Reuters.com Israel steps up threats against Palestinian PM http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-12T110146Z_01_L1082010_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST.xml&archived=False
Mon Jun 12, 2006 By Jeffrey Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's party threatened Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas with assassination on Monday if the group renewed suicide bombings in Israel. The comments by Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, followed a sharp escalation of violence along the Israel-Gaza frontier and a declaration by Hamas that a 16-month-old truce had ended. "Yassin and Rantissi are waiting for you, Haniyeh, if you implement the same stance of liquidating Jews, indiscriminate firing, and suicide terror attacks aimed at paralyzing Israeli society anew," Hanegbi said on Army Radio. He was referring to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a co-founder of Hamas, and Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, another leader of the Islamic militant group. Both were assassinated in Israeli missile strikes in Gaza in 2004. Asked about Hanegbi's comments, an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suggested the lawmaker had spoken on his own initiative. "No one speaks in the name of the prime minister," the aide, accompanying Olmert in Britain, told Reuters. Hamas, which formed the Palestinian government in March after winning a January election, is sworn to Israel's destruction. Speaking to reporters in Gaza, Haniyeh said Hanegbi's threat was indicative of "a type of political madness from some Israeli leaders". Hamas carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel after the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000 but halted such attacks in mid-2004 and largely abided by a ceasefire reached in early 2005. POWER STRUGGLE The group is locked in a struggle with moderate President Mahmoud Abbas over a statehood manifesto, penned by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, that implicitly recognizes Israel by calling for a Palestinian state alongside it. Over Hamas's objections, Abbas has ordered a July 26 referendum on the initiative, whose adoption would weaken the Islamist-led government already hard-hit by a halt in international aid over its tough policies toward Israel. Israel has called the manifesto a non-starter because it envisages a Palestinian state in the entire occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 war and quit Gaza last year, but it has said it intends to hold on to parts of the West Bank in any future peace agreement. The Palestinian parliament convened to consider a move by Hamas, the majority party, to have the legislature deem the referendum illegal. Such a declaration would deepen the crisis with Abbas, who was due to hold further talks with Haniyeh later in the day to try to resolve the dispute. Hamas declared the ceasefire dead on Friday after seven Palestinians, including three children, were killed on a Gaza beach on a day of Israeli shelling. Israel has said the killings were a mistake and voiced regret, although it has not admitted responsibility. An Israeli military investigation of the incident is under way. Since ending the ceasefire, Hamas has fired dozens of rocket barrages from Gaza into Israel. In violence on Sunday, Israeli helicopter strikes killed two Hamas militants in Gaza and rockets fired by members of the group wounded an Israeli. In a new move in line with Israel's plan to strengthen major Jewish enclaves in the West Bank, an Israeli government agency offered for sale 54 plots of land for the construction of single-family homes near the large settlement of Ariel. A U.S.-backed peace "road map" calls for a halt to such construction in territory Palestinians seek for a state. (Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Dan Williams in London) © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
