THE US/MIDDLE EAST: Infuriated by yesterday Al-Aqsa bombing in Jerusalem, the White House has signficantly stepped up its rhetoric against the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, and pressure on him to condemn the bombings and curb Palestinian militants.
Mr Arafat's expected meeting with the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, today promises to be tense, not least because of Al-Aqsa connection to Mr Arafat's Fatah group. And the President's spokesman unwilling even to confirm that it would happen. Whether it does is a matter for Mr Powell's discretion, Mr Ari Fleischer told journalists.
Briefing reporters at the White House, Mr Fleischer said that the President "will not be deterred" from pursuing peace by the bombing which is widely seen here as timed to coincide with the Powell visit. He said that it would be a "particularly apt day" for Mr Arafat to condemn the bombing and he repeatedly refused to criticise deaths caused by the Israelis in occupied Palestinian cities.
Asked about the continued Israeli refusal to withdraw, Mr Fleischer would only say that the President's position remain unchanged.
Earlier he said that Mr Arafat had not lost Mr Bush's confidence - he had never earned it in the first place, language that contrasts sharply with his description on Thursday of Mr Sharon as a "man of peace" whom the President was determined to continue working with. He had been responding to, and denying, suggestions that exasperation with the Israelis was beginning to lead to a distinction in US policy between support for Israel and support for Mr Sharon.
Mr Bush's harder line against Mr Arafat yesterday is also a response to simmering discontent in the fiercely pro-Israeli ranks of Congress. On Thursday congresional leaders from both parties were anxiously scrambling to maintain a semblance of backing for the Powell peace mission, at least while the Secretary of State is in the Middle East.
The Senate majority leader, Mr Tom Daschle (Democrat, South Dakota), and the speaker of the House, Mr Dennis Hastert (Republican, Illinois) each independently sent out the same message. "At this point for Congress, the less said the better," Mr Daschle said.
Pro-Israeli Democrats and right- wing Republicans have been complaining that the administrations' relatively mild criticisms of the Israelis reflected a welching of the administration's commitment to rooting out all forms of terrorism.
Two of the commentators closest to the right in the administration, Mr William Kristol and Mr Robert Kagan, said in a memo Mr Powell had "virtually obliterated the distinction between terrorists and those fighting terrorists." And two senators, Ms Diane Feinstein (Democrat, California) and Mr Mitch McConnell (Republican, Kentucky) are working on legislation to cut US links to the Palestinian Authority.
Others want to put down a resolution of solidarity with Israel, while yet others are working to get the PLO classified as a terrorist organisation and banned from the US.
Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, has said that the situation in the Middle East is so serious that the sending of an international force into the occupied territories cannot be put off.
