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Saudi envoy to U.S. says assured `final status issues among Palestinians, Israel will be negotiated between parties (Reuters)

The government of Israel does not have a plan for disengaging from the Gaza Strip. The question being placed before Likud party members is whether or not Jewish settlement should be evacuated in the face of pressure from terrorism. That’s all. The assumption of many people in Israel that in another eighteen months, we will be able to send Gaza to hell (“Get them out of my sight”, “Let them stew in their own juice”) is similar to the hope that one leader of the Labor Party and Meretz expressed in 1993, “Let Gaza drown in the sea”. However, according...

The gap between supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan among Likud members narrowed to four percent, according to a survey conducted Wednesday by the Dialog company for Haaretz. Only 44 percent of registered Likud members eligible to vote in the upcoming party referendum slated for May 2 said they would vote in favor of the plan to remove all Gaza Strip settlements and several settlements in the West Bank, while 40 percent said they would vote against the initiative. Sixty-eight percent of the people participating in the survey said that they were certain to vote in...

The Yesha rabbinical council of the West Bank and Gaza Strip issued a letter Wednesday attacking Likud ministers who support the disengagement plan and calling on them to oppose the plan in the Likud's internal referendum on May 2. The open letter called the Likud ministers "politicians who sell weakness and despair." The rabbis asked whether the ministers "agree that the children of Ophir Cohen's family, whose legs were cut off on their way to school and who have been rehabilitated and returned to Kfar Darom [a central Gaza Strip settlement], will be exiled from there, this time by Jews,...

SECRETARY POWELL: Good morning. I just had a good conversation with High Representative Solana of the European Union. We discussed a variety of issues. We are both looking forward to a Quartet meeting in the not too distant future, as soon as we get all of our schedules arranged, to go over the situation in the Middle East and to have an opportunity to discuss recent actions. I reaffirmed to the High Representative that the President's position on the Middle East peace process is unchanged; he's committed to the roadmap; he's committed to a Palestinian state being brought into being...

"There's a gap between the leadership of the Likud and the rank-and-file, and the leaders mistakenly believe that the people are with them." So says Dov Har-Shefi, head of the Beit El chapter of the Likud drive to defeat Prime Minister Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan. "The Likudniks are loyal people with roots, who won't sell the Land of Israel for a worthless piece of paper. I walk around and I can see that there are more people who oppose the plan than who support it." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has proposed a unilateral disengagement from Gaza, under which Israel is...

Today is Yamit Day - the 22nd anniversary of the uprooting of the northern Sinai city of Yamit and a dozen neighboring communities. The evacuation and uprooting, which was carried out in the framework of the peace treaty with Egypt, was overseen by then-Prime Minister Begin and then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. The day will be marked in the Hesder Yeshiva of N'vei Dekalim - and probably nowhere else - beginning at 5 PM. Yeshiva head Rabbi David Gavrieli will deliver a Torah lecture and a film on the evacuation will be shown. The evening will be capped off with a...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to take part in two debates that were to take place between himself and Minister Uzi Landau. Landau, a leading opponent of the unilateral withdrawal/expulsion plan, told Israel National Radio yesterday that Sharon's advisors are now working to cancel the last remaining public debate on the plan - namely, the discussion in the Knesset. "The bottom line is that those who are really against this unilateral withdrawal were never given any chance to relate their view," said Minister Uzi Landau on the Eli Stutz and Yishai Fleisher Show. "[There have been] no representatives of...

(IsraelNN.com) The al-Aqsa Brigade of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization has announced the development of a longer range surface-to-surface rocket to be used in attacks against Israelis. According to the report, the rocket has a range of 55 kilometers (34 miles). According to correspondent Haggai Huberman, the “Shahidim Brigade” based in Jenin boasts the new rocket, adding the announcement was made in the el-Bureij area of Gaza during an event marking two years since the apprehension of Fatah Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti and the infamous Jenin battle. The new rocket has been named “Eagle Eye” by the terror organization.

(IsraelNN.com) Veteran Likud Party personality and a former Knesset speaker, Dov Shilansky, has announced he too is joining the growing number of persons working to defeat Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral Gaza disengagement plan. In his statement Mr. Shilansky stated, “I was at the side of Menahem Begin during many fateful hours for the Jewish People and he never would believe his party would so boldly step in the direction it has taken”. Shilansky added that as a Holocaust survivor, “I will never return to the ghetto”.

