Richard Perle sends thanks to the Daily Telegraph

When the Field Jews wanted to dispose of the Chicago Sun Times, I remember how Conrad and Wallstreet worked together to shut out any gentile from even bidding on the newspaper. Then, exactly like the Tishman Jews who shut out gentile Ted Turner from buying CBS, the Chicago Sun Times stayed safely in Zionist hands. Whatever would happen to Israel if others were allowed to buy into the Jewsmedia?

Conrad is most very proud of his great summation of the Palestine problem:

"Large numbers of Palestinians have been persuaded that glorious eternity awaits them if they manage to die at the hands of the Israelis. Fortified by this belief, mobs of stone-throwers have been pushed forward with snipers interspersed among them and children in the vanguard to take the brunt of the Israeli response. Sharon gave the Muslim leaders plenty of notice of his now famous ten-minute walk on the Temple Mount, and did nothing on it that was disrespectful of Islam or of the Palestinian people. Arafat has declared that he requires an almost unlimited right of return of designated Palestinians, including millions born after the initial departure in 1948, and the demographic inundation of Israel with Arabs. It is as if the UK were asked to receive 60 million people of a foreign nationality with which we had been at war for more than 50 years. Apart from Adolf Eichmann, Israel has never executed anyone, including terrorists — a refreshing contrast to the peremptory executions routinely conducted by the Palestinians and some other neighbouring regimes."

All those snipers hiding behind children throwing rocks. And of course, Conrad is correct. The Israeli's really have not officially tried and executed anyone since Adolf Eichmann. They simply routinely murder defenseless women and children on the spot without charges arrests or trial.

Fury as MP Tam Dalyell attacks 'Jewish cabal' of Bush and Blair

From the Telegraph UK

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/04/ndaly04.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/05/04/ixportaltop.html

Sunday 4 May 2003
Fury as Dalyell attacks Blair's 'Jewish cabal'
By Colin Brown and Chris Hastings
(Filed: 04/05/2003)

Tam Dalyell, the Father of the House, sparked outrage last night by accusing the Prime Minister of "being unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish advisers".
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Left-wing Labour MP named Lord Levy, Tony Blair's personal envoy on the Middle East, Peter Mandelson, whose father was Jewish, and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, who has Jewish ancestry, as three of the leading figures who had influenced Mr Blair's policies on the Middle East.
Tam Dalyell

Yesterday Mr Dalyell, the MP for Linlithgow, told The Telegraph: "I am fully aware that one is treading on cut glass on this issue and no one wants to be accused of anti-Semitism but, if it is a question of launching an assault on Syria or Iran . . . then one has to be candid."
He added: "I am not going to be labelled anti-Semitic. My children worked on a kibbutz. But the time has come for candour." The Prime Minister, Mr Dalyell claimed, was also indirectly influenced by Jewish people in the Bush administration, including Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary, and Ari Fleischer, the President's press secretary.
"They very much have captured the ear of the President of the United States. I said [to Vanity Fair] I thought that Blair was very sympathetic to them. I cannot understand why," Mr Dalyell said.
Mr Dalyell's claim caused fury last night. Mr Mandelson said: "Apart from the fact that I am not actually Jewish, I wear my father's parentage with pride. As for Tam, he is as incorrigible as ever."
Lord Janner, a Labour peer and the chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust, said: "I think these comments are sad and unfounded. Tony Blair is his own man. He will follow advice if he considers it correct and not otherwise. He has been a good friend of the Jewish people and the Jewish state."
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue and a spokesman for Britain's Reform Synagogues, said: "Tam Dalyell is not being candid but misguided. Concerning Iraq it was crystal clear that Tony Blair was not swayed by popularity or anyone else but by his own deep convictions. It is also obvious that the majority of President Bush's circle are Christian Evangelicals rather than Jews."
Ned Temko, the American-born editor of the Jewish Chronicle, said: "I just think these sort of comments are offensive and are a profound misunderstanding of the way foreign policy is made in the United States or here."
A spokesman for Lord Levy said he was not available for comment. A spokesman for the Foreign Secretary said: "If these reports are accurate, these remarks are too unworthy to be worth a comment."

