- Since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came to power
16 months ago, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) has insistently warned
that he, and Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gen. Shaul Mofaz, intended to
crush the Palestinian Authority and its leadership, and reoccupy the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
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- The West Bank is now all but completely reoccupied, Palestinian
Authority President Yasser Arafat is a prisoner of the Israeli military,
other authority leaders are being hunted, and its security officers are
being killed.
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- EIR warned as well that Sharon and his generals were
preparing to use the same tactics the Nazis employed in destroying the
Warsaw Ghetto.
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- Now, brutal scenes, not witnessed since the Balkan wars,
can be seen on living room televisions around the world; the Vatican publicly
accuses Israel of practicing the "extermination of Palestinians. Our
warnings also included what Sharon and the Israeli generals would do next.
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- Once the territories were reoccupied, phase two would
be a new regional war, most likely beginning with attacks on Lebanon and
Syria.
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- Under these conditions the Palestinian and Arab-Israeli
populations would be pushed across the Jordan River, and the Lebanese and
Egyptian borders.
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- This war plan is now threatening to merge with the phase
two war on terror, of the US global-war faction, centred on an attack on
Iraq.
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- On March 28, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld
declared at a press conference, "Terrorists have declared war on civilization,
and states like Iran, Iraq, and Syria are inspiring and financing a culture
of political murder and suicide bombing. US 2004 Presidential pre-candidate
Lyndon LaRouche warned that President George W.
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- Bush,s April 4 announcement that he would send Secretary
of State Colin Powell to the region was nothing less than a green light
for Sharon to continue his atrocities.
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- The Israeli press reported that Sharon was pleased, with
Bush,s speech having given the Israeli military full justification., Bush
gave no time limit for an end to incursions into Palestinian territory.
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- The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Sharon, via Israeli
Ambassador David Ivri, had direct input into the White House speech.
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- Within 24 hours, Sharon had announced his displeasure
with a new UN resolution and his defiance of it, when informed that the
US, along with the other 14 members of the UN Security Council had unanimously
passed Resolution 1403, which says that the UNSC is "gravely concerned
about the "deterioration of conditions on the ground...demands the
implementation of its resolution 1402 (2002) without delay. Resolution
1402, passed on March 30, demands that the Israelis withdraw from the occupied
territories.
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- The current Israeli offensive is not a reaction to the
horrific Passover terror attack which killed 25 Israelis, but the second
phase of an offensive begun last Feb. 28 against Palestinian refugee camps.
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- The suicide bombing gave the pretext, conveniently timed,
for the aggression.
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- Those initial attacks, as documented in EIR, involved
study of the methods of SS Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop in his extermination
of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.
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- This prepared Israeli soldiers to engage in war crimes
most would never have considered committing.
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- As has been the case since the beginning of the intifada,
the result was a fanatical reaction in the form of suicide bombings by
Hamas and other radical groups.
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- The ongoing Israeli war drive appears to be a replay
of scenes which took place in Beirut in 1982, though with some ugly new
tricks added by Sharon and Gen. Mofaz.
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- During Israel,s 1982 war in Lebanon, Sharon had Arafat,s
PLO headquarters in Beirut surrounded by the Israeli Army, and wanted him
assassinated, but the Israeli hitman refused to pull the trigger.
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- The Reagan Administration agreed to save Arafat,s life,
by arranging his and the PLO,s evacuation.
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- Sharon then ordered the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacres
of remaining Palestinian refugees.
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- Today, while Sharon has Arafat at gunpoint, the entire
Palestinian population is in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe at
the hands of the Israeli Army.
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- With the mobilization of 31,000 reservists, Israel has
captured almost every Palestinian city.
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- Although Palestinian sources report that nearly 100 Palestinians
have been killed, including women, children, and elderly people, the outside
world does not have the full picture of the horror because the Israeli
Army has taken the unprecedented move of banning press coverage in areas
where military operations are being conducted.
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- Determined journalists have been shot by Israeli soldiers.
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- The representatives of the world,s leading media are
being systematically expelled, including CNN, ABC, NBC, and Arab nations,
television crews, while the Israeli press rely on reports of the totally
discredited military press spokesmen.
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- With a tone of satisfaction, senior Israeli Army sources
gave the characterization of their own operation to Haaretz on April 5:
"The cities are completely wasted.
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- Most of the roads have been completely destroyed. That
is an understatement.
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- The Israeli military operations have collapsed administrative
functions of the Palestinian Authority, which is directly responsible for
the livelihood of over one million Palestinians.
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- Access to hospitals is largely cut off; the West Bank
is days away from extreme shortages of basic food and medicines.
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- Sharon,s attacks on so-called terrorist infrastructure,
have in fact expanded to include the entire Palestinian population.
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- Ramallah, a city of 100,000 (including 10,000 Palestinians
with American citizenship), and the administrative capital of the West
Bank, was attacked by 200 tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
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- All administrative buildings were smashed.
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- Film clips of the execution-style killing of 20 Palestinian
policemen were broadcast by Arab TV stations.
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- The entire 100,000 population has been under 24-hour
curfew, so draconian that anyone seen on the streets has been shot on sight,
as happened to one deaf old woman trying to make her way to the hospital.
-
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- Four full days of this curfew left the population without
food, medicine, or, for the most part, water and electricity.
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- Then, after a four-hour break, the total curfew was reimposed
and remains in place.
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- Ambulances where allowed neither to reach the wounded
nor the hospitals.
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- These scenes were repeated in one city after another;
all Palestinians are suspected of aiding the terrorists., Thousands of
troops entered Bethlehem to eradicate its terrorist infrastructure,; Israeli
tanks surrounded and fired on the Church of the Nativity, where the 200
desperate souls who sought sanctuary with priests and nuns became Palestinian
gunmen., While this battle scene unfolded, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem,
who was leading a delegation of priests and nuns on the road from Jerusalem
to Bethlehem, was forced to return at gunpoint by Israeli troops.
