As CNN reported after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's vist to President Bush's ranch in Texas, Bush still wants to pursue the "roadmap to peace" and a Palestinian state. CNN also reported that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was happy with that, even though they've yet to prove they even deserve a state by disarming their own terrorist groups. But The Jerusalem Post followed up with coverage of the PA's change of heart and more threats from Palestinian terror gangs: PA: US jeopardizing peace process.
In a clear challenge to the PA, representatives of various armed groups in the Gaza Strip held a press conference in which they also denounced Bush and rejected his demand to dismantle terrorist organizations.Abu Dajaneh, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, accused Bush of conspiring with Israel to kill more Palestinians. "Sharon and Bush met to renew their commitment to slaughter the Palestinian people," he said.
"The weapons of the resistance are legitimate and we won't give them up even after the settlers leave the Gaza Strip. We will lay our weapons only when all of Palestine is liberated."
Abu Muhammed, a representative of Fatah's armed wing, Aksa Martyrs Brigades, also rejected any attempt to confiscate the weapons of his group: "We won't give up our weapons until the settlers leave all the territories occupied in
1967."A member of a group called the Nasser Eddin Brigades accused Bush of giving Israel a green light to build more settlements.
"These statements are very dangerous. He who gave permission to Israel to kill Palestinians is now giving it the right to live on our lands," the gunman, who identified himself as Abu Abir, said. "The enemy understands only the language of
force and we will continue to launch rocket attacks on the settlements, detonate bombs and dispatch suicide bombers until the occupiers leave all of Palestine."
As the CNN article noted: "... [H]ours ahead of Sharon's arrival in the United States, Israel Defense Forces said three Palestinian teenagers who were shot and killed by the Israeli military were involved in smuggling weapons from Egypt into Gaza."
UPDATE I -- April 13: Ynet News.com reports on another incident: Boy carrying 5 bombs detained. (Via Little Green Footballs)
TEL AVIV - A 15-year-old Palestinian boy carrying five pipe bombs was detained by IDF forces at the Hawara roadblock south of the West Bank town of Nablus.The boy, identified as Hassan Hashash, was obviously sent by someone and terrified, a soldier involved in the incident told Ynet.
“You could see it’s a young child who was sent (by someone.) I looked into his eyes, he was on the brink of tears and scared to death,” said Muli, a paratrooper whose full name cannot be revealed for security reasons.
UPDATE II: From FoxNews: Mob Attacks Israeli Troops in West Bank.
TSURIF, West Bank — Dozens of Palestinians surrounded an overturned Israeli army jeep in a West Bank village Wednesday and stoned trapped soldiers who fired tear gas and rubber bullets, witnesses and the military said.Posted by Forkum at April 12, 2005 10:44 PM
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