Posted on 03/03/2002 3:24:51 PM PST by Jhoffa_
Sniper Kills 10 More Israelis
JERUSALEM- Taking aim from a hilltop, a sniper killed 10 soldiers and civilians at a checkpoint Sunday in the deadliest of a two-day string of Palestinian attacks that killed 21 Israelis.
Israel sent tanks and helicopters on retaliatory raids that hit several Palestinian Authority security targets, killing four Palestinian policemen, while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Cabinet weighed additional military action.
Following the weekend bloodletting, Sharon huddled with senior government ministers and security officials and his office issued a statement just before midnight saying that the inner security Cabinet had approved military plans for ongoing attacks on Palestinian targets.
"Ministers approved an operational program presented by the army to apply constant military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian terror organizations," the statement said. "Its object is to halt Palestinian terror." It gave no further details.
Recent days have seen some of the worst carnage in months, and bitter comments by both sides pointed to further confrontations.
"There is no alternative but to put an end to (Palestinian leader Yasser) Arafat's rule," Israeli Cabinet Minister Dan Naveh said in remarks that are expressed with increasing frequency in Israel.
Speaking during an official visit to Mexico, Israeli President Moshe Katsav also denounced Arafat and called on Palestinians to question his leadership.
"The Palestinian people should ask which achievement their president brought to them in the last 18 months," Katsav said in Mexico City. "He must, he should do something to stop the violence."
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for three of the four lethal attacks carried out in a 12-hour period from Saturday night to Sunday morning, including the checkpoint shooting.
Militants had vowed to strike after Israeli forces pushed into two Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank last Thursday in search of militants believed responsible for earlier violence. During the incursions, 23 Palestinians were killed in three days, including gunmen, policemen and civilians.
"The Palestinian leadership considers the recent Israeli escalation ... to be aimed at destroying peace and security in the whole region," the Palestinian Authority said in a statement.
The Sunday morning shooting occurred at the military roadblock near the Palestinian village of Silwad. The army described it as an ambush carried out by a single sniper.
The gunman had a clear view from a hill overlooking the checkpoint. After the first Israeli was struck by gunfire, soldiers began climbing the steep hill toward the gunman and more were hit, witnesses said.
An army helicopter soon reached the area, but the assailant had escaped, said Hezi Tsur, a paramedic at the scene.
The dead included seven soldiers and three civilians. Six people were injured, the army and rescue services said.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades circulated a leaflet saying the shooting was in response to Israeli army actions in the two refugee camps.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a group of soldiers early Sunday along a road that runs on the Israeli side of the fence between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel.
One soldier was killed and four soldiers were wounded, the army said. The military wing of the radical group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for that attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press.
The pair of Sunday morning attacks followed a suicide bombing by a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Saturday night in a crowded ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem. The bombing killed nine Israelis and wounded dozens.
The dead included two babies, one seven months and the other 18 months, and children ages 3, 7, 12 and 15.
"I searched the streets like a mad person, street by street - it was crowded with people and I just screamed and screamed," said Aviva Nachmani, who eventually found her three children unharmed.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also said it shot dead an Israeli police detective riding a motorcycle Saturday night along a desert trail in the West Bank, near Jerusalem.
Israel says Arafat bears responsibility for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and could halt their attacks if he was serious about ending the Palestinian violence.
Palestinian leaders denounced the suicide bombing and again said they oppose violence against civilians. But they say they cannot tell Palestinians to put down their weapons at a time when the Israeli military is regularly operating in Palestinian areas.
In retaliatory action Sunday, Israeli tanks shelled a Palestinian intelligence office south of Nablus, and the Palestinians said a policemen was killed.
Palestinians also reported a policeman killed when Israeli forces shelled a police installation outside Ramallah in the West Bank.
Two more policemen died when Israeli troops fired on a police post in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, the Palestinians said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli forces on Sunday pulled out of the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, where troops had searched for militants and weapons since Thursday.
In the Jenin refugee camp, about 20 miles away, the Israeli forces pulled out Saturday, but sent at least eight tanks back into the camp on Sunday afternoon, camp residents said.
he was.
Didn't you know he sent Carville (aka, mister snakehead) over to manage Barak's campaign?
THEN, Barak the puppet offers Yassir nearly everything he ever asked for in trade for peace. Yassir turned him down (huge mistake) and the whole thing fell apart.
Barak was hated for his pandering and now we have Sharon.
Then Clinton's cronies tried to get him nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, for his efforts in the region.
All part of the "legacy" man..
I STILL CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE LACK OF A BOMBING ATTACK ON THE PALESTINIAN "CELEBRATIONS" OF THE MURDERS. The Palestinians who most have it coming, are self-selecting themselves and gathering at a single spot in the open.
Congressman Billybob
New column up: "The Un-Music Man." You'll like this one a bunch.
But thats just it...we're not God. The Jews are Gods chosen people. If you beleive what the bible says He is not neutral on this dispute. Read the Book of Romans Chapters 9-11 to see what God has planned for Israel.
Get the players straight. Not all that is Muslim is Arab, and not all that is Arab is Muslim--especially in the case of the Palestinians, whose factions such as Fatah are Marxist.
Who cares? I'm not looking for anyone to acknowledge anything, much less "across the board."
It doesn't matter. For all the diplomatic posturing, behind the scenes everyone knows the rules, that nations have the right of self-defense.
The sooner you ignore those whose words aren't worth a fart in a whirlwind, the better you'll sleep at night.
It is more of a "Euro-thing" to look at this in terms of a bill to be paid. That's why they moan about our possible attack on Iraq. THEY see it as "mission drift" because they're all perfectly willing to live with the status quo.
Of course, their continent has been bathed in bloodshed so many times throughout the centuries of their cultural existence, it's no wonder they're happy with that. They worked hard to appease the Kaiser, Hitler, Stalin and Kruschev, and they have no more soul.
For us, peace isn't simply the absence of war, it's the absence of THREAT. Hence, we fought a COLD WAR against Communist imperialism, the decades over which "world opinion" wanted détente and appeasement. But to us the threat was real just as long as that regime haunted the earth.
Well, they don't anymore, and the world is safer because WE weren't willing to "go along to get along."
I don't think our national resolve has changed that much, despite the fact that the outrageous willingness to coexist with evil that once made George McGovern a very unique Democrat has now become that party's standard line.
Either way, this is more serious event than suicide bombing. This will make those at the receiving end more powerless than being hit by suicide bomber where at least bomber dies. Pali's low grade skill is improving steadily. At some point, Israel has to hit them back before West Bank is full of thousands of improved terrorists. But America has her own war schedule which she does not want to be upset by Israeli's pressing need. But stiffing Sharon indefinitely is untenable. Bush and Sharon have to talk and work out some plans which will satisfy both. No, I am not talking about peace talks. That one does not fly now.
We already beat the Sioux. You are fighting the wrong war.
But I reject your characterization of the sides in the Middle East war as being morally equivalent.
You know, if where the Palestinians are weren't so close to Israel, I'd be all for nuking them off of the face of the planet. Seriously.
I'm glad the Bush Administration opened the option for nukes. Forget what the effeminate Europeans' opinion is. If it comes a time where it would be in our best interest to use them, then like you said so correctly, "so be it."
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