Bush Tells Israel to End Invasions

President Bush demanded Tuesday that Israel withdraw its troops from Palestinian-run parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, delivering the stern message personally to Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.

Bush’s intervention, following similar warnings by lower-ranking White House officials, underlined concerns that Washington’s customary support for Israel could hurt U.S. efforts to retain Arab and other Muslim countries as allies in the war on terrorism.

Although Bush and Peres had not been scheduled to meet, the president joined talks between the Israeli official and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. He stayed 25 minutes, an extraordinarily long time for a drop-in visit.

White House spokesman Sean McCormack said Bush asserted that he is Israel’s best friend, but the president also called for an immediate end to the Israeli invasion of Palestinian territory launched last week after the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.

During his three days in Washington, Peres has assured members of Congress, reporters, Jewish groups and other audiences that Israel will pull back its troops as soon as the Palestinian Authority arrests the assassins of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. But the administration told him that isn’t good enough.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told Peres that the forces should be withdrawn “immediately,” regardless of whether the Palestinian authorities move against the assassins, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. McCormack said he didn’t know if Bush used the same words, but “that is our position.”

The exchange clearly came as a surprise to Peres, who has long been able to persuade U.S. officials to soften criticism of Israeli actions. Peres’ center-left Labor Party has threatened to quit Israel’s coalition government if the Israeli army doesn’t withdraw soon.

Administration officials applauded the strong support that Peres offered the U.S. on its military actions in Afghanistan. But they firmly rejected Israel’s assertion that the incursion into the West Bank and Gaza is a skirmish in the war on terrorism, no different from the U.S. campaign against Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.

“These are two different situations and two different things,” Boucher said. “Israel faces a situation where its interests would be best served by reducing tensions in the region, getting back to a political path of discussing political issues. . . . The situation with regard to Al Qaeda is totally different.”

Although Boucher declined to link the U.S. call for Israeli restraint to the counter-terrorism coalition, the administration has faced complaints from Arab countries about Israeli military action and Washington’s traditional support for the Jewish state. Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, is in Washington this week pledging Arab support for the war on terrorism but warning U.S. officials that Israeli activities in the West Bank and Gaza are undermining that position.

“The Arab world is part of the international consensus in combating global terrorism,” Moussa said. “However, we must be aware that only by resolving ongoing conflicts can we effectively deprive terrorists of hiding behind legitimate causes.”

Bush tempered his denunciation of the Israeli invasion of Palestinian-controlled territory with a pledge to “maintain firm pressure on the Palestinian Authority to stop violence and to fight terror,” McCormack said.

Powell said the United States will demand that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat order the arrest and punishment of Zeevi’s killers. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Palestine Liberation Organization faction that has long opposed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, has claimed responsibility for the killing.

“We look to Chairman Arafat to act immediately to arrest all those responsible for the assassination of Minister Zeevi, as well as move decisively against any of those who are planning or conducting acts of terror,” Boucher said. “The Palestinian decree outlawing such groups, such activities, is a positive step, but as we’ve always said, actions are required, not words.”