US, Sharon press call for Palestinian civil war

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The US and Israel, attempting to treat the Palestinian people as a
defeated nation, are demanding that the cessation of "Palestinian
violence" against Israel be the unconditional PRECONDITION  for peace
talks.  The only thing that can be negotiated, in their view, is
limiations to the violence of the occupiers.  The violence of the
oppressed must end completely and immediately.

This, to put it mildly, unrealistic demand is a cover for the real
demand: that the Palestinian Authority open an all-out fight to smash
the fighting spirit and fighting organizations (not just Hamas and
Islamic Jihad, but the bulk of Fatah and other organizations that
favor continuing the struggle today) of the Palestinian nation BEFORE
real negotiations open.  You can imagine the value of the
"concessions" the Palestinian negotiators might obtain under those
circumstances.

The sidelining and isolation by Bush and Sharon of Arafat, a bourgeois
nationalist who seems to be aware that without the Palestinian
movement the negotiators come into the talks with nothing, were an
attempt to create a new authority leadership that would accept this
perspective. In exchange, they would be offered something that would
be called a "Palestinian state" -- actually a prison for Palestinians
administered by a Palestinian warden.

The "road map" is in part an attempt to find the road to a Palestinian
leadership who will go along with trying to destroy the Palestinian
movement in exchange for the promise of this kind of non-sovereign
"state" somewhere down the "road."  It is also an attempt to provide
cover for the Arab states to enable them to go along with the assault
on the Palestinian movement, and with the  heightened pressure,
threats, and military encirclement and military probes against Iran
that are now underway.

The destruction of the Palestinian movement has been a strategic goal
of the United States government, not just Israel, since the movement
first emerged as a powerful force in the wake of the 1967 war and the
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The US and Israeli authorities are pressing this demand with full
knowledge that the Palestinian authority is in no position to carry
out an anti-Palestinian war without direct military help from Israel
or its allies.
Fred Feldman



Palestinian Militants Join to Attack Israeli Army Outpost
By IAN FISHER


REZ, Israel, June 8 ? The three main Palestinian militant groups
staged an unusual joint attack today on an Israeli Army outpost here,
killing four soldiers and registering their clear and violent
opposition to the American-led peace initiative. A fifth Israeli
soldier was killed in a second attack later today in the West Bank
city of Hebron.

The attacks brought the first major violence here since Mahmoud Abbas,
the new Palestinian prime minister, met in Jordan last week with Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and President Bush to commit
themselves to the so-called road map to a peace settlement. The
violence is an early test of how the fragile plan will weather
opposition on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

But more immediately, the attacks seemed a direct attempt to weaken
further the authority of Mr. Abbas: since the summit meeting on
Wednesday in the Jordanian resort of Aqaba, he has faced heavy
criticism for a speech he gave there alongside Mr. Bush and Mr.
Sharon, viewed by many Palestinians as too conciliatory to Israel and
demanding too little.

Mr. Sharon, meanwhile, has angered many of his constituents by
supporting the plan, and tonight he faced fierce questioning from
members of his own Likud Party. "We won't give a thing as long as the
terror, violence and incitement continue," he told them. "But we will
be willing to make very painful concessions to get security and to get
true peace."

The attack by the three militant groups took place here at Erez, the
main border crossing between Israel and Gaza. Three gunmen ? one each
from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades ? penetrated
the Israeli Army outpost at 5:15 a.m., killing the four Israeli
soldiers and wounding four more. The gunmen, dressed in Israeli Army
uniforms, were all killed by Israeli troops.

The militant groups issued statements claiming joint responsibility,
quickly underscoring the political significance of the cooperation
that was required to carry out the attack. Such collaboration has
rarely happened among all three groups.

"Of course the message is clear: all factions are working together to
keep up resistance to the occupation," Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas
leader, said in a telephone interview later today. "We refuse totally
the Aqaba summit. It is a waste of our existence."

This afternoon, the fifth Israeli soldier was killed in Hebron, the
army reported, fired at from a rooftop while searching for gunmen who
had shot at soldiers there this morning. The army said that two
Palestinian gunmen were killed in the exchange of fire. By late
tonight, no group had claimed responsibility for the attack.

But Mr. Abbas, appointed largely in response to the refusal by both
the United States and Israel to deal with Yasir Arafat, the longtime
Palestinian leader, seems to face the more serious challenge now.
Before it can advance, the peace plan requires an end to violence
against Israelis, while Israelis are required to pull their troops
from Palestinian areas. But ending the violence may require using
force against the militants, a route that is risky and unpopular with
ordinary Palestinians whose support for Mr. Abbas is not strong
anyway.

