http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,564033,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/10/05/ret.us.sharon/index.html
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House on Friday said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's warning to the United States not to "appease" Arabs at Israel's expense is "unacceptable."
President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer said the administration's reaction has been relayed to the Israeli Embassy, the National Security Council and the State Department.
"Israel has no stronger friend and ally in the world than the United States," Fleischer told reporters. "President Bush is an especially close friend of Israel. The United States has been working for months to press the parties to end the violence and return to a political dialogue."
Comparing current events to Western acquiescence in 1938 to Nazi Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia, Sharon said Thursday, "I call on the Western democracies and primarily the leader of the free world, the United States: Do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938 when enlightened European democracies decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a convenient temporary solution."
"Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense," Sharon said. "This is unacceptable to us. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. Israel will fight terrorism."
"We can only count on ourselves," Sharon said. "From now on, we will count only on ourselves."
He said Israel will take "whatever steps necessary" to protect Israelis from terrorism and accused Palestinians of repeatedly violating the recent cease-fire agreement, reached under pressure from the United States.
"Every effort by us to reach a cease-fire was torpedoed by the Palestinians," he said. "The fire hasn't stopped for a minute."
The U.S. efforts to bring about a cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians was complicated by its plan to build a broad-based international coalition to fight terrorism in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Included in that coalition are a number of Arab and Islamic countries. In what could be an effort to secure Arab support, Bush said Tuesday that a Palestinian state was always "part of a vision" if Israel's right to exist is respected.
Expanding on those remarks, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "There has always been a vision in our thinking, as well in previous administrations' thinking, that there would be a Palestinian state that would exist at the same time that the security of the state of Israel was also recognized, guaranteed and accepted by all parties."