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More About Bibi's Lie of the Week
 
JERUSALEM -- NONE OF THESE APPLY:
 UNITED, PEACE, ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY
 
MER - Washington - 24 November, 1997:
 
Amnon Cohen writes from Israel in response to the MER article published earlier:  "You did not mention that the (killed) Yeshiva student was a member of the extreme right wing Atteret Kohanim Yesiva which prepares its students for running the third temple, after the coming of the Massiah (sic). Their Yeshiva is situated in the heart of the muslim quarter of the old city and has gained notoriety for the thuggish and offensive behaviour of its students."
 
It appears the Palestinian underground, now controlled by Arafat's PA unlike its semi-autonomous days during the pre-Oslo Intifada, is attempting to choose specific targets, rather than just random violence as in the past.
 
Meanwhile, additional reports indicate that the Israelis will attempt to use the excuse of what many in the world consider Palestinian defense against ongoing Israeli "urban" settlements in Jerusalem to take over further Muslim properties and expand still further the Jewish presence throughout Arab Jerusalem, just as they do in the area of the occupied West Bank.
 
In the past few days Netanyahu and other key government officials have all visited the Moslem Quarter.  Two additional police stations are being established inside Jerusalem's Old City, Arab buildings being confiscated for this purpose.  And the Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim are planning to soon bring an additional 18 Jewish settler families
into the Moslem Quarter.
 
Of course this only continues the cycle of still-growing Israeli provocations and Palestinian reaction -- a cycle that is likely to escalate still further in the years immediately ahead.
 
Meanwhile, the fact that Israel's actions are illegal under international law and have been repeatedly condemned by both the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council seems to escape much comment.
The Americans are far too busy enforcing their will on Iraq at any cost it seems; the fact that they provide Israel the guns, the money, and the vetoes that make all the above possible seems but an inconvenience they obscure as much as the press will let them get away with.  And the U.N. itself is so burned and impotent from its dealing with the Israelis and their American sponsors that the whole institution is now drowning in its own hypocrisy and cowardice.
 
 M I D - E A S T  R E A L I T I E S
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