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Friday, October 26, 2001 Cheshvan 9, 5762
PM plans to offer Arafat a state - if he stops the violence
By Aluf Benn
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is working on a plan to offer the Palestinians a state even before a final agreement - provided Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat puts a halt to the violence.
The Sharon plan includes using a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush on November 11 - when the prime minister is due in Washington for a meeting with Jewish leaders - to discuss what to do if Arafat fails to crack down on the militias operating in the territories and cannot, therefore, be considered a partner for a political deal between Israel and the Palestinians.
Sharon is offering an interim agreement, which includes a Palestinian state, even before the determination of final borders or the resolution of the Jerusalem and refugee issues.
The prime minister believes that at present, there is no Israeli majority for a final agreement and that Arafat is also unable to reach an end-to-the-conflict deal. The question troubling Sharon is whether Arafat is able or wants to change his current strategy of using terror and violence to achieve his goals. Sharon conditions any political progress on an end to the violence and incitement by the Palestinians.
The Israelis believe that by the end of November, the U.S. will wind down its operation in Afghanistan, as harsh winter conditions will prevent air campaigns or the involvement of ground forces. Under such circumstances, the U.S. administration's agenda could change and Washington could be open to new ideas for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
Sharon has promised the United States that he does not intend to topple the PA, nor harm Arafat personally. But it appears that the prime minister wants to reach an understanding with Bush that would allow Israel to step up the pressure on the Palestinians.
According to government sources in Jerusalem: "If Arafat is not the partner, we'll have to exact an ever-increasing price, both militarily and politically. It's important for the United States and the international community to reach this conclusion and remove his legitimate base. That way, we'll have more freedom of action - militarily, as well," the source said.
Behind closed doors, Sharon is skeptical of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres' claims that Arafat is the only partner for a political process and that if the PA leader were to fall, he would be replaced by Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. Sharon believes that Arafat made a historic mistake when he refused to cease the hostilities and engage in political negotiations, knowing that Sharon could push a deal through with the support of the Israeli public.
Political sources said that the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi had interrupted a political move that the prime minister had begun. They noted that the night before the assassination, Sharon had decided to make a speech about a Palestinian state to a gathering of Likud central committee members in Kiryat Motzkin.
The following are the main points of the Sharon plan:
l A long-term interim agreement, with no timetable, and the postponement of the Jerusalem and refugee issues
l The Palestinian state will be established before a solution to the other issues
l The Palestinian state will be demilitarized, with the Israel Defense Forces controling its borders with Egypt and Jordan and the Israel Air Force having freedom of movement in the skies above it.
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New peace initiatives suggested by Labor Party members
By Ellis Shuman October 31, 2001
http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/diplomacy/articles/dip_0112.htm
After a long period of relative quiet on the diplomatic front, Labor Party members are promoting a number of new initiatives. Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres is reportedly finalizing a proposal that would call for a total Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian State. Knesset members Haim Ramon <javascript:;> and Shlomo Ben-Ami <javascript:;> have launched their own plan for unilateral separation. Peres told reporters yesterday that he is likely to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat when the two attend an economic conference on the Spanish island of Majorca at the end of the week. Peres said, "We shall probably meet, but we are not going to negotiate because I think that negotiations should be prepared very carefully, otherwise it will create a disappointment instead of a hope." The last time the two met was at the end of September, when they agreed to a cease-fire plan that was never implemented. Peres also repeated what he had told Labor party
Our plan is "to create a temporary border between us and them." - MK Haim Ramon
