MIDDLE EAST: Elements on the extremes of the Middle East debate rejected statements by leaders representing the two sides at a meeting with President Bush in Jordan yesterday, writes David Horovitz, in Jerusalem
Mr Sharon's unequivocal endorsement of the Palestinian right to statehood, on viable, contiguous territory in the West Bank, produced an immediate and furious response from Jewish settlement leaders who now fear the prospect of evacuation.
At a demonstration that drew tens of thousands to central Jerusalem's Zion Square last night, protesters held up banners branding Palestinian statehood a "disaster for Israel" and asserting that Mr Abbas and Mr Arafat were "birds of a feather who kill Jews together".
Politicians from a small pro-settler faction in Mr Sharon's coalition indicated they might quit the government. Significantly, however, several members of Mr Sharon's Likud party who are prominent critics of his new positions chose not to attend the rally, including his most potent rival, the former prime minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Council of Jewish Settlements called Mr Sharon's acceptance of the "road map" to Palestinian statehood a "humiliating surrender" to terrorism. Mr Shaul Goldstein, deputy head of the settler council, bitterly accused Mr Sharon of having sold out the very people whose idealistic commitment to make their homes on biblical land he had hitherto championed.
A spokesman for some of the settlers living at the dozens of "illegal outposts" that Mr Sharon has pledged to immediately begin evacuating, Mr Zvika Bar Hai, vowed to launch a "huge public battle" against any such move.
Although settler leaders promised their opposition would be strictly within the law, Israel Radio reported last night that the Shin Bet security service fears armed confrontation between settlers and the army when the order to evacuate outposts is given, and is not discounting the potential threat to Mr Sharon's life. Yitzhak Rabin, the Labour prime minister who led the failed Oslo attempt at peacemaking with the Palestinians, was shot dead in November 1995, soon after approving the accord under which Israel relinquished control of West Bank cities.
Mr Abbas also came back from Aqaba to some heavy criticism and pledges of defiance. Spokesmen for Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine all said they would reject his demand that they lay down their weapons and end the "armed Intifada". An official for the group Mr Abdallah al-Shami said: "\ spoke about stopping the resistance, collecting arms as if we were a state and not under occupation . . . He was not supposed to use such language".
Within Hamas, however, there were conflicting claims regarding a readiness for a ceasefire.
Gaza-based Hamas leader Mr Abdel Aziz Rantisi complained that, in his speech, Mr Abbas had told the watching world "that we are the aggressors and the Israelis are the victims" and vowed that Hamas would "continue its resistance" and "not give up one centimetre of Palestine".
But other Hamas leaders did not rule out a truce.
Mr Abbas did win public backing from the man whom he eclipsed, publicly at least, in Aqaba, President Yasser Arafat. A spokesman said Mr Arafat welcomed the summit, and would help in the battle against terrorism.
And as one concrete benefit of the summit, Jordan indicated that it would likely soon return its ambassador to Israel, having been represented by a lower-level diplomatic envoy for most of the Intifada period. Egypt may do the same.