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Bethlehem Invaded Again, as Israelis Extend ControlTuesday 28 May 2002
author: By JAMES BENNET
summary
Palestinian officials say Israel reneged on the deal by not turning over land on
schedule and instead building more settlements. They accuse Israel of trying to
destroy the Oslo agreement in order to prevent a Palestinian state from emerging
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
May 27, 2002
ETHLEHEM, West Bank, Monday, May 27 — Israeli tanks and armored personnel
carriers raced under a full moon into Bethlehem early today, in what military
officials said was likely to be the largest invasion yet of the rolling West
Bank police action that Israel began after wrapping up its major ground
offensive earlier this month.
Today's operation was part of Israel's campaign to seize full responsibility for
its own security along its eastern boundary with the West Bank, blurring if not
erasing lines that once defined areas under Palestinian security control.
"We are taking again the responsibility for Israeli civilian life," a senior
Israeli military official said. "It's a very important change in the situation."
The change, a fundamental shift in the relationship between Israel and the
governing Palestinian Authority, has complicated the Bush administration's plan
to press for reform of the multiple Palestinian security forces.
President Bush called again on Sunday for Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader,
to make reforms and fight terrorism. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said on
CNN that he expected George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, to
arrive here before the end of the week.
Mr. Tenet is charged with guiding the effort to consolidate about a dozen
Palestinian security forces and increase their discipline and accountability.
But, arguing that no reform is possible until Mr. Arafat is replaced, some
Israeli officials have resisted the Tenet visit.
His trip would signal the Bush administration's hopes of restoring some
responsibility for security to the Palestinians, a move that could interfere
with the Israeli Army's freedom to move in the West Bank. Perhaps for that
reason, Mr. Arafat is suddenly talking about the need for security reform.
A central component of the Oslo agreement was that the Palestinian Authority
would police its own militant groups, thereby assuring Israel of its good
intentions and proving itself ready for statehood. Israel was to encourage such
behavior by ceding more and more land to Palestinian control.
For now, the deal is off. "By penetrating inside the Palestinian cities, we were
able to say, `No more,' " the senior Israeli military official said. "We are not
expecting you to serve any more as the Israelis protectors," and consequently,
he added, "we're not in this game of giving you something to pay for it."
Palestinian officials say Israel reneged on the deal by not turning over land on
schedule and instead building more settlements. They accuse Israel of trying to
destroy the Oslo agreement in order to prevent a Palestinian state from emerging
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Yuval Steinitz, a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party, said
improving the Palestinian security forces while Mr. Arafat was in control would
not increase Israel's security, but would only threaten Israel. "I was shocked
by the idea that what we need to do now is to improve the efficiency of
Palestinian forces," he said.
Mr. Steinitz, who is a parliamentary leader on security issues, said, "I'm
confident that there is a military solution, and by brute force we can
completely, or almost completely, eradicate terrorism."
Despite the increased Israeli security measures, including ever-tighter
blockades of Palestinian cities, suicide bombers are again striking deep inside
Israel. Israel says its forces are regularly intercepting potential attackers,
but others are slipping through.
Israeli officials said Palestinians almost succeeded last week in blowing up a
huge gasoline depot in a Tel Aviv suburb with a magnetic bomb, hidden on a
diesel tanker truck and apparently activated by a cellphone.
As attacks have increased recently, Israelis have expressed consternation that
the most intense part of the military operation, Israel's largest ground
invasion in 20 years, did not have a more lasting effect. "The terror attacks
returned sooner than we thought or hoped," the newspaper Maariv said in an
editorial on Sunday.
But the newspaper expressed little optimism about a diplomatic alternative,
saying that a more realistic option was a "broad and powerful military operation
that will complete the work."
Israeli ground forces are moving freely in and out of Palestinian-controlled
territory, in what the Israeli government calls intelligence-driven raids to
prevent or punish terrorist attacks. The army is also tightening restrictions on
Palestinian travel through the West Bank. The Israelis have conducted such raids
for more than a year, but their frequency has increased greatly since March.
On Sunday, Israeli forces withdrew again from Bethlehem, which they entered
Saturday evening, but they swept again into Qalqilya, also in the West Bank,
seizing positions, searching house to house, and imposing a curfew.
Israeli forces also pulled back from Tulkarm, a city they have been moving in
and out of for the last week, after a suicide bomber killed three Israelis in
coastal city of Netanya. Troops continued to blockade the city and impose a
curfew on its residents, holding out the possibility that they would re-enter.
The army said it had arrested eight Palestinians in Tulkarm.
Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, the Israeli chief of staff, told reporters on Sunday that
Palestinian militants had already regrouped in several of the cities where
Israel took control in April. The army may find it necessary, he said, to resort
to "deeper operations" if the present ones prove ineffective.
In several incidents recently, soldiers have wounded or killed innocent people
who they said appeared to be acting suspiciously.
On Sunday, a soldier wounded an Israeli bus passenger who the driver thought
might be planning an attack. Gil Kleiman, a police spokesman, said that the
soldier fired at the ground, and that the man was injured by a bullet fragment.
He said the wounded man might have been deaf or mute, but clearly had "problems
of communication."
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman and her
12-year-old daughter in a field in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli Army said that the two were in a prohibited zone near Gaza's fence,
and that soldiers opened fire on them because they considered them suspicious.