Posted on 04/21/2002 2:47:01 PM PDT by Democrats are liars
MADRID (Reuters) - The European Union has warned Israel not to assault Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters and called for a peaceful solution to a standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
In a statement issued by EU president Spain, the 15-nation bloc issued "a serious warning against any act of force carried out against the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which could endanger the physical security of President Arafat and the (other) people there."
The statement, published on Spain's EU presidency Web site on Sunday, carried Saturday's date.
The EU also said it was ready to help find a legal solution "to the question of the people detained by the Palestinian Authority who are inside the Palestinian presidential complex" -- a reference to suspects that Israel wants handed over.
The EU requested that medical and humanitarian organizations be allowed immediate access to Palestinian towns and it stressed the importance of a United Nations mission to probe Israel's assault on the Jenin refugee camp.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Friday for a fact-finding mission on the devastation in Jenin.
Israeli tanks rumbled out of two West Bank cities on Sunday after a crushing three-week occupation but kept up sieges of Arafat's headquarters and the Bethlehem church, one of Christianity's holiest sites, where gunmen are holed up.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israeli forces would stay outside Arafat's compound until three men accused of killing an Israeli cabinet minister last year were turned over.
Israel also wants the handover of Arafat's chief financial officer, Fuad Shubaki, whom it suspects of trying to smuggle arms from Iran into the Palestinian territories.
Arafat has offered to put Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi's suspected assassins on trial in a Palestinian court.
The EU asked "all parties involved to do everything necessary to find a peaceful outcome to the siege of the Church of the Nativity" in Bethlehem.
Israeli troops remain locked in a stalemate with wanted Palestinian militants trapped with more than 200 policemen, clerics and civilians inside the church, revered as the birthplace of Jesus.
Spain hosts a meeting in Valencia this week of foreign ministers from EU and Mediterranean states, which Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is expected to attend.
I like that thinking. In that vein, I've been wondering why we so quickly said Abu Zubayduh was the source of the NE bank threat.
Figured it might be grease for the detainees currently NOT talking. Sort of like "See Abdullah, when your boss gives it up so easily, you might want to reconsider."
Didn't I just read on one of yesterday's threads that Jimmuh Cahtuh certified the "election" of Yasser. Course I doubt if Jimmuh certified the process of "weeding out" certain of the candidates prior to the "election".
LOL You can take the man away from the Brigadiers, but you can never take the Brigadier out of the man.
Grosseuropa did exist 57 years ago.
They did warn the Russians.
Too bad Zhukov and Koneiv didn't speak German...
If they violate this stern warning, Camembert exports will be cut off immediately!
Pouring the Zyklon B into the showers, my friend-those that weren't stuffing the boxcars, turning in their neighbors, or stealing Jewish property.
Some things never change.
The EU, like the UN, has lost any moral credibility it may have once had. These organizations should have no effect whatsoever upon American --or Israeli-- foreign policy.
If anyone has any further doubts as to the utter moral bankruptcy of the European socialists, you need to read the impassioned article by Oriana Falacci: Read This Article
Should have been clearer, sorry.
This has all been a Palestinian War against Isreal, in the only sick way they can.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Friday for a fact-finding mission on the devastation in Jenin.
And where pray tell have the EU and U.N. been with their warnings, whinings and fact-findings for the past year and a half as Pali bombers have massacred Israeli civilians?
Hosting dinner parties and referring to Israel as "that sh!tty little country" is where.
Arafat is in no danger from Israelis, and he is in no danger of handing anybody over or putting anybody on trial.
EUnuchs to the contrary notwithstanding, Israelis exhibit incredible grace under fire.
They acquit themselves nobly without the offgassing of the continental sewer.
They even allow europervs access to Yassir the Anus of Evil.
Continental conundrum: Europeans block Israeli tanks yet are not run over. Democracy advocates block Chinese tanks and are run over. Yet Europe curses Israel and embraces China. QED It is a continent not worth saving.
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