Posted on 02/08/2002 5:40:41 AM PST by 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.
True, but Condie said Israel is making a big mistake in the way it's handling everything. Sort of like throwing gasoline on a raging fire. Not appreciated at all.
I know Powell feels this way. He said last week that this administration wants a Palestinian state called "Palestine" when he spoke before Congress. He was met with icy stares from some in office.
Powell: Arafat Has Lost Touch With Reality
'In comments made at the end of March, in the presence of United States President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell described Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat as a person who had lost touch with reality.
Powell’s statement will be published Monday in the German weekly Focus ,which will publish confidential memos written by Germany's ambassador to the United States, Jurgen Chrobog, at a March 29 meeting that included Bush, Powell and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
According to Schroeder, the sixth topic of his discussion with Bush and Powell was the Middle East. Bush first briefed Schroeder on his last talk with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, following which Powell briefed him on his last phone conversation with Arafat.
Powell then said that Arafat had lost touch with reality, and that he blamed everyone but himself. Powell then said about Arafat, “The guy is lost.”
It is unfortunate when these comments made behind closed doors leak out...
LOL.
N.Y. Times highlights U.S. PR push on front page Nov. 6, 2001
'Prince Abdullah, the head of the Saudi government, quoted President Bush as saying to him in a telephone call initiated by Bush Nov. 4 that certain U.S. newspaper reports sought to "break the ties between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. and to damage the kingdom's reputation." Said Abdullah: "The President phoned me. He began the conversation by saying that he was sorry. I said, `for what Mr. President?'
He replied, "For what is carried by the newspapers which are trying to drive a wedge between the Kingdom and America and damage its reputation."
Abdullah quoted Bush as saying: "We will not accept this and I will not accept it, and most American people will not accept it."
Abdullah said: "I told the President that newspapers had attributed their reports to some officials. He replied, `This I know. I am now looking for them and when I find them things will be straightened out.'"
White House Denies Apology
The White House Nov. 5 confirmed the call but refused to characterize the comments by Bush as an apology.
The Times on Sunday, Nov. 4, had a lengthy piece questioning whether Saudia Arabia is "heading for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution?"
The Arabs lost touch with reality 500 years ago. Now they train their armies and militias to attack only women and children. They have sunk to the bottom of human achievment.
Ben-Eliezer is not just Defense Minister, he is the newly elected head of the Labor Party.
He is a candidate for Prime Minister. He mightily resents Sharon coming to the US at the same time as him, overshadowing him.
He said what he said in a stupid attempt to show the folks back home that he too has a good relationship with the top people in the US administration. That they confide in him.
It was politics, it was stupid, And I hope it drives a further nail into Labor's attempt to resurrect themselves in Israeli politics.
She SAID isolating Arafat might make him more popular with his people. Sheesh you get everything wrong...
Bush: We'll Keep Up The Pressure on Arafat - Jerusalem Post
Bush said America supports a Palestinian state that comes about as the result of negotiations and that recognizes Israel’s right to exist. But the president added, “It’s hard to have a peace process as long as there is terror.”
Israel's policy of isolating Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat could boomerang and end up strengthening rather than weakening Arafat in Palestinian eyes, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice warned.
' Rice's warning came at a meeting with visiting Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer earlier this week. According to Ben-Eliezer, Rice however agreed that talking to Arafat "was a waste of time." The defense minister told Israeli reporters here that Vice President Dick Cheney is "even more extreme than me" with regard to Arafat. Ben-Eliezer yesterday briefed Sharon on his meetings with US officials.
US officials were reportedly upset with Ben-Eliezer for leaking comments made in closed-door meetings.'
No, it's just politics not chutzpa politics.
At least there was no headbutting, like in the Russian Parliament. LOL!!
It is unfortunate when these comments made behind closed doors leak out...
Ah, another "leak." Your Israeli buddies sure have creative -- and strategic -- leaking practices.
Any one who has read the Koran, and experienced its idiotic, disjointed, and irrational ripoff of the Bible, can understand its distorting effects on Moslems' minds.
Arafat is the face of evil. He has publicly promoted his hatred of Israel, sends in women and disturbed individuals to nail bomb innocent civilians, shelters world terrorists, etc.
Wack the son of a bitch.
The Islamic militants throughout the world and especially he Palestinians are the only military groups in history who focus on and train for attacks primarily on women and children. It is unprecedented in history.
Tell that to the 200 IDF Reservists who have refused to serve, and have claimed that their comrades target women and children in Palestinian territories. There are no saints in this terrible conflict.
I agree with what he said. Terrorism is only something you resort to when you are too weak and too unprincipaled to use anything else.
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