Posted on 06/30/2002 4:53:39 PM PDT by Dallas
NABLUS, West Bank, July 1 (Reuters) - The militant Islamic group Hamas has vowed to avenge Israel's killing of one of its top bomb-makers, threatening a new spasm of violence in a 21-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Israeli special forces killed Muhanad al-Taher and one of his deputies in a raid on a house in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday. Palestinians described Taher as "the Engineer-4," the head of Hamas's military wing in Nablus and a bomb-maker at the top of Israel's most-wanted list.
"The assassination will increase Hamas's determination to continue Jihad and resistance," Ismail Haniyah, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, told Reuters. "Hamas will never forget the blood of its martyrs."
Israeli security sources said Taher, 26, and his men were responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Israelis in suicide bombings, including an attack on a Jerusalem city bus that killed 19 people nearly two weeks ago.
The Israeli strike followed the removal of 11 Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank ordered by Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who vowed to dismantle rogue settlements vulnerable to the Palestinian revolt.
Adding to the pressure on the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington was no longer talking to Yasser Arafat and had no plans to do so in the future.
U.S. President George W. Bush called in a speech last week for Arafat's replacement as Palestinian leader, saying his Authority was tainted by terrorism and corruption.
Arafat, speaking by satellite link to an audience in Switzerland, offered to meet Bush "any time, anywhere" to promote Middle East peace, despite the president's call for his removal.
Arafat, who has announced Palestinian elections for January, said it was impossible to carry out reforms demanded by the international community while Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory remained "complete and total".
The executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, headed by Arafat, said on Sunday it rejected any attempts to sideline Arafat or his Palestinian Authority.
"The executive committee is confident that the whole civilised world will not accept the imposition of guardians on the Palestinian people," the committee said in a statement.
NABLUS RAID
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops surrounded the home of one of Taher's associates in Nablus, called on its occupants to evacuate the building and opened fire after most of them had left.
Taher and one of his deputies were killed and a third militant was wounded, Israeli security sources said.
Israel has killed dozens of Palestinian militants it says were behind attacks on Israelis. Palestinians have branded the killings "state-sponsored assassinations."
Across the West Bank, 11 Jewish settler outposts were dismantled peacefully after Ben-Eliezer vowed to remove at least 10 of the rogue settlements by Monday.
An Israeli security source said the outposts -- many of them uninhabited clusters of a few trailer homes -- were taken down in coordination with the settlers. But some Jewish settlers expressed outrage at the clearout.
"It's a sad sight. Every outpost was meant to establish a Jewish foothold...as opposed to the darkness and terror of the Arabs," settler Benny Katzover told Channel Two television.
OUTPOSTS ISOLATED
Ben-Eliezer said the outposts were too isolated to be protected and that up to 10 more would come down this month.
Analysts said Ben-Eliezer's move against settler caravans, whose proliferation has helped inflame Palestinians, aimed to defuse a backlash in his centre-left Labour Party over the current reoccupation of Palestinian cities.
Ben-Eliezer spearheaded the army's West Bank offensive in response to two Palestinian suicide bombings that killed 26 people in Israel on June 18 and 19, almost two years into the Palestinian revolt for statehood.
About 145 settlements with 200,000 residents have sprouted with Israeli government approval in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since their capture in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli peace activists opposed to settlements estimate that 60 other small outposts have been set up without permission.
Settlers claim a biblical right to the land. The Palestinians and most countries regard the settlements as illegal and an obstacle to Middle East peacemaking.
At least 1,430 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after talks on a Palestinian state stalled.
Something like an "oh s..." look?
Subj: P.A. FINANCE MINISTER FORMER EMPLOYEE OF BANK ALLEGEDLY RECEIVING HAMAS FUNDS
Date: 7/1/2002 2:20:57 PM Mountain Daylight Time
From: ANS_Story@sheperd.com (ANS Story)
Sender: AssistUS-owner@thomas.sheperd.com
To: AssistUS@sheperd.com (AssistUS)
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: assistcomm@cs.com, Web Site: http://www.assist-ministries.com/index.asp
Monday, July 1, 2002
P.A. FINANCE MINISTER FORMER EMPLOYEE OF BANK ALLEGEDLY RECEIVING HAMAS FUNDS
Sources Say It's Unlikely He Ever Knew
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ANS) -- A web site which includes an appeal for donations by the outlawed Hamas organization to buy guns and bullets, www.www.qassam.net/tabaro3.htm continues to remain on line.
