Posted on 08/24/2003 1:09:34 PM PDT by SJackson
Israeli Arabs condemn suicide bombing
"The terrorist acted on his own behalf and not in the name of a single person from this village," Abu Snan council chairman Faouzi Mishlab said yesterday, after learning that the Nahariya suicide bomber was a resident of the village.
Mishlab added that if Israel decided to destroy Havishi's home in Abu Snan, the villagers would understand. Village residents, a mix of Moslems, Druze and Christians, expressed the hope that the suicide bombing would not reflect badly on their intentions to remain law-abiding citizens of Israel.
The Arab monitoring committee issued a statement yesterday condemning all acts of violence against innocent people, Israelis and Palestinians alike. "We condemn the criminal attack against citizens in Nahariya," the statement said. "But we also emphasize that source of the cycle of bloodshed is in the occupation, and it will only be possible to end this cycle through real peace and justice and the removal of the occupation."
The spokesman for the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Hashem Abed al-Rahman, said, "The movement condemns the murder of innocent people." Al-Rahman said it was not proven that Havishi had been responsible for the terror attack and denied that Havishi had belonged to the Islamic Movement.
Israeli Arab Knesset members were quick to condemn the attack but cautioned against judging the entire Israeli Arab population based on the actions of one man. "We are opposed to attacks on civilians and view with gravity the involvement of an Israeli Arab in a suicide mission," said Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash).
MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta-al) said he "objects totally to such acts, which serve as ammunition in the hands of the right to incite against the Arab population." Knesset Member Azmi Bishara (Balad) announced his political and moral objection to the "killing of innocent civilians." MK Abdulmalik Dehamshe warned against depicting Israeli Arabs as a "fifth column" of internal opposition against the State.
Prominent Palestinians condemn suicide bombings
June 20 2002
AP
More than 50 Palestinians took out a full-page newspaper ad today condemning suicide bombings, sparking debate at a time when most Palestinians support the attacks as an effective way to hit Israel.
The ad in Al Quds, a leading Palestinian daily, appeared this morning - a day after a suicide bombing killed 19 people on a Jerusalem bus, and hours before another suicide attack killed seven more people at a bus stop in the evening.
In the ad, the Palestinians urged the militant groups behind deadly assaults on Israeli civilians to "stop sending our young people to carry out such attacks".
"We see no results in such attacks, but a deepening of the hatred between both peoples and a deepening of the gap between us," the ad said.
The signatories included Hanan Ashrawi, a leading Palestinian spokeswoman and a legislator, and the Palestinians' senior Jerusalem official, Sari Nusseibeh, along with other prominent figures regarded as moderates. The ad urged other Palestinians to join them in their opposition to the bombings.
"We felt we had to chart a course, not just break the silence," said Ashrawi.
"We wanted to create a momentum to get people to think with their minds and to reason, instead of always reacting emotionally and out of revenge and pain and trauma."
With the latest attacks, Palestinians have carried out 71 suicide bombings in the past 21 months of Middle East fighting, killing about 250 people on the Israeli side.
The attacks outrage Israelis, and the government has responded with military strikes and incursions into Palestinian territory, aimed at suspected militants as well as buildings belonging to the Palestinian Authority government and security forces. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is ultimately responsible for failing to stop the attacks.
Palestinians have held virtually no public debate on the issue.
Polls regularly show strong support for the suicide bombings, though it has come down a bit in recent months, following the strong Israeli military response.
A poll released last week by a Palestinian think tank showed support for suicide bombings dropped from 74 per cent in December to 68 per cent recently. The survey, which had a margin of error of three percentage points, was roughly in line with other polls.
Ghassan Khatib, who headed the think tank and was recently named Labour Minister, said the modest decline in support for bombings was due to three reasons: international criticism of the Palestinians, the damage done to the Palestinian image by the bombings, and the consequences for the Palestinians of the bombings including Israel's military response.
He said the newspaper ad was the strongest public expression to date opposing the bombings.
Hamas, the group that has made more attacks than any other, dismissed the ad as the work of a small number of Palestinians who lack broad support.
"Let's see how much support they will have among the people," said Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab.
The bombings "really hurt Israel. It really affects the Israelis, and if we have an effective weapon in our hands and the whole world is trying to take it off us, this kind of reaction shows it to be the most effective way," Abu Shanab said.
The Palestinian leadership routinely condemns the bombings, but the Palestinian security forces have not carried out large-scale roundups of suspects in Hamas or other groups behind the attacks.
