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NEWS
Sharon: Diplomacy Suspended
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that the road map for Palestinian statehood will not move ahead until the Palestinians carry out their pledge to dismantle terrorist groups. The message at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday was reinforced by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who said the peace process was on hold and the current security situation in Palestinian areas had become "virtually intolerable."

Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon gave the cabinet a detailed briefing on the security situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, saying there are on average four terror attacks a day even now. These attacks include shootings, missile firings and roadside bombs.

Ya'alon said the cease-fire is an internal Palestinian affair to which Israel is not a party, and that with or without it the PA must dismantle the terror organizations. The IDF is preparing for the possibility the cease-fire will fall apart and massive terror will return.

At the same time, he said, it is clear Palestinian society, benefiting from the relative quiet no less than Israeli society, is currently not in favor of an end to the cease- fire and a return to terror. Israeli officials believe Hamas is very well aware of the desires of the "Palestinian street," and that Palestinian fatigue from three years of fighting was an important consideration in the Hamas agreement to the temporary cease-fire.

Some 22,000 Palestinians now have permits to work in Israel. Palestinian fishing rights off of Gaza have been widened. Some 800 trucks a day pass through the Karni checkpoint, Ya'alon said. All of this, he said, is whetting the appetite for more quiet, which will lead to a greater improvement in day-to-day life.

Ya'alon also noted that the terror organizations are using the respite to regroup. Friday's raid in Nablus, he said, was to prevent the manufacturing of Kassam rockets in the West Bank. With only one or two exceptions, Kassam rockets have been launched only from Gaza.

Arms smuggling from Egypt through tunnels into Rafah is continuing and the IDF has discovered that some of these tunnels begin in Egyptian police and army outposts. Ya'alon said he does not believe Egypt is officially helping the smuggling of arms, but rather that individual Egyptian soldiers and police officers have been bribed.

Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat said Israel, not the Palestinians, was failing to live up to its commitments under the "road map."

"In accordance with the road map, what should be dismantled is the Israeli occupation and the Israeli settlements," Erekat told The Associated Press.

The plan, launched at a June 4 summit between President Bush, Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, is a three-stage program. In the first phase the Palestinians are to dismantle "terrorist capabilities and infrastructure (including) confiscation of illegal weapons." Israel commits to "immediately dismantle" about 100 settlement outposts, established in Judea and Samaria since 2001, to take "all necessary steps to help normalize Palestinian life" and to withdraw progressively from Palestinian autonomous zones occupied since fighting between the two sides erupted in September 2000.

About a dozen outposts have been taken down. Israel also removed a few key checkpoints. Israel has pulled troops out of parts of Gaza and Bethlehem.

Abbas and his government have made clear terror attacks should stop, but so far few weapons have been taken. The Palestinians argue that as long as the militants are not attacking Israelis, they should be given time to disarm them by persuasion.

Tensions in the North

At the same time, tensions rose in the north of Israel, as Hizbullah cross-border fire killed 16-year-old Haviv Dadon and lightly wounded five other Israelis in the town of Shlomi. Israeli warplanes attacked Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon, including a pinpoint strike at the position that caused the death.

Israel responded to Hizbullah provocations along the northern border in a rational and measured way so as not to inflame the situation as far as possible.

Foreign Ministry officials said that Israel views Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, which support Hizbullah, as responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the North.

"Not only do Syria and Iran not fight terrorism," one Foreign Ministry spokesman said, "but they encourage terrorism on the northern border and in the territories in order to torpedo any chance to reach peace."

According to this logic, Syria and Iran which for different reasons are not happy with the road map are looking to provoke Israel into a retaliatory action that would enrage the Arab world and force the Palestinians to abandon it.

Referring to Syria, the official said it is "absurd that a country on the list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, and which supports terrorism, is now the head of the UN Security Council, whose job is to work for peace in the world."

He added that while Israel has fulfilled its obligations to withdraw from Lebanon, the Lebanese government did not fulfill its obligations to deploy its troops in the south, thereby allowing Hizbullah free reign there.

In a message sent to the Syrians via the US and the UN, Israel clarified its position: Israel will strike Syrian targets in Lebanon if attacked by Hizbullah.

Sharon is under domestic pressure as he and his family are being investigated on various charges of corruption. Though the official response in such situations is to drag out the investigation for years (for example, former prime minister Ehud Barak is still under investigation for illegal campaign finance activities in the 1999 elections), Attorney General Rubinstein has pledged to conclude the Sharon investigations before be leaves office in less than six months.

 

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