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Friday, September 16, 2005
Some headlines and summaries from JTA
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U.S.: Fence must accommodate Palestinians
Israel must be responsive to Palestinian needs in plotting its West Bank security barrier, a Bush administration official said.
“It’s precisely because the lives of Palestinian civilians and men, women and children are disrupted in many cases that we make this point and that we urge the Israelis to consider and take into account and be responsive to the needs of the Palestinians to move and to live like normal people in the territory that they occupy,” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
“We’re working hard to strike a balance there between legitimate defense needs and looking to a future where you’ve got to negotiate a solution and negotiate a settlement on land under occupation.” He added, “you don’t make innocent people pay for the crimes of terrorists.” Terrorist attacks have fallen precipitously since Israel began building the barrier.
Sharon meets Jordan’s king
Jordan’s king said he will offer assistance as the Palestinians take over full responsibility in the Gaza Strip.
Abdullah II made his comments in a meeting Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the sidelines of the U.N. World Summit in New York, Sharon spokesman Ra’anan Gissin told JTA. Sharon told Abdullah that the pullout created an opportunity to work toward peace, but that the Palestinians first must take steps to curb violence and ensure law and order in the aftermath of Israel’s recent withdrawal.
“Gaza is the key issue,” Gissin said after the meeting. If the Palestinian Authority fails to rein in terrorists, he said, “that could put us on a dead track.” Sharon also raised the issue of Hamas activity in Jordan, insisting that the Palestinian terrorist group cannot be a political partner as long as it continues using violence as a tool and maintains its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction.
Both leaders expressed satisfaction about the two countries’ economic ties.
Rice praises Palestinians on withdrawal
Palestinians did a good job helping Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip but now must focus on security, Condoleezza Rice said.
“The Palestinians did a very good job of helping to create a dignified circumstance for the Israelis to withdraw” by preventing attacks on soldiers and settlers, the U.S. secretary of state said this week in an interview with the editorial board of the New York Post. “They then were unable to control the combination of kind of exuberance on the one hand, which I think was both natural and genuine on the part of the population, and some political posturing by their adversaries.” Rice apparently was referring to the looting of abandoned settlements and synagogues after the withdrawal.
Rice said P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas must fulfill his commitment to disarm Hamas and other terrorist groups, but suggested he needed time. “We are insisting on it every time we talk to him,” she said. “But you want him to be successful when he does it. You don’t want him to go to dismantle Hamas and fail. And so we’re trying to increase his capability on the security forces side to create better political conditions on the ground.”
London, Jerusalem police chiefs meet
London’s police chief was briefed on counter-terrorist measures by Israel’s top cop.
London police commissioner James Hart, accompanied by his senior counter-terrorism officer and the New York Police Department liaison in Israel, met with Moshe Karadi in Jerusalem. The group discussed the July 7 bombings on London’s public transport system, which killed 52 people, and heard lectures about the political situation in the Middle East.
Hart also was advised on how to deal properly with the media in the aftermath of a terror attack, an aspect he felt his force might have misjudged. Israeli police “have much more experience in dealing with suicide bombings, and we have what to learn,” Hart said.
Israel top five U.S. ally
A recent poll found that Americans consider Israel one of the top five U.S. allies.
The Harris Interactive poll, released Wednesday, found that Israel was deemed a close ally by 41 percent of respondents. The only countries to fare better were Great Britain, Canada and Australia. Israel has ranked fourth in the poll the past two years.
http://jta.org/
posted by Somebody @ 10:12 PM Permanent Link
 
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