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| Middle East | |
| MIDEAST: Truce allegedly reached, sort of, prior to Rice visit on Saturday | |
| 2003-06-28 | |
| Israel and the Palestinians reached a disengagement deal in the Gaza Strip and Hamas said it decided to suspend attacks on Israelis — dramatic moves driven by U.S. pressure to bolster a Middle East peace "road map." More Hamas posturing... The deal on an Israeli troop pullback in Gaza was announced before Saturday's visit to the region by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice as Israel and the Palestinians jockeyed for pride of place in pushing forward the U.S.-backed peace plan. Jockeyed for pride of place ... Jeebus! Rice, viewed in Israel as one of its strongest backers in Washington, was likely to press Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in talks in the West Bank Saturday to dismantle Hamas and other militant groups as mandated by the road map. Against the backdrop of U.S. pressure and Israeli attacks on it senior militants, Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters his group "has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities." The Israeli attacks we can handle, but that U.S. pressure, aieee! But he said a truce would carry conditions and be declared only after Hamas and other militant groups agreed on a joint statement in a 33-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood. Oh ... so there's not going to be a truce after all... A senior Israeli government source said a Hamas cease-fire would not be "worth the paper it's written on." The group, on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings it calls resistance to occupation. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States would withhold judgment until Hamas formally declared a truce. But he hailed the deal on Gaza. "This is a very positive development," Powell said in Washington Friday "It reflects the kind of movement that the president and the other leaders called for." Positive development ... diplospeak for "BFD." A senior Israeli political source said soldiers would start withdrawing Monday in the Gaza Strip and open its major roads to free Palestinian movement in return for Palestinian forces ensuring militants did not attack Israeli targets. Yeah, sure. However troops will remain around Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, where buffer zones are to be set up between the Israeli army and Palestinian security forces, the source said after talks mediated by U.S. Middle East envoy John Wolf. The source also said Palestinian forces would be given a chance to act on Israeli tips on any pending attacks by militants before Israel launched "track-and-kill" operations. OK — you had your chance: BOOM!
They say that like it's a bad thing. At least 2,129 Palestinians and 760 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began after peace talks collapsed in 2000. "Uprising" ... I hate Rooters. | |
| Posted by:JP |