Posted on 06/27/2002 5:43:35 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The New York Times says President Bush decided to call for a change in the Palestinian leadership after receiving an intelligence report last week that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was helping finance al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a group that claimed responsibility for the most recent suicide attack in Jerusalem.
According to the Times, Mr. Arafat had authorized a $20,000 payment to the group, which is an off-shoot of the Palestinian leader's Fatah Movement. The report did not say when the payment was made.
Earlier this year, Israel said it had found two documents signed by Mr. Arafat authorizing payments to known terrorists. A spokesman for Israeli intelligence said the documents, allegedly in Mr. Arafat's handwriting, were found by soldiers who took over Mr. Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah in April.
Palestinian officials dismissed the documents as Israeli forgeries, a charge Israel denied.
I don't want to rain on the President's parade and I appreciate him deliberating on this issue, but didn't we know about this a month or two ago?
Maybe I am being impatient, or lack the understanding of what diplomacy means (I mean, I dislike the very word "diplomacy"), but it just doesn't make sense to me. If we know something is true (e.g., Yasser harboring terrorists) and it is confirmed (such as the Israeli intelligence reports), why don't we just kill the mo fo's? Or, at least cut them off... Why does it take so long?
We will never win the war against terrorists if we have to wait, and wait, and wait until the "timing" is right.
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