As Sharon and Bush began their meeting, a bombing attack killed 15 Israelis at a gambling resort in the coastal town of Rishon Letzion, about 15 miles south of Tel Aviv.

Shortly before his departure from Washington, Sharon alluded to the reactionary offensive he was about to unleash. "The battle continues and will continue until all those who believe that they can make gains through the use of terrorism will cease to exist--cease to exist," he emphasized.

Bush had invited Sharon to the United States in order to discuss his administration’s plans to hold a conference on the Mideast this summer with the aim of attempting to impose a "solution" upon the Palestinian people that would block their fight for self-determination and their right to return to their land. Washington continues to differ with Tel Aviv on how to handle the Palestinians’ continued resistance. Bush, for example, has publicly called for "provid[ing] a framework for growth of a potential Palestinian state."

In addition, the U.S. rulers have held extensive conversations and sought assistance from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on the situation, with a view to keeping the pressure on Arafat.

The U.S. rulers also brought pressure to bear on the Israeli government to release Arafat from confinement in his Ramallah compound, which Tel Aviv had surrounded with troops and armor. As part of the deal the Bush administration and British authorities agreed to provide jailers for several Palestinian prisoners transferred to a prison in Jericho. Bush also announced that he is once again sending George Tenet, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to the Middle East to help put back together a Palestinian police force.

Washington hopes to use both the carrot and the stick with the Palestinian leadership. Speaking on the "Fox News Sunday" program May 5, White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice attacked the Palestinian Authority for failing to rein in the Palestinians’ resistance. "The Palestinian leadership that is there now, the Authority, is not the kind of leadership that can lead to the kind of Palestinian state that we need," she stated. "It has got to reform." She insisted that Washington’s approach of getting heads of capitalist regimes in the area, such as Egypt and Jordan, to keep the pressure on Arafat to crack down on Palestinian fighters, was having an affect.

Three days earlier the Senate and House of Representatives expressed their bipartisan support for Israel’s recent military assault in the West Bank. The Senate passed such a resolution by 94 to 2, while the House vote was 352 to 21.

Sharon brought his own set of demands to Washington, focusing on how the U.S. and Israeli rulers should go about "restructuring" the Palestinian Authority. He accused the Saudi Arabian regime of supporting "terrorist operations" and made clear to Bush that his plans for "peace" include neither negotiations with Palestinian Authority president Yasir Arafat nor an agreement to dismantle any Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Rather, reported an article in the May 4 Washington Post, Sharon favors "an elaborate system of fences, trenches, tunnel, settlements, and army camps to create ‘buffer zones’ around Palestinian areas."

Although the Israeli government withdrew its forces from a number of Palestinian cities occupied last month, it has kept tanks and troops stationed throughout the West Bank, and has imposed blockades around many towns. While the Israeli military is conducting incursions into cities, killing, injuring, and detaining local residents, it is also meeting continued resistance by Palestinian fighters.

About 50 Israeli tanks moved into the center of Nablus before dawn on May 3, firing shells at a building, which an armored bulldozer then demolished. In the ensuing fight two Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed and two other Israeli soldiers were wounded. Israeli forces succeeded in whisking off the streets and into detention at least four Palestinians. The day before, Israeli forces raided the West Bank cities of Tulkarm and Hebron, arresting several Palestinian men.

On a roadside near Jenin, Israeli troops opened fire and killed a Palestinian woman and two children passing by the area May 5, saying at first that a bomb exploded close to where an Israeli tank was stationed. In this instance the Israeli army had to admit that the three individuals they had just killed had absolutely nothing to do with the incident and that the "explosion" was the noise of a tank tread coming loose.

These military assaults are continuing on a daily basis with incidents like these taking place in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On May 6 Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians in Gaza in two separate incidents. One involved an exchange of fire in which the fighters responded with grenades, injuring two of the Israeli soldiers.

A planned UN fact-finding mission into the Israeli army’s assault on the Jenin refugee camp was halted before it began after Tel Aviv expressed its opposition and Washington backed the Israeli rulers’ stance.

Opposition to the Israeli army’s role as a repressive military force is reflected in the fact that 1,000 Israeli reservists have signed declarations that they will not serve in the Occupied Territories. Twenty-one of these individuals are serving time in military prisons.  
 
Growing economic crisis within Israel
A May 3 Wall Street Journal article titled "Conflict Grinds on Israeli Economy" pointed to the deepening economic crisis facing workers and farmers inside Israel itself. "For the first time," the article stated, "the conflict has been accompanied by a deep recession. Hotel vacancy rates hover around 90 percent. Restaurants...aren’t doing much better. Unemployment has soared past 10 percent, leaving a record number of Israelis out of work.... And the outlook is growing worse by the day."

The Sharon administration has responded with a proposed "emergency economic package" that would raise already-high taxes and cut working people’s social benefits. In response to these cuts and a plan to freeze the minimum wage, the chairman of the Histadrut labor federation is threatening to call for a general strike in the next two weeks.

Farmers are facing skyrocketing prices for water and gasoline. They were also forced by the Israeli government to fire the Palestinian laborers who had worked for them. One farmer, Yitzak Avraham, told the Journal that the government instructed him to hire Israeli citizens or contract workers who are scheduled to be brought in the country soon from Thailand. "I can’t make money anymore," said the 47-year-old farmer, as he surveyed the field of rotting tomatoes and cucumbers he was unable to harvest. "Life has become very difficult."

Economic conditions are even worse for Palestinians living in the occupied territories. Officials from some relief agencies estimate that 50 percent of Palestinians there now live below the poverty line and that up to 60 percent are unemployed.

The total economic dependence of the West Bank and Gaza Strip upon Israel is reflected in the fact that 90 percent of Palestinians exports go to Israel, while only 10 percent of Israeli exports go to the occupied territories.  
 
 
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