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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 (4210)	5/12/2002 10:12:23 AM
From: Scoobah	Respond to of 32591

Brussels Challenging Washington on Arafat - Followed by Peres 12 May: Saturday night, May 11, DEBKAfile was informed by its American and European sources of an explicit policy departure by the European Union: Following the Bethlehem episode, that ended in the banishment of 13 senior terrorists outside the Middle East, the deportation of 26 to the Gaza Strip and the release of another 84, Brussels has decided to come out in the open and fight the Bush administration’s moves to sideline Yasser Arafat. The European bloc reached a clear decision over the weekend to extend the Palestinian leader a lifeline and restores his standing together with that of the Palestinian Authority. This move cancels out the US president’s attempt to use the Bethlehem crisis as an opportunity for forging a joint US-European stand on the Palestinian question. The first outward indication of the rift was the surprise announcement by the EU Middle East Envoy, Miguel Moratinos in Nicosia Saturday, May 11, after visiting the 13 senior terrorists whom Israel says have blood on their hands: ”They are free men, not prisoners, not deportees. They have signed on a personal basis an agreement to go to a third country. They came on a voluntary basis. This is not a deportation.” All thirteen have been welcomed at the three-star Flamingo Hotel in Larnaca until a European foreign ministers meeting Monday, 13 May, decides which countries will take them. According to DEBKAfile’s Washington and Brussels sources, the Europeans acted when they found out that in whichever countries, the 13 terrorists are dispersed, the United States means to apply to their governments for the extradition of suspected murderers of American citizens. The first on their list is Ismail Hamdan, a Bethlehem Tanzim leader and member of Tawfiq Tirawi’s General Intelligence service, who killed Avi Boaz, an American businessman based in Gilo, Jerusalem earlier this year. According to our sources, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres has informed his confidants that he means to follow the European lead and openly challenge the Sharon line on Arafat, which is aligned with Washington. If Peres goes through with this strategy, the national unity government created by the Likud prime minister 14 months ago will face its first real threat.

To: Scoobah who wrote (4210)	5/12/2002 12:28:38 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

2 Israeli Arab sisters arrested for connection to terror attack By Uri Ash, Ha'aretz Correspondent Two sisters from the Israeli Arab town of Sakhnin in the Galilee have been arrested on suspicion of having had contact with a member of the Tanzim militia, which is associated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah party, and of planning to help a young Palestinian woman carry out a suicide attack in the north of Israel. The two, whose names were released for publication Sunday - as was the news of their detention - are Latifa and Bohaisa Sa'adi, aged 20 and 25. Both were arrested about a month ago. The District Court in Acre extended the remand of the two sisters by four days Sunday. The two could face charges of assisting an enemy in a time of war, contact with a foreign agent, and supporting a terror organization. According to security sources, the two women confessed to most of the charges against them during their interrogation by the Shin Bet security service and police. They were not permitted to see legal counsel for six days. Latifa Sa'adi is suspected of having made contact with a Tanzim activist from Hebron - named Muataz - via the Internet. The man was arrested and apparently told interrogators of his connection with the two women. Muataz was responsible for randomly contacting the two women and according to the sisters' attorney, the contact began as personal in nature, with talk of arranging a meeting and a wedding. The contact ended at one point, but was renewed during the IDF's Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank.