ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!
MODERATES FEAR TERRORIST NATIONS AND GROUPS!
ARE THE MANY MIDDLE EAST LEADERS, EXCEPT THOSE OF SYRIA, IRAN, AND THE NUMEROUS FANITICAL TERRORIST GROUPS, AFRAID THAT ISRAEL AND THE U.S. WILL ATTACK THEM, AND OVERTHROW THEIR RULERS?
NO! BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT A THREAT TO ISRAEL OR THE U.S.!
ARE THE MANY MIDDLE EAST LEADERS AFRAID THAT IRAN, SYRIA, AND FANATICAL TERRORIST GROUPS, WILL ATTACK THEM AND OVERTHROW THEIR LEADERS, IF THE U.S. PULLS OUT AND ISRAEL LOSES THE NEXT WAR?
YES! BECAUSE THEY DID NOT BECOME A PART OF TERROR AND SUICIDE BOMBINGS!
Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia are running scared of the terrorist bullies, knowing full well the loss of their heads, if they choose the losing side, is a distinct possibility.
Ultimatums, Demands, Condemnations, and Warnings are a Dime a Dozen in the Middle East!
February 3, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Egypt issues ultimatum to PA, Hamas
Khaled Abu Toameh, THE JERUSALEM POST
January 30, 2008
Egypt has threatened to close its border with the Gaza Strip indefinitely unless the Palestinian Authority and Hamas reach an agreement on controlling the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian sources in Ramallah said Wednesday.
The threat came as PA and Hamas representatives arrived in Cairo Wednesday for talks with Egyptian leaders on ways of ending the crisis along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The PA delegation, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other senior government officials
in Cairo.
The Hamas team is headed by Mahmoud Zahar, a top leader of the Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip. Some reports suggested that Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal may also arrive in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on the same issue.
The sources told The Jerusalem Post that the Egyptians have warned the PA and Hamas leaders that this was there last chance to reach an agreement before Cairo completely sealed its border with the Gaza Strip.
“The Egyptian message was very tough,” the sources said. “They basically said that they would no longer tolerate the anarchy at their border and would take drastic measures to protect their sovereignty.”
On the eve of the separate talks with the Egyptians, Hamas and
the PA leaders issued statements that reflect the wide gap between the two parties.
Hamas continued to demand a central role in controlling the border and rejected Abbas’s attempt to redeploy his security forces there. Hamas also rejected the presence of international monitors at the Rafah border crossing, as was the case until last June.
“Talking about a partial role [for Hamas] contradicts reality,” Zahar told reporters as he crossed into Egypt Wednesday. “The reality is that there is a legitimate [Hamas] government. We will not give up our legitimacy to anybody.” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned that any attempt to deny Hamas a role in controlling the border crossing would fail.
Taher a-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, said Abbas’s attempt to revive the US-brokered 2005 agreement concerning the Rafah border crossing showed that he was not serious about resolving the current crisis.
“That agreement is dead,” the spokesman said.
“As far as we are concerned, it does not exist. Abbas wants to help the Israeli occupation return to the Rafah border and this is totally unacceptable. We won’t allow anyone to restrict the movement of Palestinians any more. The Rafah border crossing should be controlled only by Palestinians and Egyptians.”
But Abbas, according to his aides, told Mubarak during their meeting that as far as he’s concerned, Hamas must not be a party to any deal. The aides quoted Abbas as saying that Hamas was an illegitimate party that seized control over the Gaza Strip through a violent “coup” and as such it must not be rewarded.
Abbas is reported to have warned Mubarak against allowing Hamas to have a say in controlling the border. “President Abbas warned that such a move on the part of the Egyptians would be seen as supporting Hamas’s coup against the Palestinian Authority,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “This will have a negative impact on Palestinian-Egyptian relations.”
Abbas said after the meeting that he would not talk to Hamas unless they “expressed regret for their coup” and recognized his government.
In a separate development, the Egyptians said they had foiled an attempt by Palestinians to launch suicide bombings against Israel from Egypt.
Five Palestinian terrorists carrying explosives belts and who were on a suicide mission against Israel were detained by the Egyptian authorities in recent days, the semi-official Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported.
According to the report, the five Palestinian suspects were currently being questioned by Egyptian security officials.
The paper did not mention the political affiliation of the suspects or their identities.
It said several other Palestinians were caught in Egypt with blueprints of the border crossings between Israel and Egypt, including the location of security posts. The Egyptian authorities also confiscated sniper rifles and explosives that were found in the possession of the suspects.
Al-Ahram also reported that other Palestinians had tried to bribe Egyptian policemen to allow them to cross border checkpoints with explosives and weapons.
Begin Haaretz Article
Hamas: We will do everything to block Egypt from sealing border
The Associated Press
February 2, 2008
The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, on Friday announced that his organization will do everything to prevent Egypt from sealing its border with the Gaza Strip, a week and a half after Palestinian gunmen blew holes in the barrier separating Gaza from Egypt, prompting hundreds of the thousands of Gazans to flood across the frontier.
So far Egyptian attempts to seal the border have been largely unsuccessful.
“The Palestinian people have many options” Haniyeh was quoted as telling the pro-Hamas daily Palestine in an interview published Friday, when asked about the methods Hamas was planning to use to prevent the closing of the breached border. He did not elaborate.
Hamas militants on Friday hauled away metal spikes Egyptian soldiers placed at sections of the Gaza-Egypt border so vehicles could pass through, defying Egyptian attempts to reseal the breached frontier and curb the influx of Gazans.
Hamas blew open the border wall on Jan. 23, ending a seven-month blockade of the Gaza Strip that began after the Islamic group violently wrested control of the territory in June of last year.
