GZ. Not a good thing to read just before bedtime ...but what the hack.........
France: No proof Hamas is terror group
Official fingers only 'military wing' of organization for violence
August 25, 2003
worldnetdaily.com
The French government is once again bucking the United States-led international war on terrorism and urging fellow Europeans to follow suit by not classifying Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terror organizations.
While the U.S. State Department lists the groups as sponsors of terror, the European Union has only flagged what it calls a "military wing" of Hamas – Izzedine al-Qassam. The terror designation allows the freezing of assets and the imposition of sanctions.
Following last week's suicide bombing on a crowded Jerusalem bus in which 20 people were killed, including several children, the U.S. froze the assets of six Hamas leaders and those of mostly European-based Palestinian charities it accused of fund-raising for Hamas.
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack and Hamas released video of the 29-year-old Hebron man it said was the bomber. After Israel launched retaliatory missile strikes in which a senior Hamas leader was killed Thursday, both groups pronounced an end to their seven-week cease-fire.
Hamas and Israeli leaders traded accusations over this latest road block to the "road map" to Mideast peace.
"The assassination of Abu Shanab ... means that the Zionist enemy has assassinated the truce, and the Hamas movement holds the Zionist enemy fully responsible for the consequences of its crime," Hamas spokesman Ismail Haniyah told reporters in Gaza.
Last night, the EU joined the diplomatic frenzy to put the "road map" back on course. The Associated Press reports Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose country holds the EU presidency, held telephone talks last night with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom and Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath on "the tragic events in Iraq and the Middle East.
Frattini reportedly stressed the struggle against terrorism must "continue to be among the international community's top priorities."
To that end, Frattini said EU foreign ministers will discuss "the problem of Hamas" at a Sept. 5-6 meeting in northern Italy, ostensibly to review its classification of the group.
According to the news wire, Frattini said that while Shalom called for "the immediate dismantling" of Hamas, Shaath pleaded for European understanding of the "particularly delicate phase the [Palestinian] government of Mahmoud Abbas is experiencing at the moment."
The Jerusalem Post reports an adviser to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is lobbying the EU to resist Israel's pressure to add the full Hamas organization to its terror list.
"If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," Gourdault-Montagne reportedly told the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli. "However, we mustn't limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position."
According to the Post, Gourdault-Montagne's assertion drew outrage at Israel's foreign ministry.
"Such an attitude is one of criminal negligence. It refuses to assume responsibility over the war against – and thus legitimizes – terrorism," an official is quoted by the paper as saying.
In March, a threatened veto by France forced the U.S. and Britain to abandon efforts to secure a new United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing the use of military force to disarm Saddam Hussein of suspected weapons of mass destruction. A coalition of some 40 countries subsequently invaded Iraq over continued pleas for diplomacy from a handful of council members, including France.
Paradoxically, France subsequently offered its military expertise with weapons of mass destruction to the coalition effort, despite its fierce opposition. French ambassador Jean-David Levitte told CNN days before the launch of the war that the use of biological and chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein's forces would "change completely the perception and the situation for us." He said the French military had equipment to fight "under these circumstances" and could join the coalition if forces came under such attack.
French officials, who have consistently objected to placing Hezbollah on the EU terror list, claim there is insufficient proof the entire organizations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, not just their "military wings," are involved in terrorism.
Israel and the U.S. argue no such distinction can be made.
"There's no question that there is a direct link between the heads of Hamas and the terrorists on the ground," Gideon Meir, an Israeli foreign ministry official, told the Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile today, Izzedine al-Qassam leaders again vowed revenge after Israeli missile strikes killed another four members in Gaza City last night.
"Our response will be painful and quick," officials pledged in a statement. |
