The growing conflict started last Thursday morning, when Sharon ascended the Temple Mount on the eve of the Jewish New Year holiday to exercise his right to visit Judaism’s holiest site like anyone else. Sharon announced his plans days earlier, giving Palestinian and Israeli Arab leaders plenty of time to gather a hostile welcoming committee.
The demonstrations quickly spread on Friday and Saturday to Judea/Samaria and Gaza, where IDF outposts and Israeli civilians came under attack from stone-throwing youths, as well as gunfire from armed Fatah activists (the “Tanzim”) and even PA security forces. With casualties climbing, the two sides seemed close to a cease-fire on Saturday, until a tragic incident ignited the flames further.
The Clinton Administration announced today that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to attend soon a US-mediated session in the region aimed at rooting out the cause of the violence. The clashes are Clinton’s worst nightmare, as he desperately wanted to avoid a Mideast flare-up just as his term in office winds up and US voters go to the polls to elect his successor.
The outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian clashes has been particularly intense around Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, a site of fierce fighting in the “tunnel riots” of 1996, with one Israeli soldier shot dead over the weekend inside the synagogue.
Violence erupted in Hebron late Friday afternoon, just as the local Jewish community began celebrating the Jewish New Year. Rocks and fire-bombs were hurled at Israeli security forces guarding the borders between PA and Israeli-controlled neighborhoods and burning tires were rolled into Jewish neighborhoods in the city.
Facing a mounting backlash in the Arab/Islamic world for his apparent tilt towards Israel in recent weeks, US President George W. Bush is reportedly considering holding his first meeting with PLO chief Yasser Arafat on the sidelines of the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in early September.
Worried that his own regime may be at stake, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has warned that it is “now or never” for a landmark Mideast peace deal over the explosive issue of Jerusalem and placed the onus on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.
Israeli officials have offered to assist the Islamic Waqf in shoring up the endangered southern retaining wall of the Temple Mount compound from collapse, but it appears the Muslim authorities have little interest in preventing a disaster that could spark a worldwide jihad against Israel.
A German member of the European Parliament said on Sunday that European Union funding for the Palestinian Authority’s education system should be frozen after he was confronted with proof of “anti-Semitic” schoolbooks in Palestinian classrooms.
As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepares for what should be a warm reception in Washington on Monday, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres made an advance foray to New York on Thursday to head off Palestinian efforts at the UN to insert an armed observer force in Judea/Samaria and Gaza.
A nondestructive e-mail virus sent around the world yesterday to trumpet the cause of the Palestinians could lead to an escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian cyber-war, computer security experts said Tuesday.
The United Nations Security Council has been holding marathon negotiations, but has yet to agree on a draft resolution ahead of the Arab League summit on Tuesday that addresses calls for a force of armed observers to “protect the Palestinians.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has instructed its missions abroad to make extensive use of photographs of the 10-month-old Jewish baby girl killed by Palestinian sniper fire in Hebron on Monday to show the world the brutal campaign of violence and terrorism Israel is facing.
After receiving clear backing from the Bush Administration for his guarded approach with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned home amidst escalating violence on Thursday and swore to get tough soon.
Marwan Barghouti, the senior Fatah leader in the “West Bank,” is having a hard time explaining how a “popular” Palestinian uprising is not so popular among the public anymore.
Early Thursday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak suspended a series of military strikes on Palestinian targets planned in retaliation for the death of three IDF soldiers yesterday, after cabinet minister Shimon Peres met late last night in Gaza with PLO chief Yasser Arafat and worked out an “agreement” for implementing the terms of the Sharm e-Sheikh truce.
The Or Commission hearings into the violent riots last October that left 13 Israeli Arabs dead halted its proceedings on Thursday after a police officer was assaulted while on the witness stand.
An explosion rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad early Friday morning, killing two people and injuring several others. The regime of dictator Saddam Hussein immediately blamed the blast on “the agents of treachery and vice… the Zionists and the Americans.”
Despite Palestinian media reports blaming Israel for the suspected outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Palestinian areas, Israeli authorities handed over to Palestinian Authority officials 220,000 vaccines to inoculate their herds against the virus on Sunday morning.
In yet another example of Arab leaders advocating terrorism and violence to settle disagreements, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said Lebanon has the right to fight for and “liberate by all means available” the disputed Sheba Farms area, including cross-border attacks by Hizb’Allah.