Kalkilya is surrounded on all sides by what Israel calls the separation fence, a barrier the government says it must build to protect its citizens from suicide bombers, snipers and other Palestinian terrorists.
Residents of Kalkilya say it has turned their city into a ghetto.
But Kfar Saba residents are solidly behind the wall.
Ariel Sharon denied that his office sought Israeli settlers\’ agreement to dismantle some illegal West Bank outposts. The denial by Israel\’s prime minister came after a spokesman for a settlers\’ group said the group had rejected the offer.
Free at last, but at what price? That was the question on some Israelis\’ minds over the weekend after a German mediator helped seal the deal on a long-awaited prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia group.
\”How will I find anyone alive?\” the 21-year-old security guard asked as he broke down the door and climbed onto the charred ruins of bus no. 19, stepping over body parts and choking on the smell of burned flesh.
There is something Marxist about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\’s pledge to \”disengage\” Israel from the Palestinians through the completion of a security barrier and the evacuation of a few settlements. Just like Groucho Marx, Sharon is declaring his intention to leave and stay at the same time.
A picture may be worth a thousand words — but not, it seems, when it comes to settling rival accounts of Middle East bloodshed.
Israel is plotting each meter of its security fence with great care and consideration, Israeli officials say — not just to keep terrorists out, but to keep the United States on Israel\’s side.
At home, the Bush administration is trying to convince a dubious nation that it needs even more law-enforcement powers to wage an effective war against terrorism, and around the world it continues to wage an uphill battle to enlist the rest of the world in the fight.
Are the two most powerful Republicans in Washington playing a version of the old good-cop, bad-cop game with Israel and its friends in this country?
\”We are deeply shocked, but we are not afraid,\” Serge Berdugo said. \”People here know it is a global fight against the terrorists, the same for Muslims as for Jews. There were no victims from our own community, but this has come like a bolt from the blue.\”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.