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Sharon Leaves Palestinian Tensions to Meet Bush
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon leaves behind a volatile domestic security situation on Sunday to meet President George W. Bush in Washington for the first time since both took office.
Sharon is also due to meet senior defense officials, U.S. Jewish and congressional leaders and visit the United Nations as Palestinians' feelings run high over Israeli restrictions on their movement after almost six months of an uprising.
Shin Bet security chief Avi Dichter met Palestinian intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi late on Saturday at Gaza's Erez crossing with Israel to discuss trying to reduce the level of violence, sources close to the meeting said.
They said it was the second time the two had held talks since Sharon defeated Ehud Barak in February's prime ministerial election. But Palestinian Public Security chief Major General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh said no meeting had taken place.
There was no Israeli confirmation that the talks had happened, although Israel Radio reported that Sharon had given the green light to Israeli officials to hold talks with Palestinian counterparts on reducing tensions.
At least 347 Palestinians, 65 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September.
Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday to demand an end to Israeli blockades of Palestinian areas, scornful of Israeli promises to relax controls the Jewish state says are necessary for its security.
Palestinian hospital officials said that Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip.
Witnesses reported heavy late-night exchanges of gunfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians to the north of the West Bank town of Hebron, close to the West Bank settlement of Tapuach and near Neve Dekalim and Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip.
Sharon, Arafat Seek Support
The hardline Sharon, cold-shouldered by the United States as an obstacle to peace less than a decade ago, wants support for his demand that peace talks with Palestinians will only resume if there is an end to the uprising that broke out in September.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, on his own drive to drum up support ahead of an Arab summit in Amman later this month, held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak on Saturday.
A senior Palestinian official said Arafat would visit Syria this month for talks with President Bashar al-Assad that aim to end years of animosity over policy differences.
The announcement came a day after an official Syrian spokesman said Bush had phoned Assad to say he was ready to help reach peace in the Middle East.
Israel announced on Friday the relaxation of the clampdown it imposed on Palestinian-ruled areas after the uprising began.
Europe and the United States have put pressure on Israel to relax the closures of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which have made it impossible for thousands of Palestinians to commute to jobs in Israel and restricted residents' movements with checkpoints and fortifications.
Palestinians reject the blockades as a ``collective punishment'' and see promises to ease them as a cosmetic gesture.
Israel Radio on Saturday quoted sources in Sharon's office as saying he had warned Arafat in a message conveyed through various channels that renewed violence would lead Israel to cancel the measures taken to ease the blockade.
A Defense Ministry statement said it expected the moves, including the opening in daylight hours of both the Allenby Bridge linking the West Bank and Jordan, as well as the Gaza-Egypt border, would ``encourage the Palestinian economy.''
It added it would also ease restrictions at the Israel-Gaza Karni commercial crossing and allow raw materials in and out of the West Bank.
Israeli police said they were investigating the death of a 10-year-old Palestinian boy whose body was found near the Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov north of Jerusalem, but added they believed the case was criminal rather than political.
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