The Middle East Map for Palestine

[LF22]

Personally, I think the intifada will continue for many years to come. Israel wants complete peace before negotiations on Palestine independance. Palestine wants negotiations in parallel to a disarmament of terrorist groups. Welcome to the great paradox.

(Edited by LF22 at 2:56 pm on Aug. 25, 2003)

[NyC MaNiAc]

Not to be biased, but I don't know how Israel can discuss peace when people are still detonating themselves to kill innocent citizens-these people are giving their life to kill others.

I can't even say truthfully that I would give myself to SAVE another person...

There's so much hate...

[Freedom Tower]

LF22, just so you know, Israel was giving back some cities to the palestinians and releasing some palestinian terrorists(which should never be done anyway). While they were doing this the Palestinians did nothing in return except blow up a bus a few weeks later. How can you criticize Israel for wanting a caese of attacks before negotiations? I'm surprised Israel wants to negotiate at all. Every day innocent Israelis are blown up by terrorists. Then the palestinians complain that they are being occupied. They should realize that the Israeli army is in their cities to protect Israel, and unless they don't stop blowing up Israelis the IDF will have to continue to hunt terrorists.

[LF22]

I can't help but detect a slight bit of anti-palestinian pro-israeli sentiments here but thats not what I'm here to debate. To anwser freedomtower's question, "How can you criticize Israel for wanting a caese of attacks before negotiations?" negotiations are the only way to cease the attacks at all. When Israel and Palestine were negotiating on Palestine Independance from the Oslo Accords in 1992 (or 1993 I don't remember) to 1998 less than 100 Israeli's died in terrorist attacks by palestinians. Every since the breakoff's in negotaiations in 1998 over 2000 both israelis and palestinians have died in the resulting intifada. *Also it's not just Israeli civilians that are being killed. A good deal of innocent palestinians have also been killed from coolateral damage when Israeli heliecoper have targeted the palestinian leadership. These rounds of innocent killings continue to enflame the hatred between Israelis and palestinians. The PLO needs to round up it's terrorists factions at all costs and the Israeli government needs to stop continue expanding it's settlements and withdraw back to pre1967 borders. I'm beginning to think neither Sharon or Arafat want peace after all.

[ZippyTheChimp]

As a result of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel occupied the entire Sinai penninsula, a considerable landmass. In 1979, when Eqypt and Israel signed a peace treaty and normalized relations, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt. To enforce the agreement, the Israeli military forcibly removed Jewish settlers from the area.

At a time when their security as a nation was much more threatened than today, the government demonstrated that it would exchange land for peace.

I can't say what the consensus of opinion among its people would be, but I'm pretty sure that an agreement of this sort with the Palestinians would be upheld by Israel.

Sadly, there is no person or group that can make that guarantee on the behalf of the Palestinians.

[NyC MaNiAc]

Palestinians need to stop blowing themselves up, and Israel needs to...I guess, stop defending themselves?

Whatever the case, this juvenille war needs to end, now. I want to go to Israel, yet, I don't feel entirely safe.

[TLOZ Link5]

Suicide bombing is wrong, but when Israel was first founded many Palestinian families were evicted from properties they had owned for generations, which were subsequently taken over by Jewish immigrants. *This must have left a simmering, deep-seated hatred through subsequent generations who live in large refugee camps, crumbling projects in Gaza, and stagnating West Bank cities. *And then religious leaders, who might not even believe in God but use Islam to manipulate the disgruntled Palestinians, spearhead the jihad movement and give the Palestinians something to aspire to: Paradise. *It happened during the Crusades with the Assassins; it's happening again today.

In all honesty, IMHO this drive-the-Jews-to-the-sea rhetoric will lose its momentum if Israel can guarantee a respectable quality of life for the Palestinians on the road to independence. *Everyone wants to live comfortably, even affluently, and many of these suicide bombers came from poor families. *It's the same thing with black militants in South Africa and Native Americans here. *I'm the last one to point fingers; I have friends who live in Israel and I fear for them daily. *But why can't everyone be sane and reasonable like we are on this forum?

Feel free to correct me if you want; I'm just being level with y'all.

[Jasonik]

Lack of Palestinian leadership is to blame. *These poor people are stewing with hatred and there is no one they can look to for help except the militants.

Israel drives a hard bargain, yes, but all the more reason for competent sophisticated Palestinian leadership.

Perhaps the Arab world likes a confused and fragmented Palestinian gov't so they can point to Israel as the cause of the problem.
Wouldn't it be nicer for the Arab world to be able to point to a leader who gave credibility to the Palestinian cause?

[Jasonik]

Some see end of road for Abbas, peace plan

By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff, 8/27/2003

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The government of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, which was established last spring as a result of US and Israeli pressure to sideline longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, is on the ropes, challenged by both violent Islamic radical groups and a resurgent Arafat who seems able to thwart Abbas at every turn.

In recent days, Arafat has blocked Abbas' attempts to unify Palestinian security organs under Palestinian Authority command, stopped Abbas' appointment of an interior minister, and appointed his own defense adviser to a job that seems to undercut the position of Abbas' security chief.

Key politicians and analysts are suggesting that Abbas may resign and take down with him the so-called "road map" to Palestinian-Israeli peace. Some say the road map already is dead.

"I advise him to try to resign," Nabil Amr, minister of information and chief spokesman for the Abbas government, said in an interview. "It might put an end to some of this nonsense. Let the others" -- Arafat, with whom the US and Israelis still will not deal, and the many Israeli and US officials who think highly of Abbas -- "see how the situation will be then. Who will be the new prime minister?"

Abbas, who long was second-in-command of the Palestinian national movement, opposed Arafat's decision to embark on the armed struggle that has bloodied Palestinians and Israelis alike over the past three years. Immediately after his appointment, he embraced the road map -- a joint effort of the European Union, United Nations, Russia, and the United States that won strong backing from President Bush.

Initially, Abbas made progress both in restoring the Palestinian Authority's international relations and in easing constraints imposed on Palestinians' daily lives by the Israelis in the interest of security. But all of that is now collapsing under the combined pressures of Arafat's opposition, the resumption of terror attacks, and Israel's strikes against extremist leaders.

Abbas also seems unwilling to respond to US and Israeli insistence that he fulfill his commitment under the road map to disarm and disband the radical groups. Abbas and his supporters have resisted such a step, saying it would lead to civil war between Palestinian factions.

"If there is an item in the road map and I cannot do it, then you must help me," says Amr. "Don't deal with me in terms of your wishes or my commitment, deal with me according to what I can do. The Israelis . . . have to support [Abbas], but they want settlements, they want the fence, they want a state for the Palestinians on 42 percent" of the land the Palestinian government claims.

Gideon Meir, deputy director-general of Israel's foreign ministry, disagreed.

"The ball is completely in the Palestinian court" to act against the extremist groups, which reject Israel's right to exist and glorify suicide bombings, Meir said. "The Palestinian government would have immediate dividends if they started to fight terror."

Khalil Shikaki, a respected pollster and analyst with strong contacts in Palestinian political circles, said the road map already has failed. He said it "didn't give Palestinians enough incentive to move forward when moving forward meant risking civil war" with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"This motivation could only come if [the Abbas government] knew what they would be getting in the end," Shikaki said -- including specifying the borders of the provisional state promised to them in the road map, identifying the Israeli settlements that would be be removed, and clarifying the degree of sovereignty the Palestinians would have during the period of provisional statehood.

"If you want Palestinians to engage in civil war from day one," he said, "they should know what they are going to get for it from day one."

Now, Shikaki said, it is too late for that. "The dynamics of escalation are dominant," he said, predicting that Israel will reoccupy the Gaza Strip and West Bank and expel Arafat. "Israel will then have to decide whether to fully reoccupy the West Bank and Gaza," with a civil administration, as before the Oslo peace process of the 1990s, "or determine its own borders and unilaterally withdraw."

Ali Jerbawi, a political scientist at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank who leads the new Palestinian elections commission, said Arafat, Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and the two-state concept, which has formed the basis for peace talks since the Oslo accords, all have failed and serve merely to disguise the face of Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

"They are all irrelevant," Jerbawi said, asserting that because of extensive Israeli settlement in the West Bank, "a two-state solution is no longer a valid solution. We are headed toward a single, bi-national state, not by design but by default.

"It is better for the Palestinians if the occupation is known for what it is," Jerbawi said. "Let the Israelis be responsible for educating our children, and cleaning our streets. Let them be responsible for their security and our security too. Twenty years down the road" -- when Arabs in Israel and the occupied territories, who have higher birth rates, will outnumber Jews-- "we will ask for our rights as citizens."

A senior Israeli official, a committed Zionist who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this approach would present a genuine opportunity for Palestinians to overwhelm the Jewish state. "It is legitimate, because it is not terrorism. It is a school of thought."

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Freedom Tower]

TLOZ, you said to correct you if you were wrong. You weren't wrong, but there was just one thing you forgot to mention. Although many of the Jews that went to Israel were from Russia, or Europe after WWII there were many Jews already living in Palestine. Back when there was no Israel at all and there were just Jews living in Palestine there was a lot of discrimination. They weren't allowed to do things the Palestinians could do, even though they were also technically palestinians. They were treated as if they were inferior. So they were more than happy to take away the houses of some of the people that use to treat them so badly, when Israel was formed. The problem is, when the Palestinians were the ones on top, they weren't complaining. Now that Israel is the country and they are the minority or people without a country, they decide to murder innocent Israelis. Back when there was a Palestine and the Jews were just second class residents in it, there were no bombings or murderings of the Palestinians. Now everyone criticizes Israel for defending itself. LF22, I don't want to get into an argument with you, but why would you call me pro-Israeli? I am just saying what I think is correct. Do you not agree that terrorist attacks need to stop before there can be a negotiation? Would you go and talk to people who are simultaneously blowing your country up? I just think both sides need to first have a cease fire and then negotiate. However, I believe the Palestinians broke the cease fire this time by killing 20 people on a bus and wounding over a hundred. Then Israel is criticized for killing 3 terrorists afterwards. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's me that is Pro-Israeli, I think the world is just Pro-Palestinian.

[LF22]

(Edited by LF22 at 3:34 pm on Aug. 28, 2003)

[LF22]

Arguments are fine as long as they are within respectable bondaries like the debates on this forum. Calling you pro-israeli was a bad idea, so if it helps then, I'm sorry. Looking closely you would have realized I criticized both sides the best to my opinion. Actually Freedom Tower, there were bombings and murderings of palestinians before the creation of the Israeli state. In one famous incident in 1947 a hotel was bombed by Israeli nationals which killed several foreigners and palestinians which was part of the cataylst that lead to an independant jewish state in 1948. But that was 50 years ago and I don't want to delve into history. And with this thing about ceasefires and negotaiting, I couldn't care less which one was first. In the many months spent arguing between the palestinians and israeli's on which should be first many lives could have been saved. It's not so much the process as the result that matters (peace in the middle east) I actually would go and start talking with the enemy even as they blow up the country if it actually got me the peace. After all, thats how Germany and Japan saved themselves from complete obliteration in World War II, not that Israeli might actually lose to palestinians. *I got no beef with Israeli's killing terrorists. They are terrible people misguided into thier actions by the few crazy radicals. But why can't Israel kill them "á la silent assasins" in the night like they used to instead of using apache helicopters firing missiles in marketplaces and roads killing 10 other civilians. That really screws up your public image. From my opinion, most people sympathize with the death of israeli civilians but less with the death of palestinian civilians. Are Israeli lives worth more than palestinian lives? I think not. And of course there is going to be more coverage on palestinian deaths some times than israeli civilian deaths simply because more palestinian civilians have died since the uprising began. Yes, I do agree Freedom, that the palestinians screwed up big this time blowing up that bus.


(Edited by LF22 at 3:34 pm on Aug. 28, 2003)


(Edited by LF22 at 3:43 pm on Aug. 28, 2003)

[Freedom Tower]

Well LF22, thanks for clearing that up. I had no idea there were Israeli terrorists many years ago. All terrorists are bad no matter what country they are from. Intentionally killing civilians is bad no matter what your goal or cause. That is why I may have sounded slightly pro-Israeli. Currently I do not see Israel targetting any Palestinian civilians. Some do, sadly, get killed in the crossfire, but they are not the target. I see Israel targetting terrorists, whereas I see the Palestinians targeting civilians. It can be said that the Palestinians want peace, but from what I see everytime there is a bus bombing they are all cheering. I think generally the Palestinians support the terrorists, which is a bad thing. I'm all for peace in the middle east, but when Israel starts giving back the land the attacks should immediately cease. I think part of the problem is that nobody can control some of the Palestinian terrorists. Neither Abbas nor Arafat have the power to stop them. Also, most of these groups like Hamas claim they will never stop the attacks until there is no Israel left. Unless the palestinian prime minister can somehow stop the terrorists the attacks will continue and Israel will need to continue to defend themselves. This will never end becuase when Israel goes after the leaders then Hamas agains swears to get revenge. The best solution is for all the of the terrorists to be rounded up - by the Palestinian Leadership - and jailed somewhere in the palestinian areas. Then there can be peace talks and then there can be two states and the attacks on both sides can stop. Since Israel is only targetting the Hamas membors, arresting all of them would ensure Israel would have nobody to target. In addition to that, Hamas could not carry out attacks. It's the terrorists that keep screwing up the peace plan.

[LF22]

The palestinians aren't *all cheering everytime a bus bomb blows up, though it certainly looks like it. The media simply shows these rallies against because they are so much more exciting than palestinians saying they want peace. It litterally grabs the headlines. There is deep dessent within the PLO leadership itself but the PLO tries to hid it. They and the media both exaggerate the hatred of the palestinians towards the Israeli's to mask internal problems which plague the palestinian leadership. I do agree that palestinians rounding up palestinian terrorists would be a great solution but I doubt Israel has the patience and the palestinians seem to be too incompetent.

[Freedom Tower]

I think Israel would be patient enough to let the get rounded up. However if a bombing occurred during the round up they would probably retaliate and then the whole thing would be in shambles because the Palestinians would then release the terrorists. It's a huge mess and I doubt it will go away for a very long time.

[ZippyTheChimp]

September 6, 2003

Palestinian Prime Minister Submits Resignation

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 7:40 a.m. ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, increasingly unpopular and worn out by a power struggle with Yasser Arafat, submitted his resignation Saturday, dealing a serious blow to a U.S.-backed peace plan.

The resignation of Abbas after just four turbulent months in office prompted a call for Arafat's expulsion by at least one senior Israeli official. Israel's government warned it would not accept a new government controlled by Arafat or one of his loyalists, but did not make clear what action it would take, if any.

There was some uncertainty as to whether the resignation was final.

Abbas, widely known as Abu Mazen, told parliament in a closed-door session Saturday that he would not change his mind about stepping down. ``Abu Mazen has made his decision,'' said Abdel Fatah Hamayel, a legislator from the ruling Fatah movement. ``He's insisting it's a final decision.''

Arafat aides initially said he had accepted the resignation. However, Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdeneh later said Arafat was still studying Abbas' letter, suggesting he might not accept the resignation.

If the resignation becomes final, Arafat would have two weeks to appoint a replacement, and in the meantime, Abbas and his Cabinet would serve as caretakers.

The U.S. State Department had no official comment.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said in a statement that the resignation was an internal Palestinian matter, but that Israel ``will not accept a state of affairs in which control over the Palestinian Authority reverts back to Yasser Arafat or one of his loyalists.''

The statement did not say what action Israel might take.

Abbas' resignation could lower the threshold for possible Israeli action against Arafat; Israel's defense minister has raised the possibility of sending Arafat into exile.

Abbas' possible departure would mean even greater uncertainty for the ``road map'' peace plan, already in serious trouble because of a major spike in violence in recent weeks and the collapse of a unilateral truce by militants.

With Abbas gone, Israel and the United States would not have a negotiating partner, at least temporarily. The two nations shun Arafat, saying he is an obstacle to peacemaking.

Speaking in Italy, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge said Abbas' resignation would not deter President Bush from pursuing peace prospects between Palestinians and Israelis, even though the process will likely be delayed.

``There was great promise there, great hope there, but he was consistently being undermined by elements within the Palestinian Authority,'' Ridge said, speaking at a conference of political and business leaders in the Italian town of Cernobbio.

Israeli Cabinet Minister Danny Naveh on Saturday called for Arafat's expulsion. ``The state of Israel needs to ensure the security of its citizens, and the first step for that is expelling the terrorist Yasser Arafat,'' Naveh said in a statement.

Abbas had his resignation letter delivered to Arafat by two senior officials Saturday before addressing the legislature in a closed-door session to explain his decision.

Palestinian officials said they feared the resignation would lead the region into further chaos.

``We are entering a new crisis and the price of this crisis will be the shedding of a lot of blood,'' said Kadoura Fares, a legislator from the ruling Fatah movement.

Abbas had been frustrated by the constant wrangling with Arafat, his aides said. He was also hurt by the near-collapse of the road map and his inability to improve the daily lives of Palestinians.

Abbas' resignation could end up being a blow to Arafat, even if at first it appeared the veteran leader had outmaneuvered his politically inexperienced prime minister.

Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said earlier this week that Israel might have to expel Arafat before the end of the year, if Arafat keeps getting into the way of peace efforts. Israeli analysts have said Abbas' departure was one scenario in which Israel might decide to act.

Until now, Sharon had held back on expulsion, both because of U.S. opposition and because of warnings from his security advisers that sending Arafat abroad would do more harm than keeping him relatively isolated at his West Bank headquarters.

Abbas and Arafat have been at odds ever since Arafat reluctantly appointed the prime minister under intense international pressure in April. The latest standoff was over control of the security forces. Abbas, backed by the United States, demanded command over all men under arms, but Arafat refused to relinquish control over four of the eight security branches.

Abbas said he would not clamp down on militants, as required by the U.S.-backed ``road map'' peace plan. However, being in control of all the security forces would have given him greater authority in renewed negotiations with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and renegades from his own Fatah movement.

Earlier this week, Abbas told parliament it must either back him or strip him of his post, saying he was not clinging to the job and would just as soon step down.



Copyright 2003 The Associated Press

[ZippyTheChimp]

September 23, 2003

Efforts to Bring Down Arafat Seem Only to Prop Him Up

By ALAN COWELL


GAZA, Sept. 22 — President Bush called him a failed leader, and Israel said he should be removed or even killed. But in the logic of occupation, such threats and epithets count as pluses.

Despite months of efforts to sideline him, Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has re-emerged to claim support among Palestinians in places as disparate as the Firas Market between the unadorned concrete apartment houses of Gaza City and the Palestine Coffee Shop in Ramallah, on the West Bank.

Indeed, with the collapse of one Palestinian government led by Mahmoud Abbas — who was favored by Washington as an alternative to Mr. Arafat — and still inconclusive efforts to form a new one under Ahmed Qurei, a longtime Arafat associate, many Palestinians see Mr. Arafat as lofted back onto center stage by the very people who most sought his eclipse — Mr. Bush and Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

But the rapid series of changes seems to have left many Palestinians in an uneasy limbo.

"It's a sense of helplessness rather than hopelessness," said Iyad Sarraj, a psychiatrist and human rights campaigner, sitting in his airy office overlooking the Mediterranean here. "Nobody can predict. Nobody can tell you whether there'll be a government or not, whether Arafat will be there or not."

"There's a kind of resignation, a fatalistic resignation," he said.

At the core of the issue is the fraught question of Israel's security, with both Washington and Israel blaming Mr. Arafat for failing to rein in the Islamic militants of the Hamas movement who are behind the wave of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.

Mr. Qurei, the designated prime minister, traveled to Gaza on Sunday, but failed to persuade either of the leading militant groups, Hamas or Islamic Jihad, to join his government, which may be announced this week. After he met Mr. Arafat today at the Mokatta — the wrecked walled compound in Ramallah where Mr. Arafat is confined by Israeli decree — Mr. Qurei promised only to try to end the "chaos" of illegal weapons in Palestinian areas. Significantly, he shied away from saying he would try to disarm the militants.

Israel, for its part, has tried to eradicate Islamic militants, singling out individual Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere for attack. One more Hamas member, Basel Kawasmeh, was killed today when Israeli troops with tanks raided a hide-out in Hebron in the West Bank.

But those killings do not resolve the question of whether Mr. Arafat is in any position to move against the militants, as Palestinian leaders are supposed to do under the stalled Middle East peace plan, called the road map. Indeed, his supporters do not seem to want him to.

"Is it rational to attack Hamas and Islamic Jihad?" asked Mahmoud Azrui, an 80-year-old retiree wearing a white headdress as he played cards in Ramallah on Sunday. "Do you think anyone will agree to attack Hamas and Jihad? Then what? Israel will continue to attack our own people."

In recent days, for instance, after Israeli ministers threatened variously to kill, expel or "remove" Mr. Arafat, an uneasy calm has settled, although few people seem to believe that it will last.

"I don't know what the reason is for the quiet," Mr. Sharon was quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot today. "But it is certainly possible that this stems from the fact that Arafat is frightened and working to prevent terror attacks."

Mr. Arafat's followers cast him in a more pivotal role, particularly since the Israeli threats against him. "Arafat is the leader of the Palestinian people," said Basel Ahmed, a 25-year-old bakery worker in Ramallah. "He initiated armed struggle. He initiated peace. Nobody can achieve anything without the green light of approval from Arafat."

Even in Gaza, where militant groups like Hamas are traditionally stronger, Mr. Arafat's popularity appears to have risen, along with the quandaries surrounding him. For instance, Mr. Arafat renewed an offer of a cease-fire and a demand for international guarantees in a letter to the so-called quartet — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — which devised the current peace plan.

But, Dr. Sarraj said, "everybody knows that Arafat, no matter how popular he is, cannot achieve peace since the Americans and Israelis reject him."

Of course, Mr. Arafat's current surge of popularity could well fizzle out if he is seen to be moving against those who take responsibility for suicide bombings, regarded by some Palestinians as their only effective response to Israel's overwhelming military force.

"This is the only weapon we have," said Hanin al-Amwas, a 19-year-old math student shopping for stationery with her friends.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

Israel Strikes Back After Suicide Blast

By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer

HAIFA, Israel - A Palestinian woman wrapped in explosives blew herself up Saturday inside a seaside restaurant popular with both Arabs and Jews, killing 19 bystanders, including four children. The bombing prompted new calls for Israel to act on threats to expel Yasser Arafat.

