Posted on 02/09/2005 10:12:36 AM PST by Alex Marko
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas are trying to recruit Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis in order to sabotage Middle East peace efforts, senior Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.
The accusations from political and security officials, a day after Israel and the Palestinians announced a cease-fire, echoed charges from the Jewish state. The officials declined to be identified.
Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, declined comment.
One top Palestinian official said security services were investigating Hizbollah funding for militants in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites). Another said clear links had been identified through intercepted communications.
"We know that Hizbollah has been trying to recruit suicide bombers in the name of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to carry out attacks which would sabotage the truce," said one official, referring to a militant group inside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah (news - web sites) faction.
Another official said intercepted e-mail communications and bank transactions suggested Hizbollah had raised its cash offers to militants, but it was unclear if this reflected a heightened desire to see violence flare up or a dearth of recruits.
"Now they are willing to pay $100,000 for a whole operation (suicide bombing) whereas in the past they paid $20,000, then raised it to $50,000," the second official told Reuters.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) announced a cease-fire a summit in Egypt on Tuesday to end four years of bloodshed and prepare the ground for peacemaking.
Militants have said they are not bound by the truce, but will maintain a recent calm at the request of Abbas.
ISRAEL ACCUSES HIZBOLLAH
Israel has long accused Hizbollah, whose attacks helped end its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in 2000, of bankrolling a Palestinian revolt that erupted later that year.
Hizbollah has acknowledged some support for Palestinian militant groups in the past.
Representatives of Al-Aqsa Brigades, a disparate coalition of gunmen, denied getting help from the Shi'ite guerrillas.
"We respect Hizbollah but Palestinian resistance is capable of leading its struggle alone and is able to support itself by itself," said Abu Qusai, Gaza spokesman for the faction. Palestinian officials blamed a recent attack launched in the West Bank city of Nablus on Hizbollah, but had no further details on the group's alleged involvement with violence.
The officials accused the guerrilla group of sending money to the West Bank and Gaza via relatives among the 400,000-strong Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon.
Many refugees who fled at the war of Israel's creation in 1948 fear that Abbas will abandon demands for a "right to return" to lands inside the Jewish state, though he has said he would not.
A Lebanese-born Palestinian with Danish citizenship awaits trial in Tel Aviv, accused of spying and trying to recruit Israeli Arabs for Hizbollah missions. He denies the charges.
(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
Will the PA fight Hezbollah and Hamas with Israeli air cover? Now THAT would be real progress.
That would be something to see.
One more reason to invade Iran.
The only thing newsworthy here is that the Palestinians are finally acknowledging what Israel has known all along. Let's see them admit their al-Qaida links. That would be newsworthy.
I think what needs to be done in Iran can be done from the air. Do you know how big Iran is? How many people it has? The size of it's army? Iraq is a stroll in the park by comparison.
Iran has completely different skematics than Iraq.
First off, the iranian military is not so supportive of the regime. Thats why the regime has been importing arab fighters.
Secondly, a well timed cruise missile attack on the hardliners during student protests would surely sink the country if we had dialog with the iranian generals to take over security.
Its very viable, we just need the will and justification. And trust me its coming.
The Iranian forces will be more fierce than that Iraqi army they wooped in the Iran-Iraq war. Oh nevermind.
"Do you know how big Iran is?"
The size of France. Same population too. I'm guessing it would take 2 weeks to steamroll France. Maybe 3-1/2 weeks for Iran.
Drive Syria and its proxies out of Lebanon would stop a lot of this cr*p.
And this is somehow a suprise?
I heard on Rush that the Syrians are pulling out of Lebanon and they will be holding free elections soon. I'm guessing it's true since the MSM isn't reporting it!
Israeli intelligence says otherwise. I believe them more than Rush.
Only if we followed French custom and took 3 hour lunch breaks and had 4-day weekends. ;~))
No, and no. This is the result of the closed-door diplomacy that is going on. The US is going to change the regimes of Syria (and Lebanon) and Iran, and if the PA wants the US to give the nearly carte blanche support promised in nearly ever statement of Condi Rice, it has to pay lip service. It doesn't mean anything much, other than that, when the regime change happens, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and every other PLO faction will rush to Syria, Lebanon, and Iran to fight against US troops.
I think I've seen that strategy before!
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