You're with the Terrorists!
GEORGE W. BUSH, Commander-in-Chief
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Posted on 12/04/2001 10:49:59 AM PST by American_Patriot_For_Democracy
India on Tuesday appealed to both Israel and Palestinian Authority to "show restraint" and resume dialogue even as Israel came under blistering criticism as Turkey and France joined Arab states in condemning new attacks on Palestinian targets that raised fears of an all-out West Asia war. But Britain joined the United States in expressing strong support for Israel and its demands that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat clamp down on militants after suicide bombings at the wekeend killed at least 25 Israelis.
Turkey, Israel's main regional ally and the only Muslim-majority country in NATO, sided with Arab and Muslim opinion in blasting hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for ordering harsh retaliatory strikes.
"Sharon is determined to implement very excessive, unjust measures against the Palestinian Authority," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said.
"If this turns into an actual war, it may lead to a situation that could be more dangerous than the one in Afghanistan, particularly for our region," he said.
The European Union also issued veiled criticism of the Israeli strikes against Palestinian Authority offices and facilities, saying that "destabilising the Palestinian Authority would not help stop the cycle of violence."
The Belgian presidency of the EU said in a statement that "on the contrary, the Palestinian Authority should be helped to assume all of its responsibilities under the agreements it has signed."
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov called on Arafat to take "tough measures" against extremists but added that Israel "must display political wisdom and restraint and not take action which would transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into an irreversible process."
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine accused the Israeli government of conducting a deliberate policy aimed at eliminating Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.
"Arafat has been weakened by the harassment of the Israeli army ... and as a result people are using his weakness as an argument to say that since he cannot reestablish order in his own camp, he should in some way be eliminated," Vedrine said.
"Sadly, it looks like a deliberate policy," he said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, just ahead of talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Bucharest, said Arafat had to make more of an effort to curb deadly attacks on Israel.
"Chairman Arafat can do more," Powell said. "I don't think we've seen 100 percent effort ... I think he needs to do a lot more than we've seen so far."
He said Israel was "recovering from a terrible blow" and that Sharon was "responding in a way that he believes appropriate to defend his people and defend his country."
But Powell also cautioned Israel that it was imperative on both sides to find their way back to the bargaining table eventually.
"In our conversations with Prime Minister Sharon we have also indicated that there will be a tomorrow and a day after tomorrow when we have to try to get back to a process that will lead to a ceasefire and negotiations," he said.
Such talks "ultimately are required to bring these two peoples into some agreement where they can live together in peace," he said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said London and Washington had both given Israel their "sympathy" as hopes for an elusive Middle East faded after the latest bloodshed.
A spokesman said Blair and US President George W. Bush expressed "concern at the unfolding situation, sympathy with the Israeli government, and the need for everyone to do anything they can to stabilise the situation."
He said Blair had acknowledged "the sheer scale of outrage in Israel" at the suicide attacks.
The Arab and Muslim world denounced the latest Israeli strikes, which killed at least two Palestinians and demolished key sites of Arafat's embattled Palestinian Authority.
In Iran, where Israel is regularly called a "cancerous tumour" that must be destroyed, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said: "These attacks demonstrate that, day to day, the situation deteriorates for the Palestinian people."
The Muslim World League, based in Islam's holiest city of Mecca in Saudi arabia, condemned the Israeli attacks as "state terrorism."
It expressed "total shock" over "the silence of countries and organisations across the world at the state terrorism being practised by Israel."
Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib said his country would "call on behalf of the Arab countries for international protection for the Palestinians."
Many European newspapers said the strikes were the beginning of the end for Arafat as leader of the Palestinian people.
"Arafat may not be toppled but he may be rendered functionally irrelevant," The Times of London said, while Tagesspiegel in Berlin said "rhetoric won't suffice to save Arafat's status as a negotiating partner."
And we should care?
I would bet on one Israeli with a rifle over 1000 French with tanks and planes any day.
The other comment from Turkey, and the one from Jordan are for public consumption. Both have fairly good relations with Israel, and Jordan has no love for Palestinians.
The EU depends too much on Arab oil to piss anybody off. They are trying to give Austria to Hitler again.
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For that matter, it will only be a matter of time before these EU countries have more Arab residents than European residents.
For that matter, it will only be a matter of time before these EU countries have more Arab residents than European residents.
France has an especially high concentration of what the French affectionately (not) call "les beurs", the fruit of all their colonial mission civilisatrice of the past 200 years. But despite a rather entrenched tradition of anti-Semitism in France, I'm pretty sure that it has Western Europe's largest Jewish community. Fat lot of difference it makes in terms of Mideast policy though---France's Jews don't go around bombing places when they get upset, but les beurs do.
Hey Frenchie, wake up. Arafat did this to himself. He's had 8 years with which to crack down on Islamic militants. More Israelis have been killed by terrorism in the 8 years of the "peace process" than in all the years before. Open your eyes.
It couldn't have anything to do with them so happily turning their Jews over to Nazi death camps, could it?
Garbage? I think so. Pull this clap trap propaganda.
And what is it about their opinion on anything that we should consider?
At least I thank God that US policy is finally, and firmly on the right side.
I'd say this is a rather simplistic way of looking at European history.
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