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Sharon wastes no time - Arafat bows

February 7, 2001

"We will give him the benefit of the doubt. If he comes with good ideas that will bring us closer to the peace process, why not? The world has seen many such situations before."

Nabil Sha'ath
De Facto "Prime Minister" of Arafat Regime

"Good lord, has Arafat no self-respect? What is going on here? Has Arafat become totally senile? What should we expect next, that he's going to make the Zionist Hatikvah the national anthem of the PA?". So writes David Goldman passing on the short Jerusalem Post article below and wondering just what is going on when Arafat sends contratulations to Sharon and his de facto Prime Minister, Nabil Sha'ath, says they are going to give Sharon the "benefit of the doubt" and "the world has seen many such situations before."

Well what's going on is the old saying, beggars can't be choosers. The Arafat regime has always been dependent on its creators, the U.S. and Israel; infiltrated and manipulated by the CIA and Mossad. And Arafat and friends are now scared more than ever before. Their regime itself is in danger of implosion from within, or suffocation from without -- with all the special priviledges, fancy lifestyles, and foreign bank accounts endangered. As for the poor Palestinian people, well...they are indeed much poorer than they were before Arafat came to control them; more penned-up; more repressed; more infiltrated; more themselves endangered.

Stay tuned: things are going to get hot and dicey, and probably sooner rather than later.

SHARON CLAIMS ALL JERUSALEM; PALESTINIANS DEFIANT
By Alistair Lyon

JERUSALEM (Reuters - 7 Feb) - Ariel Sharon laid claim to all of Jerusalem as Israel's ``eternal capital'' Wednesday as Palestinians responded defiantly to the triumph of a man reviled as a war criminal across the Arab world.

Sharon, in a speech after his crushing defeat of Ehud Barak in Tuesday's prime ministerial poll, urged Palestinians to end their four-month-old revolt and negotiate a ``realistic peace.''

But Arab newspapers denounced him as a war criminal, terrorist and racist in an outpouring of fiery rhetoric likely to reinforce world concern about the fate of Middle East peace.

To the blare of a ram's horn, the prime minister-elect offered thanksgiving prayers at Jerusalem's Western Wall and staked Israel's claim to all of the city ``for all eternity.''

Following in the footsteps of past Israeli election winners, Sharon placed his right hand on the stones of Judaism's holiest site and read from a prayer book in his other hand.

``I am visiting Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years and the united and indivisible capital of Israel -- with the Temple Mount at its center -- for all eternity,'' Sharon told reporters at the Wall.

His unyielding message contrasted sharply with compromises on Jerusalem offered by Barak in peace talks with Palestinians.

Sovereignty over Arab East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, and Temple Mount -- a shrine revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary -- is a key obstacle to an elusive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state and their uprising over Israeli occupation erupted after Sharon visited the Old City sanctuary on September 28.

In new violence, Israeli troops and Palestinians traded fire amid clashes with stone-throwing youths in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, witnesses said. No casualties were reported.

Arafat Note To Sharon

While Palestinian officials expressed dismay at the election of Israel's arch-hawk, an aide to Sharon told reporters President Yasser Arafat had written to the prime minister-elect congratulating him on his election win and offering peace talks.

``Our hands will continue to be held out to make peace because both sides expect it,'' Eyal Arad, Sharon's security adviser, quoted the note as saying. Palestinian officials could not confirm or deny that Arafat had sent such a message to a man who refuses to shake his hand.

A very different signal came from Arafat's Fatah movement, which vowed to intensify the Intifada to face the ``killer Sharon'' and said Israel could have peace and security only by ending its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

``If the Israelis think that Sharon will make security for them, we say loudly that Israel will never have security at all,'' Fatah's West Bank leadership said in a statement.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the first Arab state to make peace with Israel in 1979, said he would wait and see how Sharon acted. ``Will it be a policy of peace or suppression?''

