_____
______________________________________________________________________
>>NEWSFLASH - TOP PFLP LEADER ASSASSINATED MONDAY MORNING
>>
>> "This is crossing all red lines.
>> Sharon is inviting hell to
>> break loose."
>> Saeb Erekat
>> Palestinian "Cabinet
>>Minister"
>>
>> "Israel has not really begun to
>> fight terrorism yet."
>> Uzi Landau
>> Israeli "Internal
>>Security" Mininster
>>
>>MID-EAST REALITIES © - MER - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 8/27:
>>Normally we wouldn't quote Saeb Erekat as over the years he has lost
>>nearly all credibility saying and doing all kinds of things that have made
>>little sense other than to further his own VIP status while fronting for
>>the inept and corrupt Arafat regime. Indeed this is not even the first
>>time Erekat has made such a statement. That said, always looking for a
>>microphone, Erekat is quoted this morning in this way in this Reuters
>>newsflash article and indeed the situation has reached the point of "red
>>lines". The Israelis are clearly planning to totally crush the
>>Palestinians -- Minister Uzi Landau is publicly saying as much -- probably
>>thinking they can buy themselves still more years to consolidate their
>>grip on the occupied territories and probably scheming for the opportunity
>>to push as many Palestinians as they can across the Jordan and into a
>>Hashemite Kingdom that will eventually, sooner or later, implode into a
>>Palestinian State. Meanwhile, as they have at other times in history, the
>>Israelis -- this time with much help from the CIA after the Arafat regime
>>invited it right into the midst of Palestinian areas and assigned top
>>people to "coordinate" with it -- are removing top leaders, one after
>>another one way or another, opposed to the Arafat regime and its ways and
>>policies.
>>
>>
>>
>> ISRAEL ASSASSINATES PALESTINIAN FACTION LEADER
>> By Miral Fahmy
>>
>>RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters - Monday August 27 6:13 AM ET ) - Israel
>>assassinated the leader of a radical Palestinian faction in a missile
>>strike Monday on the group's offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah,
>>the faction said.
>>
>>Abu Ali Mustafa, the 64-year-old head of the Popular Front for the
>>Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), died when two missiles fired by helicopter
>>gunships slammed into the offices in an apartment block after he took a
>>phone call, they said.
>>
>>Mustafa had the highest profile of anyone killed under Israel's policy of
>>tracking and killing militants since a Palestinian uprising erupted in
>>September. He became PFLP chief after longtime leader George Habash
>>stepped down in July 2000.
>>
>>``Abu Ali Mustafa was killed in the attack on the headquarters,'' a PFLP
>>official told Reuters. ``He was in his office when the missile hit.''
>>Witnesses said the helicopter gunships had hovered overhead before firing
>>the missiles through the window.
>>
>>The army confirmed it had launched an attack against Mustafa. It said the
>>PFLP has been behind a series of car bomb attacks since a Palestinian
>>uprising against Israeli occupation erupted last September after peace
>>negotiations deadlocked.
>>
>>The strike followed two days of tit-for-tat attacks in which seven
>>Israelis and four Palestinians were killed.
>>
>>Israel had earlier Monday reaffirmed its policy of hitting Palestinian
>>security targets in retaliation for attacks on Israelis at an emergency
>>meeting convened by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon following the surge in
>>violence.
>>
>>The Palestinians accuse Israel of assassinating about 60 people since the
>>Palestinian revolt began. One official said Israel had now opened a new
>>phase in the conflict.
>>
>>``This is crossing all red lines. Sharon is inviting hell to break
>>loose,'' Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said.
>>
>>``I believe Sharon's end game is to widen the cycle of violence and
>>destroy the peace process. This is a new stage in Israel's war against
>>Palestinians. First they destroy the infrastructure and now they kill
>>Palestinian leaders.''
>>
>>The PFLP, which is a faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization, has
>>opposed peacemaking with Israel. It drew attention to the Palestinian
>>struggle with a series of plane hijackings in the late 1960's and 1970's.
>>
>>Sharon broke off a holiday at his desert ranch to fly to Tel Aviv for
>>consultations with senior ministers earlier Monday.
