| Submit your comments on this article |
| Middle East |
| Fire, gunfight at Church of the Nativity |
| 2002-05-02 |
| A gun battle erupted at the Church of the Nativity on Thursday, just hours after fire engulfed parts of the besieged compound during another fierce firefight. A Palestinian policeman holed up in the shrine was killed, Palestinians said, and another man was wounded. The latest exchange of fire broke out shortly after noon Thursday. Journalists attending a briefing by the Israeli military nearby heard exchanges of fire lasting for several minutes. Makes a good crisis for the The dead man, identified as Mohammed Abed, a 22-year-old policeman, was carried out of the church on a stretcher by priests. Later, a Palestinian wounded in the fighting and an 18-year-old civilian who had fallen ill, were also evacuated. The military said it had reports of four wounded Palestinians, including two who refused to come out of the compound. Mohammed's cavorting with his 72 flat-chested 12-year-olds. The guys who're just maimed go through life being referred to as "Gimpy." If there was any truth to the IslamoParty line, you'd think all the Gimpies would get, say, 36 comely maidens to attend them until they achieve Paradise. The Islamomaidens should be lining up to to cook, clean, fetch, carry and bump bellies with Their Wounded Heroes, no matter how little was left of them or how hideously scarred. Several hours earlier, flames leaped from the compound during another gunbattle. Israel and the Palestinians accused each other of having started the fire, which raged about 50 feet from the 4th century church, but did not damage it. The Palestinians said Israeli flares fired during the fighting sparked the flames, while Israel accused Palestinians holed up in the compound of arson. Suppose the truth will come out, if there are any survivors. It kinda looked to me like a flare fell on the church, but I think that was Geraldo's camera, so it's open to question. Regardless of who started the shootin', lest we forget, if the church hadn't been full of gunnies there wouldn't have been a gunfight. The Fransciscan press office in Rome said several rooms and offices in the Franciscan monastery in the compound sustained fire damage. Palestinians in the compound said several rooms in the Greek Orthodox section were also damaged. Three people were slightly burned as they battled to put out the blaze with buckets of water, Palestinians in the church said by telephone. Do they let the priests and nuns use the phone, too? Or are they only for gunnies? In Jerusalem, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the papal envoy, met Thursday with Israeli President Moshe Katsav and was to hold talks later in the day with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to resolve the standoff. Hey, it could happen! At his Ramallah compound, moments after Israeli forces lifted their monthlong siege, Arafat shook with anger as he faced cameras after receiving word of the fire. "It's an ugly crime," Arafat said of the blaze. "I call on the international community to take immediate measures in the face of this horrendous crime. Those terrorists, Nazis and racists, how can we tolerate them after committing this crime?" Ummm... You didn't tolerate them before, either. Why was that? "The church is in danger because both sides are armed," said Archbishop Aristarghos, chief secretary of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. He said Christian leaders and the Israeli government agreed "every effort should be made to reduce the tension." Egg jelly, the church is in danger because it was invaded by gunnies and snuffies who're holding priests and nuns and monks as hostages. One side appears to be legitimately armed, the other illegitimately armed. Therefore the morality of it all isn't quite equivalent, is it? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |