Report: Terror groups timed attacks to derail peace process

[Gimel]

By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent



"The suicide bombings are a key element in the arena of the struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians," says a report by a Palestinian security service on the suicide bombings, "and an analysis of the circumstances of the timing and execution of the vast majority of the bombings, particularly the major ones conducted by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad, makes clear the timing was much more a purely political matter than a practical military one."

The authors of the report assume that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad are well-connected inside the Palestinian Authority with agents and elements who provide information based on knowledge of political developments, including inside information about negotiations with Israel, the U.S. and the international community, thus enabling the Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respond accordingly.

And the main objective of the two Islamic organizations is "the destruction of the PA and the creation of a governmental alternative that has the goal of negotiating under fire according to Hamas conditions, along the lines of the Hezbollah model."
Continued...

Pretty obviously true.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Link

Please click here.

[Gimel]

3. Thanks, JR

There was an error in my html. Now it's fixed.

[Jack Rabbit]

14. You're welcome

It's worth posting. Thank you.

[bemildred]

2. I think it is true, but it is probably worth pointing out

that the attacks have no military significance in any case.
The are political, so it is only to be expected that they will
be timed for political purposes. The same may be said of the
IDFs activities in the territories, they are purely political,
there is no significant military opponent. I tend to think this
report, especially given its source, is political too.

[Gimel]

4. No military solution

It has often been said that their is no military solution to the conflict. Military responses to terror alone won't solve the outstanding issues. However, the preempting of terror attacks has a short term advantage. There is a ready supply of replacements, however, so as a solution, it does not suffice to arrest or kill terrorists.

The attacks on Israelis does have the military goal of eliciting a military response, which it did. The goal to get Israel involved in a military conflict works to the advantage of the terror groups. the conflict is prolonged, and no solution allowing Israel to live in peace or for the Palestinians to get a state, on what Hamas sees as only a portion of their homeland.

[vierundzwanzig]

5. I just returned from Gaza

Islamic Jihad watched Rafah being destroyed by the IDF (if you care to watch my pictures http://www.mepeace.com/addons/rafah.html), had two rockets shot into one of their cars a block from where I was standing with a substantial amount of collateral damage before dispatching a 'militant' (I don't like that term but that has no bearing) 45 minutes later to Tel Aviv. Please note that this was all the same group.

It is not the terrorists that derail the process but the IDF. Spend some time there and you will get my drift. Reporting here is severely skewed.

For example, for Rafah, all of the papers I read, including the Guardian (except Al-Jazeerah), indicated that the IDF merely exploded a weapons tunnel. Standing there (and pay close attention to the photos) I could see that a series of homes was demolished and not the single complex.

It is one thing to read the news and another to see the news being fabricated.

[bluesoul]

6. Good to hear

some first hand accounts! :)

[Gimel]

7. Searches for tunnels

I understand that often more than one structure is demolished, often in search of the tunnels. I sympathize with those whose lives are disrupted as a result. I am sure that they must be angry and frustrated.

This is a war, however, and Israel did not start the conflict.

The tunnels are operating at a huge profit, and those operating them are responsible for this.

[Forkboy]

9. Just like Bush said

smokin 'em out of their holes :eyes:

[the_boxer_]

10. What makes you say that Israel did not start the conflict?

I'm interested in your answer.

[Gimel]

12. Go back to the year 1996

I'll give you some links:

http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00qi0

The Wye River Memorandum
October 23, 1998

The following are steps to facilitate implementation of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip of September 28, 1995 (the "Interim Agreement") and other related agreements including the Note for the Record of January 17, 1997....

<clip>
. FURTHER REDEPLOYMENTS

A. Phase One and Two Further Redeployments

1. Pursuant to the Interim Agreement and subsequent agreements, the Israeli side's implementation of the first and second F.R.D. will consist of the transfer to the Palestinian side of 13% from Area C as follows:

1% to Area (A)

12% to Area (B)

<clip>


II. SECURITY

In the provisions on security arrangements of the Interim Agreement, the Palestinian side agreed to take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against the Israeli side, against individuals falling under the Israeli side's authority and against their property, just as the Israeli side agreed to take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against the Palestinian side, against individuals falling under the Palestinian side's authority and against their property. The two sides also agreed to take legal measures against offenders within their jurisdiction and to prevent incitement against each other by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction.

