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Middle East |
U.S. stopped Israeli raid to seize Arafat |
2003-09-15 |
The United States has prevented Israel’s military from capturing the headquarters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. thank you Colin Powell....ass U.S. government sources said the Bush administration sent a harsh message to Israel to suspend plans to capture Arafat’s headquarters in Ramallah over the weekend. The sources said the had military planned to raid the so-called Muqata’a on late Friday and capture Arafat. that would’ve been interesting with all those human shields.. Both Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice telephoned Israeli and PA leaders and warned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to suspend the military plans, Middle East Newsline reported. The U.S. sources said the Bush administration was alarmed by the Israeli entry into Ramallah on Thursday. An Israeli military force captured a PA ministry about 300 meters from Arafat’s headquarters and established a command post for the capture of the Muqata’a. At that point, the sources said, the administration was informed by the CIA that Israel planned to imminently capture Arafat’s headquarters and seize the PA chairman. They said Israel planned to exile Arafat to a distant Arab country.Like ...Hell? "The United States does not support either the elimination or the exile of Mr. Arafat," Powell said. "It is not our position and the Israeli government knows this. There would be rage in the Arab world and the Muslim world. And I don’t see this moving forward the roadmap." I’ve gotten to the point that Arab Stret™ rage doesn’t scareme, it just pisses me off even more... Powell and Rice sent Israel a message, the sources said, that the United States regards any move to exile Arafat as harmful to Washington’s interests in the Middle East, including the roadmap for a Palestinian state. At the same time, U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer met Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and warned of an international backlash to Arafat’s exile. The sources said the U.S. pressure worked and by Saturday Mofaz ordered the withdrawal of the Israeli military force from Ramallah. At the same time, Powell telephoned PA International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath and pledged that Washington will continue to ensure that Arafat is not harmed |
Posted by:Frank G |
#10 Once Bush wins re-election (which, if he really screws Israel, may be questionable), he needs to dump Powell. The "Good cop-Bad cop" played out long ago. We need someone at State willing to clean out the stables and start running that organization as part of the United States government. As for Arafart, the best thing to do is to let him stew until there's another bomb blast in Israel. Shouldn't take too long - a week or two at most. Then go in with guns blazing, and damn whoever gets in the way for stopping your bullets. Kill him, anybody with him, and totally raze the entire Paleo "capital" and all its "ministries". Those are for real governments, not the piece of kiss-ass crap Arafart runs. |
Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-9-15 8:37:05 PM |
#9 This is total crap. If we're serious about terrorism, let's be serious about it. If not, then lets just blow ourselves up and save them the trouble. I'm really disappointed with Powell and Rice, as well as the President for not standing up on this one. |
Posted by: Anonymous 2003-9-15 6:22:03 PM |
#8 Granted, Arafat's a vile thug, but he's their vile thug and So why make the threats? Is this desperation, or klutziness? Or are they Or is somebody being clever and this is meant as a distraction? |
Posted by: James 2003-9-15 6:01:19 PM |
#7 Remember the ratio: 47 to 1 in US/Israeli population. When they lose 10 people to a terrorist's bomb belt, it is the equivalent of the US losing 470 people. Would we be willing to write off 470 people? I think not. We may be playing our cards close to the deck, but its time to call and show. If we do not, then we are just enabling Arafat's behavior. Let the Israelis defend themselves. This is an outrage. |
Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-9-15 3:04:58 PM |
#6 Ken B - Excellent - easily Rant of the Day quality!!! Kudos! |
Posted by: .com (Prez for Life - My Isles of Langerhans) 2003-9-15 1:48:53 PM |
#5 ""The United States does not support either the elimination or the exile of Mr. Arafat," Powell said. "It is not our position and the Israeli government knows this. There would be rage in the Arab world and the Muslim world..... " You have got to be kidding me. This unbelievable double standard crap has got to stop, NOW! We, the United States, have publically declared that we want to kill or capture Oama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. We HAVE proved that we are entirely in earnest by targeting, pursuing and killing Saddam Hussein's two misanthropic, cretinous sons. We then posted pictures of their dead bodies for the whole world to see. We then "desecrated" their corpses by "fixing them up" cosmetically for further pictures. No matter what we think of them, they were Muslims, and even so-called "moderate" muslims would be appalled at that act. Imagine what the already furious muslims would think. Was Powell concerned then about the rage of the Arab world? Don't get me wrong, I was and completely am still 100% behind every action we have taken in this war on terror since it started, and I believe that we had ample reason to do everything we did in Iraq. But we do not have 1/10th of the physical, indisputable evidence that Israel has to justify the elimination of the PLO and it's leader. If testimonies of frightened scientists, long-range drones, and abandoned WMD factory trucks were "smoking guns" for us, then Israel can produce an entire "smoking armory" of justifications for it's actions. And for Heaven's sake... What Road Map?!!! The only road paved by any of these peace process efforts of the past 10 years is utterly impassable... because it is littered with dead bodies, rocketed cars, and shredded buses - from both sides of the conflict. The road of peace that we keep trying to pave and map literally looks like the final scene of "The Road Warrior". Screw the ridiculous roadmap, screw the PLO, and screw these constant, inane attempts to placate and appease this culture that has neither the desire nor capacity to reciprocate in kind. |
Posted by: Ken B. 2003-9-15 12:17:50 PM |
#4 Since when does Israel listen to the US ? Sounds like a last warning to Arafat with the US getting to look like the good guys. One more bomb, and Arafat is a goner. |
Posted by: eyeyeye 2003-9-15 12:04:28 PM |
#3 The Israelis missed their chance that first night when mostly men brandishing AK's went to the Muqata to defend Yasser. I would have loved to see a couple of volleys of tear gas as Yasser addressed them. Now its Palestinian folk dancing and their Boy Scouts performing there. Now it's turning into a PR disaster. |
Posted by: Daniel King 2003-9-15 12:01:36 PM |
#2 Time to flood the White House with email. Forget your Congressman & Senator - go for Dubya direct here: president@whitehouse.gov BUT KEEP IT CLEAN AND SIMPLE AND NON-THREATENING! Get the point across with numbers, folks. Pass the email addy to everyone you know - don't forget to pass along the warning, too. Maybe, just maybe, we can get the big guy to realize that there is strong support for strong measures. And that the greatest "problem" in the M.E. is the continued presence of the murderer Arafat. |
Posted by: .com (Prez for Life - My Isles of Langerhans) 2003-9-15 11:42:23 AM |
#1 If this was only Powell, I'd agree that this was a bad mistake. But if Condi weighed in, then I'd like to hear what her take is on it: Her track record is so much better than Powell's on things like this. My gut feel is that Condi wanted more time to think things through, and that the pace of events took her by surprise. |
Posted by: Ptah 2003-9-15 11:37:51 AM |