Israeli terrorists attack Hamas leader / Is Sharon to blame? Israelis wonder

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Yet another attempt by these terrorists to sabotage the peace process.

Israel tries to kill senior Hamas leader](Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands.)

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel has tried to kill the best known public face of the Hamas militant movement, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, wounding him in a helicopter strike that could spur new violence and shatter a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Witnesses said two helicopter gunships fired seven missiles that set Rantissi’s car ablaze in Gaza City, killing two people and wounding about 20. Rantissi jumped out just in time but other Hamas leaders vowed vengeance for the attack.

Rantissi, 56, is a senior political aide to Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and has taken on the informal role of spokesman for the Islamic group, often addressing foreign media in reasonably fluent English.

He has taken centre stage over the past week in rejecting calls by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to cease attacks on Israelis in line with the “road map” peace proposal.

“Israel should expect that this crime…will not pass without a severe punishment,” Mahmoud al-Zahar, another top Hamas official, told al-Jazeera television.

Referring to Middle East summits with U.S. President George W. Bush last week in Egypt and Jordan, Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said: “Israel’s assassination attempt aims to direct a deadly blow to international peace efforts.”

Israeli security sources confirmed that Israel had tried to assassinate Rantissi. “Israel will continue to fight terror. The policy hasn’t changed, because the Palestinian Authority isn’t doing it,” one senior source said.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed on Sunday in Gaza in a rare joint attack by Hamas and two other Palestinian groups. All three gunmen were also killed. Troops also shot dead two gunmen who killed a soldier in the West Bank later on Sunday.

There was no official Israeli comment on Tuesday’s missile attack, which also wounded Rantissi’s teenage son. Doctors and Hamas sources described Rantissi’s condition as “good”.

SETTLER OUTPOSTS REMOVED

The strike was launched a day after Israel took first steps on the ground to meet a pledge under the internationally-backed road map by tearing down 10 of an estimated 60 Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank.

Israel has urged Abbas to carry out Palestinian obligations under the road map to disarm and dismantle militant groups spearheading attacks against it in the 32-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

But Abbas, who shook hands on the peace plan at the landmark June 4 summit in Aqaba, Jordan, with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Bush, has sought a dialogue with Hamas, hoping to seal a truce and avoid a Palestinian civil war.

Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, broke off ceasefire talks after the summit, accusing Abbas of making too many concessions to Sharon.

The road map, the most far-reaching Middle East peace plan in over two years, also calls for an end to violence and other reciprocal confidence-building steps leading to creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

The removal of the clusters of caravans on lonely hilltops set Sharon on a path to confrontation with settlers he had long championed.

But Palestinian spokesmen described Sharon’s move against outposts built without government authorisation as cosmetic.

Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war and the international community considers all the 145 settlements it has planted there as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

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The fellow who was attacked is a terrorist. Too bad they missed - maybe next time.

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The only thing that could have been improved on in this situation is if it were Palestinian bullets flying towards that man's head. Altalena.

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Cut the head off the snake. Hamas had vowed to continue attacking Israel after rejecting the 'Road Map'.

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Re: Israeli terrorists attack Hamas leader

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by chosen1: *
Yet another attempt by these terrorists to sabotage the peace process.
[/QUOTE]

Earth to chosen1, Hamas is not part of the "peace process."

Hamas has rejected the peace process. Hamas broke off talks with the PALESTINIAN leadership to declare a cease fire. Hamas vowed to continue sending suicide bombers into Israel.

The response of Hamas to this attempted assassination will be no different than they already vowed to do. Kill more Jews.

Spoon, as he so often does, hit the nail on the head when he said the only thing that could be better is if it was the Palestinians themselves trying to kill this guy. My suspicion is that it was Abbas supporters who provided the intelligence to Israel which allowed them to carry out this attack. Too bad it failed. :(

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Kareem: *
The fellow who was attacked is a terrorist. Too bad they missed - maybe next time.
[/QUOTE]

yeah, maybe next time they'll kill themselves too.

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White House Scolds Israel for Attacking Hamas Leader

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terrorists killing terrorists....it couldnt have played out better....

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Is Sharon to blame? Israelis wonder

Having failed to defeat the Palestinian resistance, Sharon lashes out with more terrosrism, which is rightly being condemned by Israeli’s themselves.

