The new US plan, proposed by Powell to end the violence that has been raging since last November, calls for both sides to somehow secure "seven days of total peace", followed by a six-week "cooling off period".
Once again, the Israeli-Palestinian truce is on the verge of collapse. After nine months of bloody conflict, the two sides are now filled with more than enough bitterness and hostility and ready to resort to lethal options, less than three weeks after agreeing to a cease-fire under the auspices of the US.
If this truce also completely collapses, it will be a heavy blow for the US, which has sent Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA chief George Tenet to the region in an attempt to establish peace, since Washington had previously avoided direct interference in Israel's affairs. - Palestinian chaos.
Israel launched a helicopter-borne missile attack on a car carrying members of the radical Islamic Jihad movement on Monday, killing three members of the movement. The previous day, two Palestinian guerrillas were killed in the West Bank. For the first time in weeks, the Israelis are again sending helicopter gunships on patrols. The result is the highest number of casualties among Palestinians since the last peace effort was launched last month.
On Tuesday, an Israeli was killed in an Arab village inside Israel, and two powerful car bombs exploded in Yehud, a working-class suburb of Tel Aviv. Although there were no casualties, this was the first Palestinian bombing inside Israeli territory after a suicide bomber killed 20 young Israelis in Tel Aviv. It was a tragedy that precipitated the ceasefire agreement.
Israelis and Palestinians, meanwhile, returned with accusations and counter-accusations that filled nine months of violence during which at least 472 Palestinians and 119 Israelis lost their lives. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called the helicopter attack a "flagrant violation" of the ceasefire and a "dirty crime" against their citizens. Analysts say that, apart from the renewed firing, the deeper reason for the apparent failure of the latest round in the quest for peace is that there is no real basis to believe that the two sides have anything to say to each other. Even if they manage to stop the violence.
DEADLINE: "Even under the best and most optimistic circumstances," says Israeli analyst Mark Heller, "a ceasefire is a path to deadlocked negotiations." Palestinian commentators agree and say it is unlikely that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would were able to reconcile their opposing visions. The two men never even shook hands.
Israelis and Palestinians have reached at least three agreements before this one to defuse the situation - and none have been successful. Last week, guerrillas from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the Israeli army exchanged artillery and other fire across Israel's northern border for hours. The fighting erupted after Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian radar station in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in retaliation for a Hezbollah attack on Friday that seriously wounded an Israeli soldier.
Media and officials in the Arab world accused Israel of "escalating" the conflict and demanded that the international community recognize that Sharon actually wants to ignite a wider war. Syria strongly condemned the airstrike on its military bases in Lebanon and accused Sharon of dragging the region into a new war. Khalaf al-Jarrad, director general of the Syrian official daily Tishtin, writes that "Syria's commitment to a just and lasting peace does not override its right to respond to an attack."
"The war criminal Sharon is trying to escape from his serious internal crisis, to spread tension in the region under a false pretext and commit aggression against Lebanon and Syrian positions in the Beka Valley," writes Jarad. "Sharon must understand that the commitment of Syria, Lebanon and the Arabs to peace does not abrogate their right to resist and respond to any aggression by all possible and legitimate means."
Hezbollah fighters were the main force behind the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon last May, ending Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Sharon defends the helicopter strikes, which he says are "active self-defense," shrugs off the threats, and says, "The Palestinians have announced that they will end the ceasefire." I don't know what truce they are talking about. I don't know of a single peaceful day so far."
COOLING MIRA: The new US plan, proposed by Powell to end the violence that has raged since last November, calls for both sides to somehow secure "seven days of total peace," followed by a six-week "cooling off period." After the cooling-off, which is intended as a time for "confidence building", the stage could be set for new peace talks.
Before Powell left, the Israelis and Palestinians argued over when and how the seven-day period of peace should begin - which turned out to be an academic debate as it was immediately apparent that the prospect of going seven days without firing was unrealistic. Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz cut short a visit to Washington to deal with a new outbreak of violence at home. "Every country in the world that is faced with so many terrorist attacks - there have been more than 5600 since September - has to respond," he said.
