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| Middle East |
| IDF getting ready to thump Gaza |
| 2002-05-08 |
| The IDF began massing forces on the border with the Gaza Strip late Wednesday night, in preparation for a retaliatory operation following the suicide bomb attack in Rishon Letzion which killed 15 people. We knew that... Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who cut short his trip to the United States after hearing of the attack, arrived back in Israel Wednesday evening and immediately convened his extended security cabinet at Lod military airport. The security cabinet gave the green light in the early hours of Thursday morning for operations against "terrorist targets." A government statement gave no details of what operations had been approved but said the security cabinet had empowered Sharon and Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to decide what action to take. It's not like they didn't know it was gonna happen... Only Finance Minister Silvan Shalom raised the idea of exiling Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, but the issue was not taken to a vote. Because Sharon and Bush have already decided to make him a figurehead. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |