When will we learn the lesson: never to negotiate with terrorists .... never negotiate with terrorists .... NEVER - all they understand is fear and power ... show them why they should fear Israel's power .... it's time for annihilation ... so do it quickly!
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/Archive-2001/me-israel-06-01b.html
SHARON CONSIDERS PLAN FOR 48-HOUR KNOCKOUT PUNCH
JERUSALEM - Special to World Tribune, 1 June:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been presented with a plan calling for the destruction of the Palestinian Authority in two days.
"It’s clear that the continuation of the terrorism and the restraint cannot continue for much longer, not more than a few days," Israeli President Moshe Katsav told state-owned Israel Radio on Friday.
The plan presented by National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman would launch an Israeli military invasion of at least six major cities in the West Bank and another four in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. Israeli troops would be given at least two days to destroy Palestinian military installations, weapons factories and arresting leaders of the Palestinian insurgency.
The Israeli capture of these cities would be brief, according to the plan. The West Bank would then be divided into a series of provinces administered separately by Palestinians. Israel would then discuss with new Palestinians leaders such issues as self-rule.
"We have to go into Area A [PA territory] and destroy the entire military infrastructure," Lieberman said.
Israeli officials said the military has drawn up similar plans and they are now being reviewed by Sharon. The officials said Sharon is expected to delay any Israeli attack until after he returns from his European tour, which begins on Sunday. The prime minister is scheduled to fly to Berlin, Brussels and Paris.
Katsav was speaking in Washington where he met his U.S. counterpart, George Bush. Israeli sources said Katsav submitted to Bush a request from Sharon for an additional $800 million in U.S. military aid pledged by the previous Clinton administration.
Sharon is under increasing pressure from some of his Likud Party and right-wing ministers as well as Jewish settlers to launch an offensive against the PA. On Thursday, several Israelis were arrested during a demonstration in Jerusalem against the government’s policy of restraint. "We need Winston Churchill and not Chamberlain," Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, spiritual leader of the Jewish settlement of Efrat, said.
PA officials said they are preparing for an Israeli onslaught. They said Israel has waged a psychological warfare that seeks to sow strife within the Palestinian leadership.
PA gunners fired mortars early Friday toward Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, as part of its unilateral ceasefire, did not respond.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and reiterated the U.S. demand to end the eight-month-old war against Israel.
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ARAFAT WARNS OF ISRAELI ATTACK
BRUSSELS, Belgium—AP - 31 May: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat claimed Thursday that senior Israeli officials were preparing a "new war" to paralyze his Palestinian Authority.
"I have received a letter saying the (Ariel) Sharon government has adopted the principle of a new war against the Palestinian people," he said in a speech to the upper house of the Belgian Parliament.
"The goal of the Israeli army in calling a truce is in fact to mobilize the Israeli mass to prepare an atrocious war ... in which they will use all military means to paralyze the Palestinian Authority," Arafat added.
Arafat was responding to comments from Israeli Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a hard-liner in the cabinet of Prime Minister Arial Sharon’s government, who said Israel should immediately reoccupy Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
"In the next 48 hours we need to go into all Palestinian areas and destroy the entire infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority, destroy the weapons cache of their forces including those of the militias," Lieberman told Israeli radio.
Arafat addressed the Belgian Senate on the latest stop on a European tour that had earlier taken him to Russia and Denmark. He spoke in Arabic and his comments were relayed by a French translator.
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THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 1, 2001
ISRAELI PRESIDENT WARNS ARAFAT
by David R. Sands
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has "a few days, no more" to end the violence among his supporters or face a sharply escalated Israeli military response, Israel´s president said yesterday. "People are fed up. Our patience is not unlimited," Moshe Katsav said in an interview with editors and reporters of The Washington Times at Blair House, the United States´ official executive guest residence. Mr. Katsav said he conveyed his concerns to President Bush, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other top administration officials in meetings yesterday. Mr. Bush also hosted a working dinner last night for the Israeli president, who is on his first official trip to Washington since his surprise election last summer.