The site was electronically traced as being hosted by servers in Houston, TX., belonging to Everyone’s Internet.
Jeff Lowenberg, vice- president of operations for Everyone’s Internet, said all he was able to say was the company does “cooperate to the best of our ability with all law enforcement requests.”
When asked if he could comment further, Lowenberg said he would not disagree with comments made by a company spokesman some weeks ago that appeared in the Houston Chronicle.
In that story, company officials said while they initially blocked the sites when they were brought to their attention, that they put them back on line when requested to do so by the U.S. Customs Service.
The on-line English appeal for donations on that site ends with this statement.
Donator brother, send us at the e-mail available at Martyr Izz el-Deen el-Qassam Phalanxes's web site and send us a fake name and the amount that you want to donate and we will secure handing this money to the mujahideen .. You can send any inquiries to support@qassam.org.
An e- mail sent in the middle of May to that address produced (in part) the following response. “Dear donor, We assure you that all the money will be given to no body but to all the Mujahideen in Palestine. This is the bank account : Name: Ayman ataya Mansoor. Bank account no.: 38924/2/510 Arab bank- Gaza branch- Palestine .”
An e- mail sent to the same address last week requesting information produced slightly different information to which money could be wired. “This is the bank account : Name: Ahmed Mohammed Ali Elbatech Bank account no.: 38926/9/510 Arab bank- Gaza branch- Palestine.”
E - mails sent to the Arab Bank seeking comment were not answered. Phone calls to both the Arab Bank Administration and its Gaza Branch asking if there was anyone available who could speak English and comment on the Bank’s alleged maintenance of terrorist bank account(s) were answered with a comment in broken English, “We don’t have anyone who speaks English..”
Interestingly, a former regional manager for the Arab Bank, Salam Fayaad (who is still listed on the Arab Bank’s web site as being the Regional Manager of the Arab Bank’s Palestine branches although he has not worked there for about a year) has now been appointed by Yasser Arafat as his new finance minister. Along with other ministers, Fayaad is charged with helping implement reform in the Palestine Authority, regarded by some as being both too large and corrupt.
According to a recent commentary in the Jerusalem Report on line, “As finance minister, Salam Fayyad will be responsible for instituting transparency and accountability, and for stopping money trickling into private pockets, or being used to fund terrorism.”
And in the May 31 edition of the Jerusalem Post, President Bush praised the appointment, saying “That is a positive development, because one of the things that worries us is spending any international aid on an authority that might not keep good books; that the money might not actually get to help the Palestinian people, but might end up in somebody’s pocket.”
I have to admit that after learning about Fayyad’s former position with the Arab Bank and the organization’s alleged dealings with terrorists that I initially wondered about the wisdom of Fayyad’s appointment and his mandate to, basically, root out corruption.
However, through a well-placed source with contacts in the region I was told it is very doubtful Fayyad ever knew the Arab Bank’s Gaza Branch was allegedly (and apparently continues to ) receive funds connected to the Hamas. In fact, Fayyad is regarded by a couple of individuals familiar with the Israeli and Palestinian situation as “clean” and “very well respected” by both Palestinians and Israelis. He was further described by one of the same people as a bright spot in the P.A. who doesn’t put up with any kind of corruption.”
While it looks like Fayyad’s in the clear, that still doesn’t answer the question why a Houston-based internet service provider continues to carry a clearly worded appeal from a terrorist group that is dedicated to the destruction of Israelis. Enquiring minds want to know.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.assist-ministries.com/ready2publish/www.joyjunction.org or http://www.assist-ministries.com/ready2publish/www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is pursuing his PhD in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at reynalds@joyjunction.org. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 463-2873. Note: A black and white JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at http://www.assist-ministries.com/ready2publish/assistcomm@cs.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** You may use this story with proper attribution.
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