| I think my hair's growing back, too. Really. I got this fuzz showing up, and it used to be all smooth like a billiard ball... |
Sensing a growing yearning for calm among ordinary Palestinians, Hamas is open to stopping violence against Israel, a top official in the militant Islamic group said Thursday. Meanwhile, newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was preparing a government clear-out Thursday, as he welcomed the formation of a new Israeli coalition as a chance to advance the peace process. Sheik Hassan Yousef, top Hamas leader in the West Bank, said the group is not trying to destroy Israel. The comments were a marked departure from Hamas' usual calls for elimination of the Jewish state. A halt in attacks by Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings that killed hundreds of Israelis during four years of conflict, would give newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas an important boost in his efforts to restart peace talks. Yousef, who is among Hamas' founding members, is known as a relative moderate within the group, and other leaders couldn't immediately be reached for reaction. The group's main leaders are based in Syria and Lebanon, and they usually stick to the Islamic movement's uncompromising line against Israel. Yousef said the group is reconsidering its violent tactics, though a final decision hasn't been made.
Despite Yousef's comments, Israelis were skeptical. "We're going to have to see what the reaction is. This guy has a reputation for piping off," cautioned Mark Heller, an analyst at the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. "I don't think he was speaking for the (Hamas) movement." No formal announcement on a new-look Palestinian government was expected to be made before Abbas's installation on Saturday but political sources said a number of allies of his late predecessor Yasser Arafat were facing the ax.
"At least four or five ministers will leave," one official said on condition of anonymity. "We know for sure that (Interior Minister) Hakam Balawi will go." Balawi is almost certain to be replaced by Nasser Yusef whose appointment by prime minister Ahmed Qurei was blocked by Arafat in late 2003. The change of interior minister, a key post in the security sphere, follows the resignation of Arafat's old presidential national security adviser, Jibril Rajoub.