Israel tries to downplay Abu Mazen success

Ariel Sharon’s office is hard at work spinning Mahmoud Abbas’s visit to Washington into a no-loss outcome. But media and pundits award the round to the Palestinian Authority chairman.

Most bitter for Sharon was President Bush’s leniency on the matter of disarming terrorist organizations. The Americans will let it slide at least until after Palestinian parliamentary elections this summer.

(See Abbas seeks to delay Palestinian election.)

Sharon had made it a condition-precedent for Israel’s cooperation, but that position will be difficult to sustain in the aftermath of the White House summit.

President Bush also fired a broadside against Sharon’s plans to build the post-1967 Jerusalem suburb of Ma'aleh Adumim into contiguity with the capital. It was the first time the President referred specifically to Jerusalem in the context of warning against building in post-1967 areas.

The Media Line via UCI