Sharon: Crack down on militants
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday that there would be no progress in peace efforts until the Palestinian Authority cracks down on militant groups, and he warned that Israel would step up military action if the Palestinians did not start moving against the armed factions.
Sharon’s remarks at the weekly meeting of his Cabinet came in response to Friday’s suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed four Israelis and wounded about 50. The militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
The blast, the first suicide bombing in Israel in nearly four months, severely tested a truce declared Feb. 8 by Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and threatened to set back relations between Israel and the Palestinians, which have steadily improved since the death of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader, in November.
“There will be no diplomatic progress, I repeat, no diplomatic progress, until the Palestinians take vigorous action to eliminate the terrorist organizations and their infrastructures in the areas of the Palestinian Authority,” Sharon said during the Cabinet session.
“If the Palestinians do not begin to take vigorous action against terrorism, Israel will be compelled to step up military activity that is intended to protect the lives of Israeli citizens,” Sharon added.
Israel halted operations in the Gaza Strip and scaled back activity in the West Bank in recent weeks after Abbas reached an understanding with militant groups to suspend attacks pending a formal cease-fire.
In an effort to preserve the truce, Israel has not responded militarily to the Tel Aviv bombing, but it is ratcheting up pressure on Abbas to confront the militant groups, particularly Islamic Jihad.
Israeli officials are demanding that Abbas break up the radical factions, seize their weapons and make arrests. But Abbas has avoided such a confrontation and is seeking to persuade the militants to accept a formal cease-fire and lay down their arms.
Sharon criticized that approach in a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called Sunday to convey condolences from President Bush to families of the Israelis killed in the Tel Aviv bombing.
Sharon told Rice that as long as Abbas “takes no tangible steps against the terrorist organizations, including disbanding them, and as long as he tries to reach understandings with them, terrorism such as we witnessed last Friday will continue, and Israel cannot accept this,” a statement from Sharon’s office said.
Without “active steps” by the Palestinians, Sharon added, there could be no progress toward carrying out the first stage of the road map, the international peace plan that outlines steps to resume negotiations leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.