Dr. Dore Gold, a part-time diplomatic advisor to Prime Minister Sharon who traveled with Sharon to the U.S. last week, told Arutz-7 today why he felt the visit was important: \"In foreign relations, nothing remains static. True, there are excellent personal relations between Prime Minister Sharon and President Bush and Secretary Powell. But as time goes on, things can change, there are outside influences, lower-level clerks are replaced, etc., and all this leads to changes in the American policy. What Sharon succeeded in doing was to put the brakes on this process, and bring about better cooperation between Israel and the U.S. Even the public disagreement between Sharon and Bush before their meeting [about whether a full cessation of Palestinian violence was required, or only a reduction in violence] showed that the Americans wished to defend what they saw as the achievements of the Tenet agreement - but when Mr. Sharon explained to them the truth of what was going on here, they began to backtrack from their original position.\"



Gold said that Sharon has no intention of imposing a settlement freeze when and if the Mitchell Report recommendations become relevant. \"There is an attempt to find a way to calm down the international agitation on this matter without harming the daily needs of the settlers. I don\'t want to go into details; this is merely a word to the wise. I can just say that Sharon is quite aware of the settlers\' needs...\"