doing little to rein in armed militant groups such as Hamas.
The strategy however seemed to have backfired when Bush emphasised his confidence in Abbas at a joint press conference with Sharon.
When the Israeli leader made the same argument at a meeting with US Senate majority leader Bill Frist earlier this month, the Republican promptly met with Abbas and hailed him as a "bold leader".
In a speech to the influential American Israeli Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Sharon tried a change of tactics by promising to "do our utmost to cooperate with the new Palestinian leadership and will take the needed measures to help Chairman Abbas.
"We are willing to help Chairman Abbas as much as we can, as long as we do not risk our security. That is the red line."
He then pledged to release 400 Palestinian prisoners soon after his return to Israel and said that he was willing to hand over responsibility for security responsibility to the Palestinians in more parts of the West Bank.
In reality however, both gestures were agreed at a summit between Sharon and Abbas back at the beginning of February in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"Sharon's declarations are all just for show," Akiva Elder, a columnist for Israel's Haaretz daily, told AFP.
"On the ground, there has been no change. What he announced yesterday should have already been done after Sharm el-Sheikh but hasn't been.
Israel has already transferred secuurity control in two West Bank cities but have so far held back from making a similar move in three other cities on the grounds that the Palestinians have failed to disarm wanted militants.
Five hundred prisoners were released soon after February's summit but the promised second batch of 400 releases has yet to materialise.
Palestinian cabinet minister Ghassan Khatib was unimpressed with Sharon's announcement, claiming it was "pure propaganda because he is in the United States.
"Since Sharm el-Sheikh, Israel has arrested more than 400 Palestinians," the planning minister told AFP.
"Sharon wants to show the United States he is ready to implement what they want, but he just talks without anything happening on the ground."
A senior Israeli foreign ministry official agreed that Sharon's comments were part of a show designed to impress Washington, Israel's most important ally.
"Sharon says that he wants to cooperate with the Palestinians and that it is the Palestinians who are balking at this," the official told AFP.
"We are dealing with the Palestinians like a teacher with a naughty schoolboy, when in reality it is Israel that does not want to work with the Palestinians on the pullout" of settlers from the Gaza Strip this summer.
On his arrival in Washington late Tuesday, Abbas said he was looking for unequivocal US support for a peace plan known as the roadmap, which targets the creation of a Palestinian state but has made next to no progress since its launch two years ago.
The Palestinians remain deeply sceptical over the pullout from Gaza, saying it is designed to circumvent the roadmap and negate pressure on Israel for a more comprehensive pullout from the West Bank.
"As we have stated several times in the past, we want from the United States a clear political position for the implementation of the roadmap, as well as economic support," Abbas said.
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