Sharon works to isolate Arafat

But it seems that Sharon may not be finished on the final point. Israeli Cabinet Minister Danny Naveh released a dossier on the Palestinian leader yesterday, saying that "Arafat and his close aides are directly responsible for the cold-blooded murder of Israeli citizens."

"To my mind," he added, "it is crystal clear that Arafat can't be a partner for peace again." It seems just as clear that Israel's publication of the material is an effort to discredit Arafat in the eyes of the US on the eve of Sharon's visit.

"I assume that [Sharon] is going to give the documents that he believes to be true. That's good enough for us," said White House National Security adviser Condoleezza Rice yesterday on Fox News Sunday, a cable-TV talk show.

Palestinian officials says Israel's allegations are founded on forged documents, mistranslations of genuine documents, or inconclusive. In any event, the heart of Israel's case – that Arafat approved funding for members of the Fatah movement who then engaged in terrorism – does not strike some observers here as a great revelation.

"So what? We all know that Fatah is involved in terrorism," says another Jerusalem-based Western diplomat, who also demanded anonymity. Equally well known is that Arafat "equivocates on terrorism," this official continues. "He does not say to his employees, 'Please do not commit acts of terrorism.'"

But Sharon's contentions may resonate differently in Washington, where Bush has sought to divide the world between those who side with the US in its campaign against terrorism and those who are with the terrorists. Sharon has been acutely mindful of positioning himself on the right side of this distinction since late last year.

Still, it remains to be seen how well he can portray himself as a leader in search of peace. In late April, Bush referred to Sharon as a "man of peace," causing US diplomats in the region to wince with embarrassment, since the Israeli leader is not described in such terms throughout much of the world.

Israeli press accounts about the ideas he has brought to Washington suggest that they revolve around a long-term interim agreement that would allow the Palestinians a state, but one with undefined borders. The reports say that Sharon rules out any dealings with Arafat.

One byproduct of Defensive Shield, at least among observers of Middle Eastern affairs, is an increasing willingness to speculate aloud about Sharon's hidden agenda. More and more, Sharon's tenure as Israel's leader is being seen as a period in which the peace process that began with the signing of Israeli-Palestinian peace accord in Oslo, Norway, has been eviscerated.

Henry Siegman, who headed the American Jewish Congress for 15 years before joining the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, says Sharon's government has "sought systematically to dismantle Oslo, and largely succeeded in doing so."

"I think his objective is to stop something, which is a Palestinian state in the West Bank, and to destroy Oslo," says Rosemary Hollis, a Middle East expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. She characterizes the current era in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship, which began with the outbreak of violence in late September 2000, as one of "rapid reversal."

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