JPost

We'll fight terror our way, Sharon tells Bush By Herb Keinon

JERUSALEM (December 3) - Since Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has done nothing to prevent terrorism, Israel will fight terrorism itself, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told US President George W. Bush during their one-hour meeting in Washington yesterday.

Sharon is slated to convene the inner cabinet immediately upon his return this morning to decide on what military action to take in the face of an unprecedented terrorist offensive that has left 26 Israelis dead and more than 200 wounded in a 12-hour period.

Yesterday, a suicide bomber killed 15 and wounded 38 - several of them seriously - when he boarded a crowded bus near the center of Haifa's Hadar neighborhood and detonated his bomb.

The dead identified by press time were Ricki Hadad, 30, of Yokne'am, and Haifaites Ronen Chalon, 30, Ina Frenkel, 60, and Michael Zariaski, 71, Mara Frishman, 52, Yitzhak Ringel, 41, and Rozalia Riaz, 42, of the Phillipines.

In between the Jerusalem and Haifa attacks, Prof. Baruch Singer was shot dead near Elei Sinai in the Gaza Strip. Later in the day, a soldier and a border policeman were shot and seriously wounded in separate incidents.

The Haifa attack occurred shortly after noon when an Egged No. 16 bus traveling from Neveh Sha'anan to Hadar was passing through the mixed Jewish-Arab Halissa district.

Sharon heard a sharp US condemnation of the attacks from Bush and strong support for Israel.

A National Security Council spokesman told reporters after the meeting that if Arafat is the leader of the Palestinian people, then this is his time to act. Asked if Israel should return to negotiations, he said that it would not be realistic at this time to ask Israel to enter negotiations.

During the meeting, Bush reportedly told Sharon that he is demanding that Arafat immediately arrest the perpetrators of the terrorist acts of the last two days and take concrete and serious action against both Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Before the meeting, Bush told reporters that "I strongly condemn the acts of murder that killed innocent people in Israel. I will tell him [Sharon] that our nation grieves for those whose lives have been affected by the murders.

"This is a moment where the advocates for peace in the Middle East must rise up and fight terror. Chairman Arafat must do everything in his power to find those who murdered innocent Israelis and bring them to justice."

Senior US diplomatic officials said before Sharon's visit that the hope was that US special envoy to the Middle East Anthony Zinni would be able to get Arafat to drastically reduce the terrorism. Bush would then be able to convince a "softened" Sharon to make a gesture to the Palestinians that would allow the diplomatic process to move forward.

That game plan, according to one diplomatic official, is now in tatters, with the focus of the talks on what Arafat must do to halt the terrorism.

Yesterday, the PA declared a state emergency and arrested at least 30 suspected terrorists, most of them from Islamic Jihad. Both Islamic Jihad and Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa, but Palestinian security officials said Hamas was likely behind both.

Sharon is expected to reconvene the 13-member security cabinet either today or tomorrow. The security cabinet met yesterday morning, approving a series of actions brought to it by the military establishment. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres chaired the meeting in place of Sharon.

Although there was no official announcement of the actions approved, Transportation Minister Ephraim Sneh said that Israel needs to limit the movement in the West Bank of those trying to carry out attacks and intensify its targeted strikes on terrorists.

The IDF last night cordoned off Palestinian towns in the West Bank.

The IDF Spokesman issued a statement saying that "all Palestinian traffic on the roads of the West Bank outside of Area A and the villages in Areas B and C will be curtailed. Exceptions will be made for humanitarian cases, the transportation of food, fuel, and other basic commodities."

He added that this policy is necessary "due to the numerous warnings of imminent terrorist attacks, and the failure of the PA to take action against terrorists and to prevent these attacks."

Other security cabinet members were more militant than Sneh, with Labor and Social Affairs Minister Shlomo Benizri urging Sharon to do nothing less than declare war on Arafat and the PA. Other voices called for Israel to bring about the collapse of the PA.

The Haifa bombing took place as the names of the 10 youths killed in Saturday night's bombings in Jerusalem were being released.

One senior diplomatic official said that the spate of attacks seemed designed to impress Zinni that he will not be able to dictate terms of an agreement.

According to the official, Israeli foreign policy makers were caught by surprise by the latest terrorist offensive, believing initially that the Zinni visit would bring about a reduction of terrorism, as the Palestinians would not want to blamed by the US for the current violence.

In the end, he said, the Islamic extremist groups feared that there might be a breakthrough "and have done everything they could to stop it." He said that this follows a pattern of increased terrorism whenever it seems there is a chance for progress.

Zinni visited the site of the Jerusalem attack yesterday afternoon, and issued a harsh statement, calling it a "terrible, horrible, evil action."

"This is the deepest evil that one can imagine, to attack young people and children, to attack rescue and emergency vehicles that are trying to come in," Zinni said. "This is the lowest form of inhumanity that can be imagined, and I think that it is important that we stay together to fight this, that we do not let it deter us from our goal for peace, and that we stand together and make the world see that we will not tolerate this."

Not everyone, however, agrees that the recent spate of terrorism was a message to Zinni. One diplomatic official said that motivation to carry out these attacks exists regardless of which foreign emissary is or is not in the country. The only connection with Zinni, he said, is that his presence may have made it easier to carry out attacks by leading Israel to loosen its grip around the territories.

Peres, in conversations with the foreign ministers of Germany, Russia, Britain, and Norway, said that Arafat must undertake the same actions that he undertook in 1996, dismantle the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hizbullah in the territories and prevent terrorist actions and murder against Israel.

Peres said that Israel is no longer willing to settle for declarations, and stated that there are many more warnings of impending attacks. "Arafat will be judged by his actions, not by his declarations," Peres said.

Later in the afternoon, Peres met with some 70 ambassadors and said that the country is facing perhaps its most severe crisis ever with the Palestinians. Peres said that in the last four days, there have been six murderous attacks that left 40 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

This, he said, came at a time when Israel was easing up on the blockades of the territories, trying to introduce a cease-fire with Zinni, and holding informal talks with the Palestinians.

Peres told the ambassadors there is deep disappointment with the PA, which he said has used words but not taken action, and whose "arrests" of terrorists are a "farce." The suicide bombers, Peres said, "are forcing Israel to take actions it does not want to in order to protect its citizens."

A senior military intelligence officer told the ambassadors that no real arrests have been carried out. "We have received promises without intention of carrying them out, and despite the emergency situation [declared in the territories], terrorists are trying to carry out more attacks against Israel," he said.

Sneh said that along with military pressure, Israel should use American leverage on Arafat to take the same measures now that he did after a deadly spate of bus bombings in 1996 to stop the terrorism, or face total international isolation.

One official, however, said that this is unlikely unless Sharon holds out some tangible concession to the PA, something that will make it worthwhile for Arafat to risk a civil war in decisively dealing with the violence.

According to this official, Sharon - in order to get the world to place the massive pressure on Arafat that would force him to risk a civil war - will have to convince the international community that he is able to make the difficult concessions that he has spoken of, and that he needs to spell out, at least privately to international leaders, what exactly those concessions are.

-- Anonymous, December 03, 2001