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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hdl who wrote (5708)	1/11/2003 12:05:26 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 32591

why they are not suing the PLO there is plenty of money there, only Arafat stole close over $2 billion from the arabs according to IDF intelligence reports

To: hdl who wrote (5708)	1/13/2003 10:05:32 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32591

Hamas warns of kidnapping Israelis for prisoner exchange By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The head of Hamas on Monday rejected a call by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to halt attacks on Israeli civilians in the run-up to Israel's Jan. 28 election, and suggested his Islamic militant group might kidnap Israelis as ransom for Palestinian prisoners. The Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spoke after a meeting with a Palestinian human rights activist and the Palestinian Authority official dealing with Palestinians held in Israeli jails. More than 5,000 Palestinians are in Israeli custody, most rounded up in military offensives in the past year. More than 1,000 Palestinians are held in so-called administrative detention, without charges or trial - the highest number in more than a decade. In the mid- and late 1990s, many Palestinians held for anti-Israeli activities were released as part of interim peace deals with Israel. However, Israeli jails began filling up again after the September 2000 outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. In the past 28 months, Palestinian militants carried out scores of bombings and shootings against Israelis. During the first Palestinian uprising, between 1987-1993, Hamas kidnapped several Israeli soldiers to press for the release of Palestinian prisoners. No Palestinian prisoners were released in these cases, and Hamas killed its captives. However, Israel has swapped prisoners for hostages in the past. In 1985, Israel freed 1,150 Palestinians for three Israeli soldiers held by a PLO splinter faction. Yassin himself was released from Israeli custody in 1997, as part of a complex three-way deal with Jordan following Israel's botched attempt to assassinate a Hamas leader in Amman. "Our enemies will free our prisoners only by force, because they only understand the language of force," Yassin said after a meeting with human rights activist Raji Sourani and Hisham Abdel Razek, a Cabinet minister in charge of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. "From our experience with the enemy, all the prisoners released in the past were freed in exchange for prisoners and our prisoners in Israeli jails are now waiting for a new deal," Yassin said. The Israeli military has been on heightened alert for kidnapping attempts. On January 1, an Israeli soldier managed to escape from three Arabs he said tried to pull him into a car as he waited at a bus stop north of Tel Aviv. Yassin also rejected Arafat's call last week to cease attacks on Israeli civilians. Hamas has carried out scores of suicide bombings in the past decade, killing hundreds of Israelis. "Our resistance is not going to stop, before the election, during the election or after the election, " Yassin said. "It will move forward until victory or martyrdom."