Bush Backs Palestinian Changes
Sun May 26,10:37 PM ET
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) expressed hope Sunday that scrutiny of Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s leadership by fellow Palestinians could lead to changes in the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites), which White House advisers say is rife with division. "There's a new attitude emerging," Bush said.
Hoping to increase pressure on the Palestinian leader, the president and his foreign policy advisers cast the Arab world and factions of the Palestinian Authority as eager to reform the organization and ease tensions in the Middle East — with or without Arafat's help.
"You're beginning to see talk of reform," the president said outside a synagogue he visited before departing for Paris. He wraps up his European trip Tuesday.
"People are beginning to question out loud as to why there hasn't been a success" under Arafat, he said. "Evidently, there's a new attitude emerging among the new leadership in the Palestinian Authority."
The president's remarks may have been designed to deflect criticism that he has failed to ease tensions in the Middle East. But they also reflect a strategy, described by officials traveling with Bush, to encourage Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab nations — as well as Palestinian leaders inside Arafat's circle — to either force Arafat to change or make the reforms themselves.
"I'm beginning to hear — publicly, I'm beginning to hear, I might add — discussion about, `Well maybe we ought to reassess how to make the Palestinian Authority more accountable,'" Bush said.
The message was echoed by his top foreign policy advisers.
"There is indeed a lot of ferment and a lot of talk about reform in the Palestinian Authority," Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), Bush's national security adviser, said on "Fox News Sunday."
"It's a process that is beginning with discussions among the Palestinians themselves about why they have not had the kind of leadership that is going to bring them security and prosperity and peace with their Israeli neighbor," she said.
Appearing on "CNN's Late Edition" from here, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said Palestinian leaders are "suggesting that there is a need for reform within the authority in order for them to do a better job."
The notion of going around Arafat had bipartisan appeal.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Arafat has been a profound disappointment and the United States should reach out to moderate Arabs. However, Daschle also said Arafat "is the chosen leader and we've got to deal with him. ... Until some other leader is chosen, there isn't much choice."
Bush did not cite any evidence of discontent, but U.S. officials noted that Arafat has been pressed from inside his organization to schedule elections.
"He hasn't delivered," Bush said. "He had a chance to secure peace as a result of the hard work of President Clinton (news - web sites), and he didn't. He had a chance to fight terror and he hasn't."
Later, in a Paris news conference with French President Jacques Chirac, Bush said he was sending U.S. officials to the Middle East next week. CIA (news - web sites) Director George Tenet and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will work with officials willing to push for reforms, U.S. officials said.
"The good news is that many in the Arab world are now working with us to help create an environment" that will lead to creation of a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish one, Bush said at the news conference.
In particular, Bush cited efforts by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
Officially, Bush's position remains that the United States does not choose the Palestinian leader, thus Arafat is part of the process.
But his advisers have long been split on what to do about Arafat.
One faction, led by Powell, argues that the United States must deal with Arafat because, like it or not, he's the Palestinian leader. Others, such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), oppose reaching out to Arafat.
Shrugging off the split, Bush said: "I get all kinds of advice."
One senior official close to Bush argued that casting the advisers into camps oversimplifies the situation. While some are more anti-Arafat than others, there is a consensus that Arab pressure requires Bush to leave the door open in case Arafat backs reform, while working on the assumption that he won't. That means encouraging others to do so, the official said.
As for Tenet's mission, the immediate goal is to revamp and improve the Palestinian security apparatus to curb attacks on Israel, an essential first step for Israel's re-entry into peacemaking with the Palestinian Authority.
The administration is determined to accelerate what Powell calls the political process even amid uncertainty over Arafat.
Attacks on Israel have declined, but not ended, despite repeated calls by the Bush administration for Arafat to signal to the Palestinians that further assaults on Israel hamper their hopes for a state.
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