members at a meeting last Thursday -- that he was working on a new diplomatic initiative that he planned to bring to the party for approval in the near future. The Peres plan would call for a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the dismantlement of all Jewish settlements there, Maariv reported yesterday. Israel would reportedly agree to the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state. In addition, an international committee would be created, with the participation of the United Nations, European Union, the United States and Russia, that would deal with the subject of refugees and compensation for their suffering and property loss. Each side would be responsible for its own holy sites, but the question of sovereignty over Jerusalem would be postponed to a later stage, Maariv said. The Peres plan would reportedly also call for a mutual defense pact between Israel and the United States, and the creation of joint Israeli-Palestinian teams to monitor and ensure security. Maariv reported that the Peres plan has already been written and was now in final stages of editing. Peres refused to confirm the details of the plan, only admitting to Channel One television that he "wrote a draft" which he planned to discuss with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Sources in the Prime Minister's Office suggested that Sharon would probably not allow Peres to meet with Arafat because "there is no point to such a meeting," Maariv reported today. The Jerusalem Post cited unnamed sources who said that if Peres had a new diplomatic plan, it would have to be presented to the cabinet before it could be discussed with the Palestinians. Labor Party sources suggested that the presentation of Peres's diplomatic initiative, which certainly would be rejected by Sharon and the rest of the cabinet, would be the first step towards the party's departure from the national unity government, Maariv reported. Others suggested that Peres was merely presenting an alternative to the recently presented unilateral separation plan suggested by party Knesset members Haim Ramon and Shlomo Ben-Ami. Ramon and Ben-Ami present unilateral separation plan Last Thursday, Ramon and Ben-Ami announced their plan for a unilateral Israeli separation from the Palestinians. At a press conference held in Tel Aviv, they suggested that the separation plan, backed by multinational support, would be an intermediate stage before achieving a final comprehensive agreement, acceptable to the international community. According to the two, the chances of reaching an agreement with Arafat in the near future are minimal, due to the fact that he refuses to fight terror. Therefore, they suggest, Israel should call for support from the international community for a separation initiative. According to the plan, Israel would announce its intention to withdraw from the vast majority of Palestinian territory. Administration of the territory would be handed over to "international management" led by the United States. The border would be determined with Israeli territory encompassing a minimal part of the Palestinian population, but ensuring that 80% of the settlers remain under Israeli sovereignty. The proposed arrangement would remain in place until Israel and the Palestinians reached a permanent agreement, which would be achieved with international sponsorship. Ramon said the plan was intended "to create a temporary border between us and them" and that opportunities for violence and terrorism would be minimized by international involvement. Ramon and Ben-Ami announced that they hoped the Labor Party would adopt their plan, as it presented a "real alternative" to Sharon's policies of "reconquering the territories, destroying the Palestinian Authority, and then hoping for the best." Ramon said, "To the best of my knowledge, Shimon Peres opposes any unilateral action. He believes that we can come to an agreement with Arafat in which Arafat will fight terror." Ramon and Ben-Ami challenged Peres's stand by stating, "Arafat can't and won't fight terror or prevent attacks carried out by extremist groups or even groups that he is associated with." The two declared that continued negotiation on the Oslo model was futile, and that the only viable alternative to guarantee security for Israelis was unilateral action. World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman appeared to express support for elements of both the Peres initiative and the Ramon-Ben-Ami plan of unilateral separation. In an address last night at the opening of the Congress's 11th Plenary Assembly, Bronfman stated, "Settlements on the West Bank which cannot be defended should be dismantled." He termed the Israeli presence in Gaza "a mistake" and called for a new boundary to be determined separating Israelis and Palestinians by a fence. Beilin presents joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration Left-wing members of the Labor Party argue that an immediate cessation of violence and a return to negotiations are still possible. At a meeting of the Peace Coalition of leftist parties and organizations, former Justice Minister Yossi Beilin <javascript:;> presented a joint Israeli-Palestinian declaration calling for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Area A, an end to violence and terrorism, a return to negotiations and the end of the occupation. The declaration, which was short on details, stated that the Mitchell Report should serve as the basis for the return to permanent status negotiations, and that all violence, assassinations and settlement activity should be halted in order to ease tensions in the "current climate of mistrust and mutual hostility." The goals of the declaration could only be achieved "with the support of the international community and through international monitoring." Signatories to the declaration included Palestinian Minister of Culture and Information Yasser Abed Rabbo, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Nabil Amr and others. Israeli signatories included Peace Now activists, Meretz Knesset members Yossi Sarid, Naomi Chazan, Ran Cohen, Zahava Gal-on, Mossi Raz, Avshalom Vilan and Anat Maor, and Colette Avital, Yael Dayan, Eitan Cabel and Nawaf Mazalha of the Labor Party.