Hours later, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at an empty home near the beach in Gaza City and at a house belonging to an Islamic Jihad leader in the Boureij refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The lunchtime suicide attack, which wounded at least 55, ended nearly a month of relative calm. One of the deadliest in three years of violence, the bombing came on the Jewish Sabbath and a day before the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

President Bush, who has opposed Arafat's expulsion, condemned "the despicable attack" and said Palestinian authorities must take responsibility for stopping terrorism. Arafat supporters appealed for international intervention to guarantee his safety.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called his advisers for an emergency meeting Saturday evening, and the helicopter attacks happened shortly after.

"The world will have to accept our decisions," Ehud Olmert, Israel's vice premier said before the meeting.

The Gaza house targeted by the helicopters belonged to the Kanita family, one of Gaza's largest, but had been empty for a long time. The Kanita family has members in all the main Palestinian groups, including the violent Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Palestinians said.

The attack at the Boureij camp targeted the home of Islamic Jihad leader Morshet Shahin, but residents said he escaped.

The blast at the Maxim restaurant went off shortly after 2 p.m., shattering windows and leaving the white walls cracked and charred black. Most of the ceiling had collapsed, with lights and wires dangling.

Broken plates, glass, chairs and human remains covered the floor of the one-story building. Outside, the body of the restaurant's security guard lay broken and bloody on the steps.

Police said the bomber and 19 bystanders were killed. A 1-year-old and two other children, ages five and six, were among the dead, emergency officials said.

Also among the dead were four Arabs, and the wounded included several members of the local pro soccer team, Maccabi Haifa, who meet at the restaurant every Saturday.

ZAKA, a group that aids rescue workers and gathers body parts for burial, said that five members of one family and three from another died.

Gideon Zilberstein, a 63-year-old accountant, was eating lunch with his wife, son and daughter-in-law when the bomber attacked. "Suddenly we heard a huge boom all around us. People were dead or dying next to our table," he said.

Haifa, a Mediterranean port city of about 270,000 with a reputation for tolerance, has been the target of repeated attacks by militant groups — perhaps because attackers are better able to blend in here with the Arab community of 47,000.

Despite a Sept. 11 Cabinet decision to "remove" Arafat at some point, Israel might shy from carrying out the threat because of strong U.S. opposition and concerns about an international backlash.

Instead, Israel could settle for a lesser step, such as increasing Arafat's isolation by installing more tanks and troops around his West Bank headquarters, where he has been confined for nearly two years. The helicopter attacks may have been just such a step.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said the next two days would be crucial for the survival of a U.S.-backed peace plan, suggesting Israel might not take any immediate drastic action.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Saturday to discuss the situation. Earlier, Shalom had reassured Powell that Israel would consult with the Washington before acting against the Palestinian leader.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said Israel expected Arafat to take swift action against the militants. The Palestinian leader "will have to come up with something very, very different or serious this time to get off the hook," Peled said, adding that "the next 24 to 48 hours are crucial for the future of the ... peace process."

Arafat condemned the suicide attack and said it endangered Palestinian interests. Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia called the Haifa mayor to express his condolences.

Eight Israelis joined 18 members of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement at Arafat's battered compound, pledging to act as a human shield to prevent Israeli action. The ISM activists came from the United States, Canada and four other countries.

Sharon holds Arafat responsible for the suicide attacks, even those carried out by Islamic militant groups opposed to the Palestinian leader's rule.

The United States is looking to the new Palestinian prime minister to crack down on militants; the bombing came on the eve of the expected announcement of a new cabinet by Qureia, who was an architect of the 1993 Oslo peace agreements.

The Islamic Jihad group said it organized the bombing, identifying the assailant as Hanadi Jaradat, a 27-year-old law school graduate from the West Bank town of Jenin. Her brother and a cousin, an Islamic Jihad member, were killed in an Israeli military raid in June.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also condemned the attack — the first suicide bombing since twin attacks killed 15 people on Sept. 9, near an army base outside Tel Aviv and at a Jerusalem coffee shop.

Those attacks prompted the Israeli security Cabinet to vote to "remove" Arafat, a threat interpreted as either expelling or killing the Palestinian leader.

Sharon had hinted Israel might act against Arafat in response to an attack with many casualties. The United States opposes expelling Arafat, and Israel's security chiefs are divided on the issue. Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who has spoken in favor of expulsion, have the final say and need no Cabinet approval.

Israeli Health Minister Dan Naveh said Israel must not hesitate. "This awful attack today is definitely an opportunity, the correct opportunity, to implement the Cabinet decision to get rid of Arafat," he said. "It is clear to all of us that he is the biggest obstacle to reaching better days."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat appealed to international mediators to intercede on behalf of the Palestinian leader, saying he is "worried about an Israeli action against President Arafat or against the Palestinian people that may just add to the complexities."

There were conflicting reports about how the attack began, with some saying the bomber shot the security guard at the entrance before rushing into the restaurant.

If true, that would represent a new tactic. In the past, security guards stopped several bombers outside restaurants, cafes and shopping malls. Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki said it was not clear whether shots were fired.

Saturday's bombing brought to 103 the number of suicide bombings in the past three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. At least 431 people have been killed in these attacks.

The attack came despite a blanket closure Israel had imposed Friday on the West Bank and Gaza Strip ahead of Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown Sunday and ends at sundown Monday. Such closures are generally imposed during Jewish holidays because of increased concerns about attacks.

Also Saturday, a Palestinian militant suspected in a deadly attack on an Israeli communal farm was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli commandos in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, the army said. A 9-year-old Palestinian boy was also killed, hospital doctors said.

Israel charges that Sirhan Sirhan, 20, slipped into Kibbutz Metzer near the West Bank and shot dead five people, including a mother and her two small children, last November.

Sirhan, from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades — a militia loosely affiliated to Arafat's Fatah (news - web sites) faction — escaped after the attack and despite intensive efforts by Israeli forces managed to avoid capture for nearly a year. Sirhan is not related to the assassin of the same name who shot and killed Robert Kennedy in 1968.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Associated Press

Sharon: Some Israeli Settlements Must Go

Mon Jan 5, 6:31 PM ET

By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer

TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told jeering leaders of his Likud Party on Monday that Israel will have to dismantle Jewish settlements as part of any peace deal and he was prepared to act despite their opposition.

Sharon's speech was his first appearance before his party's hard-line central committee since he unveiled his plan last month to dismantle some settlements and unilaterally draw a boundary with the Palestinians if peace efforts remain stalled. He refused to back down Monday, despite a hail of boos from infuriated committee members who reject a Palestinian state and oppose any removal of settlements.

"The disengagement plans are mine and I will carry them out," Sharon declared.

Critics remain skeptical of Sharon's seeming conversion from one of the great patrons of the settlement movement to a leader willing to make significant territorial concessions.

Though his rhetoric has changed, he has done little to fulfill his obligations under the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. Many accuse him of trying to placate the Americans with pragmatic-sounding pronouncements while playing for time in the belief the Palestinians will torpedo any progress before he has to act.

Before Sharon's speech Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said he had called off plans to schedule a summit with Sharon intended to restart peace moves. Such a meeting, Qureia said, would be meaningless while violence continues.

Top aides of the two leaders have met repeatedly in recent weeks to prepare for the meeting, but Qureia said even those contacts have stopped.

In his speech, Sharon told the nearly 3,000-member Likud Central Committee he remained committed to the road map, which would almost certainly require Israel to evacuate some settlements to make way for a Palestinian state. "It is clear that in a permanent peace accord, we will have to give up some of the Jewish settlements," Sharon said.

However, if there is no progress toward peace soon, Sharon said he would order a unilateral disengagement from the Palestinians that would include moving some Jewish settlements.

Vice Premier Ehud Olmert said Sharon was trying to lead the public "down a different road" that would lead to new boundaries and fewer settlements.

According to Sharon, the main test would be whether the Palestinians would start meeting their key road map obligation of dismantling and disarming militant groups that have killed almost 1,000 Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks during over three years of violence.

The Palestinian Authority has instead attempted, without success, to persuade the groups to voluntarily end attacks.

"If the Palestinians continue to reject our peace offers ... and remain in the camp of the enemies of humanity ... we will disengage from them politically and militarily and prevent any contact between them and us," Sharon said.

Olmert told Channel Two TV he estimated it would be half a year before Israel would conclude there was no alternative to unilateral steps.

Labor Party leader Shimon Peres said Sharon's speech was nothing new.

"The continued rule of this government promises only continued confrontation and further deterioration of our standing in the world," Peres said.

Earlier Monday, Qureia put off plans for a meeting with Sharon that was intended to rejuvenate peace efforts.

"I am sorry to say destruction continues, aggression continues, bombardment continues and I don't think that in this situation that any (summit) meeting will have significant results," Qureia said. "We are not looking for a meeting that is a photo opportunity."

In the past week, Israeli soldiers have killed nine Palestinians. The latest death came Monday, when Israeli troops shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian violating curfew in the West Bank city of Nablus. The family of Taj Saif, 17, said he was shot while returning from a junk-collecting trip. Israeli military sources said troops shot a Palestinian who threw a fire bomb.

The most recent suicide bombing, on Dec. 25, killed four Israelis near Tel Aviv.

Qureia also criticized the route of a barrier Israel is building, which is to dip deep into the West Bank in several areas, calling it "illegal" and "an act of occupation."

Israel says the barrier of fences, walls, trenches and razor wire is needed to keep suicide bombers out. Palestinians see it as an Israeli effort to grab land they want for a future state.

Israel has also been criticized for not fulfilling its own road map requirement to dismantle scores of West Bank settlement outposts — though the government recently signed orders to have six removed — and to freeze all construction in veteran Jewish settlements.

Following an appeal to Israel's Supreme Court, the government agreed Monday to give the settlers 15 days to appeal the evacuation order.

[ZippyTheChimp]

February 3, 2004

Angering Settlers, Sharon Says Most May Have to Leave Gaza

By JAMES BENNET

JERUSALEM, Feb. 2 — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that he might seek to evacuate almost all Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip, outraging members of the settlement movement he helped create.

"I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza," Mr. Sharon told the liberal daily Haaretz. He made similar comments in a very tense meeting of legislators from his Likud Party, said people who took part.

It was Mr. Sharon's most specific disclosure to date about what he calls "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, a step he has said he will take if he judges that the Bush administration's peace initiative, known as the road map, has failed.

Mr. Sharon said he had given orders to plan for the evacuation of 17 of at least 20 settlements in Gaza. But his spokesman, Ranaan Gissin, cautioned that that was the most far-reaching of three options that Mr. Sharon was preparing to submit for the approval of his cabinet.

"It may be less settlements that have to be evacuated," Mr. Gissin said. "We have to prepare for an interim plan that will maximize security for our citizens and minimize friction with the Palestinians."

Mr. Sharon set no timeline for a withdrawal, though his allies said it could begin by summer. His opponents on the right and skeptics on the left were quick to accuse him of posturing to divert public attention from a bribery investigation. Mr. Sharon has not been charged in the scandal.

Settlers warned of political action to bring down Mr. Sharon's government, but far-right parties did not immediately bolt from his governing coalition, an indication that they did not consider action against settlements to be imminent or inevitable.

