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ISRAELIS PLANNING BLITZKRIEG?
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 6/01/01:
For a long time now we have been desperately warning about what the true Israeli
intentions are. We have also been warning that the Palestinians are not at all
prepared for these eventualities, neither with the terrible leadership provided by the
"Palestinian Authority" nor for the world-wide information and public relations battle
that accompanies all major developments in our world these days. And we have been
warning as well that the situation in Washington is far worse for the Palestinians
than their friends and supporters try to pretend, largely because the "client
organizations" in their own way are just as bad as the "client regimes" who control
them. These three press reports point the direction of what may be coming...maybe
soon now:
SHARON CONSIDERS PLAN FOR 48-HOUR KNOCKOUT PUNCH
JERUSALEM — Special to World Tribune, 1 June:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been presented with a
plan calling for the destruction of the Palestinian Authority in two
days.
"It's clear that the continuation of the terrorism and the restraint
cannot continue for
much longer, not more than a few days," Israeli President Moshe Katsav
told
state-owned Israel Radio on Friday.
The plan presented by National Infrastructure Minister Avigdor
Lieberman would
launch an Israeli military invasion of at least six major cities in
the West Bank and
another four in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. Israeli
troops would
be given at least two days to destroy Palestinian military
installations, weapons
factories and arresting leaders of the Palestinian insurgency.
The Israeli capture of these cities would be brief, according to the
plan. The West
Bank would then be divided into a series of provinces administered
separately by
Palestinians. Israel would then discuss with new Palestinians leaders
such issues as
self-rule.
"We have to go into Area A [PA territory] and destroy the entire
military
infrastructure," Lieberman said.
Israeli officials said the military has drawn up similar plans and
they are now being
reviewed by Sharon. The officials said Sharon is expected to delay any
Israeli attack
until after he returns from his European tour, which begins on Sunday.
The prime
minister is scheduled to fly to Berlin, Brussels and Paris.
Katsav was speaking in Washington where he met his U.S. counterpart,
George
Bush. Israeli sources said Katsav submitted to Bush a request from
Sharon for an
additional $800 million in U.S. military aid pledged by the previous
Clinton
administration.
Sharon is under increasing pressure from some of his Likud Party and
right-wing
ministers as well as Jewish settlers to launch an offensive against
the PA. On
Thursday, several Israelis were arrested during a demonstration in
Jerusalem against
the government's policy of restraint. "We need Winston Churchill and
not
Chamberlain," Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, spiritual leader of the Jewish
settlement of
Efrat, said.
PA officials said they are preparing for an Israeli onslaught. They
said Israel has
waged a psychological warfare that seeks to sow strife within the
Palestinian
leadership.
PA gunners fired mortars early Friday toward Jewish settlements in the
Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military, as part of its unilateral ceasefire, did not
respond.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned PA Chairman Yasser
Arafat and
reiterated the U.S. demand to end the eight-month-old war against
Israel.
ARAFAT WARNS OF ISRAELI ATTACK
BRUSSELS, Belgium –– AP - 31 May: Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat claimed Thursday that senior Israeli officials were preparing
a
"new war" to paralyze his Palestinian Authority.
"I have received a letter saying the (Ariel) Sharon government has
adopted the principle of a new war against the Palestinian people,"
he said
in a speech to the upper house of the Belgian Parliament.
"The goal of the Israeli army in calling a truce is in fact to
mobilize the
Israeli mass to prepare an atrocious war ... in which they will use
all
military means to paralyze the Palestinian Authority," Arafat added.
Arafat was responding to comments from Israeli Infrastructure
Minister
Avigdor Lieberman, a hard-liner in the cabinet of Prime Minister
Arial
Sharon's government, who said Israel should immediately reoccupy
Palestinian-controlled areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
"In the next 48 hours we need to go into all Palestinian areas and
destroy
the entire infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority, destroy the
weapons
cache of their forces including those of the militias," Lieberman
told Israeli
radio.
Arafat addressed the Belgian Senate on the latest stop on a European
tour
that had earlier taken him to Russia and Denmark. He spoke in Arabic
and his comments were relayed by a French translator.
ISRAELI PRESIDENT WARNS ARAFAT
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES - 1 June:
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has "a few days, no
more" to end the violence among his supporters or face a
sharply escalated Israeli military response, Israel´s president
said yesterday.
"People are fed up. Our
patience is not unlimited," Moshe
Katsav said in an interview with
editors and reporters of The
Washington Times at Blair House,
the United States´ official
executive guest residence.
Mr. Katsav said he conveyed
his concerns to President Bush,
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
and other top administration
officials in meetings yesterday. Mr.
