From: Eddie Chumney
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Israel in the News (Jerusalem Post)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Friday, July 3, 1998 9 Tammuz 5758
Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition
Report:
PA security has recruited convicted Hamas,
Jihad
terrorists
By
STEVE RODAN
JERUSALEM
(July 3) - The Palestinian Authority has
recruited
21 members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad
into
its intelligence services, including some
convicted
by the PA of involvement in the 1996
spate
of suicide bombings, according to an Israeli
report
obtained by The Jerusalem Post.
The
report, drafted by Israeli security officers,
lists
21 suspected and convicted terrorists
serving
in several PA security agencies, including
the
Palestinian Preventive Security, Military
Intelligence
and a previously secret unit.
The
US has been presented with the list of those
Israel
wants transferred, which is believed to be
an
element of the government's demands for
reciprocity
in the negotiations for an agreement
for
a second IDF withdrawal.
The
report says six members on the list were
"central
figures in the planning and operations"
of
a string of suicide bombings in February and
March,
1996. Sixty Israelis were killed in these
attacks.
All
six are reported to be serving in special
units
of the PA intelligence services and
Palestinian
police.
They
were identified in the report as Abdul Ghol,
who
received training in Syria and Iran and is
suspected
of manufacturing the bomb that blew up
at
Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv.
Ghol
fled a PA prison in June 1996 and in December
surrendered
to the PA General Intelligence
Service,
which later drafted him.
Kamal
Khalifa, who is suspected of having helped
Hamas
arch-terrorist Hassan Salame in the string
of
attacks, is now serving in PPSA.
Others
involved in the bombings are Yassir Hassin,
Bassam
Issa and Mohammed Sanaar.
Three
of the 21 terrorists drafted by PA security
services
were identified as aides to Hamas
bombmaker
Mohammed Deif, the engineer of numerous
suicide
bombings.
They
include Abed Fatah Sitri, Moussa Haleb and
Abed
Quader Omar, all of them now with the PPSA.
The
intelligence report says the PA has sentenced
four
of those on the list to sentences of between
two
and 12 years. But soon after their conviction
they
were released and recruited to PA security
agencies.
They
include Osama Abu Taha, sentenced by the PA
in
September of 1995 to 12 years. He was drafted
into
the PA police and later transferred to a
special
unit led by Sammy Abu Samhabane.
Yusuf
Malahi was also sentenced to 12 years by the
PA,
while Raid Atar and Mohammed Abu Samallah were
sentenced
in April 1995 to two years. .
All
of them are in the special unit led by Abu Sam
Hadan.
Israel
has submitted requests for the transfer of
five
of those on the list now in PA security
agencies
- Atef Hamaden, Malahi, Iyad Bashiti,
Bassam
Issa and Imad Abbas.
The
PA has refused the requests.
**********************************************************************
Monday, July 6, 1998 12 Tammuz 5758
Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition
Mubarak:
Impasse may erupt in violence
By
HERB KEINON, STEVE RODAN, and news agencies
JERUSALEM
(July 6) - Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak
warned yesterday, after a summit with
Palestinian
Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and
Jordan's
King Hussein, that the deadlock in peace
talks
and Israel's plan to expand Jerusalem could
ignite
violence that may prove unstoppable.
A
top PA official said, meanwhile, that the Oslo
Accords
are dead and warned that last week's
confrontation
in Gaza between Palestinians and the
IDF
could lead to eruptions throughout the West
Bank.
Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu deflected the
criticism,
placing the blame for the impasse in
the
peace process squarely on the PA.
"The
present situation is very difficult," Mubarak
told
a news conference in Cairo, flanked by Arafat
and
Hussein. "We're afraid that if the situation
continues
in this manner, violence will erupt. The
Israeli
government must understand that if the
danger
begins, the situation will be very
difficult
to control."
Netanyahu
countered that, "The agreement on the
second
redeployment is being held up by the
Palestinian
side's failure to keep its
commitments."
