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| Peres Rejects Linkage of Terror Attacks on U.S. to Palestine Issue |
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MON, OCT 08, 2001
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Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on Monday rejected Osama bin Laden's linkage of the September 11 terror attacks to the Palestine issue, saying that Israel has offered the Palestinians the option of "liberation without war."
Bin Laden, the prime suspect of the terror attacks in the U.S., said in a videotaped message broadcast shortly after U.S. air raids on Afghanistan Sunday night that "I swear to God that America will not live in peace before peace reigns in Palestine."
In response, Peres told Israel Radio that "You don't need any war of liberation for the Palestinians, and we have offered them liberation without war."
The foreign minister said there was "a difference of opinion between us and the Palestinians over 3 to 4 percent of the territory. Is this a reason to kill 6,000 to 7,000 people in New York?"
He was referring to the Camp David summit in July 2000, during which former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak reportedly offered to return to the Palestinians over 95 percent of the land Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War.
Peres said that the U.S. would ultimately reject bin Laden's efforts to link the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the devastating terror attacks on New York and Washington, for which Saudi-born bin Laden was blamed responsible.
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