By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 25, 2001; Page A09

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was asked at a Washington lunch this week whether Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with whom he is at ideological odds, ever listened to his advice. Peres offered one example. Sharon, he said, had stopped referring to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as Israel's Osama bin Laden. "I told him it was a mistake," Peres said.

Yet, many of Israel's U.S. supporters argue that Palestinian suicide bombings and other killings in Israel are equivalent to bin Laden's attacks in this country and deserve the same response. Although the Bush administration has criticized Israel for West Bank military action and targeted assassinations of Palestinians, "it seems to me that the Israeli position is not only similar" to that of the United States, "but exactly the same," Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) said yesterday.

Wexler's remark was directed at Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who spent a good portion of his two hours of testimony before the House International Relations Committee yesterday defining terrorism and explaining how that definition has been applied in U.S. foreign policy, particularly since Sept. 11.

It is an issue that has surfaced repeatedly in the past six weeks, not only in the Arab-Israeli context, but in light of the outstretched hand the administration has offered to some nations heretofore shunned as state sponsors of terrorism.

In the Arab-Israeli dispute, Powell said, "we've got to find a way to move forward and not just continue to have discussions as to what is terrorism, what isn't terrorism, what is a targeted assassination, what is murder, what is provocation, what is retribution. It is a vicious cycle, and as a result of this cycle, there has been no improvement in the region in the almost nine months that I've been secretary of state. I've heard all the arguments." Both sides, he said, must "break out of their patterns of behavior," move on, and "and not simply debate whether something is correctly categorized or not."

Categories have become similarly blurred elsewhere. On countless occasions since Sept. 11, President Bush has pledged to eradicate terrorism with "global reach" and to apply the same treatment to all nations that "harbor" or aid terrorists, even as he has invited "every nation to join us" in the anti-terrorism war. But when asked whether such nations as Syria, Iran and Sudan, long on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, are joiners or fighters, administration officials have said it is too early to say.

In a recent interview with the Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite TV network, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was scathing on the subject of Iraq -- which has neither offered nor received any overtures -- but was cryptic on Syria, which supports the anti-Israel Hezbollah, among other groups labeled by the United States as terrorist.

"The means that we use with different countries to get them to stop harboring terrorists may be very broad. And there are many means at our disposal," Rice said. "Right now, our discussions with Syria, which are not -- there are not a lot of discussions with Syria, but we have had discussions with Syria that suggest: Get out of the business of sponsoring terrorism. We're asking that of every state of the world. You cannot be neutral in this fight; you either are for terrorism or against it."

Rep. William D. Delahunt (D-Mass.) told Powell yesterday that "there is confusion among the American people about terrorism and what constitutes terrorism." How does the United States differentiate, he asked, between so-called hard-line regimes in places such as Iran and Syria and undemocratic governments it calls "moderate," such as Saudi Arabia's? "Maybe it's not even a question," Delahunt said. "I'm just articulating concerns about being clear about our definitions about what is a terrorist state and what does harboring mean?"

The difference, Powell said, was that undemocratic or only marginally democratic governments in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are "friendly to the United States," and any terrorists that may reside within their borders are not sponsored by the state.

As far as the presumed hard-liners were concerned, Powell repeated a line that has been used frequently by the administration in recent weeks. "Sometimes out of great tragedy [come] great opportunities." Even Libya's Moammar Gaddafi described the Sept. 11 attacks as "horrifying" and said the Americans had a right to seek revenge.

Powell said he had "no illusions about the nature of the regimes in Syria and Iran. . . . Yet Iran is willing to provide search and air rescue" for U.S. pilots who may be downed in Iranian territory during the Afghan operation. "Syria has indicated it wants to at least talk to us about some things." Similarly, "we have no illusions" about Sudan, also on the state-sponsor list. "But they have been very cooperative" in sharing intelligence, among other things.

Hezbollah's absence from a post-Sept. 11 list of al Qaeda-linked organizations whose assets the administration asked be seized worldwide has angered a number of Israel's supporters. Asked whether he knew of any relations between Hezbollah and al Qaeda, Powell replied, "Not by the standards on which the list was created."

In a Tuesday letter responding to sharp questions from House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage assured them that the United States would demand all or nothing in the anti-terrorism effort. "We will not allow them to 'cherry-pick' some terrorist organizations while ignoring or, worse, aiding others." No country, Armitage said, would get something -- especially improved U.S. relations -- in exchange for nothing.

Even as the United States lauds them for glimmers of cooperation, some of the countries have publicly insisted they are not interested. In an appearance before his Parliament on Tuesday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami ruled out any normalization of ties with Washington and denied reports of "secret" contacts since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"There are no new developments between Tehran and the United States, and our position toward that country remains the same," Khatami told reporters.