From Jerusalem Post, Sep. 8, 2005 2:39 Updated Sep. 8, 2005 6:47 By HERB KEINON. . .
Israel is mistaken in believing that, by withdrawing from Gaza, the international community will tolerate all types of military retaliation against rocket fire originating from Gaza, a senior western diplomatic official said Wednesday.
The diplomat's comments came on the day that Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom warned visiting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos to expect a harsh response if Israel was attacked from Gaza following the complete IDF withdrawal. Also yesterday, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz hinted during an appearance at the Knesset's Defense and Foreign Relations Committee that Israel would react to Kassams by firing back mortars of its own.
The senior diplomat said that the international reaction to IDF actions in Gaza would most likely depend on the extent of the military action and the number of innocent people killed. . . .In addition, the official said, Israel could not claim to have ended its occupation of Gaza while it still retained control over Gaza's airspace.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that Israel was preparing itself, both militarily and diplomatically, for the eventuality that there would still be violence from Gaza once the IDF withdrew. "As of next Thursday night, the Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip will be history, and if the Palestinian response to the Israel redeployment out of Gaza is not peace-making, but terrorism, I think everyone in the international community will understand that the Palestinians will have missed a unique historic opportunity," he said. "We have heard this from both the Europeans and the US." . . .Regev said that the events Tuesday night and Wednesday – from the Kassam attacks in the Negev to the Palestinian storming of Neveh Dekalim and the murder of Moussa Arafat – showed that there was "reason to be concerned." "
. . .The official said that a discussion of possible ways to strengthen PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would be one of the focuses of next week's meeting of the Quartet in New York. . . .the international community did not accept Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's interpretation that the first stage of the road map was sequential, with the Palestinians obligated to dismantle terrorism before Israel had to freeze all settlement construction and remove the unauthorized settlements. . . .the Europeans believed that the steps must be taken in parallel. This position was also endorsed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a recent press briefing.
The official said that although Europe realized that Sharon had said repeatedly there would be no negotiations until the Palestinians dismantled the terrorist infrastructure, they also believed that Sharon had shown a willingness to change his mind as circumstances had changed.
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