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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (2259)	10/12/2000 3:23:54 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

Israel Hits Back After Mob Kills Two Soldiers By Christine Hauser Oct 12 2:34pm ET GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli helicopter gunships blasted targets near Yasser Arafat's offices in two Palestinian-ruled cities on Thursday after an angry mob killed at least two captive Israeli soldiers. Israeli leaders called the raids a limited response to a ''hideous crime'' and said the operation had been completed. Palestinians described the attacks as all-out war. Israelis and Palestinians said the spiraling violence could deal a mortal blow to Middle East peace efforts, as world statesmen urged both sides to stop fighting and start talking. Helicopters hit targets near the Palestinian president's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah and in Gaza City hours after youths stabbed the soldiers to death in ugly scenes in Ramallah. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Israel could not let what he called the lynching of the soldiers go unanswered. Deputy Prime Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer later said a third Israeli soldier may have been captured and killed. ``The action today is a warning signal to the Palestinian Authority that it not misinterpret Israel's restraint and desire for security and peace,'' Barak said in a statement. Arafat, who was unhurt, responded defiantly, saying on a visit to wounded people in Gaza's Shifa hospital that the Palestinian people would remain strong and ``continue their march to Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian independent state.'' ``There's no doubt that the peace process in its present form... doesn't appear to have a chance and if we want to revive the process, it will have to be revived with other tools,'' Israel's acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami declared. But he said negotiations were ultimately the only option. ``In the end even if we go into a confrontation, however deep and hard it may be, we all understand that there will be no choice but to return to the negotiating table,'' he said. PALESTINIANS CALL FOR U.N. ACTION Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said the Palestinians wanted the U.N. Security Council to meet urgently ''to stop the fighting and the aggression against our people.'' Israel said it had given Palestinians three hours' warning to evacuate targeted buildings in Gaza and Ramallah. An official of the Islamist Hamas movement said Palestinian guards had abandoned prisons in Gaza, allowing jailed Hamas militants and common criminals to escape. Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, vowed revenge for the Israeli attacks. ``We will spare no effort to retaliate for this aggression,'' he told Reuters. ``All options are open for the Palestinian people to defend themselves.'' An Israeli army spokesman, Colonel Raanan Gissin, said the mob had mutilated the two soldiers in a ``hideous crime.'' ``What happened today was something that required an immediate and very severe response and that is why we used the helicopter gunships...to attack those targets, to send a very clear message to Mr. Arafat and the leaders of the Palestinian Authority -- don't mess with us,'' he said. Palestinian hospitals said 17 people were wounded in the reprisal raids, the toughest Israeli military operation since clashes broke out 15 days ago. At least 97 people have been killed, all but seven of them Palestinians or Israeli Arabs, since violence erupted on September 28 after Israeli right-wing politician Ariel Sharon visited a Jerusalem shrine holy to Muslims and Jews. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged both sides to stop fighting immediately and resume negotiations. ``We are in a very sad and difficult period,'' she said in Washington. ``We are gravely concerned that incidents of this kind can easily escalate into something even more dangerous,'' U.S. National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Crowley said Clinton had spoken to Arafat, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair about the latest violence, and was expected to speak shortly with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. MISSILES HIT CITIES Plumes of black smoke curled into the sky in Ramallah, where a radio transmission site near Arafat's office, a police station and a security headquarters were hit. The raid interrupted power supplies for 18,000 people in Ramallah, witnesses said. An army communique said the two Israeli reservists were killed in cold blood after getting lost in Ramallah on their way to base and being taken into Palestinian police custody. ``This (helicopter) action is a token signal to the Palestinian Authority leadership that the Israeli army will not sit idly by when acts of violence are committed,'' it said. Danny Yatom, an aide to Barak, said: ``The main aim was to give (Arafat) a warning signal that the rules of the game... have changed completely following the lynching in Ramallah.'' Palestinian officials accused Israel of unleashing full-scale war and appealed for international intervention. Peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said: ``What we are witnessing is an all-out war against the Palestinian people. We call upon the international community for immediate intervention.'' The welter of violence overshadowed world efforts led by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to calm the crisis. He cut short a visit to Lebanon and flew back to Israel. Annan, who had gone to Beirut to discuss the fate of three Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese border on Saturday, said he hoped peacemaking would survive the latest shock. ``While it complicates it, I hope it doesn't mean that we will not be able to find our way out of this difficult and messy situation,'' he said. SHIP ATTACK In another bloody incident, an explosives-laden rubber raft rammed a U.S. destroyer and exploded in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing four U.S. sailors and injuring 36, five seriously, U.S. Navy officials said. One sailor was missing. The White House said President Clinton was horrified by what appeared to be a terrorist attack on the USS Cole. Oil prices roared to a fresh 10-year high because of the violence, benchmark Brent crude trading above $35 a barrel. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange plunged more than seven percent and the shekel hit a 3-1/2 month low against the dollar. In the Ramallah attack, youths stormed the police station and stabbed and beat two Israeli soldiers being held there on suspicion of being undercover men. At least one body was tossed from a window into the crowd below and trampled on. Marwan Kanafani, an aide to Arafat, said Palestinian police had tried to protect the soldiers from the demonstrators, who were just back from the funeral of a slain Palestinian. He said 13 Palestinian policemen were injured in the attempt.

To: KLP who wrote (2259)	10/12/2000 7:23:27 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

Well, there's one US ship out of commission for a year or so... And with it's integrated state of the art air-defense system, it's a serious loss. My prayers go to those who suffered losses in this tragedy... Btw, I'm still trying to figure out the "angle" with regard to the timing and target of this bombing, as well as the style which, based upon my experience and knowledge, is unique and potentially very disturbing since any US flagged ship is now a target. After pondering it over today, I initially believed it might have been a warning for the US to not back Israel... But now, I'm more of the inclination that it may be more sophisticated than that, namely an attempt aimed at making home-front pressure almost assuredly anti-arab, thus insuring the US will not be able to act as an "honest broker" of peace. This will provide the extremists the opportunity of forcing the "final confrontation" with the Jews. It will be interesting to see how much the Saudis permit themselves to be "pushed" into escalating violence. One thing is sure however, I think we'll see a major sell-off tomorrow unless there is some positive news to report. Who in their right mind wants to hold stocks over the weekend (except energy stocks and maybe gold). Too much can happen over the space of two non-trading days. Regards, Ron