An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded Thursday night when a bomb exploded near an Israeli patrol in the West Bank. Earlier, a bomb was detonated near an Israeli patrol in the Dehaisheh refugee camp west of Bethlehem. Israel had lifted the curfew on the city, extending it for an extra three hours to allow residents to stock up on food.
Also Thursday, in the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli forces shot and wounded two Palestinian news photographers, one critically, Palestinians said. The Israeli military said an armored vehicle hit a utility pole and stopped and Palestinians fired at the vehicle. Soldiers returned fire, the military said.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Bush resumed Middle East diplomacy Thursday, conferring by telephone with Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan about his peace plan. Egypt's Middle East News Agency said Mubarak "stressed the need to work to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories."
Speaking with Israel’s Channel Two News Thursday evening, US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice said the reforms demanded for the Palestinian Authority by President Bush's administration will have to result in a complete transformation of the PA's political infrastructure. "We really came to the conclusion that new leadership needed to emerge in order to be able to move forward," she said.
"This is not about one man, this is not about (PA) Chairman Arafat, this is a political system that needs to change so that we can have accountability in institutions, a natural transparency ... security services that are accountable," she said.
"Never again should one man hold sway over the lives of an entire Palestinian population," Rice aired.
For his part, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin registered his government's impatience at a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell. De Villepin said Israel must withdraw to the borders it had before defeating the Arabs in the 1967 Mideast war and gaining control of east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
"We feel we need to fight very strongly against terror," he said, endorsing U.S. policy on that front. But the French minister also stressed a need for prompt "political action," warning that "a vacuum would be very dangerous."
De Villepin told reporters that France and the United States agreed on some objectives, such as reform in the Palestinian territories, Palestinian elections and "a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 frontiers."
He added: "But also we want to stress the need for a political initiative. We think that the vacuum in the region can be very dangerous. We should not let the terrorists, the people who don't want peace, take the initiative." "That's why we do feel that we should use what is available right now ... and also maybe to use the possibility of an international conference," he stated. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
