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| Middle East |
| White House mealy-mouthed on Yasser |
| 2002-06-06 |
| Exiling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would not help bring peace to the Middle East, a White House spokesman said Thursday, hours after Israeli troops shelled Arafat's headquarters and blew a hole in his bedroom wall. A suicide attack that killed 17 Israelis this week intensified speculation that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would expel Arafat. Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin said, however, that Arafat's ouster "would not solve the problem." Nope. But then you expel, or preferably kill, the next guy as soon as the next attack happens. Then the guy after him. By the 17th or 18th guy, they might start to catch on that acts of war won't be tolerated. White House spokesman Sean McCormack agreed. "I don't think exiling Arafat solves anything," he said. "The issue is building Palestinian institutions and in the process, bringing the Palestinian people into the building of these institutions." Palestinian institutions to date include not much other than bomb factories. It's not a government, damn it. It's a general staff. They don't know how to do anything other than make — and lose at — war. While the White House forcefully condemned the suicide attack, McCormack declined to comment on whether Israel was justified in its incursion Thursday, saying the Israelis' objective was unclear. Two other U.S. officials said Israel had not notified the administration in advance of the attack. Neither official, speaking on condition of anonymity, offered any criticism of the way Israel responded to the deadly bombing in Megiddo. "We have no opinion. We're not authorized to have opinions. Having opinions is over our pay grade. We have... desks." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |