Hamas Says Will Target Israeli Leadership

Reuters via NYTimes.com ^ | 8/9/02

[GeneD]

Filed at 3:05 p.m. ET

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Friday that it will target Israeli leaders in response to the Jewish state's tactic of killing senior Palestinian militants behind attacks on Israelis.

Usama Hamdan, who heads Hamas in Lebanon, said Israel's killing in recent weeks of two senior Hamas figures -- one in an air strike that left 14 others dead -- meant Hamas's military actions should expand beyond suicide bombings in public places.

``From here on out, targeting a leader, minister, or the head of the government of the Zionist entity will be treatment in kind, particularly since they are giving the orders (to kill Palestinians),'' he told Reuters.

``The Palestinian response...will extend to the killers and it will extend to those who consent to being ruled by the killers.''

Hamdan was voicing a harder line taken by Hamas recently against individual Israeli leaders.

A more senior Hamas figure said on Wednesday that the group, which has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings during the Palestinian uprising, should target Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to avenge a Hamas leader shot by an Israeli sniper in Gaza.

Hamas has carried out two attacks that have killed at least 16 people since Israel killed Hamas military commander Salah Shehada last month in an air strike on his home in a crowded Gaza City neighborhood.

Hamdan's comments came as Palestinian cabinet members met U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in Washington for talks on Palestinian reforms Washington wants to focus on revamping security forces to take on militant groups like Hamas.

The meeting comes after a failed round of Israeli-Palestinian talks that proposed easing Israel's military grip on the West Bank and Gaza if the Palestinian Authority (PA) cracks down on militant groups.

Hamdan said Israel hoped to use those talks to get the assistance of President Yasser Arafat's PA in targeting militants, with the goal of igniting a Palestinian civil war.

``Sharon's proposal...stipulates the arrest of certain people and house arrest. It stipulates a Palestinian civil war and internal confrontation,'' he said.

``If the PA wants to confront the resistance it must confront the Palestinian people,'' Hamdan said.

At least 1,492 Palestinians and 585 Israelis have been killed since Israeli-Palestinian violence erupted in 2000 after peace talks ground to a halt.

[mhking]

The militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Friday that it will target Israeli leaders in response to the Jewish state's tactic of killing senior Palestinian militants behind attacks on Israelis.

We knew that was coming sooner or later.

It's escalation time, boys and girls.

Hold muh beer while I find my tin foil.

[RabidBartender]

I don't know how Israeli succession works. Any chance for an emergency vote to install Benjamin Netanyahu as PM should these terrorists be successful?

[Frank_Discussion]

Somehow, I see Slim Pickens wearing a yarmulka...

[Alouette]

From here on out, targeting a leader, minister, or the head of the government of the Zionist entity

Haven't they been doing that all along? They have already assassinated Tourism Minister Rehaveam Zeevi and the son and daughter-in-law of Rabbi Meir Kahane.

[Frank_Discussion]

Hmmm... I don't think the PA would be happy with that arrangement.

[The Iceman Cometh]

Somehow, I don't think escalating the conflict against a better armed Isreal will end up in favor of Hamas. Call me crazy but a bunch of stone-throwing, bomb wearing neanderthals won't last long against air power and armor.

[FateAmenableToChange]

It's escalation time, boys and girls.

It's kind of hard to escalate when (as in the case of Hamas), (a)you've already expressed your ultimate goal of wiping out your enemy to the last child; (b) you're already committing all of your resources, time, and effort toward that ultimate goal; (c) you have already threatened revenge on the Israeli leadership (indeed, have already assassinated one of them, but only one, only a relatively minor one, and that early on in the current conflict before everyone's guard was up) and everyone is fully aware that you would kill every Israeli official for no reason whatsoever anyway, even if the Israeli's hadn't targeted Hamas leaders; and (d) you really lack the resources to dish out more death, pain, misery, and evil more than you already are.

[Coop]

I hope these morons do turn their attention to Israeli leaders. No, I'm not wishing harm on the Israelis. To the contrary, if these cowardly terrorist thugs turn their attention toward well guarded leaders, less innocent civilians will be murdered, and ultimately more terrorists will be snuffed out as they find out what happens when they target those able to defend themselves.

[stumpy]

I still recommend the leasing of a dozen B-52's to Israel, carpet bomb gaza, the camps in Lebanon (where hamas hides) and all of Damascus where they have their "offices".

[lavrenti]

To clarify, Ze'ev was a PFLP (re: Syrian) hit and that assassination triggered Arafat's current isolation. The Kahane killing, I believe, was an act of opportunity. There is a big difference with this escalation. Unlike to corrupt cowards of Fatah, Hamas tries very hard to follow up on their bluster.

I'm tending to agree with Daniel Pipes assessment. These bastards are losing. The secular Palestinian terror formations are effectively truncated, their leadership isolated, and most of the cadre either dead, in jail or soon to be either.

However, the ghost dancing Jihadis of Islamic Scumbag continue to wreak mayhem. However this is the sort of escalation that will finally force Sharon and Ben-Eliezar to do something that, though difficult, needs to be done in order to finally end this thing.

Which is turn Gaza City in another Jenin. Though the death toll will be high, getting rid of Hamas is the bottom line.

Hamas cannot be allowed to continue. Period.

[DoughtyOne]

Wrong is wrong.

[DoughtyOne]

Just expell them and be done with it. If this is what the PLO/Hamas is resigned to continue, then expell the whole lot of them and get on with life.

P.S. The life expenctancy of any Hamas or Palestinian official that advocates violence of any form should be less than the half-life of a quark. It's unconcionable that they can threaten and threaten with impugnity.

[lasereye]

If they succeed in killing Sharon or other high ranking leaders, it could in turn give the Israelis the excuse to do some things they have so far refrained from, like expelling Arafat, and perhaps reoccupying the West Bank or Gaza indefinitely this time, instead of for a few days.

[Moose4]

Killing Sharon would be the second stupidest thing Hamas could do. I don't know how popular he is in Israel right now, but if Sharon was made a martyr, do you really think the Israelis would cave in and say "OK, Mr. Hamas Guy, here, have Gaza and the West Bank, just don't hurt us!" Or do you think they'd jump foursquare behind Bibi Netanyahu and give him the green light to take care of the Hamas problem once and for all? The UN and the Eurinals would whine and scream, but at that point, would Israel care?

BTW, the #1 stupidest thing they could do would be to kill their best friend in the government, Shimon Peres. That might even prove to the "diplomatic community" that the Palestinians don't want peace, they want the destruction of Israel.

}:-)4

[goldstategop]

I hope they go through with their threat. It would be a jolt to the Israeli elite to move to finish them off in a way that Hamas' massacre of ordinary Jews has left them indifferent. If Hamas has any interest at all in self preservation they will leave the Israeli elite for later.