Posted on 04/12/2002 6:43:49 AM PDT by RealistOne
AMMAN, April 10: Defying a US request, Egypt declined to condemn a suicide bombing that killed eight Israelis on Wednesday and instead said Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation was justified.
The United States, Egypt's main financial backer, asked Arab States last week to condemn suicide attacks against Israeli targets as a "terrorist activity" that fuels more violence in the Middle East. But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Israel's refusal to negotiate a just peace deal with the Palestinians and attacks on Palestinian cities was behind the suicide bombings by Palestinians seeking liberty.
Maher, on a visit to Jordan to coordinate positions during a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region, said Israel was reaping the results of its 35-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip.
"Occupation as savage as the occupation we see every day can only generate resistance," Maher told reporters after meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah. "If the Israelis think they can continue on this path let me tell them they cannot wipe out the Palestinian people," Maher said. "The occupation calls for resistance. The actions of the Israelis are the cause of the reaction that happens."
Both Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab countries in an official state of peace with Israel, have been under public pressure to sever diplomatic ties with the Jewish state and give help to Palestinian fighters.
Jordanian police have been clashing with thousands of Palestinians, who form the majority of the country's population and demand a tougher Jordanian stance against Israel. Egyptians have been also demonstrating in Cairo.
Maher said Israel must start talks with the Palestinians to grant them their rights to land and property according to international law and UN resolutions. "There is no other way to ensure security. This (Israeli) force against the Palestinian people will create reaction," the minister said.
Leadership meets: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met top officials in his besieged headquarters on Wednesday, his top adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said, adding that they would go on to meet US envoy Anthony Zinni.
He said that chief negotiator Saeb Erakat, the head of Gaza's preventative security service, Colonel Mohammed Dahlan, and information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo had entered the building with Israeli permission to meet Arafat and himself, who have been there since the siege began on March 29.
He said that the group, minus Arafat, planned to meet Zinni, tasked with brokering a ceasefire to end more than 18 months of bloodshed.
45 Israelis leave Egypt: About 45 dependents of Israeli diplomats in Egypt went home to Israel on Tuesday, as angry demonstrations against the Jewish state swelled in several Egyptian cities.
An Israeli embassy spokesman in Cairo confirmed some families had gone back to Israel for a limited period of time.
"A group of the families of the representatives here have left for a limited rest and recreation period," he said.
Anti-Israeli sentiment has been rising in Egypt and other Arab countries during Israel's military offensive in Palestinian cities. Frustration with the United States, Israel's main ally, has also been rife.
An Egyptian student was killed on Tuesday after anti-US protesters in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria clashed with police.
Amid growing protests against Israel and the United States, the Egyptian government last week announced it was severing all but diplomatic contacts with Israel, which analysts said had more symbolic than practical meaning and left many Egyptians dissatisfied.-Reuters
Israeli envoy's niece killed
UNITED NATIONS: The teenage niece of Israel's chief representative at the United Nations was among the dead from the suicide bombing of a bus in northern Israel, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Ambassador Yehuda Lancry would be away from UN business and heading back to Israel for the funeral of 18-year-old Noa Shlomo, his sister's daughter, the spokesman said.
Eight passengers as well as the bomber died in Wednesday's attack on the crowded bus traveling from the northern Israeli city of Haifa to occupied Al Quds.-Reuters
Some high ranking US official needs to come out and flat state it: "Once Israel gives up the land that the Palistinians want, the Arab world will use that land to launch an attack against a now indefensible Israeli state. The Arabs have ALWAYS broken any treaty ever signed."
I think I figured out something else too. The libs in the US don't want us to become energy independent, because then we'd have no reason to show "tolerance" toward these people who want to destroy our Western/American value system. Libs also hate the Western culture and want to see it destroyed.
Imagine, we have enough free flowing oil from our own sources to keep our economy going.
We don't need any Arab oil.
Arabs act against our interests or the interests of an ally with our same values.
We assist that ally to the point that they can take over the oil fields of these tyrants.
Result: Gasoline for only the price of shipping!!!
Any relation to Bill?
There you have it. Another "moderate" Arab State claims that suicide bombing is the Jews' fault. The vile, barbaric death cult of Palestine is sweeping the Arab world. Time to return to the original Bush Doctrine before it is too late.
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