an uneasy peace with the palestinians...

[Nightfire]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7011091/

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday that peace efforts with the Palestinians would be frozen if they do not crack down on militant groups in the wake of a weekend suicide bombing that killed four people outside a Tel Aviv nightclub.

The attack Friday and its aftermath broke two weeks of relative calm and strained recently warming relations between the Israelis and Palestinians following the election of moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas last month. Four Israelis were killed and dozens of others were wounded in the bombing.

There were conflicting accounts as to who was responsible for the attack. Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group with leadership in Lebanon and Syria, claimed responsibility Saturday after first denying any connection to the bombing.

Abbas blamed the attack on a “third party,” which other Palestinian officials said was the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran. Hezbollah denied the accusation.

A senior Israeli military told The Associated Press that Hezbollah had nothing to do with the attack, but was vigorously working to carry out other attacks on Israel. Israeli police remained on heightened alert throughout the country Sunday.

Sharon blamed the attack on Islamic Jihad militants, working on the orders of their leaders in Syria. “We know this for certain,” he said.

Abbas has resisted Israel’s previous demands to crack down, saying he preferred instead to use persuasion to end the militant attacks.

Sharon steps up demands
Israeli officials had said they would not pressure him as long as things remained quiet, but Sharon demanded on Sunday that Abbas carry out an immediate operation against Islamic Jihad.

“The state of Israel is interested in moving toward an agreement with the Palestinians, but there will be no progress politically, and I repeat no political progress, until the Palestinians carry out a determined campaign to destroy the terrorist groups and their infrastructure,” Sharon said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinians want to continue the track begun earlier this month at a regional summit in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where both sides declared a cessation of violence.

“If Israel wants to cut off contacts with the Palestinians it will be its own decision and we will not cry,” Qureia told reporters. “But we say that there is an opportunity begun in Sharm el-Sheik and we want to develop this effort.”

Israeli military officials said Sunday they received information a month ago that the cell behind Friday’s bombing was planning an attack and passed it along to Palestinian officials, who did nothing.

Threat to Syria
Israel also threatened Syria, with Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim saying Israel would not hesitate to target its longtime enemy if it felt that would stop Damascus-based groups from attacking. Despite Israeli accusations, Syrian officials denied involvement in the suicide bombing.

In 2003, Israeli warplanes bombed an Islamic Jihad base in Syria after a suicide bombing killed 19 people at a restaurant in Haifa.

“There is no doubt that Syria is a center of terrorist activity, this time against Israel, but also regionally,” Boim said. “Operations by us against Syria are certainly possible. We have done it the past. If (Syrian President Bashar) Assad needs another message from us, then he will certainly get it.”

However, Israeli military officials said Sunday that there was no military action planned against Syria, adding that Israel planned no response stronger than arrests to the attack.

Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Assad was responsible, because the orders came from his country.

“He has to decide which world he belongs to — the world of terrorism or the world that fights terrorism,” Peres told Israel’s Army Radio.

Israel and the United States have demanded that Syria close the headquarters of Palestinian militant groups there and end its support for other militant organizations.

New threat to warming relations
Relations between Israel and the Palestinians have warmed considerably since Abbas’ election last month.

Abbas has deployed Palestinian security forces throughout the Gaza Strip to prevent militants from firing rockets on Israel and brokered a temporary agreement with the militant groups to halt attacks. In response, Israel released 500 Palestinian prisoners, promised to end targeted killings of militant leaders and agreed to hand over security control of five West Bank towns to the Palestinians.

After Friday’s attack, Israel froze plans for the security handover because it no longer believes the Palestinian security forces are capable of controlling the towns.

Qureia criticized the decision as “wrong and unacceptable.”

Abbas met Saturday with security officials and Cabinet ministers to discuss a response to the attack. He also reiterated his support for the truce and said he was exchanging information with Israel, the United States and Europe.

Palestinian police arrested two suspects with ties to Islamic Jihad on Saturday. Israeli forces also arrested two of the bomber’s brothers and four neighbors in his home village, including the local mosque preacher. The alleged driver who transported the bomber was also arrested.

Islamic Jihad officials in the West Bank and Gaza denied involvement in the attack. But late Saturday, the group posted a claim of responsibility on its Web site. An official from the Syria-based leadership of the group also claimed responsibility in a phone call from Lebanon.

