Israel Matzav

'Palestinian' civil war watch: 6 dead in Hamas - Fatah gun battle

Three 'Palestinian police officers,' two Hamas terrorists and a 'bystander' (apparently the owner of the house in which the 'gun battle' took place) have been killed in a clash in Kalkilya. Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh reports that keeping Hamas and Fatah - currently in talks in Egypt - from further clashes may be wishful thinking.

Let's go to the videotape.



JPost's Khaled Abu Toameh adds:

Hamas legislator Salah Bardaweel said that his movement was now considering boycotting the next round of talks with Fatah, slated for next week, in protest against the Kalkilya incident.

Bardaweel accused Abbas and his prime minister, Salaam Fayad, of ordering their security forces to eliminate Hamas members in the West Bank to appease Israel.

"We are considering suspending our participation in the Cairo dialogue [with Fatah] in protest against Abbas's crimes," he said. "We call on the Egyptians sponsors to force Abbas to stop the arrests and assassinations."

Hamas said that Abbas's forces had also arrested 15 of its supporters in Kalkilya and other parts of the West Bank over the previous 24 hours.

Fatah, on the other hand, announced that Hamas militiamen rounded up 16 members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip.

Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the PA security forces, accused Hamas of targeting Palestinian policemen to serve the agendas of "external powers."

"Hamas has instructed its members to destroy the Palestinian Authority and its security forces," he charged.

He said the two men who were killed in Kalkilya had stored weapons in mosques and residential areas in the city, endangering the lives of civilians.

Abu Toameh was in Canada last week. Here's part of an account from the Vancouver Sun of a lecture he gave in Calgary:

“I laugh when they talk about a two-state solution,” he said. “It’s unreal. It’s not going to work. But we all have to say we support it, maybe because that’s what [U.S. President Barack] Obama wants.”

...

A two-state solution sounds pleasant to Western ears. It seems the proper thing for Canadian politicians to say. Certainly the media would pillory Harper and Ignatieff were they to refuse to play along. But were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to endorse the plan tomorrow—as Barack Obama wants as precondition to helping Israel resist Iranian nuclear agression—it would be utterly meaningless. “There is no partner on the Palestinian side,” Toameh says. Israel's West Bank settlements are no obstacle, he adds; they are a red herring: a minor issue that Jerusalem will easily handle—based on its readiness to dismantle its settlements in the past—when the moment is right. That time is not now, and is not coming soon. Because, in today's environment, whatever proposed peace agreement is backed by Abbas would only be instantly rejected by Hamas, and any deal with Hamas—were any possible—reflexively rejected by Fatah. And neither group has much validity in citizens' eyes, he reports. In fact, Toameh mischievously suggests Netanyahu might be clever to try what Obama wants and publicly back a two-state plan immediately, if only to put the Palestinians and international peace-plan backers “in a corner” by revealing to all how truly impossible implementing anything of the sort would be under the current circumstances.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:35 AM