The secretary general of the Palestinian government, Abdel Rahman, says: "Israel seeks to destroy every international effort." Israel effectively rejected Tenet's plan and Powell's efforts by resorting to state terror and US gunship helicopters to kill Palestinian civilians.
Representatives of radical Palestinian factions today say that everything is useless. And the ceasefire and Tenet and Powell. Israel, they say, "understands only the language of power, which will eventually shake the earth under their feet." Fourteen Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed since the Tenet ceasefire took effect.
LIGHT NADE: A glimmer of normality in the Israeli-Palestinian area appeared with the end of the Cold War and the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement in Oslo in 1993. Many Israelis looked to the future with optimism. A million new immigrants from Russia and even more young Israelis born after a series of Middle Eastern wars - almost half of the population of the Jewish state - do not remember a single Israeli war.
Now, however, the national public transport company Eger in Jerusalem is running city transport buses armored with steel plates, and the police are scrambling to acquire as many robots programmed to dismantle the bombs as possible. Immigration is in sharp decline, tourists are rare, and sales of sedatives are on the rise. The country feels, say Israeli commentators, if not under siege, then like in a pressure cooker.
On the Palestinian side, the picture is even darker. Almost five times as many Palestinians have lost their lives since last fall, and far more have been wounded than Israelis. The Israeli economy, which was booming, is no longer booming, but the Palestinian economy has almost collapsed. Israelis worry about which road is safe for traffic, while most Palestinians are trapped in their towns and villages. They are prohibited from using the roads.
On both sides, hope for peace is fading. Six years ago, half of Israelis believed that peace with the Palestinians was possible. Today, half do not believe that it is safe to even go to the supermarket. A Gallup poll today says 17 percent of Israelis plan to leave Israel, which is staggering for a country that immigration created.
Analysts were alarmed by reports that Iran was enriching uranium to 60 percent, and a series of other reports added to the anxiety in the West. And then, on the morning of June 13, Israel systematically launched an attack on all of Iran's nuclear capabilities, from human to technological to military.
Mafia boss Giovanni Brusca (pictured above) was acquitted on the basis of a law that was insisted on by his most famous victim: Judge Falcone (pictured below). He was released from prison after 29 years. How and why did it happen?
The life and connections of an American citizen and a Russian poet and a Jew, born 85 years ago, an incomplete elementary school student, a metal apprentice, an assistant pathologist and geologist, a poet who was a victim of an ideological turn and political-literary intrigues, tried twice, twice placed in an insane asylum, attempted suicide because of love, for parasitism was sentenced to five years of exile with community service, which a tractor driver on the Danilovsky collective farm he did not appreciate it, nor the song about it, in the village of Norenska he enjoyed respect as an exile who rose up, "voluntarily" obtained a visa without the right to return and meet his parents, achieved a university career, won the Nobel Prize, was a poetic pop star, loved by women, loved cats, smoked a lot, died at 56 - and was buried for the second time in Venice, still a little far from Ezra Pound
And while Vladimir Putin expresses his condolences to Iran and condemns the Israeli attacks, Russian tanks remain in garages. In the background – diplomatic maneuvers, strategic interests and careful weighing of benefits at a time when the Kremlin is looking for a new offensive opportunity in Ukraine.
Chancellor Friedrich Mertz openly said that he hopes for a regime change in Tehran or a return to the negotiating table, otherwise Israel will "go all the way"
The dramatic appeal of United Media employees shows what can happen when the media is controlled by the regime and corporations. It is happening in Serbia now. If the audience does not recognize this, an even blacker media darkness threatens
Aleksandar Vučić now has only the old, proven methods of classic dictatorships left, because these modern methods of insanity and poisoning the public are failing. And that, however, goes against his head
Vučić is not defending the state, but himself from the state. With a drum on his back and a guitar in his hands, this man-orchestra performs two or three of the same songs without hearing, with falsifications and falling out of rhythm. His government and politics are like that. In short - dangerous for the environment
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