It should be called off.
"Yassir, This is Colin Powell, on my Terrorist Appeasement Tour,
and I'm here to save you.
My State Dept. has forms D-156 made up for each of your terrorist friends.
Come on in."
Posted on 04/12/2002 8:40:12 PM PDT by vance
All smiles for Sharon as US turns the heat on Arafat
Blame switched away from Israel
Julian Borger in Washington - The Guardian
US secretary of state Colin Powell's peace mission in the Middle East appeared to stumble at the first hurdle yesterday when US officials postponed today's planned meeting with Yasser Arafat at least until tomorrow after a suicide bomb attack which killed six people. In the aftermath of the bombing, which also injured about 60 people, Mr Powell, who had failed to coax the Israelis into withdrawing from the West Bank, switched the onus for ending the violence on to Mr Arafat.
Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said late last night that US officials had informed the Palestinians the meeting with Mr Arafat was being postponed. The White House had earlier demanded that the Palestinian leader denounce the suicide attack and had hinted that the meeting might be dependent on what he said.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant group with ties to Mr Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
The 17-year-old bomber, named as Nidal Daraghni from the besieged West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, blew herself up near the Mahane Yehuda open-air market where crowds were busy shopping before the start of the Jewish Sabbath at dusk.
According to witnesses she had been attempting to gain access to the bustling market but was deterred by security at its entrance. She instead detonated concealed explosives at a bus stop nearby.
Even before the latest attack, the US had dropped its insistence that Ariel Sharon bring an immediate end to military incursions into Palestinian areas.
After a four-hour meeting Mr Powell and the Israeli prime minister emerged smiling and shaking hands, but Mr Sharon gave no signs of any concessions.
He declared that Israel was "waging war against the infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism" and offered the vague prospect that it would be brought to a conclusion "very soon". Mr Powell, who like other US officials had issued stern demands at the start of the week for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, could only express his fading optimism yesterday.
"I hope we can find a way to come to agreement on this point of the duration of the operations and get back to a track that will lead to a political settlement, because that is uppermost in everyone's mind," Mr Powell said.
The White House insisted that the bombing would not deter President Bush's pursuit of a peace deal. But it was clear that the onus for bringing the violence to an end had been shifted back to Mr Arafat.
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said it was up to Mr Powell whether he met the Palestinian leader but said the president expected Mr Arafat to "step up and show leadership" and denounce the suicide attack.
Without linking the denunciation to today's meeting, Mr Fleischer said that yesterday "would be an ideal day" for Mr Arafat to take action. It marked a reversion to the administration's original position, and an apparent abandonment of the use of overt pressure on Mr Sharon.
Even before the latest suicide attack, an opinion poll published in the Maariv newspaper showed 75% of Israelis supported the offensive and that Mr Sharon's approval rating had rocketed to 59% from 35% since the operation began.
According to his schedule, the secretary of state was due to have picked his way through the rubble of Mr Arafat's compound in Ramallah today, and try to convince the Palestinian leader to issue an appeal for the suicide bombings to halt.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials accused Israeli troops of a massacre in Jenin, and urged Mr Powell to visit the northern West Bank town to witness the scene for himself. Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey, the Israeli army's chief spokesman, denied any massacre had taken place. He told Army Radio "there were apparently hundreds of dead" in the camp, but his office later said he had meant to say dead and wounded. Military officials said troops were trying to identify bodies before handing them over to relatives.
Estimates of the Palestinian dead since the operation began on March 29 range from 200 to 500, with more than 500 wounded. At least 28 Israeli soldiers and 32 civilians have been killed. The Israeli army said it had detained 4,185 Palestinians, of which 60 were known fugitives and 30 wanted for killings.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, expressed concern yesterday at reports from UN humanitarian agencies of "grave violations" by Israeli forces, and called for an international peacekeeping force to be sent into separate the two sides.
"The situation is so dangerous and the humanitarian and human rights situation so appalling, the proposition that a force should be sent in there ... can no longer be deferred," he told journalists in Geneva.
Mr Sharon's rationale for the operation, to eliminate Palestinian terrorist groups at their roots, was called into question by yesterday's bombing at the Mahane Yehuda market in the heart of Jerusalem. The Palestinian security chief in Gaza, Mohamed Dahlan, said he believed the attack had been carried out in retaliation for the killing of Palestinians in Jenin.
"This is terrorism, this is murder, this is the targeting of innocents, and the president condemned it," the White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said, adding: "There are clearly people in the region who want to disrupt secretary Powell's mission. The president will not be deterred from seeking peace despite this attack."
It should be called off.
"Yassir, This is Colin Powell, on my Terrorist Appeasement Tour,
and I'm here to save you.
My State Dept. has forms D-156 made up for each of your terrorist friends.
Come on in."
I like it.
It is starting to look like someone is being left to twirl slowly in the wind.
What are you talking about?
How is the Bush/Powell initiative responsible for today's homicide bombing?
Your disconnected correlation couldn't be more meaningless.
1. If annan said any of that he should be arrested, tried by an "international 'court'" and executed;
2. Who on G-d's Green Earth would send an "international 'peacekeeping' force" into a war zone and;
3. Where would kafirannan and his un shower of shit find a single soldier willing to step in FRont of the world's most powerful, most determined and most efficient army, that of the IDF?
The idea that giving the green light for the Israelis to waste Arafat would have brought peace to the middle east and prevented further suicide bombings is just not believable.
If Bush keeps this immoral quizling around any longer it will prove Bush is clueless. Rummy, Dick and Condi better get him under control before he trashes his presidency just like daddy.
Ya think? Gee, hope springs eternal.
Try this for measure: Bush
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