41 YEARS AGO TODAY ISRAEL RECAPTURED JERUSALEM. THE COUNTDOWN OF THE LAST GENERATION.
US-EU ISSUE IRAN WARNING
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Three Hamas gunmen killed as Israel mulls Gaza offensive by Ron Bousso JUNE 10,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli troops killed three Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with top ministers to weigh up a possible military offensive on the besieged territory. The meeting came a day after the parents of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held at a secret location by Gaza militants, received a letter from their son who was captured in a deadly cross-border raid two years ago.Israel's political and military leaders have for months been mulling a wider military blitz in the impoverished coastal strip aimed at ousting its Hamas-run government and halting near-daily rocket attacks on Israel.On Tuesday Israeli troops killed three Hamas fighters in Gaza City and wounded five more people, Palestinian medics said.Within the last hour 17 mortars were launched toward Israel from eastern Gaza. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) targeted the launching squad twice and identified hitting it, an Israeli military spokesman told AFP early afternoon.Olmert, whose political future is clouded by a scandal over corruption allegations, met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak for more than two hours ahead of a security cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
All three declined to comment afterwards.
Earlier on Tuesday Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP they would discuss the situation in Gaza. The current situation cannot last. The prime minister will discuss the various options available, including the use of force.He said a decision was possible after the security cabinet meeting.There is no doubt that an offensive in Gaza is inevitable but the timing is the question, a senior defence official said, adding that such an operation could derail efforts to free Shalit and strain ties with Egypt.Hamas meanwhile issued a statement slamming what it called Israel's escalations and threats, calling them a continuation of Israel's attempt to impose its dictates on our people and sow terror among citizens.These threats and continuing murderous operations will not frighten us, it added. We stress that we are prepared for all possibilities and scenarios.Since Hamas seized power in Gaza nearly a year ago, Israel has sealed the impoverished territory off from all but limited humanitarian aid and launched regular air strikes and limited ground incursions.On Monday a foundation run by former US president Jimmy Carter passed on the letter from Shalit to his family, following an agreement in April between Carter and exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.It was the first evidence that Shalit is still alive since an audio recording last June in which he said his health was getting worse and he called on Israel to redouble efforts to secure his release.In his latest message Shalit writes: I'm doing badly, save me, don't abandon me -- I want to come home quickly, according to Israel's Yediot Aharonot newspaper.Hamas has always insisted that Shalit is alive and being treated well, and blames Israel for the failure to reach an agreement for his release in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.But senior defence ministry official Amos Gilad told army radio there was no link between the letter and any eventual military operation.
Israeli leaders have demanded information on Shalit's well-being as a condition for acceptance of an Egyptian-brokered Gaza truce proposal agreed to by several Palestinian factions, including Hamas. The truce talks have dragged on for months, with Israel demanding assurances that militants will not take advantage of any period of calm to smuggle weapons through tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas has demanded that Israel ease the blockade and allow the opening of border crossings, particularly the Rafah crossing with Egypt -- the only one bypassing Israel. Hamas also insists that any negotiations on a prisoner exchange be kept separate from truce talks.
Captive's dad: Son begs for life in letter home By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer JUNE 10,08
JERUSALEM - An Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants for almost two years pleaded for his life in his latest letter home and begged his government to intensify efforts to win his release, his father told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Noam Schalit, father of 21-year-old Cpl. Gilad Schalit, would not quote directly from the letter, passed to him Monday through emissaries for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. But he said his son wrote of poor health and dreams of home.The young tank crewman has not been seen since he was seized by militants linked to the radical Islamic Hamas group in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip into Israel in June 2006, although a recording of his voice and two other letters have been sent to his family.Hamas, which rules Gaza, handed over the latest note as part of a promise it gave Carter during a meeting in Syria in April. Carter's talks with Hamas were criticized as misguided by the Bush administration and by Israel, which both shun Hamas as a terrorist group.Delivery of the letter, through Carter Center offices in the West Bank, came just ahead of discussion by Israel's leaders Tuesday on whether to pursue an Egyptian-mediated truce with Hamas or launch a major military push into the coastal strip. Palestinians regularly pound southern Israel with rocket and mortar barrages from the area.
