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 on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (8106)	11/24/2004 8:23:00 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

If there is anyone more responsible than Yasser Arafat for the needless terror war that has cost thousands of Israelis and Palestinians their lives, it is Barghouti, who proudly claims to be that war's architect. As Barghouti explained in a interview with the London-based Al-Hayat exactly one year after the attacks began: "I knew that the end of the month of September [2000] would be the last opportunity before the explosion, but when [opposition leader Ariel] Sharon arrived at Al-Aksa Mosque it was the most suitable moment for the breakout of the intifada.... The meaning of this [was an opportunity for] setting fire to the entire region, since the issue of Al-Aksa inflames and ignites the sensibilities of the masses." "There were those who were opposed to the conflict," Barghouti continued. "At the same time, I saw within the situation a historic opportunity to ignite the conflict... After Sharon left, I stayed in the area for two hours with other well-known people and we spoke... of how people should react in all the towns and villages and not only in Jerusalem. We made contact with all the factions [emphasis added]." The "intifada," in other words, did not just "break out." It was broken out through considerable and premeditated effort, in large part by Barghouti. Though now, after his death, it is beginning to be alleged that Arafat himself founded the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which competed with other groups over how many suicide bombers it could set off in Israeli cities, little evidence has emerged directly connecting Arafat to specific terror attacks. Not so with Barghouti. Barghouti's indictment before an Israeli civilian court accused him of direct involvement in 33 separate attacks, including suicide bombings, roadside shootings, and other attempted murders. The court found sufficient evidence to convict him of five murders in three separate attacks, for which he was sentenced to five consecutive life terms in prison. Indeed, Barghouti accepted responsibility in court for at least some of the attacks jpost.com