ISRAEL/BRITAIN: Israeli and British officials were engaged in a diplomatic joust yesterday, after the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon barred a Palestinian delegation from attending a conference in London on reform of the Palestinian Authority, and then rejected a request by British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, to rescind the decision.
The dispute began after Israel said the Palestinians would not be allowed to travel to the conference, scheduled for January 14th, following the dual suicide attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday that killed 22 people. As a result, British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, may be forced to cancel next week's conference.
According to the office of Foreign Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, he told Mr Straw that Britain should adopt the position of President George W. Bush "that leaders compromised by terror cannot be partners for peace."
"You in Britain are doing the exact opposite," Mr Netanyahu told Mr Straw, according to the statement. "No, it is Israel that is doing the opposite," Mr Netanyahu's office quoted Mr Straw as saying. "Instead of concentrating on dealing with terrorism, it is striking at \ delegates." Speaking later in Tel Aviv, Mr Netanyahu dismissed the idea of Mr Arafat sending a delegation to London to discuss reform as "a sham". There was no more chance for reform under Mr Arafat, the foreign minister said, "than there is for reforming Saddam's regime" .
Mr Straw expressed his great regret at Israel's decision and said: "I believe that this cannot advance the cause of peace and security for Israelis any more than it can for Palestinians."
Mr Straw said the two suicide bombings which left 22 people dead were "a terrible reminder of the unspeakable nature of terrorism" and said "it must be in the interests of all sides of this conflict for Palestinians to have to address the key issues of reform, including security sector reform".
While clearly trying to contain the diplomatic fallout from the surprise disclosure of the terms of Mr Straw's conversation with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Blair's spokesman conceded there might be little point proceeding with the conference in the absence of representatives of the Palestinian Authority.
Liberal Democrat spokesman, Mr Menzies Campbell, echoed government calls for an Israeli U-turn, saying that while nothing could justify the suicide bombings the ban on travel was "wholly misguided and unnecessarily provocative".
Britain's EU Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, also called on the Israeli government to think again about "a rather self-defeating decision".
Some commentators in Israel suggested the Mr Sharon had chosen a "soft" target in the British government. He did not, for instance, choose to reverse a recent Israeli decision - taken under persistent US pressure - to begin transferring frozen tax revenues to the Palestinians.