Israel Matzav: Israel to stop pursuing terrorists?

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Israel to stop pursuing terrorists?

The 'Palestinian' Maan news service is reporting this evening that Israel has agreed to stop pursuing 178 wanted terrorists who are affiliated with 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President ~~Mahmoud Abbas~~ Abu Mazen's Fatah movement. The Jerusalem Post reports that they must prove that they have 'ceased terror activity,' but the Maan report mentions no such condition.

Maan mentions three names on the list: Zakaria Az Zubeidi, the Al Aqsa Brigades leader from Jenin (Tali Fahima's boyfriend), Kamal Ghanam, a prominent leader in the brigades in Nablus (whom Haaretz claims is the group's leader in Ramallah, which is nowhere near ~~Nablus~~ Shchem), and Amjad Khillawi from the Deheisheh 'refugee camp' near Bethlehem, who has recently reappeared in the 'camp.' The Post adds another name to the list: Daoud Haji.

According to Haaretz: "Militants [their word, not mine. CiJ] that will cooperate with the PA security forces and won't be involved with terror activities for three months will be allowed to leave the territory under full Palestinian control, known as Area A, and be able to travel abroad."

Who are these 'militants' as Haaretz so blandly calls them? They aren't just local leaders of the Mickey Mouse Club. According to the JPost, Haji is

one of two terrorists who participated in a 2002 attack against troops at the Ein Arik checkpoint. Six soldiers were murdered in the massacre when Haji and another terrorist stormed the checkpoint shooting both soldiers on guard and those sleeping in a near-by caravan. Haji is a member of Tanzim and served in the Palestinian national security forces in Ramallah and Jericho. He is also said to hold close ties with Hamas.

Here is a JPost item I published in my Matzav update the following night, February 21, 2002 (links no longer work):

Six soldiers killed at roadblock
By Margot Dudkevitch and Lamia Lahoud

JERUSALEM (February 20) - Six soldiers were killed and one wounded in an attack near a roadblock at the village of En Arik, west of Ramallah, last night.

Three or four gunmen burst into a structure at the roadblock, in which off-duty soldiers were relaxing or sleeping, and opened fire at point-blank range, according to preliminary findings. It is unclear whether some of the soldiers were standing outside the structure.

Additional gunmen apparently shot from surrounding hills.

The terrorists fled. The Fatah's Aksa Brigade claimed responsibility.

Army officers said it appears the terrorists closely monitored the movements at the roadblock to carry out a well-planned and determined attack.

The wounded soldier was taken to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer with gunshot wounds in the abdomen. Doctors described his condition as satisfactory.

Some Palestinian Authority officials welcomed the attack.

Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti told al-Jazeera TV the "hands of the attackers are blessed, because the checkpoints are a symbol of humiliation to the Palestinian people."

A PA source said Fatah militias have a green light to attack soldiers and settlers inside the PA areas, and local commanders have the authority to decide on the attacks according to circumstances. He said for eight Palestinians killed yesterday in IDF raids, Fatah wanted to kill eight Israelis.

Now Fatah may let Hamas and Islamic Jihad continue the campaign, he said. He said all Palestinian factions had agreed to coordinate attacks.

Bassam Abu Sharif, an adviser to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, said Israel should realize there is no military solution.

"The Palestinians will not stop resisting, not a single soldier will be safe in Palestinian territory," he said. "Fatah is leading the resistance inside the territories."

Attacks inside Israel are not Fatah policy and are usually acts of revenge for targeted killings.

Abu Sharif urged Israelis to pressure their government to return to negotiations, saying Israel had an "historic opportunity to make a peace deal with the Palestinians and the Arab world" in return for a full withdrawal from the land occupied in 1967.

He said Israel should accept Saudi Arabia's peace proposal, which guarantees peace and normalization between Israel and the Arabs in return for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem.

The Olmert-Barak-Livni government has gone mad!

DEBKA adds:

Ehud Olmert has reversed the unshakable taboos of all his predecessors.

Flanked by defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni (who said Saturday, July 14: Time is against us” [Huh? CiJ]), he has chosen to go further than the US, Europe and even Arab governments in extending support for the Palestinian leader who was routed in Gaza.

The 180 wanted Fatah terrorists are bound to Damascus, Hizballah and Tehran by operational, intelligence and financial threads too compelling to renounce.

As in past instances, these Palestinian gunmen will accept funds from Abbas’ purse, which has been stuffed with between $1 and 2 billion from Israeli and Western sources, while at the same time maintaining those connections and commitments.

But no sum is large enough to reinvent Abbas as anything but a loser on the Palestinian scene. He can only survive by patching up the Fatah quarrel with Hamas and accept a humiliating new share-out of power.

Therefore, the Olmert government’s reckless concessions to the Fatah leader is for nothing, or worse, they will sustain and buoy up Palestinian terrorist and radical political factions on the West Bank without saving Abbas.

In Damascus and Tehran, Israel’s actions will be taken as irrational, symptomatic of weakness and panic. They could conceivably decide that with Israeli leaders in this low state the time is opportune for an offensive.