Bush also hosted a working dinner
last night for the Israeli president, who is on his first
official
trip to Washington since his surprise election last summer.
Eight months of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli
security forces have intensified in recent days, despite the
release last month of a report by a commission headed by
former Sen. George Mitchell calling for an immediate
cease-fire and steps to rebuild the shattered peace process.
Four Israeli settlers have been killed in the past three
days, prompting intense political pressure on the government
for a crackdown.
"It is a question of a few days, not more, for Yasser
Arafat to decide" whether to halt the violence, Mr. Katsav
said in the interview.
Should Israel respond militarily, the president said, it
would not be by reoccupying territory now administered by
the Palestinians, but by "an attack on the centers and sources
of the terrorism," which he said included Mr. Arafat´s
leadership group.
Mr. Katsav also said he had told Mr. Bush he was
convinced that Mr. Arafat has concluded that street violence
and terrorism are effective ways to achieve his political ends.
Mr. Katsav said Mr. Bush replied, "I hope you are
wrong." But, the Israeli added, Mr. Bush "is not sure."
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that, at their
morning meeting, Mr. Bush had "reaffirmed America´s
support for Israel and . . . discussed the United States´
engagement to be a facilitator in the region."
A U.S. diplomatic team headed by Ambassador William
Burns, Mr. Powell´s newly designated point man for the
region, has made little progress in arranging meetings to get
the two sides to discuss new security arrangements to halt the
fighting.
Palestinian officials contend Israel hopes to use the truce
to entrench itself in disputed territories. They point to
passages in the Mitchell report that call for an eventual total
freeze on Israeli settlements in occupied territory, which
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has yet to accept.
In Jerusalem yesterday, Mr. Sharon echoed Mr. Katsav´s
warnings that Israel´s self-imposed cease-fire will end soon if
Mr. Arafat does not move to curb the violence.
"My blood is boiling," Mr. Sharon said during a visit to the
family of a Jewish settler on the West Bank killed in a
roadside ambush this week. "I will have to decide when to do
what I think has to be done."
Israeli press outlets reported that Mr. Sharon had phoned
Mr. Powell Wednesday after a car bombing in the coastal
city of Netanya to say the current situation was intolerable
and could not continue much longer.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said
yesterday that Mr. Powell had talked to both Mr. Sharon and
Mr. Arafat by phone Wednesday evening, imploring both to
stop the fighting.
Mr. Powell urged Mr. Sharon to "continue his policy of
restraint and de-escalation," Mr. Boucher said yesterday.
But the Israeli prime minister is also under pressure from
domestic critics to strike hard in the wake of the most recent
violence.
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a rival in
Mr. Sharon´s own Likud Party, urged a direct attack on the
Palestinian Authority´s infrastructure.
"We must go from reaction to decisive action," Mr.
Netanyahu said. "We must make it clear to Arafat that if he
continues his policy of terror, we will cause this corrupt
terrorist regime to collapse and we have the power to do
this."
Mr. Katsav, 56, shot to international prominence last July
when he upset former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Shimon Peres in a secret ballot of Israel´s parliament,
the Knesset, for the largely ceremonial but high-profile
president´s post.
Mr. Katsav, who was born in Iran and moved to Israel as
a boy, has been seen as a symbol of the political emergence
of the "second Israel" -- the wave of Sephardic Jews from
Arab and Islamic countries who moved to the new Jewish
state in its early years and still form the bulk of the country´s
lower classes.
A Knesset member for the conservative Likud Party since
1977, Mr. Katsav denied during last year´s voting that he
was running an "ethnic" campaign, but many saw his victory
as a challenge to the European-oriented Ashkenazi Jews who
have traditionally dominated the country´s politics.
In yesterday´s interview, Mr. Katsav said:
• Israel was convinced, based on its own intelligence
sources, that Mr. Arafat had the power to bring the violence
to a halt, even with loosely affiliated groups, such as Hamas.
•A combined appeal from Europe and the United States
for an end to Palestinian violence would force Mr. Arafat to
back down.
• Ordinary Palestinians have suffered even more than
Israelis from Mr. Arafat´s record of broken promises and by
the violence that has claimed more than 500 lives since the
collapse of the Camp David summit last summer.
The Israeli president said that, while it was "very
difficult"
for him to trust the Palestinian leader, he would continue to
negotiate with him.
"He´s my partner. He´s popular with his people. What can
I do?" Mr. Katsav asked.
"I want peace. Do I have any choice?"
•Abraham Rabinovich in Je-rusalem contributed to this
report.
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