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| Middle East |
| Yasser squeals like a pig, nobody notices... |
| 2002-09-21 |
| Yasser Arafat, caught in the tightest Israeli chokehold yet, pleaded for the world's help after troops blew up buildings in his compound Friday and started digging a deep trench and running coils of barbed wire around his office. Throughout the day, Arafat spoke to several European officials and Arab leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Jordan's King Abdullah. Arafat asked them to pressure Israel to lift the siege. Arab leaders told Arafat they would seek an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss a demand for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh. Then they went and had lunch, maybe played a couple rounds of golf. But don't worry, it's in their inbox, and they'll get to it pretty daggone quick... Late Friday, Israeli bulldozers demolished a walkway linking two parts of the office, leaving Arafat and a few associates, along with about 20 wanted men, isolated in one area and separating him from most of his guards in the other section. Shucks, no guards? For Yasser, that's like being naked... Damn. Shouldn't have said that. Now I'll have nightmares... About 25 guards surrendered to Israeli troops, holding up their shirts to show they weren't carrying weapons or explosives. "Awright. You know the drill. Shirts up, dynamite belts on the pile, into the paddy wagon witcha..." The White House and the European Union urged Israel to show restraint, suggesting that too harsh a reprisal for a Tel Aviv bus blast claimed by Arafat's Islamic militant rivals would upset quiet efforts to reform the Palestinian Authority and secure a truce. Six people were killed in Thursday's bus attack. That's six people who definitely disagree with that statement, and we can probably add in the 50+ who were wounded and maimed... TV reports said the ultimate goal of the current assault is to make Arafat seek exile voluntarily, by confining him to a tiny area and making life in the compound unbearable. Ben-Eliezer, arguing that an outright expulsion is counterproductive and would only boost Arafat's standing, proposed that plan to Sharon in the Cabinet meeting. Arafat has said he would never again leave the Palestinian lands. Either that, or to drive him all the way nutz. They tried that last time, too. Or was it the time before that? The Palestinians said Arafat was in grave danger This is the equivalent of giving him a dutch rub, pulling his pants down, and knocking him over. I'm all for it, even if nothing ever comes of it. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Aw, Gee, and they just happened to break the last water pipe going to what's left of the one remaining (1/2)building ! |
| Posted by: MommaBear 2002-09-22 08:01:03 |