I think the civil war among the Palestinians is on

[Monte Smith]

Hamas v Fatah. Greatest match since PLO v Jordan. You gotta love these intramural exhibitions.

Israel 'to supply arms to Abbas'
BBC

Israel says it will strictly control who receives the weapons
Israel says it will allow security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to be supplied with weapons from third countries.
The announcement follows clashes between Mr Abbas' supporters and rivals from the Hamas militant group.

But Mr Abbas' office denied the story. A BBC correspondent said he might not want to be seen accepting Israeli help.

Earlier, Mr Abbas challenged Hamas to accept a joint political programme with his Fatah faction or face a referendum.

The plan, drawn up by jailed Palestinian leaders from all the main factions, says attacks on Israel should be limited to the land occupied by it since 1967 - implying recognition of Israel within its pre-1967 borders.

Mr Abbas gave Hamas a 10-day deadline to accept the proposal, which also calls for a national unity government.

The president was speaking at a conference aimed at ending violence and divisions between his own Fatah party and Hamas.


Mr Abbas said the time had come for Palestinians to act

Tensions between the two groups have spilled over into clashes in recent weeks, with at least 10 people killed this month.

Hamas has also deployed a new, independent security force in Gaza - seen as a direct challenge to the official security forces loyal to Mr Abbas.

Israel said it had decided to authorise deliveries of light weapons and ammunition to the presidential guard.

"At issue are several hundred weapons imported from foreign countries which will be transferred under tight control by us. We will know exactly to whom and where they are being delivered," a defence ministry official told the AFP news agency.

Mr Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, however, said the "announcement made by the Israeli defence ministry is false".

The president's credibility could suffer if he were seen to be accepting Israeli help to defend himself from some of his own people, says the BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem, James Reynolds.

'Nation in danger'

Mr Abbas used the first day of talks with Hamas to make his shock ultimatum on political unity.

He called for a joint programme based on the 18-point plan announced two weeks ago by jailed leaders from across the Palestinian political spectrum.

"The situation is getting more dangerous. The whole nation is in danger. We can't wait for the rest of our lives," Mr Abbas said.

The plan, which would implicitly recognise the existence of Israel, received a mixed response from Hamas, which officially wants an Islamic state across Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Hamas' Abdel Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, described the proposal as a good basis for dialogue, saying: "Returning to the people is one of the most important principles in democracy."

But Hamas' chief spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "It represents an attempt to apply pressure with the aim of imposing a certain vision and conditions on the dialogue."

[Dennis Gonzalez]

We heard it here first!

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Dennis Gonzalez

We heard it here first!

Nah, you didn't. You might have heard it treated sportively here first. But I doubt that, too.

An elimination of Hamas/Fatah is really a necessary first step forward/backward to final peace/total slaughter.

So: hurrah/boo. And pass the peanuts.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Dennis Gonzalez

We heard it here first!

Nah, this has been bubbling under the surface for quite some time now.

But once the Hamas boys took to the streets fully armed, that was the last straw.

Things are gonna get ugly.

Meanwhile, in Mogadishu..........

[Monte Smith]

True 'nuff. There is a thread on this board about how Afghanistan is simmering...thus Bush is failing in two wars. Meanwhile, guns are blazing in Somalia and East Timor! All we need is a good suicide bomb in Kosovo and it'll be what's called on the Bally table, "All balls in play." Ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

Hey s'long as more of them die than we do, you wanna say. Only the line between them 'n' us is always sticky. And the better they do, the better we do. For instance, if they have enough esteem not to be blowing themselves up like a bunch of c*nts, we're all better off. It's a pity they are so shitty. Maybe the good guys among those bastards will win. And maybe if I wish in one hand and shit in the other, the hand with the wishes will fill up first.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Satan

And maybe if I wish in one hand and shit in the other, the hand with the wishes will fill up first.

I don't believe you. Let's see it.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

I don't believe you. Let's see it.

