_______ ____ ______ / |/ / /___/ / /_ // M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S / /|_/ / /_/_ / /\\ Making Sense of the Middle East /_/ /_/ /___/ /_/ \\ http://www.MiddleEast.Org News, Information, & Analysis That Governments, Interest Groups, and the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Know! * * * * * * * IF YOU DON'T GET MER, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT! To receive MER regularly email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ISRAELI SETTLERS ATTACK BRITISH DIPLOMAT WITH ARMY WATCHING ISRAELI ARMY ATTACKS KHAN YUNIS - Eyewitness Report AT SAME TIME ARAFAT AGREES TO RESTART NEGOTIATIONS WITH BARAK GOVT MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 12/15: Israel's war against the Palestinians may be leading to the end of the Arafat Regime, "the Palestinian Authority" may be ended in Gaza and calculated leaks to the media to this effect have be used to put still further pressure on Arafat to agree to something or find himself exiled for what would in all likelihood be his final time. The situation as it is developing could even result in large numbers of Palestinians being pushed out of the West Bank and Gaza if and when the excuse presents itself, or is manufactured. The old strategy of Jordan becoming "the Palestinian State" remains lurking, especially should Ariel Sharon's power continue to increase. This is the military option. At the very same time the Israelis are preparing this greater war option, they are also furiously pursuing an opposite strategy to see if they can entice (i.e., force) Yasser Arafat into some kind of political deal and to use Bill Clinton in his last weeks in office to engrave this whole Oslo/Camp David arrangement on the world's consciousness. This is the diplomatic option. Of course lying behind all the manuevering at this point is a desperate attempt to keep Ehud Barak as Prime Minister. Everyone, Arafat, the Arab "client regimes", the Americans, and the Europeans are all lining up to bring about this outcome when the Israelis vote in just a month and a half now. Arafat himself is in a political vice that is being twisted and turned more and more distorting his legitimacy even further and creating the potential for even greater violence and destruction ahead. As reported in today's Ha'aretz: "In his diplomatic contacts in recent days, foreign minister Ben-Ami sought to examine the Palestinian willingness to advance beyond the positions the sides reached at the end of the Camp David talks. One of the formulations is "Jerusalem in return for the refugees," another Israeli attempt to set Jerusalem's boundaries among Arab and Israeli neighborhoods, which would in fact involve a declared Israeli concession of all Arab neighborhoods, alongside Arab recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the other parts of greater Jerusalem, in return for a Palestinian agreement not to insist on the full and immediate implementation of the right of return of Arab refugees from 1948. "Military Intelligence takes the view that among Arafat's list of priorities, Jerusalem indeed takes precedence over the refugee issue, but that a solution in Jerusalem must include Palestinian control over the Temple Mount. From this assessment, it can be understood that attaining a settlement in the few weeks remaining to both Barak and Clinton is mainly dependent on an Israeli decision to make significant concessions beyond previous positions, in addition to giving up the demand that the renewal of negotiations must be conditional upon the cessation of Palestinian violence and incitement. [Ha'aretz Bulletin - 15 December] BEN-AMI AND ARAFAT AGREE TO RESTART NEGOTIATIONS By Aluf Benn, Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent and agencies At the close of a four-hour meeting, Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed to restart next week negotiations on a final status agreement between Palestinians and Israel. Ben-Ami called the meeting "exceptional, considering the current situation." Both sides agreed on a joint effort to both implement the Sharm al-Sheikh understandings reached in a summit in October, and to bring a stop to the wave of violent clashes and attacks that have continued since late September. Though no joint statement was made after the meeting, held at the Erez checkpoint between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Authority Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, a participant in the meeting, said all issues were discussed, including the situation on the ground, where violence continues. A Palestinian statement made at the end of the meeting said Arafat is ready for U.S. involvement on the highest levels, and is interested in reaching an agreement before the White House changes its administration in January, though Palestinian Minister for Planning and Cooperation Nabil Sha'ath said it would be very difficult to reach an agreement before U.S. President Clinton's term runs out. Arafat also announced he was willing to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Palestinian sources claimed that during the meeting, Israel offered a new series of proposals if negotiations restart on an interim or final status agreement. Should negotiations restart, Palestinians said, Israel has offered