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

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 12:37:36 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

HAMAS: WE HAVE ENOUGH SUICIDE BOMBERS TO LAST 20 YEARS December 3, 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald reports: “The hardline Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, which killed 25 Israelis in less than 24 hours, has enough suicide bombers to last another 20 years, a senior Hamas leader said today. ‘We have the means to resist and offer up martyrs for another 20 years,’ Khaled Meshaal, the group's political leader, said at a Palestinian refugee camp in a suburb of Damascus. ‘At the final count, we will be victors, because the enemy cannot stand the losses,’ he said at an ‘iftar’, the meal which breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. ‘Our goal is to make the cost of the occupation too high for the occupier,’ he said…”

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 12:42:41 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

US-Israeli Sword over Arafat 6 December: Eight years after US President Clinton engineered the Oslo Peace Framework Accord installing the exiled Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with self-determination for his people, George W. Bush has taken the lead in the effort to end his reign. The Palestinian may try last-resort maneuvers, but he cannot escape the joint American-Israel sword poised over his head. Neither can he hope for any world leader to reach out and rescue him. Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres and his dwindling pro-Oslo adherents may try, but they will do so in isolation. In the diplomatic flurry surrounding this terminal process, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon sent a secret envoy to Cairo Wednesday night with a personal message to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The response was immediate: Egyptian foreign minister Ali Maher was dispatched to Jerusalem Thursday for urgent talks with the Israeli prime minister. Maher, after meeting foreign minister Shimon Peres, is to call on Arafat in Ramallah and goes on to Amman for talks with King Abdullah. DEBKAfile’s political sources reveal that Sharon’s messenger was Mossad head Ephraim Halevy. Our sources add: Both the Egyptian and Jordanian rulers, appreciating that Arafat’s days as an effective leader are numbered, have moved forward to deliberations with Israel on the post-Arafat order. President Bush’s strong and resolute stance against Arafat goes beyond his pledge of support for Sharon’s fight to the finish against Palestinian terror. Firstly, the Bush team openly brand Arafat a cheat and liar and will not forgive him for mocking General Anthony Zinni’s truce mission by blowing up the most brutal Palestinian terrorist assault ever in his face. But, most of all, Bush knows that government leaders the world over, especially in the Middle East, are watching to see how he follows through on his decisions. In this important respect, the Afghanistan war will be strongly influenced by America’s handling of Arafat. Additional potential American targets, such as Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, will be monitoring the US President’s every move regarding Arafat’s fate. Whatever the Palestinian leader may decide – a final, desperate round of terror strikes, or submission to America’s demands – or even one of his cunning blends of the two – in the eyes of the Arab world and his own people, he is a goner. ________________________________________

