MIDDLE EAST: Deeply disappointed by President George Bush's decision not to demand that Israel halt construction of its West Bank barrier, Palestinian Prime Minister Mr Mahmoud Abbas bitterly castigated the barrier yesterday as a "racist" symbol of the lack of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.
In remarks apparently designed to alleviate Palestinian dismay over his meeting with Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, on Tuesday, Mr Bush yesterday declared that a 2005 deadline for independent Palestinian statehood was still "realistic" - even though, on Tuesday, he had conditioned any progress towards the establishment of such a state on forceful efforts by Mr Abbas's Palestinian Authority to confront Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other extremist groups.
In similar vein, Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell yesterday promised that the US would continue to "press (Israel) on this issue (of the barrier)". If it continued "to intrude on Palestinian land", as it cuts into the West Bank to encompass some Jewish settlements, "that is a problem", Mr Powell said.
For Mr Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, however, the US position on the subject of the barrier marks a change for the worse. Only last Friday, with Mr Abbas by his side, Mr Bush spoke in anguished terms about the obstacle to good relations posed by what he called a "wall" that was snaking through the West Bank.
On Tuesday, Mr Bush referred to the barrier merely as a "sensitive" issue that he would continue to discuss. And Mr Sharon, with the President at his side, said he would continue to build it.
The irony of the dispute about the barrier - whose construction was also criticised as counter-productive yesterday by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair - is that Mr Sharon didn't want to build it in the first place, and for precisely the reasons that the Palestinians so strongly resent it: the fear that it will come to be regarded as a border, or the basis for a border, between Israel and a new Palestine, even though it departs from the pre-1967 Israel-West Bank line and, in places, runs several miles inside the West Bank.
Mr Abbas argued to Mr Bush that Israel was engaged in an unsubtle land-grab, with an eye on making the barrier a permanent border. But Mr Sharon had long resisted building the fence, because he didn't want it to be perceived as the border of a Palestinian state on more territory than he was prepared to relinquish. He was only pressured into approving its construction by political rivals, who insisted it was the best means to prevent suicide bombers entering Israel.
Mr Sharon appears to have won over Mr Bush on Tuesday by insisting to him that the barrier is for security purposes only, and intimating that it could be dismantled once the threat of bombings had truly passed - an argument whose public echo was heard immediately, when Mr Bush called repeatedly on Mr Abbas to confront terrorism, and in so doing hopefully rendering the fence "irrelevant".
Mr Abbas's boss and sometime rival, the PA President, Mr Yasser Arafat, has attacked the fence as a new "Berlin Wall". Mr Abbas's failure to secure a halt to its construction seems certain to weaken his position with the Palestinian public.
Mr Sharon asserted yesterday there was no prospect of substantive peace progress so long as Mr Arafat was directing Palestinian affairs. Islamic Jihad is threatening to reconsider the three-month intifada ceasefire if the building continues.
Also issuing a warning yesterday was the PA minister responsible for prisoners, Mr Hisham Abdel-Razek, who spoke of an imminent "explosion" in the jails if Israel did not free more of the 6-7,000 prisoners it holds. Mr Sharon has pledged to release 540 in the next few days, and Israeli sources say more may go free soon after.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, was meeting his PA counterpart, Mr Mohammad Dahlan, last night to discuss an Israeli military pullback from two West Bank cities - a move that would help Mr Abbas claim to his people that the new attempt at conciliation was bearing fruit.