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Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carolyn who wrote (1229)	5/20/2001 9:37:34 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23908

And note, as Yaacov has correctly stated, the Israelis and Turks are effectively "allies" with regard to their mutual dislike for Syria and Iraq. Hawk

To: Carolyn who wrote (1229)	5/21/2001 8:23:12 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23908

Lurking... as usual... Sharon Air Raids Criticized in Israel Deborah Sontag New York Times Service Monday, May 21, 2001 But He Pledges to Employ 'Everything at Our Disposal' JERUSALEM In the aftermath of Israel's use of American-supplied F-16 fighter jets in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the first real domestic criticism of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has surged with questions about whether his government has any plan beyond the next retaliation. Four Israeli dailies, including the conservative Jerusalem Post, on Sunday condemned as unwise the deadly warplane attack on a Nablus police station Friday, which was an indirect response to a suicide bombing by a Hamas militant. One paper called it an act of "unparalleled stupidity" and another "a superfluous escalation." In an interview published Sunday, Mr. Sharon reiterated that he would use "everything at our disposal to protect Israeli citizens." Implying U.S. backing, he also said, "The Americans understand that we can't take this anymore." But in Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a television interview that Israel should stop using F-16s against the Palestinians, adding that "both sides should stop and think about where they are headed here." Mr. Cheney's words unintentionally echoed questions here about whether the Israeli government was rudderless and raised new ones about whether the government was insensitive to international opinion. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said Sunday that a Jordanian-Egyptian peace initiative was still alive even after the Arab League's foreign ministers recommended that Arab countries sever political ties with Israel after the F-16 attacks. But Mr. Mubarak cautioned that Israel's use of warplanes was counter-productive, saying that even if Yasser Arafat called on his people now to stop the violence, "no one would listen to him." Many Israelis, to be sure, applauded Mr. Sharon for finally unleashing Israel's most deadly weaponry against the Palestinians. But, in the first real swell of criticism since Mr. Sharon took office in March, academics, opposition politicians, retired generals and a few cabinet members questioned the wisdom of an action with the potential to ignite the conflict and put Israel on the defensive against international criticism. Some also asked whether the use of the warplanes demonstrated that the government had neither a military nor a diplomatic answer to the conflict. "Friday's response should be seen as indicative of the helplessness of a government that has no path," Shlomo Avineri, a political scientist, told Israel Radio. "They don't have an alternative peace plan and they have no solution for restoring security to the public." In response to a suicide bombing in Netanya that killed five Israelis, the missile attack in Nablus killed 11 Palestinian police officers who did not appear to be personally implicated in the bombing or in any other violence against Israel. On the front page of Sunday's Ha'aretz newspaper, a particularly acerbic columnist, Doron Rosenblum, asked, "What would happen after a terror attack in which, God forbid, 20 people were killed? An atomic bomb on Ramallah?" [snip] iht.com Now, how about a little read-between-the-lines? The real reason why Israelis get angry at bully Sharon is that, so far, his escalation strategy with the Palestinians has failed, that is, it has failed to draw the US back into the "negotiating" quagmire.... Right now, the Israelis' strategy of killing the Palestinian flies with the military canonball has run out. Sharon somehow looks like a big, powerful bull running head-on on Arafat's muleta... OLE!....OLE! In the end, the bull always goes belly up... Sounds like my EU-Russia-Israel scenario holds water after all --today EU Commissioner-at-large Javier Solana is touring the region... But maybe the Israeli establishment will not let Sharon further deteriorate the Israeli-US relationship --and ask Colin Powell to teach him about how best to apply "overkill tactics"... LOL! Gus.