Why would you bring that unpositive info they post over to FreeRepublic and taint this site? Are you trying to further promote their information? Are you a plant? How much other stuff do you "bring over"?
Hmmm...I will remember this as I read your future posts.
JERUSALEM, April 26 -- Ignoring another demand from President Bush for an end to military operations in Palestinian-controlled areas, Israeli troops swept through the West Bank town of Qalqilyah today and Israeli snipers shot and wounded two Palestinians in the besieged Church of the Nativity compound in Bethlehem.
Backed by armored vehicles, Israeli infantry moved into Qalqilyah late Thursday night and left this evening. During the incursion, they arrested 16 Palestinians, confiscated explosive devices and killed the local head of a militant Palestinian group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in a shootout, Israeli officials said.
Twenty-six other Palestinians were arrested in villages near Qalqilyah, 35 miles northwest of Jerusalem near the line between the West Bank and Israel.
As that operation was winding down, Israeli snipers in Bethlehem shot two Palestinians in the Church of Nativity complex after four other Palestinians had surrendered. Israeli military sources told the Reuters news agency that Israeli soldiers shot the men after they were spotted inside the compound preparing to fire. After taking the two into custody, Israel evacuated them for medical treatment.
The military sweep in Qalqilyah and the shooting in Bethlehem -- where Palestinian gunmen have been holed up with other Palestinians and clergy members for more than three weeks -- came as Bush urged Israel for the second day in a row to heed his long-standing request for an end to military operations in the West Bank.
"There has been some progress, but it's now time to quit it altogether. It's time to end this. Well, we'll see what happens. I know they've heard us," Bush told reporters at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said earlier this week that Israel had "completed" its offensive, which was launched on March 29 after a wave of suicide bombings. Israeli forces have withdrawn from the centers of most of the cities they targeted in the attacks. But they remain active throughout the West Bank.
Besides the siege in Bethlehem, which remains under military curfew, Israeli troops continued to surround the Ramallah compound of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Israel insists that Arafat hand over Palestinians in the compound wanted for various offenses against Israel, including four men accused of killing the Israeli tourism minister last year in revenge for the assassination of a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Arafat's Palestinian Authority convicted the men Thursday after a makeshift court proceeding, but Israel called the trial a sham.
Israeli forces, moreover, remained poised outside several other major West Bank cities -- including Jenin, where they fought a fierce 10-day street battle earlier this month -- and continued to mount raids such as today's operation in Qalqilyah.
As they have in the past, Israeli officials said they are doing their best to comply with Bush's request, but that Israel has no choice but to act on intelligence warnings of imminent terrorist threats. They said that was the case in Qalqilyah and that troops there discovered nine explosive belts of the type used in suicide bombings, as well as a car rigged as a bomb.
Three of the 16 Palestinians arrested in Qalqilyah were identified as suicide bombers planning an attack inside Israel, said Gideon Meir, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
"The last thing Israel would like to do is get into any confrontation with the American administration," Meir said. Bush, he added, "understands Israel's right to defend itself."
During the operation in Qalqilyah, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's Raad Musa Madi, whom Israeli officials blame for a Feb. 16 attack that killed three Israeli teenagers in the Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron.
An army spokesman, meanwhile, said Israeli may be losing patience with talks aimed at ending the Bethlehem standoff. "We do not want to prolong this. Therefore, we could resort to a military option," said the spokesman, Capt. Joel Leyden.
Sharon's willingness to continue military operations in the West Bank may hurt his standing abroad, but it only seems to help him in Israel. A large majority of Israelis consider the recent offensive a success -- two weeks have passed since the last suicide bombings -- and Sharon's popularity has soared.
According to a poll published today in the newspaper Maariv, 65 percent of Israelis describe themselves as "pleased" with Sharon's performance, compared with 39 percent before the operation. About 57 percent said they feel safer as a result of the operation, compared with just 13 percent who said they felt less safe.
Sharon also can take comfort in knowing that Washington does not speak with a single voice on the topic, Israeli officials suggested. Congress is solidly behind Israel and the Bush administration is internally divided. Bush himself has sent mixed messages, as when he declared recently that Sharon is "a man of peace" who had met his "timetable" for withdrawal.
"He sees it as negotiable," an Israeli cabinet official said of Sharon's attitude toward Bush's requests for a complete pullout.
Israel continued to resist pressure from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to cooperate with an inquiry into the battle at the Jenin refugee camp, in which 23 Israeli soldiers and at least 50 Palestinians were killed. In a statement this afternoon, Sharon's office said Israel seeks to delay arrival of the team leading the inquiry -- scheduled for Saturday -- until "problematic points have been clarified."
Israeli officials have challenged the composition of the team, saying it lacks military expertise. In addition, army radio reported that Israel is insisting on guarantees that the findings of the inquiry will not be used to prosecute soldiers.
"The participants in today's government discussion noted that the [Israeli Defense Force] had fought a difficult battle in Jenin with armed terrorists who purposely concealed themselves among the civilian population," the Israeli statement said.