>>
>>Israeli warplanes, tanks and bulldozers flattened security posts in
>>Palestinian areas Sunday after gunmen killed three soldiers in a raid on
>>an army base in Gaza.
>>
>>Palestinian gunmen also shot dead four Israelis, including a married
>>couple and a merchant, in West Bank ambushes Saturday and Sunday.
>>
>>The four Palestinians killed in the previous two days included the two
>>gunmen who infiltrated the army base, a member of the security forces
>>killed in a gunfight and a man whose body was handed over by Israel. It
>>was not clear how he was killed.
>>
>>Few details of the inner cabinet meeting were available. But Raanan
>>Gissin, a spokesman for Sharon, confirmed the ministers had agreed to
>>continue the strategy of hitting Palestinian security installations in
>>retaliation for attacks on Israelis.
>>
>>``A majority of casualties and the greatest number of terrorist activity
>>is conducted by members of the security forces of the Palestinian
>>Authority. That is why we are hitting their headquarters,'' Gissin said.
>>
>>Israeli newspapers reported that the cabinet had approved a new policy
>>allowing the military to hit Palestinian security targets manned by
>>security officials. The strikes in the past have been against mostly empty
>>buildings.
>>
>>On a separate front, witnesses in Lebanon reported that Israel fired
>>shells into southern Lebanon Monday morning. The Israeli army denied the
>>report.
>>At least 537 Palestinians, 153 Israelis and 14 Israeli Arabs have been
>>killed in the 10 months of violence.
>>
>>The latest violence has overshadowed attempts by Germany to mediate a
>>meeting between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on a
>>truce that was brokered by the United States in mid-June but has never
>>taken effect.
>>
>>Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper said the meeting might take place next week if
>>fighting eased, although both sides have low expectations even if it goes
>>ahead.
>>
>>Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer also said Israel would continue
>>retaliating for Palestinian attacks and killing Palestinian militants
>>accused of carrying out or plotting attacks on Israelis.
>>
>>``We will fight terror to the bitter end. No one can expect us to sit
>>quietly and do nothing when you know two suicide bombers are on their way
>>to carry out an attack,'' Ben-Eliezer told a gathering of the center-left
>>Labor party.
>>
>>The Palestinians denounced the Israeli attacks as ``ugly aggression''
>>which would make the situation more dangerous.
>>
>>
>>
>> "ISRAEL HAS NOT REALLY BEGUN...."
>> By Etgar Lefkovits
>>
>>[The Jerusalem Post - Jerusalem - August 27] "Israel has not really
>>begun" to fight terrorism yet, Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau
>>said yesterday, calling for a continuous and systematic war on
>>Palestinian terrorism.
>>
>>"The war has to be be continuous until the terrorist infrastructure is
>>completely wiped out," Landau told reporters, after addressing a group of
>>US
>>civil rights activists attending a seminar in Jerusalem yesterday
>>sponsored
>>by the American Jewish Committee.
>>
>>Calling Palestinian terrorism "a deliberate attempt to eat away at the
>>basic
>>fabric and equilibrium of our society," Landau defended Israel's policy of
>>"targeted killings" of terrorists.
>>
>>"A suicide bomber is nothing more than a missile on two legs," Landau told
>>the group of a dozen activists from various anti-hate groups in the US.
>>"Our
>>policy is to try and defuse the missile and intercept it before it is
>>armed
>>and launched," he said.
>>
>>Landau argued that, in times of crisis, law and order must be guaranteed
>>"more definitively than at any other time." Noting that the US has
>>recently
>>used cruise missiles in an effort to kill master terrorist Osama
>>bin-Laden,
>>suspended habeas corpus two centuries ago, and put Japanese-Americans
>>under
>>administrative detention during World War II, Landau said Israel must also
>>continuously combat terrorism when confronted with it.
>>
>>"The weak in the Middle East will never attain mercy. It is only with our
>>ability to stand up and protect ourselves that we will in essence protect
>>the peace agreements that have been signed," he said.
>>
>>Telling his audience that Arab culture is not clearly understood in the
>>West, Landau recalled Chamberlain's infamous policy of appeasement toward
>>Hitler. "The idea that if you will only satisfy the aggressor with more
>>and
>>more concessions simply does not work. It will not suffice. He will demand
>>more and more and more," he said.