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Sharon's rejection of the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords could rule out meaningful talks. ``We cannot start from scratch...we need to begin the negotiations where we left off,'' he told Israel Radio.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, chief of the Islamic Hamas group, said talks were futile. ``The Palestinian Authority has to get rid of the dirt of the Oslo peace accords and stick to resistance.''

Arab Indignation

Many Arabs reacted with horror to Sharon's win, recalling the bloody 1982 invasion of Lebanon which he orchestrated as defense minister and the subsequent massacre of Palestinian refugees by Lebanese Christian militias in Beirut camps.

``The victory of the bloody terrorist and war criminal Sharon...is a clear message by the Zionist entity to Arabs amounting to an official declaration of war,'' thundered al-Baath newspaper, organ of Syria's ruling Baath Party.

Israeli right-wingers saw Sharon's success as an answer to prayer. Ultra-nationalist lawmaker Rehavam Ze'evi urged him to renounce concessions for ``a cruel and false peace.''

World leaders called on Sharon not to abandon the search for a negotiated peace with the Palestinians.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he would work for Middle East stability to give Sharon a chance to promote peace.

Three Sharon associates -- former Israeli ambassador to Washington Zalman Shoval, former Defense Minister Moshe Arens and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold -- were scheduled to head for the United States this week.

U.N. special envoy Terje-Roed Larsen urged Sharon to resume talks with the Palestinians quickly. ``Security without peace is a mirage. Without peace the security situation would deteriorate and there would even be regional spillover,'' he told Reuters.

Norway's Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland expressed fear Sharon's victory could spur violence across the Middle East. ``If Sharon carries out what was said during the election, there is every reason to fear what will happen,'' he said.

The European Union's Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos said the EU hoped that Sharon would renew peace talks.

Sharon, 72, called on his center-left foes to join him in a national unity government after his victory over Barak, 58, by a stunning 25 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

But Barak's abrupt decision to quit as Labor Party leader after his humbling at the polls heralded a party power struggle that could complicate prospects for a unity government.

Sharon must assemble a coalition from the existing Knesset because for the first time in Israel's history there was no parliamentary election alongside the vote for prime minister.

ARAFAT SENDS CONGRATULATIONS TO SHARON

[Jerusalem Post - 7 February}: With a wish for health, happiness and success, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat sent greetings earlier today to Prime Minster-elect Ariel Sharon.

"Our hand will continue to be extended in peace, because both the peoples expect it and are looking forward to a life of security and stability within a framework of mutual respect and neighborly relations," Arafat's note said.

Arafat's note concluded with the wish that the coming year be one of "Building a peace of the brave for all the peoples of the region."


February 2001


Magazine






PERES UNMASKS AND JOINS SHARON
(February 27, 2001)
Was it the Likud Party, or the Labor Party, that authorized more illegal settlements in the occupied territories since the Gulf War and the Madrid Peace Conference?

PERES AND COLLEAGUES "SLITHER ON THEIR BELLIES"
(February 26, 2001)
For those who still needed proof of the cravenness and duplicity of Israel's Labor Party, the party that spawned "Peace Now" and "Oslo" among other gross deceptions, it came today.

Defectors say Iraq tested Nuclear Bomb
(February 25, 2001)
When Iraq was more overtly building nuclear weapons, the Israelis struck in 1981 destroying the Osirak reactor near Baghdad that could have provided the crucial processed uranium fuel.

"Go back, we don't want you"
(February 24, 2001)
General Colin Powell, now combining even more closely than usual the Pentagon with the State Department, was afraid to go to Gaza; and rightly so.

The Hebron MASSACRE - 7 long years ago
(February 24, 2001)
Abraham's dysfunctional family has had unbelieveable historical ramifications for which the focal point today is Hebron, site of Abraham's burial place, a religious site to both Jews and Muslim alike who are today quite literally at each other's throats.

Council on foreign relations help legitimize Sharon
(February 23, 2001)
The Council on Foreign Relations, New York-power elite-based but in recent years integrating more with the Washington government and corporate elite, has been for quite some time, to put it bluntly, a rather tricky and chicanery Israeli-oriented Zionist center when it comes to matters relevant to Israel.

