Posted on 01/18/2005 2:10:22 PM PST by anotherview
Jan. 18, 2005 21:19
Zubeidi: Al Aksa will halt attacks against Israel
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zachariya Zubeidi, Jenin leader of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, announced Tuesday that his group would stop attacks inside Israel as a gesture to Mahmoud Abbas.
Zubeidi announced the halt as Abbas was in Gaza, trying to negotiate a cease-fire to be honored by the various organizations.
Shortly after Abbas arrived in Gaza on Tuesday, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up there, wounding eight Israelis. Hamas took responsibility.
The Al Aksa group has been behind dozens of shooting attacks and some suicide bombings in Israel and the West Bank.
Will he toss the Brooklyn bridge in with the deal, too?
I am asking all my liberal friends to please hold their breath for this to happen. Less live voting that way.
These statements made after a recent suicide bombing and barrage of rocket attacks. Al Aksa is one of many terror groups. One pledges ceasefire while the other murders innocents.
Same game, words from this bunch mean nothing.
...and the Sydney Opera House.
Somehow this isn't a big surprise. Al Aksa is the only group Arafat actually had the power to reign in directly, and it was the fact that they, and not just the crazies from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, kept up attacks that made it clear that Arafat wasn't worth talking to even after Oslo.
It still bothers me, though, when the Israelis behave as if the PA has the ability to restrain the hardcore Islamist groups. There can't be any progress (by which I mean a move toward, not so much peace, as choosing up new sides with the Israelis, Christian Arabs, and secularist Arab nationalists one one side, and the jihadists on the other) as long as any crazy with a bomb, and AK-47 or a homemade rocket can stop negotiations between Israel and the PA.
Arafat successfully moved against Hamas in 1996. He released those he arrested in 2000 and told them to go ahead with their war. A strong Palestinian leader CAN move against the Islamists. It's been done before.
A political gesture with absolutely no substance or content.
It might work. This is the most positive news I have heard so far.
What are you talking about? Those arrest were BS there were still suicide bombings pre-2000 in 96,97,98,99. There can be no strong Palestinian leader because there are no Palestinian people.
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