even more than it did during July's Camp David summit between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat, and that any negotiations would concern an interim agreement, with an understanding to delay talks on two of the most difficult issues, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, for 10 to 15 years. The prime minister's bureau chief, Gilad Sher, who also participated in the meeting, said, "It was a good meeting... They agreed on a joint effort to implement the Sharm al-Sheikh understandings, end the violence [and bring the situation to a point where negotiations can resume,]" he added. [<=== IMRA note: Ben Ami said nothing about requiring an end to violence for the talks to resume. It should be noted also while Barak sent Sher to accompany Ben Ami at the talks, Ben Ami spent considerable time alone with Arafat. Sher also accompanied Minister Peres to Gaza. After dinner, Sher was sent on a tour of Gaza while Peres met privately with Arafat.] Tourism Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak said Friday that in contrasts to reports, he would not be meeting with Arafat. Settler Attacks British Diplomat By Phil Reeves in Jerusalem [The Independent, 15 December]: The Foreign Office is to lodge a complaint with the Israeli government after a car carrying a senior British diplomat was attacked by a Jewish settler on the West Bank while Israeli soldiers looked on and did nothing. No one was hurt, but it is further evidence of a disturbingly ambivalent relationship between armed militant settlers living in the occupied territories and the Israeli armed forces. A Range Rover, containing Robin Kealy, the British consul general to East Jerusalem, was stopped by a group of armed settlers close to an Israeli military roadblock on the road leading north out of the Palestinian town of Halhul, near Hebron. Although there were several Israeli soldiers among the group, Mr Kealy says they made no effective attempt to stop the settlers from blocking the car � which had diplomatic plates � in violation of his right as a diplomat to free passage. Nor did they intervene when one of the settlers smashed a rock against the rear window. Last month, a car in the entourage of Mary Robinson, the UN commissioner for human rights, was shot at in Hebron. EYEWITNESS KHAN YUNIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT I was there in Khan Yunis last night about 300 meters from where it happened. I was spending the night in the camp near Al-Tuffah. My friends wouldn't let me go too close, but I can tell you I have never been so terrified in my life. I was shaking nearly uncontrollably until the heavy slugs fired from the west were complemented by lower-fired shells from the Southeast that went whizzing over our heads. We all scrambled desperately for cover and I hit the ground. We got up running. I saw families fleeing their homes. An old man came to the door of his house and vomited. Young men dashed up the street shouting Allah Akbar toward the shooting in complete disregard to their own safety. I was told the sand embankment was knocked down. It was rebuilt the next day by the time I ventured up there. Individual shots were being fired at the big crowd while I was there. People were hit while we were checking out the place where a friend of mine had dragged back to an ambulance two of the killed security men. He joined us for breakfast at about 4:30 with his pant leg covered in the blood of the dead men. I've never seen a grown man so emotionally exhausted. He'd gone through a hellish night and was clearly tapping deep into his reserves. He said he'd gone to pull back the men and been covered by 30 bullets fired by a Palestinian security guard before he ran out. I saw other evidence of a Palestinian security man out of bullets. A few men with big machine guns came racing past us but they were clearly overmatched. I photographed children at the hospital the following morning. I did hear some sporadic firing at about 11 or 12. But fell asleep at 12:30 and heard absolutely nothing until the Israelis began a massive attack directly into the camp at 2 am. I saw evidence of massive damage to homes. Huge holes in one house that I noticed had been hit before but not nearly to the same extent. Another house looked as though a bulldozer may well have been taken to it. Heavy slugs fired over our heads presumably crashed into the city of Khan Yunis which was to the east of us. All in all, it was probably the most terrifying night of my life. I saw no evidence of press during the evening. I suppose they may have been there but I doubt it. You're welcome to forward this to anyone as an eyewitness account though it's hastily written as I'm late getting somewhere. I took some photos the next day and also have an audiotape of some of the shooting though I didn't have the presence of mind to turn it on when the group I was with hit the ground when the shots started coming into the camp from two directions. Michael Brown Human Rights Field Worker now in Khan Yunis MiD-EasT RealitieS - www.MiddleEast.Org Phone: 202 362-5266 Fax: 815 366-0800 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscriibe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject SUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with subject UNSUBSCRIBE
