The Washington Post
JERUSALEM'Israeli troops kept up their siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Ramallah office building Tuesday, defying calls from the U.N. Security Council, the United States and Europe for a withdrawal. Other Israeli soldiers pulled out of the Gaza Strip after staging a quick early-morning raid that killed nine Palestinians.
Israeli officials said they would not end the Ramallah siege until the Palestinians complied with the part of the U.N. resolution that calls on the Palestinian Authority to \bring to justice"" people responsible for terrorist attacks against Israelis.
""The resolution calls on both parties to take certain steps,"" said Dore Gold, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Another Israeli official, who asked not to be identified, was more blunt: ""As long as they are not complying, why should we comply?""
The resolution passed the Security Council, after an extended debate, by a vote of 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, explained the abstention by saying the resolution did not specifically condemn the radical groups Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Resistance Movement, also known as Hamas, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which have carried out suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks against Israelis.
Palestinians said they were heartened by the resolution, and by the unusual U.S. decision not to exercise its Security Council veto power to block language condemning Israel.
Arafat, in a statement issued from his besieged office building, said, ""The Palestinian Authority is committed to the (Security Council) decision with all its items, and it calls on the international community to compel Israel to implement the withdrawal and end the siege.""
Hani al-Hassan'an Arafat aide and the highest-ranking official in the Ramallah office building from Arafat's Fatah movement'called the U.S. abstention ""a good indication.""
""The problem now is how to implement the statement,"" he said.
In Rome, a Vatican statement said that Pope John Paul II was worried about Israel's ""grave attack"" in Ramallah and that Sharon should ""suspend such actions that compromise the already faint hopes of peace in the region."" Chris Patten, the European Union's commissioner for external affairs, said: ""I can't imagine how anybody can think what is happening in Ramallah today can make peace more likely.""
Hassan said Israel's response to the resolution early Tuesday was to resume some bulldozing on the grounds of Arafat's compound, creating plumes of sand and dust that left a layer of dirt in the Palestinian leader's office, which now has no working air conditioners.
An Israeli military spokesman later said the bulldozing work had stopped and described this as a gesture of restraint.
