|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Bryan Atinsky
|| And as to David Grossman, well I don't think that many on the real left
|| follow his every move with reverance anyway. He is a
|| left-centrist "both
|| sides have done equally wrong" liberal, but he was on Channel 1 news
|| yesterday discussing about a meeting between several Israeli
|| and Palestinian
|| intellectuals/politicians (him included) at a checkpoint in the
|| West Bank
|| yesterday to continue dialogue between the two peoples, and he
|| outright said
|| that Sharon is doing all he can to sabotage any chance of negotiations
|| between the Palestinians and Israel. Not any huge revelations, but
|| definitely not a turncoat of the Morris variety.
||
According to Israeli media Harold Zinni stormed out of that meeting in a fury and fired off his 48-hr ultimatum to both sides (http://www.lemonde.fr/imprimer_article_ref/0,9187,3218--254040,00.html) . The next day, just before he goes through North Ramallah, a truck carrying gas canisters explodes on his route (http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/12/10/LatestNews/LatestNews.39694.html).
The JPost says "After an investigation, both the IDF and the Palestinians eventually agreed the blast was an accident", but DEBKA of course immediately declares, on the strength of unnamed intellligence sources:
"Until now, the only Middle East terror groups attempting to assassinate senior US personnel were al Qaeda and the Hizballah. The Palestinians now join that list. This looks their answer to the diplomatic offensive the United States launched against Palestinian terror in the last couple of weeks, and may be only the opening shot of their coming showdown against America and Israel combined."
Obviously, this _had_ to be a bomb, and it _had_ to be a PLO bomb, and not another Israeli black op designed to "persuade" the US envoy of the PLO's evil intent after a negotiating session where Sharon may have appeared a tad obstructionist. Zinni may be too familiar with Israeli tactics to be fooled, but the US public is sure to take the bait: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/587454/posts
Hakki