Media Line/Widlanski Report: ARABS ASSAIL BUSH'S 'PRO-ISRAELI' STANCE AS
POWELL MISSION ENDS WITHOUT TRUCE, BUT WITH EASING OF LEBANESE-ISRAELI
BORDER TENSIONS

17 April 2002

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell left Israel Wednesday without achieving
an Israeli-Palestinian truce, but he apparently succeeded in easing tensions
along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his top ministers sharply criticized
the United States for allowing Israel to keep Arafat isolated and for
America's "pro-Israeli" stance.

"Is this acceptable that I cannot go out this door," shouted Arafat
rhetorically to several reporters who came with Powell to Arafat's besieged
headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The top Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Arikat, said the Powell talks had
produced no discernible results, but other Arafat aides were more blunt.

"America is supporting Israeli aggression," declared Yasser Abd-Rabbo, the
"Information Minister" of the Palestinian Authority and one of Arafat's
closest aides.

The Palestinian comments came minutes before President George Bush, speaking
in the U.S. at the Virginia Militiary Institute, once again sternly demanded
firm Palestinian policing of terrorists.

"Murderers are not martyrs," said President Bush , adding, "they are just
murderers." The U.S. president again insisted on Israeli withdrawals from
Palestinian-ruled territory, but his tone was clearly softer than a few days
ago, seeming to understand Israeli operational needs not to withdraw at all
locations imemdiately.

But Arafat and his aides were adamant that they would not talk about a
ceasefire until Israel had withdrawn all its forces-which were inserted
after a chain of Palestinian suicide attacks left more than 130 Israelis
dead in one month.

"The Israelis have not withdrawn until now," asserted Arafat, pointing to
the fact that the Israeli army (IDF) had several times re-entered West Bank
towns to arrest men and women suspected of planning or carrying out
murderous bomb attacks on Israelis.

"This is a tremendous failure for American policy," asserted Mustafa Bakry,
editor in chief of the Egyptian weekly magazine Al-'Usbu'a.

Despite the sharp criticism by the Palestinians, the Powell trip seemed to
have momentarily defused the intense border tensions between Lebanon, Syria
and Israel that had grown in recent weeks following a sharp rise in Arab
border attacks and incursions.

Although the pro-Palestinian Arab satellite stations ignored this point in
their reporting, Powell's success in putting off the possible danger of a
general war on Israel's northern front seemed a major achievement.

Michael Widlanski is senior analyst at The Media Line and lecturer at The
Rothberg School of the Hebrew University. Fuller versions of his articles
are available at www.themedialine.org
© 2002 Michael Widlanski