LOL! Sounds like a job for these guys ...
Posted on 07/02/2003 7:13:00 AM PDT by Brian S
The IDF handed over security control of Bethlehem to Palestinian Authority police at 4 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT) today after a telephone call by the IDF's Binyamin district commander to Palestinian Bethlehem security director Ahmed Ayad.
The handover occurred as IDF officials began speculating openly that the armed Palestinian resistance and terror war is effectively over.
Bethlehem residents clapped as a column of Palestinian police in dark blue uniforms marched from their barracks toward the center of town.
The handover comes after troops withdrew from part of the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday. Symbolically important Bethlehem becomes the second area handed over by Israel under the U.S.-backed peace plan.
Palestinians have promised no suicide bombers would use Bethlehem as a base to strike Israelis, and that gunmen would not fire on the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, which borders against Bethlehem suburbs and nearby villages. The government, for its part, has pledged to only act against so-called "ticking bombs," terrorists on their way to carry out attacks.
The handover of the ancient town came after an upbeat summit Tuesday between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
A senior IDF official who speculated the intifada may be ending said Israel can think of itself as victorious.
He said Abbas has been open and trustworthy in the peace process he is leading on the Palestinian side. In the army official's opinion, Abbas has understood terror is "bad business."
The officer said the IDF has already diminished its presence in the territories and canceled the activities of some of the reserve regiments, Israel Radio reported.
Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz said the defense establishment is monitoring Palestinian fulfillment of its responsibilities, but defense forces have prevented a number of attacks in the past few days.
In preparation for the handover, Army transport trucks carried equipment away from two bases near Bethlehem Tuesday and early Wednesday, as Palestinian police were poised to move in to the town as soon as the last soldiers left.
On Wednesday morning there was still a long line at the main checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, five kilometers (three miles) away, as Israeli forces searched vehicles.
Israeli forces have occupied Bethlehem several times during the conflict, once barricading the Church of the Nativity for a month against Palestinian terrorists who had commandeered the shrine marking the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
After a suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus last November carried out by a Palestinian from Bethlehem, soldiers went back in and stayed.
In a statement, the military said Israel would be in charge of security of Israelis, including Israelis living nearby. Palestinian security forces, meanwhile, "have committed to preventing and thwarting terrorist attacks in the areas under their responsibility."
A similar formula holds in Gaza, where Israeli troops pulled out late Sunday.
Despite this week's truce announcement by Palestinian terror groups, shots were fired Wednesday at workers building a security fence at the West Bank city of Tulkarem, the military said. A guard was lightly injured. On Tuesday a Palestinian man opened fire at a West Bank checkpoint and was killed by troops. There were no claims of responsibility.
I hope other Christians are cognizant of that fact.
Very much so. :o(
If they dare try anything, Sharon will make them regret it. He's just itching for an excuse to break in terrorists' heads, so long as he gets to look good in the media.
LOL! Sounds like a job for these guys ...
The Jizya or poll tax is a personal tax levied on non-Moslems in a Moslem State, and as such it resembles the Zakat (Alms Tax) which is levied on Moslem citizens by the Moslem State. The poll tax is levied so that all the capable non-Moslem citizens of the State can contribute, each from his own money, to the general welfare of the State, and that in return for this, they can enjoy their rights as nationals of this State [HA HA HA HA], including compensation from the Moslem Exchecquer when they are in need.
If recent history is an indication, it’s won’t be the terrorist’s heads breaking.
But Muslims will argue that they don't have to do anything they don't want to do and find a religious justification for it.
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.