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"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. No serious injuries were reported. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The shooting took place near the entrance to the settlement of Givat Zeev, north of Jerusalem. Israeli military sources said Palestinians opened fire at a settlement and then at an Israeli car, killing a person inside. The military is investigating whether it was a drive-by shooting or an ambush. Israeli media reported that the victim was a 17-year-old Israeli youth, who was shot in the head and died of his wounds. Settlers said he was a 12th-grade student at a high school in Givat Zeev. David Baker, a spokesman in the prime minister's office, said the attack showed that "the Palestinians have decided to continue with this trail of terror directed at Israel." Earlier, in three bomb explosions near the town of Jenin in the West Bank, no one was injured. One bomb exploded next to a bus carrying Israeli girls home from school, settlers said. The bus had armour plating, preventing injuries. Two other bombs were set off near Israeli army vehicles, the military said. The vehicles were damaged.

ELECTRIC FENCES AND BATTLE PLANS

MID-EAST REALITIES © - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 7/26: The Israelis are clearly preparing to try to deal the Palestinians a body blow if they can manage to do so at reasonable cost to themselves -- both in lives and in international approbation. Sharon and company clearly want to upend Arafat and the Oslo Peace Process in one massive military sweep -- but what comes after is hard to imagine at this point. These three articles describe some of the considerations the Israelis are debating among themselves, and some of the reasons Sharon may not be as certain and confident about what to do as even he may have thought.

ISRAEL BUILDS FENCES ALONG WEST BANK
By LAURIE COPANS

"The Israeli government is building fences, walls and trenches along about 30 miles of the Green Line."

BAT HEFER, Israel (AP - 26 July) - An orange swingset and large crawling tubes beckon children to a playground in this quiet village a half-hour's drive from Tel Aviv, but a faint crackling noise explains why no one answers the call.

``Warning! Electric fence'' read signs in Hebrew and Arabic hanging on a forbidding barrier that - along with coils of barbed wire and a concrete wall - separate Bat Hefer and its neat cottages from dusty fields in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

The barrier runs along the ``Green Line,'' once the border between Israel and the West Bank, but largely erased since Israel captured the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war.

Now parts of the invisible 180-mile frontier, which runs through desert valleys, cotton fields and alongside Tel Aviv bedroom communities, have re-emerged.

The Israeli government is building fences, walls and trenches along about 30 miles of the Green Line, at a cost of $1.25 million, to protect Israelis from shooting and bomb attacks, a frequent occurrence during the 10-month-old Palestinian uprising.

Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror said the long-term plan is to have fences cover much of the former frontier.

This leads some to conclude that brick by brick, Israel is erecting a border with the Palestinians - even though Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is opposed to a so-called ``unilateral separation'' advocated by his predecessor, Ehud Barak.

``In some ways, cumulatively, it could in certain places take on the character of a border,'' said Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher.

The final border was to have been drawn in peace talks. But negotiations broke down in January and prospects for a resumption, let alone a successful conclusion, are dim during the current climate of violence and recriminations.

Barak has said that in the meantime, Israel should unilaterally draw a border east of the old frontier, within the West Bank, to enhance Israel's security. This would mean that some Jewish settlements deep in the Palestinian area would either be dismantled or end up cut off from Israel.

Sharon has said he would not dismantle Jewish settlements in the West Bank and barriers running along the Green Line would strengthen claims by the 200,000 settlers that they are being abandoned by their government.

There is also concern that a unilateral border could undercut Israel's position in future peace talks.

Perhaps because of the political complexities, the government has been working on the project quietly and somewhat reluctantly.

``This is meant to protect residents in the area,'' Dror said. ``We're trying not to get into anything now that will be political.''

The first stretches of cement walls and barbed wire fences, to be built along dozens of Israeli communities bordering the West Bank, will be completed by the end of the year, he said.

In Bat Hefer, border police jeeps patrol a cement wall that was built by residents in 1996, when the community was established. Two weeks ago, the Defense Ministry erected an electric fence alongside the wall. The fence will eventually run for more than six miles to the south, alongside several farming communities.

In this area, Palestinian militants have infiltrated in recent months through orange orchards and along dirt roads into the crowded Tel Aviv metropolitan area to carry out deadly bombings.

