Abbas Cut Ties with Militants, Vows Crackdown

Reuters | 8/20/03 | Wafa Amr

[kattracks]

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas cut off contact with Islamic militants on Wednesday and vowed to crack down on them after a suicide bomber killed 20 people on a Jerusalem bus, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli leader Ariel Sharon met his top security officials to discuss what action to take over Tuesday's attack, one of the worst in a 34-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

It dealt a critical blow at a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.

Abbas's move, a key demand in the peace plan, came after Israel suspended talks to hand over occupied cities to Palestinian authorities and reimposed a total military closure on West Bank cities.

The attack on the bus packed with ultra-Orthodox Jewish families returning from a daily pilgrimage to Jerusalem's Western Wall shrine -- the Wailing Wall -- dealt a critical blow to a seven-week-old cease-fire underpinning the peace plan.

It was also a major embarrassment to Abbas's moderate government and its effort to staunch violence to qualify for statehood promised by the road map, for it came while he was talking with militant leaders on extending the truce.

"It was decided after these meetings that the Palestinian Authority would stop all forms of dialogue with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. It holds them responsible for harming the higher national interest of the Palestinian people," a senior security official told Reuters.

"Soon the Palestinian Authority will take security measures against Hamas and Islamic Jihad members," he added.

It was unclear how he would carry out the commitment as Palestinian security forces were decimated in the West Bank by Israeli army offensives against militants, and most recent attacks have emanated from cities under Israeli army occupation.

POWER STRUGGLE

Abbas has also struggled to obtain effective power over the security organs from President Yasser Arafat, who has been accused of fomenting violence by Israel and the United States -- a charge he denies -- and frozen out of peace efforts.

Abbas condemned the bus blast, saying it "does not serve the interests of the Palestinian people."

He has denounced previous bombings in similar terms. But to date he has hesitated to break up the popular militant groups, citing a fear of civil war unless Israel has lifted occupations and checkpoints of West Bank cities first.

Israel has ruled out such military disengagement until Abbas begins subduing militants, highlighting profound mistrust that has bogged down the road map process since its June 4 launch.

The plan outlines reciprocal steps toward ending the violence and establishing a Palestinian state by 2005 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad both said they carried out Tuesday's evening's bombing, which left children among the dead and about 100 people wounded. Severed arms, legs and a lower torso lay scattered across a small roundabout next to a synagogue.

A videotape released by Hamas in the West Bank city of Hebron showed a man who named himself as Raed Abdel-Hamid Mask and said he would carry out the suicide bombing to avenge Israel's killing of a past Hamas cell commander there.

The United States condemned the attack and again demanded a Palestinian Authority crackdown on militant groups.

Israeli Foreign Ministry official Yoni Peled, announcing the suspension of the security talks planned for Tuesday evening, said: "I don't think there was ever a cease-fire."

Police said the bombing may have been carried out by a man disguised in the traditional black garb of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

[dighton]

"Soon the Palestinian Authority will take security measures against Hamas and Islamic Jihad members," he added.

Never mind "soon." Call us when you start tying them to posts, and shooting them.

[Cyclops08]

I don't belive Abbas. like the guy who pulls his strings, the easiest way to tell if he is lying is to watch his lips. If they are moving, Abbas/Arafat is lying.

Will he crack down like Arafat when murdering a jew was worth one day in jail? Or like arafat is Abbas saying one thing in english, and another in arabic.

I think its time for Arafat to die. Not exile, not imprisonment, but death swift, sudden, and sure.

Lets play the Saddam game with Arafat...where is he today?Boom!

[Robert_Paulson2]

I don't want a crack down. I want cracked heads.

thousands of them. islamic radical CRACKED open heads... delivered by the dumptruck load to the front steps of the knesset... and I want the first one delivered on a pike, to be the terror chairman himself.

cut the heads off... and the arms will stop strapping on belts filled with c4 and nails...