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- It is not only the Palestinians who are suffering under
Sharon,s policy.
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- Since Sharon launched this new hardline policy on Feb.
28, the number of Israelis killed has gone up dramatically.
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- In March, 125 Israelis were killed, which constitutes
25 per cent of all Israeli casualties for the last 18 months.
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- Many of the suicide bombers came from the same refugee
camps in which, only days before, the Israeli Army had claimed victory
in dismantling the terrorist infrastructure., The Israeli peace movement
has taken to the streets.
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- On April 3, some 2,000 Jewish and Arab-Israelis attempted
to march to Ramallah with food and medicines.
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- They were forced to return at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers,
after regrouping repeatedly in the face of teargas assaults.
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- The movement of reserve soldiers and officers who refuse
to serve in the territories - already 18 are serving prison sentences -
is expected to expand as casualties begin to increase among the 30,000
reservists that have been called up.
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- In the city of Haifa, on April 2, a demonstration of
5,000 people was held in support of these soldiers.
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- One demonstrator, Ron Girliz, told the press, "At
first, I refused to serve in the territories for moral reasons; today my
refusal has become political; the struggle of the Palestinians is just.
A 75-year-old veteran of Israel,s 1940s war of independence declared, "Sharon
is a war criminal.
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- This army is not my army. Although the peace movement
still lacks the strength to stop Sharon, polls show that 66 per cent of
Israelis support the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip; 70 per
cent believe settlements that are in areas densely populated by Palestinians
should be removed; and 52 per cent agree that the settlements are an obstacle
to peace.
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- Most of these Israelis have not joined the peace movement,
but if a strong leadership committed to ending the ongoing madness emerges,
Sharon will find himself in trouble.
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- Furthermore, the Israeli economy is not bearing up under
Sharon,s offensive.
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- The war has already cost at least $ 5.5 billion; tourism
has collapsed, as have tax revenues, due to economic depression.
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- Massive budget cuts are in the offing.
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- Thus within a few weeks, Sharon will be faced with the
decision: to seek political terms acceptable to the Palestinians and the
Arab world; or, to expand the war.
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- While it is very hard to imagine Sharon seeking political
terms, preparations are clearly being made for the war.
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- But more could be involved.
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- Gen. Mofaz has spoken of a campaign of four-eight weeks
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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- In this period, tens of thousands of reservists will
be mobilized and become battle ready, and could easily be deployed in a
broader war.
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- Gen. Mofaz,s timeframe overlaps the May-June period spoken
of for an early American attack on Iraq; that attack could be precipitated
by Sharon.
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- The journal Israel and Palestine Strategic Update for
March 25, edited by veteran Israeli peace activist Maxim Ghilan, warned
that broader war plans have been under discussion by the Pentagon war hawks,
led by Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz and some of those surrounding
Vice President Dick Cheney, who "have elaborated a strategic plan
directed at re-drawing the Middle Eastern map. This plan is "based
on Ariel Sharon,s and Shaul Mofaz,s direct and detailed suggestions...According
to this concept, and after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq by Anglo-American
forces, the Palestinians would be evacuated, (thrown out) from both Western
Palestine/Eretz Israel and from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
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- This would allow Israel to become an ethnically pure,
Jewish State. The journal,s forecast continued, "Jordan would be included
in Greater Israel, up to the Iraqi border, perhaps with some minor border
corrections.
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- The Hashemite Kingdom would disappear, The Palestinians
would be evacuated and driven over the Iraqi border and settled in population-poor
and underdeveloped Iraqi areas, Syria,s regime would be overthrown in a
Blitzkrieg,, a lightning-fast Israeli/American offensive and a new, pro-American
free market Syrian state established instead. In early April the Israeli-Lebanon
border heated up, with the firing of anti-tank rockets and other incidents
in the disputed zone.
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- Sharon has threatened to launch a strong reprisal against
Hezbollah?s alleged sponsors, Syria and Iran.
-
- In this context, Rumsfeld?s March 28 emphatic addition
of Syria to the ?axis of evil? had dangerous implications.
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- In an apparent reaction, Syria and Lebanon announced
on April 3 that 20,000 Syrian troops currently stationed in Lebanon will
be redeployed to positions closer to the Syrian-Lebanon border and positions
within Syria itself.
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- A glance at the map shows that this redeployment could
be aimed at enhancing the defense of the Syrian capital of Damascus from
a direct Israeli attack from the Golan Heights.
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- The other flashpoints are Jordan and Egypt.
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- Up to eight weeks of military operations in the West
Bank will, without doubt, send desperate Palestinians across the Jordan
River to seek safety in the Hashemite Kingdom.
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- This possibility terrifies Jordan, which has kept its
border closed up until now.
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- With a Jordanian population which is already over 50
per cent Palestinian, it may be impossible to keep these borders closed.
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- A new massive flow of refugees fleeing Israel,s offensive
could lead to a collapse of the Jordanian monarchy.
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- If Israel launches operations in the Gaza Strip, Egypt
would face the same prospect of refugees fleeing across its borders.
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- Already in the recent past, Israeli military units have
made incursions into Egyptian territory during flanking operations against
the Palestinians in Gaza.
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- These incursions, though recently reported in the Israeli
press, have been kept out of the international media.
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- As Israel regionalizes the war, moving against Lebanon
and Syria, its forces will be over-extended.
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- To be able to maintain the escalation then, Sharon will
be tempted to move to the nuclear option.
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- The two most likely targets for such a nuclear strike,
would be Baghdad and Tehran.
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- http://www.frontierpost.com.pk/articles.asp?id=3&date1=4/23/2002
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