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

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (1280)	12/22/2001 11:58:05 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Haim, where in Tel Aviv are you? Last time I was there I stayed at the Sheraton on the beach. Wondering what the weather is, and if there is anyone playing ball by the shore?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (1280)	12/22/2001 12:12:49 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Hamas Will Hold Back Only Until Arafat Is Free 22 December: The devout Muslim Yasser Arafat, who ignited the “al Aqsa Intifada” conflagration in September 2000, has developed a strong urge to attend Christmas Mass in Bethlehem. But he is in a cleft stick. To escape the Israeli siege holding him down in Ramallah, he must ask Israel for permission to cross over to a second blockaded Palestinian West Bank town, Bethlehem. The closure against Bethlehem will certainly be lifted for Christmas. Arafat’s fate is less certain. Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres thinks he should be granted his wish. He argues that it is “religious” not political. Sources in the Israeli prime minister’s office do not see what the Palestinian leader has done to deserve such consideration. He has yet to make the necessary arrests of Palestinian terrorists, including the assassins of the Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi. The Hamas “suspension” is far short of comprehensive – a view shared by the White House whose spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said the Hamas must cease all its terror operations everywhere - and not just inside Israel. He advised Arafat to do more. But the Palestinian leader, in his call to halt “armed operations including suicide attacks” last Sunday, December 16, refrained from calling an end to the Intifada. He also spoke of Jerusalem as sacred to Muslims and Christians, “with its mosques and churches”. Jewish shrines were not mentioned; their Temple site, Western Wall, synagogues and many shrines pointedly ignored. Attending the internationally televised Christmas mass is intended to belabor that point. There are two main reasons for the Palestinian leader to have swung the Hamas Islamic terrorists round to a partial suspension of operations: A. To put pressure on Israel to reciprocate by lifting the closure of Ramallah so that he can wriggle out of the stranglehold imposed on him by US President George W. Bush and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Once in Bethlehem, he will be free and can move around at will. B. To show Arab leaders that America can be challenged; they don’t have to knuckle under to American dictates, least of all those laid down by Sharon. The Bush administration has made its attitude to terror abundantly clear; terrorists will be destroyed. The message was addressed to such Middle East figures as Yasser Arafat, Syrian president Bashar Assad, Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein, Lebanese Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas keader Khaled Mashal, Popular Front Secretary Ahmed Saadat, Jihad Islami leader Ramadan Shelah, head of the Arab Liberation Front Abul Abbas and Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front-General Command. It is clear to them all that their own heads may soon be on the block. Since all these personalities and groups have personal or operational ties with Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader has determined to show them an example of how to outwit the Americans and succeed where Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and Ayman Zuweiri failed. His determination is such that he was prepared to bend the Hamas to his will and force a partial suspension of suicide attacks “inside territory occupied since 1948” (Hamas can’t bring itself to say the word “Israel”) and mortar fire - although the Islamic terrorist group is both his operational right arm and key source of revenue through its world net of charitable societies. The US President’s order to freeze Hamas assets in the United States limits but does not stem the group’s cash flow. The Hamas is perfectly willing to go along with Arafat’s ploy, even at the cost of bloody clashes between its followers and Palestinian police, which on Friday, December 21, cost six Palestinian lives. The group does not even mind one of its leading lights, Aziz Rantisi, being confined to phony house arrest. Even the Hamas’s brother group, the Jihad Islami, is prepared to go through the motions of considering a halt to its suicide attacks, knowing its leaders in Beirut and Damascus will never sanction the move. It is no secret to either Islamic terror group that whatever self-restraint they promise, it will not be for long – only until Arafat is out of Ramallah. Then they can make up for lost time – first in violent assaults on Israeli civilians and troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, then a fresh round of suicide attacks and mortar fire inside Israel. Arafat, if blamed, can always respond by asking what more he could have done; he made a hundred percent effort to quell the terror, bringing the Palestinians to the brink of civil war – but failed.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (1280)	12/23/2001 4:22:55 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

10:45 Dec-23-01, 8 Tevet 5762 French Ambassador Curses Israel (IsraelNationalNews.com) The French Ambassador to the United Kingdom is reported to have referred to Israel as “that [expletive] little country,” further asking “Why should we be in danger of World War III because of these people?” The comments were made during a dinner party Friday evening. The French government released a statement to the effect that “the ambassador does not remember if he used those words.” Claiming that the comments, which he doesn’t remember making, were part of an intellectual discourse on world affairs, the statement continued, “The ambassador was pointing out the paradox that although Israel is a tiny country, it had repercussions worldwide totally out of the proportion to its size. He was talking about geography. It was nothing to do with anti-Semitism.” An editorial in Friday’s New York Daily News commented, “Geography? What map labels the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean as ‘the [expletive] little country’?” Elan Steinberg of the World Jewish Congress reacted to the French statement by saying, “I come from Brooklyn, and if you say you can't remember saying something, you said it.”

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (1280)	12/23/2001 4:23:29 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

10:04 Dec-23-01, 8 Tevet 5762 Fatah: Prepare to Continue the War (IsraelNationalNews.com) The al-Aqsa Brigades of the Fatah militia, under PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s leadership, has released a statement saying that the terrorist war against Israeli targets will continue. In a flyer, the organization called on the Arabs to prepare for an intensification of the confrontation with Israeli soldiers and civilians.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (1280)	12/23/2001 4:25:12 AM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

22:46 Dec-22-01, 7 Tevet 5762 PA Officials Crossed Freely Through Israel (IsraelNationalNews.com) According to the ITIM news agency, officials of the Palestinian Authority bearing VIP passes are now traveling unhindered through IDF checkpoints, including those into Israel’s pre-1967 borders. Since the most recent series of murderous attacks throughout Israel, the IDF ceased respecting VIP passes at the checkpoints. The new orders took effect Friday night and allow PA officials to travel freely through areas under total Israeli jurisdiction, including through Israel in its pre-1967 borders, accompanied by a driver and armed guards. Israeli soldiers were not permitted to inspect the VIP vehicles, which have been used to smuggle weapons and ammunition in the past, as they made their way from Gaza and other points in the PA to Ramallah for a Saturday meeting with PLO leader Yasser Arafat.