Today, Mr. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, repeated his desire to
avoid armed confrontation and to restart talks with Hamas, which broke
off on Friday after his speech, and other militant groups.

"Perhaps the Aqaba statement was misunderstood," Mr. Abbas, who
canceled a trip to Gaza today because of the Erez attack, told
reporters in Ramallah on the West Bank. "We think dialogue is the only
way to achieve our goal. Through this dialogue, we want to achieve
calm, not civil war."

But Israeli officials quickly challenged Mr. Abbas to take stronger
steps to crack down on the militants.

"We forewarned them and said that trying to reach a cease-fire with
these organizations is not going to hold very long and is not going to
be any solution to the problems," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to
Mr. Sharon. "You cannot treat cancer with aspirin."

It is unclear whether the attacks will cause any serious setback to
the initial steps required by the peace plan. Tonight, however, Mr.
Gissin suggested that the attacks might signal a delay in an early
step required in the plan of Israel: dismantling several of the
outposts, the encampments of trailers set up by Israeli settlers, in
the West Bank. Army officials had said that they would begin
dismantling some in the next few days. Tonight, Mr. Gissin said that
this could depend on what steps the Palestinians took against the
militants.

"With more terrorist attacks, it makes no sense to remove or take an
action that could be seen as giving a prize to terrorism," he said.

With much at stake for Mr. Bush, who has waded deeply and personally
into finding peace here, American officials sought to play down the
significance of today's attacks, but said that cracking down on
extremists was not a job that could fall to Mr. Abbas alone.

"We've always known that there were going to be those who do not want
peace," Condoleeza Rice, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, said
today on the ABC News program "This Week." "Those who say that they
want peace, and I now mean the Arab neighbors, will also have to deal
with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Al Aksa Brigade. The
Palestinian leadership cannot do it alone."

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told CNN today that Mr. Abbas was
committed to "taking these organizations down," but said that the
responsibility also lay with Mr. Arafat, who has expressed displeasure
with Mr. Abbas in recent days and whom Israeli officials have accused
of supporting such attacks on Israel.

As of tonight, Mr. Sharon had refrained from launching the kind of
retaliatory attacks that typically follow Palestinian attacks on
Israelis. Many experts say these next few days are likely to be a
crucial test also of Mr. Sharon's own commitment to a peace plan he
has accepted only conditionally, and as he faces so much opposition
from settlers and hard-liners in his own party.

Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar Elan University, said the
next few days might show Mr. Sharon's resolve to endure peace talks
like those in South Africa and Northern Ireland, which succeeded
despite a surge of politically complicating attacks.

"It's a very delicate situation," he said. "Both sides must have a
high degree of trust."

But some experts are also asking whether Mr. Abbas has been crippled
by the events of the last few days, and whether he is a viable partner
for peace even if Israel is fully prepared to carry through on its
side. In what may be a sign of the difficulties he faces, Mr. Abbas,
who normally shuns publicity, plans to hold a news conference on
Monday. He is expected to commit himself to many goals important to
Palestinians but omitted from his Aqaba speech, such as the right of
return for Palestinian refugees and the release of Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli jails.

"Abu Mazen lost a lot," said Zakaria al Qaq, the co-director of the
Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, an organization
in Jerusalem. "I have fears if Abu Mazen is rescuable."

Israeli military and intelligence officials said they were not as
surprised by the attack at Erez today as they were by the fact that it
was carried out by all three groups. Other experts said the target was
significant and showed that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa were
aiming for broad support among Palestinians. Many Palestinians who are
wary of attacks against civilians consider soldiers fair targets.

Maj. Gen. Doron Almog, the army's commander for southern Israel, said
that the three attackers apparently concealed themselves among the
6,800 Palestinians who crossed over this morning to work in Israel.
General Almog said that before the men reached an Israeli checkpoint,
and amid some fog, they scaled a wall into the Erez Industrial Zone, a
border business area with some 180 businesses, where 4,500
Palestinians work, then doubled back to the army outpost near the
southwestern edge.

Armed with assault rifles and grenades, they attacked a guardhouse,
killing two soldiers there and a third a few feet away. A fourth was
killed inside the outpost, a large concrete structure. All three
attackers were then killed by soldiers.