Israel Warns It Will Kill More Militants

AP | 8/22/03

[kattracks]

The Associated Press

JERUSALEM Aug. 22 — Israel plans to kill more militant leaders if the Palestinians do not begin arresting and disarming extremists, Israeli officials warned on Friday following a lethal helicopter missile strike on a Hamas chief.

Palestinian leaders said Thursday's killing of Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab ruined what was to be an imminent campaign against militants by Palestinian security forces.

The militants called off their two-month-old cease-fire and promised more suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli targets, raising the chances that a new round of Mideast violence will sink a U.S.-backed peace plan. The plan is aimed at stopping three years of violence and creating a Palestinian state.

Hamas quickly dispatched squads of young militants in Gaza to launch homemade rockets into Israel. By Friday morning, six of the crude projectiles had been fired, damaging two houses but causing no injuries. More than a dozen mortars were also launched at Jewish settlements within Gaza, damaging another house.

Several high-ranking Israeli military officials said on condition of anonymity that there were plans to kill other top Hamas leaders if there are new Palestinian suicide attacks and no efforts by Palestinian police forces to arrest extremists.

A Palestinian suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday killed 20 people, including six children, prompting Israel's strike on Abu Shanab, a 53-year-old Hamas leader and U.S.-educated civil engineer.

An Israeli security source said all Hamas leaders were now considered fair targets and new strikes would be launched after a 24-hour lull to give Palestinians a chance to act on their own against militants. "We were waiting to see even just one Hamas arrest," he said.

Under the "road map" peace plan , launched on June 4, the Palestinians are required to dismantle Islamic and other militant groups.

After Tuesday's suicide attack in Jerusalem, aides to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said for the first time that he would go after militants, something he had previously rejected for fear of setting off a civil war. But those plans were scrapped after Israel's helicopter attack, which killed Abu Shanab and two bodyguards, the aides said.

Palestinian legislator Ziad Abu Zayyad said that the renewed violence threatens to topple Abbas also known as Abu Mazen who was appointed in April under pressure from U.S. and Israeli leaders searching for an alternative to Yasser Arafat.

"If this situation continues, Abu Mazen will not last long," Abu Zayyad said. "Those interested in Abu Mazen's success must pressure Israel to stop undermining his government."

Abbas, largely failing to win his own people's support because talks with Israel did not produce the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, appeared to be losing confidence among Israelis as well.

A poll published Friday, found that only 35 percent of Israelis thought peace talks with Abbas should continue following Tuesday's bombing. The survey of 501 adults by the Dahaf polling company was printed in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers again set up road blocks along Gaza's main north-south highway, effectively cutting the strip in half. Hundreds of motorists were stranded on the roadway, which had been briefly re-opened in one of the most significant gestures Israel had offered to improve the daily lives of ordinary Palestinians.

The military said it closed the road to try to stop the firing of rockets into Israel.

Egypt sent an adviser to President Hosni Mubarak, Osama el-Baz, to meet with Arafat, in an apparent effort to try to salvage the cease-fire. Israel Army Radio reported that the envoy was also to meet Israel's foreign minister.

In a loud, angry funeral in the Gaza Strip, men carried the bodies of Abu Shanab and his two bodyguards. The streets echoed with shouts for revenge. Some in the crowd chanted a warning for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz: "Sharon and Mofaz listen very well, our retaliation will send you to hell!"

On Thursday night, tens of thousands of Palestinians among them many black-hooded Hamas supporters marched along Gaza streets, pledging revenge.

In a joint statement issued Friday in Beirut, Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad blamed Sharon for the collapse of the cease-fire.

"The American administration will be held responsible as well because it remained silent on the Zionist (Israeli) crimes and violations and guaranteed a political cover for it," the statement said.

In the West Bank, Israeli tanks and other armored vehicles rolled into the towns of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nablus for a second night of raids searching for wanted Palestinians. Troops used explosives to demolish three houses that belonged to the families of militants who carried out attacks.

[tet68]

In a loud, angry funeral in the Gaza Strip, men carried the bodies of Abu Shanab and his two bodyguards. The streets echoed with shouts for revenge. Some in the crowd chanted a warning for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz: "Sharon and Mofaz listen very well, our retaliation will send you to hell!"

But let the jews echo the cry for revenge and say,
"Arafat and Abbas listen very well, our retaliation will send you to hell!", and see what happens.

Send Arafat to hell NOW!

[MetalHeadConservative35]

send him to hell

yea i know,eiether they do it or i will CHOOSE

gettin tired of this restraint i say israel needs to grow some cajone's and take em all out

[exnavy]

Let all homocide bombers feel the sting of Israeli missles.

[Republic]

I must be slipping. We have huge bus bombings that slaugher the innocent juxtaposed against TARGETED killings that wipe out those who plan the slaughers.

What would Americans do to terrorists who bombed a bus and killed innocents? Would we go after innocents within the terrorist community or TARGET those responsible?

Seems to me, the Palestinians broke off any chance of the peace effort by KILLING A BUS LOAD OF PEOPLE. In a backlash, THREE people were killed by the Israeli's.

