Palestine

[Petronas]

Palestinians Make Bomb Arrests, Accuse Hizbollah
Feb 26, 2005 — By Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian forces, under pressure for tough action after a suicide bombing killed four Israelis, arrested at least three Palestinians on Saturday but suggested Lebanon's Hizbollah group was behind the attack. Friday's bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub dealt a blow to growing peace hopes since President Mahmoud Abbas agreed a ceasefire with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a groundbreaking Feb. 8 summit. Israel said the bombing showed Abbas was wrong if he thought he could coax militants into a formal ceasefire from their current de facto truce and demanded vigorous action. But officials said the Jewish state would show restraint for now.

"We will not tolerate this act," Abbas told reporters as he met security chiefs to talks strategy. "We will not allow anyone to sabotage the goals and ambitions of our people … We will bring them to justice." Abbas blamed an unnamed "third party" for involvement in the attack. A senior Palestinian security official involved in the investigation said inquiries indicated Hizbollah's hand. "All the information that we have until now from interrogations shows that Hizbollah is involved in the operation," the official said. In Beirut, Hizbollah denied any role and called the accusations a provocation by "the Zionist entity" (Israel).

Both Israel and the Palestinians have recently accused the Iranian-backed group of trying to sabotage peace efforts, though political commentators say the Palestinians could benefit from shifting the blame away from home. A cell of the militant Islamic Jihad group in the West Bank claimed the attack, but the faction's leadership in the Gaza Strip denied any knowledge and said it would continue to maintain calm. Other mainstream groups also denied any role. Security officials gave the names of three men arrested at the presumed bomber's village of Deir al-Ghoson — the first suspected militants held since Abbas succeeded late President Yasser Arafat in January.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=533675

[Ono]

Explosion Rocks Refugee Camp in Gaza

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - An explosion rocked the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding four people, witnesses said.

There were no details on the cause of the explosion. The Israeli army did not immediately comment.

Rafah, located along the Egyptian border, has been a frequent flashpoint of fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.

But Gaza has been largely quiet since Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas deployed thousands of police throughout the area several weeks ago.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/mar/04/030400450.html

[Ono]

Militants Clash With Palestinian Police

By ALI DARAGHMEH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) -

0303mideast-sharon Tensions between Palestinian Authority police and militant groups erupted into violence Friday as Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a police station, sparking a gunfight that left three people wounded.

It was the second serious clash between Palestinian authorities and armed groups this week, underscoring the delicate task that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas faces as he tries to rein in militants and restore law and order in the West Bank.

Abbas has been trying to persuade armed men to lay down their weapons while resisting calls from Israel and the international community for a crackdown. Pressure has increased on the Palestinian leader to take tougher action since a Palestinian suicide bomber from the West Bank killed five Israelis in Tel Aviv last weekend.

The gunmen belonged to al Awda, a small militant group affiliated with Abbas' ruling Fatah party. Representatives of the group said they acted in response to police attempts to arrest one of their members who was driving a stolen car. But a police spokesman said the group was upset that one of its members had been beaten while in police custody.

Witnesses said at least 13 gunmen took up positions outside the police station on Friday afternoon and began shooting, prompting police to return fire. Hospital officials said three people were wounded in the clash, one seriously.

"I heard loud noises and gunfire," said Mohammed Zohel. "I thought the Israelis had gone into the police station, but later I saw it was gunmen fighting the police. It is a real war and very frightening."

Abbas tried to play down Friday's incident, saying Israel's continued presence in Palestinian population centers has hindered his ability to take action. Israel agreed at a Mideast summit last month to pull out of five West Bank towns, but the handover was frozen after last week's suicide bombing.

"We hope that Israel will withdraw soon from these cities so that we can control security in these cities," Abbas said outside his home in Ramallah. "As long as the Israeli army is in the Palestinian West Bank, there will be breaches and we will deal with it."

Earlier this week, tensions between the Palestinian Authority and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a larger militant group linked with Fatah, sparked a confrontation in the nearby town of Jenin.

Zakariye Zubeydi, a militant who is seen by residents as the ruler of Jenin, was irate that the Palestinian interior minister had come to the town without his permission and opened fire on a building where he was holding meetings.

Interior Minister Nasser Yousef ordered Zubeydi arrested, but quickly backed down.

While Abbas was trying to unify the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced divisions within his ruling Likud Party as he pushed forward with his plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank this summer.

On Thursday night, Likud's central committee challenged Sharon again by voting to urge the party's lawmakers to support a national referendum on the withdrawal plan. Sharon opposes a referendum.

The central committee's action did not threaten the pullout because there is no parliamentary majority for a referendum. But Likud rebels could translate their opposition into parliamentary muscle by voting against a budget that Sharon needs to pass by the end of the month to remain in power.

If he fails to pass the budget by March 31, he must resign and call elections - making the budget the ultimate test of the pullout plan.

A poll commissioned by the Haaretz daily and published Friday showed that large numbers of Israelis support the proposed withdrawal.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents in the poll, conducted by the local Dialogue firm, said they would vote in favor of the plan if a referendum were held, with only 28 percent saying they would not.

The poll also found that 70 percent of respondents say Sharon will continue dismantling settlements in the West Bank after the summer "disengagement" is over.

Methodology and sampling errors were not published in Friday's newspaper. Other polls have shown about two-thirds of the people back the pullout.

Meanwhile, in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, a 2-year-old boy and two teenage boys were wounded by an old explosive device the older children were playing with.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/mar/04/030400945.html

[Petronas]

The Murder of Muhammad Mansour
Posted by aaron at March 18, 2005 12:13 PM

On Jan. 13, Muhammad Mansour was kidnapped by Fatah Tanzim terrorists in the Balata refugee camp for being suspected of cooperating with Israel. According to the terrorists, Mansour admitted that he cooperated with Israel and worked with an Israel Security Agency (ISA) officer, having passed on information that led to the arrest and death of several senior fugitives in the camp. After his interrogation, Mansour was brought before a Muslim cleric who heard his confession before Mansour was executed, in order to add religious credibility to the confession.

The next evening, residents of Balata were called to gather in the marketplace in order to observe the execution. Thousands heeded the call. Mansour, his hands bound, was ordered to kneel on the ground. Tanzim terrorists shot him in full view of the crowd. When Mansour fell to the ground, one of them emptied an entire clip into his head.

The mother of Nadr Abu Lil stabbed Mansour's corpse and gouged out its eyes. The mother of Hashem Abu Hamdan and his brothers gashed the corpse with knives and axes.

When an ambulance came to collect the body, it was stoned by the mob. The ambulance driver was beaten and forced to flee the scene. The mob set out for Mansour's house and was met by his father who declared that his son was a traitor whom he disowned. Thus the mob was deterred from burning the home.

The State of Israel wishes to clarify that Muhammad Mansour had no connection whatsoever with any ISA officials or with any other Israeli elements.

http://internet-haganah.co.il/harchives/003832.html

[Petronas]

Abbas Orders Crackdown After Attack on W. Bank HQ
Mar 31, 2005 — By Wafa Amr

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered a crackdown Thursday on Ramallah militants who defied demands that they lay down their arms under peace moves he had agreed with Israel. Abbas took a tougher line after half a dozen gunmen from his own ruling Fatah faction fired at his Ramallah compound on Wednesday night while he was inside and then went on a rampage in the West Bank city, damaging several restaurants and shops. The militants, among 26 fighters holed up at the battered presidential headquarters since Yasser Arafat gave them refuge at the height of a 4 1/2-year-old uprising, were then barred from the compound, a Palestinian official said.

In another sign of lawlessness plaguing the Palestinian territories, an angry crowd burned down tents used as offices by Palestinian police in the West Bank town of Tulkarm early on Thursday after police shot and wounded three suspects. "Abbas has issued an order to prevent any security violations and harm to citizens' property," a spokesman said. "Security units have been deployed to prevent further attacks."

It was not clear to what extent Abbas, who has used dialogue instead of confrontation in his dealings with anti-Israeli militants, was ready to act and whether the matter would extend beyond Ramallah, the West Bank's political and commercial hub. Abbas, elected in January after Arafat's death, is struggling to impose law and order and reform corruption-tainted security forces after reaching a cease-fire deal with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month. Abbas has complained, however, that some senior Palestinian officials are blocking his reform efforts and he has even suggested he might have to postpone an expected meeting with President Bush in April, Fatah officials said. Israel handed over two West Bank cities to Palestinian control earlier this month but then froze the process, saying Abbas had not done enough to disarm hundreds of militants on the Israeli list of wanted men.

Thursday night's flare-up in Ramallah began after security commanders met representatives of 70 wanted men of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Abbas's mainstream Fatah movement, earlier in the week to press them to put aside their weapons. The 70 include fugitives whom Arafat had given refuge and Abbas had allowed to stay at the West Bank compound despite Israeli criticism. Some of the militants, including security force members, refused to disarm, saying they wanted better job and pay guarantees as well as assurances of their safety, officials said. Israel has pledged to stop hunting them if they disarm.

Six of the militants living at Abbas's compound, who were among those who rejected his demands, vented their anger by carrying out the shooting spree Thursday, officials said. No casualties were reported in the incident, which was just the latest challenge to Abbas's authority. "We wanted our voice to be heard," one of the gunmen told Reuters. "We want our rights and we want protection."

Though it spearheaded the decades-old Palestinian quest for independence, Fatah has been riven by in-fighting. Abbas is from Fatah's old guard but favors reform to rein in militants, solidify the truce and secure a state in the West Bank and Gaza. But he lacks the powers wielded by his predecessor, Arafat. A younger generation of militants fears it will be sidelined in the new nation-building. Earlier this month, a group of al-Aqsa gunmen broke up a meeting of Fatah reformists.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=628822

[Petronas]

Fatah 'ahead' in Palestinian poll
Friday, 6 May, 2005, 09:39 GMT 10:39 UK

The Fatah movement founded by Yasser Arafat is in the lead over Islamist movement Hamas in Palestinian local elections, preliminary results suggest. The Election Commission said Fatah won control of 50 of 84 municipalities in the West Bank and Gaza to 28 for Hamas in the latest round of local voting. Smaller factions took four councils, with two municipalities undecided.

Hamas, which trounced Fatah in the first round of voting in Gaza, said it was too early to concede defeat. Among Hamas's victories were the large towns of Beit Lahya in northern Gaza, Qalqiliya in the West Bank and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Final and complete results were due on Sunday. Over all turnout in this third round of municipal elections was high, estimated at approximately 82%. About 2,519 candidates stood for election, including 399 women.

Voting passed off relatively smoothly, but in an incident near Ramallah in the West Bank, masked gunmen burst into a polling station during the vote count and seized three ballot boxes which they set on fire, election officials said. International election observers are due to deliver their verdict on the election on Friday. The bulk of the seats being contested in this round are in the West Bank, where Fatah has traditionally been stronger than Hamas. The results will give the competing parties a last chance to gauge their electoral strength ahead of crucial parliamentary polls scheduled for July.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4515715.stm

[1001]

Palestinians mark 'Nakba' day


Sunday 15 May 2005, 14:12 Makka Time, 11:12 GMT *

Palestinians have observed the blackest day in their history with warnings that there will be no Middle East peace until they get independence and the plight of their refugees is solved.


Millions of Palestinians commemorated on Sunday the 57th anniversary of Nakba*(Arabic for catastrophe) to mark the creation of Israel on their lands.


In a speech on the occasion, President Mahmoud Abbas said the whole region's stability was dependent on a just solution to his people's cause.


"Peace, stability and security in the Middle East can only be achieved with a just solution to our cause, based on the international resolutions, which stress our people's right to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital," said Abbas.


Peace was also dependent on "achieving a just and agreed solution to the refugees issue," he added in reference to the Palestinians who fled their homes or were forced out of them on the creation of Israel.

Fate of refugees

"Peace, stability and security in the Middle East can only be achieved with a just solution to our cause..."

Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas


The fate of the original refugees and their descendents, who are scattered throughout the occupied territoires and in neighbouring Arab countries, has been one of the thorniest issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.


The number of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has reached 3,700,000 people, on the 57th anniversary of the Nakba, according to the latest figures.
*
Aljazeera reporter in Palestine, Walid al-Oumari, pointed out that about 42% of them are refugees.
*
The number of Palestinian refugees living inside the Green Line and outside Palestine, with*the right to return, has reached nearly five million. About 1,100,000 live inside the Green Line, he added.*


Also on Sunday, Hamas issued a statement on the occasion, reiterating that resisting the Israeli occupation would remain the natural right and strategic choice of Palestinians.
*
Solving the refugees' case is represented in their return to their cities and villages, the statement said.
*
The movement has also called on Palestinians to participate in rebuilding the democratic society and placing their national welfare prior to disagreements and political arguments.


Aljazeera + Agencies

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/13EDCEDD-8574-455C-BAFC-8FC29FFA615A.htm

[Petronas]

Jihad chiefs avoid rally after Israel death threat
Fri Jun 24, 9:51 AM ET

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Islamic Jihad activists marched on Friday, vowing not to be cowed by Israeli death threats, but group leaders wary of assassination by airborne missiles avoided the rally. Israel said on Wednesday it had resumed a "targeted killing" policy against leaders of Islamic Jihad, underlining how far a ceasefire with the Palestinians has frayed since a February summit that revived hopes of Middle East peace.

Islamic Jihad chose Beit Lahiya for its usual Friday rally. Around 1,000 faithful turned up to condemn Israel's decision and pledge retaliation. "Blood for blood and a shelling for a shelling!" they chanted. But faction chiefs and masked gunmen who normally join such rallies were absent this time. Even the group's main spokesman Khaled al-Batsh remained in a car some distance from the rally.

A Jihad leaflet distributed to marchers said: "We urge our mujahideen to take maximum precautions to foil any chance for the occupation and its planes to eliminate us." Batsh told Reuters: "The enemy is flying dozens of drones in our skies. Certainly we must be more careful. God has ordered us to take care against the plans of the Zionist enemy."

Israel shelved assassinations of militant faction leaders in February as part of the truce deal between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But truce violations have multiplied in recent weeks, with the sides trading blame. The violence has raised fears that Israel's planned pullout from occupied Gaza in August could be disrupted, and has dampened hopes for peace talks afterwards. An Israeli aircraft fired missiles at four Jihad militants in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya on Wednesday as they were firing rockets into Israel. No one was hurt but a rocket was destroyed.

Other militant groups have mostly honored a pledge of de facto "calm" but Islamic Jihad, with a small popular following and little stake in peacemaking, has displayed less restraint. It is sworn to Israel's destruction and has carried out the only suicide bombing since the February ceasefire declaration -- an attack in Tel Aviv that killed five people.

In addition to reviving its assassination policy, Israel has rounded up more than 60 suspected Islamic Jihad militants in the past few days. It has killed six Jihad men during the truce.

Abbas and Sharon pledged at a summit on Wednesday to work to preserve the truce and coordinate security steps to enable a smooth evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza.

Islamic Jihad says it has been provoked by continued Israeli raids to capture wanted militants since the Feb. 8 truce deal and by killings of both its comrades and 20 other Palestinians, some in disputed circumstances. Israel says militant violators of the truce are bent on forcing Abbas to share power with them and crippling his bid to seek a Palestinian state through peace negotiations.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050624/wl_nm/mideast_jihad_dc

[NoFate]

Palestinians Force Their Way Into Egypt

By ASHRAF SWEILLAM, Associated Press Writer
34 minutes ago

RAFAH, Egypt - Thousands of Palestinians broke through Egyptian and Palestinian Authority lines on the Gaza border for a second day Friday, pouring into Egypt in defiance of government attempts to secure the frontier.

In the empty Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, thousands of masked Hamas gunmen marched in formation at a large victory rally, the Islamic militant group's latest show of strength since Israel completed its withdrawal.

The border issue and visible Hamas presence pose a serious challenge to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to assert control in Gaza. With elections approaching in January, Hamas and Abbas' Fatah faction are locked in an increasingly bitter power struggle, and each is trying to use the pullout for political gain.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defense official, challenged the Palestinian Authority to shut the open border, saying its credibility was on the line over its failure to stop the flow of gunrunners and others across the frontier.

Friday's surge at the border began when Palestinians waiting to cross pelted their own security forces with stones at the Saladin gate, the main informal crossing in this border town. When the Palestinian security officials gave way, the crowd pushed through the iron gateway and tackled the Egyptian police.