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 12:48:12 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Bush-tailed, but still bright-eyed The Americans have come out squarely on Israel's side, but Arafat seems determined to persist. Security officials predict a long, bloody struggle ahead. By Amos Harel At the end of a week in which Israel suffered more terror victims than in any similar time span since the bus bombings of the winter of 1996, it is the United States that is supplying the main headline. After months of sitting on the fence, the Bush administration has chosen sides. No longer is it trying to play the impartial mediator, a la former president Bill Clinton. Senior Israeli security officials could hardly believe the series of public appearaances this week by people from the White House and the State Department. For a moment there, President George W. Bush sounded like he was outflanking Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the right. National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman wouldn't have phrased it any differently. Bush spoke in terms of "we" (the U.S. and Israel) and of a common, almost holy, war on terror. Meanwhile, his spokespeople steadfastly refused to condemn the renewed (and so far limited) Israeli incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory. For the Americans, photographs of smiling teenagers taken not long before they were brutally murdered on the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall at the end of a birthday party aroused too many fresh associations from the attacks on the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. This week, Yasser Arafat crossed the red line. It wasn't just a question of semantics. Bush's words were backed up by actions. Since mid-week, the U.S. has been putting relentless pressure on the PA Chairman. The special envoy to the region, retired Marine General Anthony Zinni, daily demanded a detailed report from the Palestinians: Who was arrested? Where is he being held? On what charges? And why doesn't the list of arrests overlap more closely with the list of names submitted by Israel? Officials from army intelligence and the Shin Bet noted with satisfaction that Zinni, clearly shocked by his visit to the site of the Jerusalem suicide bombing, had completely lost patience with Arafat's web of lies. President Bush added a move of his own: The announcement of the freezing of Hamas assets in the U.S. is important, says an Israeli security official, but even more important is the way in which it was done. When the president himself comes out of the White House and makes a speech about Hamas, which seeks to destroy Israel, the U.S. is practically declaring war on 30 percent of the Palestinian people. Prior to making his statement ("Whoever does business with terror will not do business with the United States"), Bush was given information that had been painstakingly accumulated by the Shin Bet and by Lieutenant Colonel Udi Levy of the anti-terror division, the leading Israeli expert on issues related to how money is funneled to terrorist organizations. The Americans were absolutely convinced. The president's announcement put Arafat in a tricky situation: It will be very difficult for him to maintain national unity with Hamas, an organization now defined by the U.S. as its enemy. Israel interpreted the American support as meaning it had broader room to maneuver militarily, and it used this freedom primarily to execute numerous air strikes, including some on targets closely identified with Arafat himself (the heliport in Gaza, the runway at the Rafiah airport, his office in Jenin). The air strikes were preceded by a debate: Some in the defense establishment felt it would be better to delay them in order to see whether the government's more combative new line was having any effect on Arafat. Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer decided in favor of an immediate assault. This time, the military operation, which also included ground incursions into Area A to surround four cities in the West Bank (Jenin, Nablus, Tul Karm and Ramallah), encountered little Palestinian resistance.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 12:54:12 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Arafat's not scared The IDF came away with the impression that the Palestinians are tired out: No one came out to demonstrate and only a few people bothered to shoot at the tanks. This was partly due to an understanding (acquired during the previous round of IDF raids) of what happens to a person who tries to use his body to block the way of an armored tank, says a sector commander in the territories. But, apparently, many Palestinians saw the Israeli assault as wholly predictable - practically a given - in wake of the suicide bombings. This week, Arafat's advisors were almost pleading with Zinni to pressure the Palestinian leader. Without a direct order from the PA Chairman, the heads of the Palestinian security organizations are wary of really taking off the gloves in the war on terror. Mohammed Dahlan, who has always been the most talented politician among them, left most of the arrest operations to his rival in the Gaza Strip, Amin al-Hindi. Dahlan's colleague in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, was contributing to the arrest effort (although still operating in low gear), despite his anger at the IDF's entrance into the town of Bituniya west of Ramallah - just spitting distance from his plush headquarters. But the Americans and Israelis don't seem to be scaring Arafat yet. Both Palestinian and Israeli experts who have studied him closely say that pressure situations hardly ever budge him from his positions. On the contrary, Arafat seems to thrive in such circumstances. From his perspective, this is a return to the great days of the Israeli siege of Beirut in the summer of 1982. "There is still no attempt on his part to implement strategic control in the field," says a senior official. "More and more, it appears to us that if Arafat does not have his demands met in full - either in an agreement or after fighting Israel - he will be totally content with the thought of finishing his career as a symbol of the struggle, as the leader who did not betray the cause and thus `shackled' his successors from making any future concessions." Toward the end of the week, the PA slightly accelerated the pace of its arrests. As of Wednesday night, approximately 120 people had been detained. Following an explicit American demand, five high-level suspects were arrested for the first time, but some of them were released several hours later. When Israel gave the PA the name of a suspect from Islamic Jihad who was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing, the PA called him in for a talk and admonished him to keep a lower profile. The man continued with his preparations for the attack, which, in the end, was only prevented because the Israelis succeeded in foiling it. Most of those arrested have no connection to the most recent terror attacks. All are being held in very comfortable conditions, under "open arrest" in some cases. At this stage, interrogations and trials are very far off.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 12:57:11 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

