Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will seek to bolster ties with the United States by pointing to "terrorist threats" to both countries when he meets with President George W. Bush at the White House Tuesday, a member of Sharon's entourage said Monday.
The hawkish leader arrived in New York late Sunday after a brief stop in London where he touched on similar topics in a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the senior Israeli official told AFP.
"Sharon told Blair that terrorism is the most serious threat to stability in the region," the senior Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel's defense minister charged Monday that Islamic militant Osama bin Laden was trying to get a foothold in Israel by establishing a network of terrorist operatives inside the Jewish state, according to Haaretz newspaper.
On Friday, US forces in the region were placed on the highest anti-terrorist alert following what officials called a credible threat of attack against US interests by forces linked to Bin Laden.
The State Department also issued a "worldwide caution" Friday warning US citizens of possible terrorist attacks.
Against that backdrop, Sharon will broach the issue of "Palestinian terrorism" with Bush, the official said.
His visit comes as the Israeli government has increasingly warned it is willing to break the June 13 ceasefire brokered by CIA Director George Tenet that has failed to completely stop the bloodshed.
Israel stresses that the Palestinian Authority has not lived up to a ceasefire condition of arresting activists involved in “terrorist attacks.”
"These activists were to be arrested without delay, but nothing has happened," an Israeli official said aboard the plane carrying Sharon to the United States.
"Israel refuses to go any further unless the halt to the violence is total and duly verified on the ground."
The stance would appear to signal to Washington that Israel will not be pressured on issues like a freeze of new settlements on Israeli-occupied land, a recommendation of the US-led Mitchell Commission.
The Mitchell report calls for an immediate end to the violence followed by a "cooling-off" period and confidence-building measures between the two.
The Tenet-brokered ceasefire was intended to consolidate the first stage of the report.
Sharon has thus far refused to stop new construction in the settlements of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, where 200,000 Israelis live among more than three million Palestinians on land captured by Israel in 1967.
The settlements are illegal under international law.
Nevertheless, Sharon will get a red-carpet welcome in Washington for not launching massive attacks after a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv disco that killed 21 people. Sharon's previous response to such attacks was to use helicopter gunships and US-made F-16s to bomb Palestinian neighborhoods.
It will be Sharon's second meeting with Bush since he assumed the position of prime minister on March 7.
Arafat has not been invited to the White House since Bush became president in January.
Meanwhile, Sharon said Monday that "If the world will look at him (Arafat) instead of as a head of state but as a head of a gang of terrorists, maybe he will understand that violence must be stopped.”
Sharon was speaking at a reception for heads of various Jewish organizations, held at the home of Israel’s Consul General in New York, Haaretz said – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
