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| Middle East |
| Eliezer to meet with Yehiyeh on ''Gaza First'' plan... |
| 2002-08-17 |
| Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was to see Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh on Thursday to discuss an Israeli proposal called ''Gaza first.'' However, the Israeli Defense Ministry said the meeting had been postponed. No reason was given. Palestinian officials said it would probably take place tonight. Under the plan, Israel would pull its forces back from the outskirts of Palestinian population centers in Gaza and turn security over to Palestinian forces as a test case. If successful, Israel would implement the same procedure in the West Bank. Palestinians have rejected dealing with Gaza separately from the West Bank, where Israeli forces moved into seven of the eight main Palestinian cities and towns after back-to-back suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem in mid-June. Palestinian officials say the Israelis have destroyed their security services in the West Bank, and they cannot stop militants planning attacks against Israelis. So why didn't they stop them before? That's why the IDF ended up destroying the "security services" in the first place — that, and the fact that the "cops" were "militants"... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |