White House warms to Israel's withdrawal plans
Ariel Sharon wants to take most settlements out of Gaza
From Elise Labott
CNN
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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration is growing more receptive to an Israeli government plan to unilaterally withdraw most settlements from Gaza, a senior State Department official said Friday.
A unilateral withdrawal "would be a good thing because there are fewer things to negotiate" when the parties finally sit down to hammer out a final status agreement, the official said.
Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been a long-time backer of the settler movement, stunned his supporters earlier this month when he said he had told the government to begin plans for the evacuation of 17 of the 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza. (Full story)
Israeli officials have said Israelis might also consider withdrawing some settlements from the West Bank to completely physically separate themselves from the Palestinians.
In a radio interview Thursday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called the possible withdrawal "a step in the right direction."
The United States has voiced concern that a unilateral Israeli withdrawal, coupled with a barrier it is building to separate Israel from the West Bank, would prematurely set the borders of a future Palestinian state, a matter the United States insists should be negotiated in a final status agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
But the Israelis have told the administration that its current plans would not substitute for a final agreement, and that Israel remains committed to President Bush's vision of a two-state solution, as spelled out in the U.S.-sponsored road map to peace.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meeting earlier this month with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney, explained Israel believes its plan for disengagement is consistent with the road map.
Next week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and the National Security Council's Middle East chief, Elliot Abrams, will travel to the region to discuss the plan with the Israelis.
"So in this context we have taken a slightly more positive view," the senior State Department official said.
When asked what incentive Israel would have to negotiate a final status agreement with the Palestinians once it completes unilateral disengagement, the official said, "peace is the incentive."
The United States has said that movement on the road map toward an eventual Palestinian state could take place only after the Palestinian leadership took decisive steps to end terrorism.
Thursday, Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he is urging Arab foreign ministers to press the Palestinians "to come forward with a security plan to start taking action against terrorists in a very significant and decisive way."
"Until the Palestinian leadership and Authority says, 'No, stop, won't happen, we're not going to tolerate it and we're going to go after those organizations that feel that way,' then it will be difficult to get the kind of progress we need moving down the road map," Powell said.