More on Lord Levy and Blair:

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1602890.php

Here is the URL (with the embedded links) for Neocons in Denial:

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j043003.html

Bush is intent on painting allies and enemies in the Middle East as evil:

By Robert Fisk - 10 September 2002

http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=332011


Just as Americans are recovering from the harrowing television re-runs of the 11 September attacks, their President is going to launch the biggest reshaping of the Middle East since the British and French parcelled out the Arab lands after the 1914-18 war. When he addresses the United Nations on Thursday, George Bush will be threatening not only Iraq – which had absolutely nothing to do with the crimes against humanity in New York and Washington – but Syria, Iran and, by extension, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
The Syrian Accountability Act, which accuses Damascus of supporting "terrorism", will come into force as President Bush is speaking and will follow only days after the State Department branded the Lebanese Hizbollah as the "A-team of terrorism", more dangerous even than Osama bin Laden's al-Qa'ida. Like Iraq, the Hizbollah had nothing to do with the 11 September attacks – indeed, they were among the first to condemn them – but the White House now seems set on painting allies and enemies alike in the Middle East as a focus of evil.
Only The Nation among all of America's newspapers and magazines has dared to point out that a large number of former Israeli lobbyists are now working within the American administration and the Bush plans for the Middle East – which could cause a massive political upheaval in the Arab world – fit perfectly into Israel's own dreams for the region. The magazine listed Vice-President Dick Cheney – the arch-hawk in the US administration – and John Bolton, now under-secretary of state for Arms Control, with Douglas Feith, the third most senior executive at the Pentagon, as members of the advisory board of the pro-Israeli Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa) before joining the Bush government. Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is still an adviser on the institute, as is the former CIA director James Woolsey.
Michael Ledeen, described by The Nation as "one of the most influential 'Jinsans' in Washington" has been calling for "total war" against "terror" – with "regime change" for Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Mr Perle advises the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld – who refers to the West Bank and Gaza as "the so-called occupied territories" – and arranged the anti-Saudi "kernel of evil" briefing by Laurent Murawiec that so outraged the Saudi royal family last month. The Saudi regime may itself be in great danger as the princes of the House of Saud attempt to seize more power for themselves in advance of the depart-ure of the dying King Fahd.
Jinsa's website says it exists to "inform the American defence and foreign affairs community about the important role Israel can and does play in bolstering democratic interests in the Mediterranean and the Middle East". Next month, Michael Rubin of the right-wing and pro-Israeli American Enterprise Institute – who referred to the outgoing UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson as an abettor of "terrorism" – joins the US Defence Department as an Iran-Iraq "expert".
According to The Nation, Irving Moskovitz, the California bingo magnate who has funded settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, is a donor as well as a director of Jinsa.
President Bush, of course, will not be talking about the influence of these pro-Israeli lobbyists when he presents his vision of the Middle East at the United Nations on Thursday.
Nor will he give the slightest indication that the region is, in the words of its own kings and dictators, a powder keg of resentment and anger. The tectonic plates of the Arab world are now grinding with increasing violence. Into this political earthquake zone, Mr Bush now seems intent on leading his country, with his loyal British ally.
Most of today's Arab nations were fashioned out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire by Britain and France in the aftermath of the First World War – and Palestinians still blame Britain today for supporting the formation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Both European nations stationed tens of thousands of troops across the region, suppressing Arab revolts in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon – itself created by the French at the request of its Christian Maronite community. The whole colonial framework led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives before both the British and French retreated from the Middle East.
Now President Bush seems set on following the colonial powers into the region for another military and political adventure – ostensibly to spread "democracy" among those nations it most despises (Iraq, Palestine and Iran) but in fact more likely to increase American control of an increasingly anti-Western Arab world.
The Arabs themselves warn that this will lead to massive instability and widespread violence. The Israelis – and their allies in the US administration – are hell bent on the whole shebang. For more on Robert Fisk, access the following URL


http://www.robert-fisk.com

Here is the "Men from JINSA and CSP" article (by Jason Vest) that Robert Fisk mentions in the article above:

"The Men from JINSA and CSP" (this eloquent article by Jason
Vest for "The Nation" mentions the JINSA motivation for the potential coming attack on North Korea as well):

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=vest&c=1


Pat Buchanan: Cabal of (JINSA/PNAC) US Officials Colluding with Israel to Ignite Wars:

http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html

PNAC Group...the List of Players:

http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewforum.php?f=10


Powerful Jews and US Policy:

http://www.theweeklyinformant.com/arishavit.htm

The following is an article by Uri Avnery about the JINSA/PNAC cabal (as Mr. Avnery is a respected Israeli journalist):

