Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Bush Denounces Israeli Airstrike as 'Heavy Handed'
The bluntly worded statement issued by the White House at President Bush's direction this morning was a sharp change of tone for the administration. In recent weeks the White House has refrained from criticizing Israel's reoccupation of the West Bank or its military responses to suicide bombings.

But Mr. Bush was described by one aide as "visibly angry" at reports of the damage done early today when the Israeli military used an American-made F-16 fighter jet to drop a one-ton laser-guided bomb into Al Daraj, a densely packed neighborhood, just after midnight.

"We had to show the Sharon government there are some redlines" on their action, a senior administration official said today. "There was a lot of anger around here." Despite the tough words, Mr. Bush made no suggestion that the United States would withhold American arms if they are used again in the deliberate targeting of civilian housing.

In Israel, an early celebration of the killing of Sheik Shehada quickly turned into an exercise in political damage control. Mr. Sharon initially called the airstrike "one of our major successes."

When the White House statement was issued, the Israeli government immediately responded with its own statement, saying the government "had no choice but to attack the person who was directly responsible" for an attack last week by Palestinian gunmen on an Israeli bus.

By this evening, as the extent of the casualties and destruction became clear and the condemnations poured in from Washington, Europe and the Arab states, a senior military official said, "We wouldn't have done it if we knew what the consequences would be." Gen. Dan Harel, the army's chief of operations, called it "a precision attack," but other military officials suggested that the military had badly miscalculated the scale of the collateral damage.

…The office of the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, warned that "Israel has the legal and moral responsibility to take all measures to avoid the loss of innocent life." Sweden called the attack "a crime against international law and morally unworthy of a democracy like Israel," and other European nations issued similar statements.

But the most surprising shift came from Mr. Bush, who has moved from anger at Mr. Sharon when he initially refused an demand by the president in April to withdraw forces from the West Bank, to praise of the prime minister for fighting terrorism, to today's condemnation. The whipsaw of administration statements, officials say, reflects the deep frustration among Mr. Bush's team that every minor diplomatic step forward in recent weeks has been overtaken by either a Palestinian suicide bombing or a sharp Israeli response.

Another senior American official said that the discussions with the two Israeli officials had focused on an American proposal that involved revamping the Palestinian security apparatus. There has also been preliminary talk among Arab states about setting terms for a Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire. But all of that was set back by Israel's action. Rather than target Sheik Shehada with a missile, it used a weapon normally used to destroy buildings or city blocks.

"There is a disconnect between the diplomatic discussion and the activity on the ground," the official said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/24/international/middleeast/24PREX.html

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