No resistance In Bethlehem, Fatah activists threatened to use their weapons when they chased away the security personnel who had come to arrest a reporter for Al- Manar, the Hezbollah television station. When Fatah activist Yihya Dahamseh was arrested in the city, his friends threatened to start firing at Gilo in two hours if he was not released. The security officers insisted on arresting him and, two hours later, Gilo came under fire once again. However, the Tanzim leadership in the West Bank did moderate its declarations and actions, at Arafat's orders. The number of shooting incidents dropped sharply after Arafat instructed Marwan Barghouti to hold his fire while Zinni was in the region. In Bituniya at mid-week, Lieutenant Colonel David Blumenfeld, commander of the 101st Paratroop Battalion, seemed almost disappointed. He had labored for weeks over plans for how to take control of a narrow strip of the town - and the Palestinians didn't even do him the honor of putting up a fight. The position manned by fighters from Arafat's Force 17, just below the cemetery, was abandoned after being hit by some very accurately aimed tank shells. By the afternoon, just 12 hours after the IDF entered the area, the Palestinian resistance had come down to a few teenagers standing at a distance and throwing stones at a tank parked in the middle of the street. In one of the buildings taken over by the IDF, there was some momentary excitement concerning a Kalashnikov rifle confiscated from a tenant - until it was discovered that it belonged to the commander of the Palestinian DCO (security coordination apparatus). The brigade commander, Colonel Ilan Paz, ordered that the rifle be returned to its Palestinian owner. A large part of Paz's patrol in the town was taken up with humanitarian concerns, such as how to enable residents finding themselves under Israeli occupation for the first time in six years to get enough food in the course of the curfew, and how to prevent mistaken shooting at civilians. In the apartments that were commandeered by the IDF, the paratroopers set up camouflage screens, as well as lookout and firing positions. In one, signs of the occupants' forced and hasty exit, and of their abruptly violated normal routine, were evident: piles of unwashed dishes in the sink, a child's tricycle on the floor, fruit-shaped magnets on the refrigerator.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 1:00:07 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Arafat's partial response to American pressure and the failure of the Islamic Jihad suicide bombing attempt in downtown Jerusalem (the Shin Bet discerns that the organization is having difficulty dealing with technical malfunctions in its explosive devices due to Israel's elimination of its "engineers") all contributed to a temporary pause in the IDF operations toward the end of the week. Israel continued to hold positions it had taken in Area A and was waiting for Arafat's reaction. "The formula is simple," one general said Wednesday night. "If he carries out serious arrests, we won't attack. Without such arrests, we will soon renew the operations, with full American backing." Israel is trying, through a show of force, to bring Arafat to the crossroads of a decision, and even though the question is being cautiously circumvented in interviews and public statements, to the security establishment, the alternative is clear: If the PA Chairman does not supply the goods, he will have to go. Arafat will not be directly expelled, but Israel could make his life so intolerable that he would decide to leave the land of Palestine of his own accord. Such a scenario may not be entirely to the PA Chairman's disliking. He may find it preferable to conduct the coming stages of the struggle from the outside. In any case, he can be confident that, as long as he is alive, no one in the territories would dare try to take his place. Meanwhile, a senior officer expresses some awe for Arafat's unparalleled talent for maneuvering his way out of sticky situations. "He's like Muhammad Ali - He floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee - and each time, he gains another 24 hours. Maybe something will happen that will spare him a confrontation with Hamas." One of the officer's colleagues on the general staff says, "Nothing affects Arafat. He is determined to persist in the struggle for as long as he can. The struggle with Israel only stirs him up. The pressure we have applied up to now hasn't even begun to crack his resistance. He will not break unless he is genuinely pushed into a corner. Only the threat of an irreversible situation for him might produce a small chance of a change." At the end of this terrible week, security officials were sounding unrelievedly pessimistic in their assessments of what is to come. They foresaw a protracted confrontation that would entail even fiercer fighting and many more losses. "More rivers of blood will be spilled here," remarked one especially gloomy prognosticator. A colleague of his cynically commented that, "We ain't seen nothing yet. We're just at the beginning of the beginning." Israel and the Palestinians can apparently expect more mutual bloodletting, for which, at present, there is no discernible way out. This, essentially, is the difference between where we are today and where we were after the bus bombings in the winter of 1996. Then, there was still some hope that things would get back on track. This time, the chances of the political track getting off the ground again seem just as good as the chances of being able to take off from the airport in Rafiah this week.