Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (14126)	12/19/2001 4:47:52 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 281500

Arafat is told 'arrest Hamas bombers' FROM DANIEL MCGRORY IN NABLUS AND CHRISTOPHER WALKER IN JERUSALEM ISRAELI ministers have told Yassir Arafat that if he wants his calls for a ceasefire to be taken seriously, he must arrest two leading Hamas bombmakers hiding in Nablus. Jassar Samaru and Nassim Abu Rus are said to have made the devices used in three attacks in the past fortnight, which have left 47 dead. Their bomb-making factory is thought to be hidden among the huddle of apartment blocks of the chaotic West Bank town, where Palestinian police fear to tread. Israeli Intelligence says the bombs that, within a 12-hour period, had killed 11 youngsters in a Jerusalem shopping mall and 15 mainly elderly bus passengers in Haifa, came from their laboratory. They also claim that Mr Samaru and Mr Abu Rus built the device in Nablus that was used to ambush a bus heading for the Emmanuel settlement last week, where ten people died. Add to that their parts in the bombing of the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv and the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem and the deaths of more than 80 people have been lain at their door. Palestinian police say that they cannot find the bomb factory and that if the Israelis know the location they will not tell them. Neither side shows much of an appetite to venture far into Nablus. The Israeli Defence Force has moved to the edges of what they call the most violent city in the Palestinian territories, mainly occupying high-rise blocks to the west that belong to the wealthier elements of Nablus. A battalion of paratroops has been brought in to reinforce them, but so far they have not launched the sort of armoured hit-and-run attacks seen elsewhere in Gaza and the West Bank. Mr Arafat’s forces have done no better. In the cluttered backstreets of the Balata refugee camp, which has produced its share of suicide bombers in recent times, they yesterday mocked the idea that Mr Arafat has done anything to stop the gunmen. Outside an office belonging to Hamas, a gang of young men in their early 20s jostled each other aside to deliver insults about the Palestinian leader, who they said has no control over their camp on the edge of Nablus. Ahmed, 22, shouted: “How can Arafat touch us when he daren’t show his face in this place, and nor do his policemen?” The others around him laughed. If Mr Arafat is to earn a reprieve, then his security forces must get to grips with places such as Balata and put the principal bombmakers out of business. The omens are not good. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine all vowed yesterday to continue their armed campaign against Israel, despite Mr Arafat’s televised appeal for a ceasefire. At the same time, three Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed by Israeli forces. Yakoub Idkadak, 28, a senior Hamas activist suspected of sending suicide bombers on their missions, was shot dead in the West Bank town of Hebron. A spokesman said that he was shot when he ignored an order to halt and fled from troops trying to arrest him at his home. Israeli soldiers also shot dead a Palestinian policeman in plainclothes and wounded another in an unmarked car near Nablus. Muhammad Haneideq, 12, was killed as he played with friends in the rubble of buildings recently destroyed by Israeli forces near the Nevi Dekalim Jewish settlement, close to the Khan Younis refugee camp in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli guards also shot and wounded a 32-year-old Arab man who was throwing fireworks at them across the border from a part of southern Lebanon which they left last year. In a move that prompted protest from Western diplomats, Israeli forces detained one of Mr Arafat’s leading officials in Jerusalem, Sari Nusseibeh. He was taken away by armed police from an hotel in the Old City, where he had been hosting a reception for foreign dignitaries and religious leaders to celebrate the end of Ramadan. After two hours of questioning, Dr Nusseibeh, Mr Arafat’s Political Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs, left the police station to say that he had been treated “respectfully”. However, he added: “This is a bad omen coming so soon after President Arafat made his unprecedented offer of peace. Better that Mr Sharon had come here to shake my hand, rather than try and put handcuffs on me.” thetimes.co.uk