The Supreme Being is a legitimate, indeed desired, player in the mosaic that makes up daily life in Gush Katif. The 4,016 Qassam rockets and mortars that landed in the area, causing relatively few casualties and little damage, could not defeat the residents' spirits. Nor did the al-Batr missile sow despair with its relatively large, five-kilo, warhead that landed on the Zadok family's roof in Neve Dekalim. Only destruction. In Kfar Darom, Hannah Bart, a paralyzed victim of a terror attack, gave birth to a healthy baby. Everyone is convinced it is a miracle. In Atzmona, the residents are taking...

In addition to Benny Begin, support for the campaign against the plan has come from an unexpected source: the father of Education Minister Limor Livnat. Mr. Uziel Livnat, a long-time Likud ideologue, came out against his daughter's position today in a hard-hitting interview on Army Radio. "The Land of Israel, in my eyes, is one unit," Mr. Livnat said. "It is not something to be 'disengaged' from, nor to uproot communities from. My grandfather was brought to this land by foot at age 13 to 'cherish its dust.' I feel a commitment to every part of this Land." Livnat's pain...

After refusing to actually debate Minister Uzi Landau on the retreat plan (his team first claimed he would debate Landau twice but then came up with a novel description of "debate": each give a speech with PM Sharon speaking second with not rebuttal from Landau), Israel Radio reports this morning that the Sharon team plans to cancel the last remaining public discussion of the plan - a Knesset discussion. Sharon's moves to avoid debate are getting the absolute minimum coverage by the media - this when under other circumstances such brutal moves would be devoted hours of broadcast time with...

"They're soft like pizza, and they fall like dominoes." So said former Cabinet Minister Benny Begin on national television last night, referring to the senior Likud members who have recently jumped on the disengagement bandwagon. Begin, who resigned from the Netanyahu government in January 1997 over the Hevron-withdrawal agreement, termed the current disengagement/withdrawal plan under consideration a "cave-in-to-terrorism plan." Prime Minister Sharon has proposed a unilateral disengagement from Gaza, under which Israel is to withdraw its forces and evacuate its towns and 8,000 residents by the end of 2005. This is to be done with no coordination with the Palestinian...

Twenty years ago, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited Homesh and outlined the diplomatic, security, and political reasons why the settlement in northern Samaria should remain forever. Sharon stressed the strategic importance of the community atop the hill between the Palestinian cities of Nablus and Jenin, where on a clear day, residents can see from Mount Hermon in the North to Ashdod in the South. "If Homesh didn't exist, someone would have to invent it," said Sharon, who was industry and trade minister at the time. Now, Homesh is one of the four West Bank settlements that Sharon intends to evacuate...

Dr. Uzi Landau, Minister 20 April 2004 Prime Minister Mr. Ariel Sharon Jerusalem Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Prime Minister. I do not write this letter to you as a politician. As politicians we have disappointed. I write to you as one of the People, who, by right, should have his voice heard even if he opposes your position. I wish to start not with what I, along with most members of the Likud, opposed with our hearts and souls all these years but instead with what I support with a certainty: I am for peace, and I know that there...

Bennie Begin appeared on Nissim Mishal's interview program on Israel Television Channel Two this evening to attack the "disengagement plan" as a sham. "It isn't disengagement," Begin argued, noting that under the plan Israel will continue to be involved with the Gaza Strip, "it is only a settlement uprooting plan. And uprooting settlements will only encourage the terrorists to continue in their efforts." Begin warned that the withdrawal would only bring more terror and criticized the attempts of some to paint a rosy picture. Then Nissim Mishal threw Begin the pitch: "But Bennie Begin, there are so many former prime...

(IsraelNN.com) Once again, a PA-fired rocket slammed into a home in the northern Gaza community of Nisanit. Three persons were injured, all in light-to-moderate condition according to preliminary reports. A fire that broke out in the home has been extinguished. Emergency personnel are operating on the scene.

The details of the heavy price Israel paid for the Bush letter are emerging more and more clearly. Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council leader Bentzy Lieberman said today that Israel is to submit to the Americans in the coming days detailed commitments, including up-to-date aerial maps specifying the precise construction boundaries of each and every Jewish community in Judea and Samaria. "What this means is that not only are we giving up Gaza," he told Arutz-7 today, "but the entire future of the remainder of the settlements is in doubt. As usual, the Prime Minister is hiding certain parts of...

