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| Bush Urged to Stop Appeasement of Arafat Suicide Bomber's 'Passover Massacre' Latest Obstacle to Diplomacy By Fred Jackson (AgapePress) - A Washington-based conservative group is calling on the Bush Administration to end its appeasement policy towards Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. The World Tribune quotes a report from the Heritage Foundation which says it is time for the White House to stop following the footsteps of Bill Clinton when it comes to its Middle East policy. According to the Foundation, "Washington must fundamentally rethink the flawed appeasement policy that has raised Palestinian expectations, whetted Arafat's appetite for concessions, and led the Oslo negotiating process into a diplomatic dead end." The report says if Arafat refuses to end his incitement to violence and support of terrorism, Washington should break relations with the Palestinian Authority, close the PA's office in Washington, and seek to isolate it diplomatically. Other conservative voices have also been critical of the Bush Administration's Middle East policy. They point to the fact while the President champions the right of the U.S. to go after terrorists which attack this country, he calls on Israel to restrain itself from doing the same when terrorists attack and kill its citizens. Passover Massacre The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for what Israeli government spokesman Gideon Meir calls a "Passover massacre" and "another example of Palestinian barbarism." Israeli police had been on high alert for possible attacks during the Passover holiday. But the country's police commissioner says it is impossible to prevent all attacks. Arab Summit "The indication has been that the Saudis and other Arab states are not looking to negotiate with Israel," Hart says, "but to demand from Israel that it withdraw to the 1967 borders, share sovereignty over Jerusalem, and allow hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to live here." According to Hart, the Arab summit could be seen as a threat to Israel because of the greater unity that Arab nations are displaying in their ultimatum -- and that that could be compounded by the possibility of Western nations joining the Arab countries to pressure Israel. She adds that Israel has little to gain from what the Arabs are offering -- and a lot to lose. "There's no sense of real desire for peace on the part of these Arab nations that have attended the summit in Beirut," she says. "It's more a sense of Arab public relations propaganda." Future Diplomacy Noting Wednesday night's suicide bomber incident at the restaurant in Netanya, she says: "I'm sure there were Israelis sitting in that dining room already engaged in a Passover seder, reciting those passages from the Book of Exodus that we all know so well," she says. "These suicide missions are coming more frequently and with no respect to biblical holidays or the lives of women and children." With such incidents occurring, Hart is doubtful that any real diplomatic progress can be made. © 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.
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