Can the US bring peace in the Middle East?

")."
following your logic lets just change one word here "Kawasme" to "Sharon" does that seem right to you? didn't think so.

BTW, has things gotten worse or better since the Road Map? c.i.

To Mr. Hinteler: Kawasme is not a thief or mobster to be tried, he is an enemy in the war. His rights may be protected only if he gives up: for example, Barguti was captured and he got entitled to be tried by court with participance of defense attorney.
To Dyslexia: of course, Mr. Sharon is an enemy of Kawasme. But Mr. Sharon has more possibilities to kill Kawasme than the latter has against Mr. Sharon. Therefore, if Kawasme wanted to stay alive, he should admit that he has lost this war and surrender.

steissd

So you might tell this the American administration and others as well.
Sure, you can convince them to change their opinion.

c.i.

Consider yourself:

Secretary of State Colin Powell, issuing an apparent rebuke to Israel, said the killing of Abdullah Kawasme in the West Bank city of Hebron by undercover army commandos on Saturday could impede progress on the "road map" to peace.
After Israel's attempt to kill Dr Rantisi two weeks ago, Hamas carried out a suicide bombing in central Jerusalem that killed 17 people. An Israeli newspaper poll found that 40 per cent of Israelis believed Mr Sharon had ordered the assassination to delay the road-map, and that 67 per cent wanted the killings to stop to give the road-map a chance.

I think the Road Map is dead in the water. c.i.

ROADMAP GETS MOUTH-TO-MOUTH RESUSITATION!!!!

Hamas agrees to Mideast cease-fire

Israel reported to respond
by withdrawing from Gaza
(This is what I'm talking about, people!!)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, June 27 ?- The Palestinian militant group Hamas said Friday that it had decided to suspend its attacks on Israelis, a key element for carrying out the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan. Israeli officials dismissed the truce, but shortly thereafter, the government agreed to end its attempts to assassinate militant leaders and turn over responsibility for security in parts of the Gaza Strip to Palestinian authorities, Israel television reported.

STATE-OWNED Channel One television, monitored by NBC News, said Israeli troops could start withdrawing as early as Monday. A Palestinian official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, confirmed the agreement.
A troop pullback would be the first major step by Israel toward implementing the peace plan, which calls on Israel to return to positions it held before the outbreak of fighting in September 2000. The plan would also require Palestinian security forces to dismantle militias, but Palestinian leaders have said they will not launch a crackdown.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer praised the agreement, calling it the "first significant joint step toward implementation of commitments made by each party."
Under terms of the agreement, Israel would suspend its campaign to kill militant leaders and turn over responsibility for security in the disputed area to Mohammed Dahlan, the Palestinian Authority's security minister.
Dahlan and Maj.-Gen. Amos Gilad, Israel's coordinator of government activities in the territories, resolved the key sticking point, control over the main north-south road in Gaza, early Friday morning and concluded the deal later in the day, a Palestinian official said.

HAMAS JOINS CALL FOR TRUCE
The Israeli agreement was not directly tied to comments by the founder of the Islamic Resistance Group, better known as Hamas, that it would agree to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' call for a three-month suspension in militants' attacks on Israelis, but it followed closely on the heels of the movement toward a truce.

"Hamas has studied all the developments and has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities," the Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, told Reuters.
-------


The story--Roadmap Revisited.

If there is a lull I am gonna kick the party that breaks the lull in the nuts.

This will be an innersting 'eff-up Watch'.
Who will the culprit be?

Will the Pal terror groups wait for three months, as they have 'promised'?... Does this cease fire include the new terror group with the long name...?

Stay tuned for developments....

Anyhow, KUDOS to Sharon for jumping on the cease fire!!! YAY!!!

Sophia
Good and not so good. Unless the terrorist organizations are defanged there is nothing to stop them from resuming their acts of terror in three months on almost any pretext. The PA is quoted as saying they cannot disarm Hamas and the others for fear of a civil war. Since Israel is dealing with a government that has very little control I am not ready to stand up and shout peace is at hand.
But than again hope springs eternal.

LMAO

May I volunteer as an assistant? I haven't kicked thousands of people in the balls in ages...