Iraq - The great Cover-Up
(February 23, 2001)
As terrible as what the Israelis, with their superpower American ally (and European connivance), are doing to the Palestinians, what has been and is being done to the Iraqis and the Chechnyans is also truly appauling.

Arab expulsion admitted by Sharon Ally
(February 22, 2001)
One day maybe Israel -- like South Africa and Chile before it -- will have some kind of "truth finding" commission to try to purge itself of the past.

Protests in Jordan
(February 22, 2001)
If it weren't for the Hashemite Regime in today's Jordan, yesterday's Transjordan, and before that the East Bank of Palestine, the Israelis would never have been able to vanquish the Palestinian people in days past and would never be able to do to the remaining Palestinians what is happening today.

Powell and Sharon - Street protests?
(February 21, 2001)
Clearly, the US is rushing to court unpopularity across the world, contrary to expectations that the Bush national security establishment would conduct itself with a degree of sophistication.

"This is only the beginning"
(February 21, 2001)
The crippling is not just physical. Psychologically, culturally, economically, and even morally, the Palestinian people are being twisted and tortured beyond all recognition of their former selves.

Gaza Ghetto, Gaza Concentration Camp, Gaza Prison
(February 19, 2001)
For four months, the Gaza Strip has been effectively isolated from the world. Over 1 million Palestinians are caged in an area of not more than 365km2.

Locked in an Orwellian eternal war
(February 19, 2001)
President Bush Jr didn't seem so confident the other day as he told the world of the newly increased bombing of Iraq. But he made it clear that "until the world is told otherwise" the Americans are convinced they run the world and it is up to them to decide whom to bomb, whom to favor, whom to take out, whom to reward.

Arafat collapsing
(February 16, 2001)
The Arafat Regime is collapsing. Here are some of the details, twisted somewhat of course because the reports are from Israel's best newspaper, Ha'aretz, in view of the fact that Palestinian and Arab news sources are unable and unwilling to provide such insights.

The realization, "perhaps the dream"
(February 16, 2001)
Out of the cycle of violence the gradual, hesitant understanding - perhaps the dream - will grow, that the only way is through a struggle to create a land of Israel/Palestine that is undivided in both physical and human terms, pluralistic and open; a land in which civilized relations, human touch, intimate coexistence and a link to a common homeland would be stronger than militant tribalism and the separation into national ghettoes.

"Collective suicide" or Zionism united?
(February 15, 2001)
If there is a national unity government, it will be evident that the differences between Labour as the main branch of the left and the Likud as the main branch of the right are not that big.

Death and assissination
(February 14, 2001)
It didn't take long for the Israelis, now Sharon-led, to start creating the escalating provocations that will then bring about still more Palestinian rage which will then give the Israelis the excuse they seek to pulverize the Palestinians still harder, possibly destroying the regime they earlier created, and possibly leading to another Palestinian "nakbah" (disaster).

Israelis strike, Palestinians without strategy
(February 13, 2001)
The Israelis have had a long-term strategy for a very long time; and they have pursued it regardless of what party was in power and who happened to be Prime Minister of the moment.

Dozens of Palestinians wounded
(February 12, 2001)
Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in the West Bank Monday as Israel's rightwing Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon sought to forge a unity government.

"Holy war" is forever
(February 12, 2001)
Fifty four years ago when an international commission of that day was hearing from Jews and Arabs about what the new U.N. should do about Palestine there was testimony from very credible and very establishment Jewish Zionist sources opposing creation of a "separatist Jewish State" precisely because it would bring about an unending conflict with the Palestinian Arab population.

War preparations continue
(February 11, 2001)
The Arafat Regime, the "Authority", is near collapse -- not just financially, but credibility wise as well. The Israeli government is near "unity" -- with General Sharon in charge.

The PA is about to collapse
(February 10, 2001)
How ironic history can be. After generations of struggle and such suffering the regime that rules the Palestinians is now in the hands of Ariel Sharon representing Israel, the U.S. Congress representing the financial levers of the American Empire, and the European governments which in this situation operate on the pretense that they are better than either of the above.

