[Shadow_Group] Hamas rejects calls from Abbas to halt attacks - Palestine

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Hamas rejects calls from Abbas to halt attacks
Associated Press

FROM:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1100630843884_96040043?hub=World<http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1100630843884_96040043?hub=World>
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Islamic militant groups behind
many suicide bombings dismissed on Tuesday a call from
interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to halt
attacks in the run-up to a Jan. 9 election to replace
Yasser Arafat.

Abbas, who is trying to work out a deal with rival
Palestinian groups on a cease-fire and possible
power-sharing, resisted a call by the groups for a
share of power despite their planned boycott of the
Jan. 9 election. 

Hamas and Islamic Jihad do not accept the presence of
a Jewish state in the Middle East. They refuse to take
part in governments formed as a result of agreements
with Israel and say they will not participate in the
election. 

However, the two movements, responsible for hundreds
of deadly attacks against Israelis in four years of
violence, are demanding a leadership role outside the
electoral process. They want a "unified leadership"
that would exert influence on the Palestinian
government. 

Abbas was cool to the idea and recommended instead
that even if they skip the presidential race, the
radical groups try their hand in parliamentary
elections to be held at an unspecified later date. He
is said to be proposing parliamentary and local
elections four or five months after the vote. 

The only other election held since the Palestinian
Authority was established, in 1996, combined
presidential and parliamentary voting, and the Islamic
groups did not take part. 

Abbas is also urging the radical groups to halt
attacks against Israelis during the election campaign,
said Ziad Abu Amr, a lawmaker participating in the
talks, 

"(Abbas) said the elections need security, stability
and quiet," Abu Amr said. "There is no possibility to
conduct elections while we are in a situation of war
and conflict." 

Hamas leaders dismissed the truce call. "This subject
is not under discussion in Hamas," said Ismail
Haniyeh, a leader if the Islamic group. Another
leader, Mahmoud Zahar, said first Israel must stop its
attacks, and then Hamas would consider how to respond.


Islamic Jihad leader Sheik Nafez Azzam said it was
"too early" to consider a cease-fire. "The top
priority is to confront the (Israeli) occupation and
its aggression," he said. 

Since Arafat's death on Thursday, Israel has scaled
back its military operations, especially in the Gaza
Strip, though nightly arrest raids continue in the
West Bank. 

Abbas served briefly as Palestinian prime minister in
2003 and succeeded in negotiating a unilateral
Palestinian cease-fire that summer. However, it broke
down after six weeks in a flurry of Palestinian
attacks and Israeli counterstrikes. 

Abbas, 69, is the leading candidate in the race to
replace Arafat as president of the Palestinian
Authority, but he won't run unopposed. Younger members
of his Fatah movement favor Marwan Barghouti, the West
Bank Fatah leader serving five life terms in an
Israeli prison. At least two independent candidates
are considering running as well. 

Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan, considered a possible
Arafat successor, took himself out of the race
Tuesday, throwing his support to Abbas. The two are
close allies. 

"Abu Mazen could be the bridge between the past, the
present and the future," Dahlan told reporters Tuesday
in Gaza City, using Abbas' nickname. 

European Union members are seeking ways to ensure the
election is a success. A British diplomat, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said Britain is paying for an
adviser to help the Palestinians set up the elections.


EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who met Sunday
with Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia,
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Dahlan, "is
convinced that the present leadership can organize
elections in 60 days," said his spokeswoman, Christina
Gallach. 

Also Tuesday, an Israeli economist totaled up the cost
of four years of violence to the two sides and came up
with huge amounts - $12 billion for Israel and $4.5
billion for the Palestinians. 

Danny Singerman, chief economist at the research firm
Business Data Israel, said the Palestinian uprising
cut the Palestinian GDP by about 30 percent and
Israeli GDP by 10 percent. 

In September, the United Nations said that three out
of four Palestinians are living in poverty.





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