There are also growing rifts within the Israeli population over what stance to take toward the two territories that remain under the domination of colonial-settler Israel. A huge protest demanding the Israeli rulers withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza took place in Tel Aviv May 11. The organizers estimated the crowd to be 100,000 people and the cops said there were 50,000 present. The action, organized by the Peace Now movement, was the largest such demonstration in 20 years, when 200,000 people turned out in 1982 to call for an Israeli military pullout from Lebanon.

Banners at the action reflected the axis of the protest to be within the framework of defending the existence of the Israeli state. Many read, "Leave the territories for the sake of Israel" or "Two states for two peoples." This action occurs as the list of Israeli reservists expressing opposition to serving in the West Bank and Gaza continues to grow. Despite such demonstrations of opposition, Sharon’s popularity in the aftermath of his government’s military assault and occupation of cities in the West Bank remains high among Israeli citizens.  
 
Planned assault on Gaza
After a suicide bombing attack killed 15 Israelis at a gambling resort in the coastal town of Rishon Lezion, about 15 miles south of Tel Aviv, as Sharon was meeting in Washington with President George Bush, the Israeli prime minister put into motion plans for a large-scale retaliatory strike into the Gaza Strip. Additional military reservists were called up as troops and tanks massed outside the Gaza border.

Sharon, in remarks to the press before departing from Washington, made clear that his intention was to continue with the same kind of assault he unleashed against Palestinian cities in the West Bank in April. He said the military repression will continue until "those who believe that they can make gains through the use of terrorism will cease to exist."

Despite Sharon’s tough talk, however, the Israeli military was split on whether to strike at Gaza, reported the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz. Of greatest concern was the intense fighting they knew their troops would face once they moved into Gaza from Palestinians who have been preparing and organizing to resist.

With some 1.2 million people crammed into a 140 square mile area--twice the size of Washington, D.C.--the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The entire strip has been fenced in by the Israeli rulers and encompasses Palestinian refugee camps. Some 6,000 Israeli settlers have established "settlements" there, which are little more than provocative military outposts the government can "defend" and use to justify repeated incursions into the Palestinian camps.

In the Jabaliya Refugee Camp, which houses an estimated 101,000 people in less than half a square mile, Palestinian fighters have piled up sandbags and stones in the roadways in preparation for the expected Israeli attack. "One Palestinian," reported CNN, "said they would return to plant land mines in the sandbags if Israeli forces began moving into Gaza."

"The Israelis are stronger than us with their F-16 planes and American tanks," stated Ziad Abu Ahmad, a naval police captain employed by the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, "But we must fight them here and we will." The Egyptian government, whose territory also borders Gaza, warned the Israeli rulers against undertaking any military incursions into the area.

After a 39-day military occupation of Bethlehem, a West Bank city of 140,000 people, Israeli forces withdrew May 10 to the city’s outskirts. The move came after an agreement was reached to send 13 Palestinian fighters who had been holed up in the Church of the Nativity into exile in Europe and 26 others were sent to the Gaza Strip. Some 125 people were under siege inside the church by Israeli forces during the entire time.

Upon arriving in Gaza City, the 26 Palestinian fighters received a hero’s welcome from crowds that gathered around the bus bringing them into town. "Give us some guns and we will defend Gaza too," shouted one of the fighters from inside the bus, making clear that the Israeli military assault directed at them in Bethlehem just stiffened their determination to resist.

One of these fighters, 22-year-old Moaed al-Janazrab, responding to a comment that Israeli officials still consider him a wanted man, said, "All the Palestinians are wanted. Who is not wanted?"

In a move instigated by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seeking to take over the reigns of the Likud party from Sharon, the party’s central committee overwhelmingly adopted a resolution declaring, "No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River."

At a raucous seven-hour meeting of the party body, Sharon had proposed that the group cancel any ballot on Palestinian statehood. The vote against Sharon’s motion was 669 to 465. The Israeli leader, "apparently stunned by his defeat, walked out of the hall," reported the Washington Post.  
 
Washington dictates to Palestinians
Sharon, for his part, has made clear that he sees no prospect for a Palestinian state anytime soon, at least not until the Palestinian Authority is "reformed" to his liking and without Yasir Arafat. "We do not deal at all with the Palestinian state now," he said. "It does not stand on the agenda of the day." This position is at odds with that put forward by President Bush, whose stated position is in favor or the creation of some sort of "Palestinian state," provided the Palestinian Authority meets Washington’s dictates to crack down on Palestinian resistance fighters and accepts a patchwork of unconnected towns and cities as the geographic makeup of the country.

Shortly after Bush’s White House meeting with Sharon, the New York Post in its May 9 edition ran a banner headline story titled: "Arafat’s Out: No peace talks until he loses all power, Bush says." The president denied that this is what he had discussed with Sharon in their joint meeting. "It’s not an accurate reflection of what went on in the Oval Office," asserted Bush. "What is an accurate reflection of my opinion is that Mr. Arafat has let the Palestinian people down. He hasn’t led. And as a result the Palestinians suffer."  
 
Mideast conference
The Bush administration is seeking to hold a conference on the Mideast this summer where leaders of the Israeli government together with rulers from some capitalist regimes in the Mideast can agree upon a "solution" to impose upon the Palestinian people that will undoubtedly fall far short of their right to return to their land.

Top officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, who were meeting at a recent regional summit meeting, agreed the U.S.-planned ministerial conference "would be meaningless unless the Bush administration defined when and how a Palestinian state would be established," reported the Financial Times. They insist that this meeting must lay the groundwork for a final settlement that must be based on an Israeli withdrawal to 1967 border lines, as proposed by the Saudi Arabian rulers.

"The U.S. has said it backs a Palestinian state. We’re just asking that it says it now with a bit more clarity, something like: a Palestinian state within three years with 1967 borders except for minor adjustments," stated one of these government officials, as reported in the Times.

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has also raised the possibility that his government would not attend this conference if it does not include representatives from Syria and Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continue their incursions into West Bank towns, targeting individuals for assassination and detention. In the northern town of Tulkarem on May 11, Israeli troops destroyed the four-story home of Abdel Basset Odeh, the Hamas member who had carried out a suicide bomb attack in the Israeli coastal resort of Netanya. "The soldiers demolished Odeh’s home with explosives, making about 21 of Odeh’s relatives homeless," reported the Washington Post. "A three-story building next door was also badly damaged by the demolition, forcing several dozen residents to leave it, a Palestinian official said."

Three days later Israeli forces killed two men they had targeted in a car in the village of Halhoul, north of Hebron. A dozen others were arrested in two other villages near Tulkarem.  
 
 
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