Bush Deplores Temple Mount Violence, but Says It Won’t Break Unity on Gulf

President Bush moved swiftly Tuesday to deflect Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s attempts to use the “unfortunate incident” on the Temple Mount to lessen Arab support for the international effort against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

“I am very, very saddened by this needless loss of life,” Bush said at a White House news conference, when asked about the 19 Palestinians killed by Israeli police Monday during a riot by thousands of Palestinians.

Bush said the Israelis should have shown “greater restraint” in trying to quell the riot by the Palestinians, who hurled rocks and bottles from the Temple Mount at Jews praying at the Western Wall below.

But when Bush was asked if the incident could drive a wedge in the alliance against Hussein’s aggression, he replied, “I don’t think that it could do that.”

The president said the Iraqi leader has been trying since his Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait to “tie it into the Palestine question.”

But this is “not working” since the “Arab world is united, almost united, against him,” Bush maintained. He added that Hussein will not be successful in his effort, “and certainly I will be doing what I can to see that it is not successful.”

“Having said that, I hope nobody questions our interest in seeing a solution to the Palestine question, to the implementation of the Security Council resolutions,” Bush said Tuesday.

The president was referring to Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which are considered the basis for Middle East negotiations, a White House spokesman explained later.

The spokesman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Bush’s use of “Palestine question,” rather than the more common “Palestinian question,” did not indicate any change in policy.

NEW THREAT FROM SADDAM HUSSEIN

Bush seemed to shrug off a threat made Tuesday by Hussein, who said he has a new long-range missile that could hit Israel and U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia “when the time of reckoning comes.”

“I notice Saddam is getting a little more bellicose,” Bush said.”I’m satisfied that we can defend our interests now, and I am satisfied that these threats of his are counterproductive in terms of solving any peaceful resolution of the question.”

On the Temple Mount incident, Bush called for restraint by all sides, but seemed to chastise Israel for the way it dealt with the Arab violence, as he had previously in discussing the Arab uprising in the territories.

“Israel security forces need to be better prepared for such situations, need to act with greater restraint, particularly when it comes to the use of deadly force,” the president said.

Bush said he was echoing the remarks made Monday by Secretary of State James Baker.

But at the State Department, spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said Tuesday that the administration does not have any assessment of who is to blame for the Temple Mount violence.

“The facts are in dispute,” she said. “I don’t have any conclusions.”