Palestinian officials suggested that the announcement might be nothing more than a public relations maneuver.

Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, reacted with scorn, saying Mr. Sharon was referring only to removing 17 trailers. "What, so they can replace them with another 170?" he asked.

Mr. Sharon astonished even some of his own ministers with his comments on Monday. Told by an Israeli reporter of the Haaretz interview, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said, "I don't know of this decision." He added, "My view is clear and has not changed, that unilateral steps will not bring less conflict and friction. They might even increase it."

In the last 18 months, Mr. Sharon has made a series of statements that have alarmed longtime allies on the right. He has endorsed the idea of an eventual Palestinian state, criticized Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and, most recently, said he intended to remove some isolated settlements. During that period, settlements continued to expand.

But even among rightist Likud politicians, there is new support for relinquishing territory, for fear that Arabs will soon outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In the Likud meeting, Mr. Sharon warned that Israel must now prepare to act should the Bush administration's peace initiative fail. "He spoke about a situation in which it will become evident that the road map is dying," said Yuval Steinitz, a Likud member of Parliament.

Mr. Steinitz said Mr. Sharon would seek the support of the United States and major European countries. Mr. Gissin said Mr. Sharon would discuss his plans "in detail" with President Bush.

Likud politicians said Mr. Sharon also intended to evacuate a smaller number of West Bank settlements.

Mr. Sharon told Haaretz, "It is my intention to carry out an evacuation — sorry, a relocation — of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements."

Eran Sternberg, a spokesman for the Gush Qatif settlement bloc in Gaza, said, "We are quite sorry for these miserable declarations of Sharon, which probably come from the pressure of the investigations."

He promised a "tough struggle" against Mr. Sharon, and like other settler leaders warned that a unilateral Israeli withdrawal would embolden terrorists.

"Today Gush Qatif is the finger in the dike that blocks terrorists from flooding the world," he said.

Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967. Gaza, which is bracketed against the Mediterranean Sea by a closely guarded Israeli fence, is about 7 miles wide and 25 miles long. It is home to 7,500 Israeli settlers and more than 1.2 million Palestinians.

In the West Bank, which is slightly smaller than Delaware, about 230,000 settlers live in 125 settlements, among more than two million Palestinians.

Within Israel there is broad support for evacuating the Gaza settlements, which are widely seen as extremist redoubts that drain Israel's resources and needlessly endanger its soldiers.

Mr. Sharon said Monday that he would evacuate Gaza settlements only after reaching an agreement with their residents.

Gaza settlers argue that the territory is part of Jews' biblical birthright. But though Mr. Sharon has long made common cause with religious settlers, he came to the settlement movement from a different perspective, focusing on Israel's modern security needs more than its ancient claims.

In April 2002, referring to Netzarim, one of the most isolated Gaza settlements, he said, "The fate of Netzarim is the fate of Tel Aviv." But his remarks to Haaretz suggest that he now views the Gaza settlements as creating "problems." Haaretz published only excerpts of its interview on its Web site on Monday.

Mr. Gissin said Mr. Sharon was concerned about growing chaos in the Palestinian Authority. He said Mr. Sharon wanted to "seize the initiative" rather than risk having a settlement imposed on Israel that might force it to return to its pre-1967 borders. Mr. Sharon calls those borders impossible to defend.

Mr. Gissin said that if the Palestinian Authority collapsed, the Palestinians might "shout to the Security Council, `Send an international force to the territories' " and " `push Israel back to the '67 borders.' "

Palestinian officials say Mr. Sharon has deliberately undermined the Palestinian Authority, sowing chaos to avoid political negotiations and impose his own preferred borders.

Israeli politicians are increasingly preoccupied with what they call the demographic threat, the danger that within a few years more Arabs than Jews will live in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The fear is that Israel would then have to sacrifice either its Jewish identity or its democratic character. Ehud Olmert, the deputy prime minister, has raised the concern that Israel may come to be regarded as an apartheid state.

To avoid that, some members of Likud argue that Israel must draw borders in a way to part with as many Arabs — but as little land — as possible. But many hard-line settlers argue that to give up one settlement is to start down a slippery slope.

In the Gaza Strip on Monday, Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen during a raid that the Israeli Army said had been intended to arrest one of them.


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

March 22, 2004

Thousands of Palestinians Mourn and Chant for Revenge
By JAMES BENNET

GAZA, March 22 — Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader and founder of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, was killed early Monday by an Israeli missile that struck him as he left a mosque in Gaza City, his family and Hamas officials said. They said at least two bodyguards had been killed with him.

Sheik Yassin, a symbol to Palestinians of resistance to Israel and to Israelis of Palestinian terrorism, was by far the most significant Palestinian militant killed by Israel in more than three years of conflict.

Black smoke curled over Gaza City as Palestinians began burning tires in the streets and demonstrators chanted for revenge. Mosque loudspeakers blared a message across Gaza of mourning for Sheik Yassin in the name of Hamas and another militant group, Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

Thousands of Palestinians took part in a funeral procession for the Sheik and others killed in the attack.

The Israeli military confirmed the killing, saying in a statement that the sheik was "responsible for numerous murderous terror attacks, resulting in the deaths of many civilians, both Israeli and foreign."

The army said it had targeted a car carrying Sheik Yassin, but Palestinians at the scene said that the Sheik was not in car when he was hit.

The Israeli weapons punctured the pavement of the street where Sheik Yassin, a quadriplegic, was being escorted home. Blood spattered the walls of surrounding buildings. "I could not recognize the sheik, only his wheelchair," said one witness, Maher al-Beek.

In interviews with American television stations this morning, the White House's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said that the United States did not have advance warning of the assassination, and urged calm in the region.

In refugee camps like Rafa and Khan Yunis, strongholds of Palestinian militancy, thousands of people took to the streets. Ismail Haniya, a political leader of Hamas, addressed more than a thousand people who gathered outside the autopsy center at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City.

"You don't have to cry," he said. "You have to be steadfast, and you have to be ready for revenge, because the sheik has implanted the soul and the spirit of martyrdom and courage in your souls."

He said that "the blood of Sheik Yassin will run in the veins of all Palestinians," and predicted that his death would give "more momentum for the liberation of Palestinians from the criminals, the Jews."

Hospital officials said the sheik's body had been smashed in the attack.

Like other political leaders of Hamas, Sheik Yassin denied involvement in planning specific attacks, but Israeli officials said he was directly connected to terrorism.

Ahmed Qurei, the Palestinian prime minister, condemned the attack. "This is a crazy and very dangerous act," he said, according to Reuters. "It opens the door wide to chaos. Yassin is known for his moderation, and he was controlling Hamas, and therefore this is a dangerous, cowardly act."

The Israeli Army said it had closed off the Gaza Strip, which is bracketed against the Mediterranean by an Israeli fence, and shut checkpoints that effectively divide it into three sections.

Israel has again stepped up its pressure on militants in Gaza since two Palestinian suicide bombers from a Gaza refugee camp blew themselves up last Sunday at the Israeli port of Ashdod, killing 10 Israelis. That attack was jointly claimed by Hamas and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The country has also appeared eager to show that a plan announced by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza did not amount to a victory for Palestinian militants, as some of them had claimed.

Israel tried to kill Sheik Yassin on Sept. 6, dropping a 550-pound bomb on a Gaza apartment building where he was holding a meeting. The sheik escaped with a slight shrapnel wound to his right hand, and 14 other people were wounded. That strike came as Israel declared "all-out war" on the group after a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in August.

On Jan. 16, the Israeli deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, said Sheik Yassin was "marked for death" by Israel.

"He should hide himself deep underground where he won't know the difference between day and night," Mr. Boim said at the time. "And we will find him in the tunnels, and we will eliminate him."

Sheik Yassin responded: "We do not fear death threats. We are seekers of martyrdom."

Hamas is officially committed to Israel's destruction, not just a withdrawal from the occupied territories. The word means `zeal` in Arabic, and that is an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement.

The group runs a network of low-cost clinics and schools that have broadened its ideological reach while helping to give its popularity a boost among Palestinians. Israeli security officials regard it as the most organized and disciplined of the militant groups.

Sheik Yassin helped found Hamas in 1987. He later spent eight years in an Israeli prison, before being freed in 1997 as a gesture to King Hussein of Jordan after a bungled assassination attempt on a Hamas leader in Amman, the capital.

The targeted killing followed an Israeli raid on Sunday into the southern Gaza Strip that left four Hamas militants and one Palestinian woman dead. Israel said it had been seeking to arrest one of the Hamas men who died in the operation.

Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Sharon gained qualified backing from his top right-wing rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, for Mr. Sharon's plan for a Gaza withdrawal. Mr. Netanyahu said he might back the plan if Mr. Sharon achieved an "appropriate return," including support for retraining some blocks of settlements in the West Bank, from the United States.

He also said Israel must remain free to act militarily in Gaza after any withdrawal.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

May 21, 2004

LETTER FROM THE MIDDLE EAST

Children Fill Ledger of Death, No Matter How, or How Many

By JAMES BENNET

RAFAH REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip, May 20 — Set in fields of white, pink and red carnations, the giant cooler here, which usually holds vegetables or flowers for sale to an Israeli company, has been turned over to the dead.

It was to this cooler that, inevitably, the Palestinian doctor came Wednesday morning, when, just as inevitably, the latest Israeli Army raid touched off a parallel struggle to define reality. Were there, in fact, children among the dead, as the Palestinians claimed? How many? Did they die from Israeli sniper fire or from militants' explosives?

The doctor, Ahmed Abu Nikera, had had enough of these questions. In the dank, shadowy room, he yanked and pulled to open the bloodstained white cloth wrapping one of the bodies as tightly as a mummy.

"This is a child," he said, after he revealed the pale gray face of Ibrahim al Qun, 14. "This is the exit wound." He pointed at the ragged, softball-sized black hole where the boy's left eye had been. A sniper's bullet entered at the back of the boy's head, he said.

Still, in the icy book of accounts that one carries to follow this conflict day after day, something else also had to be noted: During the fighting Tuesday night, Dr. Ali Moussa of Al Najar hospital had said there were seven people under the age of 18 among the dead; a list of names and ages compiled by Palestinian hospital officials Wednesday morning showed four people under 18.

Along with the chaos of gunshots, tank shells, planted bombs and armored bulldozers that accompanies life here, there is a dense fog of war. There is also a war of fog, of often fuzzily presented but always sharply conflicting versions of reality.

Like so many characteristics of this conflict, the tension over competing truths is shared across the desert, in Iraq. There, American soldiers and insurgents are not only fighting very different kinds of battles, but also describing very different ones. In the end, it seems that the contest of descriptions matters more, at least to the leaders and to the analysts who guide them.

Whether the casualties on any given day are on one side or the other or both, there is also, in a dark space somewhere, a reality. There is a dead child; there is an exit wound.

How many dead children is too many is a question often asked by Palestinians and Israelis, but it shows no hint of being resolved.

A couple of hours after the visit to the cooler, life here took another cruel and bewildering twist. On Wednesday afternoon, an Israeli helicopter gunship and a tank opened fire as demonstrators approached a neighborhood on Rafah's outskirts that the Israelis seized Tuesday.

