EU warns Israel not to launch an assault on Yasser Arafat`s compound in Ramallah

Excite ^ | April 21, 2002 | Reuters

[Democrats are liars]

MADRID (Reuters) - The European Union has warned Israel not to assault Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters and called for a peaceful solution to a standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

In a statement issued by EU president Spain, the 15-nation bloc issued "a serious warning against any act of force carried out against the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, which could endanger the physical security of President Arafat and the (other) people there."

The statement, published on Spain's EU presidency Web site on Sunday, carried Saturday's date.

The EU also said it was ready to help find a legal solution "to the question of the people detained by the Palestinian Authority who are inside the Palestinian presidential complex" -- a reference to suspects that Israel wants handed over.

The EU requested that medical and humanitarian organizations be allowed immediate access to Palestinian towns and it stressed the importance of a United Nations mission to probe Israel's assault on the Jenin refugee camp.

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Friday for a fact-finding mission on the devastation in Jenin.

Israeli tanks rumbled out of two West Bank cities on Sunday after a crushing three-week occupation but kept up sieges of Arafat's headquarters and the Bethlehem church, one of Christianity's holiest sites, where gunmen are holed up.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israeli forces would stay outside Arafat's compound until three men accused of killing an Israeli cabinet minister last year were turned over.

Israel also wants the handover of Arafat's chief financial officer, Fuad Shubaki, whom it suspects of trying to smuggle arms from Iran into the Palestinian territories.

Arafat has offered to put Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi's suspected assassins on trial in a Palestinian court.

The EU asked "all parties involved to do everything necessary to find a peaceful outcome to the siege of the Church of the Nativity" in Bethlehem.

Israeli troops remain locked in a stalemate with wanted Palestinian militants trapped with more than 200 policemen, clerics and civilians inside the church, revered as the birthplace of Jesus.

Spain hosts a meeting in Valencia this week of foreign ministers from EU and Mediterranean states, which Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is expected to attend.

[Democrats are liars]

And where pray tell have the E.U. and U.N. been with their warnings, whining and fact-findings for the past year and a half as Pali bombers have massacred Israeli civilians?

Was wondering the same thing myself!

[dalebert]

What is the real reason the EU is pro terrorist.

[Democrats are liars]

I don't know. You tell me. Why is Powell and Bush Pandering to Arabfat?

[dalebert]

I don't think Bush and Powell are pandering to Arafat. I think that is liberal spin. Its looking more and more like Bush and Powell are the only ones who want peace between the Palistinians and Israelies. All the talking heads seem to have plenty of criticism but no ideas.Lots of spin. I never misunderestimate Bush.

[The Great Satan]

Ugh! LOL! Very telling!

[Democrats are liars]

After war, there will be peace ( for a while ).

[Light Speed]

Gomer-Gimmerai...Cimmerians,-..Togarmah was a city named .. Til-gari-manu..and was sacked by the Assyrians..the population transported to other places in the Assyrian kingdom.
Gomer and Togarmah pre-ceed the ancient Hittite kingdom... which was subjugated by the he Assyrians..then the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians.
Ezekiels prophecies occured during his capitivity and deportation to the Babylonian villiage of Tel-Abib..by the river *Chebar*,..597 b.c. plus 22 yrs.
Gomer/Togarmah would be current to todays nation of Turkey..however..In Ezekiels day they were under the dominion of the Babylonian kingdom.

[quebecois]

Well...if I were the Israelis, I would hang on until Le Pen takes over the rotating presidency of the EU...then they can do pretty much whatever they like to the compound (grin)

[Bobby777]

YASSER: "OH KOFI!!! Give me MORE tongue this time!!!"

[F16Fighter]

Upon perusing the list of French candidates and respective voter selection, I was struck by the sheer number of Communist/Socialist/Green/Radical representation.

A valid question might be: How long before we send the 6th Army again into France? Seems as though the gene pool is a bit dodgy over there as well as in the Middle East...

[sheik yerbouty]

I paeon the Euronation.

[Imal]

Not even so much as one mention of the numbing stream of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, which represent by far the most stunning atrocities of this war (people are dying; it's a war).

The EU is, through its numerous one-sided edicts, declaring itself an supporter of terrorism. The U.S. policy on terrorists and their allies is well-known. EU complicity in terrorism is not only disgusting, it aligns them as enemies of the United States. If they had any real power, we'd treat them as a serious threat. Fortunately, they are chronically impotent.

Their shameful diatribes reveal the moral decay in their hearts, and offer food for thought for those who truly desire peace in Israel.

Imal

[sheik yerbouty]

I paeon the Euronation.

[brat]

Tell the EU/UN to go pound salt!

[Rome2000]

These Europeans wrote the book on killing Jews, now they tell them not to defend themselves.

What a joke.

[anapikoros]

Arafat's term ended in '99 - but of course Pali democracy is along the lines of "one man, one vote, one time"

[DoughtyOne]

LOL

[Robert Drobot]

When the headline reads:

EU Warns Saudi Arabia Not To Finance Fanatical Homicide Bombers

or

EU Condemns The Use Of children As Homicide Bombers

then, and only then should Israel give a damn what the EU declares.