Posted on 10/02/2003 1:42:50 AM PDT by Mark Felton
Israel's cabinet decided yesterday to press ahead with building a security fence around Jewish settlements deep inside the West Bank, prompting Palestinian accusations that it was trying to sabotage the American-backed "road map" peace plan.
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Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, chaired a meeting of the full cabinet to decide on the most controversial section of the fence, amid strong pressure from Washington not to follow a route which could be seen as annexing Palestinian land.
The huge project is designed to shield Israelis from suicide bombers by sealing off the West Bank. Yet much of the planned 370-mile fence, 100 miles of which is already complete, cuts inside the West Bank and runs through Palestinian land. To include the Israeli settlements of Kedumim and Ariel, the fence must form a two-pronged fork, slicing eastwards 12 miles into the West Bank.
President George W Bush has described the fence as a "problem" and America opposes building this section. Washington has threatened to deduct the cost from £5.6 billion of loan guarantees it has given Israel.
On Mr Sharon's recommendation, the cabinet decided to build the stretch of the fence running east of Kedumim and Ariel, but placated American concerns by leaving a gap between this section and the rest of the fence.
In eight months' time, the cabinet will decide whether to close the gap and complete the barrier in line with current plans, regardless of America.
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Ehud Olmert, the deputy prime minister, said: "Certainly it has to pass east of Ariel, but in a manner which will not antagonise the population of the territories and which will be in co-ordination with the agreements we have with the US government."
With 18,000 inhabitants, Ariel is the second largest Israeli settlement on the West Bank. Ron Nachman, the mayor, has vigorously campaigned for Ariel's inclusion in the fence while condemning any sign of Mr Sharon bowing to American pressure. Mr Nachman said he was "OK" with the cabinet's decision yesterday. "I think that under the circumstances we can accept the government's decision temporarily," he said.
In practice, building the fence east of the settlements and then leaving a gap will, as Mr Sharon knows, create an unsustainable situation. Once the eastern flanks of Ariel and Kedumim are protected, the pressure to complete the fence and join up the sections is likely to be irresistible.
Mr Sharon's critics believe that the fence is a thinly disguised effort to pre-empt negotiations on the border of a future Palestinian state.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, said: "This is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli government to sabotage President Bush's vision of a two-state solution, to undermine the peace process and to destroy the road map."
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27 September 2003: Sharon bows to US pressure over security fence |
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18 September 2003: Israel anger at threat to security fence |
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I hope you don't mean to equate the American Indian, fighting for survival against a government and people that engaged in every immoral and unjust activity to strip their "Creator" given rights by acts that can almost certainly be called near genocide, to the Palestinians, a people who are bent on self destruction, worship the cult of suicide, revel in the death of innocents and are slaves to their "leadership" are you?
The US govt. and citizens of the day acted with utmost disregard for the rights of the American Indian; while the Israeli govt. is by no means free of innocent "Palestinian" blood, they are not engaged in a system of genocide against them, either.
You sound a little like COL. Chivington "nits make lice". The Palestinian peoples CAN be saved from their mad cults of death with time, education and a little occasional help of the cold steel to rid them of the cancer that resides in their midst.
No offense is intended, I hope you meant something else. take care
That's not the problem. The problem is that the land "annexed" with the fence does not include all of the West Bank.
Building the fence here now will allow the Palis to claim the remaining portions of the West Bank as "theirs" from now on.
"For your chants of "Death to America" and for murdering Americans
here is another twenty million dollars and thousands of better weapons.
Do notworry. We will make sure there will be no fence to protect anyone.
Just keep the blood flowing so that my friends at the State Dept can retire
with "pensions" paid by the House of Saud
and I can be President of the World Bank. "
Unfortunately, I believe the path to peace in the ME will eventually fill the oceans with the blood of many more dead than we have yet seen. The biggest foolishness of modern ME diplomacy is to assume there are moderates who will come to the bargaining table from BOTH sides. While both have their militant crazies, only the Israelis have made any real proposals for peace.
IMO, this mess began with the UN, and is one of it's first failures. If you look at the UN website, they have maps of the original UN mandates on how Israel would be established. Never a more disjointed and ill-designed piece of international folly was ever designed-no continuous borders, enclaves of Arabs right in the middle of Jew areas, ect. and so forth.
While I have no idea what the solution is-it isn't a economically non-viable entity such as the Palestinian "State", I doubt the fence will solve anything.
Thanks for the post, take care.
The land belongs to whomever can physically control it.
It's been true throughout the history of mankind, and is equally true today. No exceptions.
You can either defend your land or you cannot. If you cannot hold the land by force (with aid of allies) then you lose it. period.
There are 150,000 Israeli settlers placed on Palestinean land in the past ten years probably with American taxpayer dollars It is no wonder that the Arabs are mad at us.Actually, US policy since 1967 has been that no US foreign aid or US guaranteed loans can be spent on settlements. Bush the Elder held up a package once because he felt Israel's guarantees on this issue were insufficient.
Of course, this doesn't stop the Israelis from using money they would have had to spend on other things. But it keeps America's consistent opposition to the settlements clear and unequivocal.
-Eric
That's not the problem. The problem is that the land "annexed" with the fence does not include all of the West BankThat wouldn't exactly solve the security issue, would it? Unless of course one advocates "transfer", a policy which would force the US to cut off all aid to Israel and would begin an all-out war.
-Eric
I think the Palestinians sabotaged the "road map" all on their own.
If by "belong" you mean custody, then yes. If you mean rightful property, then no: If you own something and somebody forcibly takes it away, it is still rightfully yours.
But of course rights are of not much use unless they are enforced.
The terrorists have been fighting an all-out war against Israel ever since its founding. The only reason they aren't fighting with more intensity is that they are such damn losers that this is all they can do. What I advocate is for Israel and the rest of the civilized world to recognize this as an all-out war and fight it as such.
They would win in days, if not hours, if they took this fight seriously!
That wouldn't exactly solve the security issue, would it? Unless of course one advocates "transfer", a policy which would force the US to cut off all aid to Israel and would begin an all-out war.It seems to me they take the fight damned seriously, as they should, but also distinguish between Palestinians making war on them and Palestinians who are not (at least to a degree).The terrorists have been fighting an all-out war against Israel ever since its founding. The only reason they aren't fighting with more intensity is that they are such damn losers that this is all they can do. What I advocate is for Israel and the rest of the civilized world to recognize this as an all-out war and fight it as such.
They would win in days, if not hours, if they took this fight seriously!
What would you propose they do differently?
-Eric
Hmmm. since a $1.00 loan guarantee costs about 5 cents, how does this work?
The move to "containment" is an expensive mistake. It makes me crazy that the Israelis speak so little of the ongoing glorification in the PA schools (and the mosques!) of the suicide baby-killing cult.
When they name a soccer tournament after these creeps, they should immediately bulldoze the stadium. When Arafat makes his in-Arabic plea for a million shaheedi to descend on Jerusalem, every Israeli minister should begin his remarks for the next week with his comments on this sick recruitment, and keep it up until the PA initiates a policy of active, ongoing, daily, condemnation of this "suicide-bomber glory" cult.
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