Posted on 04/09/2002 1:56:05 PM PDT by RCW2001
| Bush pullout demands make him target of Israeli ire | |
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By Matt Spetalnick
ELON MOREH, West Bank, April 9 (Reuters) - Members of an
Israeli tank brigade waging an offensive in the West Bank found
a unique way to show how they felt about the U.S. president --
they adopted a stray dog and named it "George W. Bush".
"He's a cowboy," one soldier said as the brown pit-bull
terrier prowled an Israeli hilltop encampment overlooking the
city of Nablus.
"He barks a lot," said a second.
"But he's useless," another chimed in.
Bush's ever more strident demands for an end to Israel's
12-day-old military campaign in Palestinian areas has struck a
sour note among army commanders and their troops -- a reflection
of growing resentment among the Israeli public as a whole.
"If the U.S. had this problem of terrorism, they wouldn't
ask for permission. They would finish the job like they did in
Afghanistan," said Commander Oran Ben Goya, head of Israeli
forces in the eastern part of Nablus, the scene of some of the
heaviest fighting of the past few days.
Opinion polls show an overwhelming majority of Israelis
support the operation, which the army has depicted as an effort
to crush a "terror infrastructure" behind a recent spate of
suicide attacks in a Palestinian uprising against occupation.
Many Israelis believe Bush has turned against the Israeli
campaign because he wants to mollify Arab states to shore up his
global anti-terror alliance ahead of possible military action
against Iraq.
Since the Jewish state can ill afford to alienate its chief
ally and provider of $3 billion in annual aid, most commentators
believe a pull-out will be well under way by the time U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives at the end of the week.
RUNNING OUT OF TIME
Israeli commanders expressed deep frustration that they were
running out of time to complete their mission.
"I don't think we will be able to do all we wanted to do,"
Ben Goya said. "That means we may have to come back again."
Israeli forces have fought fierce battles, house by house
and alley by alley, in Nablus's ancient casbah market area and
in a refugee camp in the nearby city of Jenin. Both have been
subjected to heavy bombardment by tanks and helicopter gunships.
Army officers say soldiers stationed at Elon Moreh, a Jewish
settlement overlooking Nablus, peer down with high-powered
telescopes on neighbouring refugee camps and see Palestinian
gunmen roaming freely.
But officers say they have yet to strike key militant
strongholds in the camps and are increasingly doubtful they will
be allowed to undertake such operations before they are ordered
to end their offensive.
The army's mood was further darkened on Tuesday by the
killing of 13 Israeli soldiers in an ambush in a refugee camp in
Jenin, the worst single blow to the Middle East's best-equiped
armed forces in 18 months of conflict.
Ben Goya said that while the Israelis hold the advantage of
advanced weaponry, Palestinian fighters are more familiar with
the terrain and have employed an array of deadly booby-traps and
trip wires that have forced soldiers to tread carefully.
CAUGHT OFF GUARD
The Israeli offensive was launched after 27 people were
killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up in an
Israeli seaside hotel during a Passover holiday celebration.
International protests against the military operations that
ensued have shocked Israelis, who see the campaign as a
legitimate drive to root out terror.
The army says it has killed at least 200 Palestinians, many
of them wanted militants, though Palestinian officials say
civilians have borne the brunt of the onslaught.
Israelis, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, seem to
have been caught off guard by the Texas-raised president's
uncompromising demands for a withdrawal from all
Palestinian-ruled cities and towns.
"The Texans, as any American knows, are a breed of their
own," political commentator Hemi Shalev wrote in the Israeli
daily Maariv. "Sharon apparently did not take into account
President George Bush's short Texan fuse when he decided to
ignore him for many days."
((Jerusalem newsroom, +972 2 537 0502,
jerusalem.newsroom@reuters.com))
09 APR 2002 20:20:07 Bush pullout demands make him target of Israeli ire
Bottomline. Period.
As for the malcontents in Israel AND the instigating brats in Egypt for whom even $3,000,000,000 apiece yearly can't help keep the peace, why continue as it were? It's not as though these are the 51st and 52nd States of the Union -- OR ARE THEY?
I DO wonder how someone who's agenda is so Nazi-esque is able to make the Aryan myth fit into his agenda...unless he's decided that Arabs are the TRUE master race...I think I hear the theme from The Twilight Zone...
I agree totally. I also agree that Bush knows this is WWIII.
Oh, they realize it--they just don't care.
Secretary Powell in the Court of Arafat: Resurrection or Last Rites for a World-Class Terrorist?
The wobbly Bush Doctrine on Terrorism appears to be imploding into foreign policy incoherence.
Today we hear that Secretary Powell will answer Arafat's summons to appear before that mass murdering soul brother and co-religionist of Osama bin Laden.
This can go only two ways: Secretary Powell either (1) delivers terrorist Arafat his last rites or (2) guarantees his resurrection. There is no middle term.
It is not too late to salvage the Bush Doctrine of non-appeasement, which right now is looking very Chamberlinesque.
We must stand by Israel as it purges the terrorists in its midst. Otherwise, forget United States homeland security.
Absolutely.
Which Middle Eastern regime is "Western"?
Certainly NOT Israel, see: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. Shahak, I., & Mezvinsky, N. (1999). London: Pluto Press. which describes the hatred of Western culture by these fundamentalists.
President Bush is trying to keep a coalition together and nothing else. WWIII is not what he's looking for, and by demanding that Israel pull back and making the statement "Without Delay" is just politics. If president Bush says "Today we are cutting ties with Israel"... then it's serious. Until then he's just buying the Israeli's time without losing the coalition we currently have.
All the Bush bashers here on FR have been calling for Bush to spend some of his political capital, and now that he is spending that political capital so that Israel can go after the Palestinian terrorist, nobody can see what's going on here. After this deal is over in the west bank, does anyone think our relationship with Israel will be damaged in any way? GET A GRIP FREEPERS, WE WILL ALWAYS SUPPORT ISRAEL
Of course there will be a truce at some point. Do you think that Israel will forever be in a war posture?
If you say so
Rush's comments on today’s show about Bush’s waffle on his/our stance on terrorism could be used by Jumpin Jeffords to explain why he left the Republican party..” he meant it when he said it but circumstances change”.
I am proud to be a conservative republican but I cannot disagree with Pres Bush more on this issue.
Huge mistake, now this opens the flood gates for future attacks against the US and each and every attack against the US will be couched within the Palestine/Israel issue.
His is as resolute on the fight against terrorism as Clinton is on marriage fidelity.
There’s always an excuse. “Read my lips you are either with us or against us, any hosts to terrorists will be treated like the terrorist…”
Pls republican party handlers get mad at what I am saying and change your tune or another commander in chief war hero with high high approval ratings will loose an election!
Fingers crossed that we will not have our military guys in there who will be suicide bomber bait.
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