Men with agony in their faces ran carrying little boys who bled from many shrapnel wounds. It was bedlam, panic, a vertiginous glimpse of hell.

There were dead and there were wounded, covering the beds and even the floors of Al Najar hospital. Television reports were of more than 20 killed. But one had to ask, hovering ghoulishly with pen in hand and account book at the ready: Where were the bodies?

Palestinian health officials said at least 10 were killed. But Dr. Moussa acknowledged Wednesday night that he could not "guarantee" that number. He said that some families had taken their dead for burial before the bodies reached the hospital.

Muslims bury their dead as swiftly as possible. The bodies of 14 Palestinians were in the flower cooler only because their families were trapped under Israeli curfew and unable to bury them.

Dr. Moussa's uncertainty contrasted with Israelis' precision in gathering their own dead. A few days ago, Israeli soldiers on their knees formed a line in the sand not far from here, to sift for tiny fragments of comrades killed when militants blew up an armored vehicle.

Israeli officials did not publicly contest the sum of Palestinian dead on Wednesday. They generated a different kind of fog.

In a statement by the army, and in disciplined remarks by many officials, the Israeli government expressed sorrow for any deaths of civilians. It called the incident very grave. It said that the incident might have been caused by tank fire. It also suggested that the cause might have been explosives planted by militants. The helicopter and tank fire was legitimate, the government said, because there were gunmen in the crowd of protesters.

Many witnesses said there were no gunmen. The matter is under investigation, the army said.

Some things here are what they seem, and some are not. Israeli soldiers have camouflaged themselves in Palestinian vehicles. Militants have hidden smuggling tunnels in the basements of houses. Each side plays on what it considers the other's habit of deception to cast doubt on claims about the killing.

On Tuesday night, Palestinian officials reported that Israeli snipers had killed two other children while they were taking in laundry on the family's roof. They were Asma al-Moghair, 16, and her brother, Ahmad, 13.

But an Israeli officer leading the operation, whom the army would identify only as Colonel Erez, said an initial army investigation of the deaths was inconclusive. He noted that Palestinians had planted many bombs in hopes of killing soldiers.

"We don't rule out the possibility that these youngsters were killed by the bombs," he said. "I can say unequivocally that no one in our unit put this boy and girl in his cross hairs with the aim of killing them."

Colonel Erez said that Israel had asked that the bodies be turned over for the investigation.

Asma's body was in the morgue of Al Najar hospital, which, with a capacity of only six corpses, had quickly filled.

Dr. Nikara untied a cord binding the cloth around the child's neck, then pulled back Asma's hair to reveal a hole the size of a half dollar over her left ear — an exit wound. She had no sign of shrapnel wounds.

"This is what the Israelis call an accident," the doctor said.

Ahmad lay in the flower cooler. He had a similar hole in his head, above his right ear, and he did not have shrapnel wounds.

Last week, two Israeli soldiers were shot dead as they guarded the search for body parts of five other Israeli troops killed when Palestinian militants destroyed their armored vehicle.

Many of these differing accounts will never be balanced. Each side prefers its version of the facts. The violence continues, and the accounting can seem beside the point.

As the tumult quieted in Al Najar hospital after the wounded were rushed in Wednesday, an exhausted doctor dropped into a chair, his blue tie loose around his neck.

"It doesn't make any difference," he said of the casualties. "Life equals death, for all of us."

He asked that his name not be published; he was worried that Israel might deny him a permit to travel out of Gaza. In the hallways outside, workers with buckets of water were washing the blood off the crushed-gravel tiles.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

UN Assembly Tells Israel to Tear Down Barrier

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israel must obey a World Court ruling and tear down its West Bank barrier, the U.N. General Assembly demanded in a resolution adopted by an overwhelming vote on Tuesday.

The vote in the 191-nation assembly was 150-6, with 10 abstentions, to adopt the measure aimed at dismantling the 370-mile barrier that Israel says is needed to keep out suicide bombers but Palestinians see as a land-grab aimed at dashing their hopes for eventual statehood.

All 25 European Union countries voted in support of the Palestinian-drafted measure after its Arab sponsors accepted a series of EU amendments over days of intense negotiations.

However, the United States, Israel's closest ally, voted "no" after U.S. Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham warned the resolution was unbalanced and could further undermine the goal of a Middle East in which Israeli and Palestinian states lived side by side in peace.

"All sides are now focused on Gaza and partial West Bank withdrawal as a way to restart the progress toward this vision," Cunningham told the assembly.

Israel also voted 'no,' along with Australia, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau.

Abstaining were Canada, Cameroon, El Salvador, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Uganda, Uruguay and Vanuatu.

"Thank God that the fate of Israel and of the Jewish people is not decided in this hall," Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said after the vote. "When all is said and done, it is simply outrageous to respond with such vigor to a measure that saves lives and respond with such casual indifference and apathy to a Palestinian campaign that takes lives."

PALESTINIAN PRAISE

Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser al-Kidwa praised the vote as "a historic development."

"This indeed could be the most important resolution of the General Assembly since the adoption of Resolution 181 of 1947," he said. That measure called for the partition of British-ruled Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states.

The General Assembly acted after the World Court ruled in a July 9 "advisory opinion" that the barrier, which is still under construction, was illegal because it cut deep into West Bank land to shield settlements built by Israel on territory it seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

The court, formally known as the International Court of Justice and based in The Hague, is the top U.N. legal body.

The assembly resolution, like the court ruling, is not legally binding but carries great symbolic weight in the international community.

The resolution demanded that Israel comply with the court finding that it was legally obliged to dismantle the barrier and pay reparations for damages caused during construction.

In response to EU proposals, it also condemned all acts of terrorism and urged both Israel and the Palestinians to meet their obligations under the road map to peace set out by the quartet of Middle East mediators -- the United States, European Union, United Nations (news - web sites) and Russia.

Sponsors also accepted an EU demand that the measure specify that states have the right to defend themselves against attacks on their people. A section of the court ruling had suggested that under the U.N. Charter, a state had the right to defend itself against an attack from another state but not, for example, from a suicide bomber.

The measure also softened a demand that Switzerland, as keeper of the Fourth Geneva Convention, convene a meeting of parties to the treaty to ensure it was being observed.

The final version said only that Switzerland could consider convening such a meeting. The 1949 pact deals with the protection of civilians in time of war. A key provision bars a government building settlements on land acquired by force.

Copyright © 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

[ZippyTheChimp]

November 7, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST

Footprints in the Sand

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

It is a sad but fitting coda to Yasir Arafat's career that the prospect of his death seemed to unlock more hope and possibilities than the reality of his life.

His corrupt, self-interested rule had created a situation whereby Palestinian aspirations seemed to have gotten locked away with him, under house arrest in Ramallah, well beyond the reach of creative diplomacy. Only human biology could liberate them again - and so it has.

In the early 1990's, I sided with those Israelis who, though no fans of Arafat, were ready to deal with him at Oslo in the name of normalcy for both Israelis and Palestinians. But once it became clear, after the collapse of the Camp David talks, that no deal was possible with Arafat, I wished for his speedy disappearance. He was a bad man, not simply for the way he introduced a whole new level of terrorism to world politics, but because of the crimes he committed against his own people. There, history will judge him very harshly.

Google is a wonderful tool. I spent time the other day Googling every variation I could of the words: "Yasir Arafat and Palestine and education." I couldn't come up with a single speech, or even full paragraph, in which Arafat laid out his vision for how Palestinians would educate their youth and nurture their talents. Maybe all his speeches on that subject were never translated from Arabic. Or maybe they just don't exist - because this was never his priority. His obsession was with Palestinian "land," not Palestinian "life." Google the words "Yasir Arafat and martyrdom and jihad," and the matches go on for pages.

After every defeat, Arafat stood on the ruins and flashed a victory sign. While his wife lived in Paris and his cronies lined their pockets, two generations of Palestinians remained in their poverty and displacement, because he never had the courage to tell them the truth: "Palestine will have to be divided with the Jews forever. We must make the best final deal we can over the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem - without double talk about getting the rest later - and then build the finest society that we can." Had he ever given that speech - in Arabic - had he ever adopted the nonviolence of Gandhi, Arafat would have had three Palestinian states by now - Israel's reckless settlements notwithstanding.

The fact that he didn't was not a mistake in judgment but an expression of character. For him, it was better to die in Paris, and have two generations of Palestinians die in exile, than be the Arab leader who officially and unambiguously agreed to share Jerusalem with the Jews. I can understand why stateless Palestinians would revere Arafat for the way he put their cause on the world map - but that became an end for him rather than a means, which is why his historical impact will be as lasting as a footprint in the desert.

Arafat's exit from the stage, combined with the downfall of Saddam Hussein, is a real moment of opportunity for the Arab world: Under Saddam and Arafat, Iraqi and Palestinian nationalisms were devoid of any positive agenda for developing all the men and women in those two societies. They were focused on the negative agendas of resisting outsiders and buying more weapons than computers - because that is what served their one-man rulers. This negative nationalism kept their people mobilized, externally focused and never able to ask about education budgets, let alone democracy. As the Arabic saying went, "No voice should be louder than the battle." And no voices were louder in insisting on that than Arafat's and Saddam's.

But if you have societies held together by a voluntary social contract among its constituent populations, and by institutions, you don't need one-man rule. You don't need to mobilize the whole society around resistance to outsiders. And you don't need the suppression of every group in the society, other than the tribe of the one-man ruler - with all the violence and extremism that such suppression brings.

And that's why so much is riding on how Palestinians and Iraqis replace the one-man rulers who so distorted their societies. Will they each use this moment to hold elections and build a bridge to a society of institutions and laws, or will they simply build a bridge to another one-man ruler? If it is the latter, then the U.N. is going to continue putting out reports about the lack of human development in the Arab world. If it is the former, I am certain that within a decade when you Google the words "Iraq, Palestine, educational innovation and scientific breakthroughs," you will actually come up with some matches.



Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

January 16, 2005

Abbas Takes Office, Already Facing Battles

By GREG MYRE

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan. 15 - Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in as Palestinian president on Saturday, already embroiled in crisis.

Israel, responding to an attack on a Gaza Strip crossing point that left six Israeli civilians dead on Thursday, has cut off official contacts with the Palestinians. And in two confrontations in Gaza on Saturday, Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians. Also, 46 Palestinian election officials resigned Saturday, citing irregularities in voting procedures last Sunday.

In the brief ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah to inaugurate him president of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Abbas struck a mostly conciliatory note and called for a cease-fire to end more than four years of violence.

"Our hand is extended toward an Israeli partner for making peace," Mr. Abbas said at the compound where his predecessor, the late Yasir Arafat, was confined for the final three years of his life.

Mr. Abbas reiterated the goal of establishing a Palestinian state that would include the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with a capital in East Jerusalem and a "just" settlement for Palestinian refugees.

Israelis and Palestinians are "destined to live side by side and to share this land," he said.

Mr. Abbas's victory in the election last Sunday raised hopes that the Israelis and Palestinians could resume a dialogue and perhaps end, or at least reduce, the daily violence that has claimed more than 3,000 Palestinian lives and about 1,000 Israeli lives since September 2000.

But the Thursday attack inflamed tensions, and overnight Friday, Israeli soldiers raided a neighborhood in southern Gaza City that has been the source of rocket fire on a Jewish settlement. Five Palestinians were killed and several wounded in the shooting, which lasted much of Saturday, Shifa Hospital reported.