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 1:06:35 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Words from your Fuhrer Len: Arafat: PA is in complete control in the West Bank, Gaza Strip By Ha'aretz Service and agencies Yasser Arafat points to a map of Jerusalem during his interview to Channel One. (Photo: AP) Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said Friday that the PA has complete control over the situation in the territories and that he had given explicit orders for upholding a cease-fire. "Not only did we declare a cease-fire, we stood by it and declared a state of emergency," he said in an interview to Channel One Television. Arafat said that Palestinian security forces had arrested 17 of the 33 wanted terrorists on the list presented to him Wednesday by U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni. He added that efforts to arrest the remaining activists were continuing. The Palestinian leader criticized the U.S., saying that it was the U.S. that provided Israel with weapons used to attack the Palestinians. "Good God! Don't talk to me about the Americans," he told interviewer Oded Granot. "The Americans stand by your side and give you everything. Who gives you planes? The Americans! Who gives you tanks? The Americans! Who gives you money? The Americans!" Arafat said angrily. When asked why he did not declare an end to the intifada, Arafat responded "You are doing me a great injustice. How many times have I made arrests, declared an end to the killing, and declared a cease-fire? How many times have I done this? The last time I did so was after we condemned the crimes [the suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa]. We condemned those crimes and those that came before them. Did we not arrest many Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine activists? Among those arrested were political and military leaders." According to Arafat, Hamas and Islamic Jihad were funded by Iran. In response to the claim that PA members said that they received no clear military order for a cease-fire, Arafat said: "Bring me whoever told you that, and I will imprison him." The Palestinian leader noted that he had cooperated with Israel in stopping the suicide bombing, not because these actions are detrimental to Israel, but rather to the Palestinian nation. "We determined that the suicide bombings are dangerous and are illegal," he said. He claimed that the PA banned activities of factories that produce mortars and that PA security forces closed such factories in the Gaza Strip. "I invite you to visit the factory. If there is an additional factory - I'm on my way to it," Arafat said. The PA chairman also criticized Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets. "Yesterday [Thursday] you bombed the police jail at 3 A.M. I was not asleep. You attacked at 3 A.M. Did you know that? F-16 jets attacked." In regard to the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, Arafat said, "First of all, those that killed Ze'ev Schiff [a Ha'aretz correspondent]... Ze'evi, yes, Rehavam Ze'evi. I did not publicize evidence because two members of the Cra'an family and one member of the Alasmar family escaped from you... You caught two and two escaped. We didn't find them, although we found two of their brothers. Do you want to go see them in prison so that they tell you who they cooperated with?" Arafat asked. Arafat accused Israeli leaders and the Israeli media of incitement against the Palestinian nation. According to him, this caused the Israeli public loss of faith in him and in the PA. "They said that I am [Osama] bin Laden and the PA is the Taliban. Am I bin Laden?" he asked. Arafat dismissed alleged claims by the Tanzim, including by its leader Marwan Barghouti, that it would not uphold agreements signed with Israel. "Who is Barghouti?" he asked. At the conclusion of the interview, Arafat said that he was "reaching out my hand to the Israeli people in the name of their children and our children," saying that he was obligated to international agreements signed with Israeli leaders. In response to the interview, the Prime Minister's Office said that Arafat was an individual responsible for the killing of civilians and for the state of war.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 10:11:16 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Time to muzzle the mufti! Jerusalem Mufti justifies suicide attacks against Israel By Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz Correspondent The Friday edition of the Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat published remarks made Thursday by Jerusalem Mufti Sheikh Ikrema Sabri in which he justified suicide bombings against Israel. The remarks also slammed religious rulings in Egypt and Saudi Arabi that condemned suicide attacks. The Sheikh of the El-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Mohammed Said Tantawi, said last week that suicide attacks were contrary to the laws of Islam and killed innocent people. A similar ruling was made by a leading Saudi Mufti. However Sabri said, "Those religious rulings were a result of international pressure," adding "those that lack the courage to speak the truth, should keep quiet and not say things that cause confusion." "The opposition [to Israel] is legitimate, and he who gives his life, does not have to ask permission from anyone....We have to concentrate on the legitimacy of the opposition, it is forbidden to oppose the Intifada and the Jihad, but [an obligation] to stand beside them and support them." said Sabri, who was appointed as Jerusalem Mufti by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. When asked about the killing of civilians, Sabri replied, "Who is a civilian and who is a soldier? After all, the dead amongst Palestinian civilians - women and children - are much more than the number of fighters killed during the Intifada. School children, their bodies ripped to shreds. Pregnant women stopped from reaching hospitals - often the mother and child die. Why doesn't the media focus on those pictures?"

