This should really help things.....
Palestinian Leader Assails 'Zionist Enemy
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) -
Moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called Israel "the Zionist enemy" for the first time on Tuesday after an Israeli tank killed seven Palestinian youths in a Gaza strawberry field.
The words were certain to stir concerns in Israel where images of Abbas embracing fighters during the campaign for a Jan. 9 election have led some to question hopes for reviving peace talks after Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s death.
The Israeli army said it had targeted militants who had crept into the strawberry field and fired mortar bombs into a nearby Jewish settlement in the occupied territory.
Palestinian witnesses and medics in Beit Lahiya, a north Gaza village, said the militants had vanished by the time the tank shell crashed and all the dead were youths aged 11-17 from two farming families. Four people were critically wounded.
The field, where farmers had been harvesting strawberries, was spattered with blood and body parts.
Word of the incident clearly angered Abbas, widely tipped to win the presidential election, as he continued campaigning in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) despite further fighting between militants and the Israeli army.
"We are praying for the souls of our martyrs who fell today to the shells of the Zionist enemy," Abbas told a rally in the south Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis, a hotbed of militants.
It was Abbas's first known resort to the language of radicals sworn to Israel's destruction. Abbas, 69, long known as a relative moderate, has raised peace hopes since Arafat's death by condemning militant violence in favor of talks with Israel.
Violence has abated in the West Bank but intensified in Gaza and Palestinian officials said a fresh series of Israeli army incursions threatened to disrupt the election for a successor to Arafat that is critical to chances of reviving peacemaking.
"These attacks are seriously harming the election process," cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said as Abbas stumped in Khan Younis, where nine Palestinians were killed in an armored Israeli sweep at the weekend.
Israel says it is responding to intensifying mortar and rocket fire by roving bands of militants who have spurned Abbas's call for restraint to help him revive negotiations in pursuit of a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied land.
MILITANTS KEEN TO CLAIM "VICTORY"
Militants aim to "prove" their attacks forced Israel's decision to evacuate settlers from Gaza later this year. They vow to keep fighting until Israel abandons the larger West Bank too, something it rules out under any peace deal.
Israel also demands Palestinian leaders heed a provision in an internationally sponsored "road map" peace plan for a crackdown on militants before talks begin.
Palestinian leaders demand Israel obey a parallel obligation under the road map to stop expanding West Bank settlements and Abbas has balked at tackling gunmen he calls "freedom fighters" without an Israeli promise of viable Palestinian statehood.
"They are freedom fighters and should live a dignified and safe life," Abbas said on Monday in a campaign tailored in part to defuse the distrust of gunmen who branded him a stooge of Israel when their revered ex-guerrilla leader Arafat was alive.
Abbas said he was determined to ensure rule of law prevailed in Palestinian territories, a cautionary message to militants and one of reassurance to U.S.-led mediators encouraged by his credo of non-violence.
But Abbas said he would reach that goal through "dialogue and discussion" in a quest for national unity.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said scenes of Abbas being hoisted on shoulders of gunmen at election rallies were "disturbing" but that Abbas had "to reach out to all parts of the Palestinian community."
Abbas has stressed Palestinians are ready to make peace with Israel "built on justice and rights." But he has repeated core demands, such as a right of return for refugees to homes now in the Jewish state, long rejected by Israel.
OTB
Palestinian Leader Assails 'Zionist Enemy
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (Reuters) -
Moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called Israel "the Zionist enemy" for the first time on Tuesday after an Israeli tank killed seven Palestinian youths in a Gaza strawberry field.
The words were certain to stir concerns in Israel where images of Abbas embracing fighters during the campaign for a Jan. 9 election have led some to question hopes for reviving peace talks after Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s death.
The Israeli army said it had targeted militants who had crept into the strawberry field and fired mortar bombs into a nearby Jewish settlement in the occupied territory.
Palestinian witnesses and medics in Beit Lahiya, a north Gaza village, said the militants had vanished by the time the tank shell crashed and all the dead were youths aged 11-17 from two farming families. Four people were critically wounded.
The field, where farmers had been harvesting strawberries, was spattered with blood and body parts.
Word of the incident clearly angered Abbas, widely tipped to win the presidential election, as he continued campaigning in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) despite further fighting between militants and the Israeli army.
"We are praying for the souls of our martyrs who fell today to the shells of the Zionist enemy," Abbas told a rally in the south Gaza refugee camp of Khan Younis, a hotbed of militants.
It was Abbas's first known resort to the language of radicals sworn to Israel's destruction. Abbas, 69, long known as a relative moderate, has raised peace hopes since Arafat's death by condemning militant violence in favor of talks with Israel.
Violence has abated in the West Bank but intensified in Gaza and Palestinian officials said a fresh series of Israeli army incursions threatened to disrupt the election for a successor to Arafat that is critical to chances of reviving peacemaking.
"These attacks are seriously harming the election process," cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said as Abbas stumped in Khan Younis, where nine Palestinians were killed in an armored Israeli sweep at the weekend.
Israel says it is responding to intensifying mortar and rocket fire by roving bands of militants who have spurned Abbas's call for restraint to help him revive negotiations in pursuit of a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied land.
MILITANTS KEEN TO CLAIM "VICTORY"
Militants aim to "prove" their attacks forced Israel's decision to evacuate settlers from Gaza later this year. They vow to keep fighting until Israel abandons the larger West Bank too, something it rules out under any peace deal.
Israel also demands Palestinian leaders heed a provision in an internationally sponsored "road map" peace plan for a crackdown on militants before talks begin.
Palestinian leaders demand Israel obey a parallel obligation under the road map to stop expanding West Bank settlements and Abbas has balked at tackling gunmen he calls "freedom fighters" without an Israeli promise of viable Palestinian statehood.
"They are freedom fighters and should live a dignified and safe life," Abbas said on Monday in a campaign tailored in part to defuse the distrust of gunmen who branded him a stooge of Israel when their revered ex-guerrilla leader Arafat was alive.
Abbas said he was determined to ensure rule of law prevailed in Palestinian territories, a cautionary message to militants and one of reassurance to U.S.-led mediators encouraged by his credo of non-violence.
But Abbas said he would reach that goal through "dialogue and discussion" in a quest for national unity.
Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said scenes of Abbas being hoisted on shoulders of gunmen at election rallies were "disturbing" but that Abbas had "to reach out to all parts of the Palestinian community."
Abbas has stressed Palestinians are ready to make peace with Israel "built on justice and rights." But he has repeated core demands, such as a right of return for refugees to homes now in the Jewish state, long rejected by Israel.
OTB
