---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 05:11:21 -0700 From: Kari Sprowl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: palestinediary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [PalestineDiary] Israel -- No Concesions for American Alliance More... Monday September 17 4:36 AM ET Israel Stands Firm on U.S. Anti-Terror Alliance Israel Stands Firm on U.S. Anti-Terror Alliance By Megan Goldin JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that Israel would not make concessions to the Palestinians to facilitate U.S. efforts to recruit Arab and Islamic countries in an anti-terror alliance. The United States has pushed for high-level truce talks to end almost a year of Israeli-Palestinian fighting as it tries to form an alliance to confront international terrorism following last week's devastating attacks in New York and Washington. Middle East analysts say continued violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip could stymie the U.S.'s effort to include Arab and Islamic states in its coalition against terror. A 55-year-old Palestinian was killed during a battle between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Palestinian witnesses said. ``The Arab countries now will certainly try to use this opportunity to pressure Israel and say that what is bothering them is that Israel did not give concessions to the Palestinians,'' Sharon told the Jerusalem Post in an interview. He added that Israel would not ``pay the price'' for the formation of an anti-terrorism coalition. ``Our clear, unequivocal answer is that this will not be at our expense,'' Sharon told the newspaper before the start on Monday evening of the two-day Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana holiday. Sharon called on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Sunday to declare a cease-fire in return for an end to Israeli military raids into Palestinian-ruled territory. He said high-level truce talks would be held after two days free of violence. Arafat did not directly respond to Sharon's truce call but he said Palestinians were already committed to a cease-fire and ready for a political dialogue at any time. The familiar sounds of battle echoed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip overnight as they have since fighting erupted last September. More than 700 people have died in the last year. Israeli security forces were on alert for attacks by Islamic militants over Rosh Hashana despite capturing, in a raid on the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Sunday, what they described as a ``terror cell'' planning bombings during the holiday. ISRAEL SETS UP BUFFER ZONE Sharon said Israel was not under U.S. pressure to make compromises to entice Palestinians to end their revolt against Israeli occupation. ``There is no pressure. Not now and not before,'' Sharon told Israel Radio. While the world continued to focus on events in the United States, the Israeli army announced it would make a 18-mile-long area of the West Bank adjacent to the Israeli border off-limits to Palestinians, save for local villagers. The army called the move a security measure to block suicide bombers from reaching Israeli cities. A Palestinian cabinet minister said the buffer zone in Israeli-occupied territory was a prelude to ``an all-out assault'' on Palestinian-ruled areas. In fresh violence on Monday, the army said three soldiers were wounded in a heavy exchange of fire at Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border. Palestinian hospitals reported two people died from wounds from fighting earlier in the week. Israel's army has frequently raided Palestinian-ruled territory since the revolt against Israeli occupation erupted last September after peace negotiations deadlocked. But the pace of such incursions, and their subsequent death toll, appeared to quicken in the last week as troops struck targets in the Gaza Strip and at least four West Bank cities in what Israel called a response to attacks on Israelis. Sharon said on Sunday he was making the cease-fire appeal to Arafat ``in the light of the U.S. commitment to uproot all the terrorist organizations' networks and in order to prevent continued bloodshed in our region.'' Sharon told parliament that talks now with Arafat, without an end to violence, would give the Palestinian leader ''legitimacy as a good guy.'' That could pave the way for Arafat to join the U.S. alliance, giving him ``a chance to continue with the terror without us being able to act against him,'' Sharon said. He added that the U.S. drive must include a fight against ''all terror organizations including those of Arafat.''