[Robert_Paulson2]

I apologize for the violent post

[bets]

Haven't they said this before....and before....and before....and before.....

Oh yes, and they say "we're outraged" over....and over....and over....

meaningless - mouths moving

[Bobby777]

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas is a liar. He's in a puppet-regime for Yasser Arafat and he will do nothing of significance. He will make a few token "arrests" of people they didn't care for anyway and pretend he did something.

Eliminate the PA leadership, destroy their headquarters and force all non-Israeli citizens out of the West Bank and Gaza. Enough is enough. Send 'em back to Jordan and seal the borders. It shouldn't have gone on this long.

[bets]

He will make a few token "arrests"...

Israel was just forced to release I don't know how many captured Palestinian terrorists as part of the Roadmap to Insanity. What!? they're supposed to just arrest them, let them loose, arrest them, let them loose, arrest them......? The world has gone insane.

[Mo1]

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas cut off contact with Islamic militants on Wednesday and vowed to crack down on them after a suicide bomber killed 20 people on a Jerusalem bus, Palestinian officials said.

I'll believe it when I see it .. actions speaking louder then words ..

Abbas needs to take a stand and stop these killings NOW!!!

[Hugin]

Same ol' same ol'. Heard it all before.

Within a month Colin Powell will be presuring Israel to make more concessions.

[bets]

"Yes, let loose some more Palestinian prisoners - hey, maybe those ones who blew up the bus!" /s

[teldon30]

you warmed my heart this early morn' :)

[danmar]

Hamas and Islamic Jihad both said they carried out Tuesday's evening's bombing

There is one thing I do not understand...Those Hamas, Jihad assholes have to have some sort of a Headquarters where they operate from!

It is beyond me, why we, are not able to contain those terrorists, sans Israel. We drafted the peace agreement, we forced Israel and the so called Pali's to the table, therefore it is our duty to observe the implementation of the peace accord right?

We knocked the living daylights out the Talibans and Co., Saddam and Co.
What exactly it will take to obliterate that shithole Lebanon, in order to eliminate those Hamas/Jihad ragheads.

IMHO it is about Hi-Noon that we put the foot in the door and say..."enough is enough".

It makes us look like a bunch of idiots with their heads up their asses, who can not find their way out a paperbag with a flashlight and a GPS.

[Robert_Paulson2]

try forty eight hours.

[bets]

Is anybody else ready for God to pick up the etch-a-sketch (that is the world) and give it a good shake? (not being an escapist, and I believe until the end we need to be strong and protect ourselves and our families and allies)

[RussRoberts]

"Abbas condemned the bus blast, saying it "does not serve the interests of the Palestinian people."

Notice his objection is only that it does not serve the interests of the Palestinians. When are these bastards going to simply say "IT'S WRONG." Probably never, because they don't think it's wrong.

[bets]

Correct. How about "It's an atrocity." or "It makes me sick." or "I vow to find and execute the murderers."?

[HiTech RedNeck]

In the most wildly optimistic view possible, Abbas is walking a tightrope in a hurricane and wants to save his own posterior. What he really means, is debatable. Not even the CIA itself can interpret those sphinxes with any reliability, because so much of the culture is based on lies and bluster.

[JerseyHighlander]

The bastard who did this owned a CAR-15 (I believe), given to his organization by Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton indirectly armed this SOB.

A Hamas member who identifies himself as Raed Abdel-Hamid Mask is seen in this video frame grab taken from a videotape released by Hamas in the West Bank city of Hebron August 19, 2003, as he says he will carry out a suicide bombing to avenge Israel's killing of one of the group's members. The Islamic group Hamas said it was responsible for a suicide bombing aboard a Jerusalem bus that killed at least 20 people, an attack claimed earlier by another Palestinian militant group. Earlier on Tuesday, the Islamic Jihad group said in a statement to Lebanon's al-Manar television that it carried out the attack, which police said wounded more than 80 people. REUTERS/Reuters TV