Article

2003-08-03 Middle East

Israel Calls for Crackdown After W.Bank Shooting

Palestinian gunmen wounded four Israelis in a shooting on their car near a West Bank Jewish settlement, denting a militant cease-fire which is vital to a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Do you get the impression there's a ceasefire only because they were running low on ammunition?

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed the attack in which an Israeli woman and her three children were wounded in the shooting near the Jewish settlement of Har Gilo Sunday.

Oh, a woman and kiddies. Well, they couldn't be expected to pass up an opportunity like that, could they?

The incident dented a three-month cease-fire declared by Palestinian militants on June 29 and overshadowed fresh progress on a U.S-backed "road map" to peace, including a decision by Israel to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners this week.

So they can shoot more women and kiddies...

Israeli officials said the attack underscored the need for moderate Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to disarm militants rather than cut deals with them to temporarily halt attacks in a 34-month-old uprising for statehood. "Tonight's terrorist attack is another grim reminder, and a bloody one, that there is no substitute...for sustained targeted and effective operations against those involved in terrorism," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin said. The proximity of the attack to Bethlehem, from where Israeli forces pulled out a month ago as part of the road map, could complicate negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials over which West Bank cities Israel would withdraw from next. Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammad Dahlan wants Israeli forces to withdraw from Ramallah, the West Bank's commercial capital and home to Arafat's headquarters. To that end, Palestinian police confined 20 militants from the al-Aqsa brigades who had been sheltered in Arafat's "muqata" compound to a single room to stave off a threat by the brigades to pull out of the cease-fire if they were transferred.

To pull out of a ceasefire that doesn't appear to exist? Who's kidding whom?

Palestinian officials said Israel had been pressing Arafat to send the men to the West Bank desert city of Jericho as a precondition for an Israeli pullback from Ramallah that would ease his own confinement. The involvement of the al-Aqsa brigades in Sunday's shooting and the group's vow to carry out more attacks was an embarrassment to Abbas's administration which has failed to fully curtail attacks by the brigades since the truce began.

Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-08-03 21:10|| || Front Page|| [11131 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I said back on Sept 12 to friends of mine that Bush should have the Warheads taken off of two Trident misslies and replaced with test packages. Have the sub stand out to sea and shoot the damned things at any number of targets in the mideast. And at the same time state unequivically that if there was one more instance of any terrorist action against any ANYONE, ANYWHERE those spots would be absolutetly and completely obltiterated.

Posted by Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire 2003-8-3 9:56:17 PM|| 2003-8-3 9:56:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Not a bad idea! Get some really accurate GPS coords, such as the large parade grounds invariably located just outside the doors of a number of Palaces in Arabia, and fill the pkg with IOU's or other symbolic message. Then watch the incredible hue and cry fest that would follow. We'd be excoriated by the world press, I'm sure, but considering the message sent - it might just be a trigger event (read: emphatic wake-up call) for those on the receiving end.

Someday sooner that most think, there will be open war and running street battles - and not in comfortably far-away easily dismissed places, but in the US, Zerope, and anywhere else that freedom allows them to build recruiting & indoctrination centers (read: mosques) and allows them their Friday Spew. Then such a demonstration would not seem extreme - but it would not have the same effect as it would today. An interesting and intriguing idea! Nothing like proof of vulnerability to get a Royal's attention.

Posted by Â·com 2003-8-3 10:12:30 PM|| 2003-8-3 10:12:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Good idea. Fire one off to land in front of Yasshole's front door. When it hits, one of those "BANG!" flags shoots out of the nose. He'll feel like Wile E. Coyote and smell even worse then he does now.

Posted by tu3031 2003-8-3 10:27:59 PM|| 2003-8-3 10:27:59 PM|| Front Page Top

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