Posted on 08/18/2005 4:21:25 PM PDT by Alouette
As Israel struggled Thursday to evacuate the Gush Katif settlements, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it must take further steps.
"Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing," she said in an interview with The New York Times. But, she added, "It cannot be Gaza only."
Rice said this is "really quite a dramatic moment in the history of the Middle East," and praised Sharon for proving himself "enormously courageous."
According to the Times, Rice said that while the withdrawal would take several weeks, Israel must take further steps soon afterward, including loosening travel restrictions in the West Bank and withdrawing from more Palestinian cities.
She also said the Palestinian Authority must disarm Hamas. "That is their obligation under the road map," she said.
Rice's comments prompted Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, a disengagement opponent, to call on Sharon to hold an emergency cabinet discussion on the matter.
"Rice's comments prove there is no basis to the prime minister's statement that there will not be an additional disengagement," he said.
"To my dismay, the unilateral evacuation of settlements from Gaza and northern Samaria creates a dangerous precedent which endangers the legitimacy of Israeli settlement in Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and neighborhoods in east Jerusalem," Katz said.
But a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office warned against blowing Rice's words "out of proportion."
The official said that whereas some would automatically want to interpret her words as evidence that the US would now begin pressuring Israel to begin a second stage of disengagement, this was not what she said.
He said Rice was interested in seeing the implementation of the security plan put together by her envoy, Lt.-Gen. William Ward, which called for Israel to transfer control of the West Bank cities to the PA, but which Israel halted because of security considerations.
The official said Israel would transfer the cities to the PA when the security situation on the ground would make such a step possible. Furthermore, he repeated the government's well-known position that Israel would move ahead with the road map when the Palestinians fulfilled their obligations under the plan, first and foremost the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure.
Some officials in Jerusalem have warned in recent weeks that once disengagement was complete, the US would once again begin pressuring Israel to remove the unauthorized settlement outposts in the West Bank. The US backed off of this issue in recent months, so as not to create any additional domestic problems for Sharon as he was gearing up for disengagement.
While Rice said she expected Israel to take further steps immediately, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam that Gaza would serve as a "model," and if the PA dismantled the terrorist infrastructure and "peace and quiet reign in the region, we will be able to move forward and return to the road map."
But, he said in comments published Thursday, "If Gaza turns into a base for shooting missiles at Israel and increasing Palestinian attacks, it will be impossible to move on to another step and take a new risk."
During the interview with the paper, conducted in Shalom's office on Wednesday, he said Israel was now expecting Palestinian "actions," not excuses. He said Israel was focused on the day after disengagement, and waiting to see whether the PA would rise to the occasion and – when it gains control of Gaza – dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and govern responsibly.
Shalom said PA Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's first order of business after disengagement should be to arrest Hamas activists. "Abbas should do this not to protect Israel, but to safeguard his own power," he said.
Shalom's interview with the Kuwaiti paper was one of four interviews he gave key Arabic media outlets over the last two days to signal to the Arab world that the disengagement momentum should be seized upon, and that Israel was serious about peace.
He told the Kuwaiti paper that Gaza would not become a "prison," and that negotiations with the Palestinians regarding border crossings and safe passage were ongoing.
Asked about the long-disrupted peace talks with Syria, and whether Israel would be willing to give up the settlements in the Golan Heights as it did in Gaza, Shalom said: "Every party can come to the negotiation table with the topics they want, and we have to talk about everything."
AP contributed to this report.
Man thats so assbackwards.
Nope.
ML/NJ
Alouette, would you be so kind as to add me to your ping list? I just hope that I can do justice to all your hard work.
Bear in mind that she speaks for the President and that is a terrible disappointment to me.
I think she should have herself checked out for being possibly one of those 50% in the US that are mentally
disturbed.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
UN Orders Its Workers Out of Gaza Strip Fearing Danger to Come
Isralert.com source: http://www.lekarev.org
What does this tell you?
