President George Bush hosts Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
as U.S.-Israeli relations have dropped to their lowest point in years.
U.S. officials said relations between Jerusalem and Washington have been
strained at both the defense and political levels, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the Bush
administration has been increasingly estranged from the Israeli government
amid repeated misunderstandings between leaders, rising U.S. skepticism
over Israel's ability to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West
Bank and the growing perception that Israel has hampered U.S. policy
goals in the Middle East.
"The administration wants to focus its Middle East policy on a military
exit from a democratic Iraq," a U.S. official said. "This goal requires
significant international cooperation and that's where Israeli policy has
been seen as a hindrance."
Officials, congressional sources and Western diplomats portray Bush's
relationship with Sharon as strained. They said
Bush has sought to avoid meeting or maintaining direct contact with Sharon,
regarded by the White House as unreliable and lacking in vision.
The White House view was demonstrated in Bush's decision to invite a
right-wing Israeli critic of Sharon only nine days after the president's
reelection in November 2004. In what officials said was an unprecedented
decision, Bush sat with Israeli Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky, an
opponent of the Israeli withdrawal plan, for about an hour to discuss the
latter's book, "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome
Tyranny and Terror," which advocates democracy as the best insurance against
aggression. Sharansky's book has become required reading in the White House.
"There is a severe credibility problem with Sharon," a U.S. government
source who deals with the administration's relationship with Israel said.
"He will send his aides who agree with everything the president or Condi
[U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice] says. And then later, Sharon will
say why these these agreements must be postponed."
Officials said Bush has been concerned that the Israeli withdrawal plan
would result in the opposite pledged by Sharon. They said that during their
last meeting in April 2004, Sharon had assured the president that the
Israeli withdrawal would be smooth and reduce tensions with the
Palestinians.
Instead, officials said, the unilateral withdrawal effort has
destabilized Israel and the Palestinian Authority as well as severely
undermined domestic support for Sharon, who has sought to placate the
right-wing opposition within his ruling Likud Party. As a result, Sharon and
his aides have claimed that the United States, in exchange for a Gaza
pullout, has guaranteed a significant Israeli presence in the West Bank.
Sharon's claim has been bolstered by government plans to build thousands
of housing units in the West Bank and his refusal to dismantle more than 100
outposts in the West Bank. They said the prime minister has warned the
administration that dismantling the outposts, which in some cases have grown
to neighborhoods, would endanger the Gaza withdrawal plan.
"Many of us are asking whether we understood what we were getting into
[by agreeing to the withdrawal plan]," an official said.
The strain in Bush-Sharon relations began in late 2002 in the months
approaching the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Officials said then-Secretary of State
Colin Powell assessed that Israeli policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
was hampering U.S. efforts to form an international coalition against the
Saddam Hussein regime. They said Powell and his aides regarded Sharon as
largely unreliable and unstable, a view shared by his successor, Ms. Rice.
Over the last six months, officials said, relations between Israel and
the United States dropped significantly. They said that in private
conversation Bush has expressed increasing impatience with Sharon and what
the president feels has become the U.S. need to repeatedly bolster the
sagging popularity of the prime minister.
"Right now, Israel can do no right with the White House," a member of
the Republican Party leadership close to the administration said. "Israel
has been privately blamed for U.S. difficulties in the Middle East,
particularly regarding the war in Iraq."
Officials said Bush, Ms. Rice and National Security Advisor Stephen
Hadley believe that U.S. policy in the Middle East has been endangered by
the Arab and European perception of Washington's support for Israeli
settlements and the war against the Palestinians. They said Arab
allies of the United States as well as in the European Union have repeatedly
cited this argument in explaining their opposition to Washington's policies.
"Bush has approached his second term with a firm eye on setting a
legacy," the GOP leadership member said. "He sees his legacy as bringing
democracy to the Middle East, with the first step being Iraq. To achieve
this goal, the United States needs stability in the region and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict prevents such stability."
As a result, senior State Department officials, including Ms. Rice, view
the Sharon government as unhelpful to U.S. policy in the
Middle East. Over the last year, these officials have relayed such an
assessment in classified briefings to the House and Senate.
In one recent briefing, several House members argued that Israel played
a major role in providing expertise, equipment and technology to the U.S.
military in Iraq. But an administration representative responded that
Israel's help could have been obtained from another source.
The Israeli-U.S. strain has included defense relations. The Defense
Department has largely boycotted Israel's Defense Ministry amid suspicions
of arms exports by the Jewish state to China. Officials said that despite
Israeli pledges, the Pentagon has determined that Israel has either exported
or sought to deliver weapons platforms and technology to Beijing, a
development that has harmed Washington's efforts to prevent the EU from
lifting its arms embargo from China.
"More than anything else, the China issue undermines 20 years of
U.S.-Israeli defense relations and the Pentagon's trust in Israel," a senior
congressional aide said. "Unlike other issues, Congress is 100 percent with
the administration on China."
Officials said Israel's continued efforts to maintain defense relations
with China has angered even the most pro-Israel members of Congress. They
said several of them have warned Israel of a significant reduction or even
suspension of U.S. aid to Israel. Israel receives more than $2.2 billion in
U.S. military aid annually.
Since July 2004, U.S. defense exports and joint programs have been
disrupted amid the Pentagon anger over Israeli arms sales to China.
Officials said the Pentagon and State Department have suspended shipments of
equipment and components and banned Israeli access to the Joint Strike
Fighter program.
The delays in U.S. arms export to Israel were said to have alarmed
Sharon. Officials said Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz have
repeatedly warned senior administration officials of a prospect of a
regional war after the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern
West Bank and the reduction of U.S. forces in Iraq in 2006. They said Sharon
has sought U.S. guarantees that Washington would provide both equipment,
intelligence and military support to face any Arab-Iranian coalition.
"He's [Sharon] has raised with us this several times," an official said.
"It seems to be his nightmare that Israel will be caught in a regional war
without sufficient supplies or U.S. military support."
Sharon's visit to Bush intends to highlight U.S. support for the
embattled prime minister. Officials said Israeli television cameras would
follow the two leaders as they drive in the president's jeep during a tour
of his ranch. Bush and Sharon also plan to eat lunch together.
Still, the display of camaraderie belies the stern message Bush was
expected to relay to Sharon. Officials expect Bush to remind Sharon of his
pledge to halt construction in the West Bank, dismantle unauthorized
outposts and cooperate fully with the PA. They said Bush would press
Sharon to commit to additional Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank in
2006 as part of plans to establish a contiguous Palestinian state.
"The president wants to come out of the meeting knowing two things: One,
that Sharon can and will withdraw from Gaza and the northern West Bank
without tearing apart the country; and two, that Sharon will take
substantial steps on other issues, including the roadmap, and the
establishment of a Palestinian state in 2006," an official said.
