NY Times

April 15, 2004

• By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON, April 14 — President Bush on Wednesday recognized Israel's right to retain some West Bank settlements as part of any peace accord with the Palestinians as he formally endorsed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. He called the plan "historic" and "courageous."

In a major shift in American policy that was already angering many Arabs on Wednesday night, Mr. Bush said that Israel should not have to return to its pre-1967 borders, and that Palestinians and their descendants who lost their land in Israel in 1948 should eventually be settled in a Palestinian state, not back in Israel. The president's pronouncement effectively ruled out any "right of return" by Palestinians.

"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," Mr. Bush said in a news conference with Mr. Sharon in the Cross Hall of the White House.

Mr. Sharon, who beamed at Mr. Bush's side throughout their 24-minute appearance, said his plan would create "a new and better reality" for Israel.

Mr. Bush did not specifically mention, as Mr. Sharon had wanted, that Israel should retain five West Bank settlements that have been growing for decades and now hold some 55,000 people. Administration officials said Mr. Bush left his language vague to avoid angering Palestinians even more than expected.

As a gesture to the Palestinian side, Mr. Bush reiterated in a letter to Mr. Sharon on Wednesday that any security barrier being built by Israel must be "temporary" and that its route should take into account its effect on Palestinians. American officials said this meant that the United States expected Israel to build only those parts of the barrier that are close to its pre-1967 borders, and not on routes that jut into the West Bank, walling off Palestinians from each other.

In another concession to the Palestinians, Mr. Bush said that any future Palestinian state should be "viable, contiguous, sovereign and independent." Administration officials said that meant that a future Palestinian state could not be shrunken or truncated by the lines that some officials in Mr. Sharon's government say should be the final boundaries.

But Palestinians still reacted with furor. In anticipation of Mr. Bush's endorsement of Mr. Sharon's plan, both Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian president, and Ahmed Qurei, the prime minister, issued denunciations declaring that the plan put any future peace agreement in peril.

"The Palestinian leadership warns of the dangers of reaching such an accord, because it means clearly the complete end of the peace process," Mr. Arafat said in a statement.

Administration officials sought to play down the negative comments as an instant Palestinian reaction to press reports rather than to the reality in front of them.

"I don't think that reaction is going to stop progress because there are real benefits here for Palestinians, and they're going to see those benefits here clearly," said a senior administration official who asked not to be identified because he wanted to speak more freely. "The main benefit is that a Likud government of Israel is going to withdraw from settlements. Israel has not withdrawn from a settlement since 1967. This is therefore going to be a very big deal."

Administration officials also held out hope that Mr. Sharon had embarked on a process of withdrawal that would be rejected by Mr. Sharon's far-right coalition partners, which would force him to bring the left-of-center Labor Party into the government and create a political climate the Palestinians might consider more hospitable.

"There's a great deal of suspicion of Sharon — that's a fact," the senior administration official said. He then predicted that "in a month this coalition government will fall, and will be replaced with a different coalition with Labor in it."

"Palestinians are more comfortable with that," the official added.

Israeli officials said withdrawals from the West Bank and Gaza could begin in nine months to a year. They did not address the Bush administration's expectation that Mr. Sharon's government would fall, but they said the timing of the withdrawal would be determined by Mr. Sharon's ability to win approval in the cabinet and the Parliament. Some 200,000 Likud members are to vote on the plan.

Israeli officials also said the timing of withdrawal depended on operational details like finding new homes for the settlers.

A senior Israeli official said in Washington on Wednesday that he remained hopeful that the Palestinians would see the agreement between Mr. Bush and Mr. Sharon as an opportunity. "They can really take matters into their own hands and chart their own destiny," the official said.

Politically, the Bush-Sharon accord will have "enormous psychological impact" on Israelis that will make it easier for Mr. Sharon to carry out his withdrawal plan, the official said. "In a way, it kind of sweetens the bitter pill for us" of "giving up territories," the official said. The American response "will hopefully convince the Israeli public to support" Mr. Sharon's plans.

It was Mr. Sharon who developed the idea in the 1970's of populating Gaza and the West Bank with Israeli settlers to improve security, but his aides say he is now eager to break with his legacy. He announced his withdrawal plan in December, and aides say he sees it as the only way to guarantee Israel's security.

At the same time, the United States has insisted that Israel not substitute the withdrawal plan for the "road map," the Middle East peace plan that calls for a Palestinian state next to Israel.

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