Israel Faces More Condemnation at World Court
By Matt Spetalnick
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Israel faced a second day of condemnation at the World Court Tuesday over its West Bank barrier but Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) dismissed the hearings as an "international circus" and vowed to keep building fences.
Cuba and Indonesia, whose own human rights records have come under international criticism, joined Jordan and other countries in backing the Palestinians' case against the barrier Israel is erecting in and around occupied territory.
Israel has stayed away from the hearings that began on Monday, disputing the court's right to rule on the case.
"(This is) a campaign of hypocrisy currently being staged against Israel in the international circus in The Hague (news - web sites)," Sharon said in an interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth. "I will build the security fence and will complete it."
At his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) voiced confidence that the World Court would reach the "right decision."
Israel says it needs the vast array of fences, walls and trenches to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians, who have asked the U.N. tribunal to declare the structure illegal, calling it a land-grab to deny them a viable state.
The United States and European Union (news - web sites) have shunned the hearings despite criticizing the barrier's route. They say the court's involvement could harm Middle East peacemaking efforts.
The court's ruling will not be binding. But it could influence world opinion and the Palestinians hope it could pave the way for international sanctions against Israel.
In front of the court's Peace Palace building, about 150 pro-Israeli demonstrators, some wrapped in Israeli flags, sang peace songs beside the skeleton of a Jerusalem bus in which a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people last month.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces wounded 10 Palestinians protesting against an expansion of the barrier, witnesses said.
IZ
I try to keep out of these discussions. However, I disagree with you. The road to peace is a two way street. The Palestinian thugs who carry out the homicide bombings must be stopped by the PA. The fence after all is a product of those bombings. I should add IMO the PA's and the rest of the Moslem world's goal is not peace but the destruction of the state of Israel. As for the world court what can you expect when being judged by your enemies. Terrorism will have it's victory.
Israel Kills Hamas Founder in Airstrike
Mon Mar 22, 2:18 PM ET
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel killed Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin in a helicopter missile strike outside a Gaza City mosque Monday, prompting threats of unprecedented revenge by Palestinian militants against Israel and the United States.
Yassin was the most prominent Palestinian leader killed by Israel in more than three years of fighting, and his assassination was seen as a major escalation.
More than 200,000 Palestinians, some carrying billowing green Hamas flags, flooded the streets for the funeral procession, the largest gathering in Gaza City in recent memory. Thousands also took to the streets in the West Bank.
Mourners jostled to touch Yassin's flag-draped coffin, and women ululated and threw flowers and candy. Two Israeli helicopters flew above, and the sky was blackened from the smoke of tires set ablaze in the streets by protesting Palestinians.
At the cemetery, Yassin's body was carried between two rows of 200 militants armed with anti-tank missiles and machine guns.
"Words cannot describe the emotion of anger and hate inside our hearts," said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, a close associate of Yassin.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) called Yassin the "mastermind of Palestinian terror" and a "mass murderer who is among Israel's greatest enemies."
Sharon said Israel will press ahead with its war on terror, signaling more targeted attacks and raids. "The war against terror has not ended and will continue day after day, everywhere," he said.
In addition to Yassin, 12 Palestinians were killed Monday, seven in the airstrike, four in clashes with Israeli troops and one while handling explosives.
U.S. national security adviser Condoleeza Rice said Washington had "no advance warning" of the attack. Rice said she knew of no consultations between Sharon and President Bush (news - web sites) about any plan to target the sheik.
But Rice, asked about U.S. reaction to the attack during an interview on NBC, said, "Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Sheik Yassin has himself, personally, we believe, been involved in terrorist planning."
U.N Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) condemned the killing as "contrary to international law," and urged all sides to remain calm.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, after meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), called the attack on Yassin a matter of self-defense and said Palestinians "will pay for their crimes. They will pay for the instructions they are giving to the suicide bombers."
Hezbollah guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in a disputed border area Monday for the first time in five months, triggering an Israeli airstrike and artillery fire, Lebanese security officials said. The Israeli army said the guerrillas fired an anti-tank and there were no reports of injuries.
Israeli helicopters fired three missile as Yassin, his bodyguards and dozens of others left a mosque in Gaza City at daybreak Monday. Yassin, a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair, and seven others were killed, including several bodyguards. Seventeen people were wounded.
Only a charred metal seat and a twisted wheel were left of his wheelchair and a blood-soaked brown shoe lay in the street. "Two or three people were lying next to him on the ground. One was legless," said taxi driver Yousef Haddad, who had rushed out of a nearby grocery when the missiles shook the Sabra neighborhood.