Police tried to beat the crowd back with sticks but were overwhelmed. There was no official figure for the number of Palestinians who entered Egypt, but there appeared to be about 5,000.

Palestinian and Egyptian police also sealed two other informal crossing points. The police officers directed those Egyptians and Palestinians wanting to return home to the Saladin gate.

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have both said they fear al-Qaida terrorists will infiltrate Gaza through the open Gaza-Egypt border, where Palestinians and Egyptians have been crossing with virtually no border controls since Israel completed its withdrawal from Gaza on Monday.

Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's diplomatic and security department, said weapons were smuggled across the porous border, and the pace was likely to pick up if Palestinians failed to act quickly.

"The Palestinian authority is facing a supreme test of its credibility," he told Israel Army Radio when asked about the chaos along the border. "They look like they're running a system which has neither law nor order, neither organization nor authority."

Abbas was headed to Rafah, where Palestinians have crossed freely into Egypt all week for shopping sprees and family reunions to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal.

Abbas said Thursday the border chaos had been brought under control to a "very high degree." But on Thursday evening, people were still crossing unfettered, though the numbers had dropped from previous days.

Palestinian forces took up position in larger numbers on their side of Saladin early Friday in what appeared to be an attempt to make good Abbas' pledge to restore order.

Nine Palestinian guards stood on top of the wall marking the border, and other Palestinian police cordoned off two holes that Palestinian militants blasted in the Israeli-built wall Thursday.

On the Egyptian side, newly deployed border guards laid down coils of barbed wire at Saladin. For the first half of the day, the two security forces allowed Palestinians and Egyptians to return to their territories but not to visit the other side.

Eventually, however, the crowd of Palestinians wanting to cross into Egypt grew too big and restless at Saladin and broke through.

Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa also said Friday that police on the border had seized an unspecified number of weapons and 1,100 pounds of drugs, mostly marijuana.

Egypt has started deploying 750 border troops to secure its side of the frontier and prevent weapons smuggling. So far, they have failed to halt the flow of people and arms, including hundreds of assault rifles and pistols. Gilad, however, said he believed the Egyptians would act.

"Egypt ... has to impose down to the smallest detail a regime of security ... to stop smuggling, to stop breaches of its sovereignty. As far as I understand the Egyptians they are determined to do that," he said.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Israelis had caused the problem by not coordinating the Gaza pullout with Palestinians.

"Mr. Gilad knows very well that the whole thing was unilateral," Erekat told The Associated Press. "We had to pick up the pieces after they left without them even telling us when they were going to leave."

In the Hamas march, several thousand masked gunmen walked in formation through the ruins of Neve Dekalim, which weeks ago was the largest Israeli settlement in Gaza. Militants fired machine guns into the air, and Hamas vehicles displaying homemade Qassam rockets and grenade launchers on their roofs drove over an Israeli flag.

Some 10,000 people, many waving green Hamas flags or wearing green baseball caps, cheered them on, and the group's senior leadership watched the procession from a makeshift stage. A delegation from Egypt's Muslim brotherhood, a banned opposition group, joined the celebration.

Earlier Friday, hundreds of masked Hamas gunmen in military-style fatigues paraded through the abandoned settlement of Netzarim.

A Hamas activist, who identified himself as Abu Masab Hamad, warned the Palestinian Authority not to bow to Israeli and international demands to disarm the group.

"If it (the Palestinian Authority) gives in we will oppose it. We shall cling to our arms like we cling to our religion," he said.

Abbas, under heavy international pressure to crack down on militants, has urged Hamas to disarm. Hamas has rejected the calls, and one commander Friday said his group instead plans to build up its arsenal.

"These weapons will only increase in strength. We will increase our production capacity and the purchase of weapons," said Fathi Hamad, a Hamas commander in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last year announced a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank, saying the Palestinians could not be a partner to negotiations as long as they failed to prevent militant groups from attacking Israelis.

In a speech at the United Nations on Thursday, Sharon said Palestinians are entitled to their own state, and his country has no desire to rule over them. He urged reconciliation and compromise to end their conflict, but said that after the Gaza pullout, it was now up to the Palestinians to "prove their desire for peace" by putting a halt to terror and disarming militants.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050916/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians;_ylt=AlB56PZA6Amczy47NFeLe42s0 NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-

[NoFate]

Hamas holds Gaza prayer rallies

The Palestinian militant group Hamas has held prayer rallies in abandoned Jewish settlements in Gaza on the first Friday after Israel's withdrawal.

Thousands of Hamas supporters gathered in the wrecked settlements of Netzarim and Nissanit.

Hamas claims credit for forcing Israel out of the Gaza Strip.

Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians again overwhelmed Egyptian and Palestinian security forces to enter Egypt.

Egyptian and Palestinian police fired warning shots in the air in an effort control the crowds.

On Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the chaos at the border had been brought under control.

Since Israel's pullout from the area on Monday, Palestinian and Egyptian security forces have failed to prevent thousands of Palestinians from streaming across the border from the Rafah refugee camp.

The mass crossings have raised questions as to whether Egypt can honour its deal with Israel and maintain security along the border.

Defiance

For years, Hamas was the main group launching attacks on the Jewish settlements in Gaza and the soldiers who guarded them, and so these first Friday prayers were highly symbolic, says the BBC's Alan Johnston in Gaza.

Large rallies were also held in Kfar Darom and Neve Dekalim.

In Netzarim, the group's supporters spread their prayer mats on one of the tree-lined avenues and settled down to hear one of their leaders speak. Further back, others perched on the rubble of what used to be the homes of Israeli families.

Off to one side, Hamas militants sat holding their weapons, their masks pulled down over their faces.

In Nissanit, senior Hamas official Nizar Rayan told supporters that the struggle against Israel would continue.

"The removal of the enemy from Gaza does not mean that we have reached our destination," the Associated Press reported him as saying.

"Our struggle continues and we will fight until the last occupier leaves our land," Mr Rayan added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4253536.stm

[NoFate]

Gazans enjoy their new freedoms

Since Israel withdrew the last of its soldiers from the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have been enjoying a new freedom to move around their small strip of land. They have been walking inside the ruins of Israel's former settlements and using roads closed to them for decades.

There is a joke going round Gaza City these days:

The traffic jams are lighter, the restaurants looks emptier, how come? "Everyone's gone to Egypt", people say with a wink, and there's a little truth in what they say.

The border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is supposed to be closed, but since Israel left the area last Monday, man-made holes have appeared in the border wall and someone has propped a ladder up against it.

Now, suddenly, everyone seems to know someone who has popped over to Egypt, sometimes to visit family they have not seen for years, sometimes not.

If you had tried to squeeze through the border wall a month ago, or approach the settlements, you would probably have been shot. It is very different now.

Novelty purchase

The talk in the BBC Gaza office this week is not of people detained at the border or refused visas, it is of a friend who has gone to Egypt for a shopping trip - and come back with a camel he had not meant to buy.

People here are giddy with the new freedoms in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal.

The chaos at the border may not last forever. The Palestinian authorities say it is time to restore order. But for many of those who turned up at the border town of Rafah this week, it was a novelty even to get that far.

The Jewish settlements here made travelling around the Gaza Strip very difficult for its Palestinian residents.

Roads linking the settlements to Israel cut the Gaza Strip into sections, and meant long delays getting from place to place.

With a clear road, a good car and no checkpoints, driving from Gaza City to Rafah takes around half an hour. When Israeli troops closed the road, many families spent nights on the wrong side of the checkpoints, waiting to get home.

Escape for the soul

Few would risk these kinds of journeys if they did not have to. Families would go years without meeting. Now they are meeting again; travelling the length and breadth of the Gaza Strip, using roads previously reserved for Jewish settlers - and beaches too.

Some of Gaza's best coastline was cut off to Palestinians by the largest settlement bloc - Gush Katif.

Now, driving in to the ruins of Israel's settlements, they see it, many for the first time: the sun sparkling on a sea as wide as the sky, tiny crests of white slipping along the water before dissolving into the pale sand.

It has been reclaimed already - these days Israeli sunbathers have been replaced by small knots of Palestinian boys, shouting in the bright, clear water.

Gazans talk about the beaches here with respect - not just somewhere to enjoy the weekend, but also as places of psychological relief.

For many of those cramped for so long by Israeli roads, settlements and checkpoints, the view out to sea is the only official way they have to escape Gaza.

Seeking guarantees

Israel, worried about risks to its security, frequently prevents Gazans leaving this small strip of land.

Israel has left Gaza but it still controls its official border crossings. The Palestinian Authority says it is planning to build a seaport on former settlement land. It also wants to rebuild its airport. But whether either will be able to function is up to Israel.

There is joy in Gaza at Israel's departure, but people are also waiting to see how far their lives have changed.

The Egyptian authorities are expected to close the holes in their border with Gaza; Israel is expected to increase its restrictions at the other crossings.

Without a guaranteed route out of Gaza, investors are unlikely to come in. Jobs will continue to be scarce, two-thirds of people will continue to live below the poverty line.

If their new freedoms stop at Gaza's borders, people say, the Israeli withdrawal will simply mean they have moved from a small prison to a slightly larger one.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4252040.stm

[NoFate]

Hamas blows hole in Gaza border

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/51/40799862afpgazawall203body1tn.jpg

Hamas militants have destroyed a section of a concrete barrier erected along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Palestinian and Egyptian troops have been trying to shore up the barrier to stop Palestinians crossing into Egypt after the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

In chaotic scenes, thousands of Palestinians have streamed over the border in the last few days without undergoing official checks.

Despite this, Egypt says that its Gaza border is officially closed.

Militants from Hamas cleared an area before setting off explosives that blew away a section of the wall. Palestinian security officers present did nothing to prevent them.

A local Hamas commander warned them not to try to intervene, AFP news agency reported.

'In prison'

The Egyptian authorities set a deadline of 1800 (1300 GMT) for people to return to the right side of the Gaza border or face arrest.

The mass crossings have raised questions as to whether Egypt can honour its deal with Israel and maintain security along the border, correspondents say.

Many of those crossing have been going to visit relatives stranded on the other side, to buy cheaper food and other goods, or just out of curiosity.

Israel fears militants will exploit the situation to smuggle weapons into Gaza.

Egypt's ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Asim Ibrahim, has vowed to maintain law and order.

But the diplomat expressed sympathy for Palestinians from Gaza crossing the border.

"You're talking about people who have been physically in prison for the last 38 years. So some elements just rushed to the other side of the border," he added.

Symbol of resistance

In a separate development, the Palestinian Authority demolished a synagogue in the Kfar Darom settlement in Gaza.

It was here that many hundreds of Jewish settlers and opponents of the Gaza disengagement plan barricaded themselves on the roof in a last-ditch attempt to resist eviction.

The BBC's Matthew Price in Kfar Darom says the settlement has become one of the symbols of settler resistance to Israel's evacuation plan.

The Israeli cabinet had earlier voted that more than 20 synagogues at the evacuated settlements would remain standing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4244730.stm

[Casey]

For the love of jihad

They can fire rocket-propelled grenades at will and can strike with stealth and clinical precision. The newly-formed women’s wing of Palestine’s militant group Hamas has a single-point objective — jihad against old foe Israel. Says slain Hamas leader Abdelaziz Rantisi’s wife Rasha Rantisi, who spearheads the movement, “The role of women in jihad has been to encourage their sons and husbands. But women also have the right to wage jihad.” The women’s wing hasn’t claimed responsibility for any attacks yet, but reports from the Gaza Strip suggest that it has received special training to operate the unwieldy Qassam rockets designed to launch attacks on Israel. But the women aren’t just baying for blood, they want a gender revolution to unfold as well. Rasha, for instance, oversees 11 kindergartens and lectures women on home economics and make-up. She would like others to play a proactive role in society, even if they are decapitating enemy soldiers on the battlefront. “The time has come for Hamas to give women a role,” Rasha said. “We can participate in health and education, and politics too.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051009/asp/look/story_5332580.asp#

[Naqsh]

False alarm

Waz hoping tho'

If u reading :
S'up

[Petronas]

Israel Kills Hamas Fighter
Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News
Tuesday, 15, November, 2005 (13, Shawwal, 1426)

GAZA CITY, 15 November 2005 — Israel killed a Hamas commander and another Palestinian activist yesterday, jeopardizing peace in the region as visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed both sides to reach agreement on Gaza border crossings. Israeli troops arrived at the home of Amjad Hanawi, 34, the commander of Hamas’ armed wing in the northern West Bank, early yesterday, Palestinian witnesses said. The soldiers ordered every one out of the house and out of several surrounding buildings. The Israeli military said seven of Hanawi’s assistants gave themselves up, but he came out firing. Palestinian witnesses said Hanawi was shot as he tried to climb a fence to escape. Neighbors also said army dogs attacked several family members.

Hamas members drove through the streets of Nablus, announcing Hanawi’s death over loudspeakers. Hamas’ military wing, Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement that “the painful retaliation of Al-Qassam is coming." "We say to the Zionists that you are going to pay the price,” the statement said.

Since February, Hamas has largely adhered to an informal truce with Israel, and Israel has for the most part stopped pursuing the group’s wanted men. Its renewed practice of targeted killings has focused on the smaller Islamic Jihad movement, which has carried out four bombings since the truce went into effect.

Along the Israel-Gaza frontier, Israeli soldiers opened fire at gunmen spotted near the Israeli-built border fence, killing one of them and wounding two others, the army said. Palestinian sources said the three belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees and were on a scouting mission.

Israel completed a pullout from the Gaza Strip in September, ending 38 years of military rule. Violence has flared frequently along the frontier since the withdrawal. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators held unexpected talks on Gaza border crossings and Rice delayed her departure from the region, in a last push to reach agreement. New arrangements at the crossings are crucial for reviving the Gaza economy. Israel and the Palestinians have been unable to seal a deal since Israel pulled out of Gaza. Israel wants to maintain tight security at the crossings to prevent fighters and weapons from slipping through, while the Palestinians want to speed up the flow of goods to revitalize the economy and allow them freer movement.

Rice said after separate meetings yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that a deal on the crossings is “in sight.” After the Rice-Abbas meeting, Israeli and Palestinians met for an unscheduled round of talks, Palestinian officials said. Rice delayed her departure from the region. She was supposed to leave mid-afternoon for the Far East, but decided to fly to Jordan for several hours for a condolence call after the terrorist bombings that killed nearly 60 people at three Amman hotels last week. She was to return to Jerusalem later. “We are still working on some issues on both sides,” Rice spokesman Sean McCormick said.

Late Sunday, international mediators had presented a draft agreement to both sides, with a request for rapid approval, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to the media. The proposal would include an Israeli commitment to allow 150 truckloads a day of Palestinian goods to pass through the Karni cargo crossing between Gaza and Israel, a large increase over the daily average of 35 trucks over the past six months.

At the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, negotiations reached a deadlock over whether Israel should be able to follow traffic via live closed circuit TV transmissions. The Palestinians have balked at the demand. Under a compromise, the live pictures would be transmitted to a liaison office with Palestinian, Israeli and European representatives, with the Europeans put in charge. Israel closed Rafah before leaving Gaza. The draft also calls for a resumption of Palestinian movement — in bus convoys escorted by Israeli troops — between the West Bank and Gaza, starting Dec. 15. The so-called “safe passage” was in place for about a year before intifada erupted in late 2000.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=73238&d=15&m=11&y=2005

[Petronas]

The Jenin winner, Jamal Abu Rob, who gave himself the nickname "Hitler," is wanted for killing several suspected informers
Jailed Palestinian Leader Wins Primaries
Sat Nov 26, 5:43 AM ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and other younger activists swept Fatah primaries, signaling a change of generations that could make the corruption-tainted ruling party more attractive to voters in Jan. 25 parliament elections, according to preliminary results released Saturday. The Barghouti-led "young guard" had long pushed for a greater say, especially after last year's death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who founded Fatah and controlled it four decades.

Arafat's successor, the reform-minded Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to hold internal elections for the list of parliament candidates and, under pressure from the young guard, blocked demands by Fatah oldtimers to be assigned secure spots on the slate. However, Abbas will still have some say about who gets on the final list. "The old guard has failed politically and administratively, and in running their organization in a democratic way," said Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri. "It's time to go home."

The Fatah veterans — Arafat contemporaries who returned with him from exile in the early 1990s — are widely considered as corrupt. Barghouti's generation rose through the ranks during the first Palestinian uprising, from 1987-1993, but was kept out leadership positions by the oldtimers. Barghouti, 46, is seen as a potential successor to Abbas even though he is serving multiple life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in shooting attacks that killed five Israelis.