Defense Ministry policy director Amos Gilad, however, told Israel's Army Radio on Tuesday that he saw no connection between the release of the letter and the closed-door debate on Gaza.Israel has linked a truce to the cessation of arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza and Schalit's release.Noam Schalit met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week to get an update on talks to free his son. He has been increasingly critical of the pace of Israeli government efforts to gain his son's release.He is to speak at a public rally marking two years of Gilad's captivity on June 25.Israel has reportedly agreed in principle to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Schalit, but after back-and-forth talks through Egyptian intermediaries, has balked at many of the names sought by Hamas.Israel also rejects Hamas' demand that cease-fire be accompanied by an end to Israel's yearlong economic blockade of Gaza, imposed after Hamas seized control of the area in June 2007.
Olmert calls for Israel-Lebanon talks JUNE 10,08
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday suggested holding peace talks with Lebanon, following last month's announcement of Israel's indirect Turkish-mediated negotiations with Syria. I would have been glad if after the announcement of the talks with Syria the Lebanese government would announce its willingness to open direct bilateral talks with Israel, a senior official quoted Olmert as saying in a cabinet meeting.I see many advantages in this, he said.Israel and Syria last month announced they were holding indirect negotiations brokered by Turkey, eight years after their last attempt at peacemaking broke down.Israel went to war in Lebanon in July 2006 after the Lebanese Hezbollah militia captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack. The war lasted 34 days.In 1982 Israel launched a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, where its forces remained until 2000.
Palestinian pay delays linked to letter to EU: Israel Tue Jun 10, 8:47 AM ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) - An Israeli minister confirmed on Tuesday that a transfer of tax revenues to the West Bank was delayed because the Palestinian premier urged EU nations not to boost ties with the Jewish state. Finance Minister Roni Bar-On said the monthly transfer, used to pay Palestinian civil servants, was held up because we had to examine several issues in Palestinian conduct.
He was referring to a letter in which Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad urged Europe not to upgrade relations until Israel adheres to its peace process obligations -- especially those related to halting all settlement activities and other violations of human rights in Palestine.The letter was an expression of behaviour I would not expect in our relation with Palestinians, Bar-On told journalists, pointing out the Israeli government had not been notified before the letter was sent.Fayyad had previously suggested the payment delay might be linked to his letter.Meanwhile civil servants began receiving their May salaries on Tuesday, Palestinian finance ministry officials said.The transfer has been received, and we have started paying the salaries, one official told AFP, without specifying the amount transferred by Israel.Every month Israel is committed to transferring to the Palestinian Authority about 75 million dollars in taxes and customs duties levied on its behalf on goods imported through Israel.The funds are used to pay 160,000 Palestinian civil servants and members of the security services.Israel froze the transfers for several months in 2006 after the Islamist Hamas movement formed a government following its upset victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Israel, like the European Union and the United States, blacklists Hamas as a terrorist group.
Olmert woes, dwindling time cloud Rice Mideast trip By Arshad Mohammed Tue Jun 10, 8:06 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits the Middle East this weekend facing the reality that political turmoil in Israel and the Bush administration's dwindling time may dash hopes of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year.
Analysts said the corruption scandal dogging Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has dramatically reduced the chances of a peace deal before President George W. Bush leaves office in January and could force Rice to consider scaling back her ambitions.So far there are few signs that she is prepared to do so as she leaves Washington on Wednesday on a trip that will take her to Paris for an Afghan donors' conference on Thursday and then to Jerusalem and Ramallah for her sixth visit this year.Rice plans to meet Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to hold three-way talks with their lead negotiators, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie.She also is expected to have a three-way meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who is a key player in determining how far Israel goes to ease the lot of Palestinians in the West Bank.Despite Olmert's difficulties, the administration has said it will continue to press for a peace agreement this year -- the goal Bush announced at a high-profile peace conference he hosted in November in Annapolis, Maryland.The question is not about his desire but about his ability, said a senior U.S. official of Olmert's predicament. I'd rather be criticized for an element of romanticism than for an element of neglect.However, Western, Palestinian and Israel officials have all acknowledged privately that Olmert's corruption investigation could trigger new elections, dimming -- if not snuffing out -- the chances of a deal this year.Some analysts said Bush should now concentrate simply on handing over an active peace process to his successor, rather than on striving to produce some kind of a deal that may be impossible to reach given Israel's political uncertainty.They suggested Washington also work to improve conditions in the West Bank by strengthening Palestinian security forces and governing institutions and by pressing Israel to remove roadblocks Palestinians say cripple their economy.
