-Caveat Lector- From http://www.arabia.com/afp/news/mideast/article/english/0,10846,200823,00.html
}}}>Begin Likud party defies Sharon, says no to a future Palestinian state May 13, 2002, 04:30 AM TEL AVIV (AFP) - Israel's right-wing Likud party voted a resounding no to a Palestinian state in brazen defiance of their leader Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, already politically vulnerable after his army put on hold a threatened military strike on the Gaza Strip. The hardline stance by Likud's 2,600 person central committee late Sunday was sure to damage Sharon's ability to direct Israel's fragile national unity government, torn between right and left. Likud ministers are now bound to block any peace initiative that could lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Sharon warned the crushing vote would damage Israel's vital ties with its top ally the United States, which advocates the establishment of a Palestinian state and has exerted heavy pressure on Sharon to curb Israel's military forays in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "I respect all democratic decisions of the central committee, but I will continue to lead the country according to the principles that I have always held: security for Israel and aspirations for peace," Sharon declared after his party's stunning snub of his leadership. Sharon was feeling the heat from former premier Benjamin Netanyahu, his rival for power, who engineered Sharon's humiliation by the Likud, just as the White House had started to demand Sharon move the peace process forward. Sharon, a hardline former general, first tried to head off Netanyahu's manoeuver with his own motion to stop the vote. But the party rejected his motion by 59 percent. In a sign of US influence, the army began Sunday standing down reservists called up for an operation against the largely Gaza-based Islamic group Hamas, which claimed Tuesday's deadly suicide bombing outside Tel Aviv, state radio said. The report was the latest indication the Jewish state had put on hold the threatened attack in retaliation for the pool hall blast that killed 16 Israelis and wounded another 55. Sharon, who was having talks in Washington with US President George W. Bush just as the explosion went off, cut short a US trip and flew home vowing to avenge the deaths. But the tough talk soon became muted. A Sharon spokesman denied the reports that Israel's decision had been made under heavy pressure from Washington, which wanted to keep chances for peace talks alive. But David Maguen, head of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, told state radio the decision was "part of a political calculation." "Israel is reaping the results of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent visit to Washington and there were very positive developments, particularly at Sharm el- Sheikh." He was referring to Saturday's summit of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz that ended with a new appeal for peace. The three key Arab leaders "restated the Arabs' sincere determination to achieve peace and their rejection of all forms of violence," according to a statement issued after the gathering. But Sunday's political bust up in Israel threatened to dash any fresh momentum for Middle East peace. Before the Likud vote, King Abdullah II of Jordan said: "It would be an extremely negative reaction, because what we're talking about is a crisis of violence that neither side can get themselves out of." Leading Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat slammed the right-wing Israeli Likud party's landslide rejection. "What we have seen tonight is a major and severe blow to all efforts being made to revive the peace process," Erakat told CNN. "I hope this vote will be an eye opener for President Bush who calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state," he said, adding it showed "what kind of people we are dealing with in the Likud party and the Israeli government." The revival of Israel's peace movement had also piled pressure on Sharon's brittle coalition government. More than 60,000 people demonstrated Saturday in Tel Aviv to demand an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories in Israel's largest peace rally since the latest conflict erupted 19 months ago. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, meanwhile, told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that a proposed peace conference could be held in June, possibly in Italy or Turkey. In Bethlehem, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos I celebrated the first mass to be held inside the sixth-century Nativity Church complex after Friday's end to the 39-day standoff between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen. But politics also weighed at the holy site as a senior clergyman celebrating a special mass at an adjoining church blasted Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory as "the root of evil" in the Middle East. "As long as the root of evil is there, the violence will stay. The root of evil is the Israeli occupation," the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Monsignor Michel Sabbah, told the mass to reconsecrate the Sainte-Catherine church. Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer warned on Sunday that Israel would take action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip if the militant movement continued to perpetrate attacks on Israel. "Gaza is the Hamas capital, and sooner or later they must understand that we will reach every one of them unless they change their direction," Ben Eliezer told CNN. © 2001 AFP End<{{{ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forwarded as information only; no automatic endorsement + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. 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