Posted on 07/02/2002 3:59:35 PM PDT by SJackson
Tel-Aviv attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has sent letters to United States Attorney John Ashcroft, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations warning them of Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan's involvement in terror attacks.
Dahlan, a rising star in the international media, is being promoted by many in the Bush administration to succeed Yassir Arafat as leader of the Palestinian Authority. The lawyer's missive accuses former Gaza security service boss Dahlan and his deputy Rashid Abu Shabak of having perpetrated the November 20, 2000, bombing of an Israeli school bus outside of Kfar Darom.
In the Kfar Darom attack several Israeli teachers were killed and many school children were seriously injured. US citizen Rachel Asarof was wounded in the attack and the husband of another American citizen, Gavriel Biton, was killed. The bombing of the school bus, which crippled three young children from the Cohen family, shocked Israelis and brought international condemnation of the Palestinian Authority.
Following the attack on the school bus, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak dispatched the Israel Air Force to level Dahlan's Gaza headquarters. Then opposition leader, Ariel Sharon called for Dahlan's immediate assassination.
In his recent policy speech on the Middle East, American President George Bush called on the Palestinians to oust Arafat and to elect "new and different leaders." The President warned the Palestinian people, in a thinly veiled reference to Arafat, that the United States would not maintain relations with "leaders who are compromised by terror."
Darshan-Leitner's letter notes the irony of American leaders grooming Dahlan to succeed Arafat, when the Gaza leader was the one actually carrying out the PA's policy of terror attacks on Israeli civilians:
"Cultivating an accused terrorist like Dahlan, who has targeted Israeli school children in his recent attacks, to replace Yassir Arafat merely ensures the continuation of the Palestinian's strategy of criminal violence to advance their extreme political goals. For the United States to promote a Palestinian law enforcement official who bombed an Israeli school bus and injured American citizens undermines President Bush's pledge not to do business with those compromised by terror. By supporting Dahlan's candidacy for leadership you are merely pulling U.S. policy out of the fire and into the frying pan. Dahlan is not a new and different type of leader - he is a terrorist too."
The letter also notes that Dahlan is currently providing shelter in Gaza to Hamas arch-terrorist Mohammed Deif. Deif, a childhood friend of Dahlan has topped Israel's list of wanted fugitives for several years. Deif is accused by the Israeli security services of planning dozens of Hamas bombings that resulted in the murder of scores of Israelis. Under Dahlan's supervision Gaza has been utilized as a safe haven which provides refuge to hundreds of wanted Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist such as Deif.
Darshan-Leitner's office has brought law suits against Dahlan in the Israeli courts accusing him of terror attacks. In the United States attorney David Strachman is prosecuting a civil action against Dahlan arising from the Kfar Darom school bus bombing in the federal court in Washington, D.C.
For More Information: 972-9-973-3336.
E-mail: darshanleitner@hotmail.com
Don't include Israel in your ME rogues gallery.
Naaaaaah. You may be peddling that line on the wrong forum.
That is the challenge of GWBs speach. Can Israel (with US support) resist negotiating with another terrorist leader in the PA? Or will negotiations continue with Arafat 2?
Sure Alex, you know the Jews run the place don't you?
Feel free to post the multitude of times Sharon has sent out suicide bombers to murder Palestinian, or Lebanese children.
Sabra, Shatilla, horrible stuff. Dead non combatants. Perhaps others will discuss it with you on the thread, I might, though it may be in the context of US military policy, and by condemning Sharon for Sabra and Shatilla, if you're honest, you may be forced to condemn a multitude of American actions as well.
Seems I remember having an intelligent conversation or two with you, what happened? I think it's the format, conducive to one liners, hard for people who disagree to talk.
Anyway, don't count on me to weigh in on the Israeli head of state comparison when discussing Arafat vs Dahlin.
Yes, of course I'm Jewish. I thought everyone here knew that.
Stonewall and I are landsman (that's a joke). I love the guy.
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