Barghouti supports peace negotiations with Israel and before the outbreak of fighting in 2000 had close ties to Israeli leaders. However, he also advocates the use of force, including shooting attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers, to try to drive Israel out of the West Bank. Israeli officials said Saturday there is no chance Barghouti would win early release. "Barghouti was convicted in an Israeli court, a civilian court, I would stress, and sentenced to consecutive life sentences for his involvement in the murder of innocent civilians," said Mark Regev, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman.

On Friday, primaries were held in five of the largest West Bank districts — Ramallah, Nablus, Bethlehem, Jenin and Tubas. In coming days, primaries were expected in several more districts in the West Bank and Gaza. The new parliament will have 132 seats, up from 88 in the current legislature. Polls indicate that Fatah will remain the strongest political force, but that Hamas will come in a close second in its first major test at the polls. Hamas is campaigning on a platform of clean government and claims credit for Israel's Gaza pullout this summer, saying its attacks pushed Israel out.

Some 463,000 Palestinians registered for the Fatah primary. In all, 463 candidates competed in the West Bank and 311 in Gaza to get on the Fatah parliament list. Abbas will put together the final list from a pool of the top vote-getters. However, he'll consider twice as many people as districts have seats, allowing him to choose from a larger group and giving him considerable say.

In the Ramallah district with 40,000 Fatah members, some 30,000 votes went to Barghouti, making him the top vote-getter, according to preliminary results. Two Fatah veterans did well — Azzam al-Ahmed, a former PLO ambassador to Iraq, got a top spot in Jenin, and the Nablus governor, Mahmoud Aloul, was a top vote-getter in his hometown.

Two fugitives from Fatah's violent offshoot, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, also secured high positions. The Jenin winner, Jamal Abu Rob, who gave himself the nickname "Hitler," is wanted for killing several suspected informers with Israel. The Nablus candidate, Jamal Jumaa, is a leader of Al Aqsa in the West Bank's largest city. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and most other members of Fatah's ruling body, the Central Committee, did not compete. Sakher Habash, a Central Committee member who did run, won only a few hundred votes in Ramallah.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051126/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_politics

[Petronas]

Abbas suspends all Fatah internal polls
Tuesday 29 November 2005, 18:09 Makka Time, 15:09 GMT

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has suspended primary elections of his ruling Fatah movement over widespread fraud in Gaza and the West Bank, a party official says. Ahmad al-Diq, head of the Fatah commission supervising the ballots, said: "Abbas has instructed the election committee to stop the entire election process in all areas as a result of the widespread fraud. "With regard to the constituencies where primaries have not yet taken place, the president said that this issue will be under discussion until a decision is taken on whether or not to continue the process," he added. Al-Diq accused some security forces of complicity in the fraud.

Speaking to reporters after returning to his headquarters in Ram Allah from a summit in Barcelona, Abbas said that the results of primaries which had already taken place would still be respected. "As for the areas where primaries have not taken place, we are going to examine this question in order to find an appropriate solution as the Fatah lists must be presented on time," he said.

Primaries in the Gaza Strip were cancelled on Monday after Fatah fighters stormed some polling stations, complaining the vote was unfair. Last week, voters in primaries in the occupied West Bank cast aside veteran Fatah politicians in favour of newcomers. The primaries, ahead of a January parliamentary election in which the resistance group Hamas poses a strong challenge, were Fatah's first. They have been seen as a key step for Abbas - who has not succeeded in restoring order in Gaza - to assert control.

Many young Fatah activists, long frozen out of power by entrenched "old guard" party leaders, insisted that transparent primaries determine the party's legislative slate rather than secret back-room negotiations. But disorder and violence upset the voting and led to its cancellation. At some of the roughly 190 Fatah polling stations on Monday, many voters found that their names were not on the registration lists or that they had been mistakenly registered at the wrong station. Fatah officials said it was their first experience holding a primary, and they had only a short amount of time to compile lists of the 200,000 eligible voters in Gaza.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BE111B78-1DF9-4B82-AB7A-AF496E95D65E.htm

[Petronas]

More senior terrorists enter Gaza
December 2, 2005

JERUSALEM – In the first week of official Palestinian Authority control over Gaza's border with Egypt, 15 senior Hamas terrorists wanted by Israel entered the crossing – while European Union monitors stood by – and took up residence in the Gaza Strip, Hamas sources told WorldNetDaily today. The latest information comes two days after a report that a pair of senior Hamas leaders – a group founder and the brother of Gaza's Hamas chief Mahmoud al-Zahar – entered the Rafah terminal on the border, which has been under PA control since last Friday following a deal brokered in late November by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Aside from al-Zahar's brother and Hamas founder Ahmed el-Malah, 15 other Hamas leaders came in through the Rafah terminal this week, including men expelled by Israel over 15 years ago during the first Intifadah," a Hamas source told WND. "Israel can't stop it. The men coming into Gaza are Palestinians, and they have rights to return to their land." A source close to Hamas added the EU monitors at the Rafah terminal, comprised mostly of Italians whose job is to report instances of militants or weapons crossing the border, did not protest the transport of the senior Hamas leaders. The leaders arrived in seperate caravans, the source said, and it was not clear whether the European monitors were even aware of the Hamas leaders' identities. Earlier this week, al-Zahar's brother, Fadel, along with el Malah, entered through the Rafah crossing. Fadel announced his return to Gaza City after 15 years in exile in Lebanon.

In response, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz warned the PA his government will shut down border crossings still under Israeli control if security at the Rafah terminal is not immediately reestablished. "If it doesn't improve and the Palestinians don't cooperate, we will close the Erez and Karni crossings," Mofaz said during a tour of Israeli Negev border towns. The Egypt-Gaza border has been the scene of rampant Palestinian weapons smuggling.

Rice's Rafah deal restricts Israel to monitor the busy crossing by camera, calls for a European presence at the border station and gives the Palestinians final veto power on all vehicles and persons entering Gaza. The deal also allows the PA to construct a seaport in Gaza and calls for Israel to discuss the possibility of the Palestinians opening their own airport.

WND reported prior to Rice's departure to the Middle East, she met with leading liberal New York Jews and a Jewish organization that encouraged her to pressure Israel while brokering the border deal, telling the diplomat her tough line against Israel will win her American Jewish support. After her meeting with the Israel Policy Forum in Washington, the group sent the State Department a paper titled "Building a Bridge from disengagement to Two States," in which it urged the U.S. to take "aggressive" action on efforts to "help grow the Palestinian economy so the Palestinian Authority can provide jobs and basic services for Palestinians." The report listed open borders as crucial to achieving that goal. Forum President Seymour Reich, who participated in the meeting with Rice, said, "I have no doubt that we bolstered the secretary of state's instinct and strengthened her opinion that aggressive American involvement was needed to achieve practical results."

Last week, heads of Israel's top military brass – including the Israeli Defense Forces military intelligence unit, the Israeli border police and the general Israeli police authority – voiced opposition to the border deal. In written letters sent to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, military representatives blasted the agreement as "hazardous," warning that the Palestinians are likely to smuggle foreign terrorists and heavy weaponry, including anti-aircraft missiles, into Gaza.

Israeli authorities also have taken issue with the allowance of a PA-managed seaport, upon which construction is set to begin next month. The last time the Palestinians had control over a seaport, they were caught trying to smuggle large quantities of heavy weaponry. In January 2002, Israeli commandos stopped the Karine-A vessel about 300 miles off the coast of Israel. The ship, which late PA leader Yasser Arafat admitted to ordering, was carrying 50 tons of Iranian-made weapons, including Katyusha rockets, ammunition and explosives. Sharon described the vessel as a "ship of terror" which "would have changed the strategic balance" between Israel and the Palestinians.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47697

[Petronas]

A Christmas without Christians
December 16, 2005

Since the Palestinian Authority’s takeover of Bethlehem in 1995, under the Oslo Accords with Israel, Bethlehem has been transformed from a Christian city into a Muslim city. Bethlehem’s remaining Christians now live in a condition of dhimmitude (a reference to the second-class citizenship Islam imposes on Christians) in the city of Jesus’ birth.

The Palestinians brought with them a political system based on primitive tribal relations, where the power of one’s clan became a substitute for the law. As a consequence, Christians have suffered civil outrage and criminal violence without recourse to justice. Christians have been refusing to live under these conditions and have been leaving Bethlehem in large numbers.

So who is to blame for the plight of Bethlehem’s Christians and for the birthplace of Jesus being emptied of Christians? Why, the Jews, of course! Who else? That is the Orwellian message of the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee (AADC) that held a candle lighting vigil on November 29, 2005 for Bethlehem’s Christians at San Francisco’s Union Square as the Christmas shopping season began.

Muslims in Bethlehem make the lives of Christians unbearable and force them to flee their ancestral homes while Muslims in America hold a vigil to blame the Jews. To understand how the Christians became a minority and the victims of thuggery in the city of Jesus’ birth, it is important to see just what Arafat did to Bethlehem once he got his hands on it. In 1995, Yasser Arafat gained control of Bethlehem and immediately expanded its municipal boundaries to include 30,000 Muslims living in neighboring refugee camps. Next, Muslim Bedouins living east of Bethlehem were incorporated into revised municipal boundaries. All this was still not enough for the PA to change the status of Bethlehem as a Christian city. But then Arafat created inducements for Muslims to leave Hebron and the area around it and move to Bethlehem.

With Arafat’s government by clan, by gun, and by terror, a land Mafia developed that began expropriating land from Christians. In 2002, two Christian teenage sisters were found with their throats slit and their genitals mutilated. Muslims claimed the Amer sisters were prostitutes, as if that were justification for torture and murder. But Christians familiar with similar incidents claim the girls were murdered to cover up a gang rape.

Of course, none of this appears in the AADC’s call for the candlelight vigil that is also designed to showcase the AADC’s divestment campaign against Israel. The plight of Bethlehem’s Christians under the PA’s thuggery has, however, drawn outrage from Christian organizations worldwide. The mainstream Protestant churches in America, however, have been too busy with their divestment campaigns to take the notice of the plight of Christians living under the Palestinian Authority’s tribalism.

Indeed, just this week, the Vatican, in a rare diplomatic move, called publicly on the Israelis to intervene in Bethlehem on behalf of its severely receding Christian population. Now totaling less than 12% of Bethlehem’s population, Christians, who have been the targets of continual PA violence, might leave entirely. The result will be that in the place where Jesus was born there will no longer be a Christian community.

In the West Bank town of Taibe marauding Muslims burned, looted and beat Christian residents in the name of a Muslim family’s “honor,” a family whose father had brutally beaten his daughter to death for wanting to marry a Christian. The violent Muslim mob burned a statue of the Virgin Mary and shouted, “Burn the Crusaders!” PA fire and security forces took their time arriving on the scene, appearing hours later. In the end, the mob was almost immediately released from jail. Meanwhile, the Christian fiancée of the murdered woman was arrested and beaten while incarcerated. The lesson—that of the mob being released while an innocent Christian languished in jail—was not lost on the Christian community of the West Bank!

Father Artemio Vitores, who supervises the holy places in Israel and the Palestinian Authority for the Vatican, recently and publicly, asked Israel’s President Moshe Katsav, “Help us keep Bethlehem.” This appeal represents a sharp and desperate change in Vatican politics. The Vatican has long feared offending the Palestinians far more than offending Israel. After Palestinian terrorists took over the Church of the Nativity in 2002, and brutalized the priests inside, the Vatican pressured Israel to give the terrorists safe passage and not to invade or destroy the church. Israel eventually complied. For its part, the Vatican refuses to speak of the brutality that occurred inside the church or even to re-consecrate it, for to do so would mean that the Vatican would have to acknowledge how the church was desecrated.

The Vatican is walking a tightrope in the unstable Middle East. The church’s primary concern is to preserve both the Holy Places and its role in administering them. With the outcome of the Palestinian-Israeli war still unknown and unpredictable and with Bethlehem already in the hands of the PA, the Vatican is faced with an unenviable set of difficult choices. Now the Vatican is further confronted with the realities facing Christians who no longer live under Israeli protection but instead under Palestinian oppression. The Vatican’s direct request for Israeli assistance is a strong indicator of how threatened the Christians are and that the Vatican is well aware that the PA is the cause of and not the solution to the problem. ...

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20567

[Petronas]

Hamas Wins Local Elections, Dealing Harsh Blow to Ruling Fatah
Beirut, Updated 16 Dec 05, 14:30

The Hamas militant group won local elections in the West Bank's largest cities, according to preliminary results released Friday, dealing a harsh blow to the ruling Fatah party just six weeks ahead of a parliamentary poll.
Hamas swept more than 70 percent of the vote in the West Bank city of Nablus, highlighting the fierce challenge posed by the Islamic movement to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, which suffered a split on Thursday when a group of young-guard leaders broke away.

A Hamas victory in a Jan. 25 parliamentary poll could torpedo efforts to renew long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and damage the Palestinian relationship with the United States. Hamas -- sworn to the destruction of Israel and responsible for dozens of suicide bombings -- is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

"If Hamas was ever to become a dominant force in Palestinian politics, that would be the end of the peace process," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

Hamas' welfare programs -- coupled with its fierce resistance to Israel's occupation -- have won it grass-roots support among Palestinians who are fed up with Fatah's corrupt government and its inability to rein in gang-led lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abbas, meanwhile, is mired in an internal Fatah struggle. His last-minute attempt to unify the ranks failed Thursday when a group of popular young guard leaders split from Fatah, forming a new party called "Future," led by jailed uprising leader Marwan Barghouti.

On Thursday, Abbas threatened to resign if Fatah fails to unite, according to participants in a party meeting. The seriousness of the threat was unclear, however. In his earlier days as deputy of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Abbas walked away in a huff several times only to return.

Thousands of jubilant Hamas supporters celebrated in the streets of Nablus late Thursday, where the Islamic movement won 73 percent of the vote, or 13 seats on the 15-member council. The two remaining seats went to a coalition of Fatah and independent candidates.

In the town of Jenin, Hamas won eight seats, while a coalition between Fatah and the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine garnered seven. In el-Bireh, a large suburb of Ramallah, Hamas won 72 percent of the vote, grabbing nine seats, to Fatah's four. The PFLP and independents took the last two seats on el-Bireh's 15-member council.

Even in Ramallah, the West Bank's commercial hub and a city with a significant Christian population, Fatah only tied for first place, grabbing six seats in a coalition with other factions. The radical PFLP won another six seats, and Hamas grabbed three. Official results will be announced Sunday.

In four of five rounds of municipal voting, Fatah has received 35 percent of council seats, compared to 23 percent for Hamas. However, the militant group has captured some of the Palestinians' largest cities, including Nablus, Qalqiliya and Jenin.

Municipal voting in Hebron, the West Bank's largest town, was postponed until after the legislative elections in January because Fatah leaders feared that a Hamas victory there would fuel the militants' electoral momentum, a Palestinian official.

Shimshon Arbel, formerly Israel's military governor in Nablus, said Hamas has invested a lot to build schools and clinics for ordinary Palestinians. Fatah, meanwhile, has been corrupt and failed to manage the Palestinian Authority, he added.

Hamas' victory in the municipal elections was declared hours after Barghouti, 46, reaffirmed his decision to go it alone. Barghouti -- serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison after being convicted of involvement in fatal attacks on Israelis -- is running on a list along with other well-known figures, including security strongmen Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub.(AP)

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&B3B5917995D8DB79422570D90043C909

[Petronas]

Palestinians have smuggled past Egyptian border police dozens of tons of high explosives from Sinai into Gaza in the last week.
December 24, 2005, 9:41 PM (GMT+02:00)

They are working round the clock to fit the lethal, military-grade TNT on their Qassam missiles in place of the home-made, erratic warheads. The upgraded projectiles will both be more precise and pack a much more powerful punch.

http://www.debka.com/

[FC-UK]

Israeli army beats, detains and turns Palestinian houses into military barracks
January 03, 2006

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/nueva_web/images/italian2.gif (http://www.palestinemonitor.org/nueva_web/updates_news/Italian/beat_detain_palestinians_italian.htm)

Sunday On the 1st of January, 8 Palestinians were hurt with cuts and bruises when the Israeli army cracked down on a peaceful demonstration against the Wall. About 100 residents from Beit Jala joined the protest against the Wall which is being built on their land, and if completed, would isolate their town as well as Beit Sahour and Bethlehem from northern parts of the West Bank.
Most of the protesters were from Beit Jala, and the Wall would confiscate 4,000 dunums of the town’s most fertile land to accommodate the expansion of Gilo and Har Gilo settlements.
As part of the demonstration, people stood in front of the bulldozers, forming a human barricade, which forced the bulldozers to stop their work. Israeli soldiers quickly intervened and there was pushing and shoving from both sides. The soldiers then used the butts of their guns and batons to suppress the demonstrators.
Once the protest was broken up, the bulldozers resumed their work.
Sami Awad, a PLC candidate and Director of the Holy Land Trust NGO, was detained and beaten by Israeli soldiers, and stated "the Israeli occupation is sending a clear message to the Palestinian people, they don't want us to engage in nonviolent resistance because it truly exposes them and the injustice they are doing to the world."
On Tuesday, 3rd January, the Israeli army arrested four more Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Witnesses say the Israeli army invaded Dora town and Kharsa village arresting Enas Tbesh 22, Shady an-Nammoura 38, Mash'hour Abu Sundos 23 and Ahmed Hantash 23.
In Jenin, the Israeli army invaded the city and its refugee camp and occupied a number of houses turning them into military barracks.

