on Mideast front
Powell tells Palestinians ceasefire would seal statehood, Israel prepares to give up all Gaza, much of West Bank
Posted: December 17, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years.
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon no longer sees any chance of negotiating a meaningful peace treaty with any Palestinian Arab leaders.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is resisting a call for even a ceasefire from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has assured intermediaries Washington will push Israel hard to accept Palestinian statehood next year, despite Jerusalem's misgivings.
That's what high-level sources are telling Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, WND's online premium intelligence newsletter, in both Washington and Jerusalem.
Powell reportedly told Palestinian leaders, through an intermediary, a ceasefire is the first step to implementation of the U.S. "roadmap" plan – a roadmap that leads inevitably and quickly to a Palestinian Arab state that has never before existed in history.
Sources say a shakeup in the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization is likely to come in the next few days – perhaps precipitating an agreement on a ceasefire. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are expected to take on more prominent roles in the hierarchy of the PLO – a move that will signal Arafat's days of all but figurehead leadership are over. Hamas, increasingly popular within the Palestinian Authority territory with its suicide terror attacks and hard-line attitude toward the Jewish state, will become the real power within the would-be state.
Hamas head Abdel Aziz Rantisi has signaled that his group would be willing to be subsumed under the PLO, which would function as an umbrella organization, but said one of his conditions was that Hamas must receive a suitable position in leadership.
Meanwhile, G2B sources report, Sharon, recognizing the disarray of the Palestinian Authority camp and not seeing any hope of a negotiated peace, is ready to impose a unilateral settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Sharon's security fence will put 43 percent of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, under Israeli control. The plan would leave more than 40 Arab communities and nearly 350,000 Arabs inside Israel. Some 90 Jewish communities of a total of 144 with a population of 367,000 Jews would also be incorporated into Israel.
Sharon is hoping to achieve a population balance of 80 percent Jews in Israel to ensure control for the future. His plan will call for the dismantling of some Jewish communities in the West Bank. But it will also cede all of the Gaza Strip and include dismantling all Jewish communities in the area.
The U.S. may find Rantisi a difficult negotiating partner. He said after the capture of Saddam Hussein by U.S. forces that America would "pay a very high price for the mistake."
"What the United States did is ugly and despicable. It is an insult to all Arabs and an insult to Muslims," he told Reuters. Arafat, meanwhile, had no official comment, but reportedly told insiders he was "saddened" by the capture.
Saddam paid over $35 million to the kin of Palestinian suicide bombers, militants and bystanders who have died in the uprising that began in 2000.
Although far from all Palestinian Arabs supported him, militants marched to back Saddam ahead of the U.S.-led invasion in March and Palestinian protesters were often heard chanting: "Oh, Saddam. Oh, Saddam. Bomb, bomb Tel Aviv." During the 1991 Gulf War, Palestinians cheered as Iraqi Scud missiles crashed into Israeli cities.
Sharon is expected to make a major announcement about redeployment of troops and the dismantling of some Gaza communities tomorrow.
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