Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : War -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (15392)	6/17/2002 1:26:19 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 23908

Arafat Blasts U.S. Criticism, Israeli Fence Plan Mon Jun 17,12:26 PM ET By Hamuda Hassan RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites) rejected Monday scathing comments by U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice ( news - web sites) that his Palestinian Authority ( news - web sites) is corrupt, supports terror and is no model for a future state. The Palestinian leader also condemned as "an act of racism" Israel's building of a security fence along its porous West Bank border which it said is aimed at keeping out Palestinian suicide bombers. "We are implementing only what our people want us to do and we do not take orders from anyone," Arafat told reporters in response to an interview Rice gave to the San Jose Mercury News. She told the U.S. newspaper "the Palestinian Authority, which is corrupt and cavorts with terror ... is not the basis for a Palestinian state moving forward." Rice's comments reflected Arafat's deteriorating relationship with the United States, which has criticized him repeatedly as it seek reforms of the Palestinian Authority and as President Bush ( news - web sites) works on a Middle East peace plan. Less than 24 hours after Sunday's inauguration of the year-long fence project, a suicide bomber killed only himself when he triggered a blast near a border police unit on Israel's side of the frontier north of the Palestinian city of Tulkarm. "A border patrol unit saw a suspicious person and they called to him to stop. There was an explosion, he was apparently a suicide bomber," a border police spokeswoman said. She said there were no Israeli casualties. Palestinians fear Israel will seize West Bank land as it marks out the $220 million barrier after 20 months of conflict, and that it will stop Palestinians from entering Israel, where thousands work illegally after eluding Israeli roadblocks. In the West Bank village of El Khader near Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers shot dead a militant from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group whose suicide bombings have killed dozens of Israelis, witnesses said. Soldiers stationed 200 meters from the village appeared to pick out Walid Sbeich, 30, as he drove his car down its main street and shot him, they said. An army spokeswoman had no immediate comment, but army radio said Israeli snipers had shot Sbeich and that he had recruited suicide bombers. ISRAEL RAIDS TWO WEST BANK VILLAGES Arafat has responded to growing U.S. and Israeli pressure for reforms by announcing the Palestinians will hold legislative and presidential elections in December or January and by condemning suicide bombings inside Israel. But he says reforms, such as streamlining the security forces and cracking down on militants, are hampered by frequent Israeli military raids into Palestinian-ruled areas and by military blockades across the West Bank. In the latest Israeli raids, Palestinian security sources said troops entered the West Bank village of Salfit Monday and made at least two arrests. Israeli soldiers backed by helicopter gunships also swept into the West Bank village of Yamoun, firing on a Palestinian security checkpoint, the house of a militant from the Hamas group and a car, witnesses said. No one was hurt and the force pulled out several hours later without making arrests, the witnesses added. Israeli security sources said soldiers blew up a suspected car bomb in the village. At least 1,400 Palestinians and 511 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000 after peace talks stalled. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the man who blew himself up Monday was one of five would-be suicide bombers being sought by security forces on the basis of intelligence reports. "A year ago there weren't two suicide bombers (trying to reach Israel) every day," Ben-Eliezer said. "Our problem today is how to stop this wave of suicide bombers." He said the security fence was intended to halt such attacks and was not being built for political reasons. He rejected the Palestinian criticism and dismissed the fears of right-wing Israelis that the fence, which will stretch 70 miles in its first stage, will weaken their claims to West Bank land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. story.news.yahoo.com Notice that they get to the real issue about the fence at the very end of the article - Israelis don't want a fence because it would limit their expansion! Tom