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Koyaanisqatsi
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of Maine paupers.
May 1999
time: 00:29
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Just wanted to have my name on a thread near the top for a while. 
http://www.msnbc.com/news/801833.asp?0cv=CA01
quote:
Source: Palestinians accept cease-fire
Associated Press
Four Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed in a firefight Friday as Israeli soldiers raided two homes in a hunt for a top Hamas bombmaker. Despite the violence, Islamic militants have accepted a proposal to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, a senior militia official said Friday.
IN THE TWO-HOUR battle, Israeli soldiers blew up a house and fired more than a dozen tank shells as combat helicopters fired machine guns toward dozens of gunmen. The target of the raid, Adnan al-Ghoul, the chief bombmaker of Hamas, was not present.
The Israeli operation came as Palestinian groups were working out the final details of a three month cease-fire declaration after agreeing to a temporary halt to attacks.
A formal truce announcement is to be made Sunday, according to officials close to the talks.
A militia leader, who spoke on condition that neither his name nor the name of his organization be used, said that the "trilateral document is now ready," referring to the agreement.
Palestinian negotiators said Thursday that Hamas, the largest of the Islamic groups, and the smaller Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad had signed an accord along with Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.
If comments by the Palestinian side are true, they provide the first confirmation from the militants that agreement has been reached. A cease-fire is a key element for starting the "road map" peace plan that envisions creating a Palestinian state by 2005.
ISRAELI TROOP PULLBACK TALKS
Also Friday, Israeli-Palestinian talks on the terms of an Israeli troop pullback in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Bethlehem -- in line with a U.S.-backed peace plan -- yielded "real progress," a Palestinian official said.
Negotiators resolved the key sticking point, control over the main north-south road in Gaza, and another meeting was scheduled for later Friday to conclude a deal, the official said.
A troop pullback would be the first major step by Israel toward implementing the peace plan, which calls on Israel to return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000. The plan also requires Palestinian security forces to dismantle militias, but Palestinian leaders have said they will not launch a crackdown.
An Israeli pullback, coupled with a promise by Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, could be a major boost for Washington's "road map" to Palestinian statehood by 2005. The peace initiative was launched by President Bush on June 4, but implementation has been halting until now.
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. national security adviser, is to arrive in the region on Saturday, as Bush's personal envoy, to talk to the Palestinian and Israeli prime ministers about the plan.
En route to the Middle East, Rice called on the European Union to outlaw the political wing of Hamas to dry up the flow of donations to the group, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in bombings and shootings.
Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, suggested Friday that despite the Israeli raid, the truce talks were still on. "A plan for a truce ... will be announced along with other Palestinian factions at the right time," he told Lebanon's Al Hayat-LBC satellite television from Gaza. "Until this happens, the resistance and confrontation will continue."
HAMAS DOES NOT THREATEN REVENGE
Hamas' military wing issued a statement blaming the United States for the Israeli strikes but refrained for the first time from making customary threats of more attacks against Israel.
The Damascus-based leaders of the groups, Khaled Mashal of Hamas and Ramadan Shalah of Islamic Jihad, had agreed to a suspension of attacks earlier this week, but a formal announcement has been delayed until the weekend to add final touches.
Israel has shrugged off the emerging truce as an internal Palestinian matter and has said the hunt for militants would not cease.
"Such operations will continue until we have a cease-fire," Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said. "If and when the cease-fire will be put into effect, then we will look again at that kind of (operation)."
Other Israeli officials have said that even if a truce is declared, Israel would still go after militants it felt were threatening its security.
ISRAELI RAID ON BOMBMAKER
In Friday's raid, an Israeli commando team surrounded the home of Omran al-Ghoul, a brother of the Hamas bombmaker and himself an operative of the group, in the village of Mujarkha in the central Gaza Strip.
A gunbattle erupted between soldiers and dozens of armed Palestinians. Omran al-Ghoul, as well as the bombmaker's 19-year-old son, Mohammed, and an Israeli soldier were killed. In a separate clash nearby, a bystander and another gunman were killed, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Palestinian witnesses said they heard 17 tank shells being shot during the battles and helicopters fired incessantly.
Adnan al-Ghoul, 42, also known as "The Engineer," has overseen the construction of homemade Qassam rockets that have been fired at nearby Jewish settlements and Israeli border communities. He has been wanted for more than a decade by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel repeatedly has tried to kill him.
Thousands of Palestinians marched in a funeral procession for the four Palestinians killed and called for revenge. Some shouted out a warning for the Palestinian prime minister who is also called Abu Mazen: "Abu Mazen, listen closely. There is nothing except resistance."