Most attacks are carried out by young Palestinian men. Initially, most also had strong links to radical Islamic movements, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. But recently, their numbers have also included members of secular groups, such as the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Arafat's Fatah movement.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a longtime aide to Arafat, acknowledged that Palestinian public opinion was at odds with the stance of the Palestinian leadership. He said the best way to end the bombings was for a resumption of peace talks, which broke down 18 months ago amid the violence.
"You can say that (Palestinian) public opinion is with these operations," Abdel Rahman said. "But the Palestinians still consider Arafat their leader. The solution is to stop these suicide operations with a political solution."
But Jibril Rajoub, the Palestinians' West Bank security chief, said the Palestinians cannot cooperate with Israel now to arrest those behind suicide attacks.
"As long as the Israelis are continuing their invasion - using their tanks, F-16s and Apaches (attack helicopters) - there will be no arrests of any Palestinian," Rajoub told The Associated Press from Egypt, where he was meeting with officials about Palestinian security matters.
A number of prominent Islamic figures in the Palestinian areas and the wider Arab world have endorsed suicide bombings.
Hamed Baitawi, chief of the Islamic Clergy Committee in Palestine who has close ties to Hamas, said suicide attacks were legitimate at present.
"Islam demands that we avoid killing women children and civilians, but God ordered us to fight our enemy in the same way that he fights us," Baitawi said.
"As long as the Israeli occupation is killing our people, we have the right from the sky to kill its civilians."
But Zohair Dobei, considered a moderate Muslim sheikh in the West Bank city of Nablus, stressed the Islamic prohibition on killing civilians. He also was critical of Palestinian mothers who have appeared in videos, endorsing bombing attacks subsequently carried out by their sons.
"I can't imagine that there is a mother in the world who can dispatch her son, or who would not prevent him from doing so if she knows that he is going to kill himself," Dobei said.
"The movement condemns the murder of innocent people."
That statement begs the question, doesn't it? Are Jews innocent so far as the Arabs are concerned?
And I would appear that he's one of the supporters of the so-called "right of return."
They pack their belongings and begin their march to Jordan. Arafat is returned to his homeland, Egypt, in a box! The Saudi Royal family will be asked to eschew their $300 Million annual vacation in Spain for 20 years to fund the relocation, (or else). Additional funds can be made available from the Wahhabi schools budgets which they use to teach virulent hatred. Then Isreal will be left alone!
In the History of the World Part II, Mel Brooks is playing a King and when he explains his wishes, (sexual in nature), to the young lady she demurrs. He then explains that her father is in the dungeon so the choice is very simple, "Hump or Die!" Not exactly the most diplomatic nicety but I do believe that the Saudi Family and all the other usual suspects will "get it"
Actually, and all due respects to Rush (who I heard mention this on his program just recently) it was Professor Daniel Pipes who broached this first in "Middle East Debate: Should Washington Actively Promote an Israeli-Palistinian Settlement?" back in May.
"...Indeed the Israelis want out. No dispute there. But they're in a war. And when you're in a war, you don't have the option, other than giving up, of getting out. You either win or you lose. This is a war. I think it's very important to understand, this is a war underway, in which the Palestinians wish to destroy Israel, and Israel wishes to achieve its acceptance. One side is going to win, one side is going to lose. There is no compromise. There can be compromise when the war ends, and negotiations begin. We did not negotiate with the Taliban. We did not negotiate with Saddam Hussein. Once we went to war, we went to war to win, as states do. If the Israelis decide midway through the war that they don't want to fight it, well, that's their prerogative. But then they well might lose it. They either will win it or lose it. It is binary. There is no third way here...."
Downright logical. But then he was roundly condemned by the Israeli hating neo-Left. Go figure.
As innocent as the Crusaders :>)
No, the majority of Palestinians support the bombings. But the bombers don't have 100% support, contrary to the article's statement.
That statement begs the question, doesn't it? Are Jews innocent so far as the Arabs are concerned?
Israeli civilians qualify as innocent, according to this dissident Palestinian:
Zohair Dobei, considered a moderate Muslim sheikh in the West Bank city of Nablus, stressed the Islamic prohibition on killing civilians
Because it was smarter to hold out, kill more Jews, and then be offered a State by the President of the United States of America.
Would you personally like to participate in that? How about taking out their children, seeing as you state 'all' Palestinians.
If not, why not?
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