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Tea With Ariel Sharon

From an interview in Jerusalem this week with Prime Minister Sharon: As of Oct. 11, Israel had seen 884 of its people murdered and 5,956 injured. Israel has a population of 5 million. In Russia, the comparable number of dead would be 25,636; in the European Union, 67,184; and in the United States, 49,150. No other country would put up with such attacks on its own citizens as Israel has been repeatedly pressured to do. About the recently resigned Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Sharon said, "Arafat was undermining him from the first day. Instead of taking necessary steps against the terrorist organizations, [Abbas] decided to make a deal with them. We talked to him many times. I always warned him. I told him they are going to hurt [you], they are going to hurt us. But he still preferred to make deals with them, and that's what...sent the prime minister to his end." Mr. Sharon said President Bush "understands the danger of terror, and that one cannot compromise with terror and has to fight terror." He added, "In the past, if we had had such a determined leader when the world was watching the Nazis and their preparations [for war], maybe the terrible tragedy we suffered in World War II might have been avoided." Is he optimistic about the future? "Yes, I'm an optimist. This is not the hardest period [in our history]. We have had much harder situations."
2003-10-15 00:00:00
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