KUNA
The new Hamas leader in Gaza Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Rantissi highlighted on Sunday Hamas' obligation to liberate the whole of Palestine, the right of refugees to return home and the release of POWs from Israeli jails.
| "Dat's right! We want it all! The whole thing! Them Jews can just beat it!" |
Driven underground by Israel's vow to wipe out the remaining Hamas leadership by air strike, Al-Rantisi emerged briefly for a fiery open-air speech before 5,000 people in the main courtyard of Gaza City's Islamic University. Israeli warplanes roared overhead at one point during his address and the crowd gazed skyward nervously. But Rantisi seemed unmoved and kept speaking.
| "Hah! They ain't gonna touch me with all these women and kiddies around!" |
He assailed US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying, "The war of God goes on against them and I can see victory arising from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas," Rantisi said.
| "We're numbah one! We're numbah one!" |
Rantisi again vowed Hamas would hit Israel hard over Sheikh Ahmad Yassin's departure from this vale of tears slaying. "I remind you that we do not forget the blood of our martyrs," he told the crowd.
| "With so much of it, we could. We're kinda hazy on the details of all the cannon fodder who's blown. But we never forget it when one of the head cheeses gets it. Just think of... of... ummm... I forget his name right now, tip o' my tongue, y'know? But he was one of the great ones! Never to be forgotten!" |
Rantisi called on Arab states to sever any relations with Israel but said they only looked weak following the weekend postponement of an Arab League summit in a dispute over democratic reform proposals. "The blood of Yassin is urging you to shut down the Israeli embassies and representative offices. Stop meeting the killers. Stop meeting Sharon. Boycott them, commercially, diplomatically and culturally and in security contacts."
| "No compromise! No negotiations! No sense!" |
| Of course, we all know that after Rantissi's been zapped that al-Guardian and al-NYT will discover he was a voice of moderation within Hamas and that whoever's next in line could be a hardliner. |
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