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From the Vol.1,No.9 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly
MIDEAST NEWS DIGEST

Arafat: Rabin 'Was Killed by These Fanatic Groups Who Are Now in Power in Israel'

Upon the lifting of the Israeli siege of his headquarters on May 1, Yasser Arafat gave a press conference denouncing the Israeli government, saying that the killers of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin are now in power. "I can't forget myself the peace of the brave which I had signed with my partner Rabin, who was killed by these fanatic groups who are now in power in Israel."

Arafat, speaking on CNN, also said, "I hope that you have heard President Mubarak, who is worried like me over these barbarian activities from the Israeli Army."

Portions of Arafat's substantive statements to various media are reported here. Speaking to CNN, Arafat said that, "What is important now is this big crime which has happened against this holy sacred place for the Muslims and for the Christians, the Nativity church. You have followed what they have done—two big places have been burned, in the Franciscan area and in the Orthodox room.... I am asking you personally. This happened the same some years ago, if you remember, against the Al Aqsa Mosque, now against the Nativity Church. Who can believe it, in the whole world?"

Arafat revealed that the "negotiations" conducted by the U.S. and the British to lift the siege was not isolated to his release, and the IDF was already violating the discussion "in progress." He said a settlement of Bethlehem "was [in progress]. The [process] which I hadstarted with the American consul and the British consul; [when they] came to me, I was not discussing only my headquarters. I was discussing with them the Nativity Church before my headquarters. And we agreed upon that, the two sides and the two places would find a solution for it. And you [photographed] what they have done against me here. Three explosions. Three buildings have been destroyed. But I remained silent, because for me it makes no difference even if they had destroyed this room in which I am working. What is important for me and for the whole world [is] this Nativity Church and what they have done against the statue of St. Mary.

"You remember the whole world moved when the Buddha statues had been [destroyed] in Afghanistan. The whole world moved. Why are they not moving against what is happening at this holy sacred place for the whole Muslims, for the whole Christians, all over the world?"

CNN: What pressure are you prepared to bring to bear on militant groups to get them to stop their attacks on civilians? What pressure, specifically?

Arafat: "Not to forget, forget myself, the peace of the brave that I had signed with my partner Rabin, who has been killed by these fanatic groups that are in power now in Israel. But for this, I have to follow up, not to forget the peace of the brave that I had signed with my partner Rabin.... I believe that if there is a will, there is a way. And not to forget, the majority of the Israeli people are with the peace of the brave. And our people are the same, and [I am] the same, and the Arab summit conference declared the initiative and adopted the initiative, which had been declared by Crown Prince Abdullah and became an Arab initiative. And the resolution of the Security Council, and the resolution of Kofi Annan for this committee, and for the observers—and for this we are in need of a quick move from His Excellency and the superpower now....

"And we cannot forget that some [Israeli] soldiers and some high officers have refused to follow up and to continue these dirty crimes."

CNN: Let me ask you, sir, what do you intend to do in the morning? What's your first act?

Arafat: "First of all..., I will go to see what has happened in all of our cities and towns, the disasters, the crimes, the losses. All our infrastructures have been destroyed. All our infrastructures...." CNN: What about travels in the Arab world and elsewhere, in Europe?

Arafat:This is not the first item for me.... The most important thing, I have to go see and shake hands with my people who have suffered, who have faced the crimes, the disasters.... It became Jeningrad instead of Stalingrad. You remember something like that? Stalingrad? Now, Jeningrad."

War Crimes Detailed by Palestinian Emissary to U.S.

In a special report called "Burying the Truth," about the Israeli government blocking of a UN Security Council mandated fact-finding commission to investigate Jenin, CNN television interviewed PLO Ambassador to the United States Hassan Abdel Rahman who said that Israel is engaging in "unacceptable behavior," which is a violation of international law. He said that the refusal shows that Israel "committed obvious war crimes in Jenin," and by lying to the UN and ignoring the Security Council resolution, Israel is "creating anarchy in the international system."

When the Israeli UN Ambassador "countered" that the reports of a "massacre" were "hyperbolic" and extremist and "alarmist," saying that "only 47 Palestinian gunmen were killed," Rahman calmly and firmly reported that "it is not the numbers" but the acts that Israel committed. He said that:

*The use of Apache helicopters in areas of high civilian population is a violation of international law;

*The blocking of humanitarian aid for more than 14 days to save the wounded, and provide medical care is a violation of international law;

*To destroy homes with bulldozers right over the heads of the occupants is a violation of international law. Indicating how nervous the Sharon government is about Israeli culpability for war crimes, Shimon Peres, who has often been reported as shouting in Cabinet Meetings that the IDF and Israeli leaders will be "going to the International Court in the Hague" as accused criminals, on Israeli and international televsion. Peres said that if the UN fact-finding mission were allowed into the camps, then it would set a dangerous precedent because "we can't have every Israeli soldier travelling with a lawyer."

