Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Rabin links Syria to killing of Israeli soldiers Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 13:27:07 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \SS (WS) \HD Rabin links Syria to killing of Israeli soldiers \BY Marcus Eliason \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT JERUSALEM JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin accused Syria yesterday of abetting Muslim guerrillas who killed five Israeli soldiers with a bomb in southern Lebanon. But he pledged to go on negotiating peace with the Arabs. Mr. Rabin said Syria was allowing Iranian weapons to reach fundamentalist Muslim guerrillas via Damascus and letting them operate in areas of Lebanon under Syrian military control. He said it was "greatly puzzling" that Syria could "sit with us at negotiations and, on the other hand, permit such activities." Israeli warplanes, helicopter gunships and artillery pounded targets in southern Lebanon during the day and into the night in retaliation for the bombing attack Sunday in an Israeli-occupied buffer zone. It was the deadliest attack against Israeli forces in two years. Israel's military command said its forces hit suspected guerrilla bases of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah (Party of God), which is trying to force the Israelis from Lebanon and also wants to wreck the Middle East peace talks. Security sources in Lebanon said targets in dozens of villages were hit. Lebanese police said the bombardment killed at least one civilian and wounded five. [Reuters news agency reported from Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, that the Israeli strikes killed at least 12 persons and wounded 11 others, including a 7-year-old boy.] Mr. Rabin made his comments during a briefing of parliamentary colleagues before delivering a policy statement to parliament coinciding with the resumption of peace talks in Washington. Earlier, some opposition lawmakers demanded that Israel respond to a surge in attacks on Israelis by recalling its negotiators from the U.S.-sponsored peace talks. But, in his speech, Mr. Rabin said, "We are continuing with the peace negotiations." His address was broadcast live on radio and television to a nation reeling in shock and burying its dead from the bombing Sunday in southern Lebanon and another attack that killed one soldier in the occupied West Bank. "Despite the hardships, despite the deeds of murder and terrorism," the government "is determined to make a serious effort to reach peace with" Arab states and Palestinians living in the occupied territories, Mr. Rabin said. Coming on top of three other killings of Israelis the past two weeks, Sunday's attacks signaled to Israelis that they are no less vulnerable than before the June 23 election that brought Mr. Rabin and his moderates to power. As Mr. Rabin appealed in parliament to the Palestinians to disavow violence, a firebomb was thrown at an Israeli farmer on the border between Israel and the West Bank, the army said. Arabs took him to a hospital suffering burns and smoke inhalation, the army said. Mr. Rabin addressed an impassioned appeal to Palestinians to accept his offer of limited self-government rather than holding out for full independence of the occupied lands. The 70-year-old former general said some Palestinians "are still insisting on all or nothing and, if that's the case, they will end up with nothing." "For 44 years, you have been trying to ignore reality," he said. "See how awful your situation is. Stop for a moment and look what you have to come to." Hard-line Israelis blame the surge in violence on concessions Mr. Rabin has made to generate Arab good will. They say concessions invite attacks by making Israel look weak. Government officials portray the violence as a last-ditch effort by Arab extremists to torpedo a blossoming peace process. Mr. Rabin repeated his offer of partial withdrawal from the Golan Heights to Syria "to secure and recognized borders. I stress: We are talking of withdrawal in the Golan Heights, not from the Golan Heights." And "we will not draw maps" until Syria guarantees its acceptance of a full peace, unconditioned on progress in talks with other Arab states, Mr. Rabin said. "Up to this moment, Syria has not expressed readiness to fulfill these conditions," he said. The Syrian negotiator in Washington, Mowaffaq Allaf, expressed concern about Mr. Rabin's statements on the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "If Israel is not considering withdrawal, that means, in other words, that Israel is not considering peace," Mr. Allaf said. In Washington, the Middle East peace talks resumed with Israeli negotiator Itamar Rabinovich asserting that the deaths of five Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon could have a negative impact on the discussions. "It is very unfortunate and also is very unfortunate for the talks," Mr. Rabinovich said on arrival at the State Department after a three-day recess. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM