Senior Israeli officials said today that there was no danger that the US loan guarantees to Israel would be cut because of the separation fence. The optimistic assessment followed talks in Washington between Prime Minister's Bureau director Adv. Dov Weissglas and Ministry of Defense director-general Amos Yaron and senior Bush administration officials.
Israel Ambassador to the US Daniel Ayalon told "Globes", "The talks have created a basis of understanding between Israel and the US regarding the fence. The subject of the loan guarantees never arose in the talks, so consequently there is no reason to fear they will be cut."
Weissglas, Yaron, Ayalon, and the IDF head of Plans and Policy Directorate met with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, deputy national security adviser Steve Hadley, and National Security Council senior director Elliot Abrams. They held a separate meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
Israeli sources said the Americans remained strongly opposed to the separation fence deviating from the Green Line into Palestinian territory around Ariel and along the Jerusalem envelope, on the grounds that this would prevent a geographically contiguous and viable Palestinian state. However the Americans accepted an Israeli compromise to establish a separate fence around Ariel, unlinked to the fence along the Green Line.
"It was decided that Ariel will be defended separately with a modular fence that can be linked to the general separation fence or to a smaller regional system," said a diplomatic source yesterday. "The option to link the Ariel fence to the separation fence is in the hands of the Palestinians. If there are terrorist attacks, the fence will be linked. If there are no terrorist attacks, there won't be any need for a link."
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on September 23, 2003