The
prime minister said that "Israel expects the
Palestinians
to fulfill these obligations in
practice:
by detaining terrorists, collecting
illegal
arms, outlawing terrorist organizations,
stopping
incitement against Israel, reducing the
Palestinian
Police to the number prescribed by the
Oslo
agreement, handing over murderers, and
canceling
the Palestinian Covenant, which calls
for
Israel's destruction.
"Threats
and violence are not the way to make
progress
in the peace negotiations," Netanyahu
added.
The
prime minister also took a jab at the very
convening
of the summit.
"Israel
is working toward the achievement of a
peace
agreement with the Palestinians," he said.
"There
is no substitute for direct bilateral
negotiations
between Israel and the Palestinians,
disrupted
by the Palestinian Authority 15 months
ago."
Netanyahu
called on Jordan and Egypt to influence
the
PA to live up to its commitments under the
Oslo
Accords.
The
plan to extend Jerusalem's municipal services,
approved
June 21 by the cabinet, also calls for
the
annexation of Jewish suburbs inside Israel to
ensure
a Jewish majority of 70 percent in
Jerusalem,
where the PA hopes to set up the
capital
of a future state.
The
three leaders urged Israel to rescind the
decision,
and Mubarak warned that the situation
"will
hurt the Israeli people."
Netanyahu's
communications director David
Bar-Illan,
said that by convening the summit, "the
Palestinians
are hoping to create pressure on
Israel.
This will not work."
PA
cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdul Rahman told the
Voice
of Palestine radio station that a full Arab
summit
should be convened at which Arab countries
would
take action against Israel.
Mubarak
said such a summit would be convened only
at
the "appropriate time" as a last resort.
"We
say that [the peace process] is dead, that it
is
dying and that the American side is planting in
us
false hopes. Because of this, the sole outcome
in
the territory is that Israel is stealing our
land,
destroying our homes and changing our
history,"
Abdul Rahman said.
Gaza
Preventive Security chief Mohammed Dahlan
warned
of a "hot summer" of confrontations between
Palestinians
and Jewish settlers. "I believe that
the
situation could explode at any moment."
PA-aligned
newspapers quoted similar warnings by
senior
Palestinian officials, saying the standoff
between
PA and Israeli forces in Gaza over the
weekend
could signal the start of the breakdown of
relations.
Abdul
Rahman also called on Arab countries to
freeze
relations with Israel until it agrees to
implement
the interim accords with the
Palestinians.
He termed Netanyahu an "arrogant man
who
is committed to the settlements, to raiding
and
seizing land."
Palestinian
Justice Minister Freih Abu Medein
warned
of what he termed a "genocidal war" against
the
Palestinian people.
Quoted
by yesterday's Al Quds, Abu Medein said
that
PA-Israeli tensions threaten to cause much
greater
harm in the West Bank than in Gaza,
because
of what he described as "the militancy of
the
Jewish settlers and their armed militias."
The
PA-aligned Al Hayat al-Jadida quoted Abu
Medein
as saying that the PA accords with Israel
have
ended and that the Netanyahu government wants
to
eliminate any gains the Palestinians have
achieved.
He
said he expects bloody confrontations in the
West
Bank over the next few days, also saying this
would
be the start of a "hot summer" in the
territories.
The
justice minister said the Palestinians are
prepared
to defend their rights, whatever the
price.
He
maintained that Jewish settlers are preparing
to
declare an independent state in the West Bank
and
that a group of settlers are preparing to
annihilate
the Palestinian people.
Abu
Medein also compared the situation in the
territories
to that of Kosovo.
**********************************************************************
Wednesday, July 8, 1998 14 Tammuz 5758
Jerusalem Post - Internet Edition
13%
pullback decision expected today
By
JAY BUSHINSKY, HILLEL KUTTLER, and news
agencies
JERUSALEM
(July 8) - The inner cabinet is expected
to
give conditional approval today for a 13
percent
withdrawal from the West Bank, despite the
acrimonious
and politically charged atmosphere in
which
its deliberations are taking place, a source