Mail an article...

Hamas, Jihad Say Wonât Disarm, Defy Palestinian PM

Palestinian militant groups vowed Wednesday they would not disarm, defying an appeal by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas issued at a U.S.-led peace summit with Israel. "We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine," Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said. Islamic Jihad, another group sworn to Israel's destruction, followed suit.

I don't think any of us here expected anything different. Maybe somebody at the State Department did...

But neither ruled out further talks with Abbas, who seeks a halt to militant attacks in a 32-month-old revolt for independence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. He has sought to coax both groups into a cease-fire. Abbas met President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Jordanian resort Aqaba Wednesday for talks aimed at advancing a U.S.-backed peace "road map" which envisages a Palestinian state co-existing with Israel. "The armed Intifada (uprising) must end and we must resort to peaceful means to achieve our goals," Abbas said.

Without Armed Struggle™, the gunnies will have to get jobs. Where's the glamor in that?

Any full-scale Palestinian crackdown on militants seems unlikely given concern it could spark civil war. But even an arms amnesty would be anathema to Islamic militants who consider themselves the vanguard of Palestinian nationalism. "(Abbas) spoke about stopping the resistance, collecting arms as if we were a state and not under occupation," Islamic Jihad official Abdallah al-Shami said. "He was not supposed to use such language."
"Who does he think he is, Prime Minister?"
Both groups said it was first incumbent on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel wants militants reined in first. Hamas and Islamic Jihad view Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, as Palestinian land. They opposed 1993 interim peace deals and have waged several suicide bombing campaigns. But mindful of the suffering caused to Palestinians by Israeli army incursions, the militant groups have indicated willingness to suspend attacks inside Israel and thus help Abbas implement the road map. "We are in need of more time. I think that in the coming few days we in Hamas will decide on our objective, and then we will meet with Mr Abbas," Rantissi said.
"If he's still alive"
Posted by: Steve 2003-06-04

http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=15091