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rethinks role as Middle East referee  Sharon visits Washington
as Arab nations press US to get more involved in conflict.  By
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / February 7, 2002
As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon makes his fourth call on
President Bush today, the debate over how much pressure the US
should apply to Israel to curtail its hard-line approach to the
Palestinians doesn't even figure on the agenda.  Skip to next
paragraph  It wasn't always so. But in the wake of the war on
terrorism, the yellow "caution" lights the United States once
flashed at Israel have largely turned green.  And the sea of
green - on everything from Israel's isolation and virtual
imprisonment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, to its
comparison of the struggle with Palestinians to the war on
terrorism - is drawing into question the ability of the US
government to be a balanced arbiter in one of the world's most
dangerous conflicts.  The questioni