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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7892-2003Sep26.html
Sharon's Balancing Act
(Washington Post) - Jim Hoagland The decision - in principle - by Sharon's cabinet two weeks ago to "remove" Arafat "should be considered as a last warning to Arafat to give up terrorism," a senior Israeli official said last week in the wake of talks between Dov Weisglass, Sharon's chief of staff, and Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser. They have reportedly worked out a series of unannounced "understandings" that would avoid clashes over the road map, Israeli settlements, and the system of security barriers, or "fence," now being built across the West Bank. Sharon has responded to indirect threats from Washington to withhold aid that would be spent on the fence with soft words rather than with the bluster and the appeals to Congress that were employed at times by his Likud predecessors.