Posted on 04/28/2002 3:41:17 PM PDT by Democrats are liars
Under intense pressure from U.S. President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Sunday dropped his demand that the killers of assassinated tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi stand trial in an Israeli court - a move that effectively means Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat will be freed from captivity in his Ramallah compound. But the prime minister held out on another front, blocking the arrival of the UN fact-finding team to Jenin, for now.
Possibly realizing that another "no" to the Americans might be one too many, the prime minister pushed through a decision in the cabinet to accept Bush's proposal for American and British guards to be dispatched to the region to ensure that Ze'evi's killers - they received sentences of one to 18 years in a makeshift court in Arafat's compound last week - remain behind bars in their Palestinian prison.
"There was very, very heavy pressure - personal pressure applied by Bush," says Ha'aretz diplomatic commentator Akiva Eldar.
With the Palestinians accepting the proposal, the cabinet decision signals the beginning of the end of the siege on Arafat's office, which went into effect on March 29 as the IDF launched Operation Defensive Shield.
According to initial reports, the deal means a complete lifting of the travel ban on Arafat, enabling him not only to move freely around Palestinian-controlled areas, but also to travel abroad.
Also included in the deal are the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Sa'adat, and PA finance chief, Fuad Shubeiki, believed by Israel to have orchestrated the Karine A weapons-smuggling affair. Both men are currently holed up with Arafat and the four alleged assassins in the Palestinian leader's compound.
Only two weeks ago, when Secretary of State Colin Powell visited the region, Sharon had presented his demand for the extradition of Ze'evi's killers to Israel as a political casus belli. Questioned by Powell on the matter, Sharon boasted that he was not afraid to go to new national elections over the Ze'evi issue.
Already last week, though, Sharon appeared to be softening his position, when he said he was prepared to allow Arafat to leave his compound and travel to Gaza, as long as he left behind Shubeiki and Ze'evi's killers.
Channel Two television reported Sunday that Sharon feared his decision would be viewed by the public as a "zigzag" on something he had made a principle issue. Bush's invitation to Sharon to visit him in Washington next week - delivered Sunday by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice - could well be seen as an attempt to sweeten the Ze'evi pill he was forced to swallow.
The American pressure, says Eldar, is also connected to Bush's meeting last Friday with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Lifting the siege on Arafat, he says, "was one of the things that Bush promised to the Saudis."
Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor), who strongly supported the American compromise at the weekly cabinet meeting, said Sunday that Israel had to realize the "battle is now moving to the diplomatic arena, and in this arena our greatest asset is U.S. support."
While Sharon balked on the Ze'evi issue, he stood firm on another front - his refusal, for now, to cooperate with the UN fact-finding mission to Jenin. The cabinet decided to delay a decision on whether to cooperate with the probe, forcing the delegation to cancel its scheduled flight Sunday to Israel.
Following the cabinet meeting, Likud minister and Sharon confidant Reuven Rivlin, said Israel would not allow the team to arrive because the UN had gone back on agreements it had reached with Israel. He said the composition of the team and its terms of reference made it inevitable that its report would present Israel as the guilty party.
"This awful United Nations committee is out to get us and is likely to smear Israel and to force us to do things which Israel is not prepared even to hear about, such as interrogating soldiers and officers who took part in the fighting," Rivlin said. "No country in the world would agree to such a thing."
But Sneh seemed to indicate that the team would ultimately be let in, and that when that happened, it would be best for Israel to ensure the Americans were on its side. "When the American president asks for something, demands something," he said, referring to the proposal on Ze'evi's killers, "we should comply so as to keep America on our side - especially with regard to matters that are upcoming, like the [United Nations] commission [to the Jenin refugee camp
The main problem with your thesis is that, according to the IDF, the P.A. has been preparing the "scenery" for the U.N. visitors, by digging up bodies in one area to beef up the "massacre" total in the "Refugee Camp", by ceasing all body-digging operations so that there will be "fresh" bodies dug up for the "fact-finders", by removing all uniforms, ammo belts and weapons from dead gunmen, by repositioning of existing bodies to support lies of wanton murders, and by removing the posters and signs supporting terror which we have seen on TV hanging in the living rooms of "ordinary civilians".
It is too late for an accurate inquiry, and the longer the delay, the more the P.A. can change history on the ground.
Israel can never allow the U.N.-sponsored hitmen to visit Jenin...never.
Nope, thanks to Lieberman.
But I would certainly recommend shorting the June 2002 Crude Oil futures contract on the open tomorrow at 8:30.
Did not hear about this til late last night, but upon hearing it, my thougts were and had been since the meeting of GWB and the prince is, that the prince let GWB in on info that the Ashcroft team cannot get out of the captured guest at Camp Gitmo or whatever it is being called now. I believe GWB learned of all the Arab fanatics and fanatics of other nationalities that are inside and outside of our country that are ready to take us on.
GWB did not at all display a sense of ease with himself in his explanation of the meeting. He was red nosed, cautious, and stumbling in his speech. He was not very convincing, that everything is A, Ok.
My feeling is we are sitting here like ducks. Not only do we not know who is in our country and has plans to do us harm, our government, most loan the President do not know. Each day we are appaled of the daily findings since 9/11, and each day we have to become proactive.
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