Eye on the Middle East Sep/Oct 2003

When Israel, in accordance with its agreement with the new Palestinian government, pulled Israel Defense Forces troops out of Bethlehem recently, many residents of the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo feared the worst. And they had good reason. When Yasser Arafat rejected former Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s overly generous offer for peace in 2000 and declared war on Israel instead, Gilo residents imme