Lie...Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

[img]http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/nm/20020422/mdf18563.jpg[/img]

[size=4]Monks escape Palestinians in Behelehem standoff[/size=4]

Three monks held captive in Bethlehem's Church of The Nativity were rescued earlier today by the army.

The clerics climbed onto a roof inside the compound and waved a sign to soldiers that said, [b]"Save us."[/b]

Troops managed to get the three out of the compound.

[b]The monks told the IDF that Palestinian gunmen in the compound had beaten some of them last night, desecrated crosses and had stolen gold artifacts, army sources said.[/b]

A planned meeting today between Israeli and Palestinian officials to bring an and to the hostage situation was due to begin soon.

Among the Palestinian negotiators were Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser and Tourism Minister Mitri Abu Aita.

The composition of the Israeli delegation was not immediately known.

Canon Andrew White, an envoy of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, also participated in the session, Palestinian officials said.

Soldiers surrounding the compound last night returned fire after Palestinian gunmen began shooting at them and the gunbattle caused a fire to break out near the living quarters of the Orthodox Church in the compound.

The army allowed a Palestinian fire truck to enter the compound and extinguish the blaze.

[b]In other developments, two Palestinians surrendered to soldiers, bringing the total number of Palestinians who have left the compound to 25 since the army's entry into Bethlehem on April 2.[/b]

Last night soldiers spotted six Palestinians leaving the Latin Church in the complex. At least one of them was armed and opened fire at soldiers deployed nearby. The soldiers returned fire and the six fled into a house near the Latin Church.

See article at:[url]http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/04/23/LatestNews/LatestNews.47562.html[/url]

Eric The(IfTheChurchIsHarmed....)Hun[>]:)]

Read [b]Israel's Ajax[/b], for a very good commentary on Ariel Sharon and the current Operation Protective Wall on the West Bank:

[size=4]Israel's Ajax[/size=4]

by Victor Davis Hanson, National Review

Sophocles once wrote a magnificent play about the Greeks' greatest fighter at Troy after Achilles — Ajax, as irreplaceable in war as he proved expendable in peace. During the struggle for Troy, the Greeks were often saved by the towering, clumsy "donkey." Without the dash of a youthful, handsome Achilles or the divine dispensation of a crafty Odysseus, Ajax battered down the Trojans — fighting out of a sense of duty, personal honor, and perhaps a sheer love of combat.

Yet once the victory was obtained, danger past, and spoils allotted, the more politically astute and glib heroes — like the sons of Atreus and Odysseus — came away with all the honors and prizes. In a fit of madness, Ajax killed himself — bewildered that the race goes not to the swift, and the memory of men is short and of the moment. In the increasing democratization of fifth-century B.C. Athens, the playwright Sophocles was apparently captivated by a few old war-horses still in his midst who had once built Athens by blood and toil — and yet were clearly unfit for the nuances and subtleties of the duplicitous politics of the contemporary freewheeling assembly.

See remainder of article at:[url]http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson042302.asp[/url]

Eric The(Literary)Hun[>]:)]