When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon flies to the US Sunday, he´ll be armed with an astutely assembled package of confidence building measures designed to demonstrate Israel´s continued commitment to its quest for peace with the Palestinian Arabs.

Act to follow

Sharon will arrive for his meeting with President George W. Bush two days after the American leader hosted Palestinian "prime minister" and veteran terrorist Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) at his first ever visit to the White House.

Following discussions between the two, the president indicated he would be turning up the heat on Sharon to halt the construction of a fence Israel deems necessary for its security needs.

The Palestinians hailed the meeting as the beginning of a new chapter in US-Palestinian relations.

What Sharon is prepared to give

When he meets Bush, however, Sharon will tell him Israel has already agreed to release around 600 Palestinian Arabs incarcerated on terrorism charges or as suspects in acts of terrorism.

Some of the prisoners on Sharon´s amnesty list include Hamas and Islamic Jihad members guilty of involvement in terrorism against Israelis.

Israel has also decided to withdraw its troops from two more Palestinian towns, one of them probably Kalkilya, from which numerous homicide and other terror attacks have been launched against Israel´s coastal cities.

Sharon will say further that Israel has undertaken to dismantle three checkpoints in the Ramallah area set up to prevent terror attacks, but which the Palestinians complain have greatly restricted their freedom of movement over the last two years.

Israel will also be lifting the travel restrictions on Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and will issue permits for another 8,500 Arab workers to cross the borders into ´Israel proper´ from Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

The Palestinians´ ability to import produce "into" Israel will be improved, and Sharon will hand over to the PA NIS 72 million in taxes being held by Israel.

Some 250 Arab prisoners have already been released, and implementation of some of the other steps could take place before Sharon´s plane touches down in the US later today.

What Israel wants in return

On the other side of the ledger, Sharon is likely to repeat Israel´s insistence that Abbas crack down on the terror groups that have killed over 800 Israelis in the past three years alone.

Sharon will probably point Bush to Abbas´ vow made in Egypt earlier last week that he would not be clamping down on the terror groups, or on any other groups among the Palestinians.

Since committing themselves under the Oslo Accords 10 years ago to halt terrorism and dismantle terrorist organizations, first PLO chief Yasser Arafat and now his appointee Abbas have repeatedly excused their "inability" to keep these obligations. (Copyright 2002-2003 Jerusalem Newswire 07/27/03)