Free Republic

THE body of Rayed Mohammad Eoda was strung up yesterday in the centre of Ramallah in the West Bank, the latest victim of a Palestinian witch-hunt against those suspected of collaborating with Israel. His execution was a very public warning of the consequences for those who dare to accept money from the Jewish State, in return for helping the Israeli Army identify Palestinians suspected of planning terror attacks. Mr Eoda was killed just hours after being released from a Palestinian Authority prison and his body was then strung up by the ankles from metal scaffolding, in the same place where...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israeli tanks and troops thrust into Palestinian refugee camps and took command of the streets in this key West Bank city Tuesday, killing 31 Palestinians in one of Israel's largest military operations ever in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Seven Israelis were killed, including six in an ambush just inside the border with Lebanon. The attackers disguised as Israeli soldiers were reportedly Palestinians who slipped across Israel's previously quiet northern frontier - raising the prospect of a new front in the current Mideast conflict. Israel began stepping up its military operations against Palestinian militants...

KIBBUTZ METSUBA, Israel, Mar 12, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Gunmen disguised as Israeli soldiers fired from a hillside at motorists below, killing six Israelis and wounding another six in a 40-minute ambush near a communal farm close to the border with Lebanon. Security forces backed by helicopters responded immediately, engaging the assailants in a protracted gunbattle. The army said two were killed, but it couldn't rule out that others were involved. Police said the assailants, numbering as many as five, apparently came from Lebanon, although the Israeli military said there was no indication of infiltration across the...

JERUSALEM, Mar 12, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- At least 35 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured Tuesday as Israel launched one of the largest military offensives since the start of the current intifada, sending scores of military vehicles -- including Apache helicopters and more than 30 tanks -- into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In a separate battle, six Israelis were killed in an attack on vehicles near the Lebanese border. An Israeli Defense Forces spokesman said there was quot;no indicationquot; the attackers, two of whom were killed, had entered the area...

Arafat Urges Resistance to Israel Raids March 12, 2002 10:46 AM ET By Wafa Amr RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The Palestinian leadership Tuesday urged refugees in a camp in Ramallah to resist Israeli occupation troops who seized the city in the biggest single operation in 17 months of violence. It was the Palestinian Authority's first call to resistance in two weeks of raids on refugee camps in which hundreds of Palestinian men have been rounded up. Witnesses said some 150 Israeli tanks entered Ramallah, the West Bank's commercial and political center, late Monday as well as the al-Am'ari camp...

When Raslan Mahajna, a researcher with B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, was wounded in a terrorist shooting about a month ago, his family was forced to contend with particularly difficult problems. As it turns out, Mahajna was accidently shot by the very people for whom he works and risks his life every day of the year. His wife, Randa, confesses: quot;I am angry that my husband was shot by Palestinians. They should avoid shooting [at] civilian vehicles, whether the passengers are Jews or Arabs. I oppose the fact that both sides, the...

202 members of the United States House of Representatives have so far signed a letter to US President George W. Bush, urging him to add Yasser Arafat's Fatah Tanzim, Force 17, and Al-Aqsa Brigades to the US list of foreign terrorist organizations. The letter, drafted by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-California), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), and Tom Lantos (D-California) may be sent to the president as early as today. An excerpt from the letter: quot;Deadly terrorist attacks in Israel have escalated to a daily basis and it is time to formally designate the Palestinian terrorist groups responsible for these attacks on the...

National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Tourism Minister Binyamin (Benny) Elon submitted their letters of resignation today from the national unity government. The move came after the three parties that make up the National Union/Yisrael Beiteinu faction yesterday approved the departure of their seven Knesset members from the coalition, leaving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government with seventy-five Knesset seats. http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/politics/articles/pol_0119.htm

Terrorist gunmen opened fire and threw grenades this afternoon at Israeli vehicles traveling between Shlomi and Kibbutz Metzuba in the western Galilee. Six Israelis were killed, and at least seven others were injured. Security forces arrived in the area and killed two terrorists. Gunfire exchanges in the area are ongoing, and helicopters have been employed in a manhunt for additional terrorists...(more) http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/security/articles/sec_0218.htm

Almost immediately after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon #150; even in the first few hours afterwards on September 11 itself #150; people began to say that the world had changed. Of course, since September 11, we have begun to realize the scope of that change. Canadian soldiers are on the ground in Afghanistan and our sailors are in the Indian Ocean. We all face longer line-ups and tighter security at airports. Security in many public places #150; on Parliament Hill, or near the U.S. and Israeli embassies and consulates #150; has been tightened. But...

