U.S. Presses Arafat to Prevent Attacks on Israelis

The Bush administration demanded Thursday that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat arrest and punish those responsible for the deadly pizza parlor bombing in Jerusalem, but at the same time urged Israel to limit its retaliation to prevent the conflict from escalating.

“Nothing is gained through cowardly acts such as this,” President Bush said in a statement issued in Crawford, Texas, where he is vacationing. “The deliberate murder of innocent civilians is abhorrent to all, a threat to peace and inconsistent with the parties’ signed agreements to put aside violence.”

Bush called on Arafat to “act now to arrest and bring to justice those responsible and take immediate, sustained action to prevent future terrorist attacks.”

Although a Palestinian suicide bomber was to blame for the Jerusalem carnage, both Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pleaded with both Israel and the Palestinians to exercise restraint.

“I urge the parties to return immediately to the cease-fire commitments they have previously made and to renew effective security cooperation so this kind of terrorism will not happen again,” Bush said.

When a suicide bomber attacked a disco in Tel Aviv on June 1, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon resisted demands from his own hard-line supporters for massive retaliation. Although pressure from the Israeli public is even greater now for a forceful response, Bush and Powell addressed their calls for calm to both sides.

“They both have to do everything they can to reduce the violence, reduce the provocations,” Powell said. “Otherwise, we are just going to continue to find a more difficult situation facing us tomorrow and the day after.”

Geoffrey Kemp, a White House Middle East expert in the Reagan administration, said Bush must hope “that the inevitable Israeli retaliation is not so devastating as to tip the region into something worse.”

“If the retaliation is restricted to targeting of extremist groups and Palestinian security personnel, it can be contained,” he said. “But if Sharon decides he needs to do something more draconian like occupying [Palestinian-administered] territory or using American weapons in a show of force,” the consequences could be grave.

There was no indication from the White House or the State Department that the administration planned to change its Middle East policy--which has had little effect on more than 10 months of violence.

Recently, the administration has come under pressure from foreign governments to take a more active stance, possibly by hosting an Israeli-Palestinian summit.

“We are doing everything we can,” Powell said. “I spoke to Chairman Arafat this morning. I have a call in to Prime Minister Sharon.”

Powell said he also had talked to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and European Union officials. Powell said none of them had urged him to make an emergency visit to the region.

“I’ll go anywhere where it makes some sense to go, if there is something to do,” Powell said. “But at this point, everybody knows what has to be done. The violence has to be brought down. And we have been delivering that message consistently.”

Despite the administration’s determined evenhandedness, there was growing anger at Arafat for his inability or unwillingness to keep his promise to end the violence. Arafat made the pledge when Powell visited the region in June.

“Chairman Arafat said in Ramallah he would make a maximum effort,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. “We are [still] looking for that effort.”

On Capitol Hill, there were growing demands that the United States punish the Palestinians.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are drafting legislation that would impose political or economic sanctions on the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority unless Bush certifies that they are complying with pledges to stop terrorism. The House has approved a similar amendment.

“The time has come for the United States to send a clear message to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat that he must rein in Palestinians who commit such acts and end the violence which has caused so much suffering on both sides,” the senators said in a letter to colleagues.

“America’s staunchest ally in the Middle East is under daily attack from Palestinians,” Feinstein and McConnell said.