While the raid was under way, Palestinians fired a mortar at the settlement, Netzarim, which landed near a synagogue and wounded two Israeli children. One, a 7-year-old boy, lost an arm, the Israeli military said.

Also, three Israelis were wounded by a Palestinian rocket attack that struck in Sederot, just outside Gaza's perimeter fence. In southern Gaza, near the border with Egypt, some 30 Palestinians tried to enter an empty Israeli military post, said Palestinian witnesses and officials at Najar Hospital in the town of Rafah. Responding Israeli soldiers fired warning shots and then fired on armed men in the group, the military said. Two Palestinians were killed, according to the hospital.

Mr. Abbas had repeatedly expressed his opposition to Palestinian attacks against Israel, and he did so again on Saturday, while also denouncing Israeli military raids.

"In the last few days, a number of incidents have taken place," he said. "We condemn these actions, whether by the Israeli occupation forces or the reactions of some Palestinian factions. This does not help bring about the calm needed to enable a credible, serious peace process."

Israel says Mr. Abbas's comments are welcome but insists that he take action.

Mr. Abbas plans to travel to Gaza on Monday for talks with the Palestinian factions, said Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister. Mr. Abbas says he will try to persuade the factions to halt attacks but will not call on Palestinian security forces to crack down.

In another development, 46 Palestinian election officials resigned Saturday, saying they were pressed to change voting procedures on election day, The Associated Press reported.

In the final hours of the election, voting was extended for two hours and all Palestinians with identification cards were allowed to cast ballots, even if they had not registered in advance. The changes harmed the integrity of the election, the officials said, but did not have a significant impact on the final results.

"I was personally threatened and pressured," Ammar Dwaik, a senior election official, told The A.P. "I am therefore announcing my resignation publicly, so that everyone knows that in the upcoming legislative election, this could happen again."

Those elections are set for July.


Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

February 8, 2005

2 Mideast Rivals to State Intent to Halt Attacks

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN and GREG MYRE
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/t.gifEL AVIV, Feb. 7 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority will declare at a summit meeting in Egypt on Tuesday their intention to suspend attacks after four years of conflict, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Monday.

In a related step, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in effect renewed direct American involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the first time in a year and a half, announcing that President Bush will meet separately in the spring with each leader and appointing an American "senior security coordinator" to help train and equip Palestinian forces and monitor Israeli and Palestinian promises. It would be the first meeting between an American president and a leader of the Palestinian Authority in nearly five years.

Together, the announcements added to the growing momentum toward reviving a peace effort that was stalled until the death of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, in November. But while these were considered the most hopeful signs in more than a year, there were also warnings of potential pitfalls ahead.

Israeli and Palestinian officials characterized the actions to be announced in Egypt at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik as a cease-fire, but there will be no joint declarations or signatures on a document. Mr. Sharon and Mr. Abbas will unilaterally declare their intent to stop attacks, but each will emphasize that progress will depend on steps taken by the other side.

"We expect a declaration on the Palestinian side on the cessation of armed conflict, the intifada," said Raanan Gissin, Mr. Sharon's spokesman. "Israel will also make a unilateral declaration that says if the Palestinians cease fire, we will refrain from military activity."

Mr. Gissin cautioned that in the past four years, 10 announcements of cease-fires had been followed by a resumption of violence, but added that the new announcement "has a greater chance of success than before" because of a new determination to cooperate after the death of Mr. Arafat.

Much will depend on the ability of Mr. Abbas to rein in the militant Palestinian factions, particularly Hamas, which has agreed to suspend attacks temporarily but is withholding further comment until after hearing from Mr. Abbas about the Tuesday meeting.

"We are waiting for Mahmoud Abbas to return and speak with us," said Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, who met with Egyptian officials in Gaza City on Monday. "When we see what has been achieved, we will declare our position. We are not under any kind of pressure."

Hamas has always rejected peace talks with Israel, which it refuses to recognize. But when Mr. Abbas was the prime minister in 2003, he did persuade Hamas to halt attacks for a brief period, and he has been in regular contact with the group in recent weeks.

A senior Palestinian official said the summit meeting would declare "a resumption of political relations and a mutual cease-fire." But Palestinian officials cautioned that Israel would have to follow through on its promises to pull back its forces from West Bank cities and discontinue its attacks on Palestinians if the new arrangement were to work.

Nonetheless, what makes the current situation more hopeful, according to American, Israeli and Palestinian officials, is the apparently productive effort to carry out more specific steps in coming weeks, which are to be enshrined in the joint statements to come at Sharm el Sheik.

Since the late 1990's, the United States has played an on-again-off-again role as a "monitor" to push peace talks, each time starting with high hopes but ending in disappointment.

This time, all sides are proceeding cautiously, avoiding triumphant announcements that might prove hollow. A senior Israeli official said the Israelis and Palestinians were heading toward "understandings, not a formal agreement."

Palestinians, for example, are to halt attacks on Israel by all Palestinian militant groups, with a particular focus on the Palestinian takeover of Gaza when Israel carries out its planned pullout of settlers and forces starting next summer.

Mr. Abbas, in Ramallah with Ms. Rice, made it clear that he expected prompt Israeli action on a number of fronts, not on just security but also on freezing the expansion of settlements and not taking any steps to seize property or let settlements grow in the vicinity of Jerusalem, which Palestinians and Israelis claim as their capital.

"There have to be more meetings held at the highest levels between us and the Israelis as well as follow-up on all these matters," he said.

As for the Israelis, they have indicated that they would respond to the cease-fire, if it holds, by halting killings of leading Palestinian militants, releasing up to 900 Palestinian prisoners, and limiting their hot pursuit of Palestinian perpetrators to cases of people known to be planning imminent attacks.

Israel has also announced a pullback of its military forces from Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah and other population centers in the West Bank and has promised the United States to lift checkpoints and roadblocks that have hampered the ability of Palestinians to earn a livelihood.

The developments were so momentous that they all but overshadowed the selection of Lt. Gen. William E. Ward, deputy commanding general of the United States Army in Europe, as senior security coordinator, with wide responsibilities for overseeing the steps that are to be started at Sharm el Sheik and supervising the upgrading and reorganizing of Palestinian security forces.

Among General Ward's roles, American officials said, would be to monitor violent incidents on both sides, facilitating Palestinian-Israeli communication over what to do in the face of imminent attacks and making sure that Israel takes steps of its own, including withdrawing armed forces from West Bank population centers.

"This is the most promising moment of progress between Palestinians and Israelis in recent years," Ms. Rice said at the end of 23 hours in Israel and the West Bank. "The United States is determined to do all that we can to take advantage of this moment of opportunity in the weeks and months ahead."

Ms. Rice then left for Rome to continue her weeklong tour of Europe and the Middle East, her first overseas trip as secretary of state.

Earlier, Ms. Rice stood in Ramallah with Mr. Abbas at the rain-swept Palestinian headquarters, which is still bombed out from Israeli attacks a few years ago. Her news conference there was only steps away from the grave site of Mr. Arafat, whose death ushered in the renewed talks coming to a head this week.

To help the Palestinians, Ms. Rice said the United States would channel an immediate $40 million infusion of aid for job-creating programs and infrastructure in Palestinian areas, on top of the $350 million in aid that Mr. Bush announced last week.

The administration hopes that hundreds of millions of dollars in additional aid will flow from Europe and Arab countries in coming weeks.

The Sharm el Sheik summit meeting is to be attended by Mr. Abbas, Mr. Sharon, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan. Ms. Rice will not attend. As she left Israel, she said the antagonists were better off making progress on their own, if possible.

A furious debate has erupted in Mr. Sharon's cabinet between advocates of responding to the cease-fire with positive steps and opponents who fear that the cease-fire is only "a timeout" from violent attacks, giving the Palestinian attackers time to regroup.

So far, Israeli officials say, the advocates of concessions have won the day, but Mr. Sharon is not going to be able to go much further - for example, to meet American and Palestinian demands for dismantling scores of illegal settlement "outposts" in the West Bank and freezing the growth of settlements near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.



February 8, 2005

NEWS ANALYSIS

Hope, Skepticism and Fear: Back on the Road to Civility

By STEVEN ERLANGER

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/s.gifHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt, Feb. 7 - The Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas, meet here on Tuesday to seal a tentative cease-fire, in the highest-level contact between the two sides since the second intifada began in 2000. President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is the host, and King Abdullah II of Jordan will also attend.

So expectations are high - unreasonably high, American, Israeli and Palestinian officials all privately agree. But after more than four years of suicide bombings and military raids, of bitterness and blood, all sides also want this meeting to symbolize the start of better relations or even, just possibly, a step back onto the road toward an eventual peace.

Public image matters, too - the art of how relations seem to be, or might become, not necessarily how they actually are.

Both sides are tired of war and conflict, but both are also fearful of a peace that is not real but merely for show. Whatever trust the Oslo accords of 1993 were supposed to engender has entirely disappeared; the disappointment on both sides about the failure of that agreement, after the euphoria that greeted it, has a lasting tang of bitterness and mutual betrayal.

Even now, the two sides are far from being engaged in negotiations about a peace settlement. Instead, they are having the first civil discourse in years, in the hope that a fragile quiet will lead to a long-term cease-fire and then, perhaps, enough trust on both sides to make the painful sacrifices required for peace.

At the summit meeting on Tuesday, Mr. Abbas is expected to declare broad Palestinian agreement on a long-term cease-fire with the Israelis. A senior Palestinian official says Mr. Abbas may even declare "a cessation of armed conflict," which would effectively be a declaration of a halt to the armed intifada after the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians.

Such a declaration would itself be a bold step for the cautious Mr. Abbas, who has barely begun to solidify his hold on real power. But senior Israeli officials caution that intent is not deed. To declare a halt to violence, they say, does not mean an actual halt, which can only be proved over time.

So they say that Mr. Sharon, for his part, is willing to announce that if the Palestinians hold to a cease-fire and then move to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism, Israel will refrain from military activity. "In other words," a senior Israeli military official said, "we just defend ourselves. If the Palestinians say they're committed to ending the violence, then we would be committed not to act militarily."

But there will be no mutual declaration or anything that has the force of a treaty, Israeli officials insist. Instead, this meeting and the statements made there will represent the hopes and aspirations of both leaders - hopes and aspirations that will be tested over time, that will be challenged by powerful groups within both societies and that may create, if successful, their own momentum toward peace.

There is enormous skepticism among Israeli officials, both political and military, that a cease-fire will last, or that Mr. Abbas will then move to dismantle the factories that make Qassam rockets and explosives and seize the weapons of the militants.

"If he doesn't move this way against Hamas, to establish that only official Palestinian security forces should have weapons, then Hamas retains a veto over any cease-fire," the senior Israeli military official said. The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, an influential and hawkish member of Mr. Sharon's Likud Party, puts it more bluntly, and on the record: "A cease-fire," he says, "is a ticking bomb."

Inside the Israeli cabinet itself there have been fierce debates in recent days about how much risk to take to try to lift Mr. Abbas. The director of the Shin Bet counterterrorism agency, Avi Dichter, has sharply opposed suggestions by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, that Israel consent to Mr. Abbas's request for the release of some Palestinian prisoners who attacked Israelis before the Oslo accords were signed.

Mr. Dichter lost the argument, but his fears are shared even by those who won it. And if Mr. Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, cannot deliver the militants, or if attacks continue against Israeli civilians and settlers, Israel officials make it very clear that their "freeze on military activity," as they call it, will melt very rapidly.

"My counsel is to be patient and tolerant, so long as Abu Mazen is sincerely trying every day to end the violence," the military official said. "Now we see some positive signs. In the last few days the Palestinian forces have stopped some rocket and mortar launches in Gaza and destroyed two weapons-smuggling tunnels. But we wait for Abu Mazen to implement security reforms and to name his security officials. He has time, but not lots of time."

Even an announcement of a lasting cease-fire, so soon after the death of Yasir Arafat on Nov. 11, would itself be an enormous accomplishment for Mr. Abbas, Palestinian officials say. He emerged smoothly out of the confusion surrounding Mr. Arafat's illness and moved just as smoothly to seem inevitable as Mr. Arafat's successor. He won an impressive victory in a relatively free and fair election on Jan. 9, and did so on a clear platform of an end to violence and a resumption of diplomacy and negotiations with Israel.

And he has won reluctant agreement from the militants to let him try diplomacy. But Mr. Abbas is too weak to confront Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Instead he wants to co-opt them, offering them a share of political decision-making and urging them to take part in legislative elections this summer. Few Israelis or Palestinians, though, believe that the radicals want what Mr. Abbas wants: stability and negotiations leading to a less than maximalist Palestinian state.

The Israelis want Mr. Abbas to succeed, in large part because a cease-fire will make Mr. Sharon's plan to dismantle Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip much easier to carry out. And the Americans want the Israelis to help him succeed, to provide some momentum toward a Palestinian state and help America's image in the Arab Middle East after the Iraq invasion.

An absence of violence, of course, is not peace. But it is the prerequisite to the difficult political decisions required to make peace, for both sides.

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[ZippyTheChimp]

This may be more important than the Iraqi elections.


February 14, 2005

Abbas Declares War With Israel Effectively Over

By STEVEN ERLANGER

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/g.gifAZA, Feb. 13 - The new Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said in an interview this weekend that the war with the Israelis is effectively over and that the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is speaking "a different language" to the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's commitment to withdraw from Gaza and dismantle all Israeli settlements there and four in the West Bank, despite "how much pressure is on him from the Israeli Likud rightists," Mr. Abbas said, "is a good sign to start with" on the road to real peace.

"And now he has a partner," Mr. Abbas said.

In a 40-minute interview in his Gaza office late on Saturday night, Mr. Abbas spoke with pride about persuading the radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respect the mutual declaration of a truce that he and Mr. Sharon announced last Tuesday at their first meeting, in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, which was the highest-level meeting between Israelis and Palestinians in four years.

Mr. Abbas said the war with the Israelis would be over "when the Israelis declare that they will comply with the agreement I made in Sharm el Sheik, and today our comrades in Hamas and Jihad said they are committed to the truce, the cooling down of the whole situation, and I believe we will start a new era."

In the interview with The New York Times, his first with a Western news organization since he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority five weeks ago, on Jan. 9, Mr. Abbas spoke with confidence and humor in nearly fluent English. He also spoke of several developments.

¶Hamas made a commitment to him to run in the July elections for the Palestinian legislature, continuing the group's "conversion into a political party."

¶Mr. Abbas fired nine senior police and security officials in Gaza and was prepared to fire more if they did not get "the first message" that they are to enforce his cease-fire.

¶He set the release of Palestinian prisoners as his first priority, and said it would be a measure of how much tensions have eased in the West Bank and Gaza.

¶He rejected any idea of a sovereign Palestinian state in temporary borders before a final settlement.

¶The Americans were talking to him "in a very helpful way," and he hoped the Bush administration would deliver on its promises of political and economic aid.

¶At nearly 70, he expected to retire after one term of five years.

Mr. Abbas wants progress to continue so that the two sides can move quickly to political discussions about the road map, a diplomatic process meant to lead to tackling the most difficult issues that have deeply stymied both sides: questions of final borders, refugees, Jerusalem and now, "President Bush's initiative about a democratic Palestinian state," Mr. Abbas said.

While he is happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with Mr. Sharon, he says, the Palestinians need a political horizon looking toward a real state. At their meeting in Sharm el Sheik, Mr. Sharon made many positive commitments, Mr. Abbas said, offering to form a joint committee to discuss releasing the 200 or so Palestinian prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo accords, and the pullback of the Israeli military in the West Bank and the reopening of Gaza's seaport.

Israel acted further on Sunday to improve relations by agreeing to release 500 prisoners.

Mr. Sharon also spoke "about the Palestinian independent democratic state" and "about the occupation, never to be an occupier anymore," Mr. Abbas said. "So on all these things he was positive, but what we want to know is the implementation on the ground."

Asked about his first priority, Mr. Abbas was quick and explicit. "Prisoners, prisoners are our priority, and we told everyone about it," he said, from the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. "The situation will be stabilized and will cool down in Gaza and the West Bank" to the degree that Mr. Sharon "helps us to release the prisoners," Mr. Abbas said. The Palestinian Authority says Israel holds nearly 8,000 Palestinians, but the Israeli government has had fierce debates about whether to release Palestinians held for attacks against Israelis, with Mr. Sharon expressing public understanding of Mr. Abbas's need to show Palestinians quick benefits from the new quiet.

But Mr. Abbas then wants to move quickly to political discussions with Mr. Sharon about carrying out the road map. He said he would be happy to coordinate Israel's withdrawal from Gaza with Mr. Sharon, but said the Palestinians need a political horizon looking toward a real state.

Although the road map mentions the option of declaring a sovereign "Palestinian state within provisional borders" while talks continue about a final settlement, Mr. Abbas said, "If it is up to me, I will reject it." Palestinians will see an interim solution as a trap, replacing a final settlement, and "peace will not prevail anymore in the region," he said.

"So it's better for us and for the Israelis to go directly to final status," he said. "I told Mr. Sharon that it's better for both sides to establish this back channel to deal with final status and go in parallel with the stages of the road map."

What did Mr. Sharon say, Mr. Abbas was asked. He laughed. "He didn't respond," he said. "But we'll talk more about it. Maybe he didn't like it. We have to repeat it more and more in our ongoing negotiations."

Less than a month after he took office on Jan. 15, Mr. Abbas spoke with surprising optimism. The Israelis say he started slowly and timidly, and then has done better, showing more courage when challenged. Mr. Abbas contends much has been accomplished, given the deterioration of the Palestinian Authority under Yasir Arafat, "but we can't negotiate everything in 10 days."

With his upbeat mood, he may be trying to instill hope in the Palestinians, who, as he says, "are observing, and they see progress, and they are happy with it, but they want more."

"They want job creation, they want to eat, and they want security," he said.

But Mr. Abbas will undoubtedly face serious challenges from Hamas and other radicals, whose support may be tactical, and some of whom want him dead.

Mr. Abbas said he was surprised that the armed militants, many wanted by Israel, embraced his candidacy. "All the fugitives came to me from all factions and said: 'We are for you. You were with us, and we want you to solve our problems,' " he said. They want real jobs in the security forces of the Palestinian Authority "and to be secure from Israeli assassination and attacks," he said. "I promised them, and now it is realized."

Was the armed intifada of the last four and a half years a mistake? "We cannot say it was a mistake," he said. "But any war will have an end. And what is the end? To sit around the table and talk. And they realize that this is the time to come to the table and talk and negotiate."

Asked if Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are labeled terrorist organizations by the United States, want what he wants, he laughed and said: "No, of course they don't want what I want! They want to come to power if they can. For that they ran in municipal elections and after that they will go" to the legislative elections. "And if they win, of course they want power. And it is their right. It is the competition" of democracy.

Asked about Hamas's recent victories in local elections in 7 of the 10 cities and villages in Gaza, Mr. Abbas said: "This is democracy. We have to congratulate Hamas and say, 'O.K., you won.' Why not?" His own mainstream Fatah faction made many mistakes, he said. The vote "is a good lesson for Fatah to realize its position toward this and that and prepare themselves for the coming elections" for Parliament on July 17.

Fatah is already working to renew itself and bring in a younger generation "in parallel" with preparations for the elections, Mr. Abbas said, including work to form a new government, expected within the next week. Some in Fatah worry that Hamas could win more a substantial share of the vote, and Mr. Abbas is negotiating a new law with Hamas about how much proportional representation, which Hamas favors, will be used to elect legislators.

Mr. Abbas argued that democracy would help tame the radicals. "Of course they should be converted into a political party," he said. "It's good for us. We're talking about national unity."

He said he was not bothered that Hamas could construe the acceptance of Israel merely as a stage toward a Palestinian state, to be followed by a renewed desire to eliminate Israel. "Whether they consider it a stage or not, they will accept an Israeli state within the 1967 borders and they declare it," he said. "For me it is not a stage; for them it is a stage - O.K."

The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, speaking for the right, has said that a cease-fire is not enough, and is just a "ticking bomb" until Mr. Abbas confronts and dismantles Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Mr. Abbas rejected the argument, but not entirely, saying: "If he will put preconditions, it will not work. It will not start. We say, 'We are now in a truce. Let's strengthen it, let us work to stabilize the whole situation.' Now Hamas and Jihad are running for the elections, and what does it mean? It means that they will be converted in time into political parties."

Mr. Abbas, who will be 70 on March 26, is a refugee, and says he will insist on the right of Palestinian refugees, under United Nations Resolution 194 of 1948, "to return back or to be compensated." But he says he is willing to negotiate this, as all other matters, with the Israelis.

"I don't think the Israelis have the right to say, 'No, we won't discuss it,' " he said. "We will ask them to discuss this resolution, and when we come to an agreement, on anything, of course we will accept it."

Mr. Abbas was born in Safed, in what was then British Mandate Palestine. He was 13 in 1948, during the Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel's establishment as a state. "I remember everything," he said. "It was 1948 when we have been deported from Safed to the Golan Heights to Damascus, and I remember every specific point," he said. "There was a war. We had to leave the city. The Israelis invaded the city, the Haganah at the time. We left our country."

With Safed in Israeli hands, Mr. Abbas said, he could not return until 1995, after the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization were allowed to return to the territories after the 1993 Oslo accords. He wanted to go sooner, but the mayor of Safed organized demonstrations against the visit, he said.But in 1995, "I did go back, but secretly," he said. "The Israeli Ministry of Interior helped me to go discreetly there." He stopped, his face suddenly softer. "I was there for 5 or 10 minutes only," he said. "I was very, very sad. I was very sad."

He looked off toward the far wall, then continued, "Every place, every quarter, every building I remember. I saw my house. But I didn't go inside."

Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[ZippyTheChimp]

March 20, 2005

Jews in Gaza Recoil at Idea of Expulsion

By STEVEN ERLANGER (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=STEVEN ERLANGER&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=STEVEN ERLANGER&inline=nyt-per)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/n.gifETZER HAZANI, Gaza Strip - The green tanks in their berms and the protective walls around the Israeli settlements here are surrounded by yellow daisies and deep pink oleander. But this is probably the last spring for the Jews of Gaza.

