Hakki
TUESDAY DECEMBER 04 2001
Bush hands tied as Sharon joins war on terror http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001561635,00.html
FROM ROLAND WATSON IN WASHINGTON
WHEN Ariel Sharon sat down with President Bush in the Oval Office for a hastily arranged meeting on Sunday, he had one devastating fact up his sleeve. The killing of more than 25 Israelis this week, when taken in proportion to the US population, was similar to some 2,000 Americans losing their lives, said his travelling entourage.
Mr Bush hardly needed to have the implication spelt out. Mr Sharon was placing the weekend’s suicide bombings on the same scale as the September 11 attacks and would respond accordingly. There was nothing that Mr Bush could do to prevent him.
Mr Sharon has used the wide-ranging terms in which Mr Bush cast his war on terrorism to leave the President powerless to restrain Israel. When Mr Bush delivered his address to Congress nine days after September 11, he set out what his officials were keen to enshrine as the “Bush doctrine”. The thrust was that America was declaring war not just on those responsible for the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks, or Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, but on states and authorities that harbour or fail to crack down on terrorists.
Mr Sharon’s declaration of a “war on terror” yesterday was a deliberate aping of Mr Bush’s own language and was designed to give the Israeli Prime Minister maximum room for manoeuvre. The implication was that, while Washington was justified in unleashing its military might over Afghanistan, the Israeli Government was similarly justified in launching its helicopter gunships on Gaza against the Palestinian leadership.
To tie Mr Bush’s hands further, Mr Sharon went out of his way to praise his war leadership as brave and promised to match it. The effect is to complicate hugely the next phases of Mr Bush’s war on terrorism and to make life uncomfortable for the White House.
Lawrence Eagleburger, Secretary of State to the first President Bush, said yesterday that the historical interpretation of Sunday’s meeting would be that it was the moment the US leader gave Israel his tacit blessing to use force against Palestinians. “It will be the time when Sharon came to Washington, the President gave him the green light,” Mr Eagleburger said.
Such a view threatens to do untold damage to Washington’s already shaky standing in the Middle East, wrecking Mr Bush’s recent efforts to cast aside his early lack of interest in the region. Much of the credit Mr Bush and Colin Powell, his Secretary of State, bought in the region with their goal of an independent Palestinian state will be fast running out.
Linking Israeli aggression against the Palestinians with the US-led war on terrorism is also potentially inflammatory around the Muslim world. Young militants accept bin Laden’s rhetoric that part of the reason for al-Qaeda’s jihad against the West is the hostile treatment of Palestinians. White House officials were nervous about the idea of America standing by while Palestinians were bombed.
Ari Fleischer, Mr Bush’s spokesman, volunteered when addressing the President’s meeting with Mr Sharon: “During the meeting yesterday, I think it’s fair to say that the United States did not give anybody the green light because no one asked for a green light.” He dodged all questions about whether Mr Bush accepted that Israel’s military action was now part of the wider war on terrorism.