U.S. Calls Mideast Quartet For Talks
The Bush administration has modest goals for a conference it will host next month to plot peace moves in the Middle East despite the increasingly violent struggle between Israel and the Palestinians.
Even while announcing the talks to be held in Washington on Dec. 20, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it is impossible to make headway toward a Palestinian state amid violence and terror attacks on Israel.
"We see no excuse for such attacks," Boucher said Monday. "We're pressing the Palestinians to do all they can to end immediately the terror and violence."
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships raided the Gaza refugee camp of Deir al Balah overnight, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, looking for yet another group of militants. There were reportedly fierce battles with Palestinian gunmen resisting arrest.
Palestinian hospital officials say four of the camp residents were wounded, including a fourteen-year-old boy.
The Israeli forces also destroyed the home of Mohammed abu Huli, a man they say has masterminded mortar attacks on Jewish settlements throughout the Gaza Strip, and for armed attacks on Israeli soldiers.
The army said it found mortar bomb parts in the house.
In the West Bank, the Israeli army withdrew from the center of Bethlehem Monday, but they maintained a curfew there. Israeli forces swept into the area, after the suicide bombing last Thursday.
Israel's steady pace of operations is being seen as partly a way to protect the Israeli public, and partly as a political strategy by current Israeli Prime Minister to defeat a leadership challenge later this week, from the hawkish former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Battling a severe economic slowdown, Israel is seeking additional American financial aid, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.
The Israeli economy has been hard hit by two years of conflict with the Palestinians, and that, along with the global economic downturn, has Israel looking to the U.S. for help. The problem is that Israel is already the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid, with an annual package of $3 billion. Israeli media reports say Israel wants $8 to 10 billion in loan guarantees, and an increase in economic aid. The U.S. is expected to respond to the request soon.
The U.S.-hosted conference — drawing together officials from the United States, Russia, Europe and the United Nations — will be aimed at developing a roadmap for Mideast peacemaking, Palestinian statehood and reform within the Palestinian Authority.
The idea is "to make progress where we can," Boucher said, adding that ending the violence and restoring security will be on the agenda.
Boucher affirmed the Bush administration was solidly behind Israel in combating terror. But he also expressed concern that Israel's response was claiming civilian casualties, including British U.N. official Iain Hook, who was shot by Israeli troops last Friday in the West Bank town of Jenin.
With all the violence, the administration decided to go ahead with a meeting of the so-called quartet in Washington.
Secretary of State Colin Powell will host the meeting. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller and Javier Solana of the European Union are expected to attend.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent a deputy, Natan Sharansky, to Washington earlier this month to tell Vice President Dick Cheney and Powell that peacemaking should be deferred until the Palestinian Authority moves toward reform.
At a minimum, Sharansky said, peace efforts should be put on hold until Israel and the Palestinians hold elections in January.
But Powell decided to proceed anyway, holding to the position that peacemaking cannot be set aside while terror is rampant — a view shared by a number of European and Arab governments.
The Arabs hope Israeli voters will remove Sharon and install Amram Mitzna, the Labor party leader, as prime minister.
Mitzna, a former general, said Monday that he would "disengage" Israel from the West Bank and Gaza with a security border.
The Palestinians want to take over the territory for a state, and establish a capital in East Jerusalem.
President Bush has endorsed statehood for the Palestinians but has insisted on an end to corruption and ties to terror in the Palestinian Authority as conditions. He also has called for new leadership to replace Yasser Arafat.
Two days before the Likud primaries in Israel, Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sharply criticized his boss, Sharon. One of the two arch rivals will be elected Likud leader on Thursday, and the winner will probably be the next prime minister. In a newspaper interview Tuesday, Netanyahu said Sharon's policies are driving Israelis to despair. He cited terrorism and a sluggish economy. But polls show Netanyahu is trailing Sharon by 16 to 18 percentage points.