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U.S. says Israeli leader's charge 'unacceptable'Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, The White House on Friday strongly rebuked unusually harsh comments by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, who charged that the United States risked appeasing Arab countries in the current terrorism crisis just as some European countries appeased Hitler before World War II. "The prime minister's comments are unacceptable," President Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said. "Israel has no stronger friend and ally in the world than the United States, and President Bush is especially a close friend of Israel," Fleischer said at a news briefing Friday morning. "The United States is not doing anything that would appease the Arabs at Israel's expense." Fleischer said Washington's view had been communicated to Sharon through the U.S. Embassy in Israel. On Friday, Israel sought to lower the diplomatic temperature a bit by saying that Sharon did not mean to imply that the United States was acting in a "dishonorable way." An aide to Sharon, Zalman Shoval, told Reuters: "What the prime minister intended was to make a warning to everyone, including ourselves, but especially to the leaders of the free world, that appeasement never works." In his comments, made on Thursday, Sharon said: "Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense. We cannot accept this." He said his words were addressed to Western democracies in general, but he added that "first and foremost" they were intended for the United States. In an allusion to the Munich Pact of 1938, when the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia was ceded to Germany, he declared: "Don't repeat the terrible mistakes of 1938, when the enlightened democracies in Europe decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a comfortable, temporary solution." Israel, he said, "will not be Czechoslovakia." Shoval said Friday that Palestinians might have misinterpreted American intentions and "as a consequence given free rein to the sort of terrorist wave we have seen in the past few days." Bush administration officials have said that before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States was on the verge of announcing a Middle East diplomatic initiative that would include Washington's support for the creation of a Palestinian state. Fleischer said Friday that the United States had been working for months to encourage the parties in the Middle East to return to a political dialogue. "The United States will continue to press both Israel and the Palestinians to move forward," he said. Five Palestinians killed in Hebron fightingHEBRON, West Bank -- Mideast truce efforts crumbled Friday as Israeli troops backed by dozens of armored vehicles seized two Palestinian neighborhoods in this West Bank city in retaliation for deadly attacks on Israelis. Five Palestinians -- two gunmen and three civilians -- were killed by Israeli fire in the pre-dawn incursion. More than 10,000 angry mourners poured into the streets for the funeral procession, led by dozens of men firing in the air. Elsewhere in the West Bank, an Israeli motorist was killed in a Palestinian shooting ambush. In a speech Thursday, Sharon said the Israeli military would do whatever necessary to protect Israeli lives. "From now on we will count only on ourselves," he said, suggesting the truce deal had become irrelevant. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat said the Palestinian Authority remained committed to the truce deal but was evasive about whether Palestinian security forces would arrest militants suspected of attacks on Israelis. In two Palestinian neighborhoods of Hebron, Israeli troops on Friday fortified positions seized in an overnight raid. Soldiers took over the top floors of several homes, ordered residents to leave, and planted Israeli flags. Five Palestinians were killed in a gunbattle triggered by the incursion, including three civilians who were hit by shrapnel from tank shells that struck their homes. The Israeli military said the incursion into Hebron was a response to constant Palestinian gunfire from hilltops at Jewish enclaves below.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
