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

To: calgal who wrote (15550)	6/25/2002 12:13:08 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 23908

Bush Says Palestinians Must Dump Arafat for State Mon Jun 24,10:16 PM ET By Mark Heinrich and Steve Holland JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush ( news - web sites) has written off Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites) as part of any Middle East peace accord, saying Palestinians must pick new leaders "not compromised by terror" to attain a state alongside Israel. Bush, presenting a long-awaited peace script, said Israel must do its part for peace too by halting settlement building on land where Palestinians are waging a revolt against occupation, and pulling tanks and troops out of Palestinian towns. A senior Palestinian official retorted that Arafat was democratically elected and could not be ousted by foreign fiat. But a Palestinian Authority ( news - web sites) statement called Bush's address "a serious contribution" toward peace and requested more details. A statement by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ( news - web sites)'s office did not mention Bush's speech but that repeated Israel was ready for negotiations after "a total end to terror, violence and incitement," Arafat's removal and profound Palestinian reform. Within hours of Bush's speech, Israeli tanks swept into the West Bank city of Hebron early on Tuesday and clashes broke out with Palestinian fighters, Palestinian authorities and witnesses said. The security authorities said two Palestinians were reported to have been killed amid exchanges of fire. Hebron is the seventh West Bank center entered in the past week under an Israeli policy of re-occupying and holding Palestinian-ruled areas until attacks on Israelis cease. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Sharon's main rival on the left in Israel's coalition government, said Bush had displayed "historic vision" by embracing a two-state solution. That is regarded with deep suspicion by Sharon, the leading champion of settlers who consider territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war to be Jewish by biblical birthright. The Yesha Council representing more than 200,000 settlers praised Bush's message as a "green light" for dismantling the Palestinian Authority -- effectively reinstating direct Israeli rule over the West Bank and Gaza Strip ( news - web sites). Ismail Haniyah, a senior figure in the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas behind many suicide bombings, said Bush had merely upheld "the Zionist occupation" and Palestinians would continue to "resist" it. ISRAELIS SEAL OFF ARAFAT COMPOUND Hours before Bush spoke, Israeli troops sealed off Arafat's West Bank compound and killed six Palestinians in a helicopter missile strike, part of a broad military campaign against alleged suicide bombers Israel says are sponsored by Arafat. Bush trumpeted solidarity with Israel's battle against suicide bombings that have killed scores of its civilians. His omission of any reference to Arafat bolstered Sharon's stance that the Palestinian leader had become irrelevant. "Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders not compromised by terror," Bush said in his White House address. "A Palestinian state will never be created by terror. It will be built through reforms." He laid out his vision for a provisional state called Palestine to be set up after about 18 months under tough conditions including democratic, accountable institutions and security services that would stamp out militant violence. Many Palestinians want fresh elections and an end to the concentration of power in Arafat's hands -- he has pledged reforms himself -- but bridle at what they call U.S. and Israeli attempts to dictate who their leaders should be. Bush said: "When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neighbors, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian state. "For the sake of all humanity, things must change in the Middle East." But Bush did not announce any new peace mission to the region by Secretary of State Colin Powell ( news - web sites). MIDEAST PEACE CONFERENCE SHELVED A Middle East peace conference below the heads-of-state level that Washington had wanted to stage this summer was essentially shelved. A senior U.S. official said that because Israeli troops had reoccupied West Bank towns and the Palestinian leadership was "in some disarray...it isn't appropriate now to talk about scheduling one." A statement issued by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA in the name of Arafat and the Palestinian Authority welcomed Bush's ideas, but said it wanted to discuss details in bilateral talks including U.N. and European Union ( news - web sites) envoys. "The president (Arafat) and the cabinet view the ideas as a serious contribution to pushing the peace process forward," it said. It ignored Bush's call for a change in leadership. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat rebuffed that idea. "Palestinian leaders don't come from parachutes from Washington or anywhere else. Palestinian leaders are elected directly by the Palestinian people," Erekat told CNN. "President Yasser Arafat was directly elected in a free and fair election...The world and President Bush must respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people." The Palestinian Authority statement also called for "urgent U.S. and international intervention" to make Israeli forces leave Palestinian towns, saying reforms and elections were impossible under military siege. Bush said borders and certain aspects of the sovereignty of the new Palestinian state would be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement. He urged Israel to pull back to its positions before September 28, 2000 -- vacating the roughly 40 percent of the West Bank transferred to Palestinian self-rule since interim peace deals almost a decade ago. CHRONIC VIOLENCE Chronic Israeli-Palestinian violence has complicated Bush's long-awaited Middle East plans. Sharon said the helicopter hit -- which killed four Hamas members, including two senior activists -- was just the start of "massive activities" planned against the militant Muslim group based in the teeming Gaza Strip along the Mediterranean. Israeli security sources confirmed it was part of a policy -- condemned internationally -- of killing militants blamed for suicide bombings and ambushes during the 21-month-old uprising. Shortly before the attack, Israel sent columns of tanks into Ramallah and surrounded Arafat's battered headquarters. At least 1,422 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000 after talks on terms for a Palestinian state reached an impasse. story.news.yahoo.com