Israel Warns of New 'Axis of Terror'

[cal04]

Israel warned Monday that a new "axis of terror" — Iran, Syria and the Hamas-run Palestinian government — is sowing the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century. The Palestinians accused Israel of an escalating military campaign using indiscriminate force to kill civilians and entrench its occupation. The Israeli and Palestinian envoys traded charges at an open Security Council meeting held in response to the recent upsurge in Israeli attacks in Gaza. It took place on a day that a Palestinian suicide bomber struck a packed fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv, killing nine people in the deadliest bombing in more than a year.

Recent statements by the Palestinian government, Iran and Syria, including one by Hamas on Monday defending the suicide bombing, "are clear declarations of war, and I urge each and every one of you to listen carefully and take them at face value," said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman. "A dark cloud is looming above our region, and it is metastasizing as a result of the statements and actions by leaders of Iran, Syria, and the newly elected government of the Palestinian Authority," Gillerman warned.

The Palestinian U.N. observer, Riyad Mansour, condemned Monday's suicide bombing and the loss of innocent civilians on both sides, but attacked Israel for trying to portray its latest military escalation — which killed 21 Palestinians from April 7-9 — as a response to violence from the Palestinian territories. "Israel, the occupying power has been relentless in its grave breaches of international law, including the willful killing and injury of civilians and the practice of extrajudicial executions," he said. "What the Israeli government is doing and what it has been doing throughout its nearly 39-year-old military occupation is clearly intended to serve its clear political objectives of inflicting maximum pain, suffering and loss on the Palestinian people while it entrenches its occupation."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the escalating violence "very worrying" and urged both sides to avoid putting civilians at risk. He also announced that the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia — would meet in New York on May 9 to discuss how to move the stalled roadmap to peace forward.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060418/ap_on_re_mi_ea/un_israel_palestinians

[patdem]

1. Why haven't we heard about the 17 Palestineans killed in Gaza last

month? WHY ARE THE ISREALI'S LIVES SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PALESTINEANS? I WANT TO KNOW..I DEMAND TO KNOW!

[cali]

8. Israeli lives

are not more important than Palestinain lives. The U.S. media however, does an incredibly poor job of covering the I/P conflict. This isn't true of the rest of the world's media. Reading recent threads here one could just as well offer the opposite question. People hew to their biases.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. So many axes, so little time...

[VirtualChicano]

3. Axis of Terror

u.s., england and isreal

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Israel fools -- shut up -- Israel is one of the axis of terror

along with the US.

[cali]

7. All of this

axis of evil stuff is bullshit, no matter who's doing the formulating. It's simplistic and serves no possible purpose except to indulge in mindless rhetoric.

[tatertop]

5. Axis of terror: israel, england, and the us

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Israel has an "axis" to grind . . .

What is this supposed to be? A wish list?