U.S. rejects Israeli protests

The Bush administration yesterday brushed aside Israeli objections to planned U.S. meetings with the architects of the “Geneva initiative,” an alternative Israeli-Palestinian peace plan launched in Switzerland this week.

“I am the American secretary of state. I have an obligation … to listen to individuals who have interesting ideas,” said Secretary of State Colin L. PowelI yesterday.

“[This] in no way undercuts our strong support for the state of Israel,” Mr. Powell said.

Chief negotiators of the unofficial plan, former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin and former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, were to meet with State Department and National Security Council (NSC) officials today.

“I do not know why I or anyone else in the U.S. government should deny ourselves the opportunity to hear from others who are committed to peace and who have ideas,” Mr. Powell told reporters while on a visit to Tunisia.

Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert yesterday had delivered unusually blunt criticism of the proposed meeting, telling Israeli press it would be an “incorrect decision.”

“I have my doubts about [Mr. Powells] judgment on this affair,” he said.

Mr. Powell’s sharp response was the third time in recent weeks that Washington has distanced itself from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government, reflecting the frustration that the Bush administration is experiencing dealing with the Sharon government.

Shortly after the United States joined the U.N. Security Council in November to endorse the stalled “road map” peace plan despite objections from Mr. Sharon’s government, President Bush bluntly told Israel it should not prejudice final peace negotiations with “the placement of walls and fences.”

Mr. Sharon’s insistence on constructing the combination fence-ditch-razor-wire security barrier was met this week with a U.S. decision to cut $289.5 million — out of a total of $9 billion over three years — from loan guarantees to Israel.

Nevertheless, analysts in Washington do not think the recent frostiness will threaten the underlying strong relationship between the United States and Israel.

“I think they definitely have some tensions now, but that does not reflect a crisis in the relationship,” said Rob Malley, Middle East program director for the International Crisis Group that sponsored international support for the Geneva plan.

“The decision to meet with the Geneva team is a way to put some pressure on the prime minister and say, ‘If you’re not going to move on issues that are included in the road map and that the U.S. has raised consistently, the vacuum will be filled in ways you might not like,’” Mr. Malley said.

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