Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
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Israel Cuts Ties With Yasser Arafat
Decision Could Wreck U.S. Peace Efforts

By DAN PERRY
.c The Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (Dec. 13) - Israel cut off all contact with Yasser Arafat early Thursday after Palestinian militants killed 10 more Israelis in a bus ambush. The move could wreck U.S. efforts to construct a truce.

The Israeli Security Cabinet issued its dramatic announcement just hours after Arafat bowed to long-standing Israeli demands and ordered the offices of the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups closed.

The cabinet statement said Arafat was ''directly responsible'' for the attacks ''and therefore is no longer relevant to Israel, and Israel will no longer have any connection with him.''

Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel had reached ''the moment of truth'' in its battle against terrorism. ''We have been talking with the Palestinians at all levels for two years,'' Sheetrit said. ''Now it is time for Israel to defend itself.''

U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni was trying to establish two days of calm to rebuild trust. He has been in the region two weeks trying to arrange a truce to end more than 14 months of Palestinian-Israeli violence.

Sheetrit said there would be no more contact with Arafat or his Palestinian Authority and that meetings of security commanders, sponsored by Zinni, would cease.

Since Nov. 26, when Zinni arrived, 50 Palestinians and 44 Israelis have been killed in violence. The Palestinian toll includes 18 armed attackers and 10 suicide bombers.

Hamas said it was responsible for the bus attack just after nightfall Wednesday, which also injured 30. The crowded vehicle was ambushed as it climbed a winding road near the Jewish settlement of Emmanuel in the West Bank, 25 miles north of Jerusalem.

Wednesday's unrelenting violence started shortly after midnight with a Israeli helicopter strike that killed four Palestinian militiamen in response to mortar fire on Jewish settlements. Israeli warplanes struck back after the bus bombing, and Arafat ordered the offices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad closed.

Palestinian militants have ignored Arafat's calls for a cease-fire. Israel reserved the right to strike back at the Palestinian authority for attacks by the militants and dismissed as a sham Arafat's recent arrest of 180 militants.

Two bombs planted on the roadside exploded, immediately killing four bus passengers, said the regional police commander, Shahar Ayalon. One or more gunmen then opened fire from surrounding hills.

Israelis troops fired back, killing one gunman and launching a search for others. Ayalon said the gunman had explosives strapped to his body. Palestinian security officials identified him as Mohammed Reihan, 25, a Hamas activist, whose brother was recently killed by Israeli troops.

The explosion blew out the windows of the bus, which started its journey near Tel Aviv. A body covered by a blanket lay by the side of the road. Windshields were shattered in nearby cars. One was driven into a ditch.

At virtually the same moment but well to the south in the Gaza Strip, two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Gush Katif settlement bloc, wounding several people, the army said. The assailants jumped on a car leaving the settlement and detonated the explosives, TV reports said. The passengers in the car escaped with minor injuries. The suicide bombers died.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Gaza attack.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the attack but braced for an Israeli strike - which came within hours.

Arafat's organization also said in a statement: ''The Palestinian leadership has decided to close all offices, centers and organizations and anything connected with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories.''

Israeli F-16s bombed a Palestinian security compound at least three times, witnesses said. As four fighter planes buzzed overhead, there was a large explosion at the compound and white smoke filled the air. Two more blasts followed moments later. Ten people were hurt, none seriously, doctors said. A woman who was not wounded died of shock, they said.

Later, Palestinian security officials said, Israeli missiles struck the radar unit at Gaza Airport, where Israeli bulldozers destroyed the runway last week after previous Palestinian attacks.

In Nablus, another F-16 shelled a helicopter pad in a compound belonging to Force 17, an elite Palestinian security unit. An Israeli army spokesman said attacks had also targeted a naval police headquarters in Sudaniyeh, in the northern Gaza Strip.

No injuries were immediately reported in the strikes.

Electricity in Gaza City had been cut off earlier to darken the area in anticipation of the retaliation. Electricity was also cut in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Arafat and a few bodyguards stayed bunkered at his headquarters there.

Israeli officials have dismissed Arafat's efforts to round up militants as insufficient.

The White House had said Wednesday's attacks would not derail Zinni's mission. ''The latest violence underscores the need for Chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority to take every step possible to reduce the violence and bring an end to the terrorism that is plaguing the region,'' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

The Palestinian Authority said it bore no responsibility for the attacks on Israelis.

''The Palestinian leadership reiterates that it is working intensively and continuously to restore quiet and security despite the Israeli escalation, the raids and the assassinations (of militants) and the closure imposed on all the Palestinian cities and villages,'' it said in a statement.

This latest round of violence began when Palestinians fired four mortar shells at Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip late Tuesday. The mortar shells caused no damage or injuries.

In retaliation, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza late Tuesday and early Wednesday, killing four Palestinian militiamen and wounding 20.

