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A weak and naïve Syria acts as an accelerator for Hizballah THE MESSAGE THE AMERICANS RECENTLY Conveyed to the foreign ministers of the European Union was simple: Watch Hizballah, they warned, it has the ability -- and perhaps the intention -- of sparking an explosion that could lead to regional war. Expectedly, the reaction varied from capital to capital. London, Paris, Rome and Madrid read the cable through different colored spectacles. So in the best tradition of diplomatic nicety, the Europeans will almost certainly send a message back to Lebanon’s patrons in Damascus, the meaning of which Syria’s president, ...

CAIRO: Arab countries have decided to increase their aid to the Palestinians from 45 million to 55 million dollars per month, Palestinian minister of international cooperation Nabil Shaath said on Saturday. The decision was taken at a ministerial meeting here on Saturday of the committee of the Arab League charged with following up the decisions of Arab summits, Shaath told reporters. The aid had been set at 40 million dollars, or 240 million over six months, at the Amman summit last March. It was increased to 45 million at a meeting of the follow-up committee last June. The aid is ...

Almost 600 Palestinians, including some 60 members of the security services, were rounded up by the Israeli army in the northern West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem over the past 24 hours and taken to Israel for interrogation, military sources said on Saturday. An earlier toll put the number of arrests at 400. The Israeli army occupied Tulkarem and the two neighbouring refugee camps Thursday. After fighting that killed eight Palestinians and one Israeli soldier, Tulkarem camp and town was still occupied on Saturday. Searches for other "terrorists and armed Palestinians" were continuing, the sources added.

Huge Blast in Jerusalem Cafe Large blast in Cafe "Moment" on Aza road in Central Jerusalem. The cafe and nearby stores were demolished and there are many wounded. Jerusalem Police Chief Miki Levy calls it a "very devastating terror attack" while eye witnesses say that there were more than 60 people inside the cafe at the time with many more outside. Click here to get updates Subscribe to the GAMLA Intelligence Report (free email newsletter)

BADLY stifled by the Israeli military blockade and the raging violence, the Palestinian economy has lost $US2.4 billion ($A4.59 billion) in income between the beginning of the uprising in September 2000 and the end of last year, according to the World Bank. "This is an economic crisis that was very directly precipitated by closures," said World Bank director for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Nigel Roberts, yesterday. "There's also been physical damage, but the economic impact is far less than that caused by closures," Roberts said, pointing to another $US300,000 ($A573,284) lost by Israel's destruction of Palestinian infrastructure. Before ...

Blast in downtown Jerusalem within blocks of Sharons. Many sirens, sign of many wounded.

First Reports of terror Attack in Netanya - in Central Israel Reports are flowing in of a terror attack in Central Netanya with some 25 Israelis injured Click here to get updates Subscribe to the GAMLA Intelligence Report (free email newsletter)

Terrorist Gunfire in the Center of Netanya – Unspecified Number of Wounded (IsraelNN.com) Emergency medical service personnel responding to Netanya’s Gad Machnis Street are reporting a terrorist is firing an automatic weapon in the area of the promenade wounding an unspecified number of persons. Additional confirmed details will be published as they become available .

<p>Mohammed Farhat, 19, who killed five Israelis in Gaza, wanted to be a "hero" killer.</p> <p>March 9, 2002 -- GAZA CITY - The teenage fanatic who massacred five Jewish students in the latest Mideast atrocity grew up throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers during the first Palestinian uprising.</p>

Jerusalem, Mar 09, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Some 600 Palestinians arrested by Israeli troops in their swoop on a West Bank refugee camp have been trasferred to Israeli jails, Israeli state radio reported Saturday. Around 200 of the Palestinians surrendered their arms and gave up voluntarily, Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer said late Friday, adding that some of the detainees were wanted by the Palestinian security forces. Others are members of the Palestinian National Authority's own security forces and will be freed, the minister said. All were rounded up on Friday during an incursion into the camp ...

Edward Said and the War Against Terrorism FrontPageMagazine.com | March 8, 2002 by Ronald Radosh A FEW WEEKS AGO, writing about the statement by 60 intellectuals on why the US is at war, I wrote that I found their position “unnecessarily defensive,” and that reading their arguments, one had to wonder why it was even necessary for them to spell out in such great lengths why the American response to September 11 met the criterion of a “just war.” Now, in this “Thoughts About America,” written for Al-Ahram Weekly  (March 2), Edward Said has given us good reasons for why ...

