So Neuropsychotic - can't tell the difference between lies and the
truth? Maybe it is the way a truth is manipulated where a person says
one thing and does another?
Interesting item here in the Truth - note the reference to going over
the cliff, falling into the abyss - the FOOL in the Tarot Cards but then
this man obviously has already see the slaughter of the innocents and
peole are getting sick of it?
Is there a voice from RAMA or is it from El Aida Refugee Camp being
heard throughout the world......even the military in Israel is sick of
the slaughter.
I am sick of Israel - the cost of their "friendship" has become a
burden.....and what do we get in return? Well they want more blood and
more blood sacrifices only they made a mistake in thinking the Twin
Towers would bring about the armageddon for which so many long.
OSABA
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March 14, 2002
WARTIME POLITICS
Israel's Tactics Prompt a Fiery Disagreement in the Cabinet and Censure
Abroad
By JAMES BENNET
Abbas Mommani/Agence France-Presse
Palestinian men fought Israeli soldiers in the heart of Ramallah
yesterday. Israel's aggressive tactics there brought disagreement in the
government.
��Video: Israel Maintains Grip on Ramallah
Israeli Offensive Is 'Not Helpful,' President Warns Sharon (March 14,
2002)
The U.N.: U.S. Role in Resolution on Mideast Startles Some (March 14,
2002)
Lebanon Front: Fatal Attack Shatters Israeli Border Town's Calm (March
14, 2002)
The Offensive: After the Raid, a Slum's Assessment (March 14, 2002)
The Casualties: Italian Photographer Is Killed Covering Israeli
Incursion (March 14, 2002)
Text: Resolution 1397 (March 14, 2002)
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ERUSALEM, March 13 � Israel's defense minister, Benjamin Ben- Eliezer,
angrily threatened in a meeting of the country's top officials to resign
today over the extent of the army's continuing invasion of the
unofficial Palestinian capital, Ramallah, a senior Israeli official
said.
A large Israeli ground force continued today to trade shots with
Palestinian gunmen scattered through Ramallah's streets. Three people
� an Italian journalist, a Palestinian colonel, and an Israeli
lieutenant � were killed. And a growing chorus of human rights groups
and diplomats harshly criticized the Israeli Army, saying it was
endangering civilians and interfering with care of the wounded.
Terje Roed-Larsen, the United Nations envoy here, warned that the
struggle had reached its lowest point. "We have fallen off the edge," he
said. "We are in the abyss."
Mr. Roed-Larsen's growing anger and disillusionment are said to have fed
an unusually tough speech by Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday in
which he called Palestinian terror attacks "morally repugnant" and urged
Israel to end its "illegal occupation" of Palestinian lands.
Israeli officials defended the army's tactics and its overall mission as
necessary to stop Palestinian terrorism.
Scorning Mr. Ben-Eliezer's threat of resignation, Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon proposed a cabinet vote on invasion tactics that the defense
minister was sure to lose, the Israeli official said, confirming Israeli
media reports.
The dispute among Israel's leaders was ultimately resolved in a private
talk between Mr. Ben-Eliezer and Mr. Sharon. But the eruption reflected
the growing tension within the government, engaged in its broadest
military offensive in 20 years while the Bush administration steps up
efforts to secure a cease-fire in the spiraling conflict.
"There was almost a big political crisis, that almost broke the
government up," said Meir Sheetrit, the minister of justice, who
intervened in the fight to persuade the two men to speak privately. "It
was very stormy.
"It's stupid to make a political crisis in the middle of a war," he
said.
An associate of Mr. Ben-Eliezer who was not present at the meeting
described the source of the argument as the army's tactics in Ramallah
rather than the broader strategy of invading Palestinian cities and
refugee camps. He suggested that Mr. Ben-Eliezer might not have
threatened to resign but acknowledged that "many words in anger were
thrown in the air."
Israeli radio reported that Mr. Sharon furiously attacked Mr. Ben-
Eliezer for unilaterally halting some planned Israeli operations,
including strikes by warplanes and a possible takeover of the city
center and the compound of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader.
Mr. Ben-Eliezer is the leader of Labor, the left-leaning party that is
the traditional opposition to Mr. Sharon's Likud Party. Labor joined
with Likud in a unity government that has become increasingly unsteady
as the conflict drags into its 18th month. This week, a far-right party
resigned over what it saw as a softening in the government's stance
against Palestinian extremism.
Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups have accused the Israeli
Army of putting civilians at risk and preventing ambulances from
reaching the wounded. Officials at one Ramallah hospital said that
Israeli forces, which included dozens of armored vehicles, had cut the
hospital's electricity and water and that it had run out of oxygen.
Mr. Roed-Larsen condemned what he called the army's "growing disregard
for medical and ambulance personnel."
The Israeli Army denied preventing ambulances from moving around
Ramallah, but said that during heavy exchanges of fire such movements
had to be coordinated with both sides. It said that ambulances had to
submit to inspections of up to 10 minutes to assure that they were not
transporting gunmen.
The Israeli government has accused the Palestine Red Crescent Society of
carrying gunmen and perhaps even suicide bombers in its ambulances. The
organization rejects the claim.
An Israeli official acknowledged that the army had cut water and
electricity to the hospital, calling that an accident, and said that
both had been restored.
On Thursday, Anthony C. Zinni, the retired Marine general who is the
Bush administration's envoy here, is expected to arrive in a renewed
mission to achieve a cease-fire.
Both sides are pessimistic about that mission after two previous visits
that failed to halt the fighting. The Israelis "should withdraw before
any political or security negotiations," said Nabil Aburdeineh, a close
adviser to Mr. Arafat.
In his previous visits, General Zinni stressed the need for an immediate
cease-fire to achieve security, postponing any talk of political
negotiations to resolve the impasse. But Palestinian officials have
repeatedly said that without a political track to provide their people
with the prospect of their own state, any cease- fire would fail.
"That's our message, that without a political dialogue there won't be
any successful security dialogue," Mr. Aburdeineh said, "and we hope
that this time the Americans understand this point."
He praised as "very important and very positive" an American-backed
United Nations resolution, passed Tuesday, that endorsed a Palestinian
state. Mr. Sharon has insisted that a durable cease-fire precede
substantive political negotiations, although he last Friday dropped a
previous requirement for seven days of absolute quiet.
Mr. Sheetrit, the justice minister, said the Israeli Army would stay in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip until Mr. Arafat cracked down on militants.
"If Arafat will come back to his senses, maybe make a decision to stop
the terror, I don't find any objection to our side to make a cease-fire
immediately," he said.
But a senior Israeli security official said that Palestinian violence
would continue without political talks. "It's impossible to end the wave
of terror without a political process," he said, because Mr. Arafat and
other Palestinian leaders would not risk confronting militants by
enforcing a cease-fire.
"Right now, they'll do their best to jump from this stage right to a
political process without paying any price, and this is something almost
impossible for us," he said.
The Israeli official said that members of the Tanzim, militants
affiliated with Mr. Arafat's Fatah faction, had recently tried to send
one to four suicide attackers daily from Ramallah to kill Israelis.
Israeli forces, he said, had stopped 70 percent to 80 percent of the
attempts.
"We can't sit in our restaurants and wait for suicide bombers," he said,
in explaining the invasion of Ramallah.
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