Portions of the Peres statement were carried on CNN TV.

Israeli Military Operation Far From Success

Israeli military commentator Reuven Pedatzur, writing in the May 1 Ha'aretz daily, declares that the Israel Defense Forces "Operation Defensive Shield" (known to EIR readers as Operation Warsaw Ghetto) was "far from a military success." Far from its declared goal "to defeat" terror, the military claims it will "minimize its dimensions." Pedatzur writes that even from a military operational standpoint it was a failure: "But even the military activity did not always excel at efficiency and professionalism....

"The IDF's explanation that not using the air force and artillery was the reason for what went wrong in Jenin, cannot hide the fact that the Army was forced to fight for more than 10 days and pay a high price in human lives to take over a refugee camp where a few dozen fighters were hiding. The failure was inherent in faulty planning, improper use of forces, and lack of foreseeing the results. If the decision was made to occupy a refugee camp, why do it after more than a week of fighting, thereby giving the Palestinians ample time to prepare for the battle...?

"It makes no difference that the IDF managed to occupy the camp—in any case the battle will go down as the Stalingrad of the Palestinian nation. And that doesn't count the insensitivity and basic lack of understanding on the part of those who spent more than 10 days preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the camp. So far, nobody has explained what made the IDF decide to prevent doctors from entering Jenin to treat the wounded and evacuate the corpses. Not only could the UN fact-finding mission, and tales of a massacre, have been avoided...."

The IDF's incompetence went so far as not supplying food to its own troops. "When the post-operation inquiries take place, another matter for investigation will be the scandalously unprepared reserve force. Why wasn't there food for the reservists? Why, more than a week after being drafted, did fighters have to make do, at the end of a day's combat, with candy from the Shekem canteen? If that's the level of logistical readiness in the army, there's reason to worry."

Pedatzur then writes that far from the destruction of "terrorist infrastructure", the IDF "destroyed the civil infrastructures, like electricity, water and computer systems, as well as the political leadership. Will that prevent terror in the future? The IDF answer came without hesitation: on the contrary, the motivation to harm Israelis and take revenge has only grown." He then warns that the IDF will go into Area A again and this time also go into the Gaza Strip. "If the IDF indeed goes into Gaza, then what happened in Jenin will be by comparison a pleasant hike."

Israeli Reservists Call for Pulling Out of Occupied Territories

On May 1, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz revealed that 20 Israeli reserve paratroopers who recently took part in the so-called "Operation Defensive Shield" addressed a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calling for a unilateral withdrawal from the occupied territories, the building of a fence separating the West Bank from Israel, and the evacuation of isolated settlements. Initiated by Ronen Wolfson and Shahar Baruch, they called their request "an emergency call-up for the responsibility of the prime minister and the Israeli government."

They speak of themselves as "reservists who received emergency call-up orders to Operation Defensive Shield and took part in the fighting ... we enlisted in the cause of protecting the state out of belief that it was our moral duty to repel the terrorist attacks and topple its infrastructure.... But it is clear to us that without a political plan and supplementary steps, this operation will lose its effectiveness, and won't achieve its goals. If the government of Israel continues with its vague policies, the day is not far when we will be called to Operation Defensive Shield 2, and over and over again. With that kind of repetititve operation, it is not difficult to imagine that faith in our military will fade, as will support for a government that lacks leadership and a political horizon."

They conclude, "Prove to the nation, to the soldiers and reservists that you not only know how to send soldiers to war, but also know how to be the nation's emissary for peace." The 20 signatories showed up at the protest tent set up across from the Prime Minister's office by the unilateral withdrawal groups called "Coming out Winners" and the Council for Security and Peace.

'Israel Will Likely Kill Arafat'

So said a leading Israeli historian close to the peace camp, who has researched Sharon's activities, and the Jabotinsky faction more generally; he spoke in great detail in an interview with EIRNS in Europe on May 1. "The basic premise of the Sharon government, is that the Palestinian Authority is a terrorist organization, and that Arafat is the arch-terrorist. The American Administration has been won over to that view, or at least Sharon is certainly convinced of that. So, what I think will happen, is that Arafat will be released from his confinement in Ramallah, but then, there will be a major suicide bombing killing Israelis, and there will be a shoot-out, and in the shoot-out, Arafat will be killed."

