Sharon ready to hear U.S.-Iraq plan

This meeting is something of a dance, foreplay, making up, dating. Israel needs to know what the US will do to protect Israel should the US attack Iraq. The US needs to get assurances that Sharon can "keep the peace" so that America will not be be annoy potential Arab support for an attack upon Iraq. And everybody seems to know the gameplan.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is ready to hear about U.S. plans to block a possible Iraqi missile attack on Israel in the event of a military confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

In a meeting with President Bush at the White House Wednesday, Sharon also is expected to answer U.S. charges that his government is not doing enough to ease restrictions on the Palestinians.

Sharon, who arrived from Jerusalem at dawn Tuesday, was making his seventh visit since taking office in March of last year. A few hours before leaving Israel, Sharon called on the Palestinians to replace their current leadership, a reference to Yasser Arafat.

"Your terrible suffering is needless," Sharon told the Palestinians during a speech to Israel's parliament. "Blood is being spilled for nothing. Change the despotic regime that is leading you from failure to failure, from tragedy to tragedy."