Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Rice: U.S. Could Train, Equip Palestinian Troops
Reuters ^ | 02/02/05 | Arshad Mohammed

Posted on 02/02/2005 7:12:36 AM PST by Sunshine55

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday held out the possibility of U.S. support to train and equip Palestinian forces as she seeks to promote Middle East peace on a visit to the region next week.

Making her first trip abroad as secretary of state, Rice will meet Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem and the West Bank on Monday to try to capitalize on what Washington sees as a new chance for peace after Yasser Arafat's death.

The disputed shooting of a Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip on Monday illustrated the fragility of the relative calm since the Palestinian icon died and triggered mortar fire by Arab militants on a nearby Jewish settlement.

Rice said Arafat's successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had demonstrated the will to clamp down on violence by quickly deploying security forces in the Gaza Strip, where militant groups have adopted a tacit truce.

"It's not perfect, but they have made some progress" on getting control of the disparate Palestinian security forces and on cracking down on violence against Israelis, Rice told Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

"Obviously the Palestinians are going to need help in terms of training and equipping their new security forces and I am sure that there will be ways that we might be involved in that," she said.

Rice suggested Washington could also help the Palestinians develop democratic institutions and, eventually, support reconstruction if Israel carries through with its plan to close all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank.

"What I hope to do when I go there is to try and sustain -- help to sustain -- the momentum that they (the Israelis and Palestinians) have clearly developed over the last several weeks," she added.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: palestinians; rice; terrorism; war
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 181-187 next last
To: StoneColdGOP
Maybe you missed the memo, but around here anything that Bush wants is as a decree from God himself.


And maybe you missed the memo that you are ever so close to blasphemy.


81 posted on 02/02/2005 10:03:38 AM PST by rdb3 (The wife asked how I slept last night. I said, "How do I know? I was asleep!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Sunshine55

If the Palestinians can have a 'peace' with Israel for a period of 5 years, then we can start suggesting help. Otherwise, this is all a bunch of hot air...


82 posted on 02/02/2005 10:05:42 AM PST by dmanLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
Worse than what? Israelis living more safely and securely because there is a stable, democratic Palestine nearby?

I should think that any friend of Israel would welcome saving the lives of Israeli innocents by stabilizing its enemies.

83 posted on 02/02/2005 10:06:35 AM PST by ohioWfan (George W. Bush........AVENGER of the BONES!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
Kerry would be no better.

Of course. I was wondering how long it would be before someone dragged that one out again. Is there no other weapon left in the Bushbot arsenal than to say the other guy would be worse?

She is referring to NEW security forces, as in the security forces in the newly democratic Iraq.

OK, so why in hell would be be arming ANY Palestinians? Can you tell me that?

Oh.. wait, here's something I cleared up at the end of the article, wow this is something:

(ATTN BUSH LEGIONS: Go forth to proclaim the good word of Lord Bush! Deflect any criticism of this news as heresy against the Blessed President and unpatriotic! Twist logic and words... Obfuscate... Change issues... Remember, do all and say all in defense of the Exalted Ruler Bush and all that is his whim! Hail Bush...)

So those are your operating orders. Explains a lot...

84 posted on 02/02/2005 10:09:46 AM PST by StoneColdGOP (Better to have government by the masses than government by the asses.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: jpl
Personally, I'm willing to at least try to give Abbas a chance to prove he's really different from Arafat.

He is no different. If there is a lull in the fighting, it just means they are taking time to regroup. The war will go on as usual. I wish I could be more positive than that, but I can't.

85 posted on 02/02/2005 10:10:23 AM PST by Mark17
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: rdb3

It's true, blasphemy or not.


86 posted on 02/02/2005 10:10:48 AM PST by StoneColdGOP (Better to have government by the masses than government by the asses.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
I should think that any friend of Israel would welcome saving the lives of Israeli innocents by stabilizing its enemies.

There is a world of difference between stabilizing its enemies and enabling their enemies.

87 posted on 02/02/2005 10:12:31 AM PST by Nachum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
The majority of Palestinians want peace, but their idea of peace is control of Jerusalem and/or Jews out completely.

It's naivete to believe they want to live peacefully with Jews.

88 posted on 02/02/2005 10:13:31 AM PST by Bella_Bru (You're about as funny as a case sensitive search engine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan; Sunshine55; MadIvan; sandalwood; section9; F16Fighter
I'm OK with it if these are the weapons we're giving them.............hehehe

Caption this Pic!