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 10:18:02 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

It is time for the "Palestinians" to find another country to harrass. Let's see: Jordan? Nope: Jordon slaughtered 10,000 in a single day in the event known as Black September, which routed the first Intifada, and sent Arafat and his whores and murderers packing. Kuwait? Nope: Arafat and his thievesm murderers and whores were slaughtered there too after raping Kuwaiti women and robbing and killing the shops and keepers. Lebanon or Syria? Don't think so; neither one of those countries want to deal with another ISraeli cleanup operation there which took years to recover from after they harbored Arafat and his hoards of whores likkers and misfits. Egypt: Yup; this is the last place for Arafat to run too, and the only place he can now get too, since he has been reduced to camels and donkeys; which is of course, appropriate. PA urges U.S. to restrain Israel after IDF strikes Rafah targets By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz Service and agencies The Palestinian Authority appealed to the U.S. to restrain Israel after IDF helicopter gunships hit buildings early Saturday morning belonging to Palestinian Intelligence and the elite presidential guard, Force 17, in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, no injuries were reported. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the United States' refusal to condemn the Israeli action would only encourage Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to strike again. "We urge President Bush, for the sake of peace, to say to Sharon 'You don't have the green light, there is no military solution for this,'" Erekat said Saturday. America has urged Israel to exercise restraint when it has hit the Palestinian territories previously, but has been supportive of retaliation since the latest suicide bombings. Palestinian sources reported that Apache helicopters fired three missiles at three separate buildings, destroying two of the buildings and damaging a third. Palestinians had evacuated the buildings earlier fearing an IDF attack. The IDF spokesperson said the attacks were in retaliation for continued mortar fire on settlements in the Gaza Strip. The targets hit "had direct or indirect responsibility for the mortar attacks", the army statement said. A Palestinian security official rejected the charge. "The security services which were hit had been working to spread security and stability in the Palestinian territories and to maintain the ceasefire," said Major-General Abdel-Razek Al-Majaydeh, Palestinian Authority public security chief. "This is a war against the Palestinian people, an unfair war," said one Palestinian official, adding that the latest attack was "against efforts of peace the Americans and the rest of the world are trying to achieve" It was also reported that the electric supply to Rafah had been cut off after a transformer was damaged in the attack. Five mortars were fired at settlements in the Gaza Strip Friday night. Two of the shells exploded in Palestinian controlled territory, while the other three landed in settlements damaging two buildings, including a kindergarten, there were no injuries.

To: Elmer Flugum who wrote (1115)	12/8/2001 10:18:43 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

IDF kills two terrorists in West Bank (should have been two thousand) Two armed Palestinians were killed Friday afternoon by IDF troops close to the West Bank settlement of Ariel, in an area under Israeli security control. The soldiers spotted the two men, one of whom was armed with a Kalachnikov rifle, as they were en route to a road close to the settlement of Peduel. The two were apparently on their way to carry out shooting attacks on Israeli vehicles. Security forces have recently made a number of arrests of terrorist suspects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the IDF revealed Friday. Palestinians said IDF troops entered two West Bank villages and arrested activists from Hamas and the radical Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Among those detained is a resident of the West Bank town of Kabatiya, who has been an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The man, suspected of planting an explosive device, had received training in Iraq. Another detainee is a Palestinian police officer from the West Bank refugee camp of Al Arub for taking part in shooting incidents and throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles. Also arrested was a member of Palestinian General Intelligence service from the West Bank city of Hebron, who admitted to carrying out shooting attacks on the West Bank settlement of Beit Haggai as well as firing at IDF troops in Hebron. The security forces uncovered a PFLP cell whose members were planning to fire at Jewish worshippers in the northern West Bank and at Israeli cars. Another PFLP activist who was arrested revealed details on the organization and on the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October. A resident of the village of Arabe who was arrested admitted to shooting at the Dotan military base in the West Bank. He also admitted to planning suicide bombings inside Israel.