Is Sharon to blame? Israelis wonder

It is question rarely asked by Israel’s Jews, and almost never in public. But yesterday one member of the Israeli parliament, Roman Bronfman, cautiously wondered if the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, did not have Jewish blood on his hands. In carefully couched terms, he raised the question after the militant Islamic movement Hamas responded with its favourite weapon - the suicide bombing of civilians - to Israel’s botched attempt to kill its political leader. “It is necessary to examine government policy which may not have been helpful in progressing the “road map” and seems to have taken us back to death, pain and sorrow,” Mr Bronfman said In the 24 hours between the failed assassination bid on Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi and the killing of 16 people on a bus in central Jerusalem, there was fevered speculation about the timing of Mr Sharon’s order to kill Dr Rantissi. There was uncommon agreement ranging from the Israeli far right to the Palestinian leadership that the assassination bid was bound up with the politics of Mr Sharon’s reluctant embrace of the US-led road map to peace. There was also a consensus that Israel would pay in blood. Jewish settlers facing eviction from barren hilltops across the West Bank suspect that Mr Sharon was trying to placate his hardline partners in the governing coalition, who say he is endangering Israel’s security by bulldozing Jewish “outposts” to satisfy the road map’s demands. Others seized on the attack to claim that the real Mr Sharon was back - the one who claims he wants peace, but acts like a warrior.

The Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen, fears that may indeed be the case, and has frantically urged the Americans to whip Mr Sharon back into line. The assassination attempt also brought stinging criticism from generally less hostile quarters. A group of 25 retired generals, who had planned to publish a newspaper advertisement today in support of Mr Sharon’s commitment to the creation of a viable Palestinian state at last week’s summit with President George Bush, cancelled the notice after the failed assassination. Among those who initiated the advert was Brigadier-General Asher Levy, Mr Sharon’s commanding officer in the 1948 independence war. “We fought together and we were wounded together, so I know him well. We had a long conversation a year ago and I believed he had changed. Now I’m not sure,” he said. “The attempted assassination on Rantissi was an act of folly. Sharon sees it as the best way to guarantee Israel’s security. I don’t agree. At this time, when Abu Mazen is trying to do something on his side, which is not easy, I don’t think we should undermine him.” Frustrated foreign diplomats believe Mr Sharon is playing politics with the road map. “They could take out Rantissi any time they wanted, so why now?” said one. “Whenever Sharon gives ground, as he did to the Americans in Aqaba, he always tacks back the other way.”

Mr Abbas has spent weeks trying to persuade Hamas to agree to a ceasefire; Mr Sharon wants him to take on the militants by force. But the Israeli leader knows that the Palestinian prime minister lacks the resources and manpower to get into a fight with Hamas, which many Palestinians fear could degenerate into a civil war. So the Israelis claim they have to do the job. “If the Palestinian Authority does not perform its duties we will do so in its stead,” Mr Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He evidently expected a formal protest from the White House, but quiet understanding behind the scenes. Instead, he got an enraged phone call from Mr Bush’s national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. “The timing was bad for Sharon because Bush is focused on Israel and the Palestinians right now,” said one diplomat. “Bush sees this as sticking up two fingers. Now Sharon will have to do something to convince Bush he is not trying to torpedo the road map. That may require him to get on with dismantling the outposts with more energy.” Sceptics note a pattern of Israeli assassinations at crucial moments in the peace efforts. In January and July 2002, and March this year, the army’s assassination of senior Hamas or Tanzim commanders broke weeks without Palestinian attacks and efforts to establish a ceasefire. Mr Sharon dismissed the criticism. “What did they want, that I not protect the Jews? I’ve been doing that since the dawn of my youth, for over 55 years,” he told Yedioth Ahronoth. But from the smouldering wreckage of the bus in central Jerusalem yesterday rose new questions about whether Israel’s leader is saving Jewish lives or sacrificing them.

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The White House “scolds” Israel? Good God. :rolleyes: Scolding is what a ten year old receives for stealing candy. Sharon deliberately attacked this leader in order to incite particular elements within Palestinian groups and, from his point of view, probably pander to the radical extremist Jewish groups who detest the dismantling of their colonial outposts on occupied Palestinian land. Sharon’s timing at ordering this attack could not have been any worse - particularly at a time when Abu Mazen was attempting to exert whatever limited ‘control’ he has over Hamas. A ‘scolding’ is far from what this butcher of Sabra and Shatila deserves.

