JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel defended itself on Wednesday against a rare U.S. rebuke for its attempted assassination of a Palestinian militant leader that further undermined a Middle East peace plan.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) ordered aides to turn over intelligence to U.S. officials to back accusations that Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the public face of the radical Islamic group Hamas, had been coordinating attacks on Israelis.
"This information is intended to show that Rantissi was not just a ticking bomb but a factory of ticking bombs," a senior Israeli security source said.
The helicopter missile strike that wounded Rantissi in Gaza on Tuesday drew vows of revenge from Hamas, raising the specter of a new cycle of bloodshed that could bury a U.S.-backed "road map" aimed at ending 32 months of conflict.
Israel killed one of Rantissi's aides and a woman bystander in the attack. Hamas responded by firing rockets into a town in nearby Israel, prompting a second helicopter attack that killed three more Palestinians -- all civilians.
President Bush (news - web sites), struggling to preserve his peace effort, expressed concern that the assassination attempt could weaken Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's attempts to get militant groups to stop violence against Israelis.
"I also don't believe the attacks helped Israeli security," Bush said.
Bush ordered top aides to urgently convey those points to Israeli and Palestinian officials and lean on them to stick to the letter and spirit of the road map, which stipulates reciprocal concessions leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
Some Israeli political commentators joined in the criticism of Sharon, including suggestions the right-wing leader had used the assassination attempt to try to mollify hard-liners fiercely opposed to his acceptance of the road map.
"MISERABLE TIMING"
Hours before the strike, the army began dismantling some Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank, a road map obligation that has drawn protest within Sharon's own rightist Likud party.
"Targeted screw-up" was what Maariv newspaper commentator Chemi Shalev dubbed the assassination attempt.
"It was a matter of miserable timing," columnist Zvi Barel wrote in the daily Haaretz, saying the missiles unleashed against Rantissi had effectively hit Bush and Abbas.
Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, told al-Arabiya television he had appealed to Washington to "save the road map."
Sharon said he was committed to the plan but "we will continue to fight the heads of extremist terror organizations that murder Jews and are enemies of peace, as long as there is no one on the other side who does it."
Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said on CNN that Rantissi was coordinating attacks by Hamas and two other militant groups, including an ambush that killed four soldiers in Gaza on Sunday.
Rantissi, who has presented himself as a Hamas political figure and spokesman, had taken center stage in the past week in rejecting Abbas's efforts to coax militants into a cease-fire following a three-way summit with Bush and Sharon in Jordan.
"It could be said that Israel helped Abu Mazen by trying to remove an obstacle to peace," said Likud lawmaker Ehud Yatom.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) ordered aides to turn over intelligence to U.S. officials to back accusations that Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the public face of the radical Islamic group Hamas, had been coordinating attacks on Israelis.
"This information is intended to show that Rantissi was not just a ticking bomb but a factory of ticking bombs," a senior Israeli security source said.
The helicopter missile strike that wounded Rantissi in Gaza on Tuesday drew vows of revenge from Hamas, raising the specter of a new cycle of bloodshed that could bury a U.S.-backed "road map" aimed at ending 32 months of conflict.
Israel killed one of Rantissi's aides and a woman bystander in the attack. Hamas responded by firing rockets into a town in nearby Israel, prompting a second helicopter attack that killed three more Palestinians -- all civilians.
President Bush (news - web sites), struggling to preserve his peace effort, expressed concern that the assassination attempt could weaken Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's attempts to get militant groups to stop violence against Israelis.
"I also don't believe the attacks helped Israeli security," Bush said.
Bush ordered top aides to urgently convey those points to Israeli and Palestinian officials and lean on them to stick to the letter and spirit of the road map, which stipulates reciprocal concessions leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
Some Israeli political commentators joined in the criticism of Sharon, including suggestions the right-wing leader had used the assassination attempt to try to mollify hard-liners fiercely opposed to his acceptance of the road map.
"MISERABLE TIMING"
Hours before the strike, the army began dismantling some Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank, a road map obligation that has drawn protest within Sharon's own rightist Likud party.
"Targeted screw-up" was what Maariv newspaper commentator Chemi Shalev dubbed the assassination attempt.
"It was a matter of miserable timing," columnist Zvi Barel wrote in the daily Haaretz, saying the missiles unleashed against Rantissi had effectively hit Bush and Abbas.
Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, told al-Arabiya television he had appealed to Washington to "save the road map."
Sharon said he was committed to the plan but "we will continue to fight the heads of extremist terror organizations that murder Jews and are enemies of peace, as long as there is no one on the other side who does it."
Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said on CNN that Rantissi was coordinating attacks by Hamas and two other militant groups, including an ambush that killed four soldiers in Gaza on Sunday.
Rantissi, who has presented himself as a Hamas political figure and spokesman, had taken center stage in the past week in rejecting Abbas's efforts to coax militants into a cease-fire following a three-way summit with Bush and Sharon in Jordan.
"It could be said that Israel helped Abu Mazen by trying to remove an obstacle to peace," said Likud lawmaker Ehud Yatom.
