by Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent

THE WHITE HOUSE (FinalCall.com)�With no substantive breakthrough to report from the diplomatic mission to the troubled Middle East by his secretary of state, President George W. Bush remained mum at Final Call press time on the bloody Israeli siege of dozens of Palestinian cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank.

Mr. Bush�s press spokesman had to modify the president�s earlier demand that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon immediately withdraw his forces from Palestinian territory, in the face of Mr. Sharon�s refusal and then his reluctant pledge to withdraw from all but two West Bank cities by late April.

The president talked about the economy and about taxes as he came and went to political fundraising events around the country, while saying little about Middle East peace, even as thousands of pro-Israel demonstrators rallied April 15 at the Capitol.

Mr. Sharon�s promise came April 15, just hours after Secretary of State Colin Powell agreed with an Israeli demand that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat�s presence was not necessary at a proposed Mideast peace conference.

Bush administration officials have, however, continued to demand that Mr. Arafat publicly condemn each successive suicide attack inside Israel, even though Mr. Arafat has been confined for nearly three weeks by Israeli troops in his cramped offices with little food and water, dozens of advisers and soldiers sleeping on the floor, and now diarrhea and other stomach ailments are starting to spread.

During his first three-hour meeting with Mr. Arafat April 14, the Palestinian leader reportedly told Mr. Powell that he would only accept Israel�s proposals if Israeli forces withdrew from the West Bank.

Despite repeated calls early on in the bloody Israeli attack from the U.S.�Israel�s chief financial backer�for an immediate and total withdrawal from the West Bank, Mr. Sharon has vowed to continue the brutal offensive until what he called the �Palestinian infrastructure of terror� has been crushed.

In the wake of Mr. Powell�s meeting with Mr. Arafat, Israeli forces accompanied Palestinian medical teams into the devastated refugee camp in Jenin, as rescue teams recovered Palestinian bodies from the rubble of their collapsed homes, on the 18th day of the siege. In addition, Western reporters�also under strict Israeli supervision�were taken into the camp.

The developments came after an Israeli court ruled that their military forces must hand over the bodies of Palestinians found in the camp for burial. Israeli military officials had wanted to bury the bodies in a mass grave in the Jordan Valley, a move Palestinians alleged was an attempted cover-up of the massacre that took place there.

Palestinian officials say the death toll in Jenin alone is close to 500, while Israeli officials said only about 100 people were killed in the camp and 13 Israeli soldiers were also killed in one fierce firefight.

While the pro-Israel rally took place early in the week, by the end of the week a full slate of anti-Israeli, anti-corporate monopoly rallies were planned, even as Mr. Sharon reconsidered whether or not to leave the troubled area for a White House meeting the following week.

For the second consecutive week, nearly two dozen anti- Sharon demonstrators were arrested April 11 at the State Department. Led by Dr. Cornell West�whose arrest coincided with an announcement by Princeton University that he was returning to the faculty there after several years at rival Harvard�and by Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, the civil disobedience reflected a growing involvement of American Jewish intellectuals in condemnation of Israel�s harsh crackdown on Palestinians.

�All we can do is put our bodies on the line for it to stop, so we can generate some political, diplomatic solution,� Dr. West told reporters outside the State Department. �The United States has not been evenhanded at all. This is part of the problem,� he said in response to a question from The Final Call.  �The United States� foreign policy has not been predicated on the notion that a Palestinian life has the same value as an Israeli life. That can be empirically verified, administration, after administration.�

Dr. West and Rabbi Lerner are calling for reconciliation between the Arab and Israeli people; reparations for the Palestinians; and the introduction of an international peacekeeping force which would help guarantee protection for Israelis from suicide attacks.

�The Tikkun Community, which comes out of the Jewish world, wants to save the good name of the Jewish people in a time when it is being besmirched by the activities of Ariel Sharon,� Rabbi Lerner told more than 100 sympathizers.

�We want to say to Ariel Sharon and the people who follow him that you do not speak in the name of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are a people of love and compassion. Our vision of how the world should be, is spoken of clearly in our Torah. It says: �Justice, justice shalt thou pursue.� It says: �Love your neighbor as yourself.� It is a message of love and compassion. It is not a message of domination and control, and of power over other people. That message has been hijacked.�

Supporters, who came from as far away as Pennsylvania, declared their appreciation for the emergence of a true Jewish-based peace movement in this country, similar to the sizeable peace movement inside Israel, which even includes more than 1,000 military personnel�Refuseniks, as they are called�who refuse to serve in the occupied territories.

The Powell trip to the area represents an important first step, Mr. Lerner said, but he also warned: �That first step needs to be followed up in a serious way. Otherwise, it�s going to be easy to interpret his first step as saying only this: �We want peace and quiet here so we can pursue our war in Iraq. And once the war in Iraq is over, Mr. Sharon, you will then again be able to dominate as much as you want and we won�t interfere with you. We�re just asking you for a quiet few months so we can wipe out Saddam Hussein.��