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ISRAELIS UNDER SIEGE WITH ARAFAT FACING HIS OWN

July 10, 2001

"It's a crime against humanity that destroys any possibility towards dialogue." Meir Margalit Israeli Jerusalem Municipality Council (publicly commenting on sweeping Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes)

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/10: Nearly half of the Israeli Jewish population got a stern warning yesterday - don't drink the water. Today Israel's lifeline, it's international airport between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, is under virtual siege with huge traffic jams as all vehicles undergo the kind of rigorous fender-to-fender inspection previously reserved for just "Arab" cars with special blue plates. And up north, the Iranians are coming.

As for the Palestinians, the Israelis are destroying their homes at an escalating pace clearly hoping to make the Palestinian population suffer even more coupled with the thinly disguised deisre to provoke responses that will then be said to justify still more devastation and bloodshed. And Arafat too faces rebellion on all fronts, including as we have suggested before the likelihood that the Americans and Israelis are jointly manuevering to soon topple him in one way or another if he doesn't follow their orders even more closely.

The pace of events is escalating out of control. A cataclysm of destruction and recriminations draws closer. And it will in turn lead to still more hatreds and devastations in future years.

ARAFAT IN FEUD WITH TOP AID, INTELLIGENCE CHIEF

[World Tribune - Tuesday, July 10, 2001] JERUSALEM - Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is said to be facing opposition from several of his key aides.

Israeli and Palestinian sources said the policy differences - aired in talks with U.S. officials - caused Arafat to break off communications with his leading aide, PLO Executive Committee secretary Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian intelligence chief Amin Hindi and PA security chief Jibril Rajoub.

The sources said the dispute between the two Palestinian figures began in April when Abbas - in the United States for medical treatment - was invited to Washington to meet senior Bush administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell. Abbas was said to have criticized Arafat's handling of the Palestinian war against Israel and voiced his belief that the violence has turned counterproductive.

The discussion was leaked to both Israel as well as Arafat, Middle East Newsline reported. Arafat, the sources said, confronted Abbas on his return to Ramallah and the two men engaged in a heated argument. Since then, the sources said, Arafat has stopped talking to Abbas.

The result, the sources said, is that Arafat refuses to invite the PLO secretary to key meetings. Arafat's boycott has extended for at least two months and he has rejected Abbas's appeals for a reconciliation.

The Arafat-Abbas rift comes as Israeli sources report of Palestinian plans to resume bombing attacks in Israeli cities. On Monday, Palestinian gunners renewed mortar attacks in the Gaza Strip and a deputy company commander was killed by a Palestinian bomb.

The sources said Hindi and Rajoub share the criticism of Arafat. As a result, Arafat has voiced his concern that Washington and Israel are planning to unseat him.

Palestinian sources said Arafat is planning to reshuffle his Cabinet to bolster his support. They said up to six ministers could be replaced and some of them could be replaced by Hamas members.

ISRAEL SEIZES TOP IRANIAN LINKED TO BOMB GROUP

By Inigo Gilmore in Jerusalem
[The Telegraph, UK, 7/10} A MEMBER of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who is reported to be close to President Mohammed Khatami was being held yesterday by Israeli forces after crossing the border from Lebanon.

The reports of his capture were seen in Israel as a sign that Iran was stepping up its activities with the Hizbollah guerrillas with a view to launching military strikes against Israel.

According to media reports, he initially told his interrogators that he had defected to Israel because he was being persecuted in Iran for criticising its religious leaders.

However, Israeli security officials say the man, who told his questioners that he was sent to Lebanon with five other Iranians, was a senior official in the Revolutionary Guard. The Israeli authorities say the guard has begun recently to operate in several areas of southern Lebanon.

The man, named in the Israeli press as Fas Houdari, an "assistant" to President Khatami's 14-year-old son, was reported to have been seized at the Fatma Pass on the frontier.

The reports of his detention came as a Hamas suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at an entrance to the Gaza Strip. No one else was hurt.

The radical Islamic group has vowed that several "human bombs" would be deployed against Israeli targets to avenge the killing at the weekend of an 11-year-old Gazan boy.

The Palestinian Authority said it had arrested one of the suicide bomber's accomplices. Gideon Sa'ar, the Israeli government secretary, said Israel had given the authority intelligence information before the attack detailing the intentions of Hamas and the name of the perpetrators.

