ARABS URGE U.N. TO SEND INTERNATIONAL FORCE TO PALESTINIAN
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ARABS URGE U.N. TO SEND INTERNATIONAL FORCE TO PALESTINIAN

March 16, 2001

"If the Palestinians claim that observers are a need, let them negotiate with the Israelis." Shimon Peres Israeli Foreign Minister

The Israelis will insist on a U.S. veto of any Security Council resolution involving any serious observer force. And Shimon Peres willingly serving Ariel Sharon as his Foreign Minister makes it much easier for the Israelis to deflect international pressures.

Meanwhile the Arab "client regimes" remain so weak and co-opted that even under today's increasingly desperate circumstances nothing significant is likely to happen from the "international community" and even if the Americans do veto a Security Council resolution they will not be made to pay the price, as they should.

ISRAEL OBJECTS TO U.N. OBSERVERS

JERUSALEM (CNN - 15 March) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has appealed to the United Nations to reject a Palestinian proposal for a U.N. observer mission.

Peres told the 15 council members Israel was willing to let a U.S.-led mission investigate the causes of the current violence.

But Palestinian U.N. envoy Nasser al-Kidwa insisted a U.N. force was needed to help protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The two private meetings were a prelude to an open debate in the Security Council scheduled for Thursday on the Palestinian request to revive the U.N. force.

Immediately after the violence broke out in September, Israel said it was open to the idea of a U.S.-led investigation. The Palestinians wanted U.N. involvement, but agreed to a U.S.-led fact-finding commission appointed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Peres cautioned the U.N. Security Council "not to be one-sided" in Thursday's debate on the Palestinian proposal, which is backed by Arab states.

"They don't need a protection force," Peres said after the private meeting. "The minute they stop shooting there won't be any need for protection."

"There is no shortage of anger in the Middle East, and to add anger to anger is not a contribution to peace," Peres said. Any attempt to impose a force without Israel's okay "is really harassing the peace process."

Al-Kidwa said an observer force could help reduce tensions and "Israeli repression against the Palestinians," and possibly restore the peace process "to a status of action and life."

"The situation remains very dangerous ... and we believe that the council remains obligated to act," Al-Kidwa said.

Washington's acting Ambassador to the U.N., James Cunningham, echoed the Israeli view.

"We don't think it's a good idea to pursue a path that isn't supported by both parties. The object is to get both of them back together and working together in a way that they can mutually agree, not to get into games of pushing one side or the other," he said.

In December, the Palestinians failed to muster the necessary nine votes for a U.N. force in the 15-member council. Since that vote, the makeup of the Security Council has changed, with five new non-permanent members being seated.

The United States remains key because if a new resolution gets the necessary nine votes, it could then exercise its veto power to kill it.

The violence that erupted in the West Bank and Gaza in late September after peace talks deadlocked has brought the death toll to 383 Palestinians, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.

Israeli officials say that 65 Israeli Jews and 13 Israeli Arabs have also been killed.

Thousands have been injured in the clashes, which have also wrecked some homes and other buildings.

Peres urged the Palestinians to stop shooting and return to peace talks as "you cannot shoot and negotiate at the same time because shooting and talking is like fire and water."

PALESTINIANS CALL FOR U.N. FORCE IN WEST BANK, GAZA

UNITED NATIONS (AP - 13 March) -- The Palestinians called for an immediate Security Council meeting to approve a U.N. force to protect Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying Israel has "suffocated" the Palestinian people.

The Palestinian U.N. envoy, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said in a letter Monday that Israel's "bloody military campaign" has gotten worse since the council defeated a resolution to authorize a U.N. observer force in December after an intense U.S. campaign against it.

"The Palestinian people under Israeli occupation are now suffocated and besieged," he said, citing new Israeli restrictions on the movement of people and goods, including roadblocks, trenches and the bulldozing of paved roads.

"We are calling upon the Security Council to convene an immediate meeting to consider the increasingly dangerous situation on the ground ... with the aim of taking the necessary measures, including the establishment of a United Nations observer force to contribute in providing protection for the Palestinian civilians," Al-Kidwa said in the letter to Security Council president Volodymyr Yel'chenko of Ukraine.