Teams of Gush Katif residents have already begun visiting Likud members' homes in the southern region. Equipped with informational kits including maps and a short CD film, the Gush Katif supporters are putting a human face on Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement/expulsion plan. Organizers in Kfar Darom and elsewhere say that the teams' initial impression is that many of the Likud members simply do not know much about Gush Katif. Watching the movie and having a heart-to-heart talk with someone who lives in the region has made a significant number of "undecideds" change their minds to "against." In one case, one...

Preparations are underway and anticipation is high as many thousands of residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and other places in Israel, begin their house-to-house campaign to "save Israel from the disengagement/evacuation/expulsion plan." Some 500 Beit El residents gathered in the Central Synagogue last night for last-minute coaching and encouragement. Similar events were held in recent days in Gush Katif, Efrat, Ofrah and elsewhere. Rabbi Shabtai Sabato, head of the Netivot Yosef Yeshiva High School in Mitzpeh Yericho, dramatically told the Beit El crowd, "We have been conserving our energies precisely for this occasion." Rabbi Sabato said, "Over the past...

So, what did we get? After months of expectation and postponement, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Wednesday finally got his audience with US President George W. Bush. Since the beginning of the year, we have been told day after day, "Just wait and see." So now that the visit is behind us, what did we get? What did Sharon bring back from Washington? On the positive side, we received American acknowledgement of Israel's basic right as a sovereign state to defend itself against aggression. This is no small feat today. In acknowledging that Israel can defend itself, Bush said something that...

A huge explosion was heard at the Erez crossing near the Gaza Strip when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up. Magen David Adom personnel at the scene of the explosion said they have treated four injured; one critically, one moderately, and two lightly. The two lightly injured were transported to the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, and the seriously injured were flown by helicopter to the Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva. Fatah and Hamas jointly claimed responsibility for the attack. Fadi Al-Amoudi, 22, from Beit Lahiyah, blew himself up near the Magen 12 terminal, an army position adjacent to the...

Israel's plan to withdraw from Gaza and part of the West Bank will reinvigorate rather than destroy the "road map" peace process, British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted in an interview broadcast Saturday. Blair dismissed concerns that Israel's strategy undermined the peace plan, which was approved two years ago by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. "I don't understand when people say this annihilates the road map," Blair told British Broadcasting Corp. radio, in an interview recorded in Washington on Friday. "Of course it doesn't. It gives you an opportunity to get back into the...

WASHINGTON - United States President George W. Bush clarified Friday that the agreement he reached with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier this week, did not predetermine the charachter of a permanent status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. "All final status issues must still be negotiated between the parties," Bush said. "I look forward to the day when those discussions can begin so the Israeli occupation can be ended and a free and independent and peaceful Palestinian state can emerge." Bush said "this is a fantastic opportunity" to launch the Palestinians to a state on land occupied by Israel. With...

Translation of this editorial from Hebrew to English by me: Shalom – this is Kol Israel Radio news. The time is 10:00 in the morning, April 2006. Today it is the two year anniversary to President Bush’s speech in Washington, but instead of celebration, there will be more funerals for the “disengagement plan” victims. Security forces, MADA, Zaka and many volunteers continue to dig, trying to find life amongst the remnants of the Ezareli Towers that were totally destroyed in a terror attack, after Palestinians fired yesterday a range of advanced rockets from Gaza towards Tel-Aviv. It is now known...

Settlers may leave homes, receive compensation once disengagement approved by gov`t, prior to legislation (Channel 2)

Translation from Hebrew to English by me These words were said by (Israeli Knesset Member) Yuri Shtern in an interview to Arutz 7 made after the press conference held by PM Sharon and US President George Bush. "If to the three million people who live in the Palestinian Authority areas, areas which are 5200 kilometers square, were to have about 500,000 refugees from Lebanon and hundreds of thousands from Syria and Gulf States added to them, this population will lead to a demographic, social and economic trouble," says Shtern. "Neighbory relations and the declaration of the situation as a "reconciliation...

An editorial in HaTzofeh today summed up the fears of many Israelis regarding the Bush-Sharon understandings: "Prime Minister Sharon calls his visit in Washington one of his greatest accomplishments of his political career. He points to President Bush's commitments, which include, 'Israel will not return to the Green Line, and the Arab refugees will not return to Israel.' True, these words indicate that Washington clearly backs the Jewish State - but when we delve more deeply, we see that this is not the first time that American presidents have made statements like this - and for the most part, their...