The agreement for a three-month truce was worked out between Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, and heads of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Damascus. Mashal, the Hamas leader, then drafted the deal based on his discussions with Barghouti.
Barghouti is in an Israeli prison while on trial for alleged complicity in Palestinian attacks that killed 26 Israelis.
Negotiators said the truce would halt attacks by the three groups for three months and would apply to the West Bank and Gaza as well as Israel, a key Israeli demand. In exchange, they demanded an end to killings of militants and military strikes and the release of prisoners; however, these were not made conditions for beginning the truce.
© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy ©2003
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Eli
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Israel
Jul 2000
time: 07:29
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Ismail al-Hania, a senior Hamasnik just said that it's all false.
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Eli
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Israel
Jul 2000
time: 07:29
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Just for the record :
4 major terracts were prevented in the last couple days.
I wonder how many anti-Israeli threads we woudl've had by now if there was a single Israeli botched assasination.
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Edan
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quote:
Originally posted by chegitz guevara
For both sides. |
I don't think Israel needs to reload, do you?
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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001
time: 06:29
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LOTM :
1. is very likely. France has a net of relations in the ME that it prefers being unchanged. Appeasing them would be better for the French siplomacy's interests. This was one of the reasons behind France's efforts to avoid war in Iraq.
2. is somehow likely, but I don't think so. The Islamists are trying to gain power among the French Arabic population, but aren't that well installed yet. However, there are two important works in progress from his government regarding the issue :
The first one is that Chirac made his campaign on domestic safety, at a time where most troublemakers were considered by the general population to come from impoverished suburbs, many being of Arab descent. Since Chirac's election, the media has been much less noisy about it, which gives the illusion of success (I have no idea of what the actual outcome is). Chirac is highly interested in having no trouble in this area: the illusion must not break.
The second one is the organization of the important Muslim minority into one only spokespartner of the State (like the Catholic church and the Jews already are). To date, the lack of hierarchy in the Muslim religion made it impossible for the State to have one consistent spokespartner. The "French Muslim Council" has been elected sooner this year, at the price of great compromise from each of the Muslim factions. It is possible the government doesn't want to create discord, to make sure the organization has the time to develop itself.
3. I very strongly doubt France wants to sabotage the Road Map. If it wanted to have done so, it would have done before, at the time of the elaboration, through the EU membership in the quartet. Besides, a stable ME is in France's interests, if only because it will calm down the tensions between Muslims and Jews here.
Besides, the diplomatic mood is to reconciliation with the US, and wild love with Britain. For at least a few months, we will not oppose UK or US requests for the sake of it, at all.
4. It could be. The Hamas, despite being a despicable organization, is sadly an important actor in the war, and as such can have a significant role in the peace. If the diplomatic belief in Paris is that the Hamas simply won't go away (I don't know), then discussing with it and being aware of its demands is a necessary evil. If France/EU can play the middleman between Israel and Hamas, it might result in a betterment of the peace process.
5. An important player : obviously. It is impossible to disregard them if you try to adress the new intifada.
A legitimate charity : I cannot imagine anybody in the diplomatic circle being glad to see the charity in the hands of violent fundamentalist hatemongers.
In short, I think the French willingness to still work with the Hamas may come from our love relationship with every ******* in power in the region, from Chirac's obsession not to risk stirring any trouble with the French Muslims for now, and from the idea that disregarding Hamas in the negotiations is simply impossible.
I think the latter argument is justified. As much as I loathe the Hamas, Israel doesn't seem to do the right thing to avoid this monster to regenerate. As such, the Hamas is a fact of life there, and has to be listened to, as much as we hate what it tells.
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Crazy American
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I am sure that all the Europeans are happy now that those murders may get away. I just wish our leaders would take a step back and let Israel deal with them on their own terms. Maybe some day we will realize that it is Israel that is the victim here and not the Pal.
Well ok, Israel has in the past been a little too aggressive but it's only because they have had little choice.
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Crazy American
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I can download things quiet good thank you.
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Cruddy
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I was waiting for some comment from Hamas before dancing for joy - Fatah says a lot of stuff that sound good but is just complete bunk.
Mind you, it's interesting that at least some Hamas people are leaning that way - maybe some of them realise their goal is unrealistic.
As for Israeli botched assassination jobs - I'd say every one that caused injury or death apart from the target was a botch. It certainly isn't giving Israel any credit as a humane, caring country, whatever the realities of individual Israelis.
I await Sunday with interest. If it happens, I await Monday and on with bated breath... unlike others I think it COULD work.
It depends how anti-agressive is the stance on both sides.
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27-06-2003 21:04
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