Rocking Israel to its Biblical core
(February 9, 2001)
Well if King David was a nebbish (modern translation might be "nerd"), one has to wonder how history will record Ariel Sharon, the man with such a past whom the Jews of Israel have just overwhelming elected their leader.

Sharon maneuvers for starting position
(February 9, 2001)
It's time for serious political confusion and disinformation now. As the armies prepare themselves for the clashes likely to come in one form or another, the politicians maneuver for new starting positions.

Clinton pardoned Mossad spy for Israelis
(February 9, 2001)
The Israelis adore Bill Clinton, as all the pollsters know. Deep down even the common everyday Israelis know he was their man in the White House.

The many crimes of Ariel Sharon
(February 8, 2001)
Some incorrigible optimists have suggested that only a right-wing extremist of the notoriety of Likud leader Ariel Sharon will have the credentials to broker any sort of lasting settlement with the Palestinians.

Sharon wastes no time - Arafat bows
(February 7, 2001)
We will give him the benefit of the doubt. If he comes with good ideas that will bring us closer to the peace process, why not? The world has seen many such situations before.

Holy war for Jerusalem
(February 7, 2001)
We're on the way now to a new and expanded struggle, maybe even a religious war, Jerusalem the focalpoint.

The cold logic of Sharon
(February 7, 2001)
Many Israelis just stayed home. Others cast a blank vote. But a considerable minority thrust Ariel Sharon into the greatest electoral landslide in that country's history -- obviously as well an overwhelming majority of those who did vote.

Sharon wins and Peres wants in
(February 6, 2001)
He may be a brutish thug, he may fit the definition of war criminal, he may be a Jewish racist -- but now he is also the Prime Minister-elect of Israel, overwhelmingly swept into power in a way few imagined possible just a year ago.

All sides now committed to escalation
(February 6, 2001)
Now the real craziness begins. The Palestinians are committed to heating things up to demonstrate their resolve and their capabilities. The Israelis are committed to "stopping the violence" which means clamping the boot down on the Palestinians even more harshly.

The legacy of Ariel Sharon
(February 5, 2001)
This is a place of filth and blood which will forever be associated with Ariel Sharon. In Israel today, he may well be elected prime minister.

BBC casts doubt of Pan AM convictions
(February 5, 2001)
In advance of whatever the Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is going to produce as "evidence" of innocence today, the BBC has published the following story quoting the very Scottish law professor who arranged the trial in The Netherlands casting great doubt about the veracity of the verdict reached:

What's left of Israel's left
(February 5, 2001)
What's left of Israel's left is in a fractured and demoralized state of affairs. Not only is Ariel Sharon about to become Israel's Prime Minister, but in all likelihood he is to be swept into power tomorrow in a landslide unprecedented in Israel's history.

The Pan Am 103 Verdict
(February 3, 2001)
The papers are filled with pictures of happy relatives of the victims of the 1988 bombing of PanAm 103. A Libyan, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, was just found guilty of the bombing by a Scottish court in the Hague, his co-defendant, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, being acquitted... What's wrong is that the evidence against Megrahi is thin to the point of transparency.

Rivers of blood
(February 2, 2001)
The bloodiness and racism of Sharon's past is fact. And these two articles help bring that past forward to the present.

Waiting for Sharon
(February 2, 2001)
They believe a Sharon victory will be a boon for their cause. 'He will expose the true face of Israel,' says an activist in Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement in Nablus, 'and force the world, including the US, to address its real responsibilities to the peace process...

Israeli Arabs boycott Barak, await Sharon
(February 1, 2001)
As the extreme right-wing revolution in Israel nears, as Ariel Sharon and friends prepare to take over political power, the "Israeli Arab vote" will not be enough to save Ehud Barak, and in fact it will not even be mobilized on his behalf this time, though Yasser Arafat and his friends have surely tried.




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