[Casey]

'Palestine election win for Hamas'

Palestine / Middle East & Africa
Date: Jan 26, 2006 - 12:00 AM
Thu 26 Jan 2006


The Hamas militant group captured a majority of seats in Palestinian legislative elections, according to officials in Hamas and the rival Fatah Party

Officials with the ruling Fatah Party conceded that Hamas had won about 70 seats, which would give the Islamists a majority in the 132-seat parliament.

Counting in some districts was continuing.

Earlier, Hamas' top candidate, Ismail Haniyeh, said the group won 70 seats.

A second Hamas official said the group had captured 75 seats - 31 in voting for national lists and 44 in district voting.

The numbers came from Hamas supporters involved in the vote count.

Opinion polls had forecast a narrow Fatah victory.

Hamas, which has committed dozens of suicide bombings against Israel, has ruled out talks with the Jewish state.

Palestinian officials have delayed the release of official results from the Palestinian legislative vote until Thursday evening.

Results, initially scheduled to be announced on Thursday morning will now be announced in the evening, the Palestinian Central Election Commission said. It gave no reason for the delay.

© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved.


This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=128092006

[Casey]

Rival parties spark Gaza unrest
Hamas, Fatah militants clash as Hamas leader reaffirms stance on Israel

Saturday, January 28, 2006
GREG MYRE
New York Times News Service

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Militants from Fatah and Hamas capped a tense and emotional day Friday with violent clashes, while a Hamas leader said the group had no intention of recognizing Israel's right to exist or of changing its charter, which calls for Israel's destruction.

"Why are we going to recognize Israel?" said the leader, Mahmoud Zahar. "Is Israel going to recognize the right of return of Palestinian refugees? Is Israel going to recognize Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital?"

In the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, Hamas supporters clashed with Fatah gunmen and the Palestinian security forces in two separate incidents, leaving six people wounded, according to witnesses and medical workers.

Throughout Gaza, thousands of Hamas supporters wearing green baseball caps and waving green flags took part in noisy but peaceful rallies after midday prayers, celebrating their faction's resounding victory in parliamentary elections Wednesday. Leaders of the group said they were ready to meet with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, for talks on forming a new government.

In contrast, several hundred protesters from Abbas' own Fatah party marched in the street outside his house in Gaza City, firing automatic rifles into the air and chanting, "Go away Abu Mazen, go away Abu Mazen," using the common name for Abbas.

The Palestinian leader was in the West Bank at the time, but the unrest highlighted the frictions building between the old guard of Fatah and the young militants, who may be even less tolerant of Abbas' leadership in the wake of the group's stinging election defeat.

The gunmen also marched into the courtyard of the nearby parliament building and set several cars ablaze.

Muhammad Dahlan, one of the best-known Fatah leaders of the younger generation and a former security chief, hurried to the scene and urged the men to disperse.

Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority a year ago, and his post was not affected by the election. However, he will be greatly weakened politically with Hamas in charge of the government.


Hamas cooperation:


With 76 of the 132 seats in the parliament, Hamas has a solid majority on its own and does not need any partners in a new government. But the group says it wants to work with other factions, including Fatah.

"It will not be just our government," Zahar said Friday as he emerged from midday prayers at the mosque across the street from his Gaza City home. "We will work with Fatah and independents and other factions to make it a national government."

Hamas should be able to assemble a government in two to three weeks, Zahar said.

But several leaders in Fatah, which has dominated Palestinian political life for four decades, have said they prefer to rebuild their party in opposition and let Hamas deal with the often humbling realities of governance.

Until now, Hamas has refused to take part in the Palestinian government because it emerged from the 1993 Oslo accords with Israel, which Hamas rejected.

Hamas still does not recognize Israel and says it will not change its charter calling for Israel's destruction.

But Zahar and other leaders say that Hamas will not rule out limited contacts with Israel under certain circumstances.

"If Israel has anything to bring to the Palestinian people, we will consider this," he said. "But we are not going to give anything for free."


International friction:


Israel's acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and other senior government officials say Israel will not deal with Hamas. Israel, along with the United States and the European Union, consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

As Hamas prepares to form a government, the new Cabinet and the new legislature will face great challenges in simply getting members together in the same place. In the election Wednesday, 31 candidates were imprisoned, according to the Central Elections Commission. Of those, 15 won seats, more than 10 percent of the new parliament, The Jerusalem Post reported Friday. Israel has said that the election will not bring any change in their status or any reduction in their sentences.

Traveling to Ramallah through Israel could pose problems for legislators wanted by Israeli security officials. The Palestinians also have a parliament building in Gaza City, however, and because Israeli troops left Gaza last summer, Palestinians in Gaza face no restrictions moving inside the territory.

In the past few years, the Palestinian parliament has held numerous sessions with a video conference connecting West Bank lawmakers in Ramallah and the Gaza legislators in Gaza City.

The new Palestinian Cabinet could face a similar problem. Most senior Hamas leaders are in Gaza, though the Cabinet is sure to have ministers from the West Bank as well. Israel has generally allowed Palestinian Cabinet ministers to travel between Gaza and the West Bank. But Israel appears unlikely to do the same with government ministers from Hamas.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/wire.ssf?/base/news/1138443621146800.xml&coll=2

[Casey]

Jihad says likely to join Hamas-led govt

Articles / Middle East & Africa
Date: Jan 28, 2006 - 09:30 AM

www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-28 21:17:21

GAZA, Jan. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The Islamic Jihad movement said on Saturday that if Hamas forms a cabinet based on resistance against Israel, it will seriously consider joining it.

Senior Jihad leader Nafez Azzam told Xinhua on telephone that Jihad insists on not joining any Palestinian cabinet based on the Oslo Accords.

Citing opposition to the Oslo Accords, an interim deal between Palestinians and Israel in 1993, Jihad boycotted the Jan. 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections, which Hamas claimed victory by garnering 76 seats out of a total of 132 parliament seats up for grabs.

Hamas' victory enabled it to form the next Palestinian government, ousting the long-dominant Fatah movement led by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas which collected 43 seats.

"If the bothers in the Islamic Hamas implemented their promises made in their election campaign to form a cabinet depending on fighting the occupation, then it's an issue that deserves to be discussed," Azzam said.

Fatah has announced it will not join a Palestinian cabinet led by Hamas.

Meanwhile, senior Jihad leader Khaled al-Batch phoned Hamas leader Ismeal Haneya and congratulated him on the victory achieved in the elections.

This was the first time Hamas participated in the parliamentary elections, the first of which were boycotted by the group citing opposition to the Oslo Accords.

However, Hamas said before the elections that the accord was no defunct. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/28/content_4112863.htm

[NYer]

Egypt to Hamas: Recognize Israel. (http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006254.php)

Personally, I remain skeptical but perhaps we just saw this:
http://www.flyingpig.ukf.net/Flying~1.jpg

[NYer]

Re: Hamas

Putin Si (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060209/wl_mideast_afp/mideastspainrussia_060209185801)
Nato No. (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1139395381627&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)

Psssst ... Vlad ... you may wish to take a look at This. (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3214119,00.html)

http://www.ynetnews.com/PicServer2/20122005/722089/hhh.jpg

[NYer]

Canada suspends aid to Hamas-led government. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/canada_hamas;_ylt=AqdqYVMZhKMdl8Rz45wDg5Gs0NUE;_yl u=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--)

Canada said Wednesday it was suspending assistance to the Palestinian Authority because the new Hamas-led government refuses to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement that Canada had no choice but to suspend assistance and decline any contact with the new Hamas Cabinet.

"The stated platform of this government has not addressed the concerns raised by Canada and others concerning nonviolence, the recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the roadmap for peace," MacKay said. "As a result, Canada will have no contact with the members of the Hamas Cabinet and is suspending assistance to the Palestinian Authority."

[Petronas]

Palestinian MPs Shout "Jihad Is Our Path" as Hamas Government Wins Confidence Vote
3/28/2006

Following are excerpts from the PA Legislative Council meeting granting Hamas a vote of confidence, aired on Al-Jazeera TV on March 28, 2006:

Parliament Speaker Aziz Dweik: The tenth Palestinian government, headed by the Palestinian prime minister, brother Ismai'l Haniya, has gained the absolute majority of the votes of the Legislative Council members.
[...]
Hamas MP: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.
Other MPs: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.
MP: Allah is our goal.
Other MPs: Allah is our goal.
MP: The Koran is our constitution.
Other MPs: The Koran is our constitution.
MP: The Prophet Muhammad is our model.
Other MPs: The Prophet Muhammad is our model.
MP: Jihad is our path.
Other MPs: Jihad is our path.
MP: Death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.
Other MPs: Death for the sake of Allah is our most lofty aspiration.
MP: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.
Other MPs: Allah Akbar, Allah be praised.

http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1089

[Petronas]

Palestinians: Tel Aviv Bombing Legitimate
Mon Apr 17

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up outside a fast-food restaurant in a bustling area of Tel Aviv during the Passover holiday Monday, killing eight other people and wounding at least 49 in the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year. The Palestinians' new Hamas leaders called the attack a legitimate response to Israeli "aggression." ... The response by Hamas leaders represented a sharp departure from the previous Palestinian leadership's immediate condemnations of such attacks. ... Earlier, Moussa abu Marzouk, a Hamas leader abroad, told Al-Jazeera television that "the Israeli side must feel what the Palestinian feels, and the Palestinian defends himself as much as he can." ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060417/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_explosion_20;_ylt=ApqpvC2Y_U5kxmuw4qQwxtEUv ioA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[keith]

Hamas Threatens to End Truce With Israel

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer


Hamas angrily rejected a warning by the moderate Palestinian president Monday that he could dismiss its month-old government, threatening to scrap a truce with Israel if he does.

The public warning heightened tensions between the Islamic militant group and President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Fatah Party. Hamas defeated Fatah in January parliamentary elections. Abbas, elected separately, has been trying to trim the powers of the new Cabinet.

In an interview broadcast Monday on CNN-Turk, Abbas said Hamas must recognize Israel and talk peace to avert an economic catastrophe because of Western sanctions.

Abbas favors peace talks, but Hamas rejects the presence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. Hamas also refuses to renounce violence or accept interim Palestinian-Israeli peace accords — basic international demands.

The extreme Hamas stance has harmed the Palestinians' world standing. More critically, it has led to a cutback in vital foreign aid, leaving Hamas unable to pay 165,000 public workers, the largest sector in the limping Palestinian economy, including about 80,000 in the security forces, many loyal to Fatah.

The current paychecks are already three weeks late, and next week another monthly salary is due, with no relief in sight, reinforcing Abbas' warning.

"The constitution gives me clear and definite authority to remove a government from power, but I don't want to use this authority. Everyone should know that by law this power is in my hands," Abbas said in the interview with CNN-Turk, recorded before he arrived in Turkey on Sunday.

Hamas reacted angrily, threatening to call off a 15-month truce brokered by Abbas that greatly reduced Israeli-Palestinian violence after five years of bloodshed.

A senior Hamas official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the group would "not leave in silence."

"We will not participate in any new election and we will go underground as we did before and we will not adhere to any commitments, any truce, by anyone," he said.

An Israeli government spokesman, Raanan Gissin, dismissed the Hamas threat, saying the militant group had never recognized the truce. Although it suspended its suicide bombing campaign after the cease-fire was reached, Hamas was in league with other militant groups that did attack Israel, Gissin charged, "and it never renounced terrorism."

A spokesman for the Hamas-led government, Ghazi Hamad, said Abbas should not have warned Hamas he could disband the government, sworn in on March 29, so early in its tenure.

"We expect from President Abbas to protect his government and not to make such declarations," Hamad said in an interview from Gaza City.

Aides to Abbas said his warning was directed at Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader who accused the Palestinian president last week of "plotting" against the militant group. Mashaal's accusation set off clashes and protests over the weekend.

The West, which provides the Palestinians with roughly $1 billion in annual aid, has cut off some of that funding to protest Hamas' refusal to moderate. Palestinian officials say U.S. pressure on international banks has kept Arab governments' money from reaching the Hamas government.

Israel has also squeezed the Palestinians financially by withholding monthly transfers of some $55 million in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas does not plan to dissolve the government soon and will do so only if the economic situation in the territories becomes catastrophic, the aides said.

Under Palestinian law, if Abbas dissolves the government, he would ask someone else to try to form a Cabinet, which would need approval from the Hamas-dominated legislature. Once Abbas determines there is a stalemate, he has the authority to order new elections.

There is evidence that the financial crunch may be starting to erode Hamas' support. Thousands have demonstrated at government offices because of the tardy paychecks, though most of the protesters were affiliated with Fatah. Opponents of the Hamas regime believe if it is unable to govern, it will fall.

Abbas spoke with CNN in both Arabic and English, and the interview was broadcast with a Turkish voice-over. CNN-Turk provided The Associated Press with a full transcript of Abbas' remarks, translated into Turkish.

In the interview, Abbas said Hamas must negotiate with Israel unless it wants to lead the Palestinian people into a humanitarian catastrophe.

"Hamas has to face the facts and establish communication with Israel," he said. "I'm worried that the situation will turn into a tragedy in the near future. A short time later we could be up against a great hunger disaster in Palestine."

The Palestinian leader vowed to work to solve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis with or without Hamas.

"Hamas can support me or not. When I find a way to a solution with Israel, I'll present this to the Palestinian people in a referendum," he said.

Israel has not been in serious contact with Abbas since Hamas took power. The Israelis say they favor peace talks, but officials say they cannot regard the Palestinian Authority as a two-headed entity, ignoring Hamas.



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


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[keith]

The Nazi-Arab Connection

Documents from the British National Archives show that in World War II, Nazi Germany sent weapons to the Palestinian Arabs, by way of our friends the Saudis. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

A British Foreign Office report from 1939 reports of “news of a consignment of arms from Germany, sent via Turkey and addressed to Ibn Saud (king of Saudi Arabia), but really intended for the Palestine insurgents.” Britain’s chief military officer in Mandatory Palestine also noted reports “regarding import of German arms at intervals for some years now.”

British documents from the same period, and German records photographed by an American spy and sent to the British government, said that a number of Nazi agents were sent to Mandatory Palestine, in order to forge alliances with Palestinian leaders, and urge them to reject a partition of the land between the Jewish and Arab populations.

One Nazi agent, Adam Vollhardt, arrived in Palestine in July 1938, and was reported to have gained strong influence with Arab leaders, meeting with Palestinian leaders throughout 1938. Vollhardt held several meetings with leading Arab politicians and told them “that the Palestine question would be settled to the satisfaction of the Arabs within a few weeks,” adding that “it would be fatal to their (Palestinians’) cause if at this juncture they showed any signs of weakness or exhaustion.”

“Germany was interested in the settlement of the (Palestine) question on the basis of the Arabs obtaining their full demands,” Vollhardt was reported to say to Palestinian leaders, according to a report by the British War Office. Vollhardt also assured Arab leaders that “the Germans could continue to support the Palestinian Arab cause by means of propaganda.”

German documents photographed and sent to Whitehall by an American spy revealed that in 1937, German officials had calculated that “Palestine under Arab rule would ... become one of the few countries where we could count on a strong sympathy for the new Germany.”

