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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (23935)	4/8/2002 3:57:14 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

>>New NRP leader Eitam seeks Palestinian expulsion By Laurie Copans, The Associated Press April, 08 2002 JERUSALEM - Tugging his beard or adjusting his skull cap, Effie Eitam, an ultranationalist slated to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet, speaks unabashedly of his controversial dream: One day the more than three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will move to Jordan. Palestinians say Eitam's dream is just that - a fantasy with no basis in reality. The Palestinians see the West Bank and Gaza as their future state, and say millions of additional Palestinians now in exile have their own dream of returning to the region. Any attempt to drive the Palestinians out would surely draw a fierce response from the Palestinians as well as international condemnation. Sitting in his modest office in an old Arab-style building in Jerusalem, Eitam gave his reasoning for attempting to push the Palestinians out. "I think our Jewish conscience will be clean if we say (to the Palestinians), 'you brought war and in war there are great human tragedies,'" said Eitam, a brigadier general in the army reserves. "They will cross the river and go to Jordan." Even among Israelis, such views were considered extreme until recently. But these days they are gaining popularity among a people fed up with Palestinian terror attacks. The National Religious Party named Eitam as its chairman Sunday and planned to accept an invitation to join Sharon's government, which will bring his voice and hard-line views into the Cabinet. Under Eitam's plan, Palestinians who would not agree to live under Israeli occupation without a state, without a government, and without an army could be forced to go to Jordan, which should become the Palestinian state, Eitam said. More than half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin, but their presence dates to Mideast wars decades ago. There's been no movement of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan in recent years, and no indication they would have anything but contempt for Eitam's plan. Jordan, which strongly supports the Palestinian cause, would almost certainly refuse any attempt to drive Palestinians into its country. Sharon himself has said he supports a Palestinian state in at least parts of the West Bank and Gaza, and has given no sign that he would support Eitam's plan. Still, one recent poll showed 46 percent of Jewish Israelis favor expulsion - through force or coercion - of the Palestinians living in the territories. Signs reading "Only Transfer!" or "No Arabs, No Attacks," have become popular at angry demonstrations demanding tough government action. In the new political climate, transfer is no longer a taboo subject in Israel. Several nationalist politicians who previously refrained from talk about expelling Palestinians now speak about it openly. In Eitam's plan, the army would take over the Palestinian areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a first step toward annexation of the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel has nearly 150 settlements in the territories where more than 200,000 Israelis live, while the Palestinians want a future state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with east Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians formally control about two-thirds of Gaza and about 40 percent of the West Bank - but that was before the Israeli army began entering a half-dozen Palestinian cities in the West Bank 10 days ago. Israel says the incursion will end when it feels it has dismantled the Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure." Many Israeli politicians say some segments of society are only attracted to such radical ideas as transfer because they are desperate for anything to stop the violence. While support for expelling Palestinians "has sprung from the terrible distress we are suffering (it) does not make it any less dangerous," said Yuli Edelstein of the Israel B'Aliya immigrant party. "People simply want to wake up one morning and find that there are no more Arabs here." << jpost.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (23935)	4/8/2002 5:05:04 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "I would call that one of debka's more wishful interpretations." [That the assault on Iraq will happen sooner rather than later.] Maybe you're starting to see the reality with regard to the US and Iraq. Let me quote you from three months ago: Nadine Carroll, January 16, 2002 What are you smoking, Bilow? ... All that Bush would need to do to take us into Iraq is make a case for it. The Defense Department hawks all want it, and I think President Bush does too. You know how he reveres his father? Saddam Hussein tried to kill him. I don't think President Bush has forgotten. ... Israel didn't fight on the side of the US in the Gulf War because it was forbidden to do so -- the US didn't give them the friend-or-foe codes to make sure of it. I think that this President Bush will give them the codes. The Turks, the Israelis and the US have been doing extensive joint military exercises in the eastern Mediteranean during the last year. President Bush also knows for sure that Arik Sharon will not sit idle if Iraqi scuds fall on Tel Aviv. A shipful of US-made antidotes to chemical and biological weapons was delivered to Haifa a couple of weeks ago. Preparations are being made. The "coalition" that Colin Powell was so big on has been shown up as useless. The public is in no mood to throw sops and sweet talk to the Arabs after 9/11, and the Arab orgy of denial. The Arab street was silenced by our victory in Afghanistan. Arab diplomats are saying in private, "You swear that you will finish Saddam this time?" I think we're going to reacquire respect in the Middle East the old-fashioned way -- we're going to beat the crap out of someone. Can't think of a nicer, more deserving guy than Saddam Hussein. #reply-16916350 Bilow, January 16, 2002 I doubt that Bush will be able to start a war with Iraq. It's not true that all the hawks want one. The isolationists were forced to go into Afghanistan, they will also have to be forced to go into Iraq. I remind you again, the US didn't even declare war on Germany until Germany declared war on the US. In the absence of a friendly regime asking for US assistance against Iraqi agression, a US war against Iraq just isn't going to happen. Iraq's regime is a military dictatorship. It is not in the same boat as the Taliban. If there were some other fundamentalist regime that was allowing terrorists to openly operate against the US, then the US might have cause to attack, but there is none. A more realistic scenario, especially given the changes in US policy on assassination, would be for the US secret service to act against Saddam Hussein personally. But even that isn't going to happen unless the US perceives that Saddam remains a threat -- to the US. #reply-16918479 -- Carl