And this item from tomorrow's Sunday Times.
Jew, Christian, Moslem? The bodies all look the same.
Marcus Smith
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August 19 2001 MIDDLE EAST
Sharon 'planned to send tanks into Bethlehem'
Uzi Mahnaimi, Gillo
ISRAEL'S prime minister, Ariel Sharon, wanted to send troops and tanks into
the suburbs of Bethlehem last week, but was stopped from turning one of Christianity's
most sacred spots into a battle zone only after a row with his top commanders,
military sources claimed this weekend.
Sharon was enraged when Palestinians fired light arms on Tuesday at Gillo, a
Jewish settlement built on land expropriated in 1967 from the Arabs of Beit
Jalla, a suburb that lies just a mile from the centre of Bethlehem and the Church
of the Nativity.
The Fatah gunmen claimed they had opened fire in response to the Israeli army's
demolition of a Palestinian police station the previous night.
Sharon pushed for a lightning takeover of Beit Jalla, using tanks and paratroopers,
under the codename "an eye to Zion". It was initially claimed the operation
was cancelled only because of intense lobbying by America.
News of the disagreement emerged as Israeli tanks moved early yesterday into
a Palestinian-controlled area in the southern Gaza Strip. One Palestinian was
reported killed and 10 injured in the clashes that followed.
Aides said Sharon wanted "an eye to Zion" to be completed by Wednesday lunchtime,
before his meeting with David Sutterfield, the American envoy.
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the defence minister, wanted something that would look
good on the main evening news. But Shaul Mofaz, the army chief of staff, preferred
the operation to be carried out under cover of darkness.
While the three men haggled, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, telephoned
his men and told them to stop firing - knowing full well that the Israelis monitor
his calls. When the message reached Ben-Eliezer and Mofaz, they agreed to abort
the operation.
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