“The Palestinian Arabs show on all levels a great sympathy for the new Germany and its Fuhrer, a sympathy whose value is particularly high as it is based on a purely ideological foundation,” a Nazi official in Palestine wrote in a letter to Berlin in 1937. He added: “Most important for the sympathies which Arabs now feel towards Germany is their admiration for our Fuhrer, especially during the unrests, I often had an opportunity to see how far these sympathies extend. When faced with a dangerous behaviour of an Arab mass, when one said that one was German, this was already generally a free pass.”

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=20433&only

[keith]

Palestinians Send Militant Force Into Streets
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 17, 9:10 AM ET



The Palestinians' defiant Hamas-led government sent a new militant force into the streets of Gaza on Wednesday, disregarding President Mahmoud Abbas' order banning the creation of the security body and raising the stakes in their deepening power struggle.

Hamas appeared to have been propelled into action by mysterious drive-by shootings that killed two of its militants in the Gaza Strip hours earlier. These and other recent cases of deadly infighting have threatened to plunge the Palestinian territories into bloody chaos.

Meanwhile, Israel reopened the main cargo crossing between Gaza and Israel, Gaza's economic lifeline, and two Palestinians militants were killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank.

The Hamas-led government and Abbas have been locked in a power struggle since the Islamic militant group ousted Abbas' long-ruling Fatah party in January parliamentary elections.

Abbas, who directly controls three security forces, appointed an ally as head of the remaining three security branches, which fall under the command of the Hamas-led Interior Ministry.

In response, Interior Minister Said Siyam announced a plan last month to create the new force, which would be solely under his control.

Abbas vetoed the force, which is to number about 3,000 fighters and be headed by Jamal Abu Samhadana, a key player in ongoing rocket attacks on Israel and a suspect in the deadly 2003 bombing of an American convoy in the Gaza Strip.

Ignoring Abbas, Siyam said the unit would begin operating immediately.

Within hours, dozens of members of the armed force, all wearing the beards favored by observant Muslims, were deployed in central and southern Gaza. At the Bureij refugee camp, about 75 fighters patrolled the camp or took up positions outside.

Members of a security branch answerable to Abbas stood just a few yards away.

Siyam activated the new force just hours after masked gunmen killed a member of Hamas' military wing before dawn in a drive-by shooting at the Jebaliya refugee camp.

On Tuesday evening, another Hamas activist was killed in a similar attack in Gaza City. Two more Hamas activists were wounded in a third shooting. Those attacks came less than a day after the cars of senior Fatah militants were blown up in Gaza City.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Dozens of Hamas gunmen, armed with anti-tank launchers, shoulder-fired missiles, hand grenades and assault rifles, turned out in a show of force Wednesday at the funeral of the militant shot Tuesday. A mosque loudspeaker announced that the family would not receive mourners "until the killers are punished."

During the funeral procession, a voice over a loudspeaker blamed a Fatah-dominated branch of the Palestinian security forces. Mourners called on Abbas to dismiss Rashid Abu Shbak, the loyalist Abbas had appointed as a senior security commander.

Hamas' ouster of Fatah has sparked Western aid cutoffs designed to pressure the militants to recognize Israel and disarm. The sanctions left the Hamas-led government unable to pay government salaries for more than two months.

Dozens of government employees lined up at a bank in Gaza City on Wednesday after it announced it would loan government employees up to $200 to help tide them over.

The economic distress has been aggravated by Israel's refusal to transfer tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, and its frequent closures of the Karni cargo crossing with Gaza.

Israel reopened Karni on Wednesday, Israeli military officials and Palestinian border officials said. The military officials said this signaled a change in policy since Amir Peretz, leader of the dovish Labor Party, became defense minister earlier this month. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss policy with the press.

Israel has kept Karni closed for nearly two months this year, saying Palestinian militants were trying to attack the site, as they have in the past.

The closures have created food shortages and cost the Palestinians tens of millions of dollars in lost export revenues.

While Palestinians clashed with each other in Gaza, two Islamic Jihad militants were killed and another was wounded in a pre-dawn gunbattle with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian security and medical officials said.

Troops on an arrest raid circled the militants' five-room, one-story hideout and a firefight broke out. Fighting continued for hours, and troops used a bulldozer to raze part of the building,

A large pool of blood stained the ground outside the house. "God is Great" was daubed in blood on the wall around the building.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the killings "in the strongest possible terms."

A spokesman for Islamic Jihad who gave his name only as Abul Abed said the group would not give up its fight against Israel.

"This gives us more courage to fight them," he said after viewing the two bodies. "We are fighting with Israel for billions of Muslims in the world."

The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad has responsible for all nine suicide bombings against Israeli targets since Palestinian militant factions agreed to an informal truce in February 2005.



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

[keith]

Hamas force battles police in Gaza, 4 hurt
By Nidal al-Mughrabi




Palestinian police fought gunbattles in Gaza City on Friday with a new Hamas-led security force set up by the Islamist government in defiance of President Mahmoud Abbas.

At least four people were wounded in the first fighting since Hamas deployed the force on Wednesday. Two police, one Hamas member and a gunman from Abbas's Fatah movement were hurt.

Clashes sent terrified residents fleeing from the night-time streets of Gaza City, where tension has soared amid fears of civil war. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the emergence of rival security forces a "dangerous situation."

Members of the Hamas force, mostly bearded young militants who fought Israel in an uprising for years, surrounded the main police station in Gaza City and traded fire with security men taking cover inside.

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said fighting subsided after contacts between the forces. He accused unidentified "suspicious gunmen" of opening fire to instigate the clash.

"There is no reason for the two forces to fight. There is no dispute of authority," said Khaled Abu Hilal. Police accused Hamas of starting the clashes by opening fire on the police station.

The 3,000-strong Hamas-backed force, formed under the authority of Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, was deployed in a challenge to the authority of Abbas, whose Fatah movement was defeated by Hamas in elections in January.

In response, Abbas ordered the deployment of a Fatah-loyal police unit. The decision marked the latest step in a deepening power struggle between Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, whose Hamas movement took power in March.

FEAR

The rival deployments followed growing insecurity in Gaza, with at least five rival gunmen killed this month.

"It seems that the civil war has begun," said one medic, who did not want to give his name. Gunfire echoed as he spoke.

The Fatah gunman was shot in front of the hospital as he pleaded that he was nothing to do with the clashes. Gunmen with weapons cocked peered warily around street corners in the densely populated seaside city.

Abbas loyalists have far more forces under their control than Hamas, but many of them are poorly equipped.

Tensions have been exacerbated by a financial crisis since Hamas took control. Western donors have cut funding to the aid-dependent Palestinian Authority to try to force Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements.

Hamas is formally committed to destroying the Jewish state, though it has largely followed a truce for more than a year. Abbas seeks to revive negotiations for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The United States, leading the campaign to isolate Hamas, has put its faith in Abbas, who was elected in 2005 on a platform of peacemaking. Rice said in Washington that she hoped the situation of rival security forces could be resolved.

"We obviously believe that President Abbas, who we believe has the confidence of the Palestinian people, should be able to exercise his responsibilities as president of the country," she told reporters.

Gaza has grown accustomed to bloodshed during years of clashes with Israeli forces, who withdrew from the territory in 2005, but internal strife is a more horrifying prospect for many residents.

(Additional reporting by Matthew Tostevin in Gaza, Sue Pleming in Washington)



Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

[keith]

Abbas loyalist hurt in apparent Gaza assassination bid
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
Sat May 20, 9:08 AM ET



The Palestinian intelligence chief was badly wounded on Saturday when an elevator he was taking at his headquarters in the Gaza Strip exploded in what his ally President Mahmoud Abbas called an assassination bid.

One of General Intelligence chief Tareq Abu Rajab's aides was killed in the incident, which could inflame tension between gunmen from Abbas's Fatah faction and militants from the rival Hamas movement which heads the government.

It followed gun battles between Fatah and Hamas supporters in the Gaza Strip on Friday in which five people were wounded. The fighting erupted after a top Hamas official was caught trying to bring 639,000 euros ($804,000) into Gaza.

Rajab was taking an elevator surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards and aides when it exploded, apparently when a bomb planted in the lift shaft was detonated, security sources said.

Abbas immediately ordered an investigation "into the assassination attempt against the head of general security."

Rajab -- the head of the "mukhabarat" intelligence service -- was among 11 people wounded in the explosion at his heavily guarded headquarters in northern Gaza. One of his aides, a nephew, died.

Security officials did not say who they suspected was behind the blast. But Tawfiq Tirawi, a top security official in the West Bank who serves as Rajab's deputy, indicated to reporters at a news conference that Hamas militants who have recently formed an alternative security force might be responsible.

"We suspect the militias in the streets," Tirawi said in response to a question on whether Hamas was behind the strike.

Rajab has often been at odds with Hamas, which is in the midst of a power struggle with Abbas and his supporters over control of the security forces after winning a parliamentary election that put it in charge of the government.

Hamas was accused of being behind a 2004 assassination attempt against Rajab in which he was shot by unidentified gunmen and sustained severe wounds. Hamas denied responsibility.

Rajab, who suffered severe leg wounds, and a bodyguard were taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment following a request for medical aid by Abbas, an Israeli liaison official said.

RIVAL INVESTIGATIONS

Highlighting the divisions within the Palestinian Authority, two rival investigations were set up into the bombing, one by security forces loyal to Abbas and the other by members of the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.

An Interior Ministry spokesman initially said the blast was due to the accidental detonation of a hand grenade carried by a member of Rajab's entourage, although he later said he did not know the cause of the blast.

"We hope it is an accidental explosion, but if it turns out that someone was behind this crime ... then we will deal with them," the spokesman, Khaled Abu Hilal, said.

Tension has been rising in Gaza after the Hamas-led government formed a 3,000-strong Hamas backed force, under the authority of Interior Minister Saeed Seyam, to challenge Abbas.

In response, Abbas ordered the deployment of a Fatah-loyal police unit. Fatah supporters issued a statement on Saturday saying that if the Hamas force did not disband within three days then thousands of Fatah loyalists would deploy across Gaza.

Dozens of Fatah gunmen surrounded the Palestinian parliament in the West Bank city of Ramallah in a show of force after the Rajab attack and issued a leaflet urging Abbas to dissolve the Hamas-led government and call new elections.

Several gun battles between Fatah and Hamas supporters erupted in Gaza on Friday after the new Hamas force began patrols earlier in the week and Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was caught with $800,000 at an Egypt-Gaza border crossing.

Hamas said Abu Zuhri was carrying Arab donations for the new government, which is desperately short of funds.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government faces international aid cuts unless the militant Islamist movement renounces violence, recognizes Israel and embraces existing peace plans.

Hamas leaders have so far refused to moderate the positions of the group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has vowed not to disband his new Hamas-led security force and said he might increase its numbers in defiance of Abbas and the United States.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah)



Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


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[keith]

Israeli airstrike kills militant commander
G
AZA (Reuters) - Israel killed a top militant commander and an unidentified Palestinian on Saturday in an airstrike on their car, medics said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the missile strike but would not specify who it targeted. A Palestinian family identified the body of the commander as Mohammed al-Dahdouh, an Islamic Jihad commander. Medics had said earlier that the man belonged to Hamas.

[keith]

Hamas force battles rivals in Gaza
By Nidal al-Mughrabi




A new Hamas militia battled gunmen from a Fatah-dominated security force near the Palestinian parliament in Gaza on Monday in fresh clashes that killed a Jordanian driver and wounded six bystanders.

The rival forces traded fire from rooftops, behind buildings and on a key street in Gaza City in the latest internal fighting that will compound fears of civil war breaking out in the impoverished territory of 1.4 million people.

Tensions have surged in the past week between Hamas, an Islamic militant movement that took power in March, and the long-dominant Fatah of President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas trounced Fatah in parliamentary elections last January.

Palestinian security sources said the Jordanian was driving a car with diplomatic license plates when he was caught in crossfire. Six civilian bystanders and a policeman were also wounded, medics added.

Hamas and Fatah accused each other of starting the battle. After more than two hours of fighting, sporadic shots still echoed through the largely deserted streets of the seaside city.

Some witnesses said members of the new Hamas-led militia returned fire after coming under attack.

Hamas officials said the assailants were from the Preventive Security agency, staffed by men loyal to Fatah. Ordinary police also joined the battle, witnesses said.

Palestinian security sources said the dead Jordanian, Khaled al-Radayda, was an administrative employee at his country's mission in Gaza and not a diplomat.

Al-Radayda was on his way to pick up Jordan's representative to the Palestinian Authority when the clash erupted. His blood was splattered all over the wheel and front seat of the car.

Hamas deployed its new 3,000-strong force in Gaza last week, prompting Abbas, a moderate, to order police onto the streets too. The rival forces clashed within barely a day.

Sustained conflict could cause serious bloodshed in densely packed Gaza City, cripple the Palestinian Authority and strengthen Israel's position to dictate borders that would seal its permanent control on swathes of occupied West Bank land.

WAR OF WORDS TOO

Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a spokesman for Fatah, said security would worsen if Hamas kept its new force on Gaza's streets in defiance of orders from Abbas to disband it. Abu Khoussa accused Hamas gunmen of firing rocket-propelled grenades at police headquarters in Gaza during Monday's clash.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the Hamas force members were defending themselves after coming under attack.

Apparent assassination attempts against two top Abbas commanders at the weekend -- one was badly wounded -- have also stoked worries of further strife in Gaza. Hamas has denied any responsibility for the two attacks.

Unidentified gunmen also killed a militant from Fatah overnight in Gaza. Fatah accused Hamas of killing the man. Hamas said the gunman was killed when he and another man tried to kidnap a Hamas member in the southern Gaza strip.

Hamas, which is formally committed to Israel's destruction, has largely abided by a truce in attacks on Israelis for the past 15 months. But it has bolstered its forces in its Gaza Strip stronghold as it attempts to face down internal rivals.

Fatah seeks a two-state solution to end the conflict.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Jerusalem)



Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


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[keith]

Al-Qaeda in Palestine Claims Responsibility for Assassination Attempt

An Internet statement posted by a group calling itself the Al-Qaeda Organization of the State of Palestine took credit for the assassination attempt against Palestinian intelligence chief Tareq Abu Rajab on May 20 (Middle East Times, May 21). The attack involved a bomb placed in the elevator at the Palestinian intelligence services' headquarters in Gaza; Abu Rajab was seriously injured in the blast and his bodyguard killed. The Internet statement also accused other Palestinian Authority officials of being "apostates" (AFP, May 21). The fact that the militants were able to plant a bomb in the intelligence services' headquarters has concerned other PA leaders. This latest incident comes against the backdrop of growing tension between Hamas and Fatah after the former's landslide victory in January's general elections. Despite the claim of responsibility, analysts are divided over whether al-Qaeda has established itself in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and whether or not this latest attack was truly the work of al-Qaeda operatives or of internal elements within the Palestinian factions (al-Jazeera, May 22).

[keith]

DEBKAfile Reports: A bomb planted in his car killed Nabil Hudhud, commander of the pro-Fatah preventive security service in Gaza Wednesday night

May 24, 2006, 7:33 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile’s exclusive sources report Hudhud was driving along the coastal road when his car blew up. The dead man was one of Mahmoud Abbas’ most important allies in the Gaza Strip, along with Mohammed Dahlan. Suspicion for the murder falls first on Hamas, which is engaged in a violent contest against Fatah and Abbas’ following. However, responsibility for the attempted assassination Saturday of another close Abbas associate, commander of Palestinian general intelligence General Tareq Abu Rajub, was taken by al Qaeda.

http://www.debka.com/

[Vancouver]

The Israelis have captured Hamas suicide bombing manager Ibrahim Hamed, in Ramallah. Hamas has confirmed that it is Hamed. He had been wanted for several years.

[Petronas]

Egypt / Palestinian Authority (Country threat level - 4/5): On 23 May 2006, Egypt's interior ministry reported that the Egyptian group Tawhid wal Jihad, which allegedly carried out three simultaneous suicide bombings in the Sinai last month, received support from Palestinian militants in Gaza and Egypt, adding that several members of the group went to the Gaza Strip for training in weapons and explosives. According to the same report, Egyptian security forces had verified that at least two members of the organization crossed into the Gaza Strip to prepare for the operation, but did not say whether the Palestinians involved in the attacks belonged to a specific group. They also named three Palestinian militants who financed their Egyptian counterparts and offered logistical support from Egypt. According to Egyptian security sources, the three Palestinians are in Egypt's custody. The Hamas-led Palestinian government has denied Cairo’s reports, which are likely to strain Egyptian-Palestinian relations at a time when the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority is trying to build up its relations in the world and with countries in the region amid international pressure and financial crisis.

