May 8, 2000
— Israel and the Palestinians were close to finalizing a deal to end the month-long standoff at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, a Palestinian police officer in the church said Wednesday night. Under the agreement, all those remaining in the church would be allowed to leave the site, except for 13 suspected militants — who would remain until their deportation could be arranged. The breakthrough appeared imminent, despite the deadly suicide bombing near Tel Aviv on Tuesday that undercut already difficult talks to achieve calm in the region.
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DIPLOMATIC SOURCES confirmed the details of the deal but said it had not been finalized yet.
Israel and the Palestinians had announced Tuesday they had reached a deal to end the 37-day standoff at the Christian shrine by deporting the 13 militants to Italy. However, Italy said it had not been consulted and balked at accepting them.
Under the deal, another 26 Palestinian “activists” — whom the Israelis consider a threat but have not connected directly with attacks — would be sent to Gaza as previously agreed, and most of the rest of the 123 Palestinians holed up in the church would be freed. The transfer to Gaza would take place under U.S. aegis, the diplomatic sources said.
The 13 militants would remain in the church until a country could be found to take them, the Palestinian police officer said on condition of anonymity.
On Wednesday, the Vatican and European Union stepped up efforts to persuade Italy to accept the Palestinians, but the government again refused to take them, and no other country came forward.
Italian officials said a host of issues needed to be clarified before they could consider taking the suspected militants. Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Europe could try to resolve the problem — “but certainly not a single country.”
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke with Berlusconi twice Tuesday trying to resolve the stalemate. “Notwithstanding the closeness that I continue to have with the American administration, we were not able to act otherwise,” Berlusconi said.
Both sides were still committed to resolving the standoff despite a Palestinian suicide attack near Tel Aviv on Tuesday night that killed 15 people, Joel Lion, spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry said Wednesday.
One of the top wanted men inside the church, Abdullah Daoud, said he and the 12 others had reluctantly agreed to exile in Italy and were annoyed by the delay. “We are in very, very bad situation in the church, and we welcome any kind of solution except one — to be handed over to the Israelis,” he said.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat approved the deal, Palestinians said, but the decision to send the militants into exile is an extremely sensitive one, and many Palestinians oppose it.
The standoff in Bethlehem began April 2, when more than 200 people fleeing advancing Israeli forces ran into the Church of the Nativity. About 75 have emerged from the church since then.
Those remaining inside include the 39 gunmen, as well as civilians, clerics, policemen and 10 foreign demonstrators who slipped past the Israelis into the church last week in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
SUICIDE BOMBINGS RESUME
Following the suicide bombing, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was set to confer with his security Cabinet late Wednesday to plan Israel’s response, which could include a new large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip and possibly expulsion of Arafat, just one week after a negotiated deal prompted Israel to lift its month-long siege on Arafat’s compound, allowing him to move freely.
Powell said Bush administration officials will continue pushing Arab leaders, the Palestinians and the Israelis to work to end violence. “We must keep moving forward. We must find a way through this crisis,” Powell said.
But tensions were running high.
Sharon, who received word of Tuesday’s bombing during a White House meeting with President Bush, cut short his trip and promised swift retaliation.
“He who rises up to kill us, we will pre-empt it and kill him first,” Sharon said.
Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they widely expected Israel to target the Gaza Strip, spared in the last offensive.
The attack in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion, claimed by the Islamic militant group Hamas, was the deadliest terror attack since Israel launched its offensive against Palestinian militants on March 29, invading most West Bank towns.
And in a new attack Wednesday, a bomber detonated explosives at a bus stop in northern Israel. The assailant was critically wounded but caused no injuries to others.
ARAFAT’S ADDRESS
Meantime, in a televised address Arafat said he has ordered security services to prevent “terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
The United States has repeatedly demanded that Arafat unequivocally condemn terrorism in Arabic to his people, a demand his television address appeared to fulfill.
“I gave my orders and directions to all the Palestinian security forces to confront and prevent all terror attacks against Israeli civilians from any Palestinian side or parties and at the same time to confront any aggression or attack on Palestinian civilians, whether by Israeli soldiers or settlers, which we all condemn,” Arafat said.
However, Arafat repeated his assertion that his police were too weak to carry out his orders in the wake of Israel’s large-scale military operation aimed at crushing Palestinian militias in the West Bank.
Arafat also expressed his “full commitment and my readiness to participate with the U.S. administration and the international community in their war against terrorism.”
Public opinion polls have shown that many Palestinians believe suicide attacks are a legitimate way to fight Israeli occupation.
ARMY WEIGHS RESPONSE
In Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer met with army commanders Wednesday.
Before the bombings, Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, told parliament’s Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that if terror attacks resume, Israel will be forced to carry out an offensive at least as extensive as the previous one, the largest-scale operation in a generation.
Hamas, which its command center and leadership in Gaza, has carried out scores of attacks on Israelis in the past 19 months of fighting, said there would be more bombings.
“The resistance will continue,” a senior Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, told state-run Iranian radio. “This is the price the Zionists should pay because of their cruel crimes and atrocities.”
Hamas did not identify the bomber.
The attack ended a period of relative calm in Israel. The last previous bombing was April 12, when a woman blew herself up in an outdoor market in Jerusalem, killing six bystanders.
BOMB IN A SUITCASE
In the Rishon Letzion blast, 15 Israelis were killed and more than 60 were wounded, including a dozen who were in serious condition.
According to eyewitnesses, the attacker walked into a crowded third-floor establishment shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday and blew up metal-studded explosives, which, according to some accounts, were hidden in a suitcase. The blast blew out walls and witnesses said bodies flew through the air into the parking lot below.
“Suddenly, everything was dark and there were bodies on the floor, and broken chairs and tables and dust,” said patron Suzie Biton, who had just settled in at one of the slot machines when the explosion shook the club.
In the past, such attacks have led to Israeli army incursions into Palestinian areas.
“Israel will act strongly” against Palestinian militants, said Sharon, adding that the mission of the previous military offensive has not been completed. “The battle continues and will continue, until all those who believe that that they can make gains through the use of terror will cease to exist,” he said in Washington.
Education Minister Limor Livnat, who traveled with Sharon, said “it is very possible that in the end, there will be no choice and it will be necessary to expel Arafat,” but that Sharon has not yet made a decision. Sharon held Arafat responsible for Tuesday’s attack.
MAJOR DIFFERENCES
The two leaders were unable to bridge major differences on the Middle East crisis, including whether talks in the region should result in a Palestinian state, an outcome that the United States believes is essential.
Sharon had been in Washington trying to persuade the Americans that Arafat should not play a part in peace talks, charging that he is responsible for the violence that has plagued the region for more than 19 months. Timed to the visit, the Israeli government unveiled a more than 100-page document which they said shows Arafat’s direct connection to deadly attacks on Israeli citizens and other crimes.
Senior U.S. officials said none of the report made it to any CIA office. And some U.S. officials, annoyed by the release of the material to the press and online, believe the decision not to provide it to the CIA was a deliberate attempt to pressure the agency into a quick analysis once it is provided.
To do a thorough analysis would take weeks, said one official, who said the agency would want to authenticate the materials, then run them through its own translators and analysts. Officials also say that authentication of some documents may be “impossible” or “very hard.”
A senior Israeli official said Sharon and Bush did agree that Arafat, if not removed, should be elevated to a purely symbolic position, leaving another leader in charge of running the Palestinian Authority.
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