Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher launched a scathing attack Monday on Israel's policy of killing Palestinian fighters, saying the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a "gang of assassins."
"Israel's policy violates all laws and conventions," Maher told reporters in Cairo. "It is unprecedented for a government to become a gang, which assassinates people, which uses the methods of gangs in assassinating people," he said, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
"No civilized government which believes in the law can accept this behavior," he added.
He spoke after a meeting with US Charge d’affaires Reno Harnish in Cairo. Maher said he called Harnish in order to express Egypt's concern over recent Israeli attacks.
"I told the American official that Egypt is surprised that the United States has not responded to Israeli behavior with more decisiveness," Maher said, adding he had asked Germany to press the US to take a more decisive stance against Israel.
"This behavior has put peace in the region in danger and put the interests of all countries in the region, the United States and the West, in danger," he added.
Egypt recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv last November in protest against Israel's excessive response to the Palestinian uprising.
Meanwhile, Israeli Trade and Industry Minster Dalia Itzik said Tuesday that she was concerned by Maher's comments. "Israel is not in a simple position diplomatically - not as far as the Arab World and Europe are concerned. And we have to be aware of the hints coming from the US as well," she said, cited by the paper.
Since the September 2000 eruption of the latest Palestinian uprising against 34 years of Israeli military occupation, AFP estimates that Palestinians have killed 128 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to AFP, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 540 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to an Amnesty International report issued early this year, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children. In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