Options for Implementing 'Jordan Is Palestine' Expulsion Underway

There are several "live options" for the "Jordan is Palestine" plan to go, full-scale, into operation, Israeli military historian Martin van Crefeld told EIR. In recent weeks, a major article by van Crefeld had been published in the London Sunday Telegraph and other major newspapers in Australia and Holland, laying out, in great detail, what this mass expulsion of the Palestinians from the West Bank would look like. In his published article, which actually had been written some weeks ago, van Crefeld had assumed that such an Israeli move would be mounted under the cover of, and simultaneous with, an American attack on Iraq, which Israeli planners were expecting as early as this summer. Now, he has doubts that such an Iraq attack would occur so soon, because of reticence about doing so, both in elements of the American Establishment, and in the American population.

But that is not likely to hold back Sharon et al., he insisted: "There might be other opportunities. For example, we could see the collapse of the Hashemite regime in Jordan, with or without our help. There is a Palestinian majority there already, and the regime could just collapse. A second possibility is, what would happen if there is a big act of terrorism in Israel, in which not several, but several hundred people are killed? For example, a lorry full of explosives crashes into a skyscraper in Tel Aviv, something like what happened to the World Trade Center in 1993. Then, Sharon would simply say, 'To hell with the Americans,' who are, after all, the only ones that count."

But van Crefeld by no means excluded, that the Americans would back an Israeli "Jordan is Palestine" operation, under certain conditions. "What if there is a massive new act of terrorism in America, another Twin Towers? Or what if we read some days from now, in the New York Times, that there was a vast Saudi plot, cooperating with bin Laden, for Sept. 11? Under such circumstances, the Americans would probably not only tolerate such a Sharon design."

He was asked then, given everything he was saying, what was the possibility that Israel itself might engineer a giant act of terrorism in the U.S., to bring about the desired result? He might be upset to be asked that, but.... "Why should I be upset? I don't believe it, we got burned doing those kinds of things in the 1950s [with the Lavon Affair, when Israeli agents got caught setting off bombs in Egypt against American installations, in order to get the Americans to move against the Nasser regime—ed]. But what I can tell you, is that if you go onto the Internet Chat Rooms here, you can read ordinary Israelis, regularly, suggesting that the Mossad deliberately commit a giant act of terrorism in the U.S., make sure the Arabs are blamed, and use the opportunity to make the Americans support whatever we do. These are crazy ideas, but you can read them on the Internet."

'U.S. Envisions Blueprint on Iraq, Including Big Invasion Next Year'

The "utopian" plan for a war with Iraq that Lyndon LaRouche has frequently cited as proof of the insanity of the "new imperial war" faction of the Anglo-American establishment was detailed in the April 28 issue of the New York Times.

In an article headlined, "U.S. Envisions Blueprint on Iraq, Including Big Invasion Next Year," unnamed senior officials told the newspaper that the Administration is concentrating on a major air campaign and ground invasion, with initial estimates of 70,000-100,000 or even up to 250,000 troops. (Other than troops from Britain, no significant contribution of allied forces is anticipated.) This was the thinking after the Administration had concluded that a coup would be unlikely to succeed, and that a proxy battle using local forces would be insufficient to topple Saddam Hussein.

Any offensive will probably be delayed until early next year, allowing time to create the right military, economic, and diplomatic conditions. The earlier plan to attack this fall now seems less realistic, after conflict in the Middle East has widened a rift within the Administration, over whether military action can be undertaken without inflaming Arab states, and prompting anti-American violence throughout the region. There are, of course, serious questions as to where U.S. forces could be based. As to any war plan itself, the military expects to be asked for a more traditional approach than the unconventional campaign in Afghanistan.

But "the modern American military has never fought the kind of dangerous and complicated urban battles that might be needed to oust the [Saddam] Hussein government." Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld are said to maintain that Arabs would publicly protest, but secretly celebrate Saddam Hussein's downfall. But at the State Department and among some at the White House, counter-arguments are posed that efforts to topple Saddam Hussein would be viewed by Arabs as a confrontation with Islam, destabilizing the entire region, and complicating the broader campaign against bin Laden and al-Qaeda. On May 3, new revelations emerged about some intense infighting in the Bush Administration over the war on Iraq and the "war against terrorism."

After pushing for months for a conference to turn the Iraqi National Congress, and other opposition groups into a second "Northern Alliance" in order to conduct "Afghanistan II" in Iraq, the neo-conservative mafia inside the Bush Administration moved to block millions of dollars for a conference for the opposition, because the money would go to Middle East experts who had criticized Israeli actions in the West Bank.

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