-Caveat Lector- Thousands Of Israelis Want Sharon To Fight http://www.islam-online.net/english/News/2001-06/07/article3.shtml JERUSALEM, June 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Thousands of Israeli hardliners took to the streets of occupied Jerusalem Wednesday to demand Prime Minister Ariel Sharon give up Israel's "ceasefire" and strike hard at Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Some protesters, estimated at 20,000 by police and more by organizers, gathered at Zion Square in the center of west Jerusalem, waving Israeli flags and shouting nationalist slogans. The crowd, including members of far-right parties and Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories, called on Sharon to be faithful to the uncompromising pledges he made leading up to his landslide February election. "Sharon, you must do what you promised. Bring back security by seizing weapons from the Palestinian terrorists," said Yitzhak Levy, whose extremist settler National Religious party has five members in the 120-seat parliament. Another party leader, reserve general Effie Eytan, told the crowd: "The Palestinian Authority must not be permitted to act as it wishes on our streets." The demonstrators first gathered at what Jews call the Wailing Wall, which lies within east Jerusalem captured from the Arabs in 1967. They prayed for God to "assure Israel's victory over Yasser Arafat." Thousands of police officers were out to maintain order during the demonstration, which went off without violent incident, a police spokesman said. Arafat declared a "ceasefire" on attacks against Israel on Saturday, the day after a Palestinian blew himself up at a Tel Aviv nightclub, killing 21 people in the deadliest blast to rock Israel in years. Sharon unseated the left-wing Ehud Barak in February on pledges not to hold political negotiations with Arafat until the end of a Palestinian uprising that broke out in late September incited by Sharon's visit to the al-Aqsa mosque compound. Meanwhile, the United States, the Middle East talks broker, said Wednesday that talks with Israel aimed at achieving a freeze on "provocative" Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories were ongoing, but repeated a denial of an Israeli report that said a deal had been reached. "That's not the case," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said of the report in Israel's Haaretz newspaper. "We have not reached any agreement with the Israelis on settlement activities." However, he told reporters discussions with Israel on the subject, one of the most divisive issues between Israel and the Palestinians, are continuing. "We have discussed the issue of settlements with the Israelis on several occasions over time ... It's obviously an important issue," he said. "We continue to see settlement activity as provocative, as it risks inflaming already volatile situations in the region, and therefore, we continue to see it as ... an issue that definitely needs to be addressed as part of the efforts to build confidence between the parties." Boucher noted that a resolution to the settlement question was high on the list of recommendations presented last month in the report of a group headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. The Mitchell report called for a freeze on the settlements as well as an immediate ceasefire between the two sides as part of a series of confidence-building measures aimed at halting eight months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. "We're looking implementation of the Mitchell committee recommendations in all their aspects, so certainly the issue of settlements is an important issue that needs to be dealt with, we've made that clear, we're discussing it," Boucher said. Haaretz reported earlier Wednesday that the United States had worked out a formula for a freeze on settlements with Sharon. Under the plan, the paper said, no new settlements would be constructed, no additional land expropriated for building and there would be a freeze on building beyond existing built-up areas. A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Israel quickly denied the report. Currently, around 200,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, among millions of Palestinians. The territories were occupied by Israel in 1967 after it launched a war against Arab countries. Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories have drawn international condemnation. The Palestinians complain that under the Occupation they get only 15% of the water resources, while Israelis get 85%. In Hebron, for example, they say, 400 settlers, get 85% percent of the water while 15% must be divided among Hebron's 120,000 Palestinian residents. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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