HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
Chicago Tribune Envoy calls Mideast a global problem April 2, 2002 -Some commentators have suggested that U.S. or NATO troops be used to guard the Israeli-Palestinian border. BY ANDREW HERRMANN AND ANNIE SWEENEY STAFF REPORTERS Moshe Ram, Consul General of Israel for the Midwest, said in Chicago on Monday the world has a stake in the outcome of the current Middle East strife, not just because of the issues between Israel and the Palestinians, but because of the viability of terrorism as a military tactic. Palestinian terrorists are "dangerous not only for Israel but for the rest of the world,'' Ram told reporters at a news conference at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago at 1 S. Franklin. "If this becomes a [successful] tactic or strategy, everybody may use it,'' he said. "We have to do whatever we can, morally, legally, politically and militarily, to stop it.'' Some commentators have suggested that U.S. or NATO troops be used to guard the Israeli-Palestinian border. Meanwhile, about 800 members of Chicago's Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities marched on the Israeli consulate at 111 E. Wacker. Some believed the suicide bombers to be a necessary tactic against Israel because they cannot combat Israel's sophisticated military, a military they pointed out that is supported by American dollars. The crowd, which waved Palestinian flags in a steady, wet sleet, chanted repeatedly: "Victory to the intifada.'' "They occupy my land,'' 12-year Chicago resident Kal Abu, 43, said. "Why [do] I have to go? Of course I support intifada. That's the only thing I have left. [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon [has] tanks, all kinds of weapons made by the U.S.A.'' Charles Lipson, professor of international relations at the University of Chicago, observed, "Israel cannot back off under terrorist threat because if it does so, terrorists will be encouraged they can do more. The Palestinians don't want to stop now because they think they're winning.'' TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF THE CONFLICT What prompted this most recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East? Both sides blame each other. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat blames Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for igniting violence with a visit 18 months ago to the place in Jerusalem that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram al-Sharif, or Nobel Sanctuary. Judaism's most sacred shine, the Western Wall, is located there, and it's also the site where Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. After Sharon's visit, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank attacked Israeli security forces with rocks and guns. Sharon claims Arafat had planned all along to reject a peace plan fashioned with the help of the Clinton administration and launch a new terrorist guerrilla war. Sharon defeated Ehud Barak for prime minister in February 2001. In December, violence in Jerusalem and the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, which claimed the lives of at least 25 Israelis and of three suicide bombers, led to Israeli military strikes against Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza. On Passover, a Hamas suicide bomber killed 20 Israelis and a tourist in the seaside city of Netanya. Why is Arafat being isolated by Israel? Israel maintains Arafat has promised to control terrorist suicide bombers but has not--so Israel will. While Arafat cannot completely control Hamas, Israel says that Arafat isn't interested in doing so anyway. He has failed to arrest hundreds of militants from Hamas and its related organization, Islamic Jihad, which Israel has specifically identified. Another organization, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah political organization, has overtaken Hamas as the prime instigator of attacks. What if Arafat is killed? Israel says it does not want Arafat dead, perhaps because many believe his death would inspire terrorist attacks for years to come. There is no clear successor. Also, a new leader might be considered an Israeli stooge and be ineffective at leading the Palestinian people. What do the Palestinians want? Twenty-two Arab countries have approved a peace proposal engineered by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that offers Israel normal relations with all the Arab states. If Israel were to withdraw from the territories it took in 1967, negotiate the return or compensation of Palestinian refugees and live side by side with a Palestinian state that had Jerusalem as its capital, every Arab country then promised there would be peace. Sharon rejected the idea of giving back the occupied territories, saying they are needed for security. There is suspicion by some Arabs that Sharon attacked Arafat in order to sabotoge the Arab offer. What makes people become suicide bombers? Writing in Time magazine, Eyad Sarraj, founder of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights, said suicide bombers are motivated by "a long history of humiliation and a desire for revenge.'' Sarraj wrote that since the establishment of Israel in 1948, which displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, "a deep-seated feeling of shame has taken root in the Arab psyche . . . The honorable Arab is the one who refuses to suffer shame and dies in dignity.'' Where does the rest of the world stand on the current situation? The United States joined other U.N. Security Council members Saturday in adopting a resolution that calls on Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah. However, President Bush also has blamed Arafat for not controlling the terrorists. Andrew Herrmann __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