Eight months of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces have intensified in recent days, despite the release last month of a report by a commission headed by former Sen. George Mitchell calling for an immediate cease-fire and steps to rebuild the shattered peace process. Four Israeli settlers have been killed in the past three days, prompting intense political pressure on the government for a crackdown. "It is a question of a few days, not more, for Yasser Arafat to decide" whether to halt the violence, Mr. Katsav said in the interview. Should Israel respond militarily, the president said, it would not be by reoccupying territory now administered by the Palestinians, but by "an attack on the centers and sources of the terrorism," which he said included Mr. Arafat´s leadership group. Mr. Katsav also said he had told Mr. Bush he was convinced that Mr. Arafat has concluded that street violence and terrorism are effective ways to achieve his political ends. Mr. Katsav said Mr. Bush replied, "I hope you are wrong." But, the Israeli added, Mr. Bush "is not sure."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that, at their morning meeting, Mr. Bush had "reaffirmed America´s support for Israel and . . . discussed the United States´ engagement to be a facilitator in the region." A U.S. diplomatic team headed by Ambassador William Burns, Mr. Powell´s newly designated point man for the region, has made little progress in arranging meetings to get the two sides to discuss new security arrangements to halt the fighting. Palestinian officials contend Israel hopes to use the truce to entrench itself in disputed territories. They point to passages in the Mitchell report that call for an eventual total freeze on Israeli settlements in occupied territory, which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has yet to accept.
In Jerusalem yesterday, Mr. Sharon echoed Mr. Katsav´s warnings that Israel´s self-imposed cease-fire will end soon if Mr. Arafat does not move to curb the violence. "My blood is boiling," Mr. Sharon said during a visit to the family of a Jewish settler on the West Bank killed in a roadside ambush this week. "I will have to decide when to do what I think has to be done." Israeli press outlets reported that Mr. Sharon had phoned Mr. Powell Wednesday after a car bombing in the coastal city of Netanya to say the current situation was intolerable and could not continue much longer. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday that Mr. Powell had talked to both Mr. Sharon and Mr. Arafat by phone Wednesday evening, imploring both to stop the fighting. Mr. Powell urged Mr. Sharon to "continue his policy of restraint and de-escalation," Mr. Boucher said yesterday. But the Israeli prime minister is also under pressure from domestic critics to strike hard in the wake of the most recent violence.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rival in Mr. Sharon´s own Likud Party, urged a direct attack on the Palestinian Authority´s infrastructure. "We must go from reaction to decisive action," Mr. Netanyahu said. "We must make it clear to Arafat that if he continues his policy of terror, we will cause this corrupt terrorist regime to collapse and we have the power to do this." Mr. Katsav, 56, shot to international prominence last July when he upset former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres in a secret ballot of Israel´s parliament, the Knesset, for the largely ceremonial but high-profile president´s post.
Mr. Katsav, who was born in Iran and moved to Israel as a boy, has been seen as a symbol of the political emergence of the "second Israel"—the wave of Sephardic Jews from Arab and Islamic countries who moved to the new Jewish state in its early years and still form the bulk of the country´s lower classes.
A Knesset member for the conservative Likud Party since 1977, Mr. Katsav denied during last year´s voting that he was running an "ethnic" campaign, but many saw his victory as a challenge to the European-oriented Ashkenazi Jews who have traditionally dominated the country´s politics. In yesterday´s interview, Mr. Katsav said:
Israel was convinced, based on its own intelligence sources, that Mr. Arafat had the power to bring the violence to a halt, even with loosely affiliated groups, such as Hamas. .A combined appeal from Europe and the United States for an end to Palestinian violence would force Mr. Arafat to back down.
Ordinary Palestinians have suffered even more than Israelis from Mr. Arafat´s record of broken promises and by the violence that has claimed more than 500 lives since the collapse of the Camp David summit last summer. The Israeli president said that, while it was "very difficult" for him to trust the Palestinian leader, he would continue to negotiate with him. "He´s my partner. He´s popular with his people. What can I do?" Mr. Katsav asked. "I want peace. Do I have any choice?"
Abraham Rabinovich in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