Mr Sa'ar claimed: "If they had taken action, it would have been possible to prevent the incident."

In another incident, an Israeli army officer was killed in a Palestinian attack on the West Bank in a further blow to the fragile ceasefire.

Israel is also involved in a growing row with the United Nations over disputed video material relating to the abduction of three of its soldiers by Hizbollah guerrillas last year.

Israeli officials are talking about a serious breakdown of trust after UN officials denied the existence of the tapes and then only agreed to return them after blurring out the faces of guerrillas who were captured on film.

Indian peacekeeping troops were stationed close to where the soldiers were abducted and two Israeli newspapers reported yesterday that they were bribed by Hizbollah not to interfere with the kidnapping.

An Israeli military official said: "We are having trouble from the Hizbollah, trouble from the Iranians and the UN is doing nothing. It seems we cannot trust anyone except ourselves."

The Iranians established the Hizbollah movement, which claims to have driven the Israelis from southern Lebanon in May last year after a 22-year struggle.

Since the withdrawal the guerrillas have launched sporadic attacks against Israeli troops in the border zone.

Shlomo Dror, a Defence Ministry spokesman, said: "We know there are several hundred Iranians in southern Lebanon equipping and training Hizbollah guerrillas.

"Most have been based inside Lebanon in the Bekaa valley, but now they appear to be moving into the border area and they are clearly taking more risks.

TERROR INTELLIGENCE CLOSES ISRAEL'S AIRPORT

[World Tribune - Tuesday, July 10, 2001] TEL AVIV - Israel has placed its international airport under siege amid an alert of a terrorist attack.

Police and security forces have blocked all entrances to Ben-Gurion Airport. They inspected every car entering the facility as well as vehicles on the highways leading to the airport.

Officials refused to provide details on the terrorist alert. But they said the alert was received on late Sunday and concerned Palestinian plans to drive a car full of explosives into Ben-Gurion.

"We didn't shut down the airport because we felt like it, but because of information," Israeli Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh said.

The result was a huge traffic jam throughout Monday in the Tel Aviv area. Many travelers left their cars and walked to the airport with back packs.

Officials said the alert along with heightened security measures continued into Tuesday.

A terror alert was declared amid a threat by the Islamic opposition Hamas movement to launch 10 bombings in Israel. On Monday, tension rose in Jerusalem when the municipality destroyed 14 Palestinian structures built without licenses at the northern edge of the city.

At the same time, Israeli authorities ordered all residents in the Tel Aviv area to stop drinking tap water. Authorities said the key pipe to the city was polluted by water located near the Arab town of Tira. Officials have so far ruled out the prospect of sabotage but said a guard was found dead at his post at a water facility near Ben-Gurion Airport.

In the Gaza Strip, three Israeli soldiers were injured in a battle with Palestinian forces near the Egyptian border. The Palestinians fired rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli positions on early Tuesday and troops damaged more than 20 buildings in the exchange of fire.

Israeli military sources said many of the buildings were used by Palestinian snipers.

BULLDOZERS TEAR DOWN HOMES IN EAST JERUSALEM

[The Scotsman - Tuesday, July 20, 2001] PALESTINIAN refugees fought a losing battle yesterday as Israeli bulldozers, guarded by hundreds of border police, wrecked 14 structures they hoped to turn into proper homes in Arab East Jerusalem.

The Palestinians scuffled with police in a brief attempt to block bulldozers which strained to squeeze into the narrow unpaved alleys of the Shuafat refugee camp.

Five Palestinians were hurt and several others arrested in the latest faceoff between Israeli authorities who maintain the structures were built illegally and Palestinians who say Israel discriminates against their rights to live in Jerusalem.

Lafi Eid's family decided to build the new home to give breathing space to 30 relatives now living in a crowded building given to his parents by the United Nations after they were driven from their West Bank village in the 1967 Middle East War.

"If I want to have some sort of privacy with my wife, I have to make sure that half of the people are asleep," Mr Eid said.

All but two of the buildings were partially built structures. The stone-faced homes of the Jewish settlement Pisgat Zeev gleamed in the sunlight just yards from the camp.

Camp residents said they believed their future homes fell at the expense of the settlement's growth.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are considered illegal by the international community.

"If I didn't have five children, I would have killed one or two of the [police] and then wouldn't have cared if I was killed," said Mr Eid.

Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert, said the buildings were not inhabited and that the municipality levels all homes built without permits, whether owned by Arabs or Jews. "These are not any sort of poor souls who had no place to live," Mr Olmert told Israel Radio.

But Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel issues Palestinians only a minimal number of construction permits despite a fast-growing population in order to weaken their demographic presence in Jerusalem.

Israel captured Jerusalem's eastern sector in 1967 and both sides claim their capital in the city.

Meir Margalit, a member of the Israeli municipality council, said that more than 100 additional houses in Arab East Jerusalem are slated to be demolished later.

"I don't have another word. It's a crime against humanity that destroys any possibility towards dialogue," Mr Margalit said at the demolition site.

The Palestinian cabinet minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the demolition was a new example of Israeli policies under its occupation in the West Bank and Gaza which have fuelled enmity for decades and fanned a nine-month-old Palestinian uprising.

"Is there any violence in the whole world more than demolishing houses of refugees who were barred from their original homes more than 50 years ago?" Mr Abed Rabbo said, alluding to the 1948 Middle East war surrounding the creation of the state of Israel.

ISRAELIS WARNED NOT TO DRINK TAP WATER

[The Associated Press - Monday, July 9, 2001]: JERUSALEM -- Two million Israelis in the Tel Aviv area received a stern warning Monday - don't drink the water.

Breaking into a prime-time TV newscast with the sudden announcement, the Health Ministry said the water had turned murky, and boiling it would not purify it. Therefore, officials said, people should not drink tap water until further notice.

Dr. Alex Leventhal, head of the ministry's public health service, said the ban was a precaution. He told Israel television that the source of the discoloration was unknown, and it was not certain that it was dangerous to health.

Asked if it might have been an attempt by militants to poison the water supply, Leventhal said, "In my humble professional opinion it's impossible to sabotage the water over such a wide area. It's something to do with the water itself and the management of the water."

This comes as Israel faces one of its worst water shortages because of a three-year drought. The Sea of Galilee, Israel's main freshwater reservoir, is far below what scientists regard as the danger level, and the coastal aquifer is fast becoming polluted with sea water.


July 2001


Magazine






DISASTEROUS ARAB-AMERICAN AFFAIRS IN WASHINGTON-PART 1
(July 31, 2001)
The Arabs are so weak in the Middle East and in the world for reasons that go deep into history and culture. This isn't a genetic matter, it's the way they are politically and socially organized in "modern times" that creates an absurd situation whereby a small resourceless country like Israel can dominate some 23 Arab countries with a population nearly as large as the United States.

IMPRISONED, TRAPPED, AND UNPREPARED BY ARAFAT
(July 31, 2001)
Arafat has once again trapped and imprisoned his own people -- keep reading. Wherever he has set up his headquarters corruption, repression, nepotism, and scandal have followed. And always these realities of what we have termed the "Arafat regime" are exploited to further fracture and weaken the Palestinian people -- a people whose basic claim to independence, "return", and reparations should at this point be unassailable.

DECEPTIVE AND OUT OF FOCUS REPORTS
(July 30, 2001)
About that report published "in full" in the Saudi Royal Family London newspaper Al-Hayat over the weekend and then, it now appears erroneously, picked up by Israel's top newspaper Ha'aretz. We already mentioned that the whole thing seemed suspicious. And sure enough with the Monday dawn of a new week and a little fast checking it seems the author, long-time military analysis and close CIA confidant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Anthony Cordesman, says he didn't write it and the whole thing looks like a set-up.

AMERICAN STUDY: ISRAEL WOULD BE UNABLE TO REPEL ALL-OUT ARAB ATTACK
(July 30, 2001)
The report in Saturday's Ha'aretz is not up to their usual standards as names are misspelled and context missing -- it appears to be a journalistic quickie. But even so, and though the Israelis aren't going to admit it, they are becoming more nervous and insecure about their future. And among other reasons that's why they choose the heretofore unelectable Ariel Sharon as their Prime Minister.

CREEPING TEMPLE AND CREEPING EMBASSY
(July 29, 2001)
In 1967, as the Israeli army took control of all of Jerusalem, the Israeli Flag flew on what the Jews call "the Temple Mount" for the first time since Christ and Mohamed walked the area. Sensing what this could lead to General Moshe Dayan quickly ordered the flag lowered, turned the area that the Muslims call "the Noble Sanctuary", al Haram al Sharif, back over to the Islamic authorities, and though Israel claims sovereignty it's flag has never flown again over the area of the Temple Mount

THE BLEAK FUTURE TODAY IN THE HOLY CITY OF JERUSALEM
(July 29, 2001)
It was "radical" groups that emplanted themselves in the city of Hebron a long time ago, back in fact when the Labor party was still supreme in Israeli affairs. And just look today at that city where the common forefather of both the Jews and the Arabs is buried.

