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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (154703)	6/21/2001 11:45:43 AM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769670

Middle East Truce Near Collapse Thursday June 21 10:07 AM ET By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM (AP) - With a week-old truce nearing collapse because of continuing violence and death, Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs held an inconclusive meeting, and the United States moved to step up its involvement again. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) will travel to the Mideast next week to urge Israel and the Palestinians to enforce the cease-fire. The announcement of Powell's trip followed the deaths Wednesday of a Palestinian and an Israeli in gunfire incidents. On Thursday, Palestinians for the first time fired a 120mm mortar shell at Israel, and the Israeli army spokesman's office said the use of the longer-range weapon marked an ``escalation in the Palestinian violence.'' The shell, which has a reach of several miles, fell near the Israeli communal farm of Nahal Oz and shattered car windows, the army said. Mortar shells used so far in attacks on Israeli targets had a range of about a mile. In Wednesday's violence, a Palestinian worker was killed by Israeli soldiers at a roadblock near the West Bank town of Ramallah. Palestinian witnesses said the victim was a father of five returning from his job, and was shot when he tried to bypass the checkpoint on foot to avoid long lines. The army said preliminary reports indicated that the soldiers opened fire when they spotted suspicious-looking figures. Near the Jewish settlement of Homesh in the West Bank, an Israeli was killed as he approached the house of a business associate in an adjacent Palestinian village. Another Homesh settler was killed Monday in a Palestinian shooting ambush. Several settlers said they were ready to leave the West Bank because of the violence. Since hostilities erupted last Sept. 28, 495 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 115 on the Israeli side. The incidents took place as security commanders met to discuss implementation of the truce, negotiated last week by CIA (news - web sites) director George Tenet. Israel said it would present a plan for redeploying its soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza at the meeting, but would carry it out only if the Palestinian attacks stop. The meeting ended with no agreements. Jibril Rajoub, Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, said intensive meetings would continue over the next two days to try to work out a timetable for implementing the accord negotiated by Tenet. Earlier Wednesday, Israel's security Cabinet charged that the Palestinians were violating the truce by continuing attacks and incitement, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) criticized Israel for what he said were attacks by soldiers and settlers. The security Cabinet, made up of senior ministers, issued a statement declaring, ``Israel reserves the right of self-defense to prevent attacks aimed at its citizens and soldiers.'' Some analysts said that indicated a resumption of a much-criticized policy of targeted killing of Palestinian activists. The Cabinet statement reflected growing Israeli impatience with the shaky truce. ``Restraint causes us greater damage than the need to strike at the terrorists,'' Public Security Minister Uzi Landau saod. ``It has led to an increase in international intervention.'' Demanding Israeli retaliation, Jewish settlers demonstrated outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s Jerusalem office late Wednesday, after the latest shooting death. Arafat charged that the Israelis are lying when they say they are implementing the cease-fire. ``The settlers are still committing all kind of crimes, of course with the protection of the Israeli army,'' he said. dailynews.yahoo.com * * *