Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put a positive spin Friday on his lightning visit to Europe, saying criticism over his tough approach to the Palestinians was less important than explaining Israel's position to the world, said AFP.
"It's natural that we didn't agree on everything but the main issue was to get the Israeli position understood, and I think I put it forward very clearly," Sharon said after returning from talks in Germany and France.
Sharon got less than a sympathetic ear from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac, particularly over his refusal to freeze settlement building as outlined under the Mitchell peace plan, according to the agency.
"Those who think Europe is a lost cause for Israel are wrong," said Sharon, who also met with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin before heading home.
The hardline former general refused to budge on his policy of so-called targeted attacks on suspected Palestinian militants, which Israel also calls "active self-defense" and the Palestinians say is assassination.
Later Friday, a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian security officials ended in Tel Aviv, with both sides giving different assessments of its results, said reports.
The Israeli delegation said the ceasefire had not been respected by the Palestinians and that it was therefore impossible to start the countdown for the next political steps towards ending the violence included in the Mitchell report, said Haaretz newspaper.
The head of general security in the Gaza Strip, General Abdelrazek Al Majaydeh, returned the accusation in a statement saying that the meeting had produced "no progress because of Israel's violation of the ceasefire."
Both parties decided to hold another meeting in a week and create a coordination body to maintain the ceasefire in the field, Israeli security sources told the paper, adding, however, that this body would only be operational after a successful one-week period of calm.
France and Germany urged Sharon not to undermine Palestinian President Yasser Arafat by insisting on a “total end to violence” before moving ahead with the internationally backed Mitchell plan, but he again vowed that Israel would not negotiate while threatened.
Sharon, said Haaretz, had tried to get the leaders to pressure Arafat into halting the anti-Israeli attacks and to understand Israel's insistence that the targeted attacks are a legitimate response to what they say is his refusal to rein in the violence.
The Fateh movement accused Israeli troops of another assassination attempt Friday, saying a 22-year-old member was seriously wounded after being shot in the back by an Israeli rooftop sniper in the West Bank.
Three Palestinian activists were killed in the West Bank on Sunday when an Israeli helicopter destroyed their car with a barrage of missiles, apparently resuming the attacks which Palestinians say have claimed around 40 lives.
The international community has deplored the killings, while Israel insists they are a legitimate way of trying to control the Palestinian uprising.
The shooting incident came during a day full of sporadic clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which left around 20 other people wounded, said AFP.
The Israeli army said positions across the Gaza Strip were pelted with dozens of grenades while the Dugit settlement was rocked by several mortar bombs. No one was reported wounded.
Israeli police said they suspected a secretive Jewish group was behind an overnight attack in the West Bank in which four Palestinians were wounded when their taxi came under fire from another vehicle, said AFP.
More than 20 people have been killed since the would-be truce came into effect, and the ongoing unrest has sparked concern that the non-stop bloodshed could plunge the region into a wider conflict.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, CNN reports that Palestinians have killed over 112 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 CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and over 458 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded, and over 520 killed.
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)