POTENTIAL EXPLOSION IN JERUSALEM SUNDAY
(July 28, 2001)
Arab leaders have warned that a messianic Jewish organisation's plan to make the first move towards rebuilding the Biblical Temple in Jerusalem is a "dangerous step" that could lead to uncontrollable consequences.

JEWS PREPARE FOR JERUSALEM THIRD TEMPLE- AND SO FINALLY DO THE ARABS
(July 28, 2001)
After today's previous MER article was published -- "God War Emerging In Holy Land" -- this Agence France-Presse article has just come over the wires. Characteristically the representatives of the Hashemite Kingdom -- the regime that has been most complicitous in secretly collaborating with the Israelis for decades to control the Palestinians sandwiched between them -- are publicly posturing in one way while actually acting in another.

RELIGIOUS WAR EMERGING IN THE HOLY LAND
(July 28, 2001)
In the years since the turn of the millenium the Arab-Israeli conflict is being transformed into an even more dangerous and potentially cataclysmic Muslim-Jewish war. Ariel Sharon's "visit" to the Temple Mount last year, accompanied by a huge military force, helped sparked Intifada II -- make no mistake about that.

WAR CRIMES TRIALS FOR SHARON ET. AL.?
(July 27, 2001)
In the end the Israelis are likely to find a way to deal with this new situation. They have great resources at their disposal when it comes to the media, intelligence information, lobbying capabilities, help from key governments in the US, UK, and Germany. They have a long history of twisting things to their advantage one way or another. And those opposed to them have a long reputation for much the opposite in fact.

TWISTING ARAFAT UNTIL HE IS DEAD OR GONE
(July 27, 2001)
The Israelis probably prefer Arafat dead at this point; but not at their own hand, at least not directly. Indeed, many of those who used the "Oslo Peace Process" to end Intifada I probably thought Arafat would have either been assassinated or died by now, leaving behind a "peace process" legacy as did Anwar Sadat when he was gunned down by his own soldiers just a few years after reluctantly signing on-the-dotted-line at Camp David 1.

"WARNING! ELECTRIC FENCE" - "WARNING! ISRAELI ARMY"
(July 26, 2001)
NEWSFLASH Thursday Evening 9pm ET: An Israeli teenager has been killed in a shooting attack in the West Bank and three bombs have gone off in the West Bank near Israeli vehicles. The attacks came hours after Palestinians buried a militant killed in an Israeli missile attack. Israeli tanks also shelled Palestinian police posts in a village north of Ramallah and a checkpoint run by Force 17, an elite unit of the police, south of the town, not far from the site of the shooting, said Palestinian security sources.

DEATH, REPRESSION, AND DESTRUCTION EVERYWHERE. SHARON'S POLICY TO PROVOKE VIOLENCE IS WORKING
(July 26, 2001)
Everywhere the settlements continue to expand even as the Israelis constantly twist their words as well as the facts. The Israelis know very well what they are doing and what they want -- they are taking the land and the resources from the indigenous people and then isolating the people in what amount to ghettos and concentration camps calling them "autonomous" areas.

ISRAELI RIGHT STRIKES WHILE ISRAELI LEFT WRITES
(July 25, 2001)
The Israeli army is partially mobilized and positioned for a quick and multi-directional assault on the forces of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, ironically armed by the Israelis themselves in years past. Draft mobilization offices have been opened by the Israelis in key U.S. and European cities. The Israelis propaganda machine has been beefed up and already beginning to operate on all cylinders.

PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR DRAWS CLOSER
(July 25, 2001)
"Israel says Arafat is not doing enough to bolster a US-brokered truce, demanding he arrest activists and stop attacks against armed Jewish settlers and soldiers in occupied areas of the West Bank and Gaza. But Arafat has said he is not in control of security in occupied areas. Palestinians blame Israel for the on-going violence"

WHAT'S UP FOR ARAFAT?
(July 25, 2001)
Ariel Sharon has always been scamming everyone. His long career in the military is full of deception and treachery in public while committing blood-curdling massacres in private. In the most notorious case of all, the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps of 1982 ...