Sunday is the day. Close to 3,000 volunteers will begin visiting the homes of the close to 200,000 Likud members, in a personal effort to explain to them the dangers of the evacuation/expulsion plan from Jewish Gaza and northern Samaria. The Likud members will vote on May 2nd on the plan, and Prime Minister Sharon - and many other Cabinet ministers - say they will abide by the rank-and-file's decision. The volunteers are being organized by various task forces and teams that have arisen to fight what Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal has called the "evil evacuation scheme." The prime forces...

www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_04/084.html GAZA, Palestine, April 12, 2004 (IPC)-- [Official PA website] Palestinian Preventive Security Chief in the Gaza Strip, Colonel Rashid Abu Shbak, said Monday that if the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip went smoothly, the international community would definitely help extract more similar moves in the West Bank. Abu Shbak's remarks came in a press conference held at the Palestinian Preventive Security's premises, amid possible Israeli unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Asked whether there were certain mechanisms for that withdrawal, Abu Shbak said that the underway international efforts involving the Israeli plan, such as that of the...

MOSCOW, April 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Israel's decision to withdraw fromthe Gaza Strip will prove effective if carried out in full conformity with the internationally accepted Road Map peace plan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan of "unilateral disengagement" from the area is no substitute for the Road Map, but "an important and positive first step on the road to a comprehensive settlement including creation of an independent Palestine existing in peace with Israel," Lavrov was quoted by theItar-Tass news agency as saying. The minister made the remark at a news conference with visitingPalestinian...

A top-level meeting of the international Quartet sponsoring the Middle East road map to peace is due to take place in Berlin on April 28, a senior European Union diplomat said on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana earlier told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with the bloc's foreign ministers in Ireland that the talks would "probably" be around that date. "We plan for a Quartet meeting in Berlin on that date at the level of principals," the diplomat said. Responding to questions on the backing offered by Washington this week for Israel's claim to parts of...

MK Tzvi Hendel (National Union) said that the only thing Bush clarified was that an evacuation from Gaza would be only the first step of a continuing process that would require more and more concessions from Israel in the future. He added that the Bush letter and speech represented a "beautiful cellophane wrapping on an empty package." MK Sha'ul Yahalom (NRP) noted that the Palestinian Authority's reaction to Sharon's "peace plan" was to threaten more terrorism. Islamic Jihad, in fact, one of the three leading Palestinian terror groups, reacted, "Bush and Sharon will have to share the responsibility for the...

It's being called a "historic declaration," but many Israelis don't quite see what's so historic about it. President Bush's letter to Prime Minister Sharon last night made the following points: * Commitment to a "viable, contiguous, sovereign" Palestinian state. * Israel's responsibilities: "The barrier being erected by Israel should be a security rather than political barrier, should be temporary rather than permanent, should not prejudice any final status issues including final borders, and should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities." * The Road Map is still the plan of choice,...

"A source in the American government said this evening that the Bush declaration obligates all administrations and is an official "executive agreement" in every respect." So triumphantly proclaimed Israel Television Channel One Mabat Evening News anchor Chaim Yavin on the 15 April broadcast. Under 11 FAM 720 "Negotiation and Signature" - State Department Circular No. 175, December 13, 1955 as amended (known as the "Circular 175 Procedure") the president can indeed make an "executive agreement" that is an "international agreement other than a treaty" that is pursuant to his constitutional authority as Chief Executive to represent the nation in foreign...

According to people who study such things, there are eight stages of genocide: Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination and Denial. After a decade of Arafatian rule, a critical mass of Palestinians hover somewhere between stages six and seven. This development, obvious to most Israelis, is rarely noticed by outside observers. For one thing, a country of Israel's military capacities hardly seems vulnerable to extermination. For another, Israel is viewed as being at least as much an aggressor - both historically and currently - as it is a current and potential victim. For a third, neither Palestinian intentions nor...

WASHINGTON - The American administration on Thursday tried to soften the pro-Israeli tone of President George W. Bush's statements, and dampen the impression that U.S. policy has tilted in favor of Israel. Senior administration officials said there is no real change in the U.S. position toward the settlements, and that Bush's statements reflect the stance of previous administrations. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday said that Bush's letter did not endorse any particular outcome and did not say that the Palestinian right of return does not exist. "He did not endorse any settlements yesterday, " Powell told a news...

