Today's White House Press Briefing
MR. FLEISCHER: As I just said, the issue is not Israel. The issue is not Palestinian Authority. Israel and the Palestinian Authority want to work together and are finding ways to work together. The issue is Hamas. The terrorists are Hamas. Hamas is no friend to the PalestinianDid everybody get that? Apparently one reporter didn't:
Authority. Hamas is a threat to everything that Prime Minister Abbas and those people in the Palestinian Authority who seek to create a state stand for. It's not as if a phone call will get Hamas to stop being terrorists.What's important is for everybody in the region to work together to defeat Hamas and violent terrorist organizations.
Q: So you don't have any problem with Israel's comments today that they're vowing to wipe out Hamas, and that the road map may be frozen if there's any more terrorist attacks that occur similar to the bus bombing?Somebody in Jerusalem has correctly parsed the President's judgment. A Ha'aretz flash update says:MR. FLEISCHER: What the President thinks has to happen is that all parties must defeat terror. The Israelis and the Palestinian Authority want to work together in peace to create a state. Hamas is a threat to both. It's not as if Hamas is part and parcel of the Palestinian Authority. It's important to recognize that groups like Hamas have no interest in peace, no interest in the creation of the Palestinian state. Their goal is to kill. They are the enemies to peace, in the President's judgment.
Sources in Jerusalem: There is no limitation on targeting Hamas leaders, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.Meanwhile, the good folks in Ramallah are still searching for the clue button
Palestinian sources: Efforts to mediate between Hamas, Palestinian Authority to achieve cease-fire continueAlong the same lines, Kofi Annan is also desperately in need of a clue or five.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan ... said that the Israelis and Palestinians are apparently unable to reach an agreement on their own, and that in the present circumstances he supports sending an "armed peace forceA fine idea. Arm Kofi with a blue helmet, a squirt gun and a pile of Egged tickets, and have him ride the Jerusalem city buses to serve as a buffer zone between the suicide bombers and the passengers. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at June 12, 2003 09:22 PM
as a buffer zone between the Israelis and the Palestinians."
Comes the dawn. Why this Administration - or the previous one - has never before faced these third-party terrorists and assigned responsibility where it lies has been beyond me. Everyone knew that NGOs such as Hamas and Hezbollah were dedicated to endless mayhem at the expense of Israel, regardless of the pious platitudes grudgingly emitted by various PA representatives. Now if some significant resources are directed against these NGOs - and the sources of their support and financing - there may be eventually a decline in bus bombings and other deliberate murders of civilians.
Posted by: Insufficiently Sensitive on June 13, 2003 07:29 AMYou have the germ of a great idea here...Human Shields on Egged Buses. Let us see how many takes we get for this. Let us publicize it. Let us contribute money to transporting and supporting these people to ride the Egged Buses with big human shield signs on their clothes.
Posted by: Ed Remler on June 14, 2003 04:55 PM927 Very well said franz
Posted by: hoodia on January 7, 2005 08:11 AMi gotta say i disagree
Posted by: Backroom Facials on March 29, 2005 06:29 AM