OFFICIAL PLO VERSION OF CAMP DAVID
(July 25, 2001)
The latest dueling, in advance of the "big bang" which Arafat himself now says is definitely coming -- and whose real purpose by the Israeli right-wing is to end the "Oslo Peace Process" once and for all -- is a battle for public opinion conducted through a convoluted debate over who offered what to whom and who is responsible for the failing of the "peace process".

REGIONAL WAR POSSIBILITIES
(July 24, 2001)
The following two articles are from publications associated with Janes Intelligence Weekly in the U.K. But what's looked at here are the short-term implications and the correct assessment that the very weak and in most cases U.S.-controlled Arab "client regimes" in the region will find one way or another to avoid any military clashes with the vastly superior Israelis.

PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR LOOMS
(July 24, 2001)
Those who have read MER for some time know that we have long indicated that one of the Israeli goals was to foment a Palestinian civil war. Some of the Israelis, dubbed the "peace camp", preferred to twist Arafat into totally succumbing and signing some kind of "end of conflict" agreement along with creation of a rump and everywhere-controlled Palestinian State.

NEW BATTLE FOR HISTORY
(July 24, 2001)
The latest dueling, in advance of the "big bang" -- whose real purpose by the Israeli right-wing is to end the "Oslo Peace Process" once and for all -- is a battle for public opinion conducted through a convoluted debate over who offered what to whom and who is responsible for the failing of the "peace process".

ARMIES AND POLITICIANS POSITIONING THEMSELVES FOR "BIG BANG" AND THEREAFTER
(July 23, 2001)
Ehud Barak is in the U.S. explaining why his former "peace partner" Arafat is really a big thug who can't possibly be believed or trusted, and how he Barak proved it, kind of sacrificing himself he continually implies.

THE BIG LIES
(July 21, 2001)
Goebbels himself could not have done a better job. For those who don't recognize the name, check back in the not too distant history books under the heading Nazi Information Ministry.

ISRAEL SET TO ATTACK ACCORDING TO CIA
(July 20, 2001)
At first we had the adjective "cowardly" as a preface to "Arabs" in the headline. Let's be clear what we mean here. We're not talking about the Arab peoples, nor about those who do the brave struggling...and the real suffering...and the bleeding and the dying.

WAR DRUMS IN THE HOLY LAND
(July 20, 2001)
No way to know for sure, but if we had to predict at this moment the "Big Bang" (see previous "War Drums" articles for context) will be heard not this week but next after the Maccabiah games have ended and the G8 leaders survive Genoa.

AMERICANS GET ANOTHER WARNING
(July 19, 2001)
With the unprecedented "Red Zone" in Genoa; with key Washington buildings surrounded by concrete and high-tech survelliance; and with Americans warned again by their government to "beware" following on last month's Threatcon Delta alert; the "terrorists" have already accomplished a small part of their goal.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND ARAB LEAGUE OFFER LITTLE BUT WORDS AND A FEW BUCKS
(July 19, 2001)
It's that little old problem rearing it's ugly head again -- calls that come much too late and even then call for much too little. Worse yet the calls come in very self-serving ways from persons and institutions whose past records make them not very credible, and certainly not very potent.

FINALLY BURYING OSLO
(July 18, 2001)
The "Oslo Peace Process" -- which would have been more aptly named the "Rabin" or the "Clinton" -- has been brain-dead for some time now; kept alive only by extraordinary life-support efforts by its parent surrogates.

INDIA-PAKISTAN SUMMIT COLLAPSES, INDIA IMMEDIATELY ANNOUNCES MAJOR MILITARY ESCALATION WITH ISRAEL
(July 18, 2001)
With both Turkey and India the Israelis are developing formidable military, financial, and intelligence alliances surrounding the Arab and Muslim worlds. These relationships tremendously strengthen the Jewish State financially, militarily, and strategically at a very critical time.

TINDERBOX AWAITS MATCH
(July 17, 2001)
"This could result in a bloodbath and thereby set the entire region aflame. It's not out of the question that demonstrations could topple unpopular regimes in Jordan, Egypt or Saudi Arabia... The tinderbox is awaiting a match."

