War in the Balkans Diplomacy: US angry at Israel stance
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Your support makes all the difference.THE UNITED STATES is expressing anger over Israel's refusal to give full support to Nato in the Kosovo crisis. Martin Indyk, US Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs, is being highly critical during his visit to Israel of the pro- Russian tilt of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Foreign Minister.
Mr Indyk suggested that Mr Sharon is refusing to condemn Serbian actions in Kosovo so he can cultivate the Russian Jewish immigrant vote in the Israeli elections next month.
The half-million Russian Jews in Israel will be a critical voting bloc in the 17 May election and are mainly sympathetic to Serbia. In an interview last week Mr Sharon said: "Two thirds of the Russian Israelis are for Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister] now. If I can get that up over 70 per cent, that's it."
Mr Indyk reportedly said he did not believe Mr Sharon was acting without the support of the Prime Minister. He also criticised the government for expanding Jewish settlements on the West Bank.
Relations between Washington and Mr Netanyahu were already cool because of Israel's failure to implement the Wye Agreement with the Palestinians brokered by President Bill Clinton last year.
Russian immigrants have played a decisive role in the past two Israeli elections in 1992 and 1996, when the Israeli electorate was evenly split. They favour good relations with Russia, which is home to many of the 916,000 Jews still in the former Soviet Union.
Mr Sharon, now on his third visit to Russia in two months, says his main aim is to stop Russia aiding Iran to develop long-range missiles. Mr Netanyahu has distanced himself somewhat from Mr Sharon, and was yesterday expected to welcome more than 100 Albanian refugees flown from Macedonia. Israel already has a field hospital in Macedonia.
Israel's first poll to choose a new prime minister is on 17 May with a second round, if nobody wins more than half the votes, on 1 June. Ehud Barak, the candidate of Labour (now renamed One Israel) is marginally ahead in the polls.
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