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Peace Process

Rice to Israel: Keep making concessions


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
August 18, 2005

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday applauded Israel for uprooting the Jews of Gaza, but said Jerusalem must make many more concessions to the Palestinian Arabs for the sake of ?peace.?

?Everyone empathizes with what the Israelis are facing,? Rice said in an interview with The New York Times. But she added, ?It cannot be Gaza only.?

Rice demanded Israel quickly follow up the ?disengagement? with further gestures to the Palestinian Arabs, including the lifting of travel restrictions in Judea and Samaria and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from PA-controlled areas.

Both the military roadblocks and the presence of IDF troops in ?Palestinian? towns are the direct result of ongoing efforts by the Arabs to mass murder Jewish men, women and children.

Eliminating those measures would endanger Israeli lives.

Even as Rice insisted Israel take dangerous risks with its security, she acknowledged that terror groups such as Hamas were actively preparing to launch a fresh wave of terror from Judea and Samaria.

?I don't doubt that Hamas is training and increasing its capacity to cause trouble as a terrorist organization,? she said, urging the Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority to finally honor its commitment to disarm such groups.

There was no indication from the secretary that the Bush Administration plans to put Abbas' feet to the fire until he complies with the decade-old unfulfilled obligation.

Israel insisted there would be no further concessions until the ?Palestinians? reciprocated.

Jerusalem has, under American pressure, reneged on such statements in the past.

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