>>
>>
>>
>> PALESTINIAN LEADER DIES IN MISSILE ATTACK
>>
>>[BBC - Monday, 27 August, 2001, 11:19 GMT 12:19 UK]:
>>
>> Photo: Arafat and Abu Ali Mustafa
>> Mustafa rejected Mr Arafat's talks with Israel
>>
>>The leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
>>has been killed in an Israeli attack.
>>
>>Palestinian sources say Abu Ali Mustafa died when at least two missiles
>>struck his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah, not far from the
>>offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
>>
>> Photo: PFLP spokesman Maher al-Taher
>> Israel will pay a heavy price for its crime
>>
>>Israeli military forces confirmed that they had carried out the attack,
>>saying the missiles were fired by a helicopter gunship.
>>
>>Mustafa is the highest-ranking Palestinian official to be assassinated by
>>the Israelis during the 11-month Palestinian uprising.
>>
>>A spokesman for the PLFP in Damascus condemned the attack and vowed
>>revenge.
>>
>>"The blood of Abu Ali Mustafa is very precious ... we will respond to this
>>crime in a bigger way. Israel will pay a heavy price for its crime," Maher
>>al-Taher told the Reuters news agency.
>>
>>Mustafa - whose real name was Mustafa al-Zibri - was in his early 60s and
>>had been Secretary General of the PFLP since founding leader George Habash
>>stepped down in April 2000.
>>
>> Photo: Rejectionist faction
>> Mustafa was among those who founded the faction in
>>1967.
>> George Habash stood down last year
>>
>>The PFLP, a Marxist faction of Mr Arafat's PLO, has traditionally opposed
>>any dialogue with Israel. But after the retirement of Mr Habash, Mustafa
>>worked towards reconciliation between the PFLP and Mr Arafat.
>>
>>At the same time, he continued to reject the Oslo framework as a basis for
>>talks between Israel and the Palestinians, arguing that they did not give
>>the Palestinians a fair deal.
>>
>>The Israeli attack came after a weekend of violence in the region that
>>left 11 people dead.
>>
>>On Sunday, Israeli helicopters destroyed a Palestinian police station in
>>the West Bank, while tanks shelled several police checkpoints.
>>
>> Photo: Both sides buried dead at the weekend
>>
>>The raids followed the death of an Israeli motorist who was shot as he
>>stopped at a Palestinian shop in the West Bank. Three Israeli soldiers
>>were killed on Saturday when two Palestinians carried out a raid on a
>>military base. The two Palestinians were themselves killed by other
>>soldiers.
>>
>> Photo: Demolitions
>>
>>Israel carried out a number of fighter jet and tank demolitions of
>>Palestinian buildings in response.
>>
>>Egypt and Jordan - the only two Arab countries to have signed peace
>>treaties with Israel - called on the United States to do more to curb the
>>violence.
>>Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Washington's failure to intervene
>>was "dangerous for the region, for our interests and even for the Israeli
>>people".
>>
>> Tempers ran high after the violence
>>
>>On Friday, President George W Bush urged Mr Arafat "to put 100% effort
>>into stopping the terrorist activity, and I believe he can do a better job
>>of doing that".
>>
>>Arab leaders said Mr Bush's comments would encourage Israel to escalate
>>attacks on Palestinians.
>>
>>Abu Ali Mustafa returned to the West Bank in 1999 after more than 30 years
>>in Damascus.
>>
>>The Israeli army said in a statement that "contrary to his promises, he
>>continued with terrorist activities and was responsible for dozens of
>>attacks on Israel".
>>
>>Israel has a policy of killing Palestinians it says are responsible for
>>attacks on Israel, which is calls "active defence" or "targeted killings".
>>
>>Palestinians condemn the killings as assassinations and say more than 60
>>people have been killed in such attacks.
>>
>>The policy has also attracted widespread international criticism.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------
>> MiD-EasT RealitieS - http://www.MiddleEast.Org
>> Phone: 202 362-5266
>> Email: MER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Fax: 815 366-0800
>>
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>>
>
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