The Palestinian decision to seek an immediate council meeting came hours after Arab ministers meeting in Cairo asked the Security Council to review Israel's tightening blockade of Palestinian territories and create an international force to protect the Palestinians.

Bangladesh's U.N. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury presented Al-Kidwa's letter to the council Monday afternoon on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement of developing countries, which spearheaded the Palestinians' unsuccessful campaign in December for a U.N. force.

Ukraine's deputy ambassador Valeri Kuchynski said Tuesday that consultations were continuing between countries and within regional groups.

"So far no dates have been agreed upon, and the format of the meeting has not yet been finalized," he said.

Israel opposes a U.N. force, arguing instead for continued direct negotiations between the two sides to end the fighting, which has killed 425 people since September 28, including 349 Palestinians, 57 Israeli Jews and 19 others.

The United States mounted a campaign to block the original Palestinian proposal because Israel objected to it. Diplomats said the United States tried to block discussion of the new Palestinian request in the council on Monday. Israel also reiterated its opposition.

Israel's mission to the United Nations said the Palestinians had started the violence and that to now ask for international intervention was cynical and unacceptable.

Despite a five-week campaign and a personal appeal from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians failed to get the necessary nine "yes" votes for a U.N. force in the 15-member council on December 18.

Since that vote, the leadership of Israel and the United States has changed -- and so has the makeup of the Security Council, with five new non-permanent members.

Their positions will likely determine whether the United States might have to veto a new resolution for a force, if one is brought to a vote.

China's deputy U.N. ambassador Shen Guofang, whose country backs the Palestinians, said after Monday's council meeting that "the situation is really very deteriorating, and we hope that the council would discuss the issue ... and hopefully we can take some measures."

Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of Britain, which did not support the December resolution, said the council should "do what is practical" and try to get the peace process going again.

Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian envoy, said "the council has a responsibility" to act quickly and authorize a force because lives are at stake.

Since the December vote, "there were at least 70 to 75 more Palestinians killed in addition to thousands injured. Some of those lives could have been saved," he told The Associated Press. Al-Kidwa said he was hopeful that this time the Palestinians will be successful.

"We assume it will be possible this time," he said. "We will not even try to predict what the new U.S. administration may or may not do. They have their own responsibilities, and they will have to take their decision."

ARABS URGE U.N. TO SEND INTERNATIONAL FORCE TO PALESTINIAN

CAIRO, Egypt (AP - 12 March ) -- Arab foreign ministers said Monday that Israel's tightening of a blockade of Palestinian territories will worsen security conditions and urged deployment of international troops to protect the Palestinians.

Israeli troops on Sunday dug trenches and deployed tanks around several Palestinian towns, cutting access to the towns and isolating dozens of villages with tens of thousands of residents.

Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the political department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told the ministers meeting at Arab League headquarters in Cairo that the Israeli move "has virtually cut the West bank into 40 pieces and Gaza into 5 pieces."

"This step will add to the continuous Israeli measures to isolate the Palestinian people from the outside world and destroy its economy," a statement by the foreign ministers said.

"It also rings the alarm for further deterioration in the security conditions and increases the already heightening tension," the statement said.

The ministers said Arab governments will ask the U.N. Security Council to review the situation and set up an international force to be sent to the territories to protect the Palestinians.

In Israel Monday, new Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his Cabinet for its first meeting amid sharp disagreement among his ministers over the intensified siege. Ministers from the center-left Labor Party warned that the new policy could backfire and trigger more violence.

Sharon denied that the restrictions were part of a tougher policy toward the Palestinians, saying the army had imposed the tight closure in response to specific warnings about a terror attack. Sharon aides said they believed the closure would be eased in the coming days.

The Arab ministers meeting in Cairo also tried to hammer out an agenda for an Arab summit in Jordan later this month amid differences over what should be the top priority -- the stalled Middle East peace process or the conflict between Iraq and the United Nations.

On Sunday the ministers endorsed a plan to speed up delivery of some $1 billion that an Arab summit in October allocated for the Palestinian Authority. Under the plan, the embattled Authority will receive some $40 million each month to pay for its urgent needs while more money will be funneled for humanitarian purposes.

