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

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (32774)	6/20/2002 12:27:41 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Arafat Says Halt Bombings, Israel Launches Raids By Hamuda Hassan RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - President Yasser Arafat demanded an end to Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians on Thursday as Israeli troops raided Palestinian-ruled areas after two suicide bombings that killed 25 Israelis. Palestinian militants immediately rebuffed Arafat's appeal. The suicide bombings prompted President Bush to put off a speech charting a course toward Palestinian statehood, apparently concerned it could offend Israelis reeling from violence and seem to reward the bombers. The Palestinian Authority denounced the attacks and Arafat, under fierce U.S. pressure to rein in militants, drove home the message in a personal appeal in a widely circulated written statement and in comments to reporters. "I personally, and the Palestinian Authority, are completely against it (the attacks)," Arafat told reporters outside his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He cautioned that such attacks could result in Israeli forces reoccupying Palestinian-ruled land in the West Bank under a new policy of responding to suicide bombings by retaking and holding such territory. His written statement was read out by an announcer on Voice of Palestine radio and published in newspapers. It referred to the "necessity to completely stop these attacks...to preserve the high national interest." Arafat has made such appeals before, including when he went on television to do so under intense international pressure last December, but the suicide bombings have not ceased. Militant groups at the forefront of a nearly 21-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip spurned Arafat's plea, saying attacks would continue as long as Israel kept killing Palestinian civilians. "We are in a process of legitimate self-defense. Israel is the one that kills innocent children and women. This war has been imposed on us by Israel," Nafez Azzam, a senior Islamic Jihad official, said in Gaza City. "Why should Israel be allowed to strike us in Nablus and Qalqilya (in the West Bank) while we are denied the right to strike them in Tel Aviv and Haifa?" said senior Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi. Israel says it has never intended to kill Palestinian civilians but that they have sometimes been caught up in clashes with militants hunkered down in populated areas. TROOPS IN WEST BANK TOWNS AND CITIES The Israeli government announced its policy of retaking territory transferred to Palestinian self-rule under 1990s interim peace deals after a suicide bomber killed 19 Israelis on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday. An attack on Wednesday killed six at a bus stop in the city. The new policy has alarmed some center-left members of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's coalition government, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who oppose any reoccupation. Troops entered the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the adjacent Deheisheh refugee camp, and the village of Betounia outside Ramallah early on Thursday, and Tulkarm later in the day. They have been in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Qalqiliya since Tuesday night. The army said troops carried out searches, imposed curfews and made a number of arrests. "Forces will stay in the cities until they achieve their operational aims," it said. Hours after Wednesday's suicide bombing in the French Hill area, which is on land seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at metal foundries in the Gaza Strip, wounding four people. The army said they were factories used to make weapons. Israeli security sources said two soldiers were killed and four hurt when they were attacked as they hunted for a militant in Qalqilya. A soldier returned fire and killed a gunman. At least 1,403 Palestinians and 540 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt began in September 2000 after negotiations on a Palestinian state deadlocked. BUSH HOLDS BACK MIDEAST SPEECH Bush gave no hint on Thursday he was any closer to giving his Middle East policy speech delayed by the suicide bombings, telling reporters only that he would deliver it "at the appropriate time." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said on Wednesday the time was not right because the suicide bombings on successive days this week had made it hard for the message to be heard. "I think the time will be soon...It's hard to get people to focus on peace today when they're still suffering from the consequences of terrorism as we speak," Fleischer said. Sharon, in a speech to the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, again ruled out any return to peace talks unless Palestinian violence ceased. "This (latest bombing) was not the first terror attack in Israel. It is another wave in 120 years of battle but this time standing behind the terror is the Palestinian terror authority with the support of a terror axis -- Iran, Syria and (Osama) bin Laden," Sharon said. The Palestinian Authority has denied such charges and says its ability to rein in militants and carry out reforms demanded by the United States and Israel are hampered by Israeli army blockades in the West Bank and by frequent military raids. siliconinvestor.com

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (32774)	6/20/2002 2:24:04 PM
From: Dennis O'Bell	Respond to of 281500

Hamas et. al. make no bones about wanting to destroy Israel and replace it with a Jew-free Arab state. A Jew-free Arab state with Hamas in control, no ? The last thing they want is peace without themselves in power. They'll do anything to prevent that from happening. I really think it's above all a question of personal power for the various individuals behind this. They use the Palestinians as pawns just as much as the other Arab nations have. It's a perfect opportunity to have an enemy like Israel rather than another Arab regime.