Israeli border police are seen handcuffing and making kneel a suspected suicide-bomber Mahmud Salah, 23-years-old, as his friend identified as Randy, lays on the ground being guarded by another border police officer, in east Jerusalem.According to Jerusalem police spokesman Kobi Zarhad, Salah was wearing an explosive belt on his stomach and detonator to his chest, adding that this person was killed because he could not be subdued. It was only after he was dead that we were able to remove the explosive belt . According to the initial version given by the Israeli police, Salah was wearing a large overcoat...

Under heavy security, a crowd estimated by organizers at more than 100,000 gathered in Tel Aviv's Kikar Rabin last night to call on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, end the terror, and quot;rid the area of terrorists and [their] weapons.quot; Organized by the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, the rally was intended to express a national consensus against terror and concessions to the PA. More than 1,600 police protected the protesters, whose rallying cry was quot;A strong people can defeat terror.quot; The demonstration was the first of its kind in...

60,000 people attend right-wing rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square By Mazal Mualam and Yam Yehoshua, Ha'aretz Correspondets A mass rally attended by tens of thousands of right-wing demonstrators at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on Monday night ended peacefully. Police estimate that the rally, held under the slogan quot;A strong nation will defeat terror,quot; and causing traffic jams in central Tel Aviv, was attended by 50,000 to 60,000. Present at the rally were leading figures from the right of the Israeli spectrum, but organizers decided not to invite politicians to address protestors. Among those speaking at the rally were...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m More Israeli Jews favor transfer of Palestinians, Israeli Arabs - poll finds Some 46 percent of Israel's Jewish citizens favor transferring Palestinians out of the territories, while 31 percent favor transferring Israeli Arabs out of the country, according to the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies' annual national security public opinion poll. In 1991, 38 percent of Israel's Jewish population was in favor of transferring the Palestinians out of the territories while 24 percent supported transferring Israeli Arabs. When the...

By Ross Dunn, Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem and agencies For the first time, the United States is proposing to station American observers in Palestinian territories as part of a new diplomatic effort to halt escalating Middle East violence. The move may be seen as something of a political victory for Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who has repeatedly appealed for international monitors. He also appears to be winning on the diplomatic front to get Israel to lift its travel ban on him. US special envoy to the Middle East, Anthony Zinni, a retired marine corps general, is expected to put forward...

Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians can never be forgiven, the Saudi Defense Minister said as the Kingdom's press lashed out Sunday at the United States as well as on Israel. The Israeli quot;aggressionquot; against the Palestinians is quot;a crime that can never be forgiven, and we should never forgive those who support it,quot; said Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, quoted by the official SPA agency. Arabs and Palestinians accuse the United States of backing Israel in its attacks against unarmed Palestinian civilians. Prince Sultan's statement came after more than 40 Palestinians were killed on Friday when Israeli forces occupied Palestinian...

Yasser Arafat#146;s state-run radio station gave unstinting praise Sunday morning (March 10) to two Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis Saturday night in which 13 Israeli civilians were murdered and more than 100 were wounded. It was the clearest sign that the Arafat regime has moved to total public support for terror attacks on Israelis. #147;The #145;Brigades of the Martyrs of Al-Aqsa#146; and the #145;Brigades of Izza al-Din al-Qassam#146; take credit for the two heroic martyrdom operations,#148; said Voice of Palestine state radio. It was referring to last night#146;s attacks on a restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem and a tourist...

The Palestinian Authority informed its workers - clerks, security forces, teachers, etc. - that it does not currently have the money to pay their salaries for February. A PA senior told Itim News Agency, quot;We are having trouble dealing with the destruction of infrastructures by the IDF.quot; He also said that PA ministers have not received their salaries, and that the PA quot;is in the worst economic crisis it has ever faced#133;quot; The question then follows: Where has all the international financial aid that has been granted to the PA since 1993 gone? One possible answer may be connected to...

(March 11) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell is surely correct in pointing out that Israel's current policy has not succeeded in curbing terrorism. But Powell has suggested no alternative policy. Surely the US cannot expect Israel simply to absorb terrorist attacks without any response. In light of the willingness of suicide bombers to die in the process of killing Israelis, the traditional methods of deterrence and retaliation seem insufficient. To succeed, Israel must turn the Palestinian leadership and people against the use of terrorism and the terrorists themselves. One way to do this is to make terrorists directly...

(March 11) - Much has been made of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's dropping his demand for seven terror-free days before implementing the Tenet cease-fire plan. But Sharon was not the only one to make concessions to terrorism; by sending envoy Anthony Zinni back to the region, US President George W. Bush dumped his own requirement that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat fight terrorism before US mediation efforts resumed. These twin concessions pose serious questions - not just for the situation here, but for the global war on terrorism led by the United States. It is little appreciated that, despite the...