Powell urges support for Palestine

WASHINGTON -- With President Bush's blueprint for peace blurred by renewed violence in the Middle East, the United States will step in to give the new Palestinian prime minister "the capability to deal with terrorism," Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday.\nPowell and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, urged European and Arab friends to become a part of the effort to shore up Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian administration by making clear their support.\nIn the process, Powell and Rice said, they should not allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to play the role of spoiler. Lingering support for Arafat in Europe and the Middle East has complicated U.S. and Israeli efforts to marginalize the longtime symbol of the Palestinian movement.\nRenewed attacks cast doubt Sunday on the "road map" peace plan that Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon formally endorsed at a summit with Bush last week in Jordan.\nFour Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack on an army post in the Gaza Strip claimed jointly by three militant groups -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. The three attackers were killed, as were two Palestinians who killed another Israeli soldier later in the West Bank town of Hebron.\nThe violence was the first since the summit.\nPowell, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," insisted that all those who want to end decades of bloodshed in the Middle East must "not let terrorism stop us from moving forward."\nIsrael sent one early conciliatory signal. "It's terrible, it's horrible, but it was expected," Israeli Justice Minister Tommy Lapid said on CNN's "Late Edition." "The extremists, the fanatics are trying to destroy our effort, and they will not succeed."\nBefore the summit, Israel's position had been the Palestinians must stop violence and eliminate the terrorists before peace can be a reality. Abbas had promised to try to end it through negotiations, but Palestinian groups rejected a cease-fire just hours before Sunday's attacks.\nOn CNN, Abbas' foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, said the Palestinians have no choice after a ruinous 33 months of violence on both sides. "We have no capability nor willingness to go through a civil war now," Shaath said, "and I think it is very clear to both Mr. Sharon and to Mr. Bush."\nPowell said the United States has made clear its choice to support Abbas and will stand by him, and he said he recognizes the difficulties.\n"We're going to do everything we can to help him and his cabinet develop the capability to deal with terrorism in the Gaza and in the West Bank," Powell said on Fox.\nSecurity adviser Rice said Arab leaders can help by cutting off the flow of money to terrorist organizations, as they have promised to do.\n"There are a lot of people who have responsibilities. We are going to talk to all of them; not just Prime Minister Abbas, all of them," Rice said on CBS' "Face the Nation."\n"Clearly, the Palestinian Authority is going to have to do some work to reconstitute its security forces and to make them effective and accountable. They've been through a difficult period of time," she said.\nAs for Israel, Sharon promised at the Jordanian summit to begin dismantling unauthorized Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Rice said Sharon had declared "that he would begin that immediately, and we expect it to begin immediately"