PM Sharon to tell AIPAC: Gaza pullout will proceed on time

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is due to tell the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at its annual policy conference Tuesday that Israel will proceed with the disengagement plan on schedule, no matter the circumstances. Sharon will also praise Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for his strategic decision to condemn terrorism and violence. Sharon will say that Abbas’s practice of reaching agreements with the terrorist organizations is mistaken and will produce the opposite of what Abbas wants to achieve. Sharon will also tell the convention that Israel is working to ease the plight of Palestinians, fulfilling its commitments from the Sharm el-Sheikh conference. Monday, the second day of his visit to New York, Sharon continued to meet with Jewish leaders, senior officials at City Hall and personal friends. On Sunday, Jewish millionaire Sam Domb hosted a dinner for the prime minister at his home, attended by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former mayor Ed Koch. Sharon appeared to be relaxed and enjoying his time with political supporters, without the pressures of political meetings. Asked Monday by Israel Bonds leaders if the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank would be described by Palestinians as a victory, Sharon replied, „So what if they say so? What is important are the facts and not what they will say. On our side also there are people who say things they should not. So what? Does it make the Jews any weaker?” Sharon said that his government „will not negotiate Jerusalem” and will not make any concessions over „the Israeli capital, which is united and indivisible for eternity.” He added that previous governments had agreed to Palestinian soldiers guarding the walls of the capital, „but those times are behind us. It will not happen.” In all the meetings with U.S. Jewish leaders, Sharon reiterated the same messages: The disengagement plan would go ahead and Israel would take steps to ensure the pullout does not take place under fire; disengagement is good for Israel; and every effort must be made to advance peace, but carefully. Following his address to AIPAC, Sharon will meet with Evangelical leaders and then fly home. His adviser Dov Weissglas is due in Washington on Tuesday for consultations with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Steve Hadley. They are to discuss Abbas’ upcoming visit to Washington. Weissglas is also expected to discuss the steps taken by Israel to strengthen Abbas’ political position and request that the administration refrain from making far-reaching gestures to the Palestinians. Weissglas will tell the officials that if the U.S. takes steps to support the Palestinians on the eve of the pullout it could make it more difficult for Sharon to implement his disengagement plan. Rice to AIPAC: Bush to tell Abbas democracy is indisputable goal President George W. Bush will tell Abbas this week that democracy is an indisputable goal for the Palestinians, Rice told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference Monday. Rice said that American administrations have in the past tried to achieve peace in the Middle East in places where there was no democracy, but „we are not going down that road again.” She called on Israel not to take measures that would prejudge a final status agreement and called on the Palestinians to move forward with democratic reforms and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in the territories. The embattled AIPAC is turning on political star power in a bid to prove that the FBI investigation against two senior AIPAC officials has not compromised the pro-Israel lobby. Aside from Rice, guests include Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Bush administration and Congressional leaders. The conference is the first such event since the probe was made public last summer. The officials are being investigated for allegedly receiving classified information from Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin and conveying it to Israel. AIPAC has done everything possible to make sure this year’s convention was the largest and most impressive in years. The participation level was at an all-time high, and so was the participation of senior officials – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is to speak today, four Congressional leaders, Sharon and hundreds more congressmen who will take part in a ball Monday evening. While the delegates are abuzz over the Franklin affair and its potential ramifications, the convention’s agenda focused on the two main issues for the pro-Israel community in the U.S. – disengagement and the Iranian threat. Last year, the lobby hadn’t made up its mind about disengagement, but this year, it is fully behind it, in Congress and with the administration. AIPAC vows all employees will obey U.S. laws Meanwhile, for the first time since the AIPAC-Franklin scandal broke last August, the heads of the organization have commented on it publicly and promised to ensure that all employees of the organization observe the law as well as the rules of the organization. At the opening of AIPAC’s annual convention Sunday, executive director Howard Kohr promised the 5,000 activists that the lobby would come out of the affair safely, and that their work for Israel both in Congress and the administration had not been harmed. Kohr also promised that all AIPAC employees would obey U.S. laws. „I pledge to you that I will take any steps necessary to ensure that every employee of AIPAC, now and in the future, conducts himself in a manner that you will be proud of, using policies and procedures that provide transparency, accountability and effectiveness,” he said. Kohr also said that it was of the utmost importance that the official document submitted by the FBI to the courts in the matter of former Pentagon employee Larry Franklin proves „we now know directly from the government that neither AIPAC nor any of its current employees isn’t and never was a target of this investigation.” By employing the term „current employees,” Kohr made a clear distinction between the lobby and its two fired staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who have been named in the affair. Kohr said that the strong attendance at the convention proved how great the support for it was in the American Jewish community and sent a message to Israel’s and AIPAC’s opponents as well as the Jewish community that „we are here to stay.” Kohr’s comments were meant to communicate that the affair does not touch the organization directly or influence its work; they were the only official comments made about the investigation at the annual convention. While everything was business as usual from the podium, praising the lobby’s work and the State of Israel, the atmosphere was completely different in the convention corridors and the media, where the investigation took center stage. BPI-info