Opinion: They should return the favor

U.S. efforts to maintain Arab support for the war against terrorism have been complicated by the escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat both claim to be supportive of the U.S. campaign. They need to show their support, and their statesmanship, by pulling back from a crisis that threatens to erupt into all-out war.

Israel's partial military pullback from areas of the Palestinian-controlled West Bank is a step in the right direction. The Israelis should withdraw from the four other recently occupied cities under a credible security arrangement that requires Arafat to do everything in his power to stop the attacks on Israelis and arrest the militants who wage war from the Palestinian side.

The violence of recent weeks threatens to unravel the tepid support that moderate Arab states are giving to the U.S. war on terrorism. At least 22 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in a cycle of raids and reprisals that followed the Oct. 17 murder of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Raiding the Palestinian villages was a brute display by Sharon, but Arafat was all too willing to play along and allow more of his people to die for the Palestinian cause. These two need to be made aware that this deadly game of tit-for-tat weakens American public support for U.S. involvement in the Mideast.

Arafat has a responsibility to arrest the killers of Zeevi, but that is just a start. It's time for him to prove his own legitimacy to lead a Palestinian state. Arafat's refusal to keep Islamic radicals in jail and the complicity of his corrupt administration in fomenting anti-Israeli violence provide Sharon with political cover to act in the name of self-defense. According to reports, the two terrorists who shot four Israeli women dead Sunday were members of Arafat's own security forces. So much for Arafat's tiresome claim he cannot control the radicals.

Israel's partial withdrawal was a result of the pressure the Bush administration brought to bear at a critical time. Sharon defied for days a call by President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell for Israel to withdraw under a security arrangement that now appears to be taking shape. As important as an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is to long-term U.S. interests, Washington's immediate goal should be to foster a partnership in the war against terrorism with moderate Arab states.

There is no better recruiting tool for al-Qaida or Hamas than the sight of Israeli forces asserting military control over Palestinian territory. Sharon has picked a bad time to test American allegiance, just as Arafat has picked the wrong issue to test American resolve. Arafat and Sharon face a similar threat from the same Islamic radicals that have brought a deadly dimension of the Middle East war to American soil. Palestinian and Israeli leaders should be working with the United States to lower tensions, revive a dialogue and isolate the radicals on both sides of their conflict.

Washington has worked hard in recent years to spare more people in the Middle East from the type of atrocity that befell thousands of Americans Sept. 11. It's time we expect the Israelis and Palestinians to return the favor.

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright