Cheney said Israel can 'hang' Arafat: Israeli minister

AFP ^ | 2/8/02

[truthandlife]

Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said US Vice President Dick Cheney told him that Israel could "hang" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as far as he was concerned, Yediot Aharonot reported on Friday.

"The vice president told me: 'As far as I am concerned, you can even hang him,'" Ben Eliezer told the mass circulation paper, adding that he heard similar comments from advisers of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"On this subject (of Arafat), Cheney is more extreme than Revaham Zeevi," he said, referring to Israel's far-right tourism minister who was assassinated by Palestinian radicals in October.

Ben Eliezer said yesterday after talks in Washington with Cheney, Rumsfeld and US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that he had called upon Washington to boycott Arafat and to open a dialogue with other Palestinian leaders.

Rice and Cheney told him that talking to Arafat is "a waste of time" and the vice president was the most extreme on this point, he told a press conference in the US capital.

[Mixer]

I sincerely doubt that Cheney said such a thing.

More then likely he didn't, but how cool would it be if he did ; )

[veryconernedamerican]

Or maybe it was the let the tyrants know that their bargaining position is gone. I have a feeling Cheney is on his way over there to serve notice, either stop the fight against us and Israel or be destroyed. The middle east is about to go to war again, and when the dust settles, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia will have different governments.

[dagoofyfoot]

Uh...Yea...You know...(sarcasm)

[Dog Gone]

I have no doubt that Cheney has no use for Arafat. But the Israeli press has a track record of attributing quotes to American officials which they subsequently deny having made.

Cheney would not support an actual hanging of Arafat by the Israelis, so I don't think he'd make such a remark to an Israeli official, especially one with a history of being a loose cannon.

Let's be honest here. There are a sizeable number of Israelis who would love to see the USA intervene militarily on behalf of Israel in crushing the various terrorist groups that threaten it. Inciting the Palestinians against America could hasten that action, and reports like this are helpful to that effort.

[veronica]

I respect and admire Cheney, and appreciate his long record of service to America, and his support for Israel.

[painter]

"The USA dances to the Israeli tune"

Israel is the ONLY friend we have in the Middle East,THE ONLY FRIEND!

How many times have we told the Israelies to "Dance" when we asked them to restrain them selves while terroists blow up their citizens.

[veronica]

I don't agree. These things are said and they sometimes leak out. The Powell comment leaked out of a meeting with the Germans.

To say nothing of the fact that some Arab officials (Saudis especially) leak everything that they talk to the administration about, some of it not true, and Ari has had to wiggle out a few sticky wickets as a result.

[Dog Gone]

Israel is the ONLY friend we have in the Middle East,THE ONLY FRIEND!

Jordan.

[js1138]

Several FReepers noted Arabfat's terrified expression on 911, no doubt due to his realization that the game is up.

He may have been among the first to see the future.

[veryconernedamerican]

turkey

[GATOR NAVY]

You can't be serious! I would trust Dan Rather before I would put my trust in Agence France Press. It has an agenda slightly to the left of Mother Jones.

Mother Jones? Agence France Press is to the the left of the old Pravda! H3!!, they are Pravda now that the USSR is gone. Let's tell the Euroweenies exactly where to stick it-F@%k them.

[stanz]

The USA dances to the Israeli tune

You got that right.

[Sabramerican]

Why?

[stanz]

Don't get pissed off, pissed off janitor. Right away, because I said exactly 4 words, I'm an Israel basher? Get your story straight. I merely meant that the U.S. has bent over backward for years and years to support and defend Israel's policies. That is nothing but the truth. And desist with the name-calling.

[Sabramerican]

Do you think Cheney would make such sloppy

Is one of us astonished he didn't just respond-

bigtime?

[weikel]

ROTFLMAO.

[jerrymdss]

Wrong, my friend. America is dealing with two-faced Arafat the terrorist and the barbarian terrorists supported by the Palestinians, namely Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and others.

You cannot win a war using terrorism -- you can only discredit your cause.

Terrorism is the main obstacle preventing peace and it must go before the peace process can move forward.