[xm177e2]

A group of senior reserve officers, led by Brig. Gen. (res.) Effi Eitam (Fein) are working on a "security-political plan" that includes reoccupying the territories to destroy the Palestinian Authority and changing the political system to prevent Arabs from being elected to the Knesset.

They added this last part to make the right-wingers look like racists, but I doubt any reasonable person would try to deny Arabs the right to serve in the Knesset, especially considering so many of them fight and die for Israel (the four IDF soldiers murdered by terrorists in Gaza were Arabs).

[xm177e2]

They can get away with adding untrue stuff because it's all speculation at this point, they just asked a few reliable liberal sources to say "off the record" that the right-wingers want to stop Arabs from being elected.

[GeronL]

It was added by a left-wing newspaper by the way.

[College Repub]

Relatives of Israeli victims of a recent suicide bombing at the funeral of their loved ones...

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

They added this last part to make the right-wingers look like racists, but I doubt any reasonable person would try to deny Arabs the right to serve in the Knesset

If you read the article carefully, all that is being proposed is that the Knesset change to a US Congress-like situation, in which each district elects one member, whoever gets more votes. This would be a change from the current proportional representation system, in which parties name a list of candidates, and get their proportion of the popular vote elected. Arabs would still elect a few members, like Republicans elect a few legislators in US big cities. Like the Republicans, this would be a far smaller number than their percentage of the total vote.

[FresnoDA]

The Mouse That Roared

01/30/02  Yasser Arafat has now openly threatened the United States. His response to US Secretary of State Colin Powell's warning to reign in terror or face an array of American sanctions was, "If the United States cuts ties with the Palestinian Authority it will cause an earthquake in the region that no one will be able to stop."

This threat reveals something far beyond merely the threat of the PA. It reveals a confidence in other Muslim nations coming to Arafat's aid, for he is not able to carry through on such an enormous threat alone.

This was in effect a warning of all out war against the United States as well as Israel. The threat is beginning to look like it is not an empty one. 

With Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran joining forces and issuing warnings to the US to reign in Israel and release Arafat from Ramallah, it would appear that an attack from Saddam and Iran may be imminent. 

Intelligence sources warn that the Palestinians are preparing to launch hidden Qasem missiles into the heart of Israel's population centers.

The next two weeks will be critical in the future of the Middle East conflict. We will soon see what Arafat may know that we don't.