Israel offered to loosen its military grip around the biggest Palestinian city in the West Bank to help Yasser Arafat crack down on militants. "(The Palestinians) are complaining all the time that we are hindering their efforts to take action," an Israeli source said. "In order to lay to rest all these excuses, we said: 'Take a given area, we'll pull out of there, we'll stop all our operations there.'" The source said Israel had proposed Palestinian-ruled Nablus, the largest West Bank city, as a starting point. "In Nablus they have a lot of Hamas activists and suicide bombers, not to mention bomb factories." Ahmed Abed-Rahman, an Arafat aide, said the offer did not go far enough. "The issue is not lifting the siege in one area in order to conduct a security mission...we need to see a comprehensive and a complete withdrawal of the Israeli troops from all Palestinian territories and an end to the closure and siege," he responded.
No pleasing some people, is there? Translated: Israel offered to quit kicking the Palestinians in the balls if they don't go back to throwing stones at them. The Palestinians said no, not until Israel stops hitting them on the head, too. Guess it makes sense. Not much, though. |