Individual
15th August 2005, 18:42
I am surprised, being how up&up you all are on worldly events, that this story hasn't broke. Or maybe you don't want it to be heard.
I'm sure you've all got some alterior motive story ..
But getting the information out there is all that counts, what you do with it afterwards is your fun.
"We cannot hold onto Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon," he said in a five minute address.
"The world is waiting for the Palestinian response -- a hand stretched out to peace or the fire of terror. To an outstretched hand we shall respond with an olive branch, but we shall fight fire with the harshest fire ever."
--Ariel Sharon
Full Story -- Reuters
As Gaza pullout starts, Sharon warns Palestinians By Howard Goller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatened Palestinians on Monday with the harshest response ever should they attack Israel once it pulls out of the Gaza Strip, ending a 38-year occupation.
In a televised address timed to coincide with the start of the pullout, the Israeli leader told Jewish settlers he shared their pain but also understood the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"We cannot hold onto Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon," he said in a five minute address.
"The world is waiting for the Palestinian response -- a hand stretched out to peace or the fire of terror. To an outstretched hand we shall respond with an olive branch, but we shall fight fire with the harshest fire ever."
He spoke at the end of a day during which settlers in Gaza's most hardline enclaves blocked soldiers from delivering eviction notices launching the pullout.
Troops avoided confronting the protesters but went door to door in other enclaves, telling settlers to leave by Wednesday or face forcible eviction under Sharon's plan to leave Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.
In the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, settlers used makeshift barricades and their bodies to impede an operation that paves the way for Israel's first uprooting of settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.
Bearded men stood at the main entrance praying for divine intervention. Settlers with loudspeakers urged soldiers to refuse orders. Protesters scuffled briefly with police, pelted them with paint-filled balloons and set fire to tires.
"A lot of blood was spilled on this holy land. It was presented to Abraham for the Jews and we are not going to leave it," settler Chaim Gross said in Gaza's Morag settlement.
Many of the 8,500 Gaza settlers vowed not to budge, many insisting the land was the biblical birthright of Jews. They were joined by up to 5,000 ultra-nationalists who arrived to reinforce their stand. But hundreds of settlers had left.
"The number of families leaving is not small," Eival Giladi, strategic coordinator in Sharon's office, told reporters. "Every family that leaves legitimizes more to do the same."
Giladi said he expected about half the settlers to be out by the time their 48 hours were up at midnight on Wednesday. He said food supplies had been cut off from Monday.
TEARS AND CONSOLATION
In the Morag settlement, one resident could do little but weep and a soldier put his arm around him for comfort, a scene repeated elsewhere.
In the largely empty Nissanit settlement, soldiers and settlers cried in mourning as they removed sacred objects from the synagogue. All buildings are to be demolished after the withdrawal.
Israeli officials say 66 percent of the Israeli families in Gaza have accepted state compensation deals but not all have left. Those who refuse to go could lose a third of the money, which ranges from $150,000 to $400,000 per family.
Eviction warnings to 9,000 settlers in all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank went into effect at midnight on Sunday under Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians.
The settlers have 48 hours to leave or face eviction.
The pullout, claimed by Palestinian militants as a victory and decried by Israeli opponents as a surrender to violence, is seen by Washington as a catalyst for renewed peacemaking.
Under a rare agreement, 7,500 Palestinian security men in Gaza moved into position on the outskirts of the fortified settlements to ward off possible militant attacks.
Palestinian militants have largely observed a truce agreed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel in February.
"The Israeli withdrawal that has begun today is an important and historic step," Abbas told government-controlled Wafa News Agency. He demanded an end to occupation elsewhere as well.
Palestinians welcome Israel's withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. But they fear Sharon devised the Gaza plan as a ruse to cement Israel's hold on most of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live.
The World Court describes Israeli settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.
Israel intends to leave the Gaza settlements and the four West Bank enclaves by September 4. It plans to complete the Gaza pullout in October when the last troops come out.
Polls show a majority of Israelis favor quitting Gaza.
I'm sure you've all got some alterior motive story ..
