It seems to me, that in exchange for Sharon to leave alone to Arafat die in his prison, Bush is allowing Sharon to move strongly and swifty in gaza and elsewhere:
I think I like this Bush Sharon understanding:
He also seems to have silenced Colin Powel, unless Assad did that himself, by lying to Powells face:
U.S. sees Rafah demolitions as 'self-defense'
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies
The United States said on Tuesday that Israeli
house demolitions in a Gaza Strip refugee camp
were self-defense against "terrorism" and that the
Israeli courts had dealt with cases of homeless
Palestinians.
Israeli forces have flattened at
least 114 homes in the Rafah
camp near the Egyptian border,
making more than 1,000
Palestinian refugees homeless,
UN officials say. Israel says
the operation is to find
tunnels used for smuggling
arms.
U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher,
asked to comment on Israeli operations at
Rafah, said: "We continue to be very concerned
about terrorism. We understand Israel's need to
defend itself. We've always said that Israel
needs to consider the consequences of its
actions and that's all we have to say about
those particular events."
"This is part of defending themselves," added a
senior State Department official, who asked not
to be identified.
The wording was similar to the language the
State Department regularly uses to comment on
Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories
but Boucher said it had been updated in
response to the Rafah incursion.
"The question of demolishing houses in an
extrajudicial manner has been dealt with by
Israeli courts. Our understanding of this
incursion is their objective is to blow up
tunnels that have been used to smuggle arms,"
he added.
The senior official said the reference to
Israeli courts did not necessarily imply
homeless Palestinians could or should apply to
the courts for redress.
"The Israelis abide by a certain sort of rules.
The Israelis will figure this out between
themselves and their judicial system," the
official added.
For several weeks the Bush administration has
declined to criticize in public any Israeli
action, including its attack on Syria this
month and its decision to build a security wall
or fence through the West Bank.
The U.S. position is that Israel has a right to
defend itself and the priority is on the
Palestinians to dismantle the militant
organizations that attack Israelis.
Operation renewed Tuesday morning
Dozens of armored Israel Defense Forces vehicles
reentered Rafah early Tuesday morning, in the
latest operation to uncover arms-smuggling
tunnels.
Military sources said it was a continuation of
the three-day mission that began Friday. Some
six people were wounded in gun battles,
Palestinian hospital sources said late
Tuesday.
A senior IDF officer in the Gaza Strip told Army
Radio that this new stage of the operation -
officially referred to as 'Root Canal 2' -
could last several days.
At the start of the pre-dawn raid, helicopters
opened fired toward Rafah to clear the way for
two columns of armored vehicles driving into
the camp, witnesses said.
Two columns of armored vehicles entered the camp
from two directions, heading for a different
section of the camp from the one targeted
earlier, Palestinian witnesses said.
Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli
forces during the incursion.
IDF bulldozers razed four homes, while troops
took over several buildings and snipers set up
positions on three rooftops, said resident
Mohammed Zoarub, 35, and other witnesses.
Col. Pinchas Zuaretz, commander of forces in the
southern Gaza Strip, said 12 cross-border
smuggling tunnels have been uncovered since the
first operation began Friday.
The military believes militants have been
planning to use the tunnels to smuggle in more
advanced weapons, like anti-aircraft missiles
and rockets that could hit Israeli cities from
Gaza. Zuaretz said no such weapons had been
found.
At his West Bank headquarters, Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat told reporters
that Israel was continuing "its crimes against
the Gaza Strip."
The IDF on Sunday had completed the first stage
of its operation to uncover arms-smuggling
tunnels in Rafah and had pulled its troops out
of the refugee camp, redeploying them along the
Egyptian border.
Eight Palestinians, including two children, were
killed during the 72-hour operation that began
early Friday morning. Some 100 houses were
destroyed, leaving about 2,000 people homeless,
according to assessments by International aid
organizations and UNRWA officials.
The commander of the Givati Brigade's units in
the region, Colonel Eyal Eisenberg, denied
Tuesday charges that the IDF was being
heavy-handed in its efforts to uncover tunnels,
and that a disproportionate amount of damage
was being cause.
"I want people to ask how many houses we have
not demolished," he told Army Radio, "not how
many we have. I believe that the IDF's actions
have been entirely moral, and that our behavior
has been above and beyond that of any other
army in the world."
Palestinians vow revenge in Rafah
Masked gunmen vowed revenge on Monday at a rally
staged amid the rubble of the Rafah refugee
camp devastated in the Israeli raid as tanks
patrolled nearby.
"Dear Qassam, bomb Tel Aviv," some 1,000
demonstrators in the Rafah camp chanted,
referring to the Hamas military wing. Several
gunmen wore the Islamic group's colors and mock
bomb belts.
Majid al Agha, the governor of Rafah, a key
militant stronghold, declared the camp a
"disaster area."
Work crews in the teeming cinderblock refugee
camp of 70,000 inhabitants rushed to restore
electricity, running water and telephone
services knocked out by Israeli forces on
Friday.
"The Israeli siege is blocking all our attempts
to fix the infrastructure," al Agha said.
In all, nearly 3,500 houses have been demolished
in the Gaza Strip in the past three years,
including about 1,200 in Rafah, municipal
officials said. |