Fearing reprisal attacks, Israel sealed off the West Bank and Gaza and confined many West Bank Palestinians to their communities. The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was also closed. Troops reinforcements were sent to Gaza, and security forces in Israel were placed on high alert.
Three more Palestinians were killed in Gaza later Monday in clashes with Israeli troops, and one was killed while handling explosives.
Sharon, a former army general, was updated throughout the operation.
"The Israeli air force this morning killed the mastermind of all evil, Ahmed Yassin, who was a preacher of death," said army spokeswoman Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron.
The Yassin assassination was seen as an enormous gamble by Sharon, who is trying to score a decisive victory against Hamas ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but risks triggering a dramatic escalation in bloodshed that could turn the public's mood in Israel against him.
Sharon's critics in Israel warned that the Yassin killing could be seen as an attack by Israel on Islam and unnecessarily widen the circle of conflict.
The Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) said in a statement that "Israel has exceeded all red lines with this cheap and dirty crime," and declared a three-day mourning period.
Flags at Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah were lowered to half-staff, and the Palestinian Cabinet held an emergency session. Yassin was Arafat's biggest political rival, but Arafat has always been careful not to confront the Hamas leader openly.
Cabinet ministers stood as Arafat recited a Muslim prayer for the dead. The Palestinian leader, referring to Yassin, then added: "May you join the martyrs and the prophets. To heaven, you martyr."
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinians have lost "a great leader."
Earlier Monday, about 2,000 demonstrators gathered at Arafat's headquarters, calling for revenge. Arafat remained inside, apparently fearing he too might be targeted by Israel.
However, an Israeli security official said there were no immediate plans to target Arafat, and that Hamas was the focus of Israel's current offensive.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank in protest, including about 15,000 people in Nablus. "This morning, dozens came to us volunteering to be suicide bombers and we will send them at the right time," one masked man said at the rally.
Thousands more demonstrated in the town of Jenin. In the West Bank town of Hebron, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who fired tear gas.
West Bank schools were closed, and a one-day commercial strike was declared. In the Israeli prison camp of Ketziot, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners rioted briefly, setting tents on fire and throwing stones at soldiers.
The Israeli army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, met with army commanders in Tel Aviv, and more forces were ordered to the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).
Hamas threatened a harsh response. "Yassin is a man in a nation, and a nation in a man. And the retaliation of this nation will be of the size of this man," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a prominent Hamas leader in Gaza who himself escaped an Israeli assassination attempt last June.
For the first time, Hamas also threatened the United States, saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," Hamas said in a statement.
In the past, Hamas leaders have insisted their struggle is against Israel and that they would not get involved in causes by militant Muslims in other parts of the world. Monday's statement suggested that Hamas might seek outside help in carrying out revenge attacks, since its capabilities have been limited by Israeli military strikes.
Rival militant groups also threatened revenge.
The assassination was widely condemned in the Arab world and by some European countries. Egypt canceled a trip by legislators and other dignitaries to Israel, which had been planned for later this month to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the assassination "is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives."
The attack also drew criticism in Israel. Opposition leaders and even some members of Sharon's government warned the killing would increase the cycle of violence.
"My great fear is that this will be understood as an attack against a religious leader," said Interior Minister Avraham Poraz of the centrist Shinui Party.
Israel had previously tried to kill Yassin in September when a plane dropped a bomb on a building where he and other Hamas leaders were meeting. Yassin escaped with a small wound to his hand. One Israeli official recently said Yassin was "marked for death."
In more than three years of fighting, Hamas and the Israeli military have seemed to trade blows, with Hamas carrying out suicide bombings and other attacks, and Israeli responding with airstrikes and ground raids.
Sharon's recent declaration that Israel may leave Gaza has prompted both sides to intensify fighting, to try to claim an Israeli withdrawal as a victory.
At Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where Yassin's mangled body was taken, masked gunmen shot in the air. Cars drove through the streets blaring calls for revenge over loudspeakers.
Yassin founded Hamas in 1987. He was held in Israeli prisons for several years before being released in 1997. Israel blamed him for inspiring the Hamas bombers who have killed hundreds of Israelis.
DIPLOMACY
A Day When the White House Reversed Stand on the Killing
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
ASHINGTON, March 22 ?- The Bush administration, in the middle of its own campaign to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and others it considers terrorists, found itself on Monday in the position of being pressed by world opinion to criticize as "deeply troubling" Israel's assassination of the leader of Hamas.
In a startling sequence of events unusual even for the ups and downs of Middle East policy, the administration began the day by avoiding direct criticism of Israel after the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin in Gaza City.
Instead, Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said in a morning television interview that Hamas was a terrorist organization, that Sheik Yassin had been involved in terrorist actions and that it was "very important that everyone step back and try now to be calm in the region."