The Night After: The Easier the Victory, the Harder the Peace

By URI AVNERY

It is now fashionable to talk about "the day after". Let's talk
about the night after. After the end of hostilities in Iraq, the
world will be faced with two decisive facts: First, the immense
superiority of American arms can beat any people in the world,
valiant as it may be. Second, the small group that initiated this war-
-an alliance of Christian fundamentalists and Jewish neo-
conservatives--has won big, and from now on it will control
Washington almost without limits. The combination of these two facts
constitutes a danger to the world, and especially to the Middle East,
the Arab peoples and the future of Israel. Because this alliance is
the enemy of peaceful solutions, the enemy of the Arab governments,
the enemy of the Palestinian people and especially the enemy of the
Israeli peace camp. It does not dream only about an American empire,
in the style of the Roman one, but also of an Israeli mini-empire,
under the control of the extreme right and the settlers. It wants to
change the regimes in all Arab countries. It will cause permanent
chaos in the region, the consequences of which it is impossible to
foresee. Its mental world consists of a mixture of ideological fervor
and crass material interests, an exaggerated American patriotism and
right-wing Zionism. That is a dangerous mixture. There is in it
something of the spirit of Ariel Sharon, a man who has always had
grandiose plans for changing the region, consisting of a mixture of
creative imagination, unbridled chauvinism and a primitive faith in
brute force. Who are the winners? They are the so-called neo-cons, or
neo-conservatives. A compact group, almost all of whose members are
Jewish. They hold the key positions in the Bush administration, as
well as in the think-tanks that play an important role in formulating
American policy and the ed-op pages of the influential newspapers.
For many years, this was a marginal group that fostered a right-wing
agenda in all fields. They fought against abortion, homosexuality,
pornography and drugs. When Binyamin Netanyahu assumed power in
Israel, they offered him advise on how to fight the Arabs. Their big
moment arrived with the collapse of the Twin Towers. The American
public and politicians were in a state of shock, completely
disoriented, unable to understand a world that had changed overnight.
The neo-cons were the only group with a ready explanation and a
solution. Only nine days after the outrage, William Kristol (the son
of the group's founder, Irving Kristol) published an Open Letter to
President Bush, asserting that it was not enough to annihilate the
network of Osama bin Laden, but that it was also imperative
to "remove Saddam Hussein from power" and to "retaliate" against
Syria and Iran for supporting Hizbullah. Following is a short list of
the main characters. (If it bores you, skip to the next section). The
Open Letter was published in the Weekly Standard, founded by Kristol
with the money of ultra-right press mogul Rupert Murdoch, who donated
$ 10 million to the cause. It was signed by 41 leading neo-cons,
including Norman Podhoretz, a Jewish former leftist who has become an extreme right-wing icon, editor of the prestigious Encounter
magazine, and his wife, Midge Decter, also a writer, Frank Gaffney of
the Center for Security Studies, Robert Kagan, also of the Weekly
Standard, Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, and, of course, Richard Perle. Perle is a central character in this play. Until
recently he was the chairman of the Defense Policy Board of the
Defense Department, which also includes Eliot Cohen and Devon Cross.
Perle is a director of the Jerusalem Post, now owned by extreme right-
wing Zionists. In the past he was an aide to Senator Henry Jackson,
who led the fight against the Soviet Union on behalf of the Jews who
wanted to leave. He is a leading member of the influential right-wing
American Enterprise Institute. Lately he was obliged to resign from
his Defense Department position, when it became known that a private
corporation had promised to pay him almost a million dollars for he
benefit of his influence in the administration. That Open Letter was,
in effect, the beginning of the Iraq war. It was eagerly received by
the Bush administration, with members of the group already firmly
established in some of its leading positions. Paul Wolfowitz, the
father of the war, is No. 2 in the Defense Department, where another
friend of Perle's, Douglas Feith, heads the Pentagon Planning Board.
John Bolton is State Department Undersecretary. Eliot Abrams,
responsible for the Middle East in the National Security Council, was
connected with the Iran-Contra-Israel scandal. The main hero of the
scandal, Oliver North, sits in the Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs, together with Michael Ledeen, another hero of the
scandal. He advocates total war not only against Iraq, but also
against Israel's other enemies, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the
Palestinian Authority. Dov Zakheim is comptroller for the Defense
Department. Most of these people , together with Vice-President Dick
Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, are associated with
the "Project for the New American Century", which published a White
Paper in 2002, with the aim 'to preserve and enhance this 'American
peace'"--meaning American control of the world. Meyrav Wurmser
(Meyrav is a chic new Israeli first name) is Director of the Center
for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute. She also writes for
the Jerusalem Post and is co-founder of the Middle East Media
Research Institute that is, according to the London Guardian,
connected with Israeli Army Intelligence. MEMRI feeds the media and
politicians with highly selective quotations from extreme Arab
publications. Meyrav's husband, Davis Wurmser, is at Perle's American
Enterprise Institute, heading Middle East Studies. Mention should
also be made of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy of our
old acquaintance, Dennis Ross, who for years was in charge of
the "peace process" in the Middle East. In all the important papers
there are people close to the group, such as William Safire, a man
hypnotized by Sharon, in the New York Times and Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. Another Perle friend, Robert Bartley, is the editor of the Wall Street Journal. If the speeches of Bush and Cheney often sound as if they came from the lips of Sharon, one of the reasons may be that their speechwriters, Joseph Shattan, Mathew
Scully and John McConnell, are neo-cons, as is Cheneys Chief-of-
Staff, Lewis Libby. The immense influence of this largely Jewish
group stems from its close alliance with the extreme right-wing
Christian fundamentalists, who nowadays control Bush's Republican
party. The founding fathers were Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority,
who once got a jet plane as a present from Menachem Begin, and Pat
Robertson of the Christian Coalition and the Christian Broadcasting
Network, which help to finance the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem of
J.W. van der Hoeven, an outfit that supports the settlers and their
right-wing allies. Common to both groups is their adherence to the
fanatical ideology of the extreme right in Israel. They see the Iraq
war as a struggle between the Children of Light (America and Israel)
and the Children of Darkness (the Arabs and Muslims). By the way,
none of these facts are secret. They have been published lately in
dozens of articles, both in American and world media. The members of
the group are proud of them. The Zionist general. The man who
symbolizes this victory is General Jay Garner, who has just been
appointed chief of the civilian administration in Iraq. He is no
anonymous general who has been picked accidentally. Garner is the
ideological partner of Paul Wolfowitz and the neo-cons. Two years ago
he signed, together with 26 other officers, a petition organized by
the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, lauding the
Israeli Army for "remarkable restraint in the face of lethal violence
orchestrated by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority," which
is certainly news to the Israeli peace forces. He also stated that "a
strong Israel is an asset that American military planners and
political leaders can rely on." In the first Gulf War he praised the
performance of the Patriot missiles, which had failed miserably.
After leaving the army in 1997, he became, not surprisingly, a
defense contractor specializing in missiles. It was alleged that he
landed non-competitive Pentagon contracts. This year he obtained a
defense contract for $ 1.5 billion, as well as a contract for
building Patriot systems in Israel. Therefore, there can be no better
candidate for the job of chief of the civilian administration in
Iraq, especially at a time when contracts for billions of dollars for
reconstruction have to be handed out, to be paid for by Iraqi oil. A
new Balfour declaration. The ideology of this group, that calls for
an American world-empire as well as for a Greater Israel, reminds one
of bygone days. The Balfour declaration of 1917, that promised the
Jews a homeland in Palestine, had two parents.


