OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, October 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In the opening
of the winter session of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon called on the Palestinians Monday, October 14, to
replace their current leadership, headed by Yasser Arafat, with a
"government of peace."
"To
reach peace, the government of murder must be removed and replaced by a
government of peace," the (hawkish) right-winger, accused by
several human rights and law groups of committing war crimes against the
Palestinian people, said.
Sharon
frequently called for Arafat to be dropped, arguing he is an obstacle to
reviving the stalled peace process. He convinced U.S. President George
W. Bush to also call for a change of the Palestinian leadership.
"Your
suffering is pointless, your blood has been spilled in vain,"
Sharon added in his message to the Palestinians, hundreds of thousands
of whom have lived since June under Israeli reoccupation in the West
Bank, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The
two-year-old Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation, has
cost the lives of almost 2,000 Palestinians, as well as 617 Israelis.
Nabil
Abu Rudeina, a senior aide to Arafat, was quick to condemn Sharon's
speech.
"This
statement shows one more time that this government is not serious about
reaching peace. If it were serious, it would implement UN Security
Council resolutions and withdraw (from Palestinian land) and allow a
return to the negotiating table," he told AFP.
He
said the speech "will not help the peace process and was meant more
as propaganda for the international community, especially before Sharon
goes to Washington" late Monday, Abu Rudeina said.
Observers
and political analysts echoed the same meaning, citing Sharon's declared
policy of blockades, curfews, killing and destroying homes and
properties of the Palestinians. His address before the Knesset was
directed at the world public opinion, especially the Americans, hours
before heading to meet Bush, they argued.
Sharon's
visit to Washington comes a day after six Palestinians, three of them
civilians and one a four-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli forces.
The
Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot said Sharon will make clear in his
seventh meeting with Bush on Wednesday "that Israel will not pay
with its security the price the Arab countries and Europe are demanding
as a condition for their support in the war against Iraq," in
particular a swift pullback from occupied land.
The
Israeli cabinet met Sunday, October 13, to discuss U.S. pressure for
restraint as Washington tries to build an anti-Iraq coalition among Arab
countries which already accuse the Bush administration of being overtly
pro-Israeli.
Israeli
security officials claimed that any attempt to ease the suffering of
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians locked up in reoccupied West Bank
cities for four months would present a renewed security risk to Israel.
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Sharon speaks peace_ acts all-out war against people under occupation
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Israeli
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer did, however, announced late
Sunday that he was considering a troop pullback from the southern West
Bank town of al-Khalil (Hebron) to ease conditions.
However,
the killing of a low-ranking Palestinian resistance activist from Fatah
movement in a booby-trapped telephone booth late Sunday - a
sophisticated hit instantly blamed on Israel - strained even that
fragile agreement, the only security accord between the two sides to
have actually lasted in recent months.
Leaflets
circulated by Fatah said the killing of 25-year-old Mohammed Hussein
Abayat broke the understanding under which Israel withdrew from
Bethlehem in return for security guarantees.
Abayat
was the third member of his extensive family - accused by Israel of
running arms smuggling and "terrorist" activities - to be
slain in an apparent "targeted killing," although the army
made no comment on the death.
The
Israeli daily Ha'aretz said the army may have killed the wrong
man and been trying to target his brother Nasser, who it said heads the
Fatah-linked resistance group, the Tanzim, in Bethlehem.
In
Cairo, meanwhile, EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said
that Israel failed to comply with a number of UN resolutions and might
have achieved peace already with the Palestinians if it had.
"Israel
is not complying with a number of Security Council resolutions,"
Patten said after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.
"I
think it is extremely regrettable that it's not" complying, he
said. "I think if it had complied with Security Council
resolutions, we might well have had peace some time ago."
As
Sharon headed for Washington, his Labor Defense Minister was in Paris
for talks.
Ben
Eliezer told the Le Figaro newspaper that peace talks should be
based on proposals made by former U.S. president Bill Clinton which
would see "97 percent of the territories" returned to
Palestinian control.
"It
is the moment for the Israeli government to offer a political horizon to
the Palestinians. This will encourage everyone to come back to the
negotiating table. Everyone except Arafat, because he won't agree to
it," the minister said
