US may see Israel as obstacle to coalition

JERUSALEM (September 21) - Foreign Ministry officials are concerned that Israel is increasingly being perceived as an obstacle to American attempts to build its anti-terror coalition, something that could have dangerous diplomatic ramifications for Israel.

An Israeli diplomat in the US sent a cable to the ministry recently warning that "if Israel will find itself on the wrong side of the equation the US is trying to present, the diplomatic damage will be tremendous, and I am not exaggerating in estimating that there will be real ramifications for US-Israeli relations."

Diplomatic officials maintain that one of the reasons Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is so keen on meeting Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat now is because US President George W. Bush has requested it, and Peres does not want Israel to appear as the country at this time saying "no" to the US president.

Both The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times have in recent days run editorials criticizing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for saying no to Bush and canceling a planned Arafat-Peres meeting last week.

This train of thought is not limited to these two papers, but also was in ample evidence at a couple of telling press conferences held in Washington this week.

At the White House, for instance, spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked: "Does the president have some indication now whether Israel will be a willing partner or a hindrance to this coalition that's being assembled?" Fleischer responded: "Well, the president hopes that all nations around the world will help to resolve this matter. And he's going to have continued conversations with Israel and with the government of Israel.

"But it's also important for Israel and for the Palestinian Authority to do all they can to seize this opportunity to move forward on peace in the Middle East which will, in and of itself, be a major contribution to reducing terrorism and violence around the world."

In another press conference, this time at the State Department, US Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked point blank: "Ariel Sharon has not been terribly helpful, it seems, in this [coalition building]. A lot of Arab countries are saying we have to do something about this conflict and we have to restrain Sharon or a coalition isn't going to fly."

Powell's response: "I think we do have to do something about the situation in the Middle East. And I never lose sight of the fact that one of the underlying continuing problems we will have - we had it before 11 September, we're going to have it for the foreseeable future - is that we have to get into the Mitchell Plan and we have to get back to negotiations in due course. And so I can assure you, I haven't taken the United States' eye off that ball."

In the cable to the Foreign Ministry from the senior diplomat, the official wrote that there are nascent signs in the US media linking the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israel's policies in the Middle East, to the attacks in New York and Washington.

The diplomat argued that that this topic will gain currency on the US agenda as the US attempts to build an anti-terror coalition develop, and it becomes clear that Israeli and US interests on the matter are not identical.

"The basic support for Israel will not be replaced by support for the Palestinians, but a rethinking of basic American position is conceivable as long as the conflict in the Middle East is seen as hindering the building of a coalition, holding up American policy, and even damaging wider American interests," the cable read.