Millî Görüfl&PERSPEKTIVE - Igmg

Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres
Peres is very worried
about the expectedinternational
reaction as
soon as the world
learns the details
of the tough battle
in the Jenin refugee
camps, where
more than 100
Palestinians have
already been killed
in fighting
with IDF forces.
In private, Peres
is referring to the
battle as a "massacre."
IDF officers also expressed
grave reservations Monday over
the operation in Jenin. "Because
of the dangers," they said, "the
soldiers are almost not advancing
on foot. The bulldozers are simply
'shaving' the homes
and causing
terrible destruction.
When the
world sees the pictures
of what we
have done there, it
will do us immense
damage."
"However
many wanted
men we kill in the
refugee camp,
and however
much of the terror
infrastructure we
expose and destroy
there, there is
M‹LLÎ GÖRÜfi•PERSPEKTIVE • May›s / Mai 2002
BLICK IN DIE PRESSE
Peres calls IDF operation in Jenin a
'massacre'
still no justification for causing
such great destruction."
Peres, who is feeling increasingly
isolated in the government
- Sharon added three hardline ministers
to his cabinet Monday - be-
28
lieves Arafat is
still irreplaceable
at this stage.
He does not regard
the documents
that Sharon
presented Monday
in the Knesset as a
"smoking gun" that
irrefutably proves
that Arafat was directly
linked to ordering
terrorist activity.
And Israel's
isolation of the Palestinian
leader, he
believes, only enhanced
his prestige
and turned him into the key player.
Despite his harsh criticism, however,
and his belief that Labor
will not be able to remain much
longer in the government, Peres is
in no hurry to quit. He is telling
his closest associates that after the
fighting ends and
U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell
has visited, the
decision will be
made. If Powell
presents a political
plan, Labor
will want to fight
for it in the government.
By Aluf Bennand
Amos Harel
Ha'aretz
09.04.02