While the Arab ministers showed unanimity over the Palestinian conflict with Israel, statements made at an opening session Monday indicated wider disagreements over Iraq's decade-long crisis with the United Nations.

Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdul Meguid said differences over Iraq still divide Arabs and warned that without resolution of the Iraqi issue Arabs cannot restore confidence and solidarity.

Algerian Foreign Minister Abdel Aziz Belkhadem said sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait should be immediately lifted.

Under U.N. resolutions, the sanctions that have crippled the Iraqi economy cannot be lifted until Iraq proves it has surrendered weapons of mass destruction.

While expressing sympathy with the Iraqi people suffering under sanctions, Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheik Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani said the sanctions could only be lifted "through a political solution to the (Iraq) crisis based on dialogue and openness."

At an evening session, the ministers spent more than five hours trying to resolve a dispute between Iraq and Kuwait over a draft resolution which they plan to submit to the summit.

Diplomats taking part in the discussions said that Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf insisted the upcoming summit should endorse a resolution calling for the immediate lifting of the sanctions.

But the Kuwaiti delegation vehemently rejected the Iraqi demand, saying Iraq should first apologize for its 1990 invasion of the emirate, according to the diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Kuwaitis, backed by Saudi Arabia, also argued that the lifting of sanctions should be dealt with by the Security Council.

Other ministers, headed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, tried to reach a compromise, fearing the dispute could jeopardize the summit.


March 2001


Magazine



SHARON UPSCALES VIOLENCE TO UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS
(March 31, 2001)
Yesterday, on Palestinian Land Day, the Israeli army killed five Palestinians in Nablus and one in Ramallah during civilian demonstrations protesting the Israeli occupation. 150 Palestinians were injured, several of them in critical condition.

CHOMSKY ON THE MID-EAST CONFLICT
(March 31, 2001)
Well, just how dangerous is the crisis in the Middle East? There is a UN Special Envoy, a Norwegian, Roed-Larson. A couple of days ago, he warned that Israel's blockade of the Palestinian areas is leading to enormous suffering and could rapidly detonate a regional war.

FIVE PALESTINIANS KILLED AS WAR OF WORDS FLARES IN MIDDLE EAST
(March 30, 2001)
Clashes raged across the Palestinian territories Friday, killing five Palestinians, as Israelis and Palestinians exchanged fiery rhetoric on the traditionally violent anniversary of a 1976 Israeli crackdown on Arab demonstrators.

CLASHES ERUPT AMID WAVE OF ANTI-ISRAELI PROTESTS
(March 30, 2001)
Israeli troops opened fire with live rounds on Friday to try to halt Palestinians marching in cities across the West Bank and Gaza Strip to demand civil rights and an end to Israeli occupation.

AN ISRAELI OFFERS HOPE AMIDST THE DARKNESS
(March 30, 2001)
In the past two weeks, we are witnessing the beginning of a new phase: Israelis and Palestinians are extending a hesitant hand to each other, across the IDF's barricades and checkpoints.

A CONFLICT SINKING TO NEW DEPTHS
(March 29, 2001)
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has sunk to appalling new depths with several days of intensified violence that left children on both sides to form the bulk of the dead.

ISRAELIS STRIKE, NOBODY RESPONDS
(March 29, 2001)
The Egyptians and Jordanians could and should totally suspend their relations with Israel; but they do not. The Arabs could collectively demand Israel be suspended from the U.N. General Assembly; but they did not decide to do so at their little summit just ended where they in fact did nothing serious.

ASSAD & SADDAM "ATTACK"
(March 28, 2001)
Lot of rhetoric, more than expected in fact. But mostly a smookescreen for never-ending impotence and inexcuseable weakness. So much for the Arab Summit in Amman. Until those Arab "leaders" who have squandered the wealth and heritage of their countries, and indeed of their once powerful civilization, are replaced; until the "client regimes" of the Arab world are no more; this tragic spectacle known as Arab "summits" will continue to be a deep embarrassment and a historic tragedy.

ARAB SUMMITS - RIDICULOUS SPECTACLES
(March 27, 2001)
Arab "leaders", the "client regimes", and Arab "summits", have been ridiculous spectacles for a long time now. Last time they met like this the American armies were descending on Arabia, getting ready to destroy Iraq and put one of their own, the despicable British-created Emir, back on his oil throne in Kuwait City.

