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Sharon rejects air strike
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Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Monday, June 4, 2001
JERUSALEM Ñ Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected a
military plan to launch a massive bombing sweep of the Palestinian Authority
in wake of a Palestinian suicide attack in which 20 Israelis were killed.
Sharon nixed the military proposal in a meeting held hours after the
Palestinian attack outside a Tel Aviv nightclub on late Friday. The proposal
was for Israeli fighter-jets and attack helicopters to bomb PA and Islamic
insurgency targets throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"We were about to launch a devastating air strike," a senior Israeli
security source said.
The prime minister appeared willing to consider the military proposal,
the source said. But Sharon changed his mind when PA Chairman Yasser Arafat,
under massive international pressure, declared his willingness to implement
an immediate ceasefire.
The source said Sharon came under pressure from the United States and
the European Union to halt any Israeli retaliation and give Arafat an
opportunity to implement his pledge. The air strike, the source said, has
been suspended until further notice.
"Restraint is also an element of strength," Sharon said on Sunday.
Still, Israeli officials said the military will remind the Palestinians
of its power. They said the Israeli air force begins on Monday with
extensive exercises over the next two days that will be held in the air
space over Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Israeli military sources said Arafat has not ended Palestinian attacks
against Israel. On late Sunday, Palestinian gunners fired mortars toward the
Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops did not
respond.
On Monday, a bomb exploded on the Trans-Samarian highway near the
industrial zone of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Barkan. Nobody was
injured.
The bombing came hours after Arafat convened his security chiefs and
ordered them to stop attacks against Israel. Palestinian sources said the
security chiefs did not respond to Arafat's orders, issued during a two-hour
meeting in Ramallah.
"We say that the popular uprising is the natural right of the
Palestinians," Fatah leader Hussein Sheik said.
The Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the Tel Aviv bombing. A
Hamas statement said the bomber was a 20-year-old Palestinian who had
arrived from Jordan to Kalkilya.
Israeli military sources termed Arafat's declaration of a ceasefire as a
tactical move. They said the PA chairman plans to temporarily lower
Palestinian violence until he feels an easing of international pressure.
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