Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 2003 — Page 1

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Volume 69, Number 23 January 29, 2003 • 26 Shevat 5763 —■ www.jewishpostopinion.com

One Dollar

OUR SON, THE PRESIDENT?—A young Joe Lieberman is shown with his parents, Henry and Marcia, and sisters, Rietta (far left) and Ellen. Lieberman is the first Jew to run for the American presidential nomination of a major political party.

DEMOLITION MAN—An Israeli soldier prepares demolition charges at a Palestinian metal workshop in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, which had been used for making weapons. Six workshops were destroyed in the operation.

Bloodshed precedes elections in Israel JERUSALEM — Israelis prepared for national elections this week by locking down the West Bank and Gaza Strip Sunday in preparation for Tuesday's voting. Results will be in by the time readers receive this issue of the P-O, but predictions were that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party would wdn enough seats to return him to office. Israel mobilized more than 26,000 police and soldiers to protect polling places against potential attacks by Palestinians. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz had warned of possible terror attacks aimed at disrupting the elections. Palestinians complained that Sharon had used them as targets of an incursion into Gaza City in order to bolster his reelection chances. The incursion ended with the deaths of a dozen Palestinian gunmen. Palestinians said the Israelis wounded 65 other Palestinians. Luaelis launched the raid in response to the firing of crude, short-range Qassam rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot in the southern Negev Desert, near Gaza. A Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, promised at a funeral there would be reprisals and continuance of the intifada until the end of what he called the "Zionist occupation." The Israeli military said its forces "raided dozens of buildings used as weapon-producing workshops," destroying equipment and destroyed two houses belonging to militants. Palestinians fired four more Qassam rockets at Israel Sunday, causing no damage or injuries. In Cairo, the Arab League issued a statement condemning the Israeli incursion. In Davos, Switzerland, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the world must work to install a Palestinian leadership that "will clamp down on terror," but he also told Israel that the Palestinians must have a real state, "not a phony state that's diced into a thousand different pieces." He apparently was alluding to Sharon's offer of a limited state some time in the future. Pre-election polls indicated Likud was likely to win 30 of the 120 Knesset seats compared with 19 for the opposition Labor party and 13 for the centrist Shinui party.

Powell seeks path to peace DAVOS, Switzerland — U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had admonitions Sunday for both sides in the Israeli-Pales-tinian conflict. He said a "democratic, viable" Palestinian state is possible in 2005 if the Palestinians "clamp down on terrorism." He called upon Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Powell spoke at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. He said he was committed to a "road map" drawn up by the quartet — the United States, European Union, Russia, and the United Nations — for "lasting peace."