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- WORLD
Israeli MP breaks ranks in peace bid
By Ross Dunn, Herald Correspondent in Jerusalem and agencies
The Speaker of the Israeli parliament, Avraham Burg, has declared he will address the Palestinian Legislative Council in an attempt to promote peace, angering right-wing Israeli MPs.
Warning that the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, was leading Israel to a greater disaster than the 1982 war in Lebanon, Mr Burg said he had accepted an invitation from his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qrei'a.
"The reoccupation of the cities of the West Bank, a return to the vision of a Greater Land of Israel [claiming the West Bank and Gaza Strip] is much, much, much more dangerous than Lebanon," he said. "This is exactly the plan of the Right ... the destruction of the Palestinian Authority."
Right-wing MPs called for Mr Burg to be removed from his post. However, this would require a two-thirds majority vote.
Mr Sharon said there was clear coalition government opposition to the visit, and "he is bound by coalition decisions".
The Defence Minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who heads the Labour Party to which Mr Burg belongs, said he would instruct the secret police and the army to prevent the visit.
Saying he was determined to go ahead "in a few weeks", Mr Burg said: "I am not under the authority of the executive branch. I am an independent public figure. This is my duty. I would never forgive myself if I thought I had a chance to stop the hatred and didn't do it.
"... I represent half of the people of Israel, if not more. It is a tragedy that the voice of this part of the people has not been heard for a long time."
His comments came as the United States ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer, urged students at a Jewish-Arab centre for peace to put pressure on the Israeli Government to move towards a settlement of the conflict with the Palestinians.
Some right-wing MPs accused Mr Kurtzer of breaching diplomatic protocol and interference.
Meanwhile, Israeli undercover troops dressed as Arabs arrested a suspected Palestinian militant in a raid on a bakery in the West Bank town of Hebron yesterday. Witnesses said six Israelis shot and wounded the bakery employee, Hazem Qawasmeh, and a bystander.
The Israeli military had no comment, including on charges by witnesses that troops opened fire without provocation.
In another West Bank town, Ramallah, a Palestinian intelligence officer was killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops.
A car bomb in Beirut yesterday killed Elie Hobeika, a former Lebanese minister and leader of the pro-Israeli Christian Lebanese Forces militia who massacred hundreds of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.
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