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October 18, 2001 Arafat as political welfare queen by Cal Thomas
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may be the world's biggest recipient of political welfare. He refuses to work toward peaceful relations with Israel. He honors none of his agreements. He continues to promote terror. And the world pays him anyway, at Israel's expense. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the latest to offer political payments to Arafat. During a meeting with Arafat in London, Blair called for the creation "of a viable Palestinian state as part of a negotiated and agreed settlement which guarantees peace and security for Israel," according to the New York Times. Ah, but there's the rub, as Blair's fellow Englishman, William Shakespeare, said. Arafat and his many brothers - from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein (whom he praised during the Iraqi shelling of Israel in the Gulf War) - don't want to guarantee Israel anything, except its extermination. Apparently that isn't clear to Blair, who also said, "Islam as a religion prevents anyone, forbids anyone to harm any civilians, any innocent people around the world." He said this after shaking hands with Arafat, who is a Muslim, but is responsible for the deaths of many, many civilians, from schoolchildren to tourists. Arafat has praised as "martyrs" the suicide bombers whose targets are exclusively civilians. If Blair and the Bush administration pressure Israel into making additional concessions to its sworn enemies, with no requirement that they live up to any of their previous promises, Arafat will again get the message that terrorism pays. When President Bush said he favors a Palestinian state, with the usual caveat about a safe and secure Israel, the reaction was instructive. The London Telegraph reported that thousands of marchers in the West Bank town of Ramallah emerged from Friday prayers Oct. 12 with cries of support for Osama bin Laden. "Osama, hit more skyscrapers," they shouted. Arafat knows he needs to give nothing, except violence, to get land. Why should he bargain when Israel is the only nation pressured to give and Arafat needs only to take? No gesture, no turning over of land to Arafat by Israel, has diminished Palestinian violence. According to an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, there have been hundreds of attacks on Israel and its civilians since Arafat's claimed cease-fire June 1. When Israel and the Palestinians "accepted" the cease-fire plan negotiated by CIA director George Tenent on June 15, violence continued unabated. On June 26, when President Bush said there had been "much progress" in ending the violence, it continued. When Arafat declared seven "quiet days" on July 2, there were 27 violent incidents that day and 110 for the remainder of the seven-day period. On July 9, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that Arafat told him he was serious about stopping the violence. It continued. On July 26, when the State Department said there had been a decline in violent incidents, those incidents persisted at the same or at greater levels than before the announcement. Last week, Israeli forces shot and killed a man believed responsible for the death of 22 Israelis, mostly teen-age girls, at a Tel Aviv disco on June 2. Asked about it, a U.S. State Department spokesman said, "We are against targeted killings." But isn't the U.S. targeting Osama bin Laden, whom the president says he wants "dead or alive"? And what about the targeted assassination of Israel's minister of tourism last week? Why do Arafat and his cronies and the United States get to target people for death, but not Israel, whose territory and population are smaller than that of the Arab world and the United States? Nothing that Israel or the United States does will deter Arafat and his friends from their objectives. They're after Israel first and then they're coming after us. Sept. 11 was just the beginning. When Tony Blair claims that Islam forbids the harming of any civilians, he must be into severe denial. Either these terrorists and others who hate America, Israel and all things Western are not Muslims, or they are conducting a major disinformation campaign that would be the envy of Joseph Goebbels and Tokyo Rose. Meanwhile, Yasser Arafat plays the role of welfare queen, taking all he can get and giving nothing in return. What's worse, no one expects anything more of him.