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces inflicted the bloodiest losses on the Palestinians on a single day in 17 months of conflict on Friday, killing 35 people in fierce raids after a deadly attack on a Jewish settlement. Israel's air, land and sea assaults on the West Bank and Gaza Strip followed Washington's surprise announcement that it was sending its Middle East envoy back to the region to reactivate long-dormant U.S. peacemaking efforts. Amid a deepening cycle of retribution, the Palestinian death toll in the uprising against Israeli occupation broke through the 1,000-mark while the number of Israeli fatalities stood at ...

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - At least one Israeli helicopter gunship fired up to four missiles early on Saturday at Palestinian Authority installations, including the office compound of the governor in Nablus, Palestinian officials said. The governor's compound in the West Bank city had been evacuated in advance and there were no immediate reports of casualties in the strike that caused extensive structural damage. Palestinians have mostly abandoned security posts that have been targeted by Israel in an escalating wave of fighting. It was the latest in an Israeli military offensive against a 17-month-old Palestinian uprising.

AZA CITY, March 8 #151; On the deadliest day in 17 months of fighting, Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians today with fire from land, sea and air after five Israeli teenagers died in a Palestinian's suicidal rampage through a settlement south of here.The foreign ministers of 22 Arab nations called for international intervention quot;to stop Israeli aggression that has no excuse or justification,quot; on a day that one of them, Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, called Black Friday. Funerals were held throughout the Gaza Strip, where 16 Palestinians, most of them armed, died in one savage...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Sharon says ready to drop demand for seven days of quiet Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested Friday that he was dropping his insistence on a week of calm before the two sides begin implementing a truce. Sharon said that negotiations for a cease-fire will be held while the conflict continues. "Negotiations to stop the shooting will be held under fire," Sharon told Channel Two Television. Sharon also informed U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell of his decision during a ...

US decries surge in Mideast violence, demands Israeli, Palestinian actionMarch 08, 2002, 08:16 PM&nbsp; TABRIYYEH The United States aimed sharp criticism at both Israel and the Palestinians as Middle East violence surged, demanding that each side take immediate steps to stop the escalation. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said policies being followed by both sides were contributing to the deterioration in the situation in the region where 43 people, 37 of them Palestinians, were killed on Friday alone. "Right now, both sides should think through the consequences of the policies they're following," Boucher told reporters, a day after the violence ...

US plays down Arab pressure as reason for Zinni return to MideastMarch 08, 2002, 05:46 PM&nbsp; TABRIYYEH Senior US officials played down speculation that growing pressure from Arab nations played a major role in President George W. Bush's decision to dispatch special Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region. Instead, the officials said the decision to send Zinni was a direct result of the massive surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence over the past three days and growing frustration that neither side was doing anything to stop the escalation. "We want to offer them the opportunity at this moment, when ...

NEW YORK, March 8 — When Vice President Dick Cheney visits the Middle East next week, his itinerary will include the usual capitals of America’s Arab allies, NATO partners and other powers regarded as vital to any decision to move against Iraq. Conspicuously listed among those states this time around, however, is Israel, carefully quarantined from such planning during the 1990-91 Gulf War, but very much a player this time around. It is just one indication of how Sept. 11 has changed Washington’s view of the Middle East. THAT THE Bush administration is making little effort to conceal its discussions ...

Friday has become the bloodiest day in the 17 months of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israel, with at least 45 people reported dead. Following the killing of five Israeli students by a Palestinian gunman, Israeli forces launched military operations across the territories. At least 39 Palestinians were reported dead, with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat putting the toll as high as 58. But as the violence raged, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that he was ready to discuss a lasting truce with the Palestinians even if hostilities continued. quot;Negotiations to stop the shooting will be held under fire,quot;...

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Friday that 58 Palestinians had died in the deadliest day of 17 months of bloodshed with Israel. "(Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and the Israeli government are destroying the peace of the braves that I had reached with my partner, (the)Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin," Arafat said. The fighting raged on as Sharon dropped his insistence on seven days of calm before starting cease-fire talks with the Palestinians. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke by telephone with Arafat, Sharon and the Secretary General of the Arab League, Amre Moussa. The calls followed President ...