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Barak publicly warns of Regional War

January 4, 2001

WAR POSSIBLE AT ANY TIME NOW OF ISRAEL'S CHOOSING

ARABS UNPREPARED AND FRIGHTENED AS USUAL

Amid veiled threats from the Israelis to start targeting even more senior Arafat Regime persons, and even to bring the Arafat "Palestinian Authority" to an end, Ehud Barak has also started publicly talking about the possibility of regional war. This article from The Guardian Wednesday. Others detailing the Israeli threats to start assassinating more senior Palestinian officials to follow. The whole Arab world has been challenged once again, hardly just the Palestinianss -- but it is far too weak, far too frightened, far too corrupted, to respond appropropriately.

BARAK WARNS OF MIDDLE EAST WAR
Ewen MacAskill in Jerusalem

[The Guardian - January 3, 2001]:
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, warned yesterday that the Middle East was facing an all-out war unless the Palestinians ended their attacks on Israelis. He expressed strong scepticism about the chances of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, accepting the peace proposals put forward by the US president, Bill Clinton, and said he doubted that a deal could be done before Israel's election for prime minister on February 6, long after Mr Clinton leaves office. Mr Arafat met Mr Clinton in Washington last night to seek more details about his plan.

Amid continued bombing and shooting on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip yesterday, including the killing of a Palestinian farmer by Israeli troops, Mr Barak said the belligerence created by the Palestinian uprising "might deteriorate into a full-scale confrontation in the region", and even endanger Israel's peace pacts with Egypt and Jordan. He warned Mr Arafat at the weekend to accept the US plan or Israel would unilaterally impose a separation between itself and the Palestinian Authority.

The prospect of Israel annexing huge chunks of the West Bank in such a move risks drawing in states such as Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Mr Barak said: "We do not want it, but we have to prepare ourselves for it." He said he would not go to Washington to discuss peace until the Palestinians ended the violence. At the same time, in response to the bombing of the Israeli coastal town of Netanya on Monday night, he said all contact with the Palestinian Authority was at an end. "The behaviour of Arafat and his positions, and the difficult terror attacks of the last few days - and in some of them members of the [Palestinian] Authority were involved - [mean] we cannot continue the contacts and talks with the Palestinians," Mr Barak said.

The Palestinian leadership, which is under huge pressure from all parts of Palestinian society to reject the proposals, yesterday issued detailed criticisms of Mr Clinton's plan. Palestinian negotiators said the proposals "fail to satisfy the conditions for a permanent peace, reward Israel for illegally settling areas of the West Bank and rebuff the rights of Palestinians to return to Israel".

After the talks at the White House, Mr Arafat is due to discuss the plans with other Arab leaders in Cairo tomorrow. His foreign affairs minister, Nabil Shaath, said: "First, we have to have the American clarifications, then we'll discuss it in Cairo, and after that we take the decision, unless these clarifications comply with our demands. But I think this would be very difficult."

Given the hostility among Palestinians towards the US peace proposals, Mr Arafat will find it almost impossible to accept them. As well as the death of the Palestinian farmer, two Israeli soldiers were wounded yesterday by bombs in Jewish settlements.

The Israeli army has cracked down on the West Bank over the last few days, sealing off many Palestinian towns and villages. In one of many confrontations in the West Bank and Gaza, the army yesterday bulldozed a Palestinian house in Ein Yabrud village, directly opposite the Jewish settlement of Ofra where a rightwing Israeli extremist was shot dead on Monday. Haythem Abdel Aziz, aged 42, a carpenter, said he and his four young sons were having breakfast when Israeli troops arrived to bulldoze his home, which looks out on Ofra. Standing amid the rubble, he said: "What do I do now? They have destroyed my fridge, my stove, my washing-machine, the chairs, everything. Fifteen years of work bulldozed in 15 minutes."
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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/1/5.htm