Bush may have given Israel a blank check some time ago to use all means necessary to suppress the Palestinian uprising, but US officials conceded that the assassination of Al-Rantisi came at a very awkward time, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington Already facing Arab dismay with the unprecedented concessions which President George W Bush gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during their meeting at the White House last week, the assassination of Hamas leader Abdul-Aziz Al-Rantisi in Gaza on Saturday was more bad news for the US government. Senior US officials rushed to deny any advance knowledge of the attack or Sharon's decision to assassinate the Hamas leader, a conclusion that many Arab commentators immediately suspected. In several appearances on Sunday television talk shows, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, repeatedly denied that the US president gave Sharon the green light to kill Al-Rantisi, less than one month after the assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. "We don't get heads up on Israeli military operations," Rice told ABC. She added, "the president has said repeatedly to the Israelis that they need to take account of the consequences of what they're doing." When Sharon ordered the killing of Yassin last month, the US administration's reaction was rather muted. It took many hours for the US State Department to issue a statement announcing that Washington was "deeply troubled" by the attack. President Bush ignored even the "deeply troubled" reference in statements on the second day, and only earnestly reiterated his conviction that "Israel had the right to defend itself," and that Hamas was "a terrorist organisation". Following the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, Sharon reportedly succeeded in convincing Bush that they were both fighting a joint battle against terror, and that groups like Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah were morally equivalent to Al-Qa'eda, led by Osama Bin Laden. The subsequent close alliance between Bush and Sharon was translated into an increased US tolerance of Israel's policy of the use of excessive force, including assassinations, the destruction of houses and tight restrictions on Palestinian movement, most US analysts believe. But with Al-Rantisi's assassination coming shortly after the letters of assurances exchanged between Bush and Sharon last week -- in which the US president offered unprecedented pledges to Israel to back its denial of the right of return and to annex parts of the West Bank that include densely populated illegal settlements -- the US administration apparently concluded that its reaction should be more vocal. In her interview on ABC, Rice said given the current US effort to jump-start the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel's move to assassinate Al- Rantisi "is not helpful". As in its reaction to the assassination of Yassin, and in its response to Arab protests over the documents handed to Sharon, Rice and other senior US administration officials pleaded to Arab countries to grasp the "historic opportunity" included in Sharon's offer to evacuate settlements in Gaza and pull out his troops from the densely populated strip. Rice said that no previous Israeli premier had openly proposed the evacuation of settlements, and the fact that this offer is coming from Sharon, known as the godfather of the Israeli settlement expansion movement in the occupied territories, makes it even more significant. US Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed the same view in statements on Monday. "The Israelis come along -- Prime Minister Sharon -- and says, 'I am going to jump-start this with a unilateral withdrawal of all settlements in Gaza and withdrawal of four settlements to begin with in the West Bank.' We saw this as an opportunity, and we seized that opportunity, by working with Prime Minister Sharon and by making sure that his activities ultimately would be totally consistent with the roadmap, and that it was the beginning of a process." Arab countries, and local critics of Bush's decision to announce such unprecedented stands by a US government since Washington became directly involved in the Arab- Israeli conflict, said the assurances clearly contradicted the roadmap, which has the backing of the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, and was announced by the US president last year. The roadmap takes no position on thorny final status issues -- such as final borders, refugees, and East Jerusalem -- and clearly states they should be left to negotiations between the two parties. Claims by US officials that the concessions offered by Bush were not different from proposals made by former US President Bill Clinton at the Camp David talks in the summer of 2000 were also false, diplomats and US observers noted. In the Camp David talks, and later in Taba negotiations, which were described by Palestinian and Israeli participants alike as the closest ever to reaching a final deal, Israel offered to accept the gradual return of nearly 50,000 to 100,000 refugees. On settlements, Palestinian negotiators agreed to give up 4-5 per cent of the West Bank territories now densely populated by settlers, but that was in exchange for a similar amount of territories in Gaza and the West Bank to allow the territorial integrity of the future Palestinian state and its natural growth. All such proposals were absent in the statement and the letter which Bush handed to Sharon during their meeting last week. In his statements, Powell conceded that the US decision had not been not welcomed in the Arab world. He spoke a few hours only before Jordan's King Abdullah announced he was postponing a scheduled meeting with President Bush at the White House on Wednesday. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, who was scheduled to visit Washington on Thursday and hold talks with US officials, made a similar announcement. The decision by the Jordanians and the Palestinian Authority was aimed at signalling their dismay with Bush's concessions. "Now, we have received criticism for this position. But I think people should stop and look at what is happening. Settlements finally are going to be removed after years of discussion and debate and holding onto positions that did not remove any settlements or give us a way into the roadmap," Powell said on Monday. "I think while we are concerned about some of the language in the exchange of letters between the president and Prime Minister Sharon, what we really should be focussing on is the fact that Gaza is about to be made available to the Palestinians with the removal of all settlers, the removal of the IDF (Israel's Defense Forces)." Appealing to Israel's neighbours, Powell said he hoped that "as much energy is going into helping the Palestinians to provide political control for Gaza, as well as security for Gaza, as well as the opportunities that opened up in the West Bank with the removal of four settlements to begin with." Rice, as other US officials who struggled to quiet Arab criticism and concerns, also recalled what seems to be the US package deal: that Palestinian give up in advance the right of return of refugees and agree to Israel's annexation of chunks of the West Bank, in return for the recognition for the first time of their right to have an independent state. "For many, many years, American presidents mumbled when they got to the question of whether there was going to be a Palestinian state," she told ABC. "This president defiantly said, 'there's going to be a Palestinian state; it is going to be called Palestine.' And now we have to get on the road to doing that." US officials also argue that Bush's assurances to Sharon were necessary to help him gain the support of hard-liners in the Israeli government, who would likely be strongly opposed to any evacuation of Jewish settlements. An informed US source said Washington expected the formation of a new government in Israel when Sharon starts the pullout from Gaza next year. When a new coalition government is formed in Israel, including members of the Labour Party, there could be better chances for further steps in the West Bank, the source said. According to the same source, Israeli officials who have been meeting their US counterparts have argued that assassination of key Hamas leaders, such as Sheikh Yassin and Al-Rantisi, were aimed at weakening the group ahead of any pullout from Gaza, and depriving it from making claims that it was resistance which forced Israel to take such move as the case was in South Lebanon with Hizbullah. Meanwhile, the fate of the entire Gaza plan will hang on the outcome of the upcoming US presidential elections in November, and whether Bush can secure a second term. Yet, in all scenarios, Sharon appeared to be the winner, gaining unprecedented concessions from a US president, and a free hand in using force against Palestinians. International Response to the Bush Declaration on the Palestinian Right to Return
