Palestinians condemn U.S. veto at U.N.

Israel pledges to continue clampdown

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte vetoes the resolution.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian officials reacted angrily to the U.S. veto early Saturday morning of a U.N. resolution that would have cleared the way for international monitors in the West Bank and Gaza.

John Negroponte, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington vetoed the resolution because it failed to note recent suicide attacks against Israelis or name the organizations responsible.

"I just want to ask President Bush one question," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told CNN. "What if Texas, or any part of the United States, were to come under foreign occupation? Would you call upon the American people to surrender to this occupation? For God's sake, what should have been vetoed last night was Israeli occupation."

The vetoed resolution, introduced by Egypt and Tunisia, would have laid the groundwork for establishing international monitors in Palestinian areas. Israel opposes the plan, and the United States argued the United Nations is not the proper forum to resolve Mideast violence.

It is the second time in less than a year that Washington has vetoed a resolution that would have created a monitoring mechanism to protect Palestinian civilians.

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U.S. Middle East envoy Anthony Zinni was unsuccessful during his trip to Israel in trying to get the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table after several recent suicide bombings and Israeli military responses, including airstrikes against Palestinian Authority targets.

Zinni has been recalled to the United States, the State Department announced Saturday.

Erakat said Palestinian police had arrested and jailed more than 130 suspects in response to Israeli demands that they clamp down on suspected terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and he accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of destroying the peace process.

But Sharon adviser Ra'anan Gissin dismissed Erakat's complaints as "a broken record." Gissin said the arrests aren't enough: "The Palestinians have to recognize Israel's right to exist and stop terrorism."

Friday, Israeli police and soldiers arrested 35 people and killed six -- including one of the Palestinians on its wanted list -- in raids in the West Bank. Another two Palestinians died in a clash with Israeli troops. The Israeli incursions into Palestinian territories followed the killings of 10 Orthodox Jews in an ambush by Hamas gunmen Wednesday near the Jewish settlement of Immanuel in the West Bank. Israel declared that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had become "irrelevant" to the peace process and cut off negotiations with him.

"We want to make it very clear that what Arafat doesn't do, we will do," Gissin said. "If he doesn't dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, we do it. If he allows his forces to continue in support of those squads who are firing mortars against us, if he does not dismantle the mortar factories and the human bomb factories that are producing the suicide bombers, we will do it."