You don't need to see it. Let's be like the UN or any of these groups that elevate hopes over reality and shake on the deal.

[Scott Dolan]

Oh sure.

I know a "pull my finger" scam when I see it.

[Gary Sisco]

Why -- just because they're killing each other? Hell, that's called attempted pizza delivery in Iraq and there's only a "coming" civil war there ... for years.

[Monte Smith]

Backing away...?

Hamas militia off streets after Abbas challenge
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - The Hamas-led Palestinian government ordered its new militia off Gaza's streets on Friday in the wake of clashes with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement that stirred fears of civil war.

The move comes a day after Abbas stunned Hamas with an ultimatum to back a proposal for Palestinian statehood that implicitly recognizes Israel or face a referendum on the issue.

Abbas gave the government 10 days to back the proposal, effectively going over the heads of the Islamist militants and setting the stage for a showdown. Hamas seeks to destroy Israel and has rejected Abbas's calls for talks with the Jewish state.

Youssef al-Zahar, a leader of the 3,000-strong Hamas force in the impoverished Gaza Strip, told Reuters the interior minister had ordered the pullback.

"We have received orders to withdraw from the streets and to concentrate in certain locations to be ready to rush to the scene when needed to confront chaos," Zahar said.

Government officials said the order was given to reduce tension with Fatah. Cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, had telephoned Abbas to tell him of the decision.

Clashes between Hamas and Fatah have become more frequent since the unit was deployed last week. Government officials have said the new force would not be disbanded, despite calls from Abbas to do so, but integrated into regular police units.

Abbas and Hamas have been engaged in an increasingly bitter power struggle since the Islamists took office two months ago after beating Fatah in January elections.

Raising the stakes, Abbas on Thursday gave Hamas 10 days to back a plan for a Palestinian state alongside Israel or face what would amount to a confidence vote in 40 days.

Hamas would not be "blackmailed" into accepting the plan, a member of the group's exiled leadership said on Friday.

Mohammad Nazzal did not reject the proposal outright, but he criticised Abbas for threatening to put it to a referendum.

"We see this referendum as a tool of pressure on Hamas," Nazzal told Reuters in Damascus.

Passage of the referendum might offer Hamas an opportunity to moderate its opposition to Israel and any peace negotiations without having to formally change its stance.

DEBATE

The proposal calls for a peace settlement if Israel withdraws from all of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.

The plan was drawn up in an Israeli jail by senior prisoners from factions including Hamas and Fatah.

Israel has not commented but has long rejected pulling back from all the West Bank. It has said it intends to keep large Jewish settlement blocs there and also considers Jerusalem its "eternal and undivided capital."

Palestinian factions involved in a final day of two days of national dialogue aimed at easing tensions on Friday debated Abbas's ultimatum.

One Hamas lawmaker, Mushir al-Masri, told Reuters Palestinians everywhere would need to take part in any referendum, a condition that would undermine efforts to hold it. Many Palestinians live in refugees camps in the Arab world.

Most polls in recent years have shown strong Palestinian public support for a state along the 1967 borders. Hamas seeks to put an Islamic state in place of Israel.

At the heart of the internal conflict is the refusal of Hamas to accept demands from Abbas and the West to recognize Israel. That stance has triggered an aid boycott that has brought the Palestinian Authority to its knees.

The prisoners' proposal calls for an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital. It also seeks a unity government.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Damascus)

[Scott Dolan]

Raising the stakes, Abbas on Thursday gave Hamas 10 days to back a plan for a Palestinian state alongside Israel or face what would amount to a confidence vote in 40 days.

Oh my!

Abbas don't fuck around!

This really IS getting interesting.

[Monte Smith]

Yes, I think it is getting interesting. And not only for neocon apologists for imperialism. I assume.

[Scott Dolan]

We can only speak for ourselves, of course.

[willy]

Isn't terrorists killing terrorists a good thing?