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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Abbas' new PM outlaws Hamas |
| 2007-06-18 |
| Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas swore in a new cabinet on Sunday and immediately outlawed rival Hamas movement’s fighters after their bloody seizure of power in Gaza. Abbas’ actions have completely cut off Gaza from the outside world with Israeli troops adding to tensions by moving troops into the north of the Gaza Strip in what Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said was a “preventive” action. After swearing in the new 12-member emergency cabinet headed by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Abbas swiftly declared Hamas illegal and issued a decree stating that all supporters of Hamas would be persecuted. Hamas, meanwhile, dismissed the new government as “illegitimate”. Palestinian officials are hoping that the creation of the emergency cabinet without Hamas will lead to the lifting of a Western aid boycott that was imposed after the new government took power in January 2006. “Israel must reinforce the isolation of the Gaza Strip and not let anything pass except electricity and water,” Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told army radio, while a spokeswoman for Dor Alon, an Israeli fuel company, said fuel was now only being provided for Gaza power stations. Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said he had asked Israel to allow fuel and raw materials to continue reaching Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, indicated its support of Abbas’ new regime and suggested it would release hundred million dollars in custom revenues owed to the Palestinians if the new cabinet cooperated with them. The global community welcomed the new government and urged rival factions to restore order in the region. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 What about baby ducks? Still legal? These asshats are beyond parody. |
| Posted by: mojo 2007-06-18 10:20 |
| #3 Note: IIUC he has only outlawed the Military wing of Hamas, not Hamas as a political party/"charitable" organization. OTOH some Fatahniks on the ground have been "overzealous" and HAVE attacked Hamas pols, etc. Abbas has denounced this, but AFAIK has done nothing to stop it. It does seem that now that Abbas isnt trying to keep control over Gaza, he has a freer hand to be anti-Hamas. OTOH to the extent that he wants to get back into Gaza, or feels insecure in the WB, he will have to balance between cracking down on Hamas for his own safety, and not alienating the Pal street by too harsh a crackdown. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2007-06-18 10:18 |
| #2 Zenster, Not quite. Abbas, notwithstanding his comfort with corruption, his neutrality on anti semitic text books and radio broadcasts, his verbal support for forceable repatriation of Paleo refugees to Israel proper, etc., has always disliked Hamas. He has criticized Hamas numerous times (although its the 'this terrorism makes us look bad' kind of thing). Even if he isn't a brilliant fellow, I'm sure he knew that there was a good chance that Hamas was eventually going to take over Gaza and maybe he is even comfortable with it since it gets many Hamasistas out of his real territory. |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-06-18 09:03 |
| #1 As always, a day late and a dollar short. I guess Abbas didn't have any problems with Hamas so long as they were only killing the dreaded Jews. Once their gun barrels swung around that all changed. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-18 00:20 |