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You'd have to be really crazy to buy a used car from Shimon Peres, or even to take it for free as in all likelihood the expensive repairs it would require would be more than it was worth. The idea of buying Peres' warmed over doubly-castrated "peace plan" and "Palestinian State" is even more foolish. Yet even so, with the Arafat regime hanging by its fingernails who knows what the imbalanced "old man" and the corrupt cabal of VIP crony multi-millionaires feeding off him will be willing to do as they even more desperately attempt to save and further enrich themselves. After all they are well aware that its not so easy to explain to long-time supporters of the Palestinian struggle that under today's circumstances OPPOSING the "Palestinian State" brewed up by Peres and his terribly misguided European supporters is what needs to be done. Bottom line, as difficult as it is to explain, today's complex and convoluted situation is actually a very crafty plot to continuing stripping away Palestinian rights, further attempt to legitimize the "apartheid peace" approach, and prevent the Palestinian people from ever achieving true independence.
Meanwhile Pakistani dictator General Pervez Musharraf is in Washington playing the pandering game officials here just love.
Washington is now filled with grandeos deceptive institutions masquerading as academic or research centers but which in more and more cases have become holding companies for the State Department or the CIA, not to mention allowing themselves to be subject to yearly Congressional funding designed to make sure they always must do as directed.
Yesterday Musharraf gave his major talk at what is called the Smithsonian Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This Center is actually run these days not by a scholar at all but by the former Chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the Congress; and it has been used under-the-table for some time now to reward and collect intelligence information from carefully selected foreign scholars and diplomats.
Musharraf's speech was no doubt written by a team of well-paid public relations hacks and designed to get as much money from Congress, as many arms from the Pentagon, and as much backing from the CIA, as General Musharraf can now bring about. He may believe it's his only way at this point to stay in power; but more likely in the longer run it will bring about a further radicalization of his country and a future backlash against the U.S.
In his speech Musharraf barely evn mentioned Kashmir, and never even mentioned Palestine.
What a terrible sell-out of the proud, however poor, people of Pakistan.
JERUSALEM (Associated Press, AP, 12 February 2002) - Foreign Minister Shimon Peres revealed a peace plan Tuesday negotiated with a senior Palestinian lawmaker that calls for a cease-fire followed quickly by the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Long on optimism but short on supporters, the plan was reached between Peres and Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia, known as Abu Ala, over several months of unannounced meetings in which they strove to move beyond the daily violence and heated rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Palestinians fired two Qassam-2 rockets at a Jewish settlement in the West Bank on Tuesday, but missed, said a senior Israeli security source, speaking on condition of anonymity. It would be the first such firing in the West Bank.
A homemade rocket, the Qassam-2 has a range of three to five miles, enough to hit Israeli towns from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the past, the Islamic militant group Hamas has fired several shorter-range Qassam-1 rockets that caused no damage.
Israel's Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer warned Tuesday that he might send troops to retake some Palestinian areas for extended periods if Palestinian militants fire more Qassam-2 rockets.
Two Qassam-2 rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza landed Sunday in open fields in southern Israel, causing no injuries. Israel responded with airstrikes in Gaza City on Sunday and Monday.
"The Qassam is something that crosses all our red lines" because of its range, Ben-Eliezer told reporters during a tour of northern Israel. Tension is rising between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and West Bank security chief Jibril Rajoub, said a Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said the two had a heated disagreement when Arafat accused Rajoub of failing to prevent the release of militants from Palestinian prisons.
Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Arafat's Fatah movement, told Israel TV that all the militants should be released because "they are resisting the (Israeli) occupation." Barghouti said that the conflict with Israel must be ended. "There has to be a political plan that gives real hope to the Palestinian people," he said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed to Israel on Tuesday to end the virtual house arrest of Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah and urged both sides to stop the deadly spiral of violence and return to the negotiating table.
Annan said the peace process is "in distress" and "the situation on the ground has deteriorated to unprecedented levels," with he said over 1,100 dead and up to 20,000 injured - the overwhelming majority Palestinians.
In their peace efforts, Peres and Qureia appeared to have reached broad agreement on several important points, but it remained far from clear how much support their plan would generate among Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Peres suggested the plan was also backed by Arafat. "There is a proposal, which is acceptable to Abu Ala and his senders," Peres said on Israel radio, adding that he has shown the plan to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and expects his comments.
Peres may face a tough battle persuading Sharon, who has shot down several of his initiatives. Other members of Sharon's coalition government - including members of Peres' own Labor Party - also are skeptical.
Qureia endorsed the plan Monday, although he gave few details and the Palestinian Authority has been vague about its position. The proposal has been discussed in the media for weeks, but the two negotiators have mostly kept mum. In his first detailed description, Peres said it contains three stages, beginning with a cease-fire - a goal which has proven difficult over the 16 months of bloodshed.
Shortly after a cease-fire is achieved, the plan envisions a mutual recognition of Israeli and Palestinian states.
"We will recognize a Palestinian state, they will recognize the state of Israel," Peres told Israel Radio.
The two sides would then have one year to negotiate final borders and other terms for the Palestinian state, and another year to implement any agreement.
