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Bloodshed confounds Bush plans
Compiled from Times wires WASHINGTON -- President Bush's proposal to jump-start the deadlocked Middle East peace process was put on hold Wednesday, as the White House conceded that the plan is becoming a victim of the new spate of suicide bombings. The president had been expected to call for creation of an interim Palestinian state in a midweek speech. But the timing and details of Bush's plan were clouded Wednesday after the second suicide bombing in as many days ripped through a Jerusalem bus stop. Seven Israelis were killed and more than 35 were wounded. That bombing, along with one the day before that killed 19 Israelis, an announcement by Israel that it would reoccupy some of the Palestinian territories, as well as the initial reaction from Middle East leaders to Bush's proposal, has sparked further scrutiny of the concept and its key details by the administration, U.S. officials told the Los Angeles Times. Bush met Wednesday with his top national security team for further discussions on the plan, the officials said. "It's obvious that the immediate aftermath (of the suicide bombings) is not the right time" to unveil the peace plan, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "The president wants to give a speech at a time when it will have the maximum impact to bring the maximum prospects for peace to the region, and the president will make that determination about what that time is." Bush could still give the speech within the next few days, possibly Monday, administration officials told the Los Angeles Times. The major factor determining the speech's timing might be what happens in the region in the next few days. Israel has asked for at least a temporary end to the violence before the United States makes any move, U.S. and Middle East officials told the Los Angeles Times. The language from the White House on Wednesday reflected Bush's deep anger and frustration with the Palestinian Authority and its failure to rein in extremists, particularly among its own factions, officials told the Los Angeles Times. The White House had been calling on Israel to curtail its military crackdown in Palestinian areas of the West Bank earlier this year. But on Wednesday, after Tuesday's bus bombing, the administration expressed its understanding of Israel's retaliatory policy that included seizing additional Palestinian territory. "The president understands Israel's right to self-defense, particularly in the wake of an attack of this severity," Fleischer said. Last week, the administration was drawing up details for a peace plan that called for creating an interim Palestinian state as a preliminary step to a permanent one. The latest draft of the proposal calls for creating a state with "provisional" borders. It could be declared later this year or early next year, depending on how quickly Palestinians moved to improve security in the region and adopt political reforms, administration officials said. The officials say the change in phrasing and other details reflect their dissatisfaction with Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat. Vice President Dick Cheney's office, in particular, has argued against any declaration of a Palestinian state on the grounds that declaring U.S. support for the idea now would only reward terrorists. Serious disputes among the president's top advisers over major issues -- including what borders a Palestinian state might have, whether to set a deadline for its creation and who would control Jerusalem -- have delayed a speech initially anticipated Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, the senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Knight Ridder. Advisers also disagree over what role, if any, would be played by Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat, the official said. The administration hopes that political reforms will open up a Palestinian system that has been dominated by Arafat and bring new faces into government that are more willing to take the tough decisions needed to make a final peace with Israel. A major issue Bush discussed Wednesday with his national security team was whether to propose a timeline for a final settlement, officials told the Los Angeles Times. Palestinian mediator Nabil Shaath, who met with National Security Council and State Department officials this week, proposed one year of negotiations and one year of implementation. Israel wants no deadlines and a step-by-step approach that does not begin until its security is guaranteed. Wednesday's suicide bomber sprang from a car, slipped past two police officers and blew himself up at a busy Jerusalem intersection, killing at least six other people. It is in a disputed part of Jerusalem claimed by both sides. On one side is the Jewish neighborhood of French Hill, and on the other is the Palestinian neighborhood of Shuafat. Responding, Israeli forces early today entered a suburb of the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Palestinian witnesses said tanks circled a house in Beitunia, where soldiers apparently planned to make arrests. Soldiers also occupied Qalqilya, placing the West Bank town under curfew. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three wounded when they entered the house of a suspected militant, and shooting broke out, the military said. Shortly after the suicide attack, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at metal workshops in the Gaza Strip used to manufacture weapons. Thirteen Palestinians were hurt, two seriously, Palestinian doctors said. Arafat condemned both bombings early this morning in a strongly worded statement distributed to Palestinian newspapers, radio and television stations, in which he expressed a need to "speak to you frankly about the necessity to stop these attacks." It remained to be seen, however, whether anyone among the Palestinian militants was still listening to Arafat, whether the Israelis still regarded him as the prime architect of terror, or whether he was simply trying to evade Israeli retribution. A group tied to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, according to Al Manner television station run out of Lebanon by the militant Islamic group Hezbollah. In one of his strongest condemnations ever, Pope John Paul II decried Tuesday's attack, saying, "Those who plot and plan such barbarous attacks will have to answer before God." More than 50 prominent Palestinians signed a full-page newspaper ad in al Quds news urging groups behind deadly assaults on Israeli civilians to "stop sending our young people to carry out such attacks." The newspaper ad, whose signers included legislator Hanan Ashrawi and the Palestinians' senior Jerusalem official, Sari Nusseibeh, said: "We see no results in such attacks, but a deepening of the hatred between both peoples and a deepening of the gap between us." The ad urged all Palestinians who support such a call to sign on. Hamas claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast in a leaflet saying it was prepared for a prolonged offensive against Israel. - Information from Los Angeles Times, Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Associated Press was used in this report.
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