|
Israel sez it's beaten up Hamas on the West Bank...
Israel says its has rounded up or killed nearly every known member of the military wing of Hamas operating in the West Bank. Time magazine's latest issue cited in its report Israeli intelligence officials as saying 98 percent of Hamas fighters "known to them" â or a total of 70 men â had been either killed or arrested in the area since the launch in late March of the Israel's West Bank offensive, known as Operation Defensive Shield. That's great news. Unfortunately, I consider Time to be only 1.5 tads more reliable than Debka... With the Israeli army still in or around every West Bank town, it's no longer possible for cells to organize across different areas. Don't go getting cocky. Those bastards can surprise you... They also claimed that many Hamas activists were calling for a temporary halt to suicide attacks, fearing their group could be wiped out as a political as well as a military force. Wouldn't that be pleasant? However, Time said other Hamas leaders, particularly those based outside the West Bank and Gaza argued that it was now more important than ever to show Israel that the movement had not been neutralized. It's so much easier to be bloodthirsty when you don't have to face the explosives yourself. It's also usually pretty stupid: "Tell Paulus to fight to the last man, the last bullet..." The internal debate could turn into a full-blown power struggle if the health of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin â a unifying figure for moderates and hardliners â continues to decline. Time quoted top Hamas officials as saying Yassin, a quadriplegic, had been hospitalized last week with lung and bowel problems. Now that is good news! When they can't breathe anymore and they poop themselves, death's door usually isn't far beyond... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-09-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=6773 |