Palestinian security forces participate in a training session in the West Bank city of Tulkarm February 1, 2005. Israel will slow a planned pullback from West Bank cities because of Gaza violence that has frayed a de facto truce and raised doubts Palestinians can keep militants in check, officials said on Tuesday.  (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters)

Tue Feb 1, 9:11 AM ET
Reuters

Palestinian security forces participate in a training session in the West Bank city of Tulkarm February 1, 2005. Israel will slow a planned pullback from West Bank cities because of Gaza violence that has frayed a de facto truce and raised doubts Palestinians can keep militants in check, officials said on Tuesday. (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters)

89 posted on 02/02/2005 10:16:22 AM PST by OXENinFLA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan

I hope you're right, as obscene I think it is to even voice such a foolish notion.


90 posted on 02/02/2005 10:18:44 AM PST by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: Sunshine55
Rice: U.S. Could Train, Equip Palestinian Troops

Not much to worry about here. I think the idea is that the PAL troops will be used to contain the Palestinian population. I'm sure they will not be trained to anywhere near the level of Israeli troops.

Everything should be OK, until Israel decides it needs some more land.

91 posted on 02/02/2005 10:20:21 AM PST by wotan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: StoneColdGOP; Nachum
Number one........I didn't bring it out. Nachum did. If you are offended that I responded to the absurdity of it, my apologies to your sensibilities.

As to the statement.....which I have repeatedly asked you to read without bias......there is no statement of time involved. Unless you believe that all Palestinians are evil for all time, you cannot say there is no circumstance under which they can be safely armed (as the Iraqis presently are), ever in the future.

And with your final paragraph, you ARE blaspheming, and revealing your own personal weakness.

There is no point in trying to rationally discuss a subject with one as irrational as you clearly are, so consider this conversation over.

92 posted on 02/02/2005 10:21:59 AM PST by ohioWfan (George W. Bush........AVENGER of the BONES!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: Sunshine55

Is this accurate? Surely, she could not have countenanced such a radical policy!


93 posted on 02/02/2005 10:23:14 AM PST by Prost1 (I get my news at Free Republic!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nachum
As I have said, there is NO reference to time in this statement. The future is a long time.

I am not saying that the Palestinians will ever be friends with the Israelis, but I do not believe they are without redemption, as some do here.

94 posted on 02/02/2005 10:24:54 AM PST by ohioWfan (George W. Bush........AVENGER of the BONES!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: StoneColdGOP
You better stop before you call us all dittoheads!

I forgot we are forbidden from expressing any opinion that seems too similar to Bush's. We need to appear "fair and balanced" so we don't seem to be right-wing zealots.

Grow up - just because you disagree and Bush agrees doesn't mean I'm a Bushbot any more than you disagreeing with the administration make you a Deaniac.

95 posted on 02/02/2005 10:26:25 AM PST by sandalwood ("Hail to alcohol - the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: Bella_Bru
It's naivete to believe they want to live peacefully with Jews.

May I turn that around to say that it is also naivete to believe that the Palestinian people, living under an evil dictator, have actually all voiced what they really want, and that we know what that is?

Continuing the parallel with Iraq..........did we know what the Iraqi people 'wanted' before Saddam was gone? Sunday we found out, and it was not at all what most people thought.

96 posted on 02/02/2005 10:28:10 AM PST by ohioWfan (George W. Bush........AVENGER of the BONES!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: OXENinFLA
Lol, even that's too much weaponry for them...

I'd arm them with nerf-bats.

97 posted on 02/02/2005 10:33:47 AM PST by F16Fighter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan

Right. Let's get all the Jews out of the West Bank and Gaza and arm the Palis in case any of those uppity Jews try to get back in. Great plan.


98 posted on 02/02/2005 10:35:23 AM PST by Bella_Bru (You're about as funny as a case sensitive search engine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: Sunshine55
If we would train them right so both sides would annihilate each other then it might make sense from a fiscal issue but what the hell is she thinking? We will spend money to arm both sides of a war that has been ongoing for generations? Nuts.
99 posted on 02/02/2005 10:36:40 AM PST by Final Authority
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ohioWfan
I am not saying that the Palestinians will ever be friends with the Israelis, but I do not believe they are without redemption, as some do here.

It is not that they are without redemption, it is that a significant portion of their numbers want all of the land that is Israel. They have said it openly and to ignore it is suicide.

There may be peace one day, but not without much more turmoil and death. And, probably not in my lifetime. No US administration has been able to broker a deal. Not Nixon's, Reagan's, Clinton's or will Bush. Rice's announcements exacerbate things, not help.

100 posted on 02/02/2005 10:37:29 AM PST by Nachum
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 181-187 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson