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Arab Knesset Merger Calls For Islamic Rule, Praises Hamas
19:19 Feb 15, '06 / 17 Shevat 5766
By Ezra HaLevi


Two Israeli Arab parties have merged ahead of Knesset elections, launching their campaign by calling for Islamic rule in Israel and praising the Hamas terror group.



"Rule on earth, at least in Arab and Muslim land, should be by the Caliph [Islamic ruler and heir to Muhammad's authority –ed.]," chairman of the new merger between the United Arab List and the Ta'al Party Ibrahim Sarsour said Wednesday. "We believe in Islam and in the Caliphate and not in separation between state and religion."
Sarsour at a conference in Ramallah in 2004

Sarsour made the statement during a joint press conference with Arab MK Ahmed Tibi to announce the joint list's platform and party list.

The chairman took the opportunity to blame Zionists and the US government for a clash of civilizations being forced upon the Muslim world. "There is a hidden hand that acts in a bid to bring the world to a clash of civilizations," Sarsour said, referring to the cartoons of Islam's founder published recently in European newspapers. "I speak of that gang in the White House that tries to force one society's culture on another's. This is a part of a campaign against Islam, a campaign aimed at enlisting support in the West for military action against Iran."

Sarsour praised the Hamas terror group, which he said would lead the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority to "progress and achievements, not catastrophes [the Arabic word for catastrophe – Nakba – is how the Muslim world refers to the Arab defeat in the 1948 War of Independence –ed]."

The Arab politician said the overarching goal of the new merger of Arab parties is to prevent the "Israelization" and "Zionization" Arabs of Israel have had to combat. Specifically, Sarsour said the party would work to increase Arab immigration to the Jewish state and increase relations between Arabs with Israeli citizenship and the PA.

MK Ahmed Tibi said that the sentiments outlined by Sarsour represent the wishes of Israeli Arabs and said he did not think he was running against other Arab parties, but against "Zionist parties attempting to win Arab votes."

Fellow MK Taleb A-Sana promised that the party would support bills such as those that brought about the withdrawal from Gaza and northern Samaria and budgets that benefit the Arab public. He did not rule out sitting in a coalition government.

A-Sana, together with Balad Party MK Azmi Bishara were questioned earlier this week by Israel’s Police International Serious Crimes Unit in Petah Tikva regarding their recent trips to enemy states such as Syria and Lebanon, which were taken without receiving permission from the Interior Ministry. While in Syria, A-Sana met with Baath Party officials and members of the Syrian parliament. MK Tibi was investigated for similar infractions last June.

As terror threats grow, Israel tightens restrictions on Palestinian travel
By Israel Insider staff and partners April 10, 2006


The Islamic Jihad terrorist group vowed Sunday to step up its attacks on Israel, following intensified Israeli military activity against Palestinian rocket launchers.

"Islamic Jihad is going to escalate its attacks on the Zionist entity by all possible means," Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, said. "We are going to teach the government of Tel Aviv a lesson they are not going to forget."

Shortly before Habib spoke, Islamic Jihad terrorists fired two rockets at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, militants said. The Israeli military said no rockets were known to have landed in Israel on Sunday.

Israel stepped up its military strikes on the rocket launchers after the Islamic Hamas group, which rejects Israel's right to exist, assumed control of the Palestinian Authority less than two weeks ago.

Fifteen Palestinians, including 13 terrorists and the child of a bomb maker, have died in Israeli attacks since Friday. No Israelis were wounded by the 10 rockets launched from Gaza into southern Israel over the weekend.

Islamic Jihad, which is not part of the new Hamas-led government, is responsible for many of the 40 rockets fired at Israel since the beginning of April.

Abu Abdullah, an Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, said the group would fire homemade Qassam rockets and longer-range Katyushas, which are capable of hitting the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and sensitive facilities there. In late March, Islamic Jihad became the first group to fire a Katyusha at southern Israel from Gaza.

There will be "no truce with the occupation while there is an open war," Abu Abdullah said. "We reaffirm there will be an immediate response."

Islamic Jihad and factions allied with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party have agreed to work together, he said. Hamas will not be involved in the joint operations, he added.

Israel tightens restrictions on Palestinian travel inside Judea and Samaria

Israel has tightened travel restrictions on Palestinians in Judea and Samaria in recent months, making movement there harder than at any time since Israel's major offensive in the territory in the spring of 2002, Palestinians and human rights workers said.

The restrictions have effectively divided the territory into three sections. Palestinians living in the northern West Bank are cut off from their jobs in the south, and a wide swath of land along the Jordanian border is off limits to all but its few thousand residents, human rights groups and the United Nations said.

The Israeli army says the new restrictions were put in place following an increase in attempted attacks by terrorists, including a suicide bombing last week near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim that killed four Israelis.

"The purpose of these restrictions is to defend the citizens of Israel from Palestinian terrorists," the army said in a statement.

But Palestinian officials say the lockdown is collective punishment for the Hamas militant group's overwhelming victory in January parliament elections.

"There's a clear Israeli policy of laying siege to the Palestinian territories in an attempt to make the Palestinian people pay a price for choosing Hamas," said Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for new Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader.

Residents and human rights groups say the travel bans are more widespread and have lasted far longer than the usual restrictions Israel puts on Judea and Samaria during Jewish holidays - when terrorists try harder to attack - or when it has specific security warnings.

"I can't remember (Judea and Samaria) being that locked down for such a long period of time," said David Shearer, head of the local U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The United Nations reported a spike in the number of roadblocks in Judea and Samaria, from 376 last summer to 575 now. Temporary checkpoints numbered 160 last week, up from the usual 30 or 40.

Sarit Michaeli, spokeswoman for the Israeli human rights group B'tselem, said it has grown easier for Palestinians to travel within their sections of Judea and Samaria but far harder to cross from one side of the territory to the other.

"There is a process of cantonization of the West Bank," she said.

The new restrictions are preventing people from getting to their jobs, stopping merchants from bringing goods to market and making it more difficult for Palestinians to obtain medical services, she said.

The measures have had the greatest impact in the Samarian areas of Nablus and Jenin, residents and rights groups said.

In recent months, roads Jenin residents routinely used to travel south have been sealed off, funneling travelers through the city of Nablus. Even that route became more difficult last week after Israel blocked the road between Jenin and Nablus with three large earth mounds. Now, only pedestrians can cross.

New restrictions also prevent residents of the northern towns - Jenin, Qalqiliya and Tulkarem - from traveling any further than the Hawara checkpoint at the southern edge of Nablus, cutting them off from jobs and markets in the wealthier areas of the central and southern West Bank. Though Nablus residents can move south, all Palestinian males between the ages of 15 and 30 are barred from crossing Hawara.

The new restrictions have pushed Jenin, already Judea and Samaria's poorest town, deeper into poverty, Shearer said.

Omar Rashed, 45, a sunglasses salesman from Jenin, has been unable to travel his normal sales circuit through Ramallah and Bethlehem in central Judea and Samaria, and Hebron in Judea, for about two weeks because of the new restrictions and roadblocks.

"For now, I work in the local market in Jenin. It doesn't make me much money, but I'm surviving," the father of six said.

The army also has sealed off the Jordan Valley, along the West Bank border with Jordan, to all Palestinians who do not live there, separating farmers who are not listed as residents from their fields, the United Nations said.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who said he plans to pull Israel out of much of Judea and Samaria, has said he considers retaining some control over the Jordan Valley essential to Israel's security.

AP contributed to this report.


http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Security/8228.htm

Israel to cut ties with PA, ruling out peace talks with Abbas
By Israel Insider staff and partners April 10, 2006


Israel moved to reinforce its measures against the new Hamas-led Palestinian government, declaring it a "hostile entity" and ruling out contacts, including peace talks with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Sunday declaration by the Israeli Security Cabinet rejected the idea of using Abbas to bypass the new government and boosted acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plan to impose a border in Judea and Samaria by 2010.

The recommendation came amid increasing Israeli military pressure on Hamas in response to Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel.

Israeli forces pounded suspected launching sites in the northern Gaza Strip with artillery fire on Sunday, killing a Palestinian police officer and wounding 16 other people. The Palestinian government called an emergency meeting to discuss the growing tensions.

Israel has refused to deal with Hamas, demanding that it halt violence, recognize Israel and accept previous interim peace agreements. Israel also has suspended the transfer of $55 million in tax revenues it collects for the Palestinians, dealing a tough blow to the cash-strapped Palestinian government.

Hamas has rejected the ultimatum, despite intense international pressure and a growing financial crisis, though some leaders have hinted at a readiness to moderate.

In a statement, Israel's Security Cabinet, made up of senior ministers, said there will be "no personal boycott" of Abbas, but rejected any substantive negotiations with the Palestinian leader.

Government spokesman Asaf Shariv said relations with Abbas would be limited, and peace talks were out of the question. The recommendations were to be approved by the full Cabinet next Sunday, he said.

"The Palestinian Authority is one unit and does not have two heads," the statement said, adding that Israel will work to undermine the Palestinian government. It also said Israel will boycott diplomats who have contact with Hamas.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for the Palestinian president, said Israel should negotiate with Abbas, who is the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, because Israel signed its agreements with the PLO. Abu Rdeneh said Israel should not "look for any pretext for escaping from the negotiating table."

The policy could give more momentum to Olmert, who plans to draw a border in Judea and Samaria unilaterally by 2010 if he believes a peace accord is impossible.

Under Olmert's plan, Israel would withdraw from large parts of Judea and Samaria, but retain and strengthen major settlement blocs. The plan would fall far short of Palestinian claims to all of the area.

Olmert's Kadima Party won Israeli elections last month, and he is expected to complete formation of a new government supporting his plan in the coming weeks. Formal coalition negotiations began Sunday.

Speaking to Kadima activists Sunday evening, Olmert said, "We want this government to be able to fulfill within the coming four years the obligations it took on itself in the political and security areas ... to bring Israel to a safe refuge of peace and final borders."

Israel's tough stance against Hamas has received widespread international backing. The U.S. and European Union, which consider Hamas a terrorist group, last week cut off tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority. On Monday, EU officials are to review humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

Israel's Cabinet on Sunday decided to pay Israeli suppliers of fuel and services from tax money Israel collects but is refusing to transfer. The decision came as an Israeli fuel company threatened to cut off supplies.

The cutoff in aid has compounded an already dire financial situation for the Palestinian government.

In interviews published Sunday, Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razek said the crisis was worse than he thought, and he did not know when he would be able to pay salaries to the government's 140,000 workers.

Abdel Razek said last week that he expected to pay the salaries by mid-April. But at the time, "I did not have a full picture of the magnitude of the problem," he was quoted as saying.

The Palestinian Authority is the biggest employer in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. A collapse in the government would worsen conditions in an area where more than 40 percent of the population live in poverty.

AP contributed to this report.


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