Clinton: nostalgic for a past that never was

Soccer Dad
04 November '10

In the weeks following the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin, Israel handed over control of six cities to the Palestinian Authority. The New York Times reported at the time.

For Mr. Abu-Ghdeib, a local wallpaper dealer who had enlisted in the police, the building carried added significance, for it was there that he had been imprisoned by the Israelis.

"I shook the door of the cell where I was held," he said today. "It made my hair stand on end. I saw the place where they had beaten me. I had dreamt of freedom, and today I feel free."

Mr. Abu-Ghdeib, who had been jailed in Nablus and elsewhere in the 1970's for taking part in weapons training and a grenade attack on Israeli soldiers, joined the several hundred Palestinian police officers, whose arrival today from the self-rule enclave of Jericho was met by ecstatic throngs.

Tens of thousands of people spilled into streets covered with brightly colored banners and pennants in the largest outpouring of jubilation since Israel began withdrawing its troops last month from West Bank cities and villages under an agreement signed in September. Most of the pullout will be complete by January, ending Israeli rule over much of the West Bank.

And two weeks later:

Under a final cascade of stones, Israeli troops withdrew today from Ramallah, completing a pullout from six West Bank cities and their neighboring villages in preparation for Palestinian elections next month.

"Out!," shouted youths as a column of Israeli jeeps moved away from a police station downtown, trailed by scores of cheering Palestinians. As stones pitched by the crowd arched toward the receding vehicles, Palestinian officers entered the station, raised a flag and greeted the throng from the roof, waving their rifles.

The scene was similar to others played out this month across the West Bank, and it set the stage for Palestinian elections planned for January 20.

Under an Israeli-Palestinian accord signed in September, Israeli forces have left six cities and more than 400 villages and towns in recent weeks, ending 28 years of control over much of the West Bank.

Then a few weeks later the terror started:

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