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| Middle East |
| Israel: ''If you want to go, go. If you go, don't come back.'' |
| 2002-09-02 |
| Israel will not allow Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to return to the West Bank if he leaves the area. Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the Palestinians have approached Israeli authorities about the possibility of Arafat attending international conferences. "He's free to leave, but he's not free to come back," Gissin said the Palestinians were told. "We have considered Arafat irrelevant for some time, and many in the world are realizing that, too. If he were not here, perhaps the Palestinians could choose a new way and a new leadership." Probably not, but there's always hope until you're dead... Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat called Sharon's stand "despicable" and accused him of sabotaging peace efforts. The success of which has been simply overwhelming for year after year... Israel charges that Arafat is responsible for nearly two years of Mideast violence by encouraging militants to attack Israel and failing to crack down on extremist groups. Palestinians counter that Israel has neutralized Arafat's security forces in the West Bank, and charge that the Israeli occupation and army operations in Palestinian areas are behind the violence. The answer to which is, if the "security forces" had been doing their job, there would have been no need to neutralize them — in fact, they'd have been valued. And if it hadn't been necessary to "neautralize" the "security forces," there wouldn't been any occupation and army operations, would there? With few exceptions, Arafat has been confined to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah all year by Israeli forces, with tanks surrounding or entering his compound and controlling the area. He is expected to remain there until he either rots or goes somewhere else. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |