October 30, 2001	Tuesday	Shaba'an 12, 1422

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BETHLEHEM, Oct 29: Israel completed its withdrawal of troops from Bethlehem on Monday, but said a pullout from other reoccupied Palestinian areas would depend on whether Israeli security demands were met.

With relations between Israel and its guardian ally under strain as the United States tries to marshal Arab support for strikes on Afghanistan, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told US officials he might postpone a visit to Washington next month.

Sharon ordered his forces out of Bethlehem and the neighbouring town of Beit Jala in what was meant to be the first phase of a gradual pullback from Palestinian-ruled territory.

But he has continued to defy US calls for a full and immediate withdrawal from all the Palestinian areas that Israeli forces entered 10 days ago following the assassination of a far-right minister.

The United States is seeking to calm a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence as it tries to bolster Arab support for its declared war in response to the Sept 11 hijack-suicide attacks on New York and Washington.

Political analysts said a delay in Sharon’s US visit could be aimed at avoiding direct pressure to end the reoccupation.

The withdrawal from Bethlehem coincided with the sixth anniversary on the Jewish calendar of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin by an ultra-rightist Jew opposed to his policies of trading land for peace with Arabs.

Hundreds of Israelis paid their respects at Rabin’s grave in a memorial service shown live on television.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a former foe who shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Rabin, sent flowers to the grave of the man he called “my partner in making the peace of the brave”.

After days of street battles, parts of Nativity Road leading to Bethlehem’s Manger Square looked like a war zone, with store fronts demolished, shattered glass covering sidewalks and buildings scarred by bullets and tank fire.

A second meeting of Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs in three days was agreed upon scheduled to discuss terms for a pullout of Israeli forces from five other cities.

But an Israeli spokesman said troops would leave only after “a complete cessation of terrorist activities”.

He cited concerns about the “security situation” as the reason for possibly postponing Sharon’s trip to Washington, where he was tentatively scheduled to meet President George W. Bush on Nov 11.

Sharon had planned to stop in London on the way, but Gissin said he would meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday in Israel.

Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah said Blair was also due to meet the Palestinian president in Gaza on Thursday.

PROBLEMS IN ISRAELI-US TIES: Blair has recently sought a more active Middle East role. Israel Radio reported that British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had presented the Bush administration with peacemaking ideas.

Gissin denied that Sharon’s trip was being put on ice because of problems in Israel-US relations.

Israel’s fierce military offensive following the Oct 17 assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi has drawn the strongest US criticism since Sharon took office last year.

Sharon also angered Bush recently when he warned him not to appease the Arabs at Israel’s expense as European democracies appeased Adolf Hitler before World War Two.

Israel Radio said the army was bolstering its forces near Tulkarm and Jenin, the two West Bank cities closest to the scenes of attacks on Israelis on Sunday.

One Israeli soldier was killed in a shooting near the border with the West Bank, and in the northern Israeli city of Hadera, two gunmen fired on passers-by and motorists, killing four women before police shot them dead.—Reuters