Posted on 03/07/2006 1:46:27 PM PST by NormsRevenge
JERUSALEM - Israel's defense minister warned Tuesday the incoming Hamas prime minister would be assassinated if the Islamic militant group resumes attacks, but the acting Israeli premier also pledged a drastic cut in spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and others in his front-running Kadima Party delivered these messages just three weeks before the Israeli election. The centrist Kadima is trying to court both hardline and dovish voters, and has been sliding in the polls.
Party officials have been more forthcoming recently about their post-election agenda, apparently in hopes of stemming the erosion in voter support. This week, Olmert's key security adviser said Israel would dismantle more West Bank settlements and try to draw its final borders in the next four years.
Another key campaign issue is Israel's position on Hamas, which won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January and is poised to form a government. Hard-line candidates have accused Olmert of being too soft on Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction and refuses to renounce violence.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz of Kadima told Army Radio on Tuesday that Israel would not hesitate to assassinate Hamas leaders if the group resumes attacks against Israel.
Asked specifically about Ismail Haniyeh, the designated Hamas prime minister, Mofaz said: "If Hamas ... presents us with the challenge of having to confront a terror organization, then no one there will be immune. Not just Ismail Haniyeh. No one will be immune."
Mofaz spoke a day after an Israeli airstrike on an ice cream truck killed two Islamic Jihad militants and three bystanders in Gaza City. Two of those killed were children, ages 8 and 14.
Haniyeh brushed aside Mofaz' warnings. "The continued escalation aims to shed more Palestinian blood, confuse the situation and hamper ... the formation of the Palestinian government," he told The Associated Press in Gaza City.
In the past five years, Israel has killed scores of suspected militants, along with Palestinian bystanders, in so-called targeted attacks, usually missile strikes from helicopters. Among those killed were Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.
Hamas has observed a yearlong moratorium on suicide and shooting attacks, and Israeli security officials on Tuesday were quoted as saying the group has not fired homemade rockets at Israel from Gaza since the Jan. 25 election. Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility for the daily barrages.
In Tel Aviv, Olmert promised that Kadima would divert billions in settlement spending to development projects in Israel in coming years, a plan likely to be popular with voters.
Since capturing the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast War, Israel has spent tens of billions of dollars on setting up some 150 settlements there. The settlement drive was led by the hawkish Likud Party, which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon left in November to form Kadima just two months before his devastating stroke.
Israel's settlement enterprise slowed only twice, under prime ministers from the moderate Labor Party. Then last summer, under Sharon's leadership, Israel pulled out of Gaza and dismantled 25 settlements — 21 in Gaza and four in the West Bank.
"It's no secret that we won't invest in coming years the same sums we once invested in construction and infrastructure development in areas over the Green Line," Olmert said, referring to Israel's frontier before 1967.
The money that won't be spent there will "total billions," he said, adding that Israel's "major emphasis" in coming years would be on three areas — Jerusalem, the southern Negev desert, and Galilee in northern Israel.
Olmert has said he wants Israel to separate from the Palestinians, and that this would require more territorial concessions. However, Tuesday marked the first time he explicitly said he would cut back settlement funding.
Pinchas Wallerstein, a settler leader, said he believed Olmert's plan would hurt Kadima: "I am happy that he is saying it before the election so that everyone knows what to expect."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that he objects to unilateral Israel steps and asked for the resumption of peace talks — an unlikely option once Hamas takes power.
"Any solution should come at the negotiation table," Abbas said. "Israel has withdrawn unilaterally from Gaza, but we will not accept that to happen again. We are partners in negotiation and peace and decision-making."
Incoming Hamas Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, left, is greeted by the Jordanian representative to the Palestinian Authority Yahia Al-Karallah, right, before their meeting in Gaza City,Tuesday, March 7, 2006. Israeli leaders warned Tuesday they'd assassinate the incoming Palestinian prime minister and other Hamas politicians if the Islamic militant group resumes attacks, but also pledged a drastic cut in spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
Is it possible that Israeli leaders are growing brains?
I still worry we are watching the incremental demise of Israel. Everyone knows the Arab plan is to wipe them out, step by step.
They better soon, or they wont have a head.
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