(Abu bin) Sharon to Pardon PA Official Who Planned School Bus Bombing

Israel National News ^ | 1-27-2005 | Staff

[sarah_f]

Defense/Security

Sharon to Pardon PA Official Who Planned School Bus Bombing

19:27 Jan 27, '05 / 17 Shevat 5765

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is poised to pardon two PA officials with proven ties to terrorism, including one of the planners of the fatal November 2000 bombing of an Israeli school bus.

Rashid Abu Shabak, second-in-command of the PA Preventive Security Services in Gaza, is one of two senior PA officials wanted for their involvement in terror attacks whom PM Sharon has reportedly agreed to remove from Israel’s list of wanted terrorists. The other terrorist leader to be pardoned will be Tawfiq Tirawi. This will be a “good-will gesture” toward Abu Mazen and the PA.

The gestures will apparently take place independently of the mired diplomatic process. PA chief Abu Mazen called on Israel this afternoon to agree to a mutual ceasefire involving all the terror organizations. A newspaper in Qatar reported today that Abu Mazen agrees to Sharon's plan of establishing a temporary PA state on 42% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and of pushing off final-status talks for a later date.

The two terrorists to be pardoned have far-ranging terrorist experience. Israel possesses a tape of Abu Shabak discussing plans for the bombing of the school bus with the mastermind of the attack, Preventative Security Service chief Mohammad Dahlan. Abu Shabak also oversaw and coordinated the preparation of the bomb used in the attack.

The attack on the school bus killed two Israeli teachers and seriously wounded three young children from the Cohen family of nearby Kfar Darom; all three children lost part of their legs.

As early as April 1997, Abu Shabak sent suicide bombers to target two school buses outside the Netzarim and Kfar Darom communities. Former IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak identified the actual bombers as police officers under the direct command of Dahlan and Abu Shabak.

One month before the Kfar Darom school bus attack, a busload of 40 Israeli women and children was also attacked by terrorists near the Gush Katif junction in Gaza, just as it passed by a PA police station. Israeli intelligence concluded that Dahlan and Abu Shabak were behind that attack as well.

In addition to bus bombings, Abu Shabak has also been spotted distributing mortar shells to Gaza terrorists to be fired at Israeli towns. Israel also accuses him of being behind efforts to build a factory in Gaza to produce large amounts of nitric acid for use in explosives manufacturing.

The other official to be taken off the most-wanted list is Tawfik Tirawi, who was "directly involved in organizing attacks, providing financial aid to operatives involved in terrorist attacks and preparing them to carry out the attacks," according to government sources. Tirawi’s ties to terrorist activities have also been documented extensively and even appear on the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s web site. (More articles and original documents available here)

The pardoning of the two wanted terror chieftains comes as part of a series of unilateral Israeli good-will gestures, including a commitment to end targeted killing of terrorists and the deployment of armed PA police across Gaza. It was reported today that the PA's deployment in southern Gaza, near Gush Katif, was being held up for technical reasons; the required number of para-military policemen has apparently not yet been rounded up.

Read commentary on Abu Shabak’s pardon and other issues on Arutz-7’s new weblog, Fundamentally Freund.

Click here for our free Daily News Report from Israel

[sarah_f]

T-R-A-I-T-O-R

[forYourChildrenVote4Bush]

Don`t forget to pardon Merwin Baguette....

[lilylangtree]

Bad move, Ariel!

[sarah_f]

SCHOOL BUS, KFAR DAROM

A roadside bomb exploded at 7:30 in the morning on November 20 alongside a bus carrying children from Kfar Darom to school in Gush Katif. Two adults accompanying the children were killed and 9 others, including 5 children, were injured, 5 of them seriously.

Among those seriously injured are three children of the Cohen family:

12-year-old Orit, whose right foot was amputated, her 7-year-old brother Yisrael whose right leg was amputated below the knee, and their 8-year-old sister, Tehila, who lost both legs despite doctors' efforts to save them. They were visited by President Moshe Katsav.

[hershey]

This seems a bit much.

[Awestruck]

This is as bad as Bush giving 20 mil to these monsters... but hey, no big outcry about that..

[sheik yerbouty]

Sharon should be kicked out of office. He has become an old fool.

[Alouette]

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WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

[lupie]

Thanks for the ping.

Sometimes when I read the headlines I just want to bang my head against the wall. This is one of those times. sigh

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[xm177e2]

Sharon is the most effective advocate Israel has had in decades. He's getting safety for the Israelis and is slowly taking what he wants from the Palestinians, while he lets them have the rest. If pardoning a political leader (albeit one who has committed terrorist crimes) is part of Sharon's strategy, I trust that.

[sarah_f]

sharon is a monster; a 21st century capo.

One kills genocidal pieces of filth BEFORE they act. One doesn't appease them years after the fact with infinitely insane suicidal delusions of "peace" in the form of appeasement.

Amplification to Israel: Dying, being weak, and appeasement are NOT sound methods of survival. Look between your legs and try and remember what used to be there.

[conservativecorner]

Israel's every attempt at goodwill is met with more violence, and this will once again be the case with the pardon. The PA will say and do anything to gain an advantage while all the while planning more murder. Does anyone seriously believe that the Palestinians will disarm as per the PA Govts. request? On the other hand another part of me wants it to be true. The Palestinians move away from terror and into a democratic country living as a neighbor next to Israel. I'm not sure the PA Leader has the same statesmanship of an Anwar Sadat. In fact I'm pretty sure he doesn't.

[M 91 u2 K]

. I'm not sure the PA Leader has the same statesmanship of an Anwar Sadat.

Yeah peace with Egypt has been great! Instead of Egypt fighting Israel on the battlefield they now build tunnels and smuggle weapons to Hamas and other Muslim Nazi Organizations to kill Jews.