Re: BTW, will Colin Powell make his required visit to Yad Vashem to lay a wreath and keep the con going?
Well... if anything, Powell's visit to Israel might be his last trip ever... Either the Judeofascists are gonna snuff him out (together with Arafat in the Ramallah compound) or they'll take on President G.W. Bush himself. The latter option is the most likely since it'd bring Cheney into the big chair and set US policy on a whole another course of actions. Meanwhile, security of both Powell and Bush should be tightened --and retaliatory measures by US hitmen should be scheduled... Here's Sharon's veiled yet unambiguous threat against the US leadership:
Sharon: Powell-Arafat meeting would be tragic mistake
By Herb Keinon
JERUSALEM (April 10) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sounded defiant yesterday, despite mounting US pressure to continue withdrawing from Palestinian cities. While the US is worrying about its regional considerations, Sharon said, Israel is burying its dead.
"We understand the US has problems in the region, and we are trying to assist to the best of our ability," Sharon told a visiting United Jewish Communities solidarity mission. "But while they have problems, we have funerals."
Sharon termed US Secretary of State Colin Powell's intention to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat a "tragic mistake" that will only encourage more terrorism.
Powell, who originally was slated to arrive on Friday, is now expected tomorrow night.
Sharon is to convene the security cabinet today in preparation for Powell's visit.
A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, referring to the US pressure to withdraw, said, "In those areas and issues where we can help and assist the US, we will be more than willing to do so, and where we can't, we won't."
"It was a tough campaign, a campaign we are continuing... until we fulfill the decision of the cabinet calling for the destruction of the infrastructure of the terrorist groups," Sharon said.
A high-ranking diplomatic official said Israel will try to find a way to balance its vital interest - the security of its citizens - with its interest of maintaining close coordination with the US. "But even small states have a difficult time conceding vital interests," he said.
Nonetheless, the IDF - which pulled out of Tulkarm and Kalkilya yesterday - is expected to withdraw from a number of other Palestinian cities and towns before Powell's arrival.
"We have stated clearly we will expedite the pullback where it is clear an IDF pullback won't lead to risks to our security," the Prime Minister's Office source said. "In places where we feel we have dismantled the terrorist infrastructure and arrested the men we were looking for, we will pull back. This could be in a village or in a city."
The official said the US, which has shown a preference for trying to build wide coalitions, is trying to patch together a coalition of Arab countries willing to speak with one clear voice against suicide bombers.
"This would pressure Arafat," the official said. He added, however, that such a coalition is unlikely, as the Arab leaders distinguish between "good and bad terrorism" and do not view Palestinian violence as terrorism.
While extracting some kind of declaration against terrorism from Arafat seems the best Powell can hope to get from the PA, Jerusalem is bracing for a number of requests from Powell - ranging from a possible call for an immediate settlement freeze to the possibility he will broach the idea of some kind of observer force led by the US.
The idea of an international peace parley along the Madrid model is also expected to come up as a long-term goal, though in the short term some formula is still needed to end the violence.
Bracing for US pressure, the Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying Israel views the Powell visit as significant and hopes "it will result in an understanding that through the use of terrorism nothing can be achieved, as the past year and a half demonstrated."
"This man [Arafat] has already declared a cease-fire numerous times, and even signed one at one point," the statement read. "But all he produced was terrorism, terrorism, and more terrorism."
jpost.com |