Only later in the afternoon did the administration shift tone and criticize Israel's action as harmful to the cause of bringing peace to the region.
"We're deeply troubled by this morning's events in Gaza," said Richard A. Boucher, the State Department spokesman, adding that all sides, including Israel, should now "exercise maximum restraint" and "do everything possible to avoid any further actions that would make more difficult the restoration of calm."
An administration official acknowledged that a change of tone was chosen only after a torrent of criticism erupted throughout the Arab world, and was then joined by condemnations from the European Union and Britain, Washington's closest ally in the Iraq war.
Those officials said the Hamas leader's death had jolted administration officials just as they were accelerating plans for a highly visible and politically significant visit by Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to Washington, perhaps next month.
The Sharon visit is intended to work out the details of Israel's plan to withdraw militarily from Gaza and to pull out more than 7,000 settlers, and to carry out similar but unspecified withdrawals from at least parts of the West Bank.
The Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, conferred Monday with Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to plan for the visit. Dov Weissglas, Mr. Sharon's chief of staff, was due in Washington on Tuesday for the same mission.
The administration has sent word to Israel that it welcomes the Gaza withdrawal plan, provided it is carried out carefully. Among the administration's concerns are that Hamas not be allowed to fill the vacuum in Gaza once the pullout occurs.
Administration officials also say they do not want Israel to walk away entirely from negotiating with the Palestinian Authority on the withdrawal, and it has been trying to encourage talks with Egypt and Jordan to help with security in the areas from which Israelis pull out.
Repeating the administration's endorsement on Monday, Ms. Rice said Israel's plans for "disengagement" from Gaza and parts of the West Bank "might provide new opportunities" for peace.
Israeli officials argued Monday that the killing of Sheik Yassin was consistent with its plans for withdrawal, and indeed would make the withdrawal more effective.
Mr. Sharon was concerned, they explained, that the withdrawal would be seen as a retreat that would simply embolden the most radical anti-Israel forces, much as Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 seemed to embolden Hezbollah, the militant group that gets support from Syria and Lebanon.
"What happened in Lebanon was that the withdrawal gave an incentive to every jihadist to attack Israel," an Israeli official said. "Part of the Israeli policy as we move toward disengagement is to make Hamas bleed, so no one can proceed on the assumption that an Israeli withdrawal is a victory for them."
If that was Israel's purpose, it did not seem to bring the desired objective. Administration officials said the assassination was a mistake that would make more difficult any Arab cooperation with the withdrawal, particularly on the part of Jordan and Egypt.
"The disengagement plan is still in the process of formulation," said an administration official. "There are so many questions that have to be answered. But whatever the Israelis do, they can't ignore that there is a partner they have to deal with. That's why we said we were disturbed by the latest action."
Another official said the administration was "shocked" by the news of the assassination.
Arab and American officials said pressure on the White House to take a tougher stand built up throughout the day.
"When you see thousands of people all over the Arab world coming out into the streets, it's hard to ignore that," an administration official said. "It's hard not to say anything about it."
IZ
What were the aggressive acts before the start of the Intefada [sp]? The fact is they were better off than most in the Mid East.
Regarding the tit for tat I agree nothing good can come of it. But consider, the outrage in the US if Bush had not gone after Al Qeada. It would have been unthinkable. The Israeli's suffer repeated 9/11's it is unthinkable that they not retaliate.
It takes two to tango at the present moment it is my opinion that the Palestinians do not want to come to the dance.
I do not question their right to retaliate. It is their counter-productive and morally bankrupt methods I oppose. For example, the assassination of Palestinian leaders, the building of the wall, the absurd Gestapo-like measure of control they exert over the Palestinian public, etc.
IZQuote:
I would also ask what would you do if you were in danger of being blown up every time you set foot out of doors.
I would destroy houses in my neighborhood that were too close to my house or that had suspicious people in them.
I would build houses in other peoples yards and fill them with my family to provide security. I would arm my family in case these other people take offence.
I would shoot and throw bombs at people in my neighborhood who were suspicious without too much concern if his children or friends were caught in the middle.
I would assassinate the priest/minister/rabbi of my neighbor with a rocket has as he was leaving a religious service.
I would build a giant fence that separated me from my neighbors. I would make sure it crossed my neighbors yards so that it didn't inconvenience me.
I would close my mind to the possibility that my neighbors are human.
This would be the best way for me to reach peace in my neighborhood.
What's needed imo is a one state solution. A bi-national state comprising Arabs and Jews, called neither Palestine nor Israel. In the meantime, the UN should administer that part of the world for the benefit and welfare of all the people who live there. With Jerusalem an open city and world heritage site, sacred to Jew Muslim and Christian, the new state could have a great future.