ARAB SUMMITEERS AND CROCODILE TEARS
(March 26, 2001)
"They will talk and talk and talk and look important and remain as always, impotent, indecisive and inactive. They might pledge a few pennies to the Palestinian dying or the mortally wounded, they might voice support of the 6-month-old Intifida, but nothing but pomp and ceremony will come of it all."

TIME TO FORCE A U.S. VETO AND TAKE SERIOUS ACTION AGAINST ISRAEL
(March 25, 2001)
What the Arab States meeting in summit in Amman on Tuesday should do is not a mystery: First they should insist on a U.N. Security Council resolution that has teeth; and if the U.S. vetos so be it.

THE U.N. AND THE ARAB LEAGUE CHARADES
(March 25, 2001)
The U.N. and Arab League charades have gone on for so many years now. Never has either body taken serious action when it comes to Israel. Always the U.S. is there to block the way, to twist things from potentially useful to impotent, to manuever so that the U.S. remains dominant internationally and Israel remains dominant in the region.

ISRAELI ARMY BRUTALLY ATTACKS PEACEFUL CIVILIAN PROTEST MARCH
(March 24, 2001)
Today at 1:00 p.m., the Israeli army fired sound bombs, tear gas, and rubber coated steel bullets at thousands of peaceful protesters at the Al-Ram checkpoint.

SHARON MOVING FAST
(March 24, 2001)
haron and company are now likely to move quickly to further "control" the Palestinians and establish their hegemonic and war-threatening policies in the Middle East.

Today in Occupied Palestine
(March 23, 2001)
Amr Moussa and the Arab political elite representing the "client regimes" have been deceived and acted foolishingly, as well as selfishly, for quite a long time now.

AL-JAZEERA - ARAFAT STILL TWISTS TO ISRAELI AND U.S. TUNE
(March 22, 2001)
Al-Jazeera satellite TV now feeds a hungry Arab world, one starved for so long that even this carefully-controlled Qatari-financed TV news and pictures source has met with considerable success.

WHAT SHOULD BE WITH ISRAEL
(March 22, 2001)
If the Arabs regimes were serious, indeed if they were truly independent, they would institute a Arab and Muslim regional boycott of Israel at this point, at least suspend all diplomatic and economic relations with Israel, and forcefully move to have the U.N. General Assembly suspend Israeli credentials (as was done with South Africa in the days of Apartheid) as soon as the U.S. again prevents the Security Council from acting in the days ahead.

ARAB AND MUSLIM GROUPS IN USA WORSE THAN EVER
(March 20, 2001)
We were wrong in our analysis earlier today. The Arab and Muslim groups did not even manage a few hundred protestors at the White House today -- the number was closer to a few dozen at most, including the handful of fanatical bearded and side-curled Naturei Karta Jews who are encouraged by these groups to show up these days.

WASHINGTON SCENE: ARAB AND MUSLIM GROUPS PROVE IMPOTENCE ONCE AGAIN
(March 20, 2001)
It's depressing, almost pathetic, to watch the Arab and Muslim American groups "protest" these days. Leaderless and strategyless, though as usual feverishly combining all of their capabilities together to create even this, the groups managed to bring maybe five or six hundred persons to the sidewalk across from the Washington Hilton last evening for a carefully self-controlled demonstration.

WHAT ISRAEL IS DOING IS "FORBIDDEN"
(March 19, 2001)
"What is being done in the territories is simply forbidden. To safeguard against such acts, people have established laws and norms; those who wish to return to the norms current a century ago ought not to be surprised when they are treated as pariahs - indeed, as ghosts from bygone days."

ARABS URGE U.N. TO SEND INTERNATIONAL FORCE TO PALESTINIAN
(March 16, 2001)
The Israelis will insist on a U.S. veto of any Security Council resolution involving any serious observer force. And Shimon Peres willingly serving Ariel Sharon as his Foreign Minister makes it much easier for the Israelis to deflect international pressures.

WE DIDN'T SEE; WE DIDN'T KNOW
(March 15, 2001)
The Palestinian people have many symbols, and one of them is Bir Zeit university near Ramallah - the secular intellectual center of the society.