While the international media is focused on the Gaza withdrawal, United Nations Headquarters in New York quietly ordered all foreign staff, especially UN Refugees Works and Relief Agency personnel, to depart the Gaza Strip by last night, Wednesday, August 17. They fear that any workers remaining in Palestinian areas, especially those adjoining Gush Katif, face extreme danger after the Israeli evacuations. The International Red Cross pulled its staff out last week. Meanwhile, a French journalist of Algerian origin kidnapped by armed Palestinians Sunday, August 14, is still missing.
Most significantly, Washington reversed its 20-month ban on US diplomats’ visits to the Gaza Strip and urgently dispatched a top official, US assistance secretary of state David Welch, for a surprise visit to Gaza Tuesday night. The ban had been imposed after the Palestinian Authority refused to hand over the Palestinian Popular Committees Special unit which murdered three US security agents in a bombing attack on Oct 15, 2003.
Why this urgent mission? US intelligence has confirmed the UN estimate of the extreme security danger prevalent in the Gaza Strip. Intel says that Palestinian Authority chairman Mahamoud Abbas has fallen completely under the sway of the Hamas and the Jihad Islami, which are vying with each other for first grab of evacuated Israeli properties ahead of any claim by the Palestinian Authority. Both have especially drilled guerrilla units who are lurking close to Gush Katif ready to pounce on their prey, each other and above all, Israeli targets.
Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abas) had hoped to bring all the Palestinian groups together into a supreme Palestinian coordinating committee but he was outmaneuvered. Hamas sent its top man, Mahmoud al Zuhair to the panel, followed by the top-ranking operatives in the other terrorist organizations. Abu Mazen’s committee was thus perverted into an instrument for his disempowerment.
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Secondly, the Palestinian Authority's 24 battalions who were to provide a security belt between the evacuation operation and Palestinian areas lack weapons or any means of combat and, worst of all, their deployment was subject to Hamas sanction.
Finally, Washington received confirmation from US intelligence that Abu Mazen had secretly named the late Yasser Arafat’s partner, Jemal Sema Dana, the mastermind behind the assassination of the three US officials, the new Palestinian military intelligence chief. August 15, Abu Mazen sent two special couriers to assure him he had signed the new letter of appointment, upon which Sema Dana accepted the post.
This was just too much for the Bush Administration. Sema Dana is notorious for designing and managing the network of weapons smuggling tunnels from Sinai to the Gaza Strip, which he handed to Gen. Mussa Arafat in 2004. As chairman of the Gaza terrorist umbrella organization, the Popular Committees, he is the most effective terrorist mastermind in the territory. He has been tagged for the May 2, 2004 murder of the Hatuel family on the Kissufim road, deadly attacks on Israeli troops guarding the Philadelphi border strip in the same month and blowing up an IDF position on the Rafah border crossing in December 2004.
The appointment of a super-terrorist and gun-runner to Iraq, who organized the murder of Americans to a key job, to hold joint responsibility with Egypt for border security, through which he ran his smuggling tunnels, was too much for the Bush administration to stomach. On the other hand, they realize that if Abbas fails to make good on the appointment, Sema Dana will choose his moment to unleash the Popular Committees for a barrage of fire that will throw the entire Israeli pull-out into disarray. Welch is in Gaza to seek a way out of this "balagan" - a popular word here in Israel for "one colossal mess"!
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Perhaps Israel should agree on one condition: the moment there is a terrorist attack (because Abbas will not disarm Hammas or any of the other terror groups), Israel reserves the right to not only take immediate military action to any extent it deems necessary.
Don't hold your breath.
The US won't bother, we know they won't listen.
..........................................
Bwahahahaha.....like that's gonna happen
Tell Hamas and Islamic Jihad whatcha gonna do to the PA if they dont....
You gonna wave your finger at them and scold them real bad?
Disapointed I am disgusted with this.
Was told once by a very astute and wise woman whom I respect that they (political parties) "take turns". I contemplated what she said and quickly debunked it. Now I think she's wiser than I ever imagined....
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