c2001 Tribune Media Services
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Ross Mackenzie October 18, 2001 Ok, Yasser, Here's your Palestinian state
Osama's latest outrage has irrevocably altered the picture here and in the Middle East. For the Palestinians, the jig may be up. As President Bush seeks to form a coalition of countries against terrorism, he encounters his biggest obstacles in the Arab/Muslim world. Congressional Democrats, echoing leftists everywhere, worry that military action will inflame radical wrath against moderate Arab regimes - and never mind that moderate Arab regime, with none readily coming to mind, may be an oxymoron. So as not to create unrest in countries overseen by those regimes, all of them autocratic and undemocratic, the administration insistently includes zero Arab/Muslim troops in the allied force. And what do even tentatively pro-Western Arab regimes perceive as the paramount problem with the United States? Ah, yes. The United States abides tolerance of Israeli violence against Palestinians. In short, the United States backs Israel. During the past three decades, through conventional military conflicts and urban guerrilla wars called intifadas, American efforts have sought to settle things in Palestine - for instance: the Rogers Plan (1969), Camp David I (1979), the Reagan Plan (1982), the Oslo Accords (1993), Camp David II and the Mitchell Plan (2000). The aim of each has been the trading of Israeli land for Palestinian promises of recognition and peace. And of course each has failed. The current intifada, now a year old, has cost 800 Palestinian and Israeli lives (the first, in the late 1980s, cost 300). Last year Ehud Barak, Israel's Jimmy Carter, proposed giving away half of Israel plus the Golan Heights. Yasser Arafat, whom Israel's Abba Eban has described as one who never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, said Barak's offer was insufficient and so launched Intifada II, complete with precursors of the suicide bombings Osama has brought to the United States. These suicide bombings, supported in polls by 75 percent of Palestinians, have congealed the fear of Israelis and united them as rarely before - just as Osama has united Americans as no one else since Hitler. Israeli voters have replaced their Jimmy Carter with their Ronald Reagan (Ariel Sharon), who regards boss Yasser as the terrorist goon that he is. When Osama struck, Bush II forced Sharon to agree to a cease-fire with the Palestinians, a cease-fire that so far has seen about 30 dead and 300 wounded - just as, in 1991, Bush I compelled the Israelis not to retaliate against Saddam Hussein's 39 Scuds dispatched to Israel. Neither time has the Israeli military been allowed to join the U.S.-led coalition out of fear of offending sensitive Arabs. This time, though, it is OK for the United States to seek the support of terror sponsors Iran and Syria. And this time, the ever-moderate Saudis have warned the United States to instruct the Israelis not to go after Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - all of them anti-Israeli terrorist groups - if the United States wants the Saudis to play ball against Osama, which they have not yet said publicly they will do. Bush has complied, and has tried to confirm himself in the Saudis' good graces by becoming the first president to declare his support for an eventual Palestinian state "so long as the right of Israel to exist is respected." Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, the voice of the anti-terror coalition, echoed President Bush regarding a Palestinian state last week. The gritty Sharon said something similar several days prior to Bush's statement: "Israel wants to give the Palestinians what no one else gave them before, the possibility of forming a state." Yet following Bush's statement, Sharon issued Bush a haunting warning of his own: "Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense. ... Don't repeat the terrible mistakes of 1938, when the enlightened democracies in Europe decided [at Munich] to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a comfortable, temporary solution. [Israel] will not be Czechoslovakia." The Israelis have been fighting the terror war certainly since the 1967 conventional war in which - attacked by the Arabs yet again - they won again convincingly. Yasser is not incompetent but malign. He and his fanatics are principal functionaries in the terror network. Suicide bombings in Israel originated in the territory he controls. His PLO participated with (for instance) Spain's murderous ETA at the annual conference of Northern Ireland's deadly Sinn Fein, which itself has been "advising" anti-government rebels in Colombia. Syria, Libya and Iran fund Islamist terror groups Yasser says he cannot control. Yasser directs the Palestinian Authority, which prints anti-Israeli hatred in school texts, trains Palestinian youths in guerrilla tactics, encourages the spewing of hate in mosques, coordinates the bombing of pizzerias, and organizes joyous celebrations of the murder of 6,000 in the reduction of the World Trade Center to smithereens. It's a genuine question how much more of this terror war even the resolute Israelis can take - or how much more they should be asked to. Violence, sniping and atrocities persist, with Israelis and Palestinians in virtual urban guerrilla war. Yet maybe the hour is approaching, maybe the signs are there in the statements by Bush and Sharon, when Sharon declares in effect: "OK, Yasser. Time's up. Game's over. Here's your Palestinian state. It's all yours. Indeed, we're the first country to recognize it, and President Bush says America gladly will be the second. The state will consist of a consolidated version of certain lands occupied by Palestinians following the conclusion of the 1967 war. We will move Israelis out and we will move into the new Palestinian state Palestinians living elsewhere on Israeli lands. Except for perhaps a corridor or two in and out, around this state we will build on Israeli territory - and patrol - a mile-wide no-man's-land buffer, the better for Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side in the peace we all want. Two peoples, two states - one Israeli, one Palestinian. This is ours. You fought, you lost. What's left is yours, essentially a benevolent refashioning of the lands remaining to you at the end of all the losing wars you have launched against us - wars responsible for so much misery, maiming, and death. Congratulations. Peace, brother. Make love, not war. And have a nice day." Would such an entity mark a capitulation to terror? On the contrary, it would recognize the reality that neither side can prevail under the operative rules. Indeed, it would remove the ostensible cause of Yasser's war (the lack of a Palestinian state), and might well mark the first victory in the worldwide war against terror that President Bush has declared. And then perhaps the moderate Arab regimes would rejoice in the enlistment of the Israelis in the war to nail Osama et al.
