Sharon And Abbas Agree To End 'All Acts Of Violence'-Hamas not bound by Palestinian ceasefire

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Tuesday declares to halt military action against the Palestinians after he agreed with Palestinian presidentMahmoud Abbas to a mutual ceasefire.

"During talks with Abbas, we agreed to stop over four years of violence. Israel will cease its military activities against all Palestinians anywhere," Sharon said at the close of the one-day summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"Today we are moving toward goal of peaceful, dignified, quiet lives for all nations in the Middle East," Sharon said in a statement, while Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Abbas were listening to.

"I assure you that we have a genuine intention to respect your right to live independently and in dignity. Israel has no desire tocontinue to govern over you and control your fate," Sharon said, referring to the roadmap peace plan or a two-state solution to the conflict accepted by both the Palestinians and Israel.

He also urged all parties concerned not to allow violence to sabotage the new opportunity for achieving just and comprehensive peace.

"We in Israel have to painfully wake up from our dreams, and we're determined to overcome all the obstacles which might stand inour path in order to realize the new chance which we have created,"said Sharon. Enditem

Radical movement spokesman says there will not be real truce with Israel without real reciprocity.

GAZA CITY - Palestinian Islamist militant movement Hamas said Tuesday that it was not bound by the ceasefire announced by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas at a Middle East peace summit in Egypt.

Abbas's declaration "expresses only the position of the Palestinian Authority. It does not express the position of the Palestinian movements," said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri.

In Beirut, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdaneh said the ceasefire pledge "does not commit the Palestinian resistance."

Hamas, which has been behind many of the deadliest anti-Israeli attacks during the four-year Palestinian uprising, and other armed groups have nevertheless agreed to a temporary "cooling down" period.

At the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to ceasefires aimed at ending the deadly violence and paving the way for a revival of the Middle East peace process.

But Masri said the Palestinians should have been consulted before any such announcement.

"Hamas is maintaining its position. There will not be a real truce with Israel without real reciprocity," he said.

"We will act on the truce depending on the commitment by the Zionist enemy to meet our conditions, starting with all Palestinian prisoners."

Sharon announced at the summit that hundreds of Palestinian detainees would be released from Israeli jails, after a tentative agreement between negotiators for the release of some 900 prisoners.

This makes it very clear that the cease fire is just a ploy by the PA. They are murdering animals.

PA TV: Goal is Israel's destruction
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, February 9, 2005

PA TV: Goal is Israel's destruction Amid peace talks, message to people in Arabic doesn't change Posted: February 9, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern

As Israel and the Palestinians agree to a cease-fire setting the stage for peace talks, official Palestinian Authority television continues to communicate the ultimate goal of eliminating the Jewish state.

In the official Friday sermon broadcast last week, senior Muslim figure Ibrahim Mudyris explained that the diplomatic process can only achieve a return to the borders Israel had before the 1967 war. The final stage, he said will be the destruction of Israel "the way Muhammad returned there as a conqueror."

Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israel-based monitor, said that in its Arabic messages, the Palestinian Authority always has denied Israel's right to exist and often has presented the peace process as a tactic leading to the Jewish state's destruction.

That approach was repeated last Friday, Marcus said.

In his sermon, Mudyris declared that all of the land encompassing Israel belongs to Muslims.

"We tell you Palestine, we shall return to you, by Allah's will, we shall return to every village, every town, and every grain of earth which was quenched by the blood of our grandparents and the sweat of our fathers and mothers," he said. "We shall return, we shall return."

Mudyris said the willingness of Palestinians to return to the 1967 borders does not mean they have "given up on the land of Palestine."

It might take diplomacy to return to the 1967 borders he said, but diplomacy will not lead to a return to the "1948 borders," a reference to the land before Israel was established as a state.

"No one on this earth recognizes [our right to] the 1948 borders," he said. "Therefore, we shall return to the 1967 borders, but it does not mean that we have given up on Jerusalem and Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramla, Natanyah [Al-Zuhour] and Tel Aviv [Tel Al-Rabia]. Never."

Mudyris said "our grandfather's blood" and "father's blood" demands a return to the entire land, "and [their blood] shall curse anyone who will concede a grain of earth of those villages."

"Our approval to return to the 1967 borders is not a concession for our other rights," he said. "No! ... this generation might not achieve this stage, but generations will come, and the land of Palestine ... will demand that the Palestinians will return the way Muhammad returned there, as a conqueror."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.