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| Middle East |
| Anti-Israel Militants Praise Bombings |
| 2002-06-19 |
| Anti-Israel Is the Lebanese government on the list yet? Among those who attended the meeting were Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior official of Hamas, Ahmed Jibril, founder of the Syria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. At the meeting Maher Taher, a Palestinian member of the radical Syria-based PFLP, pledged continued attacks. "Today the United States is doing all it could along with Israel and, unfortunately, in collusion with some Arab governments to crush the intefadeh (Palestinian uprising)," he told the conference. "They want basically to stop the martyrdom operations and the heroic military operations because it is the most effective weapon ... so that they can impose surrender and humiliation." Surrender and humiliation are anathema to Arabs. So are good faith, honesty and negotiations. Those are for whimps. Real Arabs prefer revenge. And guns. Big guns... A former Lebanese prime minister, two Cabinet ministers and several Lebanese lawmakers, including some from Hezbollah, participated in the conference. Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who heads the Shiite Muslim Amal movement, said "Israeli terrorism left the Palestinians no option but martyrdom." Berri's the speaker of Lebanon's parliament... The Lebanese government has pledged itself to the U.S.-led war on terrorism, but considers groups such as Hezbollah and others attacking Israel to be freedom fighters, not terrorists. Terrorists kill non-combatant civilians. They shoot and bomb indiscriminately. Freedom fighters... uh... it's different. The conference opened shortly after the bombing with participants insisting that Palestinians were fighting for their lives. "The Palestinian people have the right to choose the means of struggle available which enable it to defend itself, all of which have been exhausted," said Ali Akbar Mohtashemi, an Iranian parliamentarian and former interior minister. Muhtashemi is known as the Midwife of Hezbollah. He turns up at this sort of meeting regularly. He belongs on somebody's hit list... Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, scoffed at the possibility of Israeli retaliation and said the Jewish state should be dismantled and replaced by a Palestinian one. "We don't want to kill anyone or throw anyone in the sea. Let them return from where they came from," a smiling Nasrallah told the conference, adding that Arab nations could even finance such an exodus of Jews. Put him on the list, too. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |