WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-05-26 Time: 13:11:12 Posted By: Jan
[According to my Middle East contacts – if Israel leaves Gaza – there is a good chance Gaza will become a hotbed of terrorism. Jan]
JERUSALEM (151) As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon retools for another try to win approval for his Gaza Strip disengagement plan, the role of Egypt has emerged as key to the future of security in the densely populated coastal band of land.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, acting as a go-between in an effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, said yesterday Egypt would take responsibility for security in Gaza and for retraining Palestinian police to maintain order after Israel withdrew.
Since an accord in 1979, Egypt has maintained a chilly peace with Israel. But it had never before offered to insert itself so directly on the ground here to stop the violence.
It is also fearful that chaos, breaking out in Gaza after a pullback of Israeli troops, would spread into its territory, according to an Israeli official who attended the meeting with Suleiman.
The announcement from Suleiman came following meetings Monday with Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
About 7,500 Jewish settlers live on 21 heavily guarded Gaza settlements among 1.3 million Palestinians. Sharon, citing the need to create more defensible borders for Israel, wants to evacuate the settlers and the soldiers who guard them.
The proposal was defeated May 2 in a referendum of his Likud Party. But Sharon has pressed ahead with amendments to the plan. In polls, a majority of Israelis support withdrawal.
The plan’s latest version, which Sharon is expected to submit to his cabinet Sunday, calls for a phased withdrawal, beginning with three of the most isolated settlements.
After Suleiman’s meetings, a senior Palestinian official said Egypt would soon send a team of 250 security experts to train Palestinian Authority security personnel.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who attended the Arafat-Suleiman meeting, said the authority had asked for the prominent Egyptian official’s help in restructuring its forces, now largely in disarray after 3 1/2 years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
After the meetings, Israeli and Palestinian media reported Suleiman also proposed a four-member committee, consisting of Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the United States, to coordinate a handover of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip when Israel withdrew. Israeli officials had no immediate comment on the proposal.
A day earlier at the Arab League summit in Tunisia, a senior Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, outlined Egypt’s strategy.
“The only way to peace is through dialogue,” he said, explaining Egypt does not favor Sharon’s plan because it is unilateral but wants to make the best of a bad situation.
“It is a matter of life for the Palestinians. It is a matter of life for the Israelis,” he said.
“Sharon does his own agenda. He has his own ideas. … If somebody is insisting on his own agenda, you cannot really tell him not to do it,” the official said.
He said Egypt had “a package-deal idea for peace” that included bringing the extremist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad (151) which reject the idea of peace with Israel (151) back into the Palestinian political mainstream.
When that happens, the official said, “you will have a strong partner for peace.”
Israel, for its part, has insisted the extremist groups be dismantled, not simply co-opted.
The London-based, Arabic-language Dar al-Hayat newspaper reported yesterday Israel also used the occasion of Suleiman’s visit to pass a message to Arafat.
Israel would be willing to allow freedom of movement for the Palestinian leader in exchange for his promise to put an end to terror attacks in the Gaza Strip, the newspaper reported. Israel had no immediate comment.
Arafat has been confined to his battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah since 2002. Although he could move freely, he fears he could be killed or, at the very least, not allowed to return if he tries to leave the Palestinian territories.
While Israel has refused to deal directly with Arafat, accusing him of abetting Palestinian violence, the senior Egyptian official said Arafat remained critical to any future negotiations.
“He is the symbol of Palestine,” the official said.
Source: Seattle Times
URL: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationw…/p>