Wasn't it interesting to see Gingrich (who is associated with Perle on the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon) last week publicly going at the State Department (at AEI) as Gingrich was basically a spokesman for Perle (and the hawks at the Pentagon) who would like Syria to be the next target. Gingrich is associated with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) where Perle lurks as well (PNAC is located on the fifth floor of AEI). Have you been to the PNAC Web site yet?:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Haaretz - Powell Now Working for Sharon


Last Update: 03/05/2003 04:11

Powell demands end to Syrian support for anti-Israel groups

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/289617.html


By News Agencies



U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Damascus on Friday demanding Syria stop supporting anti-Israel guerrillas and alter other policies which Washington says do not fit in a changing Middle East.

Powell will meet Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday to press Washington's view that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and a possible resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks create a "new strategic dynamic" in the region.

"What I am looking for is... whether or not as a result of the exchange that we have tomorrow we start to see specific action and performance on the part of the Syrian government that would reflect understanding of this new situation and how they are going to respond to it," Powell told reporters.

Asked what would happen if Syria failed to meet U.S. demands, he said: "If they don't meet any of them, that will be taken into account as we decide on our future strategy. These are decisions we will take after we see the performances."

Powell said Damascus should bear in mind members of the U.S. Congress had revived a Syria Accountability Act which threatens sanctions and that some embargo provisions of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 could apply to Syria.

"Frankly Syria would be a lot better off if they would move away from some of these policies of the past... Why hang on to policies that no longer have the same relevance?" he said.