While the fences are meant to give residents a feeling of security, Palestinians can still get around them, and Israelis living near the West Bank demand a continuous barrier.

``In each and every place that they come in freely we need to put a wall, a barrier or an electric fence,'' said Benny Yaacobi, the secretary of Bat Hefer, while looking across the wall at the outlying fields of Tulkarem.

Houses abutting the West Bank in the area have been shot at about 30 times in recent months and Palestinians placed a suitcase full of explosives on the wall once, Yaacobi said. No one has been injured in the incidents.

Electric fences will also run for dozens of miles west of the West Bank town off Jenin, and south and north of Jerusalem, Dror said.

The government expects the barriers to remain for some time, he said.

Yet area residents are not satisfied and are pushing for complete separation from the Palestinians.

``We have been talking about this physical separation from the Palestinians for years,'' said Yitzhak Yehoshua, the chairman of the Lev Hasharon regional council northeast of Tel Aviv.

``I don't have any doubt that this is the only solution. We wish there could be another way because we wanted peace. But it's not possible now.''

THE LAST BARRIER ALONG THE ROAD TO WAR
By Reuven Pedatzur

"The IDF's top brass are firm believers in a very dangerous operational philosophy, according to which, Palestinian military activity can be wiped out through the use of massive military force."

Haaretz - July 26, 2001: When senior Israel Defense Forces commanders were shown a plan for rescuing an IDF soldier wounded at the site of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus at the start of the present Intifada, the plan was rejected because the commanders feared the rescue would cost many lives. A bitter debate ensued among the top brass in the wake of the decision to allow Border Patrol officer Mahdet Yusuf to bleed to death. The IDF's senior command justified the decision on the grounds that the need to prevent a massive loss of human lives outweighed the possibility of saving onesoldier. The voices of protest quickly died away.

It is essential to refer once more to this incident, because a study is being made of the IDF's operational plans for a "major military operation" that will be launched if politicians give the green light. And if the IDF ends up capturing Jenin, Nablus or Hebron, as former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding, it is estimated that hundreds of Israeli soldiers will die in the fighting. The IDF does not have much experience in combat in urban areas; however, it has accumulated sufficient experience for the top brass to realize how costly such fighting is in terms of military casualties. It is quite likely that, in response to such an operation, the Palestinians will opt for house-to-house combat. IDF tanks are quite capable of destroying many houses and thereby causing the death of many civilians, while Israel Air Force fighter jets would fire missiles at the "places where the shooting is coming from." Nonetheless, in the final analysis, Israeli infantry units would be forced to seize control of the city in question through combat on the ground.

The IDF's top brass are firm believers in a very dangerous operational philosophy, according to which, Palestinian military activity can be wiped out through the use of massive military force. When the IAF commander enthusiastically justifies the routine use of fighter jets to strike individuals located in a residential district and does not understand what all the hue and cry is about (because, in the IAF commander's view, there is no essential difference between the use of light weapons and the deployment of combat aircraft) and when the IDF chief of staff does not grasp the far-reaching implications of the use of fighter jets against civilian targets, then one should not besurprised to find that the capture of communities within Area A has become a logical and reasonable objective.

If a war breaks out, it will be a bizarre, and above all, unnecessary, military confrontation, fueled by the kind of political culture that has taken root here in Israel and which the IDF has assiduously nurtured. According to this political culture, every problem has a military solution. This war will also be bizarre because its planners have been unable to come up with a single reasonable goal - except the satisfaction of the Israeli public's desire for revenge.

Had the IDF top brass decided upon a different line of action, they would not have presented their war plans to the ministers in Ariel Sharon's cabinet, but would have warned them that such a war would be idiotic. After the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, then chief of staff Dan Shomron categorically stated that there was no military solution to the problem of the Intifada. This was the courageous declaration of a general who clearly understood that there was a limit to the power of the military force he commanded.

However, in the IDF of 2001, the atmosphere is quite different. The top brass have, for the past few months, been sending out signals that they do have a military solution to the problem of Palestinian terror. They are broadcasting this message despite the fact that the IDF has failed to deal effectively with the Palestinians and is continuing to battle guerrillas and terrorists as if it were fighting against a regular army. Today, the IDF senior command is even proposing expanding its misguided military operations.

