Free Republic

Geopolitical Diary: Wednesday, April 30, 2003Apr 30, 2003 The inevitable happened in Tel Aviv shortly after midnight local time on April 30, when a suicide bomber struck a bar near the U.S. Embassy, killing at least three people and injuring 49. The attack came a few hours after the Palestinian Parliament installed Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' new Cabinet. Abbas had committed himself to enforcing a ban on attacks on Israelis. The attack throws into question the swearing in of the new Cabinet on the 30th, given that Israeli policy is to respond quickly and intensely to suicide bombings. It...

Last update - 23:38 24/01/2003 Palestinian minister unveils financial reform plans By DPA DAVOS, Switzerland - Palestinian Authority Finance Minister Salam Fayyad disclosed Friday that the new Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) will report the full size of its assets and investments on February 22. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Fayyad unveiled the efforts to be made to provide both the Palestinians and the international donor community a system of "full transparency and accountability" in the PNA's financial sector. He acknowledged the criticism and allegations of corruption made abroad about the PNA's handling of international donor funds, but...

Below is the full text of the proposed agreement between Hamas and the Palestine National Authority as it was published in the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly on September 20, 1995. According to Al-Ahram, a copy of the agreement was presented last month to the spiritual leader of the Hamas movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, inside his jail in Israel. An informed Palestinian source told Al Ahram Weekly that Sheikh Yassin has accepted the document in principle, expressing, however, the demand that more "religious fragrance" be added. Please note that paragraph (3) of the agreement respects "the commitments of the Palestinian Liberation Organization...

ARAB WORLD TAKEN ABACK BY BUSH SPEECH ON MIDDLE EAST By Michael Widlanski Arab leaders and the Palestinian community were sharply taken aback by the tone and content of President George Bush’s Middle East policy speech that called for a change in Palestinian leadership. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat tried to put a good face on the Bush speech that did not mention Arafat but hinted broadly at the need for his replacement. Arafat’s WAFA press service issued a short statement welcoming the Bush speech, but privately Palestinian officials were outraged. “This is a slap in the face of the...

Gaza April 25th 2002, By Wafa political Editor;Abusing our lives and living by Israel must come to an end; we have to reorganize our strategies to meet up with the growing heroic struggle of our people. Because no one even Israel that possesses the ultimate power of deception, lies, and committing massacres and other war crimes, practiced against the Palestinians, and while defending its atrocities it is depriving the Palestinians the legitimacy of struggling against the occupation and for independence.No one can deny the heroic conducts of the Jenin Refugee Camp’s strugglers, a struggle that invoked the world admiration and...

Gaza April 24th 2002, By Wafa Political Editor,The following letter arrived, (unsigned for security reasons) on the Editor’s desk through the fax from somewhere from Jenin area, which we think it is worthy for publishing for the valuable information it contains.We were assured that the letter is genuine and it was released from one of the Jenin Camp’s Leaders.We are seriously and honestly translating and publishing the letter to provide a real and true vision from the fields of the massacre.The Political EditorThe letterThe Israeli and the world’s Jews most sophisticated Public Relation experts, activate their skills in salvaging Israel...

Beirut, April 16, IRNA -- A Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in Lebanon told IRNA Monday that US Secretary of State Collin Powell's Monday trip to Beirut is the threat message of the US administration for both Lebanon and Syria in the sensitive current political atmosphere. Head of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah Movement in Lebanon Sultan abu al-Ainain who was speaking to IRNA on the sidelines of a press conference held at southern Lebanon's Rashidiyyeh refugee camp added, "in order to convey his threat message to Beirut and Damascus governments, Powell has entered direct talks with these two front-line countries'...