Mid-East Realitieswww.middleeast.org

ISRAEL STRIKES STILL HARDER, IMPOTENT ARAB "CLIENT REGIMES" COWER

April 17, 2001

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 4/17: We shouldn't be surprised what the Israelis are doing. Ehud Barak may have hesitated, but after all in the end both he and Shimon Peres publicly gave their endorsements to Ariel Sharon and Sharon has been warning and threatening to do just such things for a very long time.

BUT we should be surprised by the even greater weakness and co-optation of the Arab "client regimes" than many imagined. They are completely impotent, pretty much worthless it seems, in the face of Israeli/American power and domination. They cannot even bring themselves to end all diplomatic relations and boycott all Israeli products. They cannot even bring themselves to bring the issue of suspension of Israel from the U.N. to the General Assembly, where the U.S. and U.K. vetoes do not apply.

Indeed, it is precisely because the Arab regimes are so weak, so divided, so confused, and so co-opted that the Israelis have moved step by step to control the region and quite literally pound and torture in one way or another anyone who opposes them into submission. And furthermore, indeed, it is precisely because the major Arab "client regimes" are so co-opted by, manipulated by, controlled by, and yes infiltrated as well by the United States that they are impotent to even resist in a serious way, as well as cowardly in refusing to use any of the major diplomatic and economic weapons at their disposal, even if their armies are still only capable of and designed for internal repression.

While MER-TV was busy interviewing the extraordinary Israeli writer Israel Shamir yesterday about his vision for a peaceful future of co-existence and understanding, the Israelis were busy further undermining that possibility by still further expanding their military strikes against Lebanon and Syria in the north as well as "retaking" parts of the 65% of Gaza "administered" by the very Arafat "Authority" they established.

ISRAEL RETAKES PARTS OF GAZA CAUSING DISARRAY

By Wafa Amr

GAZA, April 17 (Reuters) - Israeli troops took back parts of the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday after a withering hail of fire from land, sea and air killed one person, wounded 30 and left life in the area in disarray.

In the latest sign of right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "get tough" policy, the 45-km (27-mile) long Gaza Strip was effectively carved into three separate areas with its main coastal road cut by Israeli checkpoints.

The Israeli army said Sharon had ordered the assaults after five mortar bombs fired from the strip slammed into the southern Israeli town of Sderot five km (three miles) away. The military wing of the Muslim militant group Hamas said it had fired them.

The mortar rounds landed deeper in Israel than any since the start of a Palestinian uprising for independence last September, falling just down the road from Sharon's Negev Desert ranch.

Some residents were forced into using donkeys and making long detours to get to destinations in the strip, where 1.2 million Palestinians live in an area that at some points is just four km (2.5 miles) wide.

Gaza City's main police headquarters and two elite Force 17 security unit posts were among at least seven main targets in an attack that lasted for hours. An Israeli army spokesman declined to say how long troops would remain in the strip.

Palestinian sources said a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman had been killed in the Israeli reprisal.

Apart from the wounded, hospitals reported that relatives had brought dozens of people in for help from shock after they endured six hours of night bombardment that residents said was the worst since the start of violence seven months ago.

The Gaza attacks, involving tanks, helicopter gunships, missiles, ships and bulldozers, began less than 24 hours after Israel's first bombing raid on a Syrian target in Lebanon for five years.

Arab nations blasted Israel's security offensive and western nations called for restraint on all sides.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said Israel was acting in a "despicable" way and urged a firm stance against what it called Israel's warmongering.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that the attack demonstrated that Israel had moved away from the language of peace and adopted one of war and destruction.

DONKEY CARTS

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of children, men, women, students and workers turned to beach travel in donkey carts to take them to points where they could pick up taxis and buses.

Israel has tanks on main roads, all of which are closed.

An Israeli bulldozer dug a trench in the coastal road and piled it with stones to prevent travel.

"These escalatory Israeli measures are not intended to put an end to the Intifada (uprising), but are aimed at humiliating us and make us submit to Israel's will," Iyad Ismail, 29, a bank employee, told Reuters.

"It's clear that Israel has expanded the sphere of war with the Palestinians. It has carried out a new and dangerous step by reoccupying Palestinian areas," Palestinian cabinet minister Hassan Asfour told Reuters.

Witnesses said the army had thrust into Palestinian-ruled Beit Hanoun near the Erez crossing to Israel and at several other points. Blockades kept Palestinians from entering an area of homes and orchards.

The army said it had taken over the land because it was being used for actions against Israel and would leave once violence ended.

Israel transferred most of the Gaza Strip to Palestinian rule in 1994 at the start of seven years of peacemaking, which deadlocked before the latest spate of violence began.

AT LEAST 378 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN INTIFADA

"It is high time Arab leaders reconsidered their ways of how to confront and how to put an end to this aggression...Will they wake up after all the Palestinian land is reoccupied and after Israel enters all Arab capitals?" Palestinian minister Asfour said.

