Abbas outlaws Hamas movement

Abbas outlaws Hamas movement 3 minutes ago



RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday outlawed the Islamic militant Hamas movement, his office said.

A formal announcement was to be released shortly, said aides in Abbas' office.

Abbas also swore in an emergency Cabinet, to replace the Hamas- Fatah coalition he dismantled after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force.


more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_palestinians

Abbas flexes executive muscles in showdown
~snip~

Under Palestinian law, Abbas's state of emergency is not to exceed 30 days, but it could be extended for another 30 days after winning the approval of two thirds of the parliament.

Hamas holds a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council though Israeli arrests of its deputies makes it difficult to reach a quorum and hold decision-making sessions.

That could enable Abbas to keep the state of emergency in place longer. Some Fatah officials and U.S. diplomats have argued that Abbas could rule by decree for six months to a year ahead of new elections.

more:http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-06-17T100827Z_01_FLE455032_RTRUKOC_0_US-PALESTINIANS.xml&pageNumber=2&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2

and I think in the end it will.
I'm not surprised Israel has taken the actions it has.

they wanted to embarrass arafat at the same time as they wanted to collect and "control" religious Palestinian leaders.

here we go again

No, Israel didn't create Hamas.

how and why Israel created Hamas. and how it grew out of control.

I was reading the JPost last week and must have missed it

Haaretz did a number on the religous schools funding fiasco in Israel on Thursday IIRC.

in the early days as a counterbalance to the secular PLO is well known and has been reported by the most mainstream of sources.

Here is one detailed analysis written for UPI by Richard Sale on
June 18, 2002:

snip:"Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.

Israel "aided Hamas directly -- the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)," said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic Studies.

Israel's support for Hamas "was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative," said a former senior CIA official."


snip"According to ICT papers, Hamas was legally registered in Israel in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement's spiritual leader, as an Islamic Association by the name Al-Mujamma al Islami, which widened its base of supporters and sympathizers by religious propaganda and social work.

According to U.S. administration officials, funds for the movement came from the oil-producing states and directly and indirectly from