Oct 7, 2000 - 03:05 PM

Israel: Barak Issues 48-Hour Ultimatum to Arafat

By Karin Laub

Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak issued an ultimatum to Yasser Arafat on Saturday, saying Israel troops would act with full force if the Palestinian leader did not stop violent clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip within the next two days.

The strong statement from the embattled prime minister came after Hezbollah guerrillas seized three Israeli soldiers in an ambush Saturday at the Israeli-Lebanese border. The attack threatened an expansion of the violence and fueled fears that the peace process would further crumble.

Barak vowed to win the soldiers' return, warning Lebanon and Syria - the main power broker in the country - that they were responsible for the captives' safety. At the same time, Israeli security officials said they were prepared to fight on two fronts, along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Barak said he was no longer convinced Arafat was ready for a peace agreement, blaming Arafat for the clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian protesters that have killed 80 - most Palestinians.

"With one simple order, he can stop the violence," Barak told a news conference after convening his Cabinet and army commanders for an emergency session.

Barak said it was still possible to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and urged Arafat to return to the negotiations in the next few days.

The Israeli prime minister said that if the violence did not stop within the next two days, he would order Israeli troops to respond with full force to attacks by Palestinian rock-throwers and gunmen.

"If we have to, we will fight on two fronts," said Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh. "We have enough strength for that. We shall have to be less restrained than we were in the past." In messages to the Syrian and Lebanese governments, Barak said Israel would take "forceful action" to ensure the safety of Israeli troops and communities along the border.

After days of violence, Barak was under intense pressure from his own Cabinet on Saturday to form a national unity government including the hawkish opposition Likud party. That would make resuming negotiations with the Palestinians difficult, since Likud is vehemently opposed to concessions.

Likud lawmakers stepped up their condemnations of Barak's policies after he ordered the pre-dawn withdrawal of Israeli troops from Joseph's Tomb, a holy site in the West Bank town of Nablus that has been the center of bloody clashes. Within hours of the pullout, Palestinians trashed the site.

Arafat said Saturday that Israel was to blame for a "dangerous escalation against the Palestinian people, the Arab people, the Lebanese people and against Islamic and Christian holy places."

Developments in the north, meanwhile, ended the relative peace enjoyed at the Israeli-Lebanese border since Barak decided to withdraw Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in May.

Earlier Saturday, hundreds of Palestinian refugees charged toward the border fence from the Lebanese side, hurling stones at Israeli soldiers. Troops opened fire, killing one Palestinian and wounding 14.

The three soldiers were captured in what appeared to be a carefully planned Hezbollah ambush soon afterward. Israel TV's Channel Two said guerrillas fired rockets at an Israeli post in the disputed Chebaa farms border region, claimed by both Lebanon and Israel. When Israeli troops arrived at the scene in an open truck, with machine guns mounted on either end, guerrillas fired more rockets, cut through the fence and snatched three soldiers. The captives were driven away in a civilian car, the TV report said.

Israeli helicopters later searched the area, while Helicopter gunships lay down machine-gun fire on roads, injuring a family of four, Lebanese security officials said.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it dedicated the raid to 12-year-old Mohammed Aldura, a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli fire during a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip last week. The boy's terrifying last moments, as he and his father huddled behind a metal barrel, were broadcast around the world.

Israeli government spokesman Nahman Shai said Israel was using diplomatic channels to try to get the soldiers back, and was in touch with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. U.N. peacekeepers are deployed in southern Lebanon.

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the level of violence dropped significantly Saturday. One Palestinian was killed in clashes in Gaza, and two died of injuries sustained Friday. The vast majority of the 80 dead and more than 1,900 injured were Palestinians.

The violence was triggered by a Sept. 28 visit of Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a contested holy shrine in Jerusalem.

A sovereignty dispute over the shrine, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, led to a breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in July.

On Saturday, in an attempt to reduce friction, Israel withdrew its troops from Joseph's Tomb after receiving assurances from Palestinian police that they would guard the compound, which was home to a Jewish seminary.

However, just hours after the Israeli pullout, during which an Israeli border policeman was injured by shooting, hundreds of Palestinian civilians stormed the site.

Jubilant Palestinians climbed to the domed roof of the tomb area, raised a Palestinian flag and posed for photographers with a framed Arafat poster. Others ripped up several Jewish prayer books that had been left behind and set fire to areas of the compound.

The tomb had been the scene of daily firefights for a week, and one Israeli border policeman and six Palestinians were killed there.

Palestinian officials demanded that Israel dismantle other small outposts and isolated Jewish settlements to reduce friction further.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, Nafez Azzam, a spokesman of the militant group Islamic Jihad, thanked Hezbollah for the capture of the Israeli soldiers.

"This will give us a push to continue our struggle against the occupiers," Azzam told Associated Press Television News. "What happened today at Joseph's Tomb and what happened in Lebanon proves that fighting is the only solution with them."

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAUPZVN1EC.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), October 07, 2000