A rchive Date
[ 29-03-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
|
[http://canoe.ca/Canoe/canoecnews.html
Israel decides to 'isolate' Arafat
Tanks surround West Bank compound
By STEVE WEIZMAN-- Associated Press
Friday, Mar. 29, 2002
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli tanks surrounded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's West Bank office in Ramallah early Friday, as Israel's Cabinet decided to isolate Arafat in response to Palestinian terror attacks, a Cabinet minister said.
Israel is also calling up some of its army reserves to deal with increased Palestinian attacks, said Cabinet minister Raanan Cohen. He said the main decision was to impose total isolation on Arafat. Israel Radio said the decision declares Arafat an "enemy." The decision was to be released formally at a news conference later Friday.
An Israeli bulldozer was demolishing a wall around Arafat's compound, witnesses said. Israeli tanks were parked next to all the gates of the compound in the center of town, closer than Israeli forces have approached in the past. Exchanges of fire were reported nearby.
Convening his Cabinet in emergency session, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon blamed Arafat personally for two bloody attacks in two days - a suicide bombing that killed 20 guests at a Passover dinner Wednesday night and a shooting at a Jewish settlement Thursday in which four Israelis died.
Just after the Cabinet meeting ended, a Palestinian infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip and stabbed two Israelis to death, said rescue service spokesman Yeruham Mandola. He said soldiers were making house-to-house searches.
Arafat said Thursday he was ready for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire, but he stopped short of formally declaring a cease-fire, and Sharon blamed him for the recent bloodshed.
On Thursday night, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at the Jewish settlement of Eilon Moreh near the West Bank town of Nablus, killing four, before being shot dead by soldiers, the military said.
The militant Islamic group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Earlier, Arafat, speaking at a news conference in his West Bank headquarters of Ramallah, said the Palestinians had informed U.S. envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni of "our readiness for an immediate implementation of the (U.S. truce) plan without any conditions." The Palestinians have been holding out for some changes, while Israel accepted Zinni's bridging proposals reluctantly.
Arafat's statement was the strongest signal yet that the Palestinians were prepared for a cease-fire. Zinni has been attempting to broker a truce for the past two weeks, but the sides have been at odds on how to implement the U.S. plan that they both endorse in principle.
In his remarks, Arafat said the Palestinians would accept the U.S. plan as it was, without any amendments.
Still, Arafat did not declare a truce outright, and Israel's immediate response was cool.
"The increase in terrorist activity, in terror actions, one man stands behind it - that's Arafat," Sharon told reporters at the start of the Cabinet session. "Because the Palestinian Authority has not taken even the smallest step against this activity, I decided that the Cabinet would convene this evening. It needs to make some decisions."
Palestinian security sources in the West Bank town of Hebron denied reports of a roundup of Islamic militants there. They said no arrests had been made and in fact police would have nowhere to take suspects as all security installations had been evacuated, for fear of an Israeli strike.
Arafat said the Israelis were planning a major military strike against the Palestinians. "Unfortunately, there are some aggressive preparations by the Israelis to have a wide military operation against our civilians, our cities and our refugee camps," he said.
Arafat said Israeli military action would undermine a peace initiative approved Thursday at the Arab summit, which calls for Arab states to normalize relations with Israel if it withdraws from land captured during the 1967 Mideast war.
Raanan Gissin, Sharon's spokesman, said the Arab offer was "a very interesting development, something that should be pursued" - and that Arab states should now enter into direct negotiations with Israel. Sharon has rejected a return of all of the strategic territories Israel seized in 1967, though a previous government offered the Palestinians all of the Gaza Strip and more than 90 percent of the West Bank in failed negotiations.
The Wednesday night suicide bombing in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya was seen by many Israelis as a turning point. "They attacked innocent Israelis on one of the most sacred nights to Jewish people, Passover," said Gideon Meir, an Israeli government spokesman.
Gissin said Israel had made it clear to the United States that it reserved the right to retaliate harshly if Palestinians carried out a major terror attack during cease-fire talks. "Israel will have the full right to self defense and will use appropriate measures to punish all those who perpetrated and assisted in this attack," he said.
Military analyst Ron Ben-Ishai said on Israel TV that senior army officers and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had come up with a plan for incursions into Palestinian territories to capture suspected militants and deter more attacks.
In anticipation of a possible Israeli strike, Palestinian government offices were evacuated in the West Bank. In Ramallah, worried parents took their children home early from school and residents stocked up on food.
Israeli troops tightened blockades of Palestinian towns across the West Bank and halted Palestinian traffic between the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
The U.S. truce plan would require Israel to gradually lift the blockade of Palestinian towns and the Palestinians to end violence against Israel and arrest militants.
The Palestinian Authority said it "strongly condemned" Wednesday night's suicide bombing, in which 25-year-old Abdel Baset Odeh, a Hamas member, walked into the Park Hotel just as about 250 guests dressed in their holiday best were sitting down for the traditional Passover Seder, and blew himself up in their midst.
It was the deadliest Palestinian attack since 22 young people were killed when a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to a Tel Aviv disco last June.
A Hamas spokesman, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said the bombing was not an attempt to derail the summit or Zinni's mission but part of an ongoing campaign against Israel. The group is pledged to Israel's destruction.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|