Israeli diplomats expressed satisfaction with U.S. President George W. Bush's address to the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday while Arab leaders were angered by the president's refusal to meet with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres is due to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell prior to Powell's policy address at the UN later in the week.

While Bush's speech focused primarily on the international battle against terrorism, he did state his vision for the Middle East. "The American government also stands by its commitment to a just peace in the Middle East," Bush said. "We're working toward a day when two states - Israel and Palestine - live peacefully together in secure and recognized borders as called for by Security Council resolutions. We will do all we can to bring the parties back to the negotiating table, but peace will only come when all have sworn off, forever, incitement, violence and terror."

Despite Bush's public declaration of support for a

"Peace will only come when all have sworn off, forever, incitement, violence and terror" - U.S. President George W. Bush

Palestinian State, Israeli sources cited in the media noted that the speech only briefly touched on the Middle East. The Israeli sources were pleased that the president had tied progress in the peace process to a complete cessation of terror and violence.

A more important message to the Palestinians, in Israel's opinion, was Bush's refusal to meet with Arafat in New York. Arafat was in the UN hall during Bush's speech, whereas Israel's delegates were absent as the session was held on the Jewish Sabbath. Though a White House spokesman said on Thursday that an "accidental handshake" between Bush and Arafat could take place at the UN, no such meeting occurred.

U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that Arafat had not done enough to distance himself from groups defined by Washington as terrorist. Powell said on Friday, "I think in due course, when the time is right, Mr. Arafat will have a chance to meet with the president."

Palestinians were furious with the president's snub of Arafat. "Any sober and rational calculation would reveal that this (a meeting) would not only be helpful to the Palestinians and Israelis. This would definitely be helpful in the total global quest for a more secure and more just world,'' Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said.

Meanwhile, Powell affirmed his support Friday for the establishment of a Palestinian state and said he was trying to arrange a meeting with Arafat to give peacemaking "a jump-start." Powell told television interviewers that a decline in violence could pay off in a reinforced cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians and a start on peacemaking gestures. Powell called on Israel to reopen its borders to Palestinian workers and urged Arafat to bring violence "down to zero."

Israel anxiously awaits Powell's policy statement
Israeli officials continue to anxiously await Powell's Middle East policy statement due at the UN's economic conference later in the week. Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Yehuda Lancry said he is not sure what Powell would say, or include, in the speech. "We assume that the Clinton Plan, as worded at Camp David, served as inspiration for the plan," Lancry told ynet.

Lancry said that Powell would lay out a three-tiered plan beginning with the cessation of violence, followed by the implementation of the Mitchell Report. Only then, claimed Lancry, would the two parties return to face-to-face political negotiations, Ha'aretz reported.

Lancry said that there was only a very slight possibility that Arafat would use the United Nations as a platform from which to unilaterally declare a Palestinian State, Israel Radio reported.

In a meeting last night with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, prior to his departure for the United States, Peres reportedly recommended that Israel recognize a Palestinian State if Arafat would make such a declaration. In an interview with a Swedish radio station on Friday, Peres said that Palestinian Legislative Council chairman Ahmed Qurei's (Abu Ala) idea of declaring a Palestinian state before peace talks was "interesting."

Peres and Sharon reportedly also discussed their joint diplomatic initiative but no details were made public. A ministry official said only that the "two discussed diplomatic, security and financial maters, and the discussions would resume upon Peres's return from the U.S."

Peres allegedly suggested Israeli recognition of a Palestinian State on territories currently controlled by the Palestinians and recommended granting the Palestinians territorial contiguity between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Maariv reported.

But diplomatic sources said Sharon gave Peres clear instructions to remain within the policies of the government, especially in regard to the recognition of a Palestinian state, the Jerusalem Post reported. The prime minister reportedly instructed Peres to emphasize in his upcoming UN address that the plan formulated by Sharon and Peres would serve as Israel's guideline for ending the conflict with the Palestinians.

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