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Barak calls for emergency government after raids
Arafat has abandoned peace process, Israeli leader says
TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called for the formation of an emergency coalition government after Israel struck at Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza in retaliation for the deaths of two soldiers. Barak did not state directly whether opposition leader Ariel Sharon, whose visit to Jerusalem's holy sites two weeks ago touched off Palestinian riots, would take part in a new government. But he said the coalition would be as broad-based as possible. In a news conference after a day of Cabinet meetings, Barak accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat of abandoning peace talks and said he believed Arafat was no longer a partner for peace.
"For peace, you need two. For confrontation, it only takes one," Barak said. "If it becomes clear that we have no partner," Israel would take steps to separate itself from the Palestinians -- "even if it takes a long time." Palestinian and Israeli officials traded bitter and angry words throughout the day Thursday after the beating deaths of two Israeli soldiers at the hands of a Palestinian mob and the subsequent Israeli retaliation. The Israelis responded to the killings with rocket attacks on Ramallah -- where the beatings took place -- and Gaza. The Palestinians said their police were unable to keep the mob from its deadly purpose. The Israelis say they gave the Palestinians three hours notice that the attacks were coming so buildings could be evacuated. Palestinian officials said the Israeli air strikes amounted to all-out war, and appealed for immediate intervention to stop two weeks of clashes between Israeli security forces and rock-throwing Palestinians that have killed nearly 100 people -- all but a few of them Palestinians or Israeli-Arabs. "Israel must be stopped immediately," said the Palestinians' chief peace negotiator, Saeb Erakat. "This is an all-out war against the Palestinians. We call on the international authorities to interfere immediately." But Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told CNN the operation was limited and that Israel was "targeting the people who have been behind the violence. This was not an attack on the Palestinian people." Meanwhile, Barak told a Cabinet meeting that "this round of attacks is over." Israeli Knesset speaker Avraham Burg said that Israel was ready to resume peace talks, but would do whatever was necessary to defend itself. Israeli officials put the blame squarely on Arafat's shoulders, saying that he alone could stop the spiraling violence that looked to spell the end of any hope for peace in the perennially troubled region. Arafat, however, pledged that the Palestinians would not stop their drive for independence. "You are forgetting we are the Palestinian people," the Palestinian leader said while visiting wounded Palestinians at Gaza's Shifa hospital. "We are strong. We will continue this march until we have an independent state." Retaliatory attacksIsrael launched its air strikes in retaliation for the killings of two Israeli soldiers captured by Palestinian police and beaten to death by a mob that stormed the police station where the soldiers were taken. Palestinian radio in Ramallah was knocked off the air by one of the attacks, while ambulances and fire vehicles swarmed around flames rising near a residential area. Helicopters rocketed Arafat's residential compound in Gaza. The attacks in Ramallah destroyed the top floor of a police station and badly damaged the bottom floor, said CNN Producer Sausan Ghosheh. At least 25 people were injured. A building near the Palestinian Authority headquarters was also damaged. Outside the ruined police station, angry Palestinians gathered, many shouting that the attack was a declaration of war, she said. In Gaza City, CNN's Rula Amin reported that Israeli gunboats were on patrol off the coast of the Palestinian city. Witnesses said that helicopters fired in the vicinity of Arafat's headquarters there, but the building was not hit. A Palestinian marine force boat docked at a marina was damaged in the attack. Israel seals Palestinian communitiesImmediately after the air strikes, Israeli officials closed all Palestinian-controlled areas, barring, except in an extreme emergency, Palestinians from traveling outside their communities. Israeli Army Col. Raanan Gissin told CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna that the attack on Ramallah was "more than retaliation" for the deaths of the soldiers. "Our purpose and mission is really to deliver a very stern message that these things cannot be tolerated," Gissin said. "Even in a war there are certain conventions that can't be violated, and this is a violation of the worst way." The deaths of the two Israeli soldiers, and the Israeli response, put up seemingly insurmountable blocks to efforts to mediate a cessation of violence in the region. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who held meetings with Barak and Arafat over the last two days, said the incident "complicates the issues we are trying to resolve." Annan spoke following a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Emile Lahoud in Beirut, where the U.N. chief was seeking a resolution to the capture of three other Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah fighters near the Lebanon-Israel border. In Washington, U.S. President Bill Clinton, who has urged a three-way summit to find a solution to the conflict, called on the Palestinians and Israelis to stop the clashes immediately. "Now is the time to stop the violence, to restore calm and to ultimately return to the negotiating table," the president said in a news conference at the White House. Annan's diplomacy had secured a commitment from both the Israelis and Palestinians for a high-level security meeting to be chaired by U.S. CIA chief George Tenet, but Tenet's plans following Thursday's events were unclear. Israelis, Palestinians blame each otherGissin, the Israeli colonel, said that the mob attack that left the two soldiers dead was unwarranted and unprovoked. "We've been trying to argue with the Palestinians that they should take control of the situation," he said. "But what happened today seems the complete lack of control and unfortunately instigated and supported as we know by some of the Palestinian police." But the Palestinians said that the soldiers were on an undercover mission, in civilian clothes and driving a civilian car, when they were captured. The Israeli army said the men were reservists trying to reach their post when they took a wrong turn.
Israeli military officials said that two other soldiers were unaccounted for after the attack, but Nabil Abu-Rudeinah, an adviser to Palestinian leader Arafat, said the Palestinians were not aware of any other soldiers. The dead soldiers' bodies have been turned over to Israeli authorities. Palestinians and Israelis have been fighting for two weeks, since hawkish Israeli opposition leader Sharon visited a bitterly contested religious site in east Jerusalem. Sharon, the Likud Party chairman, came to the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Arabs as Haram as-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, on September 28. Arabs considered the visit an insult, and said Sharon "defiled" the sacred site. CNN Jerusalem Bureau Chief Mike Hanna, CNN Correspondent Jerrold Kessel, Ben Wedeman and Rula Amin, and CNN Producer Sausan Ghosheh contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Annan claims breakthrough in Mideast diplomacy RELATED SITES: Israel Defense Forces | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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