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been moving in and out of Egyptian border towns since, and in the meantime, Hamas bulldozers have pried open new gaps and blocked Egyptian efforts to narrow existing ones.
Early Friday, Egyptian troops poured cement and laid down metal spikes around various breaches to try to choke off the flow of vehicles through gaps in the 12-kilometer-long border. They also sent dozens of riot police to the area, but continued to allow pedestrians to cross over freely from Gaza to Egyptian border towns.
Shortly after, Hamas militants dragged away metal spikes that had been placed at the main breach. Egyptian soldiers, who have been avoiding confrontation with Hamas, removed the remaining obstacles there.
Witnesses also reported that a Hamas bulldozer shoved aside spikes at a gap about 100 meters to the east.
Several hours later, dozens of vehicles were lined up on either side of the frontier as trucks tried to negotiate their way through a narrow, muddy border gap.
Hamas blew up the border days after Israel, with Egyptian backing, imposed a complete blockade on Gaza in response to a rocket barrage from Gaza on Israeli border towns. The blockade tightened already severe Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on access to the territory that have been in place since Hamas’ Gaza takeover.
On Friday, about 600 Hamas supporters rallied at the border to demand it remain open. One large banner read: “Egypt and Palestine are one people, not two.” A protester shouted, “Keep the border open.”
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas hardliner, told the crowd that we will not return to the siege, and accused the Abbas government of working for the interest of Israel.
Some of the protesters jumped over metal barriers into Egypt, raising Hamas flags on the Egyptian side.
Dozens of Egyptian border guards watched the scene, but did not intervene.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers want a role in running the border with Egypt, a demand rejected this week by Egypt and Hamas’ rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Egypt and Abbas have proposed returning to an internationally backed arrangement for the Gaza-
Egypt border that would shut out Hamas, but grant Israel the final say over operations there. The arrangement was negotiated in 2005, after Israel’s pullout from Gaza. However, the border has been closed for long stretches since then, including in response to the Hamas takeover.
Since the border breach, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have rushed into Egypt, shopping and visiting relatives on the other side. Most have returned to Gaza after brief visits to Egyptian towns along the shared border.
Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities on Friday reported that they had arrested 12 Hamas militants, armed with explosives, within Egyptian borders.
The men, having entered Sinai through the breach in the border, were apparently planning to carry out attacks against tourists in Sinai.
Begin Arutz Sheva Article
Egypt to Close Gaza Border on Sunday
27 Shevat 5768, 03 February 08 08:03
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Egyptian officials warned the Hamas terrorist organization in talks Saturday that it will re-close its border with Gaza on Sunday.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar, considered to be one of the architects of the Hamas takeover of Gaza last June, said the terrorists would not interfere.
“Egypt’s message was very clear that Sunday should be the day to put an end to this scene,” he told reporters at the border town of Rafiah. He added that no weapons would be allowed at the border, nor would violence or abusive language toward Egyptian police be tolerated.
Returning to Gaza after the talks in Cairo, Zahar told reporters that Egypt was willing to allow thousands of Palestinian Authority Arabs to travel on to third countries for which they have visas or residency permits. The would-be travelers are currently stuck in the Egyptian town of El Arish awaiting Egyptian approval to continue their journeys.
Hamas operatives blew up the border fence more than a week ago, enabling hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Authority Arabs to flood into Egypt from Gaza. At first Cairo welcomed the visitors, but after Rafiah store shelves were emptied and it became clear that many Gaza residents planned to remain in the country as refugees, Egyptian officials reversed their stand.
Attempts last week by Egyptian soldiers to limit, if not entirely block the flood failed. Metal spikes and other measures taken by Egyptian soldiers to restore the border were hauled away by Hamas terrorists or swept away by Hamas-driven bulldozers.
As late as Friday, deposed PA Prime Minister and Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh said he would not allow the border to be resealed. “The Palestinian people have many options,” he said cryptically in an interview with the Hamas daily Palestine newspaper.
However, Zahar appeared to contradict Haniyeh’s stance in an interview on Al-Jazeera satellite TV, saying “We will work to close the border between us and Egypt,” said Zahar. “We will restore control over this border, in cooperation with Egypt and gradually.”
The exact nature of the closure and the pace at which it would take place was unclear, as was the level of participation in future border control Egypt would allow Hamas, if any.
Egypt and Israel agreed last week to allow Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah-led troops to resume control of the border under the supervision of European Union observers and a video link monitored by Israeli security agents.
The arrangement was originally agreed upon by all parties and implemented in late 2005. Egypt shut down its side of the Rafiah crossing terminal, however, when Hamas terrorists ousted Abbas’s forces and seized control of Gaza in June 2006.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to arrive in Egypt for talks on Sunday.
Hamas demands to be given control over the Gaza side of
the terminal have been ignored and the EU has said it would return its observers to the crossing only under the conditions of the 2005 agreement, according to Reuters.
Hamas Terrorists Entered Egypt with Visitors
Two brothers from Gaza were arrested Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula.
The two, Hani and Rami Hamdan, were caught by Egyptian security forces while carrying bombs in a village not far from Rafiah.
Egyptian officials said the two were planning to carry out a terrorist attack in a popular tourist destination along the southern coast of Sinai.
Egyptian security agents are continuing to search for four Gaza terrorists in response to intelligence reports the cell is planning an attack on Sinai tourist destinations. Officials said the search began following the arrest last week of 15 armed Gaza Arabs, 12 of them Hamas terrorists, who had infiltrated Sinai with weapons, bombs, and ammunition.
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