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

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (9074)	6/23/2005 2:28:21 PM
From: steve kammerer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Haim, you wrote, "On the other hand, the prisoners issue in Iraq grabbed all front pages and no one was killed or maimed there." At last count 29 or 30 prisoners died during interrogations in Iraq. And these are the number that the military has acknowledged.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (9074)	6/23/2005 10:21:59 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 32591

Has George Bush thrown in the towel so soon? What message does this send? Arafat must be laughing in hell: DEBKAfile Exclusive: Washington to co-opt Egypt and Saudi Arabia to the Middle East Quartet. Jerusalem is gravely affronted by a step that would grant Arab governments a position of influence on a supposedly impartial body dealing with the Israel-Palestinian conflict June 24, 2005, 1:12 AM (GMT+02:00) DEBKAfile Exclusive: Washington plans to co-opt Egypt and Saudi Arabia to the Middle East Quartet. Jerusalem is gravely affronted by a step that would grant Arab governments a position of influence on a supposedly impartial body dealing with the Israel-Palestinian conflict. DEBKAfile’s sources in Washington and Jerusalem report that Israeli leaders suffered a painful jolt when US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice gave them the news during her visit to Jerusalem on June 19. She said Washington would offer Saudi Arabia and Egypt equal status with the other Quartet members, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the UN secretary-general. It would be the first time in the history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict that Arab governments are invited to sit alongside world powers on an international body which claims an impartial say in Israel’s military and diplomatic conduct. Jerusalem learned later this week that the administration had made up its mind to extend invitations to Saudi crown prince Abdullah and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and would do so without consulting Israel’s views on the matter. Russia’s Vladimir Putin went along with the plan. Thursday, June 23, Rice conferred with all the Quartet members and obtained their assent. It is therefore settled, According to DEBKAfile’s sources in Jerusalem, Rice explained to Israeli leaders that the invitations were a short cut to buying Egypt’s consent to cooperate in securing the Gaza Strip after Israel’s pullout and for getting the Saudis to finance its reconstruction. Israeli officials protested that it made no sense for Egypt to oversee the actions of its own security forces in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli border. Neither was there any justice in letting the Saudis, who do not recognize Israel and who bankroll and sponsor the Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to destroying Israel, have a say in Israel’s future. The US secretary replied that neither Egypt nor Saudi Arabia could be asked for cooperation without a seat on the relevant international bodies. This development puts the lid on the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s claim that disengagement would be good for US-Israeli relations and lead to an improvement in Israel’s world standing.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (9074)	6/24/2005 3:18:51 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 32591

Previous actions have reduced expectations for civilized behavior from the Arab world.