- The United States has deemed that Israel's security fence
does not protect the Jewish state and plans to impose sanctions in connection
with the project.
-
- U.S. officials said a State Department team that examined
the fence has dismissed the Israeli argument that the fence is required
to protect the country from surface-to-missile attacks against civilian
airliners that land and take off from Ben-Gurion Airport.
-
- Israel plans to establish a fence that penetrates up
to 20 kilometers within the West Bank as part of a plan to protect against
shoulder-fired missiles by Palestinian insurgents, Middle East Newsline
reported.
-
- But the U.S. team determined that Israel could protect
against SAM attack without the construction of the fence and barrier system.
The team cited unmanned air vehicles and ground forces patrols that do
not restrict the movement of 15,000 Palestinians from villages that will
be surrounded by the proposed fence.
-
- Officials said the determination of the U.S. team has
led to a State Department decision to deduct funds from the $9 billion
in loan guarantees approved by the Bush administration. The amount of the
funds has not been determined, officials said, but could exceed $1 billion.
-
- A decision was expected over the next week during the
visit by Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, officials said. They
said the administration could deduct $1.4 billion from the loan guarantees
in connection with Israeli settlement activities that do not include the
security fence.
-
- "The president doesn't really believe there needs
to be a fence, and number two, if they want to talk about a fence, they
should do it in a way that does not infringe upon the lives of the Palestinian
people or try in some way to prejudge the outcome of a final status agreement,"
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said on Tuesday. "We
have made the decision to deduct money for guaranteeing loans based on
Israeli settlement activity, but the precise amount of that deduction has
not been determined yet."
-
- Israel has completed about one-third of an estimated
600-kilometer security fence. The United States has voiced objections to
the proposed route of the barrier from the West Bank city of Kalkilya east
past the Israeli communities of Ariel and Emanuel and then south.
-
- Officials said the administration has relayed to Congress
the U.S. decision to deduct funds from the loan guarantees. They said the
issue of the fence will be raised during the visit by Israeli Defense Minister
Shaul Mofaz to Washington next week.
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- http://216.26.163.62/2003/ss_israel_11_07.html
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