But getting the information out there is all that counts, what you do with it afterwards is your fun.
"We cannot hold onto Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon," he said in a five minute address.
"The world is waiting for the Palestinian response -- a hand stretched out to peace or the fire of terror. To an outstretched hand we shall respond with an olive branch, but we shall fight fire with the harshest fire ever."
--Ariel Sharon
Full Story -- Reuters
As Gaza pullout starts, Sharon warns Palestinians By Howard Goller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon threatened Palestinians on Monday with the harshest response ever should they attack Israel once it pulls out of the Gaza Strip, ending a 38-year occupation.
In a televised address timed to coincide with the start of the pullout, the Israeli leader told Jewish settlers he shared their pain but also understood the plight of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"We cannot hold onto Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation. They live in uniquely crowded conditions in refugee camps, in poverty and despair, in hotbeds of rising hatred with no hope on the horizon," he said in a five minute address.
"The world is waiting for the Palestinian response -- a hand stretched out to peace or the fire of terror. To an outstretched hand we shall respond with an olive branch, but we shall fight fire with the harshest fire ever."
He spoke at the end of a day during which settlers in Gaza's most hardline enclaves blocked soldiers from delivering eviction notices launching the pullout.
Troops avoided confronting the protesters but went door to door in other enclaves, telling settlers to leave by Wednesday or face forcible eviction under Sharon's plan to leave Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.
In the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim, settlers used makeshift barricades and their bodies to impede an operation that paves the way for Israel's first uprooting of settlements on land Palestinians want for a state.
Bearded men stood at the main entrance praying for divine intervention. Settlers with loudspeakers urged soldiers to refuse orders. Protesters scuffled briefly with police, pelted them with paint-filled balloons and set fire to tires.
"A lot of blood was spilled on this holy land. It was presented to Abraham for the Jews and we are not going to leave it," settler Chaim Gross said in Gaza's Morag settlement.
Many of the 8,500 Gaza settlers vowed not to budge, many insisting the land was the biblical birthright of Jews. They were joined by up to 5,000 ultra-nationalists who arrived to reinforce their stand. But hundreds of settlers had left.
"The number of families leaving is not small," Eival Giladi, strategic coordinator in Sharon's office, told reporters. "Every family that leaves legitimizes more to do the same."
Giladi said he expected about half the settlers to be out by the time their 48 hours were up at midnight on Wednesday. He said food supplies had been cut off from Monday.
TEARS AND CONSOLATION
In the Morag settlement, one resident could do little but weep and a soldier put his arm around him for comfort, a scene repeated elsewhere.
In the largely empty Nissanit settlement, soldiers and settlers cried in mourning as they removed sacred objects from the synagogue. All buildings are to be demolished after the withdrawal.
Israeli officials say 66 percent of the Israeli families in Gaza have accepted state compensation deals but not all have left. Those who refuse to go could lose a third of the money, which ranges from $150,000 to $400,000 per family.
Eviction warnings to 9,000 settlers in all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank went into effect at midnight on Sunday under Sharon's plan to "disengage" from conflict with the Palestinians.
The settlers have 48 hours to leave or face eviction.
The pullout, claimed by Palestinian militants as a victory and decried by Israeli opponents as a surrender to violence, is seen by Washington as a catalyst for renewed peacemaking.
Under a rare agreement, 7,500 Palestinian security men in Gaza moved into position on the outskirts of the fortified settlements to ward off possible militant attacks.
Palestinian militants have largely observed a truce agreed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel in February.
"The Israeli withdrawal that has begun today is an important and historic step," Abbas told government-controlled Wafa News Agency. He demanded an end to occupation elsewhere as well.
Palestinians welcome Israel's withdrawal from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. But they fear Sharon devised the Gaza plan as a ruse to cement Israel's hold on most of the West Bank, where 230,000 settlers and 2.4 million Palestinians live.
The World Court describes Israeli settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this.
Israel intends to leave the Gaza settlements and the four West Bank enclaves by September 4. It plans to complete the Gaza pullout in October when the last troops come out.
Polls show a majority of Israelis favor quitting Gaza.