The secretary of state will meet Assad on Saturday to press Washington's point that the ousting of Saddam Hussein and a possible resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks create a "new strategic dynamic" in the region.

Powell said ahead of his arrival Friday he expected a frank conversation with Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shaara, but no immediate results. "This will be a candid and useful discussion and I am looking forward to it but I am not looking for any particular deliverables," he said.

The United States has a list of grievances against Syria: During the Iraq war, Washington accused Damascus of letting Arab volunteers cross its border into Iraq to fight U.S. forces and said it might be allowing former Saddam aides to escape.

Damascus appears to have satisfied Washington on that count but the presence of Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla groups and accusations that Syria is working on chemical weapons - denied by Syria - continue to sour the relationship.

"If Syria wants to be part of that comprehensive [peace] solution, then it has to review the policies it's been following with respect to the support of terrorist activities and the control they have over forces in Lebanon that present a threat to northern Israel," Powell said Wednesday, in a reference to the Syrian-backed Hezbollah organization, which is based in Lebanon.

On Thursday, Sharaa said American attention should be focused on Israel's occupation of Arab land rather than on groups that are resisting occupation. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.

But Sharaa also reiterated that Damascus was open to dialogue with Washington in a "spirit that does not emanate out of hostility or one that meets the demands of others."

He also warned Powell in advance not to set demands, saying Syria wanted dialogue, not ultimatums, and that would be the basis of the talks.

The state-run newspaper Al-Thawra said in an editorial Friday that Syria sought a "just, objective and balanced" stand from the United States on the Middle East peace process.

Al-Thawra also said that changes in the region in the wake of the Iraq war "do not constitute reasons that would push Syria into making concessions on land or rights." Any attempts to impose "incomplete settlements" would result in more tensions in the region, it warned.

"Syria is not asking the impossible, but it seeks a just, objective and balanced stand from the United States" on the peace process.

The paper said there should be a "comprehensive evaluation of the reasons that have prevented results" in the Arab-Israeli negotiations over the years.

It is Powell's first sortie into the Middle East for more than a year and a prelude to a longer trip next week that will include talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

Haaretz May 2, 2003

The Tourism Minister Has it All mapped out


By Daniel Ben Simon

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=289375
.....

`Founders' syndrome'

In another few days, Tourism Minister Benny Elon (National Union) will
make public a plan he has prepared that seeks
to resolve the Palestinian question once and for all. Sharon is unlikely
to adopt the plan, though. True, it proposes a
two-state model, but as part of the plan, the Palestinian state will be
established in Jordan and will then, of course,
maintain friendly and peaceful relations with Israel. King Abdullah will
not have to abdicate and there will be no urgent
need to bring about the collapse of the Hashemite regime. Abdullah can
become part of the new regime.

Elon saw no need to attend the emergency meeting; He has his own way to
torpedo attempts of this kind by prime
ministers. His immediate plan is to make a tour of the Bible Belt in the
United States in which he will meet with
politicians, public figures, lobbyists and thousands of Evangelists
whose soul goes out to Zion. This is the new arena of
activity for the Israeli right. For everyone who wants to thwart a
political move involving Israel and the Palestinians,
everyone who wants to organize a petition against the president of the
United States, everyone who believes that the
Land of Israel belongs in full and forever to the Jewish people - a
visit to this community is mandatory.

The Christian fundamentalists have hooked up with their Jewish allies
and created a formidable messianic alignment.
The events of September 11, 2001, intensified this Jewish-Christian
alliance, which includes some 40 million
Americans. "I am very much at home among the Christians who support
Israel," Elon stated proudly. "These are people
who are wild about Israel and believe in the annexation of Judea and
Samaria and even in the transfer of Palestinians
from the soil of the Land of Israel. Compared to them, I am considered a
dove."

These believers are not acting solely for the sake of heaven. While many
are motivated by the divine imperative in the
Bible, from which they conclude that they should love the Jews, others
are driven by messianic fervor. A war of Gog
and Magog, they believe, will herald the second coming of Jesus, and the
Jews will have to become Christians; those
who refuse will be put to death.

But that bridge will be crossed when we come to it. In the meantime,
they say, until that critical period arrives, the
world can expect good things: Islam will disappear or undergo a radical
transformation.