During a White House visit last week, Sharon said he accepted Palestinian statehood in principle, but has cautioned the road to peace is likely to last years, or even a generation.
Peres said the new Palestinian state would initially be on territory already ruled by the Palestinian Authority - about two-thirds of the Gaza Strip and 40 percent of the West Bank.
Palestinians are seeking all of Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, along with a capital in east Jerusalem.
Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said the Palestinians told him they wanted the Peres-Qureia document to include a letter stating a Palestinian state would be established along the borders existing prior to the 1967 Middle East war, meaning a total Israeli pullout from the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.
Interviewed by Israel TV, Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the final borders must be the pre-1967 war lines, but this could be accomplished in stages. He said the final borders must be stated in any agreement.
Relating to the issue, Peres said, "1967 (borders) plus changes, plus a land swap."
But Sharon, who has resisted territorial concessions, opposes such a far-reaching deal. Israel has almost 150 Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip; Sharon opposes dismantling them, and this would require keeping much of the territory.
In seven years of peace talks that broke down a year ago amid the fighting, the aim was to work out all outstanding differences, culminating with a Palestinian state.
The Peres-Qureia plan takes a different approach, establishing a Palestinian state quickly, then working out the most contentious details such as borders and the fate of 4 million Palestinian war refugees and descendants.
"The new thing in these ideas is that they clarify the end of the peace process for each side," Qureia said.
BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip (February 13, 2002 10:02 a.m. EST) - Israeli troops raided three Palestinian towns and a refugee camp on Wednesday in reprisal for Palestinian rocket fire. The raids comprised the most extensive military operation in the Gaza Strip in 16 months of fighting.
Four armed Palestinians and a civilian were killed.
Tanks withdrew from two towns and the refugee camp after several hours, but troops set up positions in the third town, Beit Hanoun, pitching tents in a girls' high school and the town square. In house-to-house searches, troops arrested at least 27 suspected Islamic militants.
Ali Shabat, 41, a farmer, said he witnessed the arrest of two neighbors. During a two-hour search of the neighbor's house, women and children were forced to stand in pouring rain, Shabat said.
After daybreak, Palestinian gunmen battled Israeli troops firing tank-mounted machine guns. Several dozen Palestinian youngsters who were throwing stones at the tanks were in the line of fire. One youngster was wounded in the leg.
Israeli Cabinet Minister Ephraim Sneh said soldiers would remain in Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza for days, until rocket factories had been found, and that the military would carry out more large-scale, long-term raids if rocket fire persists.
"This is a threat we cannot tolerate," Sneh, an ex-general, told Israel Army Radio.
The Israeli incursions responded to the firing of two homemade rockets by the Islamic militant group Hamas at southern Israel on Sunday. The rockets, called the Qassam-2, landed in open fields and caused no injuries. However, Israel is concerned that the Qassam-2, which has a range of three to five miles and is very inaccurate, can reach Israeli population centers.
Palestinian officials warned that the Israeli incursions would lead to further escalation.
"The United States must put an end to this Israeli policy," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The Israeli military closed the Gaza Strip to journalists trying to cover the incursions.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank pledged his loyalty to Arafat on Wednesday, a day after witnesses said the Palestinian leader threatened him at gunpoint during a heated argument.
Arafat was shaking at the time and the pistol fell from his hand, said a Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Arafat's aides declined comment on the incident. But one Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity that Arafat accused Jibril Rajoub of failing to prevent the release of militants from Palestinian prisons.
The Israeli operation began around midnight Tuesday, when dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers drove into the towns of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Deir al-Balah, as well as the Jebalya refugee camp.
In Deir al-Balah, three Palestinian policemen were killed when Israeli tanks shelled their positions, Palestinian security officials said. In Beit Lahiya and the adjacent Jebalya camp, soldiers searched homes and arrested 11 suspected members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups.
The largest operation was launched against Beit Hanoun, a town of about 20,000 Palestinians in northern Gaza.
A 21-year-old man, Samer Hamad, was wounded by Israeli tank fire while standing in a field near his house, Palestinian doctors said. Hamad was taken to a local clinic, but Israeli troops barred ambulances from transferring him to a hospital in Gaza City, his relatives said. The wounded man eventually was taken by taxi on a side road, but died before reaching the hospital.
The Israeli military said Palestinian paramedics never submitted a request to enter Beit Hanoun.
Army bulldozers knocked down an outer wall of the girls' high school in Beit Hanoun, and soldiers pitched tents in the courtyard and raised an Israeli flag, witnesses said. Soldiers also set up tents in the town's square.
The military said Beit Hanoun was a Hamas stronghold where many attacks against Israel had been planned, including mortar fire on nearby Jewish settlements.
Israeli troops have repeatedly entered Palestinian areas since fighting erupted in September 2000. Israeli troops last raided Beit Hanoun in December. However, Wednesday's operation was the most extensive in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli raids came as the European Union launched a new diplomatic initiative.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw met Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and was to meet later with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Arafat. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was to arrive Thursday.
On Tuesday, European foreign ministers meeting with their counterparts from the Islamic world in Istanbul, Turkey, outlined a Mideast peace plan, calling for the immediate recognition of a Palestinian state.
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/2/632.htm |