DEAD MAN WALKING
This is what I call the royal handoff, said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. peace negotiator and the author of The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.
Miller said if Bush stepped down with an active peace negotiation and stability on the ground, he could make a case that he left matters better than he found them despite critics' belief that he neglected the issue for much of his presidency.Let the administration say, in one of the great talking point of the decade, We inherited a terrible hand, violence, absence of trust, no negotiations, and we are now passing to our successor a working peace process.Daniel Levy, an analyst at the New America Foundation, said the administration did not yet appear willing to concede defeat, but argued that Israel was simply in no position to conclude a peace deal given the cloud over Olmert.It's not actually helpful to try to force a piece of paper through because the Israeli political system cannot absorb such a development, he said. Politically speaking, fortunately or not, fairly or not, Olmert is a dead man walking.Olmert has rebuffed calls that he resign because of allegations that he took envelopes stuffed with cash from a U.S. businessman. Olmert, who has said he would resign if indicted, and the New York-based businessman have denied any wrongdoing.This is a period of some ambiguity and awkwardness for the United States, said a senior Bush administration official, adding the United States did not wish to do anything that might hint at support for any Israeli faction over another. While acknowledging that Israel's political uncertainty would likely make Israeli politicians reluctant to take bold steps and would frustrate Palestinian negotiators, he said he did not think the U.S.-backed effort was a lost cause. It strikes us as an imperative for both Israelis and Palestinians to try to come to an agreement over a two-state solution, he said. We're not tilting at a windmill.(Editing by David Alexander and Mohammad Zargham)
Qaeda groups active in Gaza after year under Hamas By Nidal al-Mughrabi Tue Jun 10, 6:23 AM ETGAZA (Reuters) - Abu Hafss is not happy.
A year after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip, Abu Hafss is waiting impatiently to see a sword remove the hand of a thief or a woman stoned to death for adultery.Hamas does not implement the rule of God, the Palestinian ally of al Qaeda said. We have seen no one have his hand cut off for stealing. We have seen no one stoned as an adulterer.Yet for all Abu Hafss' disappointment with the approach Hamas has adopted since it routed secular rivals in Gaza a year ago, some analysts believe smaller, more radical groups like Abu Hafss' secretive Jaysh al-Ummah (Army of the Nation) have benefited from the Hamas takeover to expand their membership.Despite an official Hamas policy of respecting the rights of Gaza's small Christian minority, there has been an increase in attacks on Christians in the past year, apparently by Islamists not content with the extent of Hamas's Islamisation of Gaza.Among the outward signs of that have been a proliferation of beards on men and headscarves on some women, along with the virtual disappearance of alcohol and a ban on pornographic websites -- though Hamas officials reject accusations that they are embarked on a program to impose Islamic law on daily life.If Gazans are more observant of Islamic practice -- and not all in the enclave agree that this so -- that is the result of persuasion, Hamas says.It does not happen by force but through growing public awareness, said spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
HAVEN
Yet Israel, Egypt and others are concerned that Gaza under Hamas's isolated control may become a haven for al Qaeda-allied groups, such as the Army of Islam, a clan-based group which last year held a British journalist hostage in Gaza for four months.A week of fighting with the Fatah forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas saw Hamas take control of Gaza and its 1.5 million people on June 14 last year -- and saw Abbas dismiss a Hamas-led government that had been hit by Western sanctions over Hamas's refusal to renounce violence against Israel.Within three weeks of seizing power, Hamas was quick to trumpet its success in securing the freedom of the hostage reporter, the BBC's Alan Johnston. Its spokesmen say it continues to oppose violent Islamist factions.