What would happen after an Israeli retreat? Would Israel enjoy decades of quiet? Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sharon's point man in promoting the retreat, assures us that the terror will continue. Would Israel have carte blanche to defend itself? Of course not. President Bush isn't committing to back any and every Israeli operation - just those that America deems appropriate. And that's a value judgment that can weigh in many factors - including many having nothing to do with either Israel or the operation itself. Israel also commits itself to make efforts to reduce security measures affecting the Palestinian...

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has become increasingly concerned over the growing strength of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A report asserted that Israel cannot ignore the growing military strength of Cairo and Riyad. The two Arab countries were said to have been building their forces with advanced U.S. platforms and technology. "The last decade has seen a very sharp rise in military expenditures in Egypt, beyond the amounts that poor country gets from the United States annually," the report by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Contemporary Affairs, said. "Up to now, Egypt has received more than $30 billion in military aid from...

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has rejected an Israeli request for the right to invade the Gaza Strip following a unilateral withdrawal. U.S. officials said the Bush administration refused to approve Israel's right to invade the Gaza Strip should the area be used as a staging ground for Palestinian attacks against the Jewish state. They said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought a written commitment by President George Bush that the United States would understand such a military response in any Israeli effort to halt Palestinian attacks from the Gaza Strip. Sharon, who met Bush on Wednesday, sought the inclusion...

The disengagement plan of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Key principles I. Overview Israel is committed to the peace process, and aspires to reach a mutual agreement on the basis of two states for two peoples, the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people and a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, as part of the realization of President [George W.] Bush's vision. Israel believes that it must act to improve the current reality. Israel has come to the conclusion that at present, there is no Palestinian partner with whom it is possible to make progress on...

Thursday, April 15, 2004 Pres. Reagan: No Palestinian State, No return to '67 borders, Pres. Reagan: No Palestinian State, No return to '67 borders, Undivided Jerusalem www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1982/90182d.htm Address to the Nation on United States Policy for Peace in the Middle East September 1, 1982 My fellow Americans: Today has been a day that should make us proud. It marked the end of the successful evacuation of PLO from Beirut, Lebanon. This peaceful step could never have been taken without the good offices of the United States and especially the truly heroic work of a great American diplomat, Ambassador Philip...

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell led a diplomatic offensive Thursday to placate Arab leaders outraged by President Bush's support for Jewish settlements on the West Bank and opposition to Palestinian refugees returning to Israel. Powell insisted in interviews and telephone calls that Bush's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon produced positive results for the Palestinians and their statehood aspirations. For the first time in 37 years, Powell said, Israeli settlements are being removed and the property used to benefit the Palestinian people. "The president did not endorse any particular outcome," Powell said at a State Department news...

The Islamic Jihad claims to have manufactured a new missile with a maximum range of 4 KM in its Gaza workshops, reported Israel Radio Thursday night.

Government ministers Thursday evening received by fax copies of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan. Meanwhile, the prime minister departed from the United States and is now en route to Israel. Earlier Thursday, the National Union faction decided Thursday that it will resign from the government if the cabinet or Knesset approve the disengagement plan. Following the decision, the National Union issued a statement urging members of Sharon's Likud party to reject the disengagement plan in the May 2 referendum for all registered Likud members. "Likud members will utilize their nationalist sentiments and not lend a hand to the uprooting...

U.S. media emphasized two points regarding the Bush-Sharon understandings: One, that President Bush's diplomatic assurances provided a "victory" for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and two, that the Bush-Sharon negotiations were carried out behind the back of the Palestinians, thus infuriating them. The Washington Post summed up both these points in its opening sentence: "President Bush yesterday endorsed Israel's claim to parts of the West Bank seized in the 1967 Middle East war and asserted that Palestinian refugees cannot expect to return to their homes inside Israel, an explicit shift in U.S. policy immediately attacked by Palestinian political leaders." A CNN...

The Security Council, Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East, Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security, Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter, 1. Affirms that the fulfilment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which...

The following is IMRA's unofficial translation of the text of Treasury Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech at the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce - Tel Aviv 21 March 2004 where he presented his 3 conditions and President Bush's statement today: ( www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040414-2.html 0 ... Netanyahu: 1. The first condition is security arrangements and freedom of security action, and foremost the retention of land, sea and air passages under absolute Israeli control. We must not permit broken borders through which terrorists from around the world will reach the Strip and turn Gaza into a terror base against Israel and the world....