Condoleezza Rice on 'Fox News Sunday': Chairman ArafaT does have responsibilities that he has not been meeting.
Posted on 05/05/2002 10:43:03 AM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
Condoleezza Rice on 'Fox News Sunday': Chairman ArafaT does have responsibilities that he has not been meeting.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the U.S. administration had not seen but would examine documents Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is reportedly taking with him to Washington to prove Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's connections to the financing of terror attacks. She added that the administration would consider the evidence.
Sharon is carrying with him documents seized in raids on the West Bank that Israel says proves the Palestinian Authority presides over a terrorist network that finances and plans attacks. The New York Times cited an unidentified U.S. official as saying the United States believed Israel had to accept Arafat as a negotiating partner "no matter how reprehensible he may be."
But Rice, appearing on the "Fox News Sunday" program in advance of Sharon's meeting with Bush on Tuesday, said the United States was making no such assertion.
"We are not going to try to choose the leadership for the Palestinian people. Chairman Arafat is there... but he does have responsibilities that he has not been meeting and we are going to press him," she said.
"We are going to call on Arab allies, the Europeans and others to press him and we are going to be very clear that the Palestinian leadership that is there now, the Authority, is not the kind of leadership that can lead to the kind of Palestinian state that we need," Rice said. "It has got to reform."
She said Bush planned to assure Sharon that the United States would pressure the Palestinian Authority to take significant steps to stay at the peace table.
"The Palestinian Authority has certain responsibilities. We are going to take a new approach, including bringing, we hope, greater accountability and pressure from the Arab states on the Palestinian Authority to do what it needs to do," she said.
Besides what she hailed as a "new more active role" taken by Saudi Arabia after Bush's recent meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah, Rice said increased involvement by Egypt and Jordan "gives us a very powerful Arab, Israeli neighbors presence in the peace negotiations that has not been here before."
Rice said the European Union and others would also step up their demands on Arafat but would not say whether such pressure would include threats to cut off financial assistance.
She also said setting a specific timetable for tackling the most difficult of the issues between the two sides, including contentious Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas, would not be productive at this time.
"We are not going to get ahead of ourselves," Rice said. "We are going to look at where we are. We are going to talk to the prime minister about what he has in mind and then we'll see what the next steps are."
Specifically, Rice said the Palestinian leadership must be "democratic, transparent and non-corrupt... what we ask of every government in the world. And we are going to start demanding [that] of the Palestinian leadership."
'Arafat Dossier' shows PA leader's direct terror involvement
Minister Dani Naveh (Likud) on Sunday presented reporters with details of evidence linking Arafat to terror attacks. Israel says that the "Arafat Dossier" - a report prepared by a committee headed by Naveh - contains proof that Arafat and other PA officials were directly involved in financing terror attacks.
The report was based mainly on Israeli intelligence, documents confiscated during "Operation Defensive Shield" and information gathered during questioning of prisoners carried out by the Shin Bet security service.
Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti and Palestinian Intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi are mentioned in the report as being directly involved in terror attacks against Israel. According to Naveh, the report found that "the supreme commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades is Arafat."
The file also reveals attempts by Arafat's bureau to recruit Israeli Arabs for terror attacks inside Israel, and asserts that money given to the PA by donor states was used to finance terror attacks.
Asked about corruption amongst high-ranking Palestinian officials, Naveh related an incident when agricultural supplies, transferred from Israel to the PA as part of a humanitarian aide package, were eventually sold back to Israel and the profits were pocketed by the officials.
Naveh said that the report also contained information describing incidents of physical abuse against the Christian population in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, which were perpetrated by Palestinians with the full support of PA officials.
The minister stressed that the report's findings were not political, but rather "professional" findings gathered by IDF intelligence, the Shin Bet and other security services. He described the documents as an important tool to be presented by Sharon before Congress and U.S. officials during the prime minister's visit to Washington.
The report, Naveh insisted, graphically illustrates the fact that Arafat could not be considered a peace partner.
The report also makes mention of the involvement of several Arab states in terror. These include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
According to the report, Saudi Arabia has systematically transferred money to families of suicide bombers. The report also contains letters of gratitude written to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for his country's financial aide to the PA.
"I'm not married, but I never met anybody I wanted to live with," she said. "I think I've maintained balance in my life. I'm not a workaholic; I'm pretty relaxed about things. I went back to playing the piano seriously four years ago. I exercise a lot and go to sporting events." She is a big sports fan and once dated a professional football player.
Why? The entire world is aware of the accident. Israel isn't hiding it, and the IDF already expressed sorrow and regret.
What purpose does the continuing blame game serve, except to cause the deaths of more innocent bystanders, while career criminals get rich from chaos?
A very special lady. God bless her heart.
A very special lady. God bless her heart.
Just as soon as Arafat prepares his "documents" of Israelis the the Al-Aqsa murderers killed,Hamas terrorists have blown up,and Hezbollah monsters have murdered.Palestinians are murdering thugs who turned even innocents among them into suspects.An honorable and civilized country does all it can to prevent collateral damage,but sometimes it isnt enough.As for you,Buffalo,go back to DU.
Yes, the threat now is not only from West Bank and Gaza Arabs, but also from Arabs who are Israeli citizens, who have had the freedoms and protections of the Israeli state.
This is a wretched turn of affairs, as these are citizens which have turned against Israel.
The Palestinian Authority have destroyed peace for at least another generation.
A wall, with a sufficient no-man's land, mined and with razor wire and sensors, watchtowers and guard dogs, is in order.
There would be no Palestinians dying if their leadership would just choose peace.
LOL!! Mr. Montag, why don't you propose ?
"unidentified U.S. official": Clinton appointee or State Department tenured bureaucrat? You decide.
Oh, I get it now. Condi, you lovely little devil, you.
You can't attack Arafat's position as "sole, legitimate representative" of the Palestinian people because, despite his thuggery, the Pallies love the guy.
But you can attack him indirectly....
Corruption.
Even the Arab Man in the Arab Street understands corruption.
The Israelis and ourselves assemble the evidence. Then we start a black propaganda campaign through the media exposing Arafat's personal fortune and those of his loyal underlings. Selective leaks to papers throughout, say, the Gulf states. Arab dollars supposedly destined for the Palestinians going to Arafat's back pocket. And this will get back to the Pallies.
While the Palestinian People live under the Boot of Israeli Oppression, Arafat gets rich.
Nope. We've decided to hit Arafat where he can't hit back: his finances. Once they're exposed, he's not only irrelevant; he's history.
And we take Saddam's bishop right off the board.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
As well as any future (Palestinian leadership).
Amen.
Oh, these politicians always disguise their core ideas in a bizzare way.
When Hitler commited suicide holed up in his bunker under almost totally demolished Berlin, did he became a hero? For some diehard Nazis, maybe.
But history doesn't cherish the memory of those who professed your kind of attitude just 7 years earlier, and thought that they had to speak to the rabid dog since he was the only one at hand (and the "legitimately elected leader of his people")...
LOL... Go look at a map. Twenty miles from West Jerusalem is practically the entire West Bank.
Stay Safe !
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