President Bush and other U.S. officials warned Israel on Friday to stick to the U.S.-inspired “road map” for Middle East peace and said Israel should take no unilateral steps that might complicate the creation of a Palestinian state.
After meeting at the State Department, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Secretary of State Colin Powell said they agreed that the road map, which lays out a step-by-step approach to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, is the way forward.
But behind the scenes, there are increasing signs of tension between the White House and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has enjoyed a close relationship with President Bush.
Washington is pressuring Sharon to make good on the commitment he made to Bush in Aqaba, Jordan, last year to begin dismantling Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, sources said.
Shalom told Powell that Sharon would be unveiling a new peace plan next week. Shalom later told reporters that Sharon’s plan, described in the Israeli media as consisting of “unilateral” steps Israel will take to withdraw from some territory in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and dismantle some settlements, might include new movement on the settlements.
Shalom’s meeting with Powell came amid growing signs of administration displeasure with Israel.
“Israel must be mindful . . . that they don’t make decisions that make it hard to create a Palestinian state,” Bush said Friday. “It’s in Israel’s interest there be a Palestinian state. It’s in the poor, suffering Palestinian people’s interest there be a Palestinian state.”
In the West Bank, meanwhile, seven Jewish worshipers were wounded when they came under Palestinian gunfire after praying at a holy site despite Israeli orders to stay out.
The ambush early Friday in Nablus came after the group–members of a Hasidic sect called Bratslav–visited a site that is said to be the burial spot of the biblical Joseph.
The group considers Joseph’s Tomb to be sacred and has made visits to the site in defiance of an Israeli military ban on travel by civilians into areas under Palestinian authority.
The Israeli military once controlled the site but withdrew in 2000 during the early stages of the Palestinian uprising. Palestinians set fire to the site.
Claims of responsibility for the ambush came from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Islamic Jihad.