"It's clear that Islam is on the way to disappearing," Elon asserts with
certainty. "What we are now seeing across the
Muslim world is not a powerful surge of faith but the dying embers of
Islam. How will it disappear? Very simply. Within
a few years a Christian crusade against Islam will be launched, which
will be the major event of this millennium.
Obviously, we will be up against quite a large problem when only the two
great religions of Judaism and Christianity
remain, but that's still a long way off."

Until then the road map is stuck in Elon's throat like a bone. Like his
settler colleagues, he too suspected Sharon's
intentions from the beginning. His apprehension only increased in the
wake of Sharon's interview with Haaretz last
month in which he ceded Beit El, Shilo and Bethlehem. Elon, a resident
of Beit El, was appalled. "I felt a terrible pain, I
even cried," he relates. "I told the others that we will fight Sharon
with all our might. He should know that we will cut
ourselves off from him long before Israel cuts itself off from Beit El."

Elon has a complex relationship with Sharon, who, he says, suffers from
a "founders' syndrome." He refers to people
who established the state and fought for it, but were seized by weakness
in their old age. Elon is convinced that
Sharon's ambition is to leave behind a peace treaty after he dies. "He
was the one who established the settlements and
For text articles, URLs wil be converted to clickable links. You may
also use <a href="url">link in plain text
articles (other tags will be ignored unless you select "html forma
t"). TEXT or HTML text/plain text/h
tml Do not select "html format" unless you include <p> and/or <br>
people of Israel will return to the Land of
Israel."

Last Update: 03/05/2003 06:29

British journalist killed by IDF fire while filming in Rafah

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/289673.html


By Arnon Regular and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies


Israel Defense Forces troops demolishing a home suspected of concealing an arms-smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip shot dead a British television cameraman late Friday, military officials and Palestinian witnesses said.

James Miller, who was in the flashpoint refugee camp of Rafah making a documentary on how Palestinian children are affected by violence, was fired upon unprovoked, witnesses said. He died after being evacuated by Israeli forces for treatment.

"We got close to the area and filmed, but we couldn't leave because an (Israeli) tank was around 100 meters from where we stood," Abdel-Rahman Abdullah, a freelance Palestinian journalist who saw the night-time incident, told Reuters.

"We were very visible to the troops, with a white flag and 'TV' markings on our vests, but still the troops opened fire, hitting James Miller," he said.

The IDF denied troops targeted Miller, saying their operation was to uncover tunnels used by militants to smuggle in weapons from nearby Egypt for a 31-month-old armed uprising.

"Our forces found a tunnel at the house in question, when an anti-tank missile was fired at them. They shot back at the source of the attack," army spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal said.

"James Miller was apparently hit during that exchange. The Israeli military expresses sorrow at a civilian death, but it must be stressed that a cameraman who knowingly enters a combat zone, especially at night, endangers himself," Dallal said.

Rafah sees frequent Israeli incursions against the tunnels - eliciting gunfire from Palestinian militants protecting them.

But Abdullah said there were no exchanges of fire on Friday night. "We even called out to the Israeli troops in their armored vehicles and could hear them talking inside, before they started shooting," he said.

A spokesman for the British embassy in Tel Aviv said he was aware of the incident but declined to give details.

Dozens of foreign journalists have been hurt while reporting on the Palestinian uprising for independence in Gaza and the West Bank, which erupted in September 2000.

U.S. urges Israeli 'restraint' after Gaza raid leaves 13 dead
The United States urged the Israeli military on Thursday to exercise restraint after 13 Palestinians were killed, including a two-year-old toddler in a raid on the Sajayia neighborhood of Gaza City.

"We deeply regret the civilian casualties that occurred today in Gaza," State Department spokeswoman Jo-Anne Prokopowicz said.

Sixteen Palestinians in all were killed in Israel Defense Forces operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the day. Three armed men were shot dead by troops in the West Bank, two south of Hebron and one in the northern West Bank.

Nine IDF soldiers were wounded during the course of Thursday's operations.

While recognizing Israel's "right to self-defense" in response to suicide bombings, Prokopowicz said: "We urge the Israeli government to take all appropriate precautions to prevent the death or injury of innocent civilians and damage to civilian and humanitarian infrastructure. This includes exercising restraint in undertaking operations in civilian areas."

"These events underscore the need for the two sides to begin working with each other directly to take steps on the ground to end the violence," Prokopowicz said.

The White House said Bush discussed the road map on Thursday with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

"The president will, as he said yesterday, dedicate time and energy to developing the environment for peace to take root between the Israelis and the Palestinians," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.


Treacherous Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=2916

Sharshar