ZGram - 7/23/2003 - "Back to the ghetto again?"

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ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

July 23, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Pictures speak louder than words:


[START]

Sharon Defies Bush Over
Massive Separation Fence
By Christian Chaise
7-23-3


JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is continuing 
to defy Washington over the ongoing project for a massive fence 
dividing Israel from the West Bank, which is strongly opposed by the 
Palestinians and not fully accepted even within his own camp.

A vote slated to take place Tuesday in the Israeli parliament to 
decide on extra funding to complete the structure was postponed until 
further notice, a Knesset spokesman told AFP.

Public radio said the delay was caused by members of Sharon's Likud 
party, who defied their leader's call Monday to approve the 
750-million-shekel (170-million-dollar) package and demanded the 
route of the fence be further discussed.

On Monday, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz confirmed the 350-kilometre 
(215-mile) fence -- aimed at preventing infiltrations by Palestinian 
militants -- would penetrate some 15 kilometres (10 miles) into the 
West Bank to take in Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements in 
the West Bank.

According to public radio, Mofaz argued that the fence -- which he 
said would cost 2.2 million dollars a kilometre (1,100 yards) -- was 
"vital" for Israel's security.

If it was not completed, the deployment of extra army reservists 
would be even more costly, he warned.

The fence loosely follows the 1967 Green Line division between Israel 
and the West Bank, but it dips deep into occupied Palestinian 
territory at several points in order to protect settlements.

It also leaves several Palestinian villages cut off from the rest of 
the West Bank.

The Palestinians accuse Israel of using the fence to unilaterally 
determine the borders of a future Palestinian state -- scheduled 
under the US-backed peace roadmap to be in place in 2005 -- and of 
wanting to "ethnically cleanse" the West Bank with a de facto 
annexation of its most fertile regions.

Construction of the fence was launched in June 2002. It is also 
expected to cut annexed east Jerusalem off from the rest of the West 
Bank and a first 145-kilometre (90-mile) section is due for 
completion in July.

Even though prospects for peace are better than they have been for 
years, Sharon told his followers Monday that the best possible fence 
must be built as quickly as possible.

Opinion polls show that a majority of Israelis are in favour of it, 
though paradoxically the religious right, including settlers, are 
opposed, saying that the biblical Israel includes the West Bank and 
should not be divided.

US President George W. Bush's national security advisor Condoleezza 
Rice, on a visit to Jerusalem at the end of June, asked Sharon to 
revise the line of the fence.

Sharon refused to compromise but assured Rice that it was not a frontier.

A second section, of some 60-70 kilometres (36-42 miles), is under 
construction in the northeast of the West Bank, to prevent 
infiltrations in the north of the Jordan Velley.

"We envisage that this barrier will run along the length of the 
Palestinian territories," government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP.

The Israeli daily Maariv, for its part, said that the various 
meanderings of the fence, which in one part near Jenin consists of a 
high concrete wall, would bring its total length to between 800 and 
900 kilometres (490 and 550 miles).

At the price per kilometre given by Mofaz this would cost a 
staggering 1.8 billion dollars, at a time when Israel is in severe 
economic straits.

Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas will raise the question of 
the fence when he has his first White House meeting with Bush on 
Friday. And Bush is almost certain to raise it with Sharon at their 
talks four days later.

A foreign diplomat, however, said that Sharon still appeared to be ambivalent.

"Sharon was elected at the beginning of 2001. So he has been around 
two and a half years and he hasn't built the wall. So I think he is 
delaying it as much as possible ... hoping he can push it to the back 
burner."

[END]

(Source:  http://www.rense.com/general39/sep.htm )