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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (143286)	3/14/2002 9:09:15 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1576686

More Israelis growing hardline Over the past decade, Israelis may well have become increasingly hawkish. However, I was suggesting that the hawkishness may have peaked with Sharon's election and now the Israelis may want to back down from that position. Your second link kind of confirms that hawkishness may be indirectly responsible for worsening relations between Israel and Palestine, and the failure to establish lasting peace. Through the peace process, Israel so tried to protect itself, it ended up emasculating the new Palestinian state enough so that it couldn't function and succeed. And apparently the Palestinian negotiators weren't astute enough to realize their mistake in agreeing to the Oslo terms. I still contend if Israel wants out of this mess, it needs to commit the resources to help Palestine become a success economically. I am sure they don't want to hear that argument but I think its the only one that will succeed. Working people don't have time to riot and commit terrorist acts. Besides, they are committed to the status quo. And more on the idea the peace talks help lead to violence. Below is a recent article re. conditions in Israel. A few nites ago the left and moderates were wanting Sharon to back off from his strong demands on Palestine.....and he did. Now, the right wants him to reinstate his demands. Of course, his coalition gov't is threatened with all these conflicts. Tim, I still contend that the left and moderates remain in strength in Israel. However, I think the Palestinian terrorism has made them more hawkish. In fact, NBC News is reporting tonite that there were Israelis demonstrating today against Israel's hard line. ted ____________________________________________________________ March 14, 2002 Israeli Tanks Begin Ramallah Pullout By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 7:55 p.m. ET JERUSALEM (AP) -- U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni launched his third Mideast truce mission on Thursday, arriving during the bloodiest period in 18 months of fighting to try to achieve an elusive cease-fire. After Zinni met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem, Israeli troops began withdrawing from the West Bank town of Ramallah. Witnesses said the tanks were leaving from all directions, and Israeli military sources confirmed that a pullout had begun. Israelis and Palestinians said they are ready to work with the U.S. envoy, but violence persisted. Israeli forces killed five armed Palestinians in gunbattles and two militiamen in a helicopter attack in Gaza, while Palestinian militants set off a bomb under an Israeli tank, killing three soldiers. Each side warned it would continue fighting if the other did not end the violence. Beginning his peace mission against the backdrop of Israel's largest military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Zinni met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Thursday night. ``My main effort now is to achieve a cease-fire,'' Sharon told reporters before the meeting at his Jerusalem residence, across the street from a cafe where a suicide bomber killed 11 people last Saturday. Palestinian officials said Zinni was to meet with Arafat on Saturday. As Zinni arrived, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer ordered a gradual pullback of troops from Ramallah, the Palestinian commercial center in the West Bank that has been occupied by dozens of Israeli tanks since Tuesday. But the Bush administration said that was not enough. ``We do expect a complete withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas, including Ramallah, and the other areas the Israel Defense Force recently entered,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. He also called on Arafat ``to do more to stop the groups that carry out violence.'' Britain's Foreign Office also contacted Israel's government and urged it to pull out of Ramallah, saying Israel should take ``immediate steps to de-escalate'' its operations. The Israeli army chief of staff has said 20,000 soldiers have been deployed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in response to a string of attacks on Israelis by Palestinians. In all, 174 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 62 people have been killed on the Israeli side since the beginning of March. Israeli tanks also seized neighborhoods in Bethlehem, entering the city from all directions in the early morning hours Thursday. Some tanks were parked 300 yards from the Church of the Nativity, traditional site of the birth of Jesus. Arafat, meanwhile, said he remained ``completely committed'' to reaching a peace agreement with Israel, but accused Sharon of abandoning previous accords. Sharon also faced domestic political turmoil, losing the support of a hawkish partner over his decision to drop a demand for seven days without violence as a precondition for cease-fire talks. The concession prompted the two Cabinet ministers from the ultranationalist National Union faction to quit the coalition government. The resignations of Tourism Minister Benny Elon and Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman took effect Thursday. Despite the defections, Sharon's broad-based coalition retains control of 75 seats in the 120-member parliament. In Ramallah, five Palestinian security officers were killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers. Roving bands of Palestinian gunmen exchanged sporadic fire with Israeli soldiers. An armored car carrying five Associated Press Television News staffers briefly came under fire Thursday from Palestinian gunmen in the city, and two tires were punctured by bullets. No one was hurt. The gunmen apologized and said they had feared the car may be carrying Israeli soldiers, even though ``TV'' was clearly displayed on four sides. The shooting was apparently set off when one of the gunmen fired into the air, causing the others to believe they were under attack, witnesses said. In Bethlehem, Palestinian militiamen shot dead two Palestinians suspected of being informers for Israel. The gunmen then dragged one of the bodies through the streets on the back of a pickup truck and tried to dangle it from a building on Manger Square, overlooking the Church of the Nativity. One of the slain men was sentenced to death early last year for allegedly helping Israel kill a Palestinian militia leader; the other had not been tried. Also in Bethelehem, an Israeli tank shell slammed into a church, showering shrapnel on a statue of the Virgin Mary, slicing off the hands and nose, a nun at the church said. Israel said it was investigating.