Bush’s ‘evenhandedness’ forces Sharon to compete for attention

JERUSALEM -- After President Bush's late July meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, one thing is clear: Ariel Sharon no longer will have things all his own way in Washington.

Bush pointedly expressed admiration and respect for Mahmoud Abbas, the new Palestinian Authority prime minister, whom he called "a leader of vision and courage and determination."

Still, Sharon was able to deflect American pressure on Israel over the security fence it is building along the border with the West Bank, and to underline Israel's insistence that the Palestinians must crack down on terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The fact that Bush was effusive in his praise of Abbas -- despite Abbas' refusal to dismantle terrorist groups -- worries the Israelis.

In his meetings with Bush and White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Sharon made it clear that unless the Palestinians dismantle terrorist groups -- as they are obliged to do in the first phase of the "road map" peace plan -- Israel will not move on to the second phase.

And, Sharon added, he doubts that the Palestinians will act without considerable American pressure.

So far, such pressure has not been forthcoming. Israeli analysts believe Bush went easy on Abbas because, having invested so much in Middle East peacemaking, he wants to show the Palestinians that America is an "honest broker" that can deliver a fair deal.

Bush also hopes his overt show of support will shore up Abbas' shaky status among the Palestinian public, analysts say.

Ironically, Abbas' weakness on the Palestinian street is proving to be his strength: Against the backdrop of that weakness, he has been able press for American support and Israeli gestures of compromise.

Nowhere has the new American "even-handedness" been more apparent than on the issue of the security fence. After his meeting with Abbas, Bush even adopted Palestinian terminology, calling the fence a "wall" and saying he would speak to Sharon about the route, urging changes wherever it causes hardship for Palestinians or cuts too deeply into the West Bank.

Sharon came to his meeting with Bush armed with aerial photographs showing that only 10 percent of the security barrier actually is a wall, in areas where snipers in Palestinian cities along the West Bank border could fire at drivers on a major Israeli highway.

Bush did not pressure Sharon to stop construction of the fence or move it back to the Green Line -- the pre- 1967 border between Israel and Jordan's West Bank -- but the two sides agreed to hold further consultations on the route with the aim of minimizing hardship to Palestinians.

For Sharon, though, it's not the fence or its route that is likely to undermine the peace process. It is the Palestinians' failure to disband terrorist groups.

Getting that point across was the main objective of Sharon's Washington visit this week. He told Bush that he believed the peace process would collapse in a matter of months if Abbas failed to act against the terrorist groups.

"We are concerned that this welcome quiet will be shattered any minute as a result of the continued existence of terror organizations, which the Palestinian Authority is doing nothing to eliminate or dismantle," Sharon said at the news conference.

The question is whether, in the wake of the meetings, Bush will find ways to persuade both sides to do what is needed to advance the diplomatic process and rebuild mutual trust.