ARAFAT FADING
(July 17, 2001)
It's beginning to appear that it's just a matter of time now for Arafat to finally be gone. As far as the Israelis and Americans are concerned, it no longer really matters like it use to.

ISRAEL PUSHES PALESTINIANS TOWARD CIVIL WAR
(July 17, 2001)
"No power in the world can stop the resistance operations that come as a reaction to the Israeli aggression ... we have nothing more to lose."

ISRAELIS PUSHING HARD TO PROVOKE MORE PALESTINIAN ATTACKS
(July 16, 2001)
A few years ago when the Americans essentially forced Yasser Arafat to sign one of those deals, this one about Hebron, that was supposed to push the "peace process" forward, it was foreseeable that sooner rather than later Hebron would once again erupt.

MUBARAK REGIME EARNS ITS PAY ONCE AGAIN
(July 15, 2001)
Today the Egyptians hosted Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat in Cairo. It's a replay of this kind of thing they've been doing for quite some years now. The Egyptians are at it again, fronting for the Americans as they have ever since the original Camp David extravaganza in 1978.

WAR DRUMS FROM ISRAEL
(July 15, 2001)
Longtime top adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Osama el-Baz, has issued a not-so-veiled warning to the Israelis not to attack Syria. The head of Egyptian military intelligence rushed to Israel a few days ago supposedly to warn the Israelis not to dethrone Yasser Arafat.

RACE TO NUCLEAR WAR
(July 14, 2001)
While the Israelis and the Arabs confront each other in a conflict that may now last for a very long time and even lead to a Middle East holocaust in the future; and while the other "peace process" in Northern Ireland also collapses due to its similar duplicitous nature; it is in the subcontinent that the race toward a possible nuclear conflagration is furthest advanced at this moment in history.

MORE U.S. DUPLICLITY - COLIN POWELL NOW IN CHARGE
(July 13, 2001)
It was another top General turned State Department Secretary who gave Ariel Sharon the behind-the-scenes "green light" back in 1982 - General Alexander Haig.

PREPARING FOR THE WAR OF HIS CHOOSING
(July 13, 2001)
What we feared has come true: Two ethno-national groups, living in each other's backyards, are going through a proces of regression to superstitious tribalism. The sounds of the drums are heard throughout the land calling both tribes to gather around the campfire, dress in the colors of war and head out to battle to eliminate the very last member of the other side.

INVASION WATCH?
(July 13, 2001)
What are we to call this situation? "War Watch"...no, the sides are far too uneven, it's not really going to be a war...not unless one or more of the Arab regimes should find itself cornered or facing revolution.

WEST WING PARTIALLY EVACUATED
(July 12, 2001)
A few barks from the sniffers dogs and even after all the security checks required to get into the White House grounds the Secret Service pulled the alarm and quickly began the evacuation procedure.

ISRAELIS GENERALS' PLAN TO "SMASH" PALESTINIANS
(July 12, 2001)
Israeli generals have updated plans for an all-out assault to smash the Palestinian authority, force out leader Yasser Arafat and kill or detain its army, according to a report published Thursday in London.

JANES "FOREIGN REPORTS" DETAILS ISRAELI INVASION PLAN
(July 12, 2001)
The report that a force of some 30,000 Israeli troops is preparing to take on Arafat's "Authority" and bring it to an end was just published in one of the most reputable international publications, one published by the Janes Intelligence network in the U.K. and available only to members who pay a sizeable yearly subscription fee.

ISRAELIS PREPARE WAY TO TAKE OUT ARAFAT REGIME AND TO TAKE ON IRAN'S NEW WEAPON SYSTEMS
(July 11, 2001)
Whatever the truth of Israel's latest allegations against both the Arafat Authority and Iran, there should be little doubt what the Israelis are really up to at this point, with Shimon Peres leading the charge.

BULLDOZERS PREPARING THE WAY FOR THE "BIG BANG"
(July 11, 2001)
It's all part of the same game. The Israelis think they have the Palestinians trapped. They publicly debate how to put them in their place with bulldozers, expulsions, invasion, awaiting the "big bang".

ISRAELIS UNDER SIEGE WITH ARAFAT FACING HIS OWN
(July 10, 2001)
Nearly half of the Israeli Jewish population got a stern warning yesterday - don't drink the water. Today Israel's lifeline, it's international airport between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, is under virtual siege with huge traffic jams as all vehicles undergo the kind of rigorous fender-to-fender inspection previously reserved for just "Arab" cars with special blue plates.