Security experts have long suspected that cells linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network have been operating in the Gaza Strip. In March, Israeli authorities announced that they had detained two Palestinians from the West Bank city of Nablus late last year on suspicion of working for al-Qaeda, in the first such arrests by Israel. Meanwhile, Abbas said earlier the same month that his security services believed an al-Qaeda cell was operating in the Palestinian territories, while the head of Israel's anti-terrorist office said last October that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the Gaza Strip from Egypt's neighboring Sinai Peninsula after the withdrawal of Israeli troops the previous month.

http://www.airsecurity.com/hotspots/HotSpots.asp

[keith]

Abbas stuns Hamas with talk of referendum
By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer




Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he will call a national referendum on accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel if Hamas does not agree to the idea within 10 days.

Abbas' surprise announcement was a political gamble that could either help resolve the Palestinians' internal deadlock or lead them into a deeper crisis with the militant Hamas group.

Such a vote would effectively ask Palestinians to give implicit recognition to Israel by accepting a Palestinian state on land occupied by Israel in 1967. Approval of the 18-point plan would provide a way out of the impasse over acceptance of Israel, which has led to an international freeze on aid to the Hamas-led government.

Hamas officials were divided over the idea of a referendum, with several giving their blessing, but others dismissing it as an attempt to undercut the Hamas-led government.

A referendum, which Palestinian pollsters expect to pass, could provide cover for the militants to moderate without appearing to succumb to Western pressure. Such a vote could also renew pressure on Israel to return to the negotiating table rather than imposing borders on the Palestinians.

However, Amar Duaik, director of the Palestinian election commission, said calling a referendum might not be easy. He said the parliament would have to pass a referendum law or Abbas would have to issue a presidential decree.

"If there is no agreement (between Hamas and Fatah), I expect to have troubles and differences," Duaik said.

In Gaza, meanwhile, violence erupted again between Fatah and Hamas forces. A police officer was killed in the shootout in Gaza City, and the two sides blamed each other for starting it.

In the past week, 10 people have been killed in the Hamas-Fatah clashes, leading to concerns of a civil war. The talks in Ramallah were designed to defuse the crisis.

Abbas' proposal came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert returned from a trip to Washington, where he presented President Bush with a West Bank pullout plan. Olmert said if there is no breakthrough in long-stalled peace efforts in the coming months, Israel would withdraw from much of the West Bank, solidify its control of large settlement blocs and unilaterally draw its border with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians reject Olmert's unilateral plan, and Abbas' announcement Thursday appeared part of a hurried effort to show the world there is a willing Palestinian partner for negotiations with Israel.

Abbas said that if 10 days of dialogue between Hamas and his Fatah movement did not lead to a joint political platform, he would call a referendum 40 days after that. The dialogue began Thursday.

The referendum would ask Palestinians to either accept or reject a document that had been drafted earlier this month by senior Palestinian militants jailed in Israel. The five-page document calls for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

The draft was negotiated by leading prisoners from Hamas and Fatah over the period of four weeks at Israel's Hadarim Prison, where top Fatah prisoner Marwan Barghouti is being held.

The talks took place in a wing for Palestinian security prisoners, where 120 inmates are held, said Barghouti's lawyer, Khader Shkirat. After the factions' political leaders gave their blessing, Barghouti drafted an outline that was revised in the negotiations, Shkirat said. Many of the sessions took place in the prison yard.

Hamas is pledged to Israel's destruction and has rejected international demands that it recognize the Jewish state or renounce violence. The group appeared to soften its position since taking power in March, but has refused to explicitly give up its demands for an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine, which includes Israel.

It was not clear whether Abbas had briefed Hamas before the announcement on the referendum. Some Hamas officials said they had been taken by surprise, but said they support the idea.

"Returning to the people is one of the most important principles in democracy," said Parliament Speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik, of Hamas, who added that the prisoners' document was a good basis for dialogue.

However, Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri said that a referendum was a "coup against the democratic choice" of the Palestinians who swept Hamas into power in January parliament elections.

The smaller Islamic Jihad group, which also rejects the existence of Israel, said it opposed the referendum proposal.

Israeli officials declined to comment.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Abbas said he did not mean his proposal to be a game of brinkmanship, but said a national consensus was needed urgently.

"The situation is getting more dangerous. The whole nation is in danger. We can't wait for the rest of our lives," he said.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a close adviser to Abbas, said Hamas and the other Palestinian groups had to make a choice, "either to accept the prisoners' document as it is or to go to a referendum."

"Both solutions are satisfactory and can get us out of the impasse," he said. "All that the international community needs is there in this document and we think that they will accept it."

Palestinian pollster Nader Said of Bir Zeit University in Ramallah said he expected the referendum to pass because most Palestinians support a two-state solution.

"I think it has a very good chance to pass, I think it will get high support," he said, estimating it could pass by as much as two-thirds.

Abbas made his proposal at the start of a national conference of Palestinian factions intended to hammer out a joint Palestinian platform. The meeting was held by video conference between the West Bank city of Ramallah and the parliament building in Gaza City.

Abbas, usually a restrained speaker, spoke with unusual enthusiasm, repeatedly gesturing as he implored the gathered leaders to work together.

He said Hamas backed the proposal to call for a state in what are known as the 1967 borders.

"All the Palestinians, from Hamas to the Communists, all of us agree we want a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders," he said. "This is what we have, we cannot talk about dreams."

In an earlier speech to the gathering, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said his group would not moderate its positions to get the economic boycott imposed by the West after Hamas' election victory lifted.

"I want to assure here, and make it clear for all parties, that the Palestinian government and the Palestinian people will not make any compromise that harms the Palestinian goals and rights," he said.

Abbas has said that Hamas must moderate to regain international support for the Palestinian cause.

"The Arab countries are waiting for this realistic position, to work in harmony, to push the Palestinian cause ahead. They cannot do anything for the Palestinian cause if the (Palestinians) are rejecting everything," he said.

Both Abbas and Haniyeh called for an end to internal tensions that have repeatedly exploded into violence in recent days, leaving at least nine people dead.

"We are not going to engage in a Palestinian-Palestinian conflict," Haniyeh said.



Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060525/ap_on_re_mi_ea/palestinians_hamas_talks_10

[keith]

Al-Qaeda's Presence in the Territories

By Murad Al-shishani, Abdul Bakier

Other than launching Katyusha rockets at Israel in December 2005 and attempting to launch rockets at Eilat from Aqaba in Jordan in August 2005, al-Qaeda has not launched significant attacks against Israeli targets in the Middle East. Al-Qaeda has not been active in the Palestinian territories, although fighting Israel is a top priority of Salafi-Jihadist ideology. There were many indications, however, of al-Qaeda's desire to penetrate the Arab-Israeli conflict as a consequence of Israeli's pullout from Gaza; this explains why al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, criticized Hamas' participation in the peace process (al-Jazeera, April 3). The potential for al-Qaeda to penetrate the Arab-Israeli conflict exists, and it is important to understand the ideological perspective of Salafi-Jihadists toward Hamas, indications of al-Qaeda's role in the territories and al-Qaeda's chance for success.

Ideological Perspective Toward Hamas

On March 4, al-Jazeera aired a videotape of al-Zawahiri, who criticized Hamas for participating in the political process, calling on Hamas not to recognize Israel and the agreements signed by the "Secular Palestinian Authorities with Israel." It further warned Hamas not to participate in the "American game called political participation" (al-Jazeera, March 4). Al-Zawahiri's perspective in criticizing the participation of Hamas in the political process is not a new one. He previously criticized Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood for participating in the political process in a long book he wrote, titled Bitter Harvest, focusing on their "wrong" belief in political participation. Likewise, the Salafi-Jihadist perspective on Hamas revolves around the same connotation, even though this perspective is not publicized.

The Salafi-Jihadist ideologue Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi once wrote an article entitled "Hamas Mojard Hamas" ("Hamas is Just Enthusiasm"), resenting its alliance with the secular Palestinian forces and Hamas' criticism of the suicide attacks by al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. He wrote, "we remark that there is no prohibition on the existence of Hamas or whomever on the right path that seek to elevate Allah's word. There is good in Palestine and elsewhere, but our criticism of the so-called Hamas is because it has delayed the big holy war in Palestine and distorted the fundamentals of the religion which can never be argued or renounced for political gains" (http://www.tawhed.ws, 2004).

In the same context, al-Qaeda ideologue in Saudi Arabia Abu Jandal al-Azdi (also known as Faris al-Zahrani), currently imprisoned there, criticized Hamas for its support of late Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Yasser Arafat and for believing in democracy, deeming the PNA apostates that should be fought on par with Israel (http://www.tawhed.ws, 2003). Also, the Salafi-Jihadist ideologue in Iraq, Abu Anas al-Shami (also known as Omar Yossif Joma'a), called Hamas an incomplete Islamic movement due to its cooperation with ideas of "citizenship" and "political participation."

Al-Zawahiri's pep talk presents al-Qaeda as an alternative to Hamas. Al-Zawahiri stated clearly that "Jihad and Sharia" are the only alternatives (al-Jazeera, April 3). This explains al-Maqdisi's continuing aspiration to move the Salafi-Jihadist ideology "west of the river Jordan" (http://www.alasr.ws, December 25, 2004). Therefore, it is noteworthy that the Salafi-Jihadists are trying to penetrate the Arab-Israeli conflict zone. It is also what Osama bin Laden expressed in two of his speeches—in October 2001 and in October 2004—when he linked the September 11 attacks to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and vowed that the security of the United States is connected with that of the Palestinians. If this is an ideological aspiration of al-Qaeda, what is the potential of implementing that reality?

Al-Qaeda and the Territories

In an interview with al-Hayat, PNA President Mahmoud Abbas stated that there are strong indications of al-Qaeda's presence in Gaza and the West Bank (al-Hayat, March 2). Also, Jordanian authorities indicated the presence of an al-Qaeda cell in Gaza (al-Hayat, April 4). In May 2005, the Palestinian Azzam Abu al-Adas from Balata refugee camp in Nablus, studying in Jordan, was recruited in the Jordanian city of Irbid by Abdullah (also known as Abu Qudama) and Mo'taz Omar Seelawi, both members of al-Qaeda. They instructed Azzam to set up a terrorist cell in Gaza to perpetrate terrorist attacks against Israeli industrial facilities to undermine the Israeli economy; Azzam recruited Bilal Hafanawi from Gaza to assist in the operation. Bilal is a former Hamas activist who was heading a cell for al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades/Fatah in Gaza. On January 10, Israeli authorities arrested Azzam and Bilal as they were crossing from Jordan into PNA territories. On February 2, both men were tried and charged in an Israeli military court for attempting terror attacks in Israel. This case indicated real mobilization of the Salafi-Jihadist movement westward, particularly to Gaza. This is logical due to the lack of Israeli control over the dense population of potential recruits in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli withdrawal. Furthermore, the pro-Hamas al-Risalah newspaper indicated the increasing support for al-Qaeda ideology in southern Gaza, particularly in Rafah and Khan Yunis districts (al-Risalah, March 9).

The dissidence of Hamas' right wing that opposes peaceful solution of the conflict and the May 8 announcement of a group claiming affiliation with al-Qaeda called Jaish al-Quds al-Islami (Islamic Army of Jerusalem) were the expected outcomes of Hamas' participation in the political process (al-Ghad, May 9). Hamas' success in the elections increased the chances of al-Qaeda's penetration for the following reasons. By shifting away from the right-wing, Hamas left Islamic Jihad alone and created a vacuum exploited by al-Qaeda through the rumor that the commander of Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades (the military wing of Hamas), Muhammad Daif (also known as Muhammad Diab al-Missri), had switched to al-Qaeda. Hamas denied the rumor. Regardless of the validity of the rumor, it strongly indicates that the discord between the military and political wings of Hamas is expected to intensify in the future. On the other hand, pressure on Hamas will weaken it and prove true what Nehemia Strasler, an Israeli analyst in Haaretz, said: "And so Israel will continue imposing sanctions and a political boycott, and the radicals, such as Islamic Jihad, will become stronger. And when the Palestinian nation comes to the conclusion that neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad have managed to improve the conditions, it will turn to the most radical of all, to al-Qaeda" (Haaretz, February 21).

Externally, Hamas is facing a real challenge to proceed from political participation to the peace process. Internally, Hamas has to improve the economic conditions of the Palestinians, a top priority according to recent polls conducted in the territories. It seems that as a consequence of the external and internal factors, al-Qaeda is counting on the failure of Hamas. The last factor is connected to Al-Qaeda in Iraq which is more Shami (a geographical term used in Arabic to describe Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq) in its outlook. This explains why it may become active in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and on the Gaza border in the Sinai desert, a weak area lacking development, education and suffering from poor socio-economic conditions (al-Hayat, May 7). Sinai was targeted more than five times last year. Tacking westward seems a substantive decision of al-Qaeda considering its constant efforts to create a safe haven for its operations, and the ideological priority of the Palestinian issue.

Conclusion

The factors mentioned above play a major role in the possible penetration by Salafi-Jihadists into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These factors are divided into local, regional and international levels. Al-Aqsa press noted the increasing popularity of al-Zarqawi among Palestinian youths as a consequence of his latest videotape aired on al-Jazeera (al-Jazeera, May 6). Al-Aqsa said that even the head cover that al-Zarqawi wore in the tape became a vogue among Palestinian youths. Most significant is that those youths express the duty to fight traitors in the PNA in conformity with al-Qaeda's pep talk instigating the killing of apostates and Israelis. It seems that the proclamation of responsibility for the attempted assassination of the head of the Palestinian intelligence services on May 21 by a new group calling itself Al-Qaeda Organization of the State of Palestine is contextual. Therefore, all parties, including the international ones, should not push the Arab-Israeli conflict into a dangerous slide and escalation that is bound to occur if al-Qaeda enters the conflict. Despite the obstacles that al-Qaeda faces in penetrating the Arab-Israeli conflict area as a result of the highly politicized nature of the Palestinian people, Hamas' possible failure in the political process and the regression of other Palestinian parties will make it that much easier for al-Qaeda to penetrate.

Palestinian political parties need restructuring to be able to understand the political variants of the region; more importantly, they need to keep their cadres from switching to al-Qaeda. Hamas has to create a balance between internal support and recognition by the international community. Israel, on its part, has to realize the threat of Salafi-Jihadist success in penetrating the area. Fewer Palestinian political options mean a greater chance of violence prevailing over politics.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2370017

[keith]

Fatah deploys new W Bank militia

The deadline set by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is looming
A new militia loyal to Palestinian head Mahmoud Abbas has taken up positions in the West Bank town of Jenin.
This comes a few weeks after the Hamas-led government deployed its own new force in Gaza.

The commander of the new militia said it would support the official forces. But the Hamas deputy PM Nasser Shaer has denounced it as "unacceptable".

Correspondents say the creation of the militia is likely to worsen tensions between Hamas and Mr Abbas' Fatah.

The head of the new force, Ata Abu Rimela, said there was no connection between the new Fatah force and the Hamas force.

"This force is directed against nobody, it only aims to protect the Palestinian national project," he told the AFP news agency.

Mr Abbas is reported to have begun meeting with leaders of the various political factions to try and settle their differences, but the Hamas representative is said to be absent.

Mr Abbas warned on 25 May that he would call a referendum on an initiative drawn up by jailed faction leaders if rival factions failed to agree a political programme within 10 days.

It sets out formal Palestinian claims to an independent state on land occupied by Israel in 1967, as well as the right of all Palestinian refugees to return to former homes inside Israel.

Salary issue

Earlier on Saturday, Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razeq said some 40,000 Palestinian civil servants were to be paid a month's salary on Monday.

On Friday, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya promised all government employees would be paid within two days.

The authority's 165,000-strong workforce has not been paid for more than three months.

The financial crisis began when Western donors halted direct aid after the election of Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel or renounce violence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5045206.stm

[keith]

Armed groups threaten Palestinian banks

The armed wing of Hamas and three other groups have threatened Palestinian banks if they do not transfer salaries to civil servants, who remain unpaid since late February.

"The national banks were created to serve the interests of the Palestinian people. If their mission has changed and they become an instrument of the siege we will treat them as those who besiege the Palestinians," the statement signed by Hamas's Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades said Sunday.

The other signatories were the Popular Resistance Committees and two cells that operate under the umbrella of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

"It is not normal for some of our institutions to become instruments of coercion against our people and apply the policy of deprivation plotted by our enemies," said the text.

"We will not remain silent in face of those who starve our children," the joint statement added.

The Palestinian Authority vowed on Saturday that civil servants will finally receive their salaries early next week amid growing discontent after months without pay and successive delays.

It was the fourth time in a week that the Hamas-led government, grappling with a financial crisis after Western countries cut off direct aid, has promised the government's 160,000 civil servants imminent paychecks.

Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya has himself blamed US pressure for the reason why banks have not transferred money for Palestinian salaries.

Government employees have not been paid for months, affecting the livelihoods of around one million people -- a quarter of those living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The European Union and United States suspended direct aid after Hamas took office in March given the Islamists' refusal to renounce violence, recognise Israel or abide by previous peace agreements.

Israel has also suspended the payment of customs duties, worth around 60 million dollars a month, to the Palestinian Authority on goods that transit through its territory.




Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060604/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianhamaseconomy

[keith]

Palestinian workers get salaries

Many families had sold their valuables to buy food
Some Palestinian government workers have started withdrawing their salaries for the first time in three months.
Officials said money had been paid into the accounts of the 40,000 lowest-paid staff - those who earn 1,500 shekels ($325; £174) a month or less.

The finance minister said the other 125,000 staff would have to wait.

The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has faced a financial crunch since Western donors cut off funding, accusing Hamas of being a terrorist group.

Witnesses said some of the 40,000 workers had already been able to take their money out of Bank of Palestine cash machines in Gaza.

The announcement that the money was available came shortly after four Palestinian armed groups said they would target banks if they failed to transfer salaries to government employees.

Relief

"I did not believe that the salary would ever be paid again. I don't believe it even now," said policeman Mohammed al-Qilani, after withdrawing his cash, reports Reuters news agency.

BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston says civil servants normally support a quarter of the Palestinian population and the sudden halting of their pay plunged this whole battered economy into turmoil.

Many families have been selling off their valuables to buy food.

But these payments are going only to the poorest quarter of the workforce - and even those employees will only receive one month's pay although they are owed for three.

Our correspondent says this round of small payments will come as a relief to some of the hardest-hit families, but the wider picture here is one of a profound and deepening economic crisis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5046702.stm

[keith]

Five bystanders killed in Gaza shootings: medics
Sun Jun 4, 4:56 PM ET



Palestinian gunmen killed five bystanders in two separate shooting incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as tension between rival factions in the impoverished territory deteriorated even further.

In the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis gunmen killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and another family member and wounded her husband and his brother, a Hamas militant, hospital sources said.

Witnesses said gunmen, whose identity was unclear, shot at local Hamas leader Mohammad al-Ghalban as he was traveling in a car with family members after dark in the town.

The motive for the shooting was not known, but local Hamas militia blamed rival Fatah gunmen and deployed in the streets as tensions rose.

Ghalban and his brother, who was critically wounded, were being treated at a Gaza hospital, medics said.

In a separate incident in Gaza City, three bystanders were killed in the crossfire as Hamas militants returned fire at unknown gunmen, local witnesses said. The three victims, all male, were pronounced dead at a Gaza hospital, medics said.

The incident took place not far from the home of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

The deaths are the first since a Palestinian security officer was killed and seven were wounded in clashes between rival Fatah and Hamas factions in Gaza last Thursday, underscoring growing tension in the coastal strip.

The clashes have disrupted a tenuous peace in place since President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's leader, and Haniyeh's Hamas-led government began talks last month to try to end violence in Gaza.




Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060604/wl_nm/mideast_violence_dc_2

[Vancouver]

Muhammad Sari, said to be a senior in Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, has been killed in an explosion in Jabalya, Gaza Strip. Two others injured. Cause not yet known.

[Vancouver]

A couple more bit the dust today: Emad Assaliya and Majdi Hammad of the Popular Resistance Committees. Rocket attack on their car, from a chopper.

[NYer]

The Palestinian Referendum ...
by Armed Liberal at WindsofChange.net

Via Global Voices, I got linked to the blog of Palestinian Daoud Kuttab, who discusses the internal implications of the referendum being called by Abbas.

Abbas’ referendum has exposed a simmering split within the Islamic resistance movement, which Hamas tried to keep behind the scenes. It has shown at least three different positions vis-à-vis recognition of Israel. Ironically, it turns out that the most moderate position within Hamas belongs to those in prison; those in the bigger prison of occupation and siege are not as moderate and those completely free in Syria are the most radical.

A deeper look reveals the obvious. Everyone knows that the balance of forces is not in favour of the Palestinians. So the differences of opinion are often focused on accepting a compromise now or waiting for the possibility of a better deal later; optimists hope the balance of forces will redress in the Palestinians’ favour. The more restrictive the conditions people live in the more they see the need for short-term relief and not just long-term dreams.

Hamas’ leaders in Damascus can wait for a long time because their daily lives are not affected by occupation, siege and imprisonment. There is an appropriate Arabic proverb. “Those who are feeling the whip are not like those counting the number of flogs.”

There is an even more important reason why prisoners and those under occupation have a more pragmatic point of view. A quick look at the Palestinian and Arab positions over the past half a century does not give much hope that things will be any better in 10 or 20 years. On the contrary, an honest look will show an erosion of the political programme. What we accept today (the 1967 borders) we rejected some time ago, and so on. Therefore, prisoners, whether behind bars or behind checkpoints, are not willing to waste their lives waiting five or ten years for their leaders to accept what they are rejecting now.

Interesting...
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/008673.php

[NYer]

From Rantburg ...

Israeli Airstrike gets Top Hamas Enforcer (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198790,00.html) in Gaza.

http://rantburg.com/images/tombstone.jpg
Image from Rantburg

An Israeli air strike Thursday on a Palestinian militants' training camp killed the Hamas government's security chief, Jamal Abu Samhadana, his militant faction and Palestinian hospital officials said.

Abu Samhadana, leader of the small Popular Resistance Committees faction, was a key player in rocket attacks on Israel and a suspect in the fatal 2003 bombing of a U.S. convoy in the Gaza Strip. His recent appointment as director general of the Hamas-led Interior Ministry infuriated both Israel and Hamas' Fatah rivals, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

[keith]

Hamas calls off truce with Israel after 10 die
By Nidal al-Mughrabi




Islamic militant group Hamas called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel on Friday after attacks blamed on Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including three children playing on a beach.

Israel's army, which had been shelling northern Gaza to curb rocket fire by militants, said it was investigating the deaths.

Hamas, sworn to destroying the Jewish state, vowed to revive a campaign marked by suicide bombings that it put on hold well before winning elections that gave it control of the Palestinian government in March.

Renewed violence could bury Western hopes of pressuring Hamas to soften its stand and raise questions over a referendum that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas planned on a statehood proposal implicitly recognizing Israel.

"The Israeli massacres represent a direct opening battle," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement echoed by its political leaders.

"The earthquake in the Zionist cities will resume and the herds of occupiers have no choice but to prepare the coffins or the departing luggage."

There was no immediate comment on Hamas's announcement from Israel or from Abbas, locked in a power struggle with the Islamists.

Palestinian officials said Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 10 Palestinians in Gaza, the highest Palestinian toll in a single day since 2004. Seven people, including five from the same family, were killed in what Palestinian officials said was Israeli shellfire from boats on to a crowded beach.

Among the dead were three children, aged 1, 3 and 10. Their sister, who had been swimming, survived. Twenty people were wounded. Covered in blood, children screamed as adults carried the wounded and dead from the sand.

Israel regularly shells parts of the northern Gaza Strip used by militants to fire rockets over the border. The army said it had suspended all shelling and begun an investigation. A commander said he regretted any civilian deaths.

ARMY INVESTIGATING

"We did not fire into a place where there were innocents," Major-General Yoav Galant told reporters. "We are exploring two possibilities, a wrongly aimed artillery shell or an independent incident we were not involved in."

He did not say who else might have been behind the deaths.

In a separate incident, an Israeli airstrike killed three men that the army said it believed had just fired rockets into Israel. Palestinians said the men were civilians.

Militants had stepped up rocket fire from Gaza on Friday following Israel's killing on Thursday of senior militant Abu Samhadana, who had also been appointed by Hamas as a top security commander.

Abbas called the deaths on the beach "a bloody massacre" and declared three days of mourning.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, also a Hamas leader and a political opponent of Abbas, called the deaths a "war crime" and urged Jordan and Egypt, both mediators in past Israeli-Palestinian talks, to intervene.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri confirmed the militant group would renew its attacks.

"I believe that amid the continued bloodshed of our people and the horrific images of massacres, there is no place for silence," Abu Zuhri said.

The bloodshed on Friday added to tensions after Haniyeh made a last-minute appeal to Abbas to abandon a referendum on a statehood proposal that has been rejected by the Islamist group.

Abbas was expected to issue a decree on Saturday that would allow a referendum by July 31, setting a date for a showdown with Hamas.

Haniyeh said it had "no legal and constitutional basis."

The proposed manifesto implicitly recognizes Israel by calling for a Palestinian state on all of the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year.

(Additional reporting by Jerusalem and Ramallah bureaus)



Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060609/ts_nm/mideast_dc_48

[Vancouver]

From Rantburg ...

Israeli Airstrike gets Top Hamas Enforcer (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,198790,00.html) in Gaza.
The three people liquidated along with Jamal Abu Samhadana were his bodyguards, according to Debka.

[harb]

Qassam Brigades break long lull, retaliate to IOF massacre
By
Jun 10, 2006, 11:24


Gaza - Armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, at dawn Saturday rattled Israeli settlements and Ashkelon city in the 1948-occupied Palestinian lands with seven home-made Qassam missiles in primary retaliation to the IOF "horrendous massacre" of Palestinian citizens spending their holiday on Gaza beach on Friday.

The IOF carnage claimed 15 innocent lives in less than 24 hours, including children and women in addition to scores of wounded civilians in air, sea, and land bombarding of Gaza Strip Thursday and Friday.

In a statement they issued and a copy of which was faxed to the PIC, the Brigades claimed responsibility for rocking the IOF Kissufim military outpost with two missiles, the Meigen Kibbutz with four missiles, and Ashkelon city with one missile.

The Brigades vowed that they won't allow any IOF crime pass unpunished, warning Israeli settlers of "earthshaking and unanticipated reprisal".

More locally-made Palestinian missiles were fired by other wings of Palestinian resistance factions, and slammed into Israeli settlements.

The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (AMB), martyr Ayman Joudah Branch claimed responsibility for shelling the Israeli Kfar Azza settlement with two Aqsa missiles and another three missiles were fired on the same settlement and the Sderot settlement by the missiles' unit of the AMB.

The Quds Brigades, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, for their parts, rocked the Kissufim military position with two Quds-2 rockets.

The armed wings of the Palestinian factions vowed to continue the path of resistance till full liberation of every inch of usurped Palestinian lands.


© Copyright palestine-info.co.uk

http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/uploads/qassam_missiles.jpg

[harb]

The latest death toll is now 14 innocent victims...

Source: http://www.alqassam.ps/english/reports/230.htm

[Vancouver]

Jerusalem Post:
The IDF killed a wanted Aksa Martyrs' Brigade operative in Nablus [West Bank] on Friday and arrested another fugitive.
The forces were surrounding a building in the city, where several fugitives were holed up, Israel Radio reported. Occasional exchanges of fire erupted between the IDF and the Palestinians in the building.

[Vancouver]

According to this Hamas-friendly newspaper
http://www.pnn.ps/english/
the Israelis have raided the offices of half a dozen Hamas "charities" in Nablus and Bethlehem, taking away computers and files. Maybe they're gathering evidence against the gov't members they have arrested.

[keith]

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas and two allied terrorist groups getting set for showdown with Israel in S. Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis

July 9, 2006, 1:37 PM (GMT+02:00)

Whereas Palestinian combat in northern and easter Gaza was confined to scattered RPG and anti-tank missile fire by small teams, Hamas, the Jihad Islami and the Popular Resistance Committees are preparing for a major showdown in the south. Tall earthworks to fortify the two towns against Israel attack are going up using heavy equipment impounded from local farmers and builders. The walls are meant to impede the advance of Israeli armored columns and give Palestinian anti-tank missile squads the advantage of height for attacks.

Hamas is also collecting ground-air missiles to hit the Israeli helicopters targeting teams of gunmen. Many streets in Rafah and Khan Younes have been booby-trapped and mined. Israeli intelligence estimates that Hamas will hold back from major attacks in the next two or three days while conducting close surveillance of IDF and Shin Bet methods of operation. This explains why they are not using the Grad rockets in their arsenal. But any Israeli military escalation may well be met by a large-scale attack on Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip or a major terrorist attack in Israel, accompanied by the shooting of the Grad rockets.

http://www.debka.com/

[Petronas]

Mideast terror leaders to U.S.: Vote Democrat
Posted: November 2, 2006 9:27 a.m. Eastern

JERUSALEM – Everybody has an opinion about next Tuesday's midterm congressional election in the U.S. – including senior terrorist leaders interviewed by WND who say they hope Americans sweep the Democrats into power because of the party's position on withdrawing from Iraq, a move, as they see it, that ensures victory for the worldwide Islamic resistance.

The terrorists told WorldNetDaily an electoral win for the Democrats would prove to them Americans are "tired." They rejected statements from some prominent Democrats in the U.S. that a withdrawal from Iraq would end the insurgency, explaining an evacuation would prove resistance works and would compel jihadists to continue fighting until America is destroyed.

They said a withdrawal would also embolden their own terror groups to enhance "resistance" against Israel. "Of course Americans should vote Democrat," Jihad Jaara, a senior member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, told WND.

"This is why American Muslims will support the Democrats, because there is an atmosphere in America that encourages those who want to withdraw from Iraq. It is time that the American people support those who want to take them out of this Iraqi mud," said Jaara, speaking to WND from exile in Ireland, where he was sent as part of an internationally brokered deal that ended the church siege.

Jaara was the chief in Bethlehem of the Brigades, the declared "military wing" of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Brigades has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing inside Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israelis.

Muhammad Saadi, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, said the Democrats' talk of withdrawal from Iraq makes him feel "proud." "As Arabs and Muslims we feel proud of this talk," he told WND. "Very proud from the great successes of the Iraqi resistance. This success that brought the big superpower of the world to discuss a possible withdrawal."

Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' military wing in the Gaza Strip, said the policy of withdrawal "proves the strategy of the resistance is the right strategy against the occupation." "We warned the Americans that this will be their end in Iraq," said Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas' declared "resistance" department. "They did not succeed in stealing Iraq's oil, at least not at a level that covers their huge expenses. They did not bring stability. Their agents in the [Iraqi] regime seem to have no chance to survive if the Americans withdraw."

Abu Ayman, an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin, said he is "emboldened" by those in America who compare the war in Iraq to Vietnam. "[The mujahedeen fighters] brought the Americans to speak for the first time seriously and sincerely that Iraq is becoming a new Vietnam and that they should fix a schedule for their withdrawal from Iraq," boasted Abu Ayman.

The terror leaders spoke as the debate regarding the future of America's war in Iraq has perhaps become the central theme of midterm elections, with most Democrats urging a timetable for withdrawal and Republicans mostly advocating staying the course in Iraq. President Bush has even said he would send more troops if Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Baghdad, said they are needed to stabilize the region. The debate became especially poignant following remarks by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the 2004 presidential candidate who voted in support of the war in Iraq. Earlier this week he intimated American troops are uneducated, and it is the uneducated who "get stuck in Iraq." Kerry, under intense pressure from fellow Democrats, now says his remarks were a "botched joke."

Many Democratic politicians and some from the Republican Party have stated a withdrawal from Iraq would end the insurgency there. In a recent interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, stated, "The jihadists (are) in Iraq. But that doesn't mean we stay there. They'll stay there as long as we're there." Pelosi would become House speaker if the Democrats win the majority of seats in next week's elections.

WND read Pelosi's remarks to the terror leaders, who unanimously rejected her contention an American withdrawal would end the insurgency. Islamic Jihad's Saadi, laughing, stated, "There is no chance that the resistance will stop." He said an American withdrawal from Iraq would "prove the resistance is the most important tool and that this tool works. The victory of the Iraqi revolution will mark an important step in the history of the region and in the attitude regarding the United States."