c2001 Tribune Media Services
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jpost.com
Syrian defense minister blames WTC, Pentagon attacks on Israel By Arieh O'Sullivan
TEL AVIV (October 19) - Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass has blamed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center on Israel.
At a meeting in Damascus last week with a delegation from the British Royal College of Defense Studies, Tlass said the Mossad planned the ramming of two hijacked airliners into the WTC's towers as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
He also told the British visitors that the Mossad had given thousands of Jewish employees of the WTC advance warning not to go to work that day.
The Jewish-conspiracy theory started circulating in the Middle East shortly after the terrorist outrages in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The "rationale" was that Israel wanted to provoke US retaliation against the Arab world.
In Israel and in Jewish circles abroad, the theory has been dismissed as a "gross lie." It had been dismissed by Arabists as "wishful thinking" by frustrated Arabs who badly wanted to believe that Muslims were not responsible for the atrocities.
But Tlass's comments last week indicate that it has been commuted to fact among senior Arab officialdom. Experts believe the false rumor has taken root in the Middle East, thanks to the deep anti-Semitism propagated by Arab governments as well as the myth of the "awesome power" of the Jews.
American Jewish leaders this week urged the Bush administration to debunk the rumor.
"Nobody is challenging this gross lie. Nobody is getting on Arab TV stations and saying it is a lie, it's absurd, and it's a libel," said Abraham Foxman, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League.
David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, agreed.
"Perhaps the Bush administration doesn't want to confer legitimacy on these canards by even acknowledging their existence. Sadly, this story has taken on a life of its own. It has even reached non-Muslim countries like Greece and South Africa, where Jewish communities have frantically contacted us, asking for help in refuting these charges," Harris said.
"At this point it would be very helpful for the Bush administration and other countries not only to condemn this canard, but to call it by its real name, which is raw, unadulterated anti-Semitism," he said.
In Iran, the hard-line Resalat newspaper last week quoted "experts" as saying the attacks were so complicated they had to have been carried out by the Israeli government and the Mossad.
In Kuwait, where some speakers on television have ridiculed the report, some people have even added embellishments, saying Jews were advised by New York rabbis to sell their holdings in the stock market the day before the attack and did so.
Public opinion data on Arab views on the September 11 attacks is sparse. One poll conducted a week after the attacks and published in the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar found that 31 percent of respondents thought Israel was behind the hijackings, while only 27% thought Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden was responsible, as the US has charged.
Historian Richard Levy, an expert on anti-Semitism at the University of Illinois in Chicago, said such conspiracy theories have flourished after years during which Arab governments have encouraged crude Jewish conspiracy theories.
"They have encouraged their peoples to explain politics and history by means of myth, lie, and fear. This sort of demagogy will come back to bite them," he said.
"If I were a Pakistani who has internalized what my successive governments have been telling me for years about the awesome power of the Jews and their Israeli pawns, I might well find bin Laden more attractive and inspiring than my so-called leaders," Levy said.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
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