Israel Fights Gunmen in West Bank

The Associated Press
NABLUS, West Bank -- Israeli troops raided downtown Nablus on Thursday, imposing a curfew that confined tens of thousands of people to their homes as soldiers combed the city's narrow alleyways in search of wanted Palestinian militants.
Five soldiers were wounded in clashes with Palestinian gunmen, the army said.
The crackdown drew angry condemnations from the new Palestinian government of President Mahmoud Abbas. Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised to bolster Abbas' government, which is locked in a power struggle with the Islamic Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip.
"We view this aggression as a way to undermine our efforts to provide security and end the chaos," Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said at a conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
The Nablus operation began late Wednesday, just as Israel was wrapping up two incursions in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. In those raids, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians, including eight gunmen and a 12-year-old boy. It was the bloodiest fighting in Gaza since the Hamas takeover two weeks ago.
n President Moshe Katsav signed an unexpected plea bargain Thursday that ended a yearlong investigation into alleged sex crimes by the nation's ceremonial leader, agreeing to resign in a deal that includes no jail time.

Putting The Squeeze on Hamas

Israel Matzav
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Israel finally puts the squeeze on Hamas
This morning, Israel rejected an offer from Hamas that would have reopened the Karni crossing, through which exports pass from Gaza, in return for a promise not to carry out terror attacks at Karni and an agreement to 'negotiate' over the suspension of Kassam fire. Israel would have been able to station whatever troops it wanted at the Karni crossing - presumably those of 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen would have been used. 'Humanitarian' aid continues to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings in any event.
According to a defense official, the offer was not practical and Israel did not intend to strengthen the Hamas government in the Strip.The official said that there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and that goods were being transferred through the Sufa and Kerem Shalom crossings on a daily basis.Haniyeh's government, claimed the official, was not asking to alleviate the Palestinians' distress but rather bring prosperity and welfare to Gaza - possible only through reopening the Karni Crossing. There are two keys here. One is that Hamas is in distress and apparently realizes that it cannot continue like this in the long term. The other is that Israel actually put the squeeze on for a change. But don't worry. Either they will reach an arrangement with Fatah or Olmert will let up on them eventually.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:01 PM

Jimmy Carter's Alzheimer's Worsening

Jimmy Carter has been called an irrelevant idiot, and it seems like he's determined to prove that he is indeed, an idiot.

Carter Accuses US, Israel Of Exacerbating Divisions Among Palestinians June 21, 2007 4:07 p.m. EST Jessica Pupovac - AHN Dublin, Ireland (AHN) - Former President Jimmy Carter charged the U.S., Israel and the European Union Tuesday with exacerbating divisions among the Palestinian people through preferential policies. He was speaking at the NGO Forum on Human Rights in Ireland. Carter is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Carter Center, a human rights organization whose mission has included monitoring 67 elections in 26 countries. He called the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory "criminal." The Carter Center monitored and endorsed the 2006 election, which Carter called "orderly and fair." He commended Hamas' organization and political savvy that helped them to win the election. "The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said. The U.S. and E.U. cut off aid to the Hamas-led government last year because of the group's refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. The world powers, he said, would have been better off recognizing Hamas' legitimacy and encouraging their transition into parliamentary politics. Instead, claims Carter, they made a direct "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples" by boycotting Hamas while helping Fatah to maintain military and political power through supplying vastly superior weaponry and humanitarian assistance. The aid was supplied through the United Nations and other agencies. "All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.

This anti-Semitic fraud needs nursing care, in a nice quiet place, with locks on the door.

