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To: JohnG who wrote (107126)	10/17/2001 9:33:51 AM
From: JohnG	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Here goes the Mid East Peace efforts. Wednesday October 17 7:19 AM ET Palestinian Gunmen Kill Israeli Minister By Michele Gershberg JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian gunmen assassinated far-right Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi on Wednesday in revenge for the killing of a militant leader, throwing U.S.-led peace efforts into turmoil. Israel said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) bore sole responsibility, despite his aide's condemnation of the killing. ``He is the chairman of the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) and only he is responsible,'' Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said, accusing Arafat of failing to arrest and rein in militants. The radical Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine group claimed responsibility for the first Arab assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) told an emergency security meeting ``everything had changed'' as a result of Zeevi's death. A political source said the easing in recent days of Israel's blockades of Palestinian areas would be rescinded. The PFLP said it shot Zeevi, a former general, in retaliation for Israel's assassination of its leader in August. ``The Israeli government, by killing Abu Ali Mustafa, has opened the gates of hell on itself and now the fire is approaching it,'' PFLP spokesman Ali Jaradat said. Zeevi, popularly known in Israel by his nickname ``Gandhi,'' was gunned down outside his room in a Jerusalem hotel where many ministers and legislators spend the working week. He had called for years for the ``transfer'' of Arabs from land claimed by Jews. As news of the shooting broke, dozens of Palestinians in the Ain El-Hilweh refugee camp in south Lebanon rushed into the street carrying pictures of Mustafa and dancing. Arafat's Palestinian Authority swiftly condemned the attack. ``We reject all forms of political assassinations,'' cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said. ``We want to put an end to this vicious cycle of killings although Mr. Zeevi had adopted hostile positions and policies against our people.'' HIT BY TWO BULLETS Zeevi, who tendered his resignation as tourism minister on Monday after the Israeli cabinet eased the blockade and pulled out of a reoccupied area in the West Bank city of Hebron, was hit by two bullets at the door to his room in the Hyatt hotel. The assassination raised the specter of Israeli retaliation at a time when the United States is putting heavy pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to reach a truce as it wages a war against terrorism after the September 11 attacks. Police said Zeevi did not have a bodyguard from the Shin Bet internal security service in line with official policy to assign personal protection only to cabinet members considered at risk. ``The minister Zeevi arrived at the hospital dead, with no pulse and not breathing... we resuscitated him... and the heart began beating again... but all the efforts afterwards failed,'' Avi Rifkind, an official at Hadassah hospital, told reporters. Zeevi's resignation from the government had been to go into effect later on Wednesday. He was a leader of the seven-seat ultranationalist National Union-Yisrael Beitainu bloc. ``The people of Israel will soon know what the government plans to do after this terrible attack,'' Health Minister Nissim Dahan told reporters. ``I want to remind the public that after an attack of a diplomat at an embassy, a war broke out,'' he said, referring to the shooting by a Palestinian of Israeli ambassador to London Shlomo Argov in 1982. Israel invaded Lebanon the next day. A guest at the Hyatt said he heard a thud and came out of his room to see Zeevi lying in the hall in a pool of blood as the minister's wife screamed next to the body. ``It was pretty obvious to me he was already dead,'' the witness, David Hocking, told Israel Radio. ``I saw (Mrs Zeevi) kneeling over him... blood was everywhere.'' Zeevi had opposed Israeli-Palestinian interim peace agreements first forged under Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites), assassinated by a right-wing Jew in 1995. Zeevi, a father of five, had an illustrious military career and served as a general in several branches of the Israeli army. As a young man, he was nicknamed Gandhi by friends who though he resembled the assassinated Indian leader. VIOLENCE CONTINUES DESPITE TRUCE EFFORTS More than 800 people have been killed since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began a year ago after peace talks stalled. They include at least 626 Palestinians and 175 Israelis. The two sides are under fierce pressure from the United States to end the fighting, which Washington believes is an obstacle to Arab support for the global anti-terror coalition. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres voiced similar views to Sharon's, saying the assassination marked ``a new and very grave situation, an escalation.'' ``We have to review very carefully every step, but of course we won't be indifferent and return to business as usual.'' Violence has continued despite cease-fire talks on September 26 between Peres and Arafat, and Israel this week resumed a policy of killing militants blamed for attacks. The most prominent victim of the policy was PFLP leader Mustafa, killed by an Israeli missile in Ramallah in August.