SHARON COMETH
(March 14, 2001)
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.

U.S. MEDIA ESTABLISHMENT HELPS PREPARE SHARON'S WAY
(March 13, 2001)
Sharon's PR people are working hard preparing his way for a triumphant visit to the USA in a few days. They choose Lally Weymouth, long a "friendly journalist", for one of his first major interviews -- published in Newsweek this week.

ISRAELI CONCENTRATION CAMPS
(March 12, 2001)
If barbed wire were used, the symbolism would be too much like concentration camps of old.

BIR ZEIT UNIVERSITY CRIES OUT FOR HELP
(March 11, 2001)
As usual these days, the Palestinian people are being collectively tortured into submission with still expanding forms of bondage, oppression, and brutal force.

PERES FRONTS FOR SHARON AS ISRAELIS PUSH FORWARD MAJOR PROPAGANDA
(March 10, 200198)
Who is more despicable is debateable these days. But surely Shimon Peres is deserving of nomination. As Israeli army snipers pick off Palestinians and as Israeli army bulldozers dig trenches around Palestinian towns and cities, Peres fronts for the new Sharon regime telling the world the Israelis are going to "make life better for the Palestinians"!

TRENCH AND SIEGE WARFARE
(March 8, 2001)
The words, and the acts, go back before the bible itself -- trench warfare and siege. The Romans built walls and laid siege to Jerusalem and Masada. Trenches, though for a different purpose, became synonymous with World War I.

CRIES FROM PALESTINE AND CRIES FROM ISRAEL
(March 6, 2001)
My sister-in-law just called crying - about 4 hours ago Al-Bireh had about 3 minutes of heavy gunfire..... her neighbor, Aida, was walking back home on the Friends road from Ramallah after shopping for the Eid holiday.

OH MY GOD! CLINTON WON'T LEAVE THE WORLD ALONE!
(March 5, 2001)
They came to Washington -- the two-for-one power couple -- with the campaign promise to bring health care to all Americans; they left (but Hillary is already back on Capitol Hill) with the dangerous corporate for profit HMO's in power and more uninsured than ever despite the economic juggernaunt.

MIDEAST CONFLICT TEARS AT BROTHERLY BOND
(March 5, 2001)
Hostilities engulf West Bank siblings, who remain close despite their split between Jewish and Muslim faiths.

BOMB BLAST IN ISRAELI COASTAL CITY
(March 4, 2001)
A powerful bomb exploded during morning rush hour Sunday in a crowded open-air market in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya.

ISRAELIS LAY SIEGE TO PALESTINIAN CITIES
(March 3, 2001)
Sometime in the future there will be a day of reckoning for the Israelis. But that day is not yet here while the suffering of the Palestinians is, literally, more and more as each day dawns.

FIELD OF THORNS
(March 3, 2001)
The Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which in late September 2000 began as a wave of popular protest against Ariel Sharon's belligerent incursion into Jerusalem's sacred Haram al-Sharif, has developed into a full-fledged war of attrition against the Israeli occupation, which rather ironically paved the aggressive right-wing leader's path to power.

REGIONAL WAR PREPARATIONS AND PUBLIC OPINION MANIPULATION ESCALATE
(March 2, 2001)
Iraq responded to U.S. air strikes on Feb. 16 by deploying thousands of troops from six divisions to positions near the Jordanian border, triggering military alerts in Tel Aviv, Washington and in several Gulf capitals.

SHARON AND PERES TEAM UP
(March 2, 2001)
It was a massacre. Not since Sabra and Chatila had I seen the innocent slaughtered like this. The Lebanese refugee women and children and men lay in heaps, their heads or arms or legs missing, beheaded or disemboweled.

SHARON GETS READY TO ACT. ARAFAT GETS READY TO LEAVE?
(March 1, 2001)
Arafat and regime are about collapse -- i.e., the money and capabilities provided by the U.S. and Israel to keep the PA going are being cut off if Arafat doesn't shape up!

BLEAK FUTURE FOR BOTH PALESTINIANS AND ISRAELIS
(March 1, 2001)
Shimon Peres has many secrets to try to keep, and that explains his desperation to stay in power practically at any cost. Ariel Sharon knows this.




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