WASHINGTON, Oct 5: In a rare public disagreement between two strong allies, the White House rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday for saying the United States risked appeasing Arab nations at Israel’s expense like Hitler was appeased on the eve of World War Two.
“The prime minister’s comments are unacceptable,” said President George W. Bush’s spokesman, Ari Fleischer.
“Israel has no stronger friend and ally in the world than the United States, and President Bush is especially a close friend of Israel,” he told reporters.
He said the US view had been communicated to Sharon through the US Embassy in Israel and the National Security Council.
Sharon on Thursday called on the United States and the West not to seek Arab support for a war against global terrorism at Israel’s expense, citing the “dreadful mistake of 1938” when Europe “decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia” to the Nazis.
Israel, he said, “will not be Czechoslovakia.”
Sharon was alluding to Western acquiescence to Nazi Germany’s takeover of part of Czechoslovokia under the Munich Pact of 1938, which paved the way for further German conquests.
“The United States is not doing anything that would appease the Arabs at Israel’s expense,” Fleischer said.
Sharon’s blast came after Bush said on Tuesday that part of his long-term vision for Middle East peace was a Palestinian state. Bush said this had “always” been his policy.
The New York Times had reported that the Bush administration had planned a Middle East policy initiative, including endorsement of a Palestinian statement, that was derailed by the Sept 11 attacks.
Fleischer said the United States had been working for months to press the parties to end the violence and return to a political dialogue and “the United States will continue to press both Israel and the Palestinians to move forward.”
The dispute marked a rare public disagreement between the two allies since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Israel is the largest recipient of US assistance, estimated at three billion dollars a year.
In response to Fleischer’s comments, a Sharon aide, Zalman Shoval, said Sharon did not mean to imply the United States has acting dishonorably.
“Prime Minister Sharon of course did not imply in any way that America and its leaders were dealing in a dishonorable way in the present situation as far as it pertains to Israel,” he said.
“What the prime minister intended was to make a warning to everyone, including ourselves, but especially to the leaders of the free world, that appeasement never works,” Shoval said.
SHARON’S FEARS: The fierce row reflects Ariel Sharon’s alarm at how far Washington is prepared to go to win Muslim support for the global front.
It was Sharon’s caustic language rather than his message that stunned Israelis accustomed to the warmest of words between the two allies. They are aware that alienating the United States would be the biggest blunder Israel could make.
A Sharon aide later said the Israeli leader did not mean to imply the United States was “dealing in a dishonourable way”.
And a senior Israeli official said US Secretary of State Colin Powell called Sharon on Thursday night and received the prime minister’s assurance that “no offence was intended”.
After last month’s attacks on the United States, Sharon had hoped that Washington’s new anti-terror drive would help cement Israel’s place as America’s greatest friend in the Middle East and give him a freer hand to crush the Palestinian revolt.
But the rare public row shows how Israel’s vital relations with the United States have been strained.
Israeli officials are dismayed that while the United States has ruled out an Israeli role in any military response to the attacks, diplomatic overtures have been made to Syria and Iran.
MIXED REACTION: Sharon’s blunt warning drew a mixed reaction at home.
“The Bush administration will no doubt be surprised by Sharon’s hurling what is the most painful arrow one ally can aim at another, the charge of Munich-style abandonment,” the Jerusalem Post said in an editorial.
But it said: “Sharon is absolutely right that it is morally and strategically bankrupt for the US to act as if its alliance with Israel is a liability in the war against terror while praising Arab regimes that have been fanning the jihad against America for years.”—Reuters
