April 12, 2002

Embassy of Israel Briefing

• Secretary of State Powell's Visit
  
  We welcome the visit by the American Secretary of State. We hope that Secretary Powell will succeed in convincing the Palestinians to abandon their policy of terror and suicide attacks, return to the negotiating table in accordance with the Zinni-Tenet-Mitchell formulas and to implement previously negotiated commitments. If these goals are reached, we will be the first to welcome it.
  
  If Arafat continues to pursue the path of terror and suicide attacks as a means to achieve what, in his opinion, he cannot achieve by negotiation, then we will have no other choice but to continue to work to uproot the terrorist infrastructure by ourselves. We expect actions from Arafat. Past experience has taught us not to trust his words and promises.
  
  Our forces will continue to operate until they achieve the goal they have set for themselves. To date, Israeli forces have withdrawn from quite a few Palestinian cities and villages. As the security goals are achieved in additional locations, we will withdraw from them as well. We have not intention of remaining in PA-controlled territory.
  
  The necessity of Israel's campaign against terror was again tragically illustrated by today's brutal suicide attack at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.

• Concerning False Rumors about Jenin
  
  The Palestinians are systematically spreading malicious lies about the situation in Jenin, as they have in many other cases in the past.
  
  Jenin is the capital of suicide terrorists. Twenty-three suicide attackers have come out of Jenin, products of its terror industry.
  
  The Israeli Defense Forces operations in Jenin have been directed against armed terrorists and NOT against innocent civilians. If our soldiers had operated for maximum effect without consideration of the civilian population, the toll on our forces would not have reached 23 soldiers killed and 64 wounded.
  
  We were not the ones who chose the battlefield. The Palestinians drew the battle into the streets and alleyways, and amidst civilian homes. Our forces are being extremely careful to avoid harming the civilian population.
  
  The IDF does everything in its power to conduct the fighting in accordance with international humanitarian standards. Not so the Palestinians, who refused the Israeli army’s request to coordinate removal of their own dead in order to bring them to burial.
  
  In several cases, civilians were injured by Palestinians wearing explosive belts who blew themselves up within their vicinity.
  
  The terrorists used an incredible amount of explosives to booby-trap homes of refugee camp residents. The bulldozers in the area were brought in to deal with the problem of the booby-trapped homes, which could not be disarmed. There is absolutely no basis for the vicious rumor that they were used to shovel the bodies into the sewers.

Sincerely,
Moshe Fox
Minister for Public Affairs
Embassy of Israel, Washington DC