Prime Minister Sharon returned to Israel this afternoon after a three-day visit to the U.S., and announced that he plans to convene a security consultation tonight at his Negev home in light of the current terrorism wave. He fell sick with the flu yesterday, and canceled all his meetings since then. Sharon obtained an American promise of advance warning in the event of a U.S. assault on Iraq, and the Americans will also deliver a sharp warning to Syria against further backing of Hizbullah.



One thing that did not receive a positive answer was the matter of Jonathan Pollard. Sharon reportedly asked Bush to pardon Pollard, who is now serving his 17th year of a life sentence for spying for Israel, but Bush made no promises. Pollard-attorney Eliot Lauer has explained that the information his client provided Israel was essentially the same information that the U.S. had previously provided Israel itself, and that even led Israel to successfully bomb Iraq\'s nuclear reactor. \"[Certain U.S. government elements were angered] that Israel had bombed the reactor without American consent,\" and so they \"then embarked on a policy of cutting Israel off from a significant amount of intelligence information on terrorist activity, [such as] Arab troop movements and the like...\"