The chief of staff and his colleagues have so far been unable to overcome their military myopia and, at times, refuse to take into account the impact their military plans could have on the broad political picture. Granted, it is very difficult to stand fast in the face of heavy pressure from both the public and saber-rattling politicians. But nonetheless, in addition to being the commander who gives IDF troops the orders to shoot, the chief of staff is a key player in the decision-making process in Israel. Given the absence of independent, professional consultative bodies outside the apparatus of government, the IDF is the sole institution capable of recommending policy guidelines to both the prime minister and the ministers in the Israeli cabinet.

Thus, the chief of staff has a unique responsibility - as the last barrier to a total loss of control over the situation. When cabinet ministers demand that Israel go to war, the supreme commander of the IDF must spell out to them what the basic significance of such a move would be. He must spell out to them that a war against the Palestinian Authority could lead to a regional war. And he must remind them that the period when Israel was the omnipotent police officer in the Middle East is over.

The problem is that it is by no means certain whether Shaul Mofaz is the right person for such a difficult mission.

US PRESSING ISRAEL TO BEGIN COUNTING
By Herb Keinon and Janine Zacharia

JERUSALEM POST - JERUSALEM, July 27 - The US is pressing Israel to begin counting seven "quiet" days, and then move quickly into the Mitchell program, not because of any objective change on theground, but because of US considerations in the Persian Gulf, a diplomatic source close to the prime minister said yesterday.

In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns said yesterday that the US hopes to move quickly beyond the cease-fire phase of the Mitchell Committee plan, and believes ongoing hostilities illustrate "there is a real urgency to moving forward." "Our hope is to move into the cooling off period as soon as possible," Burns said.

"It could be that the US at this time is less oriented toward what is going to work, but motivated more by a need to deliver something because of political concerns on the Gulf," the official said.

The official added that Iraq is at the top of the US's list of foreign policy priorities, and since its policy of "smart sanctions" against Iraq has failed, the US is thinking ahead to the need to rebuild an alliance with the Gulf Sates in the struggle against Saddam Hussein. The US is under pressure from its Arab allies to give something in return, namely to begin the Mitchell plan now.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seemed to allude to the same reading of the situation when he told a Likud faction meeting in Ariel yesterday that "the United States has their own interests and wants to bring the Arab countries closer in order to increase their activities with Iraq. Should this not trigger a red light?"

Zalman Shoval, a foreign policy adviser to Sharon, said that "somewhere in the background there is an American interest to plan something with regards to Iraq, and one of the elements in that is to smooth things over with the different Arab countries." Shoval said that he has "no doubt" that there is "some sort of Arab pressure on the Americans" to pressure Israel.

At the same time, he said, Israel needs to make it clear that although it recognizes the importance of the US building an alliance against Iraq, Israel should not have to pay for it. "In the end of the day the problem between us and the Palestinians has to be solved in relevance to what is happening here, not some sort of fop to other Arab countries not directly involved," Shoval said.

Another diplomatic source said that "although Israel is supportive of regional stability, it does not want to be put into position of paying the price for that stability - that is a potential concern, but not yet a real imminent threat." Burns made his comments about the cooling off period before the House International Relations subcommittee on Near Eastern and South Asian affairs.

"While there have been periods of relative calm since the secretary's visit to the region in mid-June, they've been broken by renewed acts of violence death and destruction followed by reprisals and retaliation. There is a real urgency to moving forward," Burns added.

The subcommittee hearing was devoted to US relations with the Palestinians.

A State Department official said a senior administration official, possibly deputy assistant secretary of state David Satterfield, would travel to the region again next week to once again try to get the parties to adhere to the Mitchell Committee recommendations and to discuss what type of third-party monitoring presence they would accept.

Burns testified yesterday that US officials have "done some very preliminary thinking" about monitors. He emphasized throughout his testimony that the US was focused first on getting the parties to the cooling-off phase of the Mitchell plan, during which the sides are to take reciprocal confidence-building steps.

One idea being discussed by the Americans is to model the monitors on the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group that oversaw the 1996 April understandings between Israel and Hizbullah


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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