Israel calls off withdrawal talks (PALIS CAUGHT RED HANDED)

Sammy, yer tripping over your own good intentions in your determination to make no judgement that might disfavor the Palestinian terrorists...and beginning to look rather foolish in that tripping.

The terrorist, murdering scum have a long and intricate pattern behind them of smuggling arms and bad things into Gaza through the off-shore drop method. Statistical reasoning, a friendly wager, or intuition alone would lead one to connect the dots and see the barrels as that pattern continued.

I hear your name sake saying "Tsk, tsk.".

re: "determination to make no judgement that might disfavor the Palestinian terrorists."

There's two different arguments I'm having on these threads...

1) Originally, I was merely requesting that the authors explicitly state the info they have, e.g. that if they didn't find any weapons, then state they didn't find any weapons, and infer that there might be weapons all they want. I'd go along with that. There is no need for the Israeli "good guys" to use weak propaganda to match the Arafatty bad guys.

2) The second problem is with the Schmedley psychopath crazy-train of thought that wants all adult Palistinians murdered to make the world a better place.

I am no friend of Arafat's cause, and I admit that on this thread I am dangerously close to being the actual devel's advocate....but I hope you see my point on #1, and I pray for civilization that #2 doesn't make sense to sensible people. In any case, the liberal Thomas Paine has no bearing on this argument over blood in the water.

I have to admit, I wonder how Ariel Sharon keeps his patience with Arafat.
Agreed. I would have had the Mossad poison his drink and have him die in bed with a prostitute long ago.

Regards, Ivan

I'm with you, Ivan, but I would have him found dead in bed with a pig, slathered in bacon fat. That way, you get him in the afterlife as well!!

I'm with you, Ivan, but I would have him found dead in bed with a pig, slathered in bacon fat. That way, you get him in the afterlife as well!!

Ah, but I want it so that his death is as disreputable as possible, thus he cannot be a martyr. Perhaps some consumed pork chops at the death scene as well...

Regards, Ivan

Israeli helicopters and gun-boats fired at the barrels as the surf was illuminated by flares, reportedly causing one to blow up.

Follow the trail back to...Iraq?

The sooner the world is rid of these murdering maniacs, the better-off we'll be.

Actually, it seems to turn out that it was a smuggling attempt, but a slightly unusual one:

Smuggled barrels that derailed Israeli-Palestinian talks held refrigerators, not explosives
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The Jerusalem Post Staff Aug. 28, 2002
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The floating barrels off the shores of the Gaza Strip that sparked a military raid this morning turned out to hold smuggled refrigerators rather than weapons, media reports say.

According to the reports, the army disclosed the description of the cargo this evening, hours after military forces in tanks, helicopters and gunboats launched a large-scale operation against what they suspected was another Palestinian attempt to smuggle weapons into the area.

Military sources stressed their suspicions were valid as barrels are often a venue for smuggling weapons, and rarely for household appliances, reports said.

The suspected smuggling even prompted Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to cancel a planned meeting with Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razek Yehiya to pursue the 'Bethlehem-Gaza first' security plan.

In a statement this evening, Ben-Eliezer stressed that the meeting was merely postponed and would take place in the near future.

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