Slogans and bumper stickers denounce Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a dictator and an enemy of the Jewish people, on a par with Nebuchadnezzar and Titus, who destroyed the first two Temples. Most cars fly the orange-and-blue flags of those opposed to Mr. Sharon's plan to dismantle all 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and to help the nearly 9,000 people here find new homes and new lives.

The late winter sun is California bright, and a salty breeze comes off the nearby beaches, which the settlers here can see but not visit.

Except for two small areas, the beaches belong to the 1.3 million Palestinians of Gaza, who will soon, if Mr. Sharon gets his way, inherit these community centers, schools and hospitals, which were built by the settlers, with government backing, to lay claim to the biblical land of Israel. With so many Palestinians and so few Jews in Gaza, Mr. Sharon and his aides contend, defending the settlers here is too expensive and difficult, both militarily and diplomatically.

If the Israelis here do not leave on their own, in late July their own police and army forces will begin to remove them, in an operation expected to take three to four weeks.

For Kobi Hadad, the prospect is a nightmare that stays with him all his waking hours, which are many more than before. Like other settlers here, he feels frozen, he says, paralyzed by a future that he detests and cannot believe will come, but which he does not know how to avert.

"I live day to day," he said. "Every day has its problems, including not sleeping. I walk around a lot at night, and I smoke a lot - that's on the rise," he said, as he snuffed out another cigarette.

"If I think rationally," he said, "I know I have to prepare myself to go, because it might happen. But the irrational side is causing me to freeze in my place and take no action. Something could happen, some outside event - who knows? My wife and I try to talk about it; she looks at me and she doesn't have to ask."

Mr. Hadad, 45, came to Gaza in 1986, after serving in the army, living for a few years in Jerusalem and missing the earth. "We were brought up that you have to settle the land," he said. "I decided I wanted to live in a moshav," a cooperative farm, "and I wanted to start something." With 10 families, at first in mobile homes, the Hadads began an agricultural settlement in southern Gaza, Rafiah Yam, which now has 26 families. They practice high-tech farming, growing organic vegetables - peppers, lettuces and spices - in the sand dunes, under greenhouses of fabric. Nearly all of the produce is sold to Europe. Gaza is responsible for 15 percent of Israel's agricultural exports.

"It was difficult to learn how to grow in the sand, but we succeeded," he said proudly, then grew melancholy again. "Where shall we go? Where will we find our place?" Mr. Hadad says he cannot even begin to answer. Yet in his heart of hearts, where he does not want to reach, he knows that he and his family will have to go.

Like most Israelis here, he is disgusted by Mr. Sharon's failure to discuss his Gaza plans when he ran for election - in fact, Mr. Sharon rejected a similar plan proposed by his Labor opponent, Amram Mitzna - and by Mr. Sharon's refusal to hold a national referendum on the issue. "It feels undemocratic, even if it's totally legal according to the law," Mr. Hadad said.

But he considers it almost worse that Mr. Sharon refuses "to come here and meet us and say, 'I still love you, but this is the new situation, and that's why I'm changing my mind and have to evacuate you.' "

Instead, Mr. Hadad said, "people now look at us like we're lawbreakers, when everything we did here was legal, and as obstacles to peace, instead of praising us for what we've built and defended here as pioneers of modern farming."

For the Palestinians of Gaza, of course, most of them refugees themselves, the settlers are not just lawbreakers but colonizers, and their departure is welcome. And even some Israelis see settlers as maddened religious fanatics, some of whom may violently resist evacuation by the Israeli Army and police.

"We will never harm the messenger," Mr. Hadad said. "The soldier is our son, and our neighbor's son or our relative's son. Most people here feel that way, and they have an enormous appreciation for the army here and for the investment they make for our safety."

Sam and Bryna Hilburg know that well. Their son, Yochanan, was one of 11 Israeli Navy commandos who died in an undercover operation on the coast of Lebanon in September 1997. The Kalashnikov rifle he used in the raid hangs in their house, and they have buried their son in the cemetery here, his grave covered with seashells. The local youth club is named after him.

"He's the only one of my children who wanted to come back here to live," said Mr. Hilburg, 55, a wiry man who was a marine in Vietnam before emigrating in 1972.

Now the Hilburgs must expatriate their dead son, too. "No matter how awful it is for us to leave our home, imagine having to carry a coffin around with you," said Ms. Hilburg, 54, her eyes both fiery and wet. "Hanging over everything is Yochanan."

The Hilburgs came to Netzer Hazani in 1979, bringing up six children, part of a cooperative farm now with 80 other families. They grow cherry tomatoes from the sand and sell them to Europe. "They're too expensive for the Israelis," Mr. Hilburg said.

The collective, which is in sight of the Palestinian refugee camp of Khan Yunis across the fences, is holding together. No one, the Hilburgs said, has explored an alternative home or contacted the government's Disengagement Administration, headed by Yonatan Bassi, which is responsible for finding the people here new communities.

Mr. Bassi said that 800 of Gaza's 1,700 families had expressed willingness to leave and discuss compensation and that he expected 600 more to do so soon, with the rest waiting until the very end.

It is hard to confirm Mr. Bassi's confidence here. The Hilburgs, like the Hadads, continue to hold out hope that Mr. Sharon will be toppled, that Israel will attack Iran or that somehow God will intervene.

At one moment Ms. Hilburg says she is not resigned to leaving. Then she says, "But we can't put our heads in the sand." And then she says, "We're doing what we can to make sure it doesn't happen." And then: "With my hand on my heart, I say I don't know what we'll do."

Yigal Kirshenzaft, who became a Lubavitch rabbi after his army service, has no such doubts. In his house decorated for Purim, with an effigy of the evil Haman hanging, plastic cellphone in pocket, from a gallows outside, he sits surrounded by 7 of his 12 children, who show off the remains of a Qassam rocket that landed in the backyard.

"God will stop it," he said with complete assurance. "We will be here for many years to come." He came 23 years ago, in 1982, after he was expelled from Yamit in the Sinai Peninsula by the Israeli Army after a peace treaty with Egypt - the last time an Israeli settlement was dismantled.

Gaza is different, he said, part of the land of Israel. "I was in the army of Israel, and now I'm in the army of God," he said. "There is a war going on here, and everyone is a soldier, even the children. This is our country and our destiny, the Holy Land."


Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[ZippyTheChimp]

March 22, 2005

Israel to Expand Largest West Bank Settlement

By GREG MYRE (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=GREG MYRE&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=GREG MYRE&inline=nyt-per)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/m.gifAALE ADUMIM, West Bank, March 21 - Israel on Monday publicly confirmed plans to build 3,500 new housing units in the largest Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Maale Adumim. Palestinians angrily responded that such an action would violate the Middle East peace plan and would be a major obstacle to resolving bitter disputes over nearby Jerusalem.

After reports in the Israeli news media, the Defense Ministry confirmed Monday that Shaul Mofaz, the defense minister, had approved the new building plan for Maale Adumim two months ago, based on government proposals dating back several years.

In another development on Monday, Israel handed over security control to the Palestinians in the West Bank town of Tulkarm, a hotbed of Palestinian militants. Last month Israel agreed to transfer security control of five Palestinian towns in the West Bank, and Tulkarm is the second one to be handed over, after Jericho last week.

The Maale Adumim settlement, with nearly 30,000 residents, a spacious shopping mall that includes Blockbuster Video and Ace Hardware, and streets lined with palm trees and flower beds in full bloom, already resembles a well-ordered suburb in the hills a few miles east of Jerusalem.

Residents welcomed the planned expansion as a natural development for the fast-growing settlement. "This is very good news," said Roni Hai, 52, a taxi driver and a 20-year resident. "We just keep getting bigger and bigger."

Cranes, bulldozers and trucks were all in motion on Monday, working on dozens of residential buildings that had been approved before this latest move. A billboard promoting one new neighborhood, "Views of Sevilla," promises apartments with "breathtaking views." To the west is the skyline of Jerusalem, and to the east are stark desert hills dotted with Palestinian villages.

But Palestinians criticized the expansion plan disclosed Monday as a flagrant attempt to expand the Jewish presence in and around the traditionally Arab eastern parts of Jerusalem and to seal them off even further from Palestinian areas in the West Bank.

"If this is carried out, Israel will be dictating the outcome of negotiations on the future of Jerusalem before they even begin," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator with the Israelis.

"I really urge President Bush to intervene directly and prevent Israel from doing this," Mr. Erekat said. "The land that is supposed to be for a future Palestinian state is being eaten up. With this settlement building, and the wall that is being built, the question for President Bush is: What is left to be negotiated?"

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, and government officials often describe Maale Adumim as part of "greater Jerusalem" that will be part of Israel in any future peace agreement. The Palestinians are seeking all of the West Bank as part of a future state, with its capital in the eastern sector of Jerusalem.

In practical terms, the expansion of Maale Adumim creates two major problems, say Palestinians and other critics of the Israeli plan. First, Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and nearby areas will be effectively boxed in, with no room to grow.

"This project may be one of the biggest obstacles to reaching a two-state solution," said Yariv Oppenheimer of Peace Now, an Israeli group that monitors settlements. "This will cut off Jerusalem to the east with Jewish settlements."

Also, an expanded Maale Adumim would serve as a barrier between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. Palestinians traveling between the two parts would face a lengthy detour, though Israeli officials have hinted that they may build a bypass road.

Critics also called the expansion a violation of Israel's pledge under the Middle East peace plan known as the road map, which calls for a freeze of all settlement activity.

Israel, though, has interpreted that to mean that it can continue building in existing settlements, at least for now. Israel also says the peace plan is not currently being carried out because the Palestinian leadership has yet to act against Palestinian factions responsible for attacks on Israelis, as the plan requires.

In Washington, Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman asked to comment on Israel's announcement about the settlement, said: "The road map calls for an end to settlement activity and action against terrorist infrastructure. Those are important commitments that both sides have made, and that we look forward to both sides following through on."

He added that he did not have any specific comment on the new report of settlement activity but added, "Obviously that's - it's something we'll be looking into, something we're regularly engaged with the government of Israel on."

Kinneret Eliyahu, 28, who runs a jewelry store at the settlement's shopping mall, was born in Maale Adumim. Her family was among the first settlers here and initially lacked electricity and running water.

"When I was growing up, this was a tiny place and there wasn't any entertainment," said Ms. Eliyahu, who had to commute to Jerusalem to attend high school. "But now we have everything, and there's hardly any reason to leave."

The settlement is a magnet for young couples and includes 39 kindergartens. Housing here costs at least one-third less than in Jerusalem. The commute used to include regular traffic jams and, on occasion, stone-throwing Palestinian youths.

But a highway that opened two years ago tunnels through a hillside, avoiding Palestinian areas and allowing commuters to zip into the center of Jerusalem in less than 10 minutes.

About 230,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, and the number is increasing by at least 10,000 each year. In addition, more than 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to remove all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip; they now number about 8,800. But Mr. Sharon also has made it clear that he intends to strengthen Israel's hold on the main West Bank settlements, where a vast majority of settlers live.

In addition to formal settlements like Maale Adumim, settlers have established about 100 unauthorized outposts in recent years. Earlier this month, a government-sponsored report said Israeli governments had systematically broken the law by providing assistance to the outposts in the last decade.


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