"We call on the Arab people to go down to the streets in their countries and wake up their leaders."

At least 378 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 71 other Israelis have died since the uprising began in September. The dead included a Palestinian teenager shot dead by Israeli troops after he stabbed and lightly wounded a soldier in the West Bank.

An Israeli army spokesman declined to say how long Israeli troops would remain.

"We are not speaking of an occupation, we are speaking of taking control," Brigadier-General Ron Kitrey told Israel Radio.

"We are speaking of a shifting to the depth of the Palestinian territory of a few hundred metres (yards) up to a kilometre (half a mile) in certain places," Kitrey said.

He said troops could stay a few days or "a few more days" until the Palestinian Authority restored order to its own people.

"It will go on so long as there is a need for our steps in order to carry out what the Authority has failed to carry out or avoided carrying out -- and that is to ensure there will not be terrorist activity or shooting activity at Israeli citizens or communities," Kitrey told Israel's Army Radio.

ISRAEL OPENS FIRE ON GAZA BUSES

Most Serious Attack Against Syrian Target in 20 Years

By Alan Philps in Jerusalem

[Daily Telegraph, UK, 17 April] ISRAEL warned its Arab neighbours yesterday that the "rules of the game have changed" after it launched its most serious raid on a Syrian military target in Lebanon for almost 20 years.

Syria denounced the "aggressive policies" of Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, saying it reserved the right to defend itself. A spokesman in Damascus described the air raid - in which three Syrian soldiers were reported killed and six wounded - as a "dangerous escalation that could destabilise security and stability in the region".

The region was rocked by further violence last night when Israeli helicopters and ships fired missiles at bases of the Palestinians' Force 17 security unit in central Gaza. The attack came hours after Palestinian mortar bombs fell on the Israeli town of Sderot, three miles from the Gaza Strip. They caused no casualties or damage, military officials said.

Israeli forces also raided Beit Hanun, an area under Palestinian control in the northern Gaza Strip, destroying Palestinian border police positions with bulldozers. At least 20 Palestinians are said to have been wounded in the attacks.

Washington led calls for restraint, saying it was time to end the "cycle of violence in the Middle East". Israel said it launched the raid in retaliation for the killing of a soldier on Saturday in a cross-border missile attack by Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia Muslim guerrilla force financed by Iran and backed by Syria. The Israeli government has blamed Damascus for not reining in the guerrillas since Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon last May.

In a statement later, Hizbollah threatened to strike at northern Israel with Katyusha rockets. "The Islamic resistance knows when, where and how to strike at the enemy with painful blows," it said

The Israelis' target was a Syrian radar installation near the Dahr el-Baidar mountain pass, about 20 miles east of Beirut. It was the first Israeli attack on such an important Syrian installation since the Jewish state invaded Lebanon in 1982. Until last year's withdrawal, Israel staged almost daily attacks on the guerrillas. But the Syrian army - which has 30,000 troops in Lebanon - was never the primary target.

The Israeli Defence Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said: "The rules of the game have changed. We sent a message to the Syrians that we see them as the only ones responsible." Mr Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said no one should underestimate the new prime minister's determination.

He said: "Regarding the Syrians, there will be a need for them and for Hizbollah - and for the Palestinians, by the way - to reassess the situation vis-a-vis Israel's preparedness, readiness and determination to respond."

The conflict between Hizbollah and the Israeli army is over the Shebaa Farms, a disputed patch of grazing land on the borders between Lebanon, Syria and Israel. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the United Nations ruled that the area was not Lebanese territory, but Hizbollah has not accepted this.

By continuing to wage a sporadic war, Hizbollah is fuelling opposition within Lebanon to the Syrian presence there. Christian Maronite leaders are openly campaigning for Syrian troops to follow the Israelis and pull out of their country.

The Israeli raid presents the young Syrian leader, President Bashar al-Assad, with his first major military challenge. However, it is not clear what kind of military response could be forthcoming as Syria's armed forces have been no match for Israel's since the collapse of the Soviet Union which used to supply them with arms.

Despite outrage in the Arab world over the Israeli attack, the Jordanian Foreign Minister, Adel-Ilah al-Khatib, went ahead with a visit to Jerusalem to promote an Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative designed to end the seven-month Palestinian uprising. Mr Khatib is the first Arab minister to visit Jerusalem since the Right-wing hard-liner Mr Sharon came to power in January.

Despite outrage in the Arab world over the Israeli attack, Jordan's Foreign Minister, Adel-Ilah al-Khatib, went ahead with a visit to Jerusalem to promote an Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative. The plan calls for a timetable for a final-status deal between Israel and the Palestinians. But the hawkish Mr Sharon has said he is interested only in a non-belligerency pact. He is refusing to evacuate any Israeli settlement on occupied land.
Mid-East Realitieswww.middleeast.org

Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2001/4/157.htm