Yassou Con !

See above, "pull the trigger"

Yanni

This Eitan bloke really is a lovely guy. One of the leaders of Israel's genocidal war on Lebanon in 1982 and the increased repression in the conquered territories during the same period. Some of his previously most eloquent moments include:

"Since I have constructed a military machine costing billions of dollars, I am obliged to use it...Tomorrow I may be in Beirut."

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle." Well he got that one about right...

I'm currently reading 'Fateful Triangle', a very large book by Noam Chomsky all about US, Israeli & Palestinian 'relations'. It's scary shit, and has given me a lot of insight into what the Israelis are actually up to right now. He explains how historically the Israeli Labor Party, presenting itself as the party of peace, is basically the party of western capitalists and wants a settlement where the Palestinians are permitted to remain in the occupied territories within small, isolated, powerless settlements which they can call a 'state' if they want to but which will ultimately be under total Israeli control. From these areas they will not interfere with the Israeli electoral system (ie they won't have a vote since they won't be Israeli citizens) but they will be forced to cross into Israel to find work and thus will support the Israeli economy with dirt cheap wage slavery.
Sharon's Likud party, on the other hand, is the party of the poorer sections of (Jewish) Israeli society and is in many ways religious fundamentalist & fascist. The Likud (& people like Sharon & Eitan in particular) have always been opposed even to the sham Palestinian 'state' favoured by Labor, & instead want to annex the whole of the occupied territories, viewing even a token Palestinian state as unacceptable. Since there are a lot of Arabs currently living in these areas this course of action implies ethnic cleansing, since Sharon could not permit the numerous and growing population of the West Bank & Gaza to become Israeli citizens with voting rights etc. as would happent if the territories were annexed right now (at the moment they are not officially part of Israel, they are merely under military occupation for 'security reasons'.) This explains why Sharon has, seemingly illogically, been escalating the conflict for quite some time (most of his far-too-long life, if we're honest) but especially since his clearly provocative 'invasion' of the temple mount which sparked off the current hostilities. This always seemed illogical to me, since every Israeli bomb drives Palestinians away from the more moderate, secular PLO and into the arms of Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc. On past form, however, this is exactly what Sharon wants - throughout his bloody career (Sabra & Chatila aren't the half of it) he has always rebuffed even very genuine Arab peace initiatives - this is because Hamas style Arab atrocities give him the excuse not to make peace, but instead to continue settlement building, expansion and ethnic cleansing like he is doing right now. With the vast amount of military aid Israel receives from the US there is no question of anyone being able to stand against them - what Sharon needs is the excuse to attack, so that his atrocities can be justified to Israeli and US domestic audiences. The reason Sharon & Bush are trying to undermine Arafat is that if the Palestinian Authority falls (as it arguably already has) then people will most likely turn to Hamas out of sheer despair. Then Sharon & Bush can say 'look, they're all terrorists' (apopular refrain during the Lebanon war) and destroy what's left of Palestinian society. I fear that if Sharon, Eitan & the rest remain in power we are going to see things that make what happened in Jenin look tame - their ultimate goal is to drive all the Arabs out of the conquered territories. Like I said, scary shit....