IMO, i really think that the palestinians are trouble-makers. the israelis are trying to be sincere on their peace efforts and the palestinians are only causing troubles. and those so-called arrests by the palestinians are only for the media, "for show".

seriously, i'm HOPING that the palestinians will wreak more havoc so that the israelis can give them a lesson so hard that the palestinians will not recover enough for a second chance.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Nightfire

seriously, i'm HOPING that the palestinians will wreak more havoc so that the israelis can give them a lesson so hard that the palestinians will not recover enough for a second chance.

What a very judeo-christian comment...

[Nightfire]

well...what do YOU think about the situation israel/palestine is in?

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Nightfire

well...what do YOU think about the situation israel/palestine is in?

I think things are looking better than ever.

[Nightfire]

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

I think things are looking better than ever.

...well i'll be damned, doesn't sound any better than what the media is telling us. then again, i should not base my opinion on the media, since they are biased for the israelis.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by Nightfire

IMO, i really think that the palestinians are trouble-makers. the israelis are trying to be sincere on their peace efforts and the palestinians are only causing troubles. and those so-called arrests by the palestinians are only for the media, "for show".

seriously, i'm HOPING that the palestinians will wreak more havoc so that the israelis can give them a lesson so hard that the palestinians will not recover enough for a second chance.

Firstly, you can't generalise like that about a whole race of people because that is called racism.

Secondly, regarding your "solution," many palestinians have shown they will fight to the death. Every time you kill a palestinian, you mayrtr him in the eyes of his people who vow to take revenge, just as many Israelis, Americans, Europeans, Asians etc. would. By "a lesson so hard that the palestinians will not recover enough for a second chance," are you therefore suggesting near genocide of the Palestinians so there are no more cousins, brother, sons, uncles or friends left to take revenge?

Thirdly, I agree " things are looking better than ever," certainly since the recent intifada started.

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

Firstly, you can't generalise like that about a whole race of people because that is called racism.

BS. There is no race of palestinians. That's a nationality, not a race. Palestinians are of the arab "race".

And he can generalize all he wants, it just shows his ignorance.

[DudeMan]

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

BS. There is no race of palestinians. That's a nationality, not a race. Palestinians are of the arab "race".

And he can generalize all he wants, it just shows his ignorance.

it does not show he is ignorant, and you two are both picking flees, he is talking about the militant nature of the palestinian trouble makers, (unles i am mistaken nightfire?) but as usual around here some people are allowed to call people names with no comebacks... oh well... i bet if someone had gone smacking you with ignorance slurs you would say something.

[leejo]

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

BS. There is no race of palestinians. That's a nationality, not a race. Palestinians are of the arab "race".

And he can generalize all he wants, it just shows his ignorance.

I think you guys are putting words in his mouth. He never made a racial statement about the Palestinians any more than I've ever made a racial statement about the French.

OK bad example.

With regard to failing to draw a line between militants and the population in which they hide, draw support, funding, shelter, and food....well I'm guilty of that charge too. Low-intensity conflict uses that line, counts on it to manipulate public opinion. IMO the people who are more concerned with the innocent palestianians than the acts those innocent palestinians tacitly support are being led around by the nose.

10,000 Palestinians marching in the streets demanding an end to terrorist activities and groups in their land would change the world.

[Pokerface]

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

BS. There is no race of palestinians. That's a nationality, not a race. Palestinians are of the arab "race".

And he can generalize all he wants, it just shows his ignorance.

<semantic mode>
Don't you need a nation to be a nationality? Or having had one in your past will maybe do?
</semantic mode>

[CingularDuality]

Originally Posted by Pokerface

<semantic mode>
Don't you need a nation to be a nationality? Or having had one in your past will maybe do?
</semantic mode>

Just because Israel and the United States don't recognize the nation of Palestine doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't...

[Switchcraft]

Yeah, I'm sorry, but the rest of the world trying to imagine that they'd like a Palestinian state doesn't mean it actually exists. Remember, the arab league was so dead set against letting a state be formed because they preferred the idea of crushing the jews and splitting up the land amongst themselves, instead?

Saying "gosh, now we wish we'd given those people there a new nationality" doesn't make it so. All you have is a group of people that the arab nations have refused to take in. If you're an egyptian, and you want to become a saudi, that's okay. If you're from the area everyone insists on calling "Palestine," you will be refused.

It doesn't mean it's not all imaginary.

[Tempus]

I'm all for a peace loving group of people getting a better deal...

...oh wait, are we talking about suicide bombers?

[Wolfie]

Originally Posted by DudeMan

but as usual around here some people are allowed to call people names with no comebacks

Saying someone is ignorant is not calling them a name or a personal attack.

[Tempus]

That is the most ignorant stament I've ever read by an ignorant individual.