There has been a marked increase in Palestinian attacks following the premature break-up of peace talks in Taba on Saturday evening, while the IDF managed to intercept an armed Palestinian squad infiltrating from Lebanon, leaving two terrorists dead.
Palestinian gunmen shot dead an Israeli motorist near Ramallah on Monday in what security sources believe may have been the latest attack traceable to Force 17, an elite commando unit that guards PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
Senior Israeli defense officials are concerning that Iran and Iraq are training and equipping terrorist factions for joint operations across Israel’s northern border.
The four-month-old Palestinian intifada that has slowly toppled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak from power, plagued him right up to the eve of the election, which promises to be yet another “day of rage.”
Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh dismissed weekend reports of an imminent prisoner swap with Hizb’Allah as disinformation on Sunday, quashing rumors of an election eve surprise.
A Palestinian policeman was to be charged by an Israeli military court on Monday with intentional manslaughter for his part in the lynching of two IDF reservists in Ramallah last October.
US President Bill Clinton announced at the summit’s close this afternoon that a ceasefire agreement had been reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The major points are as follows:
Only hours before the Israeli Arab sector’s almost blanket boycott of the election for prime minister, an Arab Christian from Galilee was shot by Palestinian terrorists while serving in an IDF unit in southern Gaza.
JERUSALEM (BP)–Arab reaction to the Feb. 6 election of Ariel Sharon ranged from wary to warlike, with moderate states waiting for Israel’s next prime minister to make his first moves and radical states calling his election a declaration of war, CNSNews.com reported Feb. 7.
While Western envoys are pressing Israel to help alleviate raging Palestinian poverty caused by their own violent uprising, Arab states are withholding the bulk of $1 billion pledged towards the renewed intifada because they do not trust PLO chief Yasser Arafat with their money.
Palestinian rioters and terrorists escalated the renewed intifada in recent days throughout Gaza and Judea/Samaria, including Jerusalem, in a move meant to “test†Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon even before he formally assumes office.
In separate statements circulating on Monday, militants in the main PLO faction Fatah threatened to “turn the lives of all the settlers into a living hell†and to kill Israeli reporters covering stories in Bethlehem.
In what appears to be a growing divide between US and European approaches to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the European Union this week expressed support for the Palestinian position that Israeli concessions made since the Camp David talks should serve as the starting point for future negotiations.
As is often the case in the Middle East, the first casualty in the recent wave of Arab-Israeli clashes was truth, which was baldly proven by the flagship print daily in the US this past week.
PLO chief Yasser Arafat has launched another trademark whirlwind tour in search of more international support for the Palestinian intifada, but his latest anti-Israel offensive found little traction this week at the United Nations or Arab League.
ICEJ NEWS – 08/22/2001 Amid approving shouts from spectators, a Palestinian Authority security court in Gaza this week sentenced to death a 24-year-old half-retarded Arab man for suspected “collaboration” with Israel. The condemned man, Khaled al-Oukka, simply smiled as the sentence of death by firing squad was read out, a reaction his father said was due to his retardation. He joins at least six other recently convicted “informers” on death row. At least seven more alleged spies have been slain by vigilante groups in recent weeks, including the body of one found in a garbage dump in the Bethlehem area … Read more
In recent days, Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin has defended Islamic suicide bombings as a “democratic right,” a leading Egyptian newspaper urged Palestinians to kill Israelis everywhere, and Saddam Hussein has called on Jordan to open its borders to Iraq’s 6.5 million volunteer army recruited to “liberate Jerusalem.”
Tensions increased over recent days in the disputed Har Dov region along the Israeli-Lebanese border, after Hizb’Allah forces set up a roadblock just outside the divided border village of Ghajar.
The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday is trying to wind up a heated open debate on the PLO’s renewed demand for an international “protection force” in Palestinian areas, but the measure seems doomed to failure yet again after the US stiffened its opposition to an “unworkable” and “one-sided” resolution.
The prolonged Palestinian intifada continues to fuel a growing wave of anti-Semitism worldwide, as Jew haters are becoming ever more brazen in the build-up to the United Nations World Conference on Racism in Durban next week. The UN conference was originally designed as a forum to address the lingering ills of racial hatred, but has now become a rallying point for those who seek to vilify the Jewish people.