Egypt Moves to Isolate Hamas

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt moved forcefully Thursday to isolate Hamas, calling a regional summit next week including the Israelis and Palestinians — and shunning contacts with the militant group after its takeover of Gaza.
More than seeking peace with Israel, Egypt and other U.S. Arab allies are seeking to prevent the new power of Islamic radicals in Gaza from strengthening fundamentalists on their own soil. They also fear Gaza will become a stronghold for Iranian influence on their doorsteps.
Egypt in particular has much to lose. A strong Hamas ruling Gaza, on Egypt's border, could encourage the Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful and popular political challenger to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government. It could also foment Islamic militants that Egypt has battled for decades to put down.
Monday's summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik aims to boost moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by showing he can move ahead with the peace process with Israel despite the Hamas hold on Gaza. The summit will gather Abbas, Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
The following day, Mubarak will meet in Sharm with Saudi King Abdullah, seeking to unify an Arab front behind Abbas and against Hamas.
Abbas will call for a resumption of peace talks with Israel, arguing that only progress toward Palestinian statehood can serve as a true buffer against Hamas, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
"The most important thing to realize is that time is of the essence," Erekat said. "We need to deliver the end of occupation, a Palestinian state. If we don't have hope, Hamas will export despair to the people."
Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have said the sole legitimate Palestinian government is the West Bank-based Cabinet formed by Abbas, who dissolved the power-sharing government between his Fatah group and Hamas following Gaza's fall.
Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit indicated Cairo was shunning Hamas officials.
"Egypt will always be in contact with the legitimate authority," Aboul Gheit told reporters on Wednesday, referring to Abbas, when asked if Cairo was in contact with Hamas.
The swift, shocking Hamas victory in Gaza wrecked Egypt's longtime attempts to mediate between Abbas and Hamas, the cornerstone of its Palestinian policy. Cairo has sought to moderate Hamas so the Palestinians can move ahead with peacemaking with Israel.
Now, Mubarak's government depicts Hamas as an enemy posing a direct threat to Egypt's security.
"Its not in Egypt's interests (to permit) the presence of a religious state on its borders, and it will do its best to end such a presence," said Ali Eldin Helal, a top ruling party official.
Aboul Gheit accused Iran, a top financer of Hamas, of being behind the upheaval.
"The Iranian moves have encouraged what Hamas has done in Gaza. This presents a threat to the Egyptian national security," he said this week. "Gaza is only a stone's throw away from Egypt."
Every night, commentators on state-run television lash out at Hamas and try to draw a parallel with the Brotherhood.
"Hamas is a religious faction and for them, religion comes first, not the home country," said Mustafa el-Fiqi, a senior ruling party lawmaker, on a popular prime time show Monday, echoing past government criticisms of the Brotherhood. "Hamas is a time bomb and Egypt cannot simply keep silent."
"The Taliban are on our border," proclaimed the pro-government weekly Rose El-Yousef magazine on its cover this week.
Egypt runs a risk if it takes too heavy a hand with Hamas and turns its back on Gaza. Gaza's eight-mile border with Egypt is its only land link to the Arab world, a boundary vital to the 1.4 million Palestinians living there. If the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsens, Egypt could be blamed, prompting a backlash at home, where sympathy for Palestinians is high.
But the border is also punctured by tunnels smuggling weapons and explosives in both directions. Egypt fears radicalism — and weapons — could spread from Gaza into its Sinai Peninsula, where suicide bombers have attacked three tourist resorts since 2004.
On the political front, if Hamas is successful in running Gaza, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood could reap the benefits, a major worry for Mubarak's government, which has waged an all-out campaign the past two years to eliminate the movement as a rival. Hamas began as an offshoot of the Brotherhood and ties between the two groups remain strong.
The Brotherhood stunned the Egyptian government in 2005 parliament elections by winning more than a fifth of the legislature's seats, making it the biggest opposition bloc. Soon after, Mubarak put off scheduled local elections, fearing a strong Brotherhood showing.
Security forces have arrested more than 800 Brotherhood supporters this year.
In elections this month for parliament's upper house, the ruling party was accused by rights groups and other observers of widespread vote fraud aimed at ensuring its victory. Its candidates nearly swept the vote, and none of the 19 Brotherhood candidates won seats.
The Brotherhood denies it is working closely with Hamas.
"Whatever our relations with them, they are taking their own decisions independently," said Mohammed Habib, the Brotherhood's deputy leader.