Assalamu aleikum. "Oh, please Br'er Abbas, don't fling me in THAT briar patch! Please, please, please!"
If it is true that Abbas and process of surrender to "Israel" will resign, then the only proper reaction is "Good riddance to bad rubbish". Br'er Hamas hollered out, "Born and bred in the briar patch. I was born and bred in the briar patch!" The Uncle Remus Tales http://homepage.ntlworld.com/matt_kane/uncle%20remus%20tales.htm --- Abbas Threatens to Resign After Elections By STEVEN ERLANGER New York Times January 18, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/international/middleeast/18cnd-mideast.html JERUSALEM, Jan. 18 - The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said today that if he is unable to carry out his program after the Jan. 25 legislative elections, he will resign. Mr. Abbas defended the inclusion in the election of the radical Islamic Hamas faction, which refuses to give up its armed wing. Hamas is expected to do well, and even if it does not win a majority, it could make it much more difficult for Mr. Abbas and Israel to discuss peace or even to coordinate policies. "If I feel that I cannot fulfill this program," Mr. Abbas told reporters in Ramallah, on the West Bank, "then this seat is not my ultimate ambition." Hamas leaders refuse to accept the 1993 Oslo accords that set up the Palestinian Authority and are committed to the long-term disappearance of Israel and a single state of Palestine. "Who knows? Hamas may change its policy," Mr. Abbas said. But he predicted the vote will be held "in a democratic and honest fashion" and said that the many members of the security forces will be able to vote 48 hours in advance so that they can protect the ballot boxes. There are fears that elements of Fatah will disrupt the voting to try to void the election and prevent Hamas from taking a share of power. But Fatah and Hamas have agreed to ban the carrying of weapons on polling day. Mr. Abbas also accused Israel of putting obstacles in the way of quiet on the day of the vote, with its checkpoints and other security restrictions on freedom of movement in the West Bank. Israel has also prevented some candidates - not just Hamas - from campaigning in East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed. An East Jerusalem press conference devoted to the elections was canceled on today when Israeli police arrested everyone who was scheduled to speak. Mr. Abbas welcomed comments from the acting Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who said on Tuesday that if elected himself, he would enter final-status negotiations with Mr. Abbas if the Palestinians dismantle militant and terrorist groups as required under the peace plan, that is known as the road map. Mr. Olmert is running the Kadima party because its founder, Ariel Sharon, is unconscious in the hospital after a massive stroke. Aides to Mr. Olmert worked to play down his comments, emphasizing that he did not expect Mr. Abbas to fulfill that requirement. But Mr. Abbas happily grasped Mr. Olmert's suggestion, though he did not talk about any possible crackdown on such groups, which include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which belonging to his own Fatah faction. "We will not hesitate to get into such a negotiation," Mr. Abbas said to reporters in Ramallah, on the West Bank. "the way to peace is to sit together at the negotiating table, not the path of killings and unilateral actions." Mr. Olmert appointed new cabinet ministers to replace four Likud members who resigned over the weekend as Israel's own election campaign got in gear for March 28, even with Mr. Sharon in hospital. Tzipi Livni, 47, became only the second woman to become foreign minister, after Golda Meir. Ms. Livni, a lawyer who had worked earlier in her career for the Mossad intelligence service, is already the justice minister, and she has been a strong ally of Mr. Sharon and Mr. Olmert and left Likud with them for Kadima. Ms. Livni used her first press conference to attack Mr. Abbas's decision to allow Hamas to participate in the elections, and her remarks were aimed at Washington, too, for pressing Israel to allow the election. "The Palestinian Authority elections are meant to be part of a democratic process, but they are not," she said. "There is not a democracy in the world that enables terror organizations to participate in elections." The Europeans had learned how the Nazis took advantage of democracy, she said, adding, "There was a window of opportunity after the disengagement in a process created by Israel, when the Palestinians had been given an option and told what democracy means, rather than having armed people run in the elections, and lead them into Parliament and government." Mr. Olmert and Kadima will be criticized by Likud during the campaign for bending to Washington and allowing the vote to take place in East Jerusalem, Yuval Steinitz, a Likud legislator, said today. Mr. Steinitz also criticized the Bush administration as interfering in Israel's domestic politics by endorsing Mr. Olmert and Kadima with the Israeli campaign barely under way. "All of us are angry at the American endorsement of Olmert," he said, noting that Mr. Sharon was careful not to take sides during the American election. His criticism was also echoed in a separate interview with a senior Labor Party legislator, Isaac Herzog. Mr. Herzog said: "The White House has made a direct effort to intervene on behalf of Kadima, supporting Sharon before his stroke and now Olmert. It's a breach of the unwritten code not to intervene in domestic politics." Mr. Olmert also ordered the army to evict dozens of Jewish settlers occupying a Palestinian marketplace in Hebron, according to army radio, and to develop a plan to evacuate some 20 illegal outposts in the West Bank. After weekend protests in Hebron, Israel security forces took some supporters of the 50 or so settlers out of the market but many others remain in violation of the law. "We are fighting for the rule of law," said Mr. Olmert, who declared the area a closed military zone. "It is an essential objective." The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, said that the security forces had been feeble so far. "We are paying the price for this softness in the face of people who do not even recognize the authority of the state of Israel," he said. In 2003, the Supreme Court ordered the settlers evicted and the market reopened, but neither order has been implemented. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/international/middleeast/18cnd-mideast.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. 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