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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scoobah who wrote (311)	11/15/2001 10:07:22 PM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Israel on Alert for First Ramadan Prayers November 15, 2001 06:05 PM ET Email this article Printer friendly version Reuters Photo By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel prepared a massive security operation for the first Friday Muslim prayers of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Jerusalem. A police spokesman said some 2,000 police had been ordered to deploy in Arab East Jerusalem -- where tens of thousands of Muslims were expected to worship at Al-Aqsa mosque -- and along Israel's border with the West Bank. With Israeli blockades in place even before a Palestinian uprising against occupation erupted more than a year ago, the way to the shrine in Jerusalem's walled Old City is barred to most of the devout from the West Bank and Gaza. "The presence of police outside the gates causes provocation," Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the mufti of Jerusalem, said. "To reduce the tension, the (police) should stay away." The holiday is bringing little cheer to Palestinians this year. Tens of thousands of them have lost jobs inside Israel as a result of travel restrictions which the Israeli government says are necessary to protect Israelis from attack. Palestinians call the blockades collective punishment. With no end in sight to violence in which nearly 900 people have died, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday there was support in Israel for a Palestinian state. But he side-stepped political trouble at home by saying it was not official policy. In Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli tanks and troops briefly raided two Palestinian-ruled towns on Thursday, killing one Palestinian and wounding at least 14 others, witnesses and medical officials said. PERES SAYS TONED DOWN STATEHOOD MESSAGE The violence preceded a weekend visit to the Middle East by European Union leaders which an EU official said was unlikely to produce a quick fix to Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. "Yesterday, you would hardly find, for example, support for a Palestinian state," the dovish Peres said in his showcase U.N. speech. "And although this is not yet a formal policy of the government of Israel, there is support for Palestinian independence, support for a Palestinian state," said Peres, a partner in hawkish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition. Peres later said on Israeli television he had softened his original text, which contained no reference to the absence of a government decision on a Palestinian state, after cabinet ministers complained his words were misrepresentative. "I wasn't interested in starting an argument," Peres said about the change. "If I had a majority in the government, my speech would have been different." Nonetheless, Danny Naveh, a minister without portfolio and a member of Sharon's right-wing Likud party, was quoted by Israel radio as saying Peres "had no mandate to make such a declaration" about Palestinian statehood. The YESHA Council of Jewish Settlements in the West Bank and Gaza called on Sharon to fire Peres. Earlier, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat marked the 13th anniversary of his symbolic declaration of a Palestinian state by saying it would be an "absolute guarantee" for peace and stability in the Middle East. In a pre-recorded speech broadcast by the Palestinian media, Arafat also urged the U.N. Security Council to issue a resolution for sending a team of international observers "to make the cease-fire hold...and to lift the siege" on Palestinian areas. ISRAEL REJECTS OUTSIDE OBSERVERS Israel has repeatedly rejected Arafat's proposal for outside observers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, believing they would side with the Palestinian view of the conflict. Israel and the Palestinians are now awaiting signals of U.S. intentions from a policy speech which Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to make on November 19. President Bush recently endorsed a Palestinian state as part of a U.S. effort to keep Arab nations on board its anti-terror coalition. Sharon himself has made public comments envisaging a demilitarized Palestinian state that falls far short of Palestinian aspirations. But the mere mention of a state sets off alarm bells among Israeli hard-liners. His strongest right-wing rival, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has taken a tougher line that Sharon may be forced to toe should they do battle for the Likud leadership. "We should be telling Arafat, stop the terrorism or your regime will fall," Netanyahu told Israeli television while Peres was making his speech in New York. "Instead, we are rewarding him by telling him that not only can he wage terror against us...but we are going to give him a terrorist state in the heart of Israel," Netanyahu said. At least 705 Palestinians and 188 Israelis have been killed in the Palestinian uprising that erupted in September 2000 after peace talks deadlocked.