Au,

I agree that a truce is not the end goal. But IMO it is a necessary step. Abu can't take on Hamas head first. If he can keep the truce until significant progress is made on the peace initiative he may be able to turn the tables.

If the Palestinians see a chance for peace without compromising them too much (i.e. not getting a real bum deal) then the intifada will be unpopular.

As much as some like to paint Isreal as a real benevolent nation who has extended great offers that have been spurned many people (like myself) think that's hogwash.

Especially Palestinians.

If they can advance in the roadmap while keeping the street happy Abu will then have some political capital to deal with.

If he cracked down now any deal he managed to make with Isreal would be viewed as a deal signed by a man willing to target his own people and a man who is a "sellout" and an Israeli/American puppet.

That's why IMO the truce was crucial. I hope both sides capitalize. If there is a terrorist attack or an assasination I'm gonna be very pissed. Even though I fully expect it.

Palestinian public pushes deal

Militant groups discussed a three-month halt on violence Thursday.

By Cameron W. Barr | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

JERUSALEM – The Palestinians are inching toward a cease-fire that could prove more durable than previous attempts if it leads to an easing of measures Israel has used to punish and prevent Palestinian attacks. US and Israeli pressure is only one reason why Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has tried so hard in recent months to convince Hamas and other militant groups to lay down their arms.
Another is that Palestinians today are demanding an improvement in their situation more loudly than they are clamoring for attacks against Israel.
"We are looking for someone to ease our suffering," says longtime Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid. "And Hamas is just increasing it."
It is now commonplace to hear Palestinians say that nearly three years of intifada, or uprising, against Israel have yielded nothing but Israeli-imposed closures, restrictions, and checkpoints that make day-to-day living nearly intolerable.
Mr. Abbas's strategy, Palestinian analysts say, is to arrange a cease-fire in order to win from Israel an easing of the measures imposed in the name of security. "The priority for me," says Mr. Eid, "is to take off the checkpoints rather than to fix the borders of the Palestinian state."
Unlike previous Palestinians cease-fires - which have been top-down edicts from PA President Yasser Arafat - Abbas is negotiating in earnest with the militants themselves.
But as has been true of several previous attempts to engineer periods of calm, this cease-fire also is likely to be a tenuous one. A Palestinian teenager Thursday killed an Israeli telephone-company worker; other Palestinians fired makeshift rockets and mortars at Israeli communities in and around the Gaza Strip. If Palestinians are indeed ready to cease fire, they are not yet showing it.
Israel has said a Palestinian cease-fire is "of no consequence," since it could serve as a period that would allow militant groups to train and regroup for future attacks. Israeli officials say they will continue the "targeted killing" of Palestinians they believe to be planning attacks against Israel, a policy that may undermine the cease-fire.
Both Israeli and US officials say the PA must actively "disarm and dismantle" groups such as Hamas, which is formally known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, and Islamic Jihad, and not rest content with promises to abstain from violence.
But Abbas, who is much more of a political insider than a charismatic leader, has said he wants to bring about calm through consensus, rather than risk a tougher approach that could bring the Palestinians to civil war. Hamas's popularity is on a par with that of Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian faction led by Mr. Arafat, and Hamas's fighting strength may equal that of the PA

"Israeli officials say they will continue the "targeted killing" of Palestinians they believe to be planning attacks against Israel, a policy that may undermine the cease-fire."

May? It will. Sad that they do this, the assasinations have not shown to help their security situation at all. In fact they have shown to do exactly the opposite.

My article said Israel would suspend killin's.

I hope your article beats Au's article.

Craven
Israeli officials say they will continue the "targeted killing" of Palestinians they believe to be planning attacks against Israel, a policy that may undermine the cease-fire.

I expect that will happen only if there is a resumption of terrorist activity.

I'd hope so, unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that Israel employs a great deal of flexibility when using the term "planning terrorist activity".

CdK, what do you mean under "flexibility"? Do you want to say that the people being killed (I do not discuss the collateral damage now) have nothing to do with terror? If it is so, why spend money for dealing with them: helicopters' usage is a very expensive thing.