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Holy war for Jerusalem

February 7, 2001

We're on the way now to a new and expanded struggle, maybe even a religious war, Jerusalem the focalpoint. The main reason the Barak/Peres duo tried so desperately to find some way to fudge total Israeli domination/occupation over Jerusalem was their awareness that if not semi-resolved in some way with Arafat and the "Authority" Israel established the Palestininans would be able to continue to go to the Muslim and Arab worlds for support not just for Palestinian rights but over the symbolic issue of control of the holy city.

Now comes Sharon, bull in the china shop, with his "never ever" declarations about Jerusalem, not to mention that big Israeli flag of his that flies from the highest building in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City where Sharon, unique among Israeli leaders, has long maintained a symbolic residence of his own.

The American Congress, pushed forward by the Israeli/Jewish lobby of course, may have mandated that the American Embassy be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

George W. may have so pledged to do so during the campaign. But it isn't going to happen; not soon any way. As one-sided and Israeli-fixated as the Americans really are, they aren't stupid, and they aren't going to pour such visible political gasoline on an already about-to-explode situation.

We're on the way to a new and expanded holy war for Jerusalem -- maybe half of the way there in view of what has happened just in the short time since the Pope visited the Holy Land last year.

SADDAM FORMS ARMY "TO LIBERATE JERUSALEM"

BAGHDAD, Feb 7 (AFP) - President Saddam Hussein has started to form an army "to liberate Jerusalem" from Israeli rule, a senior Iraqi official announced Wednesday.

"At the orders of President Saddam Hussein, we have started to form the first brigade of volunteers in the Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) Army to liberate Jerusalem," Ali Hassan al-Meguid, a member of the decision-making Revolutionary Command Council, told reporters.

Iraq has already announced the mobilisation of more than 6.5 million volunteers for a jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the Jewish state.

SYRIA: SHARON'S ELECTION "DECLARATION OF WAR"

DAMASCUS, Syria, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Syria's official newspapers Wednesday said the election of right-wing leader Ariel Sharon as Israel's new prime minister was a "declaration of war."

The Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of the ruling Baath Party, said peace in the Middle East was almost impossible to achieve as the "victory of the bloody terrorist, war criminal and butcher Ariel Sharon is like an official declaration of war."

"By choosing Sharon, Israel is choosing escalation, terrorism and aggression while it pushes the region again in the cycle of bloody violence," the newspaper said. "It also put the fate of peace in the whole world under the mercy of a war-crazy general."

Fayez al-Sayegh, director-general of Syrian television and radio, called on the United States to control Sharon "before the region further plunges into the cycle of terrorism that is being practiced by Israel."

Ali Abdel Karim, director of the official Syrian News Agency, said Syria "wants peace for itself and the others, but peace cannot be achieved by inequitable negotiations."

He said Syria sought peace, but needed to be strong at the same time and it did not matter who was leading Israel.

The state-run Tishrine newspaper said Sharon's election would deal "a dangerous blow to the peace process as this racist general only believes in the language of terrorism, killings and expansion and he is counting on continued support from the United States."

The newspaper said Israel did not "mature for peace."

"Any negotiations with it are not only sterile, but harmful to the Arab cause."

It called on Arab countries to adopt a firm stand against what it called Israeli threats and blackmail to be prepared for "any possible Zionist adventure."
Mid-East Realitieswww.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/2/59.htm