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yet they continue to supply Israel with weapons and money…

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Perhaps the White House should have "nuked" Sharon or "castrated" him? What did you expect? The Bush adminsistration is rebuking Israel on these actions in a historic way.

Where is the "scolding" of Hamas or the Palestinians that tolerate them? After all, they are the ones who refuse a cease fire and whose stated goal is the elimination of the state of Israel. Do we have different standards for the oppposing sides, or is it that we just don't expect that much from Hamas or the Palestinians that tolerate them? What responsiblity do they have to demand peace negotiations from those who are murdering in their name? If Sharon the Butcher deserves more than a scolding, than so do Hamas the Slaughterers.

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[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Seminole:
Perhaps the White House should have "nuked" Sharon or "castrated" him? What did you expect?

[/QUOTE]

Maybe they should dare to cut of the billions of dollars of aid that it provides this same war criminal army? That would be really scolding the Israeli's badly, but we know that the US government does not have the guts to ever propose that measure. Look what happened to W's father when he tried such a scolding action?

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Bush is already rebuking Israel to a point that it is pissing off his conservative supporters. I have a feeling that since he now has a personal stake in the peace process there will be more pressure on Sharon to come.

I'm interested in what kind of pressure or scolding from peace-seeking Palestinians, Arab governments, Muslims in general or even anti-Zionist Guppies can be put on Hamas and other extremist Palestinian elements to work toward peace.

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[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Seminole:
*Bush is already rebuking Israel to a point that it is pissing off his conservative supporters. *
[/QUOTE]

Do you think that Sharon gives a damn about a "scolding" from Bush when he knows that billions upon billions of US dollars will continue to flood in from the US government to help fund the same Israeli army which is killing Palestinians? No.

When the Bush administration gathers up the courage to threaten to stop aid to Israel, then we will see Sharon really start taking notice and make rapid moves to end the occupation of Palestine. There is a precedent for this you know. Bush Snr withheld loan guarantees to Israel in '91 when that terrorist and racist PM of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir would not come to the peace table. Shamir went to the Madrid Peace Conference, but Bush Snr lost his job the following year...junior knows why, and will hence never dare threaten to halt aid to Israel.

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I'm interested in what kind of pressure or scolding from peace-seeking Palestinians, Arab governments, Muslims in general or even anti-Zionist Guppies can put on Hamas and other extremist Palestinian elements to work toward peace.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *

Sharon deliberately attacked this leader in order to incite particular elements within Palestinian groups and, from his point of view, probably pander to the radical extremist Jewish groups who detest the dismantling of their colonial outposts on occupied Palestinian land.
[/QUOTE]

Nadia, my friend. That is nonsense. Sharon attacked this leader to kill him.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nadia_H: *
Sharon's timing at ordering this attack could not have been any worse - particularly at a time when Abu Mazen was attempting to exert whatever limited 'control' he has over Hamas. A 'scolding' is far from what this butcher of Sabra and Shatila deserves.
[/QUOTE]

I again disagree. The attack occured after Hamas p*ssed all over Abbas and rejected his diplomatic efforts to arrange a cease fire. While no one seems to want to consider the possibility, I have raised the issue before about the fairly good chances that Abbas and his followers are providing the IDF with information and intelligence to target these Hamas officials. Hamas and Abbas cannot coexist as Palestinian leaders. Abbas does not have the force to defeat Hamas. He can't even "scold" them. So he turns to Sharon for a little help. In public, he's the "butcher." But in private, I bet he's "Ariel."

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I agree with MV. If this were under different circumstances I may be willing to argue for Hamas, but they are in the wrong here. I am sure that Abbas and some select cohorts are working with the IDF on this.. to do otherwise is personal suicide and just plain idiotic. Hamas is lashing out because they will be out of a job if Abbas succeeds in his, if Palestine exists.

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No Piece

No to Piece and No to Peace ladies and gents. The Israeli qawm is one that will cause mischief on earth until the day of judgement. A nation that is so racist in its own affairs can never carry justice. There is no justice and hence there can be no pieace.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Ums: *

yet they continue to supply Israel with weapons and money...
[/QUOTE]

and asked others to stop supplying money and weapons to Hamas.....