Jihad Jaara said an American withdrawal would "mark the beginning of the collapse of this tyrant empire (America). Therefore, a victory in Iraq would be a greater defeat for America than in Vietnam." Jaara said vacating Iraq would also "reinforce Palestinian resistance organizations, especially from the moral point of view. But we also learn from these (insurgency) movements militarily. We look and learn from them."

Hamas' Abu Abdullah argued a withdrawal from Iraq would "convince those among the Palestinians who still have doubts in the efficiency of the resistance. The victory of the resistance in Iraq would prove once more that when the will and the faith are applied victory is not only a slogan. We saw that in Lebanon (during Israel's confrontation against Hezbollah there in July and August); we saw it in Gaza (after Israel withdrew from the territory last summer) and we will see it everywhere there is occupation," Abdullah said.

While the terror leaders each independently urged American citizens to vote for Democratic candidates, not all believed the Democrats would actually carry out a withdrawal from Iraq. Saadi stated, "Unfortunately I think those who are speaking about a withdrawal will not do so when they are in power and these promises will remain electoral slogans. It is not enough to withdraw from Iraq. They must withdraw from Afghanistan and from every Arab and Muslim land they occupy or have bases." He called both Democrats and Republicans "agents of the Zionist lobby in the U.S."

Abu Abdullah commented once Democrats are in power "the question is whether such a courageous leadership can [withdraw]. I am afraid that even after the American people will elect those who promise to leave Iraq, the U.S. will not do so. I tell the American people vote for withdrawal. Abandon Israel if you want to save America. Now will this Happen? I do not believe it."

Still Jihad Jaara said the alternative is better than Bush's party. "Bush is a sick person, an alcoholic person that has no control of what is going on around him. He calls to send more troops but will very soon get to the conviction that the violence and terror that his war machine is using in Iraq will never impose policies and political regimes in the Arab world."

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52747

[Petronas]

Wired teddy bears found in West Bank
11/25/2006 9:35:00 AM -0500

Wired teddy bears to be used for explosives were found in an Israeli raid of an explosives lab in the West Bank city of Nablus, military officials said. Israeli paratroopers and intelligence officials also found cloth belts that could contain explosives, a hollow coat used for hiding explosives and 20 light bulbs and sockets used for activating explosives, officials said Saturday. The lab was detonated in a controlled manner and no one was injured, Israel's Ynet News reported. Israel did not say who was owned the lab.

Most terror suspects arrested in the West Bank city this year were affiliated with the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and Hamas

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061125-091535-7459r

[Petronas]

Christians in Palestine and daily extremist hostility
24 November, 2006

Christians in Palestine have warned of increasing hostility against them in an atmosphere of intimidation and abuse by Muslim extremists who are largely allowed to act with impunity. Members of the Bethlehem community told AsiaNews what has been going on, asking to remain anonymous because of the precarious situation.

The latest episode dates back to 4 November, when armed men belonging to the “Islamic Jihad” broke into Bethlehem’s International Centre run by the Lutheran Church. An evening activity was under way, attended by consuls from European countries, foreign representatives known for their commitment towards the Palestinian people, religious leaders and exponents of local civil society. All of a sudden, armed men invaded the hall, led by Issa Marzouq, an official of Bethlehem’s town administration, and affiliated to the “Islamic Jihad”. The man went on stage and accused those present of betrayal. “You should be ashamed,” he said. “People die while you are here making shows with singing and dancing.” Marzouq broke the microphones and ordered the public to leave within five minutes or else he would start shooting. Eye witnesses said: “Police quickly arrived on the spot but they just looked on.”

A few days later, the Lutheran pastor, Mitri Al-Rahib, called a meeting with the governor of Bethlehem, the media and local authorities. He talked about the “serious lack of public security” that is jeopardizing the life of Christians. At the end of the discussion, a statement about what happened was drafted, but its publication was prevented on the pretext that the governor himself would tackle the episode, together with similar incidents, in an apposite setting. Naturally, no such initiative was taken, continued the sources.

The incident at the Lutheran Church centre is only the most recent one. Residents said that in mid-October, an argument between two youth – a Christian and a Muslim in Bethlehem – erupted into a hunt for Christians. A group of young boys were stopping students on the road, demanding to know what religion they belong to, with the clear intent of beating those who said they were Christian. Even this time, the police just looked on. ...

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=7838

[Petronas]

WND Interviews Suicide Bomber: 'I Want To Please Allah'
19:42 Nov 26, '06 / 5 Kislev 5767

A hopeful suicide bomber in Jenin told a Jewish interviewer from WorldNet Daily "The goal is not the killing of the Jews, but that this is the way to reach Allah." Speaking with Aaron Klein, a Jew, the unnamed man said he is not poor or desperate, as suicide bombers often are described, and explained, "I pray that Allah gives me the honor to be dead in an operation. This is the supreme and the noblest way to ascend to Allah."

He said he has been taught to hate the "Zionist entity" and not Jews as such. He told Klein, "Enjoy your tea and our hospitality before I send you to hell. You are here and nobody hurts you and nobody thinks to do so. But if, unfortunately for you, if you will be in a place where my [suicide] operation will take place, I will not feel sorrow."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=116308

[Petronas]

Christians Flee Growing Islamic Fundamentalism in the Holy Land
6 December 2006

The Christian population of the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has sharply declined in recent decades, as tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to live abroad. Those who remain comprise a beleaguered and dwindling minority. In sharp contrast, Israel's Christian community has prospered and grown by at least 270 percent since the founding of the state. ...

Palestinian Christians have a higher rate of emigration compared to Palestinian Muslims and the Christian population of the West Bank and Gaza has plunged from about 20 percent after World War II to less than 1.7 percent now. Tens of thousands have abandoned their holy sites and ancestral properties to live abroad. ...

... two-thirds of the Christian Arabs had already departed between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip, prior to the "occupation" and decades before construction began on the security barrier to protect Israel's population from waves of deadly suicide bombers. During the same period, hundreds of thousands of Christians were leaving other Muslim-ruled countries in the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa. Every one of the more than twenty Muslim states in the Middle East has a declining Christian population. In fact, Israel is the only state in the region in which the Christian Arab population has grown in real terms - from approximately 34,000 in 1948 to nearly 130,000 in 2005. ...

http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=377&PID=0&IID=1371

[Petronas]

Hamas: we will never recognise Israel
Friday December 8, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, today said his Hamas-led government will never recognise Israel and will continue to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem.

"We will never recognise the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem," Mr Haniyeh told thousands of Friday prayer worshippers at Tehran University in Iran.

The comments underline the difficulty of the task confronting Tony Blair, who confirmed yesterday at a joint press conference in Washington with George Bush that he is to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in a last push for peace before he leaves office next year. Mr Haniyeh, who is on his first foreign visit since his Hamas-led government took office in March after a surprise election victory, called Iran, a long-time ally of Hamas, the Palestinians' "strategic depth".

"They (Israelis) assume the Palestinian nation is alone. This is an illusion ... We have a strategic depth in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This country (Iran) is our powerful, dynamic and stable depth," he said. Mr Haniyeh is in Iran for talks with Iranian leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1967676,00.html

[Petronas]

It is only a question of time. Look at any country where there originally were both Muslims and Christians - the percentage of Muslims sooner or later approaches 100%, unless the country is partitioned like India. Lebanon will go the same way.

O, Muslim town of Bethlehem...
16th December 2006

All is quiet in Bethlehem. On Manger Square, the Church of the Nativity stands in the pale gloom of dusk, its doors open to passing pilgrims. But inside, the nave is empty of visitors and the collection boxes depleted of coins. In the candlelit grotto downstairs, a silver star marks the spot where Jesus is supposed to have been born. It is one of the most sacred sites in Christendom, but there are no tourists queuing to see it.

Just 500 yards down the road, Joseph Canawati is not looking forward to Christmas. The expansive lobby of his 77-room Hotel Alexander is empty and he says: "There is no hope for the future of the Christian community. "We don't think things are going to get better. For us, it is finished." Life for Palestinian Christians such as 50-year-old Joseph has become increasingly difficult in Bethlehem - and many of them are leaving.

The town's Christian population has dwindled from more than 85 per cent in 1948 to 12 per cent of its 60,000 inhabitants in 2006. There are reports of religious persecution, in the form of murders, beatings and land grabs.

Meanwhile, the breakdown in security is putting off tourists, leading to economic hardship for Christians, who own most of the town's hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops.

The situation has become so desperate that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, are to lead a joint delegation to Bethlehem this week to express their solidarity with the beleaguered Christian populace. The town, according to the Cardinal, is being "steadily strangled".

The sense of a creeping Islamic fundamentalism is all around in Bethlehem. A mosque on one side of Manger Square stands directly opposite the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, while in the evening the muezzin's call to prayer clashes with the peal of church bells. Shops selling Santa Claus outfits and mother-of-pearl statuettes of the Virgin Mary have their shutters painted a sun-bleached green, the colour of Islam. And in the Al-Jacir Palace, Bethlehem's only luxury hotel, there is a baubled Christmas tree in reception and a card showing the direction of Mecca in the rooms.

George Rabie, a 22-year-old taxi driver from the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala, is proud of his Christianity, even though it puts him in daily danger. Two months ago, he was beaten up by a gang of Muslims who were visiting Bethlehem from nearby Hebron and who had spotted the crucifix hanging on his windscreen. "Every day, I experience discrimination," he says. "It is a type of racism. We are a minority so we are an easier target. Many extremists from the villages are coming into Bethlehem."

Jeriez Moussa Amaro, a 27-year-old aluminium craftsman from Beit Jala is another with first-hand experience of the appalling violence that Christians face. Five years ago, his two sisters, Rada, 24, and Dunya, 18, were shot dead by Muslim gunmen in their own home. Their crime was to be young, attractive Christian women who wore Western clothes and no veil. Rada had been sleeping with a Muslim man in the months before her death.

A terrorist organisation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, issued a statement claiming responsibility, which said: "We wanted to clean the Palestinian house of prostitutes."

Jeriez says: "A Christian man is weak compared to a Muslim man. They have bigger, more powerful families and they know people high up in the Palestinian authority."

The fear of attack has prompted many Christian families to emigrate, including Mr Canawati's sister, her husband and their three children who now live in New Jersey in America. "I want to leave but nobody will buy my business," Mr Canawati says. "I feel trapped. We are isolated."

This isolation was heightened when, last year, Bethlehem found itself behind Israel's security wall, a 400-mile-long concrete barrier which separates Jewish and Palestinian areas and is designed to stop suicide bombers - in 2004, half the Israeli fatalities caused by such attacks were committed by extremists from Bethlehem.

Last year, tourists trying to get to the town were forced to queue for hours as their papers were checked, while Bethlehem inhabitants going the other way must now apply for an infrequently granted permit to visit Jerusalem, barely ten minutes away by car. "It is like living in a prison," says Shadt Abu-Ayash, a 29-year-old Roman Catholic shopkeeper.

The Roman Catholic Mayor of Bethlehem, Dr Victor Batarseh, says: "The political situation in Lebanon and the instability of politics in Palestine has affected tourism and pilgrimage. Hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops are owned by mostly Christians so it affects them badly. We have 65 per cent unemployment and about 2,000 bedrooms in hotels that are empty."

Bethlehem's hotel owners estimate that tourist numbers have dropped sharply, from 91,276 each month for the millennium celebrations in 2000 to little more than 1,500 a month now. During the past six years, 50 restaurants, 28 hotels and 240 souvenir shops have closed.

Samir Qumsieh is general manager of Al-Mahed - Nativity - which is the only Christian television station in Bethlehem. He has had death threats and visits from armed men demanding three acres of his land - and he is now ready to leave.

"As Christians, we have no future here," he says. "We are melting away. Next summer I will leave this country to go to the States. How can I continue? I would rather have a beautiful dream in my head about what my home is like, not the nightmare of the reality."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=423126&in_page_id=1770

[Petronas]

Haniyeh: We're Shahids, not ministers
12.15.06, 19:06

At mass rally in Gaza marking 19 years since founding of Hamas, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh states that he and his colleagues chose to sacrifice lives for Allah

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Friday that he and his followers chose to be in the Hamas movement to be shahids (martyrs) and sacrifice their lives for Allah and not to be ministers. Haniyeh made the comments at a ceremony in the Gaza Strip, attended by some 100,000 people, marking 19 years since the founding of Hamas. ...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3340570,00.html

[Petronas]

Hamas, Fatah Battle Despite Cease-Fire
January 29, 2007 11:33 PM EST

Palestinian infighting raged in the Gaza Strip Tuesday morning despite a cease-fire declaration by warring Hamas and Fatah factions aimed at ending factional clashes that have left more than 60 dead in the past two months. Gunfire and explosions were audible in downtown Gaza City as gunmen from the rival factions ignored the cease-fire, reached at a midnight meeting between Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and a representative of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

The truce was set to go into effect at 3 a.m. local time. Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar of Hamas announced the agreement early Tuesday. Zahar said the agreement stipulated that all security forces must return to their bases, that suspects in killings were to be handed over, and that all hostages still being held - a number thought to be in the dozens - were to be released. He also said all roadblocks set up by the factions were to be removed.

None of those steps appeared to have been taken after the 3 a.m. deadline passed. ...

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20070129/45bd7f50_3ca6_15526200701291089192981

[Petronas]

Iranian agents nabbed in Gaza, 1 commits suicide
02.02.07, 09:26

Palestinian security forces arrest sat least five Iranians at Hamas-linked university in Strip, say men sent by Iran to train Islamic group. Hamas commander believed to have orchestrated kidnapping of Israeli soldier Shalit injured in raid, report says.


Palestinian security officers arrested at least five Iranian citizens during a raid at the Islamic University, a Hamas stronghold in Gaza City, a security official said. One of the Iranians committed suicide during the raid. Six to nine Palestinians were killed in the raid, sources said. ...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3360009,00.html

[Petronas]

Abbas sends warmest greetings to Iran's Ahmadinejad,
wishes Iran "further progress and prosperity"
Feb. 14, 2007

At a time when Iran is being isolated by most of the world for its nuclear program and its calls for the destruction of Israel, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has sent a telegram of effusive greetings to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Iran's national holiday. According to the PA daily Al-Hayat Al Jadida, Abbas's greeting earlier this week also wished for "further progress and prosperity" for Iran.

The following is the paper's account of the message:

"The president said in the greeting: 'I am happy to express to your excellency and, through you, to your honorable government and to your brother people, on behalf of the Palestinian people and their leadership and on my behalf personally, the warmest, most heartfelt wishes, in a prayer to Allah, that He shall bestow on you on this holiday further progress and prosperity. We wish you and your people happy holidays.' President Abbas expressed the greatest wishes of wealth, health and joy to the President of Iran, and to his people and his sister country, continuous respect, glory and well-being."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, February 12, 2007]

http://pmw.org.il/bulletins_feb2007.htm#b140207a

[Donpeyote]

Israel :happy_11: ?

[Petronas]

Islamic Jihad threatens US attacks if chief captured
Tue Feb 13, 7:40 AM ET

Radical Palestinian faction Islamic Jihad has threatened to attack US interests to avenge any harm inflicted on its leader after the United States put a five-million-dollar price on his head. "Any harm to the secretary general of Islamic Jihad will endanger American interests everywhere in the region," Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Jihad's military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said in a statement Tuesday.

On Monday, the United States offered five million dollar rewards for the capture of Damascus-based Jihad leader Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah and a member of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah militia, Mohammed Ali Hamadei. Both are on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list.

"The Al-Quds Brigades, together with all the resistance factions, will confront decisively any American stupidity against the leaders of the Palestinian people, whatever their allegiance," the group added.

The spokesman threatened the US secret services and their agents in the region with a "wave of violent attacks targeting all American interests if they come to harm secretary general Shallah or any other symbol of the resistance."

Shallah was a founding member of Islamic Jihad, which rejects peace with Israel and has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on Israel, including a January 29 suicide bombing in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. The 48-year-old married father of four has been on a US terrorist list since 1995 and was indicted on 53 charges by a US court in 2003. The State Department said Shallah was wanted for "a pattern of racketeering activities such as bombings, murder, extortions and money laundering."

The former academic left the Palestinian territories in 1986 after teaching economics at the Islamic University in Gaza City for five years. He went to England to write a doctorate in economics at Britain's Durham University in 1990 before moving to the United States, where he headed an Islamic studies centre in Florida until 1995.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070213/wl_mideast_afp/usattackspalestinian

[Vancouver]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/15/ap/asia/main6099884.shtml

http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/index.cfm?page=rahim&language=english