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Red Cross Raps Israel Over West Bank Barrier
The International Red Cross assailed Israelâs West Bank barrier Wednesday as a violation of humanitarian law for slashing through land envisaged for a Palestinian state under a U.S.-backed peace plan. Three U.S. envoys met aides to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on his plan to evacuate settlers from the Gaza Strip, also occupied by Israel. The Palestinians proposed international peacekeepers move into Gaza once the Israelis move out.
| Provides a fresh target set, y'know... |
Sharon says his unilateral strategy aims to defuse conflict with a U.S.-backed peace plan in tatters from persistent violence. But Israel has also kept building the barrier taking in land Palestinians want for a state, raising U.S. concern. In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the barrier in its current form, winding well inside the West Bank and trapping thousands of Palestinians in enclaves, violated international humanitarian law. Israelâs Geneva ambassador, Yaakov Levy, repeated its position that the barrier was a "self-defense" measure against suicide bombers penetrating the Jewish state, not a new border. Palestinians call it a veiled bid to annex occupied territory. Sharon planned to pitch unilateral "disengagement" steps to Elliot Abrams and Stephen Hadley, two national security advisers to President Bush, and State Department official William Burns, in talks running through Thursday. The trio first met Sharonâs chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, Thursday. Political sources close to Sharon said he wanted to pave the way to a White House meeting with Bush to obtain his backing for removing around 7,500 settlers from Gaza, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. They said the right-wing premier had also decided to alter parts of the barrierâs route at the behest of Washington to remove elongated loops around some West Bank settlements and avoid caging entire Palestinian cities in the future.
| Knowing something of Sharon, he probably started out hard so had had something to compromise with later. The eventual wall will probably end up following the 1967 line pretty closely. And it'll still be a wall, seethe as the Paleos may. |
"The envoys will try to keep Israel as much as possible on the path of reciprocal steps outlined by the road map, which remains U.S. policy, " a diplomatic source said. The road map requires Israel to stop expanding settlements, especially in the West Bank, and Palestinians to rein in militants to enable a viable Palestinian state to emerge in the West Bank and Gaza by 2005.
| Removing the settlers would seem to comply with the roadkill provisions. I'm thinking real hard, but I can't come up with anything the Paleos have done to comply... |
"But the envoys will also want to listen to what Sharon has to say about the unilateral plan given a lot of conflicting reports about what it entails," the diplomat told Reuters.
| Sharon's probably making it up as he goes along... |
Citing leaks from Sharonâs office, Palestinians fear Israel expects to trade in Gaza for permanent control over wide swathes of the West Bank within the course of the barrier where the vast majority of the 230,000 Jewish settlers live.
| ... and they're feeding the Paleos every ridiculous thing they can think of to keep them seething instead of thinking clearly, assuming that's possible... |
Israeli political sources said evacuations were unlikely to begin until October or November given many hurdles in Sharonâs way, including expected Supreme Court battles by settlers and the need for legislation to compensate and relocate them. "This will be a long story," said one Sharon confidant.
| ... and if it's not possible, they'll bore them to death with details. |
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei called for international peacekeepers in Gaza if Israel left without a peace deal. Muslim militants sworn to Israelâs destruction dominate the small Mediterranean territory. Israeli and U.S. officials dismissed the idea. "Heâs asking others to do his work for him," a State Department official said in Washington. "Itâs not that the Palestinians canât do it, itâs that they wonât ... act against terrorists in areas they are supposed to be responsible for."
| If they'd done that, things wouldn't be at this point. |
It would seem that one has to be human to understand human rights. Unfortunately the Israli administration currently hasnât evolved like the rest of the human race.
The seem to be acting reasonably to me. And even though we routinely belittle the intellectual capacity and moral attainments of the Paleos on these pages, we usually allow for the fact that they're human.
When you post, please include the URL in the source line. I may or may not get the same version you got if I have to go look for it. |
Posted by: Crux 2004-02-18 |