<clip>

2. Prohibiting Illegal Weapons

The Palestinian side will ensure an effective legal framework is in place to criminalize, in conformity with the prior agreements, any importation, manufacturing or unlicensed sale, acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition or weapons in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.
<clip>

3. Preventing Incitement

Drawing on relevant international practice and pursuant to Article XXII (1) of the Interim Agreement and the Note for the Record, the Palestinian side will issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, and establishing mechanisms for acting systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror. This decree will be comparable to the existing Israeli legislation which deals with the same subject.
A U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli committee will meet on a regular basis to monitor cases of possible incitement to violence or terror and to make recommendations and reports on how to prevent such incitement.


http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH07o10


All this was after Oslo accords and Arafat's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize.

In Sept 2000, Arafat rejected further negotiations and called a Palestinian Uprising (Intifada). Six months of bus bombings and suicide attacks on the citizens of Israel, innocent children and elderly killed in massive attacks on Israeli soil followed. Not until the last day of March 2001 did Israel retaliate.

[the_boxer_]

13. I'm sorry. The conflict goes way beyond 1996.

I'm not looking for excuses or justifications. I asked for your reasoning as to who started the conflict. I have yet to receive an answer.

[Gimel]

18. Bringing up old conflicts

After signing a peace accord, old conflicts should be forgotten.

[the_boxer_]

20. Not when the peace accord didn't address the problems in the first place.

And especially when neither side lives up the peace accord.

[the_boxer_]

21. So again...I ask.

Who started the conflict? In your view, do you believe that the blame should rest entirely with the Palestinians? If not, then what constructive ways can both people reconcile there differences via level dialogue. How can the situation be resolved unless both sides come to the realization that they bear a burden for their respective part in the conflict? How can the conflict be resolved when one side unilaterally establishes a border illegally? Many questions. You only want to go back to 1996, however, there have been 55+ years of conflict that need to be addressed in a constructive and mutual manner.

When someone goes into therapy, they don't just come back to some arbitrary time to solve their problems. They go to the root of the problem and work out solutions to avoid similar situations in the future. I'm sorry, but bringing out sources dating only back to 1996 for propanganda purposes isn't genuine and isn't helping.

[Gimel]

22. So you want to go back 4,000 years?

I see the root of the problem lies in the historical nature of the two peoples. Both sides do have to come to terms with this, and Israelis (majority Jewish) do have to recognize the aspirations of the Palestinians for a state(it has been done by a majority of Israelis). The two-state solution should help resolve the root problems by allowing each side to build its culture.

Many wrongs on both sides, and most of them have been addressed at one time or another in the recent years. If the Palestinian leadership keeps pressing for more and more concessions through violent attacks, they will get less and less. They have to their therapy even as Israelis have done their own.

[the_boxer_]

8. Thank you for posting vierundzwanzig

[Resistance]

11. wow

thanks for posting the link, vierundz ... these pictures are incredible. It is obvious the IDF uses 'self-defense' and 'looking for tunnels' as an EXCUSE to destroy as many Palestinian lives as possible. They are every single bit as terrorist as the suicide bombers are.

[lefty_mcduff]

15. And from our blindly Pro IDF friends?

Cricket, Cricket.

Not a peep.

[Gimel]

19. Why is this chorus

so oft repeated? I'm running back and forth from one sub-thread to another all day. Not many of you guys have anything constructive to say. Sometimes I don't even want to open certain threads. Sometimes I have other things to do.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. This should come as a surprise to no one

The militants don't want peace, they want the Israelis to surrender and go back to where they came from (as if by now there is such a place). They want a single state, but not a bi-national democracy. Their vision is the mirror of a Yeshua extremist's vision of Greater Israel: a religiously-based state purged of unbelievers.

They are spilling blood over something they cannot have. However, they know how to spill blood, undermine authority and cow all the bravest who would oppose them.

[the_boxer_]

17. As you've noted.

The same can and should be applied to the extemists on the other side of this equation.