Speech greeted as sign of US backing

Ariel Sharon's government embraced President George Bush's Middle East speech as an endorsement of its stand and a green light to continue its military offensive against Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Ruby Rivlin, Israel's right-wing Communications Minister, gleefully welcomed the statement. "It looks as if it was written by a senior Likud official," he said yesterday. "We're talking about a pro-Israeli speech and a victory for the course taken by Prime Minister Sharon."

Mr Sharon and Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, his Labour Defence Minister, did not need to crow. Mr Bush had done what they lobbied for. The President did not demand an end "without delay" to Israel's latest incursions, as he did in April. He did not challenge Israel's right to defend itself as it saw fit. Above all, he identified Yasser Arafat as the ultimate obstacle to peace.

The heat was off. A statement from Mr Sharon's office said blandly: "When there is a complete cessation of terror, violence and incitement, and when the Palestinian Authority enacts genuine reforms, including a new leadership, then it will be possible to discuss how to make progress on the political track."

But on the other side of the Israeli spectrum, left-wing politicians and commentators warned against such complacency. Yediot Aharonot quoted Shimon Peres, the Foreign Minister, predicting privately: "A bloodbath can be expected."

Yossi Beilin, an architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, told The Independent: "The worst thing we can do is just to say we got a kosher stamp from the US President to do nothing. To do nothing means the continuation of the vicious circle of violence. Since there is no reference to an international conference and to anything that may happen tomorrow, Bush is telling the two parties to go on bleeding, then eventually we'll have two states."

Shlomo Ben-Ami, Foreign Minister in the previous Labour government, said: "The speech won't lead to anything. How exactly does he intend to replace Arafat? Regretfully, the President is not conducting foreign policy and shows no understanding of the depth of the problem."

Nahum Barnea, Yediot Aharonot's waspish columnist, wrote: "Without a time framework, it is at best like a soufflé: maybe it will rise and maybe it won't. Given the grim state of affairs in the Middle East, it probably won't."