Israel has US backing for its deterrent weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an oblique reference to his country's secret nuclear arms.
He also claimed US support for key elements of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians.
In Gaza before daybreak yesterday, meanwhile, Israeli troops moved to the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, a town near the northern edge of the territory, residents said. Israeli forces have held neighboring Beit Hanoun for a month, trying to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israeli towns just outside Gaza.
Despite the ongoing operation, Palestinian militants yesterday fired two Qassam rockets from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel but caused no injuries, the army said.
Speaking at a political party gathering in Tel Aviv on Thursday, Sharon said the US backs Israel in keeping control of main West Bank settlements, drawing secure borders that include parts of the West Bank in Israel and banning Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes in Israel.
Hinting at nuclear weapons, Sharon said the US recognizes that "Israel faces an existential threat, and it must be able to defend itself by itself by preserving its deterrent capability."
iran
Sharon noted that Iran is under US pressure to stop its nuclear weapons program, and Libya took steps to halt its nuclear arms development, but "we have received here a clear American position that says in other words that Israel must not be touched when it comes to its deterrent capability."
Israel has never admitted possessing nuclear weapons, maintaining a policy of ambiguity. However, based on pictures and information given to the Sunday Times in 1987 by whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, experts have concluded that Israel has perhaps hundreds of nuclear bombs.
Sharon said the US backs "Israel's right to defend itself by itself against threats at any place and to preserve Israel's deterrent power against all threats."
In Washington, a State Department official would say only that the US supports Israel's right of self-defense.
us reluctance
Critics of Israeli and US policy have questioned why the US has pressed Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons, when Israel faces no similar pressure. Most of the international community -- led by Arab states -- has pushed Israel to reveal its nuclear capabilities, despite the US reluctance to do push Israel on the issue.
In his address to party activists, Sharon defended his "unilateral disengagement" plan, including evacuation of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip. The party voted overwhelmingly against the plan on April 2.
Sharon said the plan "is the most important for Israel at this time. It would be irresponsible for me to back away from it now."
He said that with the plan, he gained US support for the main elements of Israeli policy.
"The US position is that the large settlement blocs would remain under Israeli control, and the rest of the West Bank would be open to negotiations," he said.
no return
Also, he said, the US backs the Israeli position that "there will be no return of any [Palestinian] refugees to the state of Israel. We have never got that before in 56 years of Israel's existence."
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and Gaza for a state, demanding that all 150 Jewish settlements there be dismantled.
Also, Palestinians insist on the "right of return" of refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants -- about 4 million people all together -- to their original homes in Israel. Israel rejects that claim as a ploy to undermine the Jewish character of their state.
missile strike
In violence in Gaza on Thursday, an Israeli missile strike on a Palestinian car killed two militants and sparked calls for revenge.
One of the dead was Amr Abu Suta, a militant leader whom Israel accused of involvement in the 1992 killing of three Israeli soldiers in a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
The two were commanders of the Ahmed Abu Reish Brigade -- a breakaway from Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The group took responsibility for a wave of kidnappings in Gaza last week.
Israel's strike was part of a long-standing policy of "targeted killings" of militants. Israel says the practice is necessary to fight terrorism, but Palestinians and human rights groups say it amounts to extra-judicial executions.
A funeral for the two slain militants drew 5,000 people in Gaza, among them a masked man with a Kalashnikov rifle and four hand grenades around his belt.
"God willing, Sharon and his soldiers will pay a heavy price for this crime. Our retaliation is coming soon," he declared.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS