Israel ignores Bush withdrawal call

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says the military siege in Palestinian towns will continue despite US President George W Bush's call for an Israeli pullout.

The words appeared to fly in the face of Mr Bush's call for an end to Israel's operation in the West Bank, which has left Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat surrounded by Israeli troops at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Negotiating before terror is subdued will only lead to its continuation," Prime Minister Sharon said on private Israeli television.

Earlier, President Bush sternly urged Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace efforts, ordering Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region next week to work on an elusive ceasefire.

"Progress is impossible when nations emphasise their grievances and ignore their opportunities. The storms of violence cannot go on. Enough is enough," Mr Bush said, unveiling his stark shift in Middle East policy.

President Bush has charged Mr Arafat with failing to live up to vows to crack down on anti-Israeli terrorism, but in a surprise move paired support for Israel's self-defence with his strongest appeal yet for restraint.

"To lay the foundations of future peace, I ask Israel to halt incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas and begin the withdrawal from those cities it has recently occupied," he said, also calling for an end to Jewish settlements in those areas.

Mr Bush says Mr Arafat's predicament "is largely of his own making. He's missed his opportunities and thereby betrayed the hopes of the people he's supposed to lead."

Palestinian officials also welcomed the speech but rejected the personal criticism of Mr Arafat.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says he is encouraged Washington is stepping up its engagement in the region.

Mr Annan has welcomed the announcement that Mr Powell is to visit the Middle East as a breakthrough.

Mr Annan has also stressed the need to consider political and humanitarian issues, as well as ones involving security.

"I think what I have stressed all along is that we cannot focus on security alone," he said.

"We need to understand that peace and security are two sides of the same coin and we need to broaden our efforts to bring in the political aspects, as well as to do something about the horrible humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people."

US envoy Anthony Zinni is to meet besieged Mr Arafat later today after Israel gave the green light for his visit to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

"Arafat will meet General Zinni in Ramallah in his besieged office at noon (7:00pm AEST)," the official told AFP.

An Israeli official says Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to allow General Zinni to enter the West Bank after a meeting with the American envoy.

It will be the first time the US envoy will meet Mr Arafat since the Israeli action began last Friday.

A high-level European Union delegation left Israel empty-handed overnight after Israel refused to allow them to meet Mr Arafat.

A number of Israeli tanks are on the move near the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron, although they have not entered Palestinian territory.

Security officials say six tanks and armoured vehicles have deployed to the the south of the city and eight to the north, while helicopters are firing illumination flares over the city.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli border guard officer was killed in a Hebron raid on the home of a suspected Palestinian militant whom they were trying to capture or kill.

Around 400 Jewish settlers live under heavy army protection in the midst of some 120,000 Palestinians in the city, where Israeli armour has made minor incursions into Palestinian land in recent days.

The town is wary of a possible Israeli invasion, as it is the largest West Bank town not yet to be targeted by Israel's massive operation to move into autonomous Palestinian areas and hunt down suspected militants.

In Bethlehem, three explosions and heavy machinegun fire have been heard near the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.

Israel denies trying to storm the church to pry out at least 200 Palestinians, some of them armed, who have been holed up inside for two days.

The Israeli Army has accused the militants of holding Christians "hostage" in the church.

"Forty-eight hours ago, terrorists with weapons, guns and other things I think got inside the Church of the Nativity and took hostage, and I say took hostage, the Christians," said army spokesman Colonel Marcel Aviv.

He says those stranded inside the church, numbering between 200 and 400 people, agreed to leave at mid-day yesterday but that permission to evacuate was denied by the Palestinian Authority.

If there is to be peace in the middle east, I can tell you without a doubt that Israel is strong enough to make the peace, keep the peace, and make dang sure that peace breaks out in that region, after the last wacko muslim extremist is buried. I applaud Israel fo their conscience of their convictions.

The laughable thing is that the press would have us believe this all unfolding spontaneously on a minute-by-minute basis, in response to such (utterly predictable) developments as euro-weenies squealing like stuck pigs. Like Bush and Sharon can't think ahead any further than a 24-hour news cycle. How absurd!

You know dennis,

I just am not as sanguine as you and other posters are about all this. On face value, it seems that Bush is only acting like his father. Maybe the opposite of what the thinking here is the case. Maybe someone got ahold of him and advised him to stop his hardline for Israel because of the Arab oil. Who knows?

Sometimes I think that Gore would have been better, only because he is a fool.

"appease Sharon"

That should be the Israeli strategy.

All these Euroweenies and Internationalists trying to appease the Arab dictators and terrorists ... Israel now has the upper hand.

It's a great strategy. If they want someone to appease, now they know who they have to appease.

I am not happy but in this real world of ours the public face GWBush puts on can never tilt too much towards Israel. You and I can both guess what goes on behind the scenes.

Israel has won wars handily in the past, but did it stop terrorism? Nope. One thing Ariel Sharon can be counted on is hard-headedness, which is supposed to result in some illusory Israeli "victory," but it seems to me that Sharon is creating a whole new set of problems for Israel and endangering Israel's future like never before. Sharon's hardheadedness is probably the best "recruiting tool" for new suicide bombers and other terrorists in the past 50 years. Sharon desperately needs to broaden his horizons with respect to military strategy to include some "soft" strategies to go along with his hard strategy, which is backfiring, actually endangering Israel, harming Israel's reputation, and resulting in a 333% rise in Israelis' death rate.

"You'd be surprised to learn, that President Bush is working with PM Sharon, behind the scenes. What you see in public, is not what's happening behind closed doors. Believe it!"

What I can't believe is how some people think otherwise !

But what of next week and the future in general? Are you saying terrorism has really ended? Can Israel ever really have any prospect of normality or peace while, at the same time, it's in a continual state of war? Before Sharon took office, Israel's economy was doing brilliantly and the lives of Israelis were normal and peaceful. Now, Sharon has ruined everything. Sharon has only inspired a new generation of Palestinians to become terrorists. The Palestinians never gave up after every previous war, so what makes you think they've suddenly given up now?

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