The Palestinians are LUCKY the Israeli's don't drop a bomb on a BUSLOAD of Palestinians....innocent people, struggling to survive, THEN they would have cause to whine.

If the Palestinians won't govern themselves and continue to employ terror outside their base, there can be no peace.

Time for this game to end.

Time for a a set date for Hamas to be disbanded or risk being disbanded by Israel.

I would not want to live with a neighbor who slips into my country and blows up whomever, whenever for the purpose of making a point.

Palestine is WAY to ASSURED that Israel, a superior power, granted, will not act in the barbaric way its militants do.

This allows them to kill and kill again.

(Billy klinton has arafat to our WH more than anyother foreign leader. Billy wanted a legacy-peace in the mideast-more than anything -other than that Nobel Peace Prize LOL That's why over a million Sudanese were slaughtered while billy fiddled with his sax, or Monica on the Oval office floor while arafat was held at bay in the rose garden-this is true.)

Can you not visualize arafat having drinks with hillary in our Oval Office as she repeats the process ala klinton style? Makes me sick to think of it.

Thank GOD our President has not had that filthy terrorist, Arafat, to our WH-not even once. He knows, we know and the Israelis know what this jerk is all about.

I mean, what happens to Arafat if peace is achieved? Like jesse jackson should the liberals decide to treat blacks with dignity, deep down respect and equality, he would fade into nothingness.

[bets]

Israel Warns It Will Kill More Militants

Enough of this warning cr*p - just do it.

[livius]

Kill them all. Restraint has gotten Israel exactly nothing.

[mombonn]

"Those interested in Abu Mazen's success must pressure Israel to stop undermining his government."

Tell that to arafat, you moron.

[11B3]

Three words for the IDF to the Palis: It's MOAB time!!

[whd23]

Israel could end all of this mess if it would just give the Palestinians their land back*......

*Preferably in small lots, approximately 7ft long by 4ft wide by 6ft deep.

[LibKill]

"Millitants" my calloused butt! They are terrorist scum.

[SouthernFreebird]

"Millitants" my calloused butt! They are terrorist scum.

You mean Baby killers

[LibKill]

Yeah, what you said.

[sonsofliberty2000]

"The plan is aimed at stopping three years of violence and creating a Palestinian state. "

Ok if we create this Palestinian state does it automatically go on the Axis of Evil with Iran, Iraq and North Korea? Do we automatically sanction it for harboring terrorists, which we all know it will?

Patriot Paradox

[Erik Latranyi]

The only way this stops is by one side giving up.

The Palestinians will not negotiate in good faith, therefore, war is needed until one side will surrender.

Simple.

[Akira]

I'm posting Mark Levin's comments from The Corner on NRO, he says it better than I could...


ISRAEL MUST GO IT ALONE [Mark R. Levin]
Not a day passed after the horrific murder of Israelis, including babies and young children, when a State Department official announced that, in essence, the so-called Roadmap to Peace was still on track. This was followed with an opinion piece by former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, coldly insisting that the U.S. continue with its peace process. Unfortunately, no amount of slaughter or mayhem unleashed against the Israeli people distracts our diplomats or Israel-bashers like Scowcroft from their efforts to sellout Israel.

It's time for Ariel Sharon to do the unthinkable. It's time for him to tell President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell that he will do whatever he must to save the lives of Israeli babies, including, if necessary, the toppling of the terrorist regimes in Iran and Syria that are waging war against Israel through their Palestinian surrogates.

It's time for Prime Minister Sharon to look President Bush in his eyes--leader to leader--and tell him that the lives of his citizens are every bit as precious as the lives of American citizens, and that the perpetuation of a double standard, where the U.S. practices preemption and Israel is forced to practice restraint, is no longer acceptable. It's time for Sharon to tell Bush that he, as President of the United States, wouldn't tolerate the almost daily massacre of American babies, and he won't tolerate the massacre of Jewish babies, either. They're all God's children.

It's time for Sharon to look Powell in his eyes--former general to former general--and tell him that the national security of his nation is every bit as important as the national security of the United States or any other sovereign, democratic state. And that Israel will not surrender any more of its land in exchange for false promises of peace. Indeed, Sharon should challenge Powell to help hundreds of thousands of Jews reclaim land throughout Europe that was stolen from them during the Holocaust, and stolen by Arab regimes over the last 50 years.

It's time for Sharon to tell his own people that Israel's very survival is in doubt unless they are prepared to go it alone. And that means a willingness to risk the loss of substantial financial and military support from the United States, which has been used by successive American administrations to bully Israel into capitulation.

It's time for Sharon to accept the unfortunate fact that the last president to act as a true friend to Israel was Richard Nixon. And that despite all the representations that the U.S. will ensure Israel's security, the fact is that U.S. policy--has made Israel less secure and less capable of defending itself.

Sadly, as long as America seeks to be an "honest broker" rather than a reliable ally, and as long as the State Department places a moral equivalency on Palestinian terrorists targeting and killing Jewish babies with Israeli acts of self-defense in targeting and killing terrorist leaders, Israel, for its own sake and survival, must go it alone.