Bush says suicide bombings are simple terror, urges Arafat order halt

Monday, April 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush appealed Monday for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to order a halt to the suicide bomb attacks in Israel and the West Bank. ``Suicide bombers in the name of religion is simple terror,'' Bush said.

But the president stopped short of applying to Arafat his oft-repeated statements that those who harbor terrorists are terrorists. He said the Palestinian leader is excepted because of his past efforts to negotiate peace.

``There will never be peace so long as there is terror, and all of us must fight terror. I'd like to see Chairman Arafat denounce the terrorist activities that are taking place, the constant attacks,'' Bush said during a meeting with New York's governor and New York City's mayor.

As for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bush urged him to ``keep a pathway to peace open'' while protecting his nation, and said he believes Sharon remains committed to the Tenet and Mitchell plans for security and peace negotiations.

``It's important for Israel to understand that,'' Bush said. ``They've signed onto the Tenet agreement, they've signed onto the Mitchell plan, and that is the pathway to peace.''

Bush spoke as members of the Senate turned up pressure on him to get more directly involved in the Middle East peace process. He said those critics ``must have not been with me in Crawford (Texas) when I was on the phone all morning long'' talking to leaders in the region.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush would step in himself to hold face-to-face meetings ``if it becomes the president's judgment that that is the final step that would achieve something that leads to peace.''

But the onus for ending the violence is on Israel and the Palestinians themselves, Fleischer said. ``The Israelis and the Palestinians have to want peace, seek peace and work to create peace. And in so doing they will always have the United States standing at both sides' shoulders in order to achieve peace.''

Fleischer did not report any calls by Bush to leaders in the region Monday.

He said that Sunday and Monday, Secretary of State Colin Powell called Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

Fleischer denied that Bush gave tacit approval for Israel's fierce crackdown, saying ``the Israelis did not seek a green light'' from the United States.

Asked specifically what is expected of Arafat, now under siege in his West Bank compound, Fleischer said a ban on suicide bombings would be helpful.

``It would be constructive if Chairman Arafat ... would take that step and say suicide bombings are not the way to achieve peace in the region,'' Fleischer said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman said he is seeking ``much bolder moves'' from the administration.

``I think it's time, with all respect to (U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni), that the president ask Secretary (of State Colin) Powell, who has such great stature throughout the world, to go to the Middle East,'' Lieberman, D-Conn., said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' Zinni is in the region trying to arrange a cease-fire.

Escalating Middle East violence shadowed Bush's Easter weekend in Texas. In the first attack Sunday, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 14 Israelis and wounded more than 40 in the Israeli city of Haifa. Later, a bomber blew himself up in the Jewish settlement of Efrat in the West Bank. Four people were wounded.

Meanwhile, witnesses and Palestinian officials said Israeli soldiers opened fire on and killed five policeman when the Palestinians tried to surrender in Ramallah.

Bush called five world leaders on Saturday, but none Sunday. He spoke with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice after the first bombing, just before he attended Easter services at a church near his Crawford, Texas, ranch, spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

The administration offered no new initiatives and said Zinni would remain in the region

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Bush must get more deeply involved.

``These suicide bombers are acting now to destroy the peace process,'' said Specter, who just returned from the Middle East, where he met with leaders including Arafat.

``I think we need to move aggressively with the Arab countries, where we think the financing is coming from,'' Specter said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.''

Sen. Joseph Biden, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration should offer a broad peace pact that includes Arab countries.

``I think there needs to be something dramatic done, and that means the president has to step up his involvement,'' Biden, D-Del., told CBS.

But Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said they think Bush is doing all he can.

``I think the Clinton administration did everything it could to resolve this and I frankly think the Bush administration is trying everything it knows,'' Feingold said on CNN's ``Late Edition.'' ``This is one of the toughest problems that has ever existed in our foreign policy.''