U.S. Mideast Mediation Proceeds as Israel Launches What it Calls Limited Operations

23/10/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: 23 Palestinians Injured as Occupation Forces Enter Rafah and Shell Khan Younis||Palestinian Homes of Relatives of Late Resistance Men Demolished in Nablus & Gaza||More So-called Limited Occupation Army Operations Are Being Prepared||Israeli Defence Minister Admits Running out of Military Options against Palestinian Resistance||Burns Arrives in Israel Wednesday||Arafat Forms Cabinet to Be Announced Next Week as Sharon Patches up Coalition|| STORY: Israel claimed it was holding off retaliation Tuesday for the deadliest Palestinian resistance attack in three months, allowing a U.S. mediation effort to continue on a proposal to set up a provisional Palestinian state by next year.

However, Israeli forces mounted operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

A tank force thrust into a neighborhood in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and destroyed the family home of relatives of a resistance fighter killed in a shootout with the occupation army recently.

23 Palestinians were injured when occupation forces penetrated for a few hundreds of kilometers in Rafah. Occupation forces also shelled Khan Younis in Southern Gaza.

Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank city of Hebron also opened fire on a house belonging to a relative of a wanted Islamic Jihad man, but no one was home, residents said.

Occupation soldiers demolished homes near the West Bank city of Nablus belonging to two resistance men linked to previous bombings.

Islamic Jihad said Monday's attack was revenge for Israel's assassination of its founder in 1995 and more recent raids which have killed Palestinian civilians and combatants alike.

Israeli security sources said the occupation army was preparing a series of operations against resistance groups, including Islamic Jihad.

Tzipi Livni, a minister without portfolio, said Israel would have to make sure it did not upset U.S. plans against Iraq in deciding on measures to take against Palestinian militants.

"Let's say that today President Bush decides to cancel the offensive against Iraq. Is that good for the Jews?" she said in a Channel One interview.

TIME TO RETURN TO PEACEMAKING

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel was running out of military options to stop Palestinian suicide bombings and it was time to explore a return to peacemaking.

Ben-Eliezer spoke as a U.S. envoy William Burns toured the region with a so-called peace "roadmap.

U.S. PEACE MEDIATION CONTINUES

Ben-Eliezer spoke as U.S. envoy William Burns toured the region with a so-called peace "roadmap".

A Palestinian Cabinet minister welcomed the so-called U.S. "road map," while Israeli leaders met to consider it. A top Israeli official said Israel might accept creation of a provisional Palestinian state if all violence stopped.

Assistant Secretary of State William Burns is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Wednesday.

Observers say the United States is interested in calming the Israeli-Palestinian arena to avoid distractions as it prepares for a possible strike against Iraq.

The U.S. plan for Israel and the Palestinians was presented last week to both sides. Sharon received it during a trip to the White House, and Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, a close Arafat confidante, got his first look during a meeting with Burns in Paris.

Shaath told The Associated Press that the first phase of the plan, from November this year to April 2003, would include a truce, cessation of violence and an Israeli pullback to positions held before two years of violence erupted.

The second phase would be the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders sometime between May and December.

In the final phase, Shaath said, the sides would negotiate a peace treaty covering the tough issues that sank the previous round of peace talks, including permanent borders, Jewish settlements and control of Jerusalem. The goal would be an agreement in the middle of 2005, resulting in a full-fledged Palestinian state.

For now, the two sides' leaderships remain far apart on all issues.

PALESTINIAN LEADER FORMS NEW CABINET

On the political front, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has formed a new Cabinet that will be presented to the legislative council for approval next week, a top Palestinian official said Tuesday.

Arafat's Cabinet resigned Sept. 11 just as the legislative council prepared to pass a vote of no confidence against the government. A two-week deadline to appoint a new Cabinet was extended until November after Israeli occupation troops besieged Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah in response to a Palestinian resistance bombing.

The speaker of the council, Ahmed Qureia, said Tuesday that Arafat had drawn up a new list of ministers. Qureia did not divulge names. The council will meet in a special session next week to vote on the Cabinet, Qureia said.

Palestinian officials said on condition of anonymity that the council was unlikely to approve the new Cabinet since the list contained some officials from the previous Cabinet who have been accused of corruption.

SHARON PATCHES UP COALITION

Also on the political front, Sharon eased tensions within the government, chiding an Orthodox cabinet minister for describing Ben-Eliezer as a liar and a coward in connection with an occupation army operation to remove a rogue settlement in the West Bank.

Ben-Eliezer retreated from his threat to resign after Sharon won a promise from National Infrastructure Minister Ephraim Eitam of the National Religious Party never to repeat the remarks.

Eitam had accused Ben-Eliezer of violating the Jewish sabbath by allowing soldiers to dismantle the settlement, built without government approval, on a Saturday when occupation troops are supposed to be restricted to activity that saves Jewish lives.

PHOTO CAPTION

Rescue workers remove the body of one of the victims of an October 21, 2002 resistance bombing that hit a bus in northern Israel killing 14 people. Israel planned to retaliate for the Palestinian bombing, but security sources said October 22 any response would be limited to avoid damaging U.S. preparations for a possible war on Iraq. (Nir Elias/Reuter