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Newsletter : 1fax0329.txt
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>JN March 29, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 57
Gadhafi Suggests Israel Join Arab League
By VOA News
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi surprised many delegates to the Arab summit in Jordan when he suggested that the Arab League consider admitting a new member - Israel.
Gadhafi, long known as a maverick among Arab leaders, was quoted as saying that Israel's admission would be contingent on the country giving up occupied Arab land, agreeing to a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees
Israel Attacks Palestinian Security Units
By VOA News
Israeli helicopter gunships attacked Palestinian security targets in Ramallah and the Gaza Strip following a series of bombings inside Israel by Palestinian militants. Two Palestinians were reported killed in Ramallah, including a member of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat's bodyguard unit. A civilian woman was also killed in the West Bank town.
In Gaza, there were reports of over 60 wounded Palestinians, many of them Arafat guards. One missile hit close to Arafat's house in Gaza City. Late Wednesday, armed Palestinians exchanged fire with Israeli troops in the tense West Bank town of Hebron, the town where sniper bullets killed the baby of Jewish settlers on Monday.
The Israeli strikes follow a series of bomb attacks in Israel, including a suicide bombing Wednesday in central Israel that killed two Israeli teenagers. The government of Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused the Arafat guard unit, known as Force 17, of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
Reacting to Wednesday's Israeli attacks, Palestinian officials accused Israel of waging "state terrorism."
Meanwhile, the Palestinian militant group Hamas released a videotaped farewell speech from the man it says was the bomber in Wednesday's suicide attack. The group says that seven other bombers are ready to strike.
Suicide Bomber Kills Two Israelis
By VOA News
A suicide bomber set off explosives next to a group of Israeli teenagers Wednesday, killing two and injuring four, three of them seriously. Israeli police say the bomber, who also died, walked up to a group of students waiting for a bus near the Israeli town of Kfar Saba, close to the border of the West Bank.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombing, and says that seven other suicide bombers are ready to strike. Israeli police also discovered and safely detonated bombs in the towns of Netanya and Petah Tikva. On Tuesday, two bombings in Jerusalem left one suicide bomber dead and 30 people wounded.
U.S. Urges Restraint in Mideast Violence
By Deborah Tate (VOA-White House)
The Bush administration is urging Israelis and Palestinians to exercise restraint amid an escalation of violence in the region. At the same time, the administration is defending its veto of a United Nations resolution that had called for U.N. observer force to help protect Palestinians.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher condemned a series of bombings against Israelis over the past two days. He said there is no justification for such acts of terrorism.
"There are a lot of innocent people dying," said Boucher. "We do not think either Israelis or Palestinians should live this way and should have to live with this fear. So we are looking for everybody to take action to end the violence, to stop the cycle of action and reaction that works in violent ways, to get back to bilateral security coordination and direct talks."
The Bush administration is defending its decision to veto a U.N. resolution backing an observer force that sponsors said was necessary to protect Palestinians. State Department spokesman Boucher said, "What we stood up for in the United Nations was what we think necessary and effective steps to support the peace process, and what we stood against were what we think unbalanced, unwise and unworkable steps that do not support the peace process."
Israel had opposed a U.N. observer force and wanted direct talks with the Palestinians instead. Boucher rejected any notion that supporting Israel is hurting U.S. diplomacy, saying the United States will continue to do "the right thing."
But Arab leaders meeting in Amman criticized the U.S. veto in their final communique Wednesday. The Arab summit also criticized Israel for what it said was its retreat from the principles of the Middle East peace process. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denounced the election of the hard-line Sharon as Prime Minister last month, saying it shows that Israelis are not interested in peace.
Assad called Israel a racist society, even more racist than the Nazis, prompting a sharp response from the State Department spokesman. "I would say our view of remarks about Zionism, Nazism and racism, we find those things absolutely wrong and totally unacceptable and inappropriate," said Boucher.
Boucher declined to comment on any differences between Assad's remarks in Amman and comments he made to Secretary of State Colin Powell in Damascus last month, when the Syrian leader said he favored a resumption in Israeli-Syrian peace talks. Boucher said it is not up to U.S. officials to reconcile remarks that other leaders make.
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