The latest cycle of violence began nearly 15 months ago. Since then, 818 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 242 on the Israeli side.

AP-NY-12-12-01 2122EST



Jewish Defense League Chairman Accused in Bomb Plot
Irv Rubin, Follower Accused of Plotting to Blow Up Los Angeles Mosque

By LINDA DEUTSCH
.c The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 12) - The chairman and another member of the militant Jewish Defense League were charged Wednesday with plotting to blow up a Los Angeles mosque and the office of an Arab-American congressman.

JDL chairman Irv Rubin, 56, and Earl Krugel, 59, were arrested Tuesday night after explosive powder, the last component of a bomb, was delivered to Krugel's home by a longtime JDL member who had turned federal informant, U.S. Attorney John Gordon said.

Other bomb components and weapons were seized at the Los Angeles home.

Authorities said the two planned to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and the San Clemente office of freshman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Rubin and Krugel were charged in a federal criminal complaint with conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive, which carries up to five years in prison, and possession of a destructive device related to a crime of violence, which carries a 30-year mandatory sentence.

''If you cross the line from lawfully expressing your political or religious belief to committing violent acts then you will likely end up facing federal prosecution,'' Gordon said.

It was not immediately clear when the alleged plot began or what prompted it.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Victor Kenton ordered Rubin held without bail and set a preliminary hearing for Dec. 27. Krugel was expected to appear in court later Wednesday.

In court papers, authorities said Krugel was secretly taped during a meeting as saying Arabs ''need a wakeup call'' and the JDL needed to do something to one of their ''filthy'' mosques.

Rubin's attorney, Peter Morris, said his client had nothing to do with the explosives. ''It seems to us that, given the timing the government's action is part of an overreaction to the Sept. 11 events,'' he said.

Rubin's wife, Shelley, said her husband and Krugel were innocent and authorities were ''on a witch hunt against Jews to show that they're evenhanded toward Muslims.''

''I'm in agony for my husband. He's been incarcerated for something he hasn't done,'' she said from the doorway of her suburban Monrovia home.

According to investigators, Rubin wanted to ''blow up an entire building'' but lacked the technology.

''Rubin also said that the JDL should not go after a human target because they still had not heard the end of the Alex Odeh incident,'' the indictment said.

Odeh, regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was killed by a bomb at his Santa Ana office in 1985. The case remains unsolved.

Rubin and Krugel allegedly considered other targets, including a bar and a tattoo parlor they believed were owned by white supremacists.

The case was broken when a JDL member who claimed to have committed crimes for the group contacted an FBI agent Oct. 18, according to court papers. A day later, the informant was instructed to place a bomb at the mosque.

The informant said JDL members had learned how to build a napalm bomb with Styrofoam and gasoline.

Issa, 46, the grandson of Lebanese immigrants, serves on the House Committee on International Relations and supports Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. He called the arrests ''shocking news.''

''All agree this was an unusual act by a small band'' of individuals, Issa said in Washington. Flanked by several Jewish lawmakers, he said: ''Perhaps in another country, we would be adversaries. We're not going to be divided by ethnic backgrounds.''

Mosque director Tajuddin Shuaib said no threats had been received by the mosque. He noted that the alleged plot came during the holy month of Ramadan, when as many as 1,000 people attend the mosque to pray.

''I can't understand why people would do such a thing,'' he said. ''We are not against Jews. We are not against anybody. We are like any church or synagogue or temple.''

Gordon said the original target was to be the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, but the target was changed during a meeting last weekend.

Originally formed by Meir Kahane to mount armed response to anti-Semitic acts in New York, the JDL gained notoriety when its members were linked to bombings in the United States, most of them aimed at Soviet targets in retaliation for the way that country treated its Jews.

Kahane left the JDL in the 1980s. A power struggle ensued, with Rubin among the contenders for its leadership.

Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990. El Sayyid Nosair, 36, an Egyptian-born Muslim, was convicted in connection with the shooting.

The JDL claims to have 13,000 members, but experts say it may have only few dozen active members.

Rubin has made a career out of confrontation, challenging white supremacists to fistfights, or burning a Confederate flag outside a courthouse. By his own count he has been arrested more than 40 times. In 1980, he was tried and acquitted of soliciting the murders of Nazis in the United States.

A lawsuit filed by Rubin resulted in a court decision last year banning prayer during Burbank City Council meetings.

Maher Hathout, a senior adviser for the Los Angeles chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the arrests sent an encouraging message to the Muslim community.

''We can easily develop an attitude that (federal authorities) are out to get us,'' he said. ''But it seems they are out to get anyone who breaks the law.''

AP-NY-12-12-01 2054EST

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10433

crappy timing for melon

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35917

Solutions are hard to come by in that part of the world, but I can't see that the government of Israel is moving closer to a solution with this.

By the way, melon was in chat today.

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