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Gold9472
03-31-2006, 11:01 AM
Hamas defends suicide bombing in West Bank
Comments highlight schism between PM's party and leader Abbas

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12088641/

(Gold9472: I don't agree with this at all. Killing, ANYBODY is wrong.)

Updated: 7:23 a.m. ET March 31, 2006

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Islamist group Hamas defended on Friday a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis as “resistance” against Israeli “crimes,” putting it at odds with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who condemned the attack.

The day after the bombing, a car explosion in Gaza later killed a top commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group behind many rocket attacks against Israel, Palestinian security sources said.

Hospital officials identified the dead man as Abu Yousef Abu Quka, a commander of the Popular Resistance Committees.

The chief spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees on Friday accused Palestinian security forces of killing Abu Quka, the Associated Press reported. The Israeli army denied involvement in the attack.

The conflicting statements of Hamas and Abbas on the West Bank suicide bombing were the first since the president swore in the Palestinian Authority’s first Hamas government on Wednesday.

Abbas has said he could overrule the group, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, if it continues to block peacemaking.

Hamas: 'A natural response'
The suicide bombing, claimed by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, occurred days after Israeli leader Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party won elections on a platform of setting Israel’s borders in the West Bank unilaterally in the absence of peace talks.

Palestinians say such a move would annex land and deny them the viable state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials said the bomber, whose group is part of Abbas’ Fatah faction, was disguised as a religious Jewish hitchhiker and blew himself up when Israelis in a car picked him up near a settlement late on Thursday.

A spokesman for Abbas told official Palestinian media that the president condemned the bombing and that he asked all factions to abide by a truce declared last year.

Hamas described the attack as a “natural response to Israeli crimes.” Information Minister Youssef Rizqa said: “Resistance is a legitimate right for people under occupation.”

The group is under pressure by Abbas, Washington and the European Union to stop violence, recognize Israel and abide by interim peace deals. Hamas carried out about 60 suicide bombings during an uprising that began in 2000, but has upheld the truce.

Palestinian governments under Fatah’s control had condemned suicide bombings inside Israel, though used more careful language when it came to attacks inside the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

'Quartet' warns Hamas
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a column published on Friday in a British newspaper that “we have every right to respond with all available means” if Israel continues to launch attacks and to impose “sanctions” on Palestinians.

Haniyeh also ruled out any talk of his Hamas-led government recognizing Israel or ending the fight against the state until Israel commits to withdrawing from Palestinian land.

Criticizing Hamas for failing to soften its line since it won the election, the “Quartet” of Middle East mediators warned the group that direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority would inevitably be affected.

Hamas, whose cabinet is set to meet for the first time on Tuesday, has dismissed such threats, saying it would opt to seek funding from other sources, such as the Arab world.

Israeli warplanes attacked Gaza after the bombing near a West Bank settlement, targeting more than a dozen sites the army said militants had used to fire rockets into the Jewish state. Two Israelis died in one such attack last week.

Israeli forces also detained several suspected militants in the West Bank, a military source said. Israeli media quoted security sources as saying two men were involved in the suicide attack, one of them being the bomber’s brother.

Israeli officials said Thursday’s attack near the settlement of Kedumim followed dozens of warnings of impending attacks.

“The Palestinians continue to remain totally indifferent and are not preventing terror attacks,” said David Baker, an official in the prime minister’s office.

Partridge
03-31-2006, 11:29 AM
“The Palestinians continue to remain totally indifferent and are not preventing terror attacks,” said David Baker, an official in the prime minister’s office.

When Fatah/PLO were in power, we constantly heard the calls from Israel and its allies in the international community that the PA "must put an end to terrorist attacks", "must crack down on terrorism" etc etc. Whatever about inside the PLO (which is highly factional), how Fatah/PLO could have achieved this outside of their own ranks was always beyond me - the only option would seem to be to round up and imprison everyone connected with the non-PLO militant groups (Hamas, Islamic Jihad etc) - this of course would have a highly counterproductive effect on Palestinian society, and no doubt would have bolstered the ranks of those groups facing the repression - especially Hamas.

Now we have Hamas in power, and once again we hear the calls to 'prevent terrorism'. Hamas have of course (with I think two exceptions) maintained their year long ceasefire. This bombing came from Al-Aqsa, which is linked to Fatah, not Hamas or even the Islamic Jihad. What exactly is Hamas supposed to do? Round up all the Al-Aqsa members?


Gold9472: I don't agree with this at all. Killing, ANYBODY is wrong.
I have to respectfully disagree. Not in this particular instance, as you know I view all suicide attacks against civilians - even if they are highly militarized settlers - as wrong, divisive and utterly counterproductive. But there are lots of instances - not specifically in Palestine - where killing, as rephrensible an act as it is, is 'justified'. The Palestinians have a right to defend themselves, just as Jews in the Warsaw ghetto did, or the Partisan resistance in WWII etc etc.


Palestinians say such a move would annex land and deny them the viable state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

This is true. This image is from the BBC website, and is an analysts view of what an unilateral withdrawal would look like in concrete (no pun intended) terms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/middle_east_enl_1143650021/img/1.jpg

With the exception of Gaza - itself isolated from the West Bank - the Palestinian 'state' would have no borders except those with Israel (thus Israel would control all movement to anf from the 'state'). Note also the route of the Wall - which steals even more land, including the areas with most water supplies (a precious commodity in the region - and the reason Israel has yet to withdraw from the Sheba Farms area of Lebanon). Here is a map of what the Palestinian State should look like http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/palestine/images/palestine-map.gif (note also the proposed Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley).

Gold9472
03-31-2006, 12:19 PM
"The Palestinians have a right to defend themselves, just as Jews in the Warsaw ghetto did, or the Partisan resistance in WWII etc etc."

I'm not disagreeing with statement. It's wrong of Israel to kill as well. It's wrong to kill period is what I meant.