ALGERIA READY TO EXPLODE
(July 10, 2001)
While the legacy of British colonialism still lingers in Palestine and Kashmir, still threatening cataclysmic conflict in both regions, in Algeria it is the legacy of French colonialism, which also of course still has loud echoes in Lebanon and Syria.

WAR IS IN THE AIR - Part 2
(July 10, 2001)
The Egyptians are arming with missiles to deter Israeli strikes against Egyptian cities or strategic targets such as the Aswan dam. These may be conceived as deterrent weapons; but they also could be used in other situations.

WAR IS IN THE AIR - Part 1
(July 9, 2001)
"The stage, therefore, has been set for the outbreak of the next wear: wall-to-wall political approval for a military solution to the current crisis, the appropriate international preparations during the period of restraint."

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE "RIGHT OF RETURN" BUT WERE TOO AFRAID TO ASK
(July 7, 2001)
"Who will compensate me and my family for all the suffering we went through? Financial compensation cannot replace the right of return....The main thing is to go back to where I belong."

THE STAGE IS NOW SET
(July 7, 2001)
This is the way such things are done these days. Lots of testing of the waters. Lots of preparing the way. Lots of trial balloons. If (probably no longer when) the Israelis "remove" Arafat one way or another -- just as it was they who put him where he is in the first place -- it will no longer come as such a great shock.

FENCING THE PALESTINIANS IN - "UNILATERAL SEPARATION"
(July 6, 2001)
Having to a considerable extent succeeding in colonizing the "occupied territories", especially the most important areas around Jerusalem and the most cultivatable areas along with the crucial water resources, the Israelis are now ready for more fences and barricades.

STOPPING SHARON - PROBABLY TOO LATE
(July 6, 2001)
He's not likely to be stopped now. He's prepared most of his life for this moment in history. And as Israeli Prime Minister for just the past few months he's already visited the American President twice, Downing Street, and now both Germany and France, applauded in public more for his "restraint" as the "new Sharon" rather than for his war criminal past and the neo-apartheid oppression machine he now bears full responsibility for.

ISRAEL SHAHAK DIES AS CALAMITY HE FORESAW APPROACHES
(July 5, 2001)
Just what "cease-fire" is Sarid talking about? And if he really wants a serious outside force, why is he not appealing to the U.N. under Chapter 7 and why are not the Arabs included?

ISRAELIS TO NOW KILL MORE PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS
(July 4, 2001)
Ariel Sharon and his government are preparing the way to kill more Palestinian street and faction leaders using various forms of high-tech assassination. They are also preparing world public opinion not only for bringing the Arafat "Authority" to an end but for killing and expelling as many Palestinians as circumstances will allow.

THE REAL ARAFAT
(July 3, 2001)
Of course Sharon's comment yesterday is ridiculous. Problem is the strategy behind it is not. "You must comply, resistance is futile" is indeed the loud message from Sharon to Arafat; and Sharon does intend to prove his words in the weeks and months ahead, make no mistake about that.

THE REAL SHARON, MASKED AND PREPARING FOR ANOTHER "GREEN LIGHT"
(July 2, 2001)
Ariel Sharon has Yasser Arafat cornered now -- right where he wants him. Sharon has in essence forced Arafat to publicly call off the Intifada -- or else Sharon made it rather clear, most of all to his American allies, that he would call off Arafat's regime whatever the consequences.

5 PALESTINIANS KILLED SUNDAY
(July 1, 2001)
Five Palestinian militants have been killed by Israeli forces, three in a pinpoint helicopter attack and two in a clash with soldiers. The helicopter fired missiles at a car in which the three men were travelling near Qabatiye in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security officials said.

SYRIA STRUCK FOR SECOND TIME SINCE SHARON BECAME PM
(July 1, 2001)
The Arabs have an amazing tolerance for being struck. Partly it is because of their weakness of course; coupled with their long history of subjugation and occupation. But those who know Arab society also are aware that after taking it and taking it there sometimes comes a moment of powerful emotional uproar screaming for revenge.

SHARON PLAYS THE PALESTINIANS OFF AGAINST EACH OTHER
(July 1, 2001)
While Ariel Sharon uses the greatest pressure of all so far in order to bow the Arafat regime into submission -- the possibility of crushing Arafat's "Authority" through brut military force -- at the same time he holds out the carrot.




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