Anyone who harms the public order will certainly be hunted down, Hamas spokesman Abu Zuhri said, while also saying Hamas was ready to accept the aid of such groups in its fight against Israel.Hamas and Islamic Jihad control the majority of mosques in Gaza and both groups restrict the activity of other extremist factions who tend to meet at smaller mosques or in homes where they preach their fanatic brand of Islam.Market stalls do brisk business in selling recordings of speeches of al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri and the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as well as videos of beheadings of U.S. and foreign soldiers and personnel in Iraq.In an environment where a tightened Israeli blockade against Hamas has increased hardships for people in the enclave, more radical forms of Islam appear to some analysts to be exercising a growing influence over some Palestinians.A Gaza political analyst, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution, said Hamas's influence on fostering more Islamic social behavior in Gaza had been mixed. He argued that the fact Hamas had taken control but then did not impose more severe Islamic ways may have boosted those groups which favored that.Hamas is keen not to be seen as an Islamic state, so they've refrained from passing laws or forcing people to follow what they believe. They have not taken action to Islamise the community. But allowing extremist thinking to breed armed cells is much more dangerous, the analyst said.
The heavily bearded Abu Hafss said his group was finding recruits among disillusioned members of Hamas and other factions. He had been taken in three times for questioning by Hamas security men, but each time he had been released. His group had wider ambitions than Hamas's stated goal of establishing a united state in what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories. Even when the rule of Jews ends in Palestine ... we must continue to bring people to Islam, Aby Hafss said, adding other nations must accept Muslim overlordship.They can be asked to chose, either convert to Islam, or pay the Jizya...Either that, or the sword, he added. Jizya is a tax paid by non-Muslims under an Islamic regime.
AL QAEDA
Statements by bin Laden and Zawahri have placed growing emphasis on Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Zawahri urged Palestinians last week to step up attacks against Israel. Abu Hafss, who conducted an interview with Reuters clad in the traditional black Arab robes and skullcap favored by Islamist fighters elsewhere, said his group, whose strength he declined to detail, was firmly aligned with al Qaeda -- although it lacked a formal hierarchical link with Osama bin Laden. There is no need for al Qaeda to be here in Palestine as an organization. It exists as thinking on the ground, he said. We have no factional link to al Qaeda but they are our brothers in the religion ... There is no difference in our understanding.It remains hard to gauge the influence of such radical ideas among a Palestinian population in Gaza whose brand of Islam has long been of a more tolerant variety than that further east in the Arab world. Though Hamas won a majority of seats in Gaza in the 2006 parliamentary election, it is not clear that all their supporters favor a formally Islamic state. Many Gazans say they have felt pressured by the widespread presence of Hamas fighters into adopting more Islamic ways. I know many people who have changed their mobile phone ringtones to Islamic songs, said teacher Abu Emad. Some women have started covering their hair especially when they go out.Yet some women say they have even felt freer not to wear a headscarf because of a sense of greater security in the streets following the end of the factional fighting last June.
I don't like Hamas but I feel more secure these days going without a scarf in the street because Hamas policemen do not curse us, said Ahlam, a secretary. Abu Emad, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of problems with the authorities, said he believed people were wary of their new Islamist rulers. Yet still, Hamas is not the Taliban and their rule is not so strictly Islamic, Abu Emad said.(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
Saudi king, Abbas want Arab League role in Fatah-Hamas talks Sun Jun 8, 3:48 PM ET
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) - Saudi King Abdullah and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Sunday agreed that the Arab League should oversee truce talks between Fatah and Hamas, a Palestinian diplomat said. The two sides agreed that all inter-Palestinian dialogue should take place under the supervision of the Arab League, Palestinian representative to Riyadh Jamal Shobaki told AFP.King Abdullah and Fatah leader Abbas also discussed the status of US-backed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians during Sunday's meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, Shobaki added.Abbas last week called for dialogue with Hamas, which ousted his loyalists from Gaza in June last year, breaking with his previous policy of rejecting any opening until the Islamists cede control of the territory.Hamas responded favourably to Abbas's overture, raising hopes of reconciliation between the two sides although prospects of a peace deal with Israel before the end of the year look increasingly unlikely.Saudi Arabia brokered an agreement between Fatah and Hamas in early 2007 that led to the formation of a Palestinian unity government but unbridled tensions between the two sides led to fierce fighting which resulted in the Gaza takeover only months later.
Abbas was late Sunday to travel to Cairo for talks on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Shobaki said.The meeting will focus on Palestinian anger over Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, particularly annexed Arab east Jerusalem, and Abbas is expected to outline progress of his latest talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the official Egyptian MENA news agency said.The Arab League oversaw a deal struck on May 21 in the Qatari capital of Doha between rival Lebanese politicians, ending an 18-month crisis that erupted into street battles which killed 65 people.
