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SHARON COMETH
MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/14:
Monday in Washington the various Arab-American groups will stage a protest
demonstration outside the Washington Hilton where now Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon will be talking to the lead organization that makes up the Israeli-Jewish
lobby in Washington. But it's far too little far too late far too misleadingly
put together and sponsored by groups and persons who long ago lost their
credibility and vibrancy. The impotence of those opposed to what Israel
is doing to the Palestinians, and to what the Americans are doing to the
Middle East, has deep roots in both Washington and the Middle East region
itself.
And it's the same in general with the "Palestinian Authority". After
so many years of ineptitude, corruption, duplicity, and double-dealing
its not easy to consider these "leaders" credible or trustable no matter
what they now say or do.
The week ahead will be one of considerable posturing, and possibly considerable
violence. Everyone is now positioning themselves for the complicated battles
ahead that involve many kinds of power and authority -- and at least for
the foreseeable future the Israelis continue to be prepared and positioned
far better than their opposition and are emensely more powerful in all
measures, as much as their policies are deplorable and Apartheid-like.
As for the Europeans (see The Guardian article that follows), it's not
that difficult to look more reasonable and thoughtful when the Americans
and the Israelis do what they do and are what they are. But they too have
a long history of saying one thing and doing another, and they too after
so many years can't be trusted or even believed in a serious way on issues
relating to the Middle East.
Furthermore it's not just Sharon who is coming to Washington. One of
the additional reasons the Arab "leaders" and their associated groups lack
credibility is because of how they have played around with Rabin, Peres,
and Barak; with the "Peace Process" and the "Peace of the Brave" and Bill
Clinton; demonstrating their own lack of understand what has really been
happening to them for some time and making those who want to support a
just and honorable Middle East peace cringe at so many of the things they
have done and said over the years.
So now Sharon cometh once more to the capital of the modern world, this
time as the Prime Minister of Israel...and with "Nobel Peace Prize recipient"
Peres at his side and friends George W. in the White House and General
Powell at the State Department.
ISRAELI TROOPS KILL PALESTINIAN ON "DAY OF RAGE"
By Deborah Camiel
JERUSALEM, March 14 (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian
in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday while Palestinians in the West Bank took
to the streets in mass demonstrations to protest against an Israeli blockade.
Israeli troops at the Karni commercial crossing on the Israel-Gaza border
killed 19-year-old Ahmed Bannar, a resident of a nearby village, medical
workers said.
They said Bannar was shot in the back by a single bullet and that no clashes
were taking place in the area at the time. The Israeli army said it was
checking the report.
Bannar's death brought the death toll to at least 345 Palestinians, 13
Israeli Arabs and 65 other Israelis, since a Palestinian uprising erupted
in late September.
Chanting "Get out occupation," about 500 flag-waving Palestinian protesters
marched towards a military checkpoint near the West Bank town of Ramallah
during a "Day of Rage" organised by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's
faction.
Israeli soldiers later wounded 10 Palestinians when they fired rubber-coated
metal bullets and tear gas at stone-throwing youths who lobbed rocks at
soldiers positioned nearby.
"We broke the Israeli siege with our hands and it is a message to (Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon that the siege will not kill the Intifada
(uprising)," said Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti after the soldiers withdrew
from a roadblock to a nearby hill while youths dug Palestinian flags in
the ground.
Palestinians sent a bulldozer to fill in a trench ploughed by the army
as part of its blockade of Ramallah which it says it has implemented to
prevent a group of Palestinian militants in the town from carrying out
a bomb attack in nearby Jerusalem.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers fired bullets and tear gas
at stone-throwing Palestinians near the town of Qalqilya, witnesses said.
There were no reports of casualties.
A Palestinian woman died on her way to hospital after Israeli troops turned
her away from a roadblock at the entrance to the town of Jenin, a relative
said.
At the refugee camp of Qalandia on the outskirts of Ramallah, soldiers
shot rubber bullets at Palestinians pelting them with rocks. No injuries
were reported in either place.
PALESTINIANS SLAM CLOSURE
Likening the Israeli clampdown to a policy of apartheid, Palestinian Information
Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said on Tuesday his people were determined to
resist Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza until they won independence.
He accused Israel of provoking a war by sealing off Palestinian areas,
and a Fatah leaflet called on Palestinians to "break the siege using all
means."
Israel said it imposed a blockade on Ramallah, an important Palestinian
business centre, to try to catch a group of militants who have killed eight
Israelis in shooting attacks and were planning more.
Israel eased the closure on Tuesday by opening two entrances to the city
for vehicles passing through a security check.
The army said it had loosened its hold on four other West Bank cities in
recent days. But it said troops had reclosed roads around Qalqilya after
gunmen fired on an Israeli car.
Sharon was due to convene his security cabinet on Wednesday to consider
a further loosening of the blockades before talks next week in Washington
with President George W. Bush.
Washington and the 15-member European Union have criticised the blockade.
Russia added its criticism on Tuesday.
Brigadier-General Benny Gantz said on Tuesday the army would ease the restrictions
when it saw a reduction in the fighting that flared when a Palestinian
uprising against Israeli occupation began in late September after peace
talks deadlocked.
European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten and Swedish Foreign
Minister Anna Lindh, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency,
said after a visit to the region that economic chaos in Palestinian areas
would set back peace hopes.
Abed Rabbo said the blockade had turned Palestinian areas into detention
camps and had forced the closure of hundreds of schools. More than 160,000
Palestinians are also being prevented from reaching their jobs in Israel
and in Palestinian areas.
Palestinians say the closures are collective punishment that cripple the
Palestinian economy.
A senior Israeli military source told reporters on Tuesday the army was
bracing for an escalation of violence towards the end of the month when
Arab leaders meet in Amman, Jordan.
"The Palestinians will try to provoke the area as much as they can. They
would like to reach the Arab summit with higher flames in the area... escalation
is a real potential," he said.
EUROPE TURNS HEAT ON ISRAEL
France leads call for action over
blockades of Palestinian cities
and human rights abuses as EU
seeks greater role in Middle East
Ian Black in Brussels and Suzanne Goldenberg in Jerusalem
The Guardian - 14 March 2001:
Israel could have a key agreement with the European
Union suspended if it does not end human rights abuses
and blockades of Palestinian areas in the West Bank
and Gaza.
In their first practical response to the Middle East
crisis, EU governments are considering punitive
measures to underline that the policies of the new
Likud prime minister, Ariel Sharon, are not
acceptable, the Guardian has learned.
Robin Cook and fellow EU foreign ministers are to
review options next Monday after Chris Patten, the
commissioner for external relations, warned Israeli
leaders yesterday that their economic stranglehold
must be lifted.
"It does not seem to us that everything that is being
done in the West Bank and Gaza can be justified in
security terms," Mr Patten said during a visit to the
area with Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden,
the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency.
France is leading calls for tough diplomatic action
against Israel, seeking to boost the EU's role in a
region traditionally dominated by the US at a time
when the new Bush administration has not made its
policies clear.
In a strongly worded paper on the Middle East
submitted to EU governments last month, the French
foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, argued: "Europeans
have shrunk from making the effort needed to overcome
their contradictions and apprehensions [and] are not
prepared to pay the political price of a genuine role,
and have become accustomed to their role as bit
players.
"The EU should make the US recognise that it is
legitimate for Europe to take its own approach to
peace. If the union really wishes to pay a role, it
must escape from the situation where defining a common
position comes down to seeking the lowest common
denominator in platitudinous declarations or
ritualised diplomatic tours."
The EU could decide to suspend all or part of its 1995
association agreement with Israel - which includes
high level political dialogue, cooperation in several
key areas and valuable trade preferences worth
millions of pounds a year - with immediate effect.
Britain and Germany would be unlikely to favour such
action but France would have the backing of Spain and
Greece.
EU diplomats said last night that other less drastic
measures under consideration included suspension of
cooperation with Israel in the areas of science and
technology or agricultural liberalisation talks.
The EU-Israel agreement was only ratified last year
after the previous Likud prime minister, Binyamin
Netanyahu, was replaced by the Labour leader, Ehud
Barak, who was in turn defeated by the hardline Mr
Sharon last month.
Israel bowed to its critics yesterday by easing its
blockade of cities in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. Two roads to the West Bank town of Ramallah
were reopened.
But the Palestinian information minister, Yasser Abed
Rabbo, said the changes were cosmetic and aimed "at
deceiving the world that the closure has been lifted".
Washington warned Israel on Monday that if the
economic pressure brought about a collapse of the
Palestinian Authority, then it would harm prospects
for peace.
The Israeli army sealed off the West Bank and Gaza
when the intifada erupted, blocking more than 100,000
workers from jobs in Israel that are the lifeline of
the economy.
Since then, the army has intensified its stranglehold
on Palestinian cities, sealing off roads with concrete
blocks and mounds of earth, positioning armoured
personnel carriers at the entrances to towns and, in
the last few weeks, digging an 11-mile waterless moat
around the desert town of Jericho.
Mr Patten said the EU urged Mr Sharon to transfer £36m
in tax revenues it has withheld from the Palestinian
administration. He said the siege, which has cost the
Palestinian economy at least £1bn and driven up
unemployment, was counter-productive.
"If the economy continues to deteriorate in the West
Bank and Gaza and if more people lose their jobs, if
the Palestinian administration is undermined as a
potential centre of authority, it will be more
difficult to deal with security issues," Mr Patten
said.
In his visit to the Gaza Strip on Monday, Mr Patten
also issued a warning to Yasser Arafat, saying the EU
did not want to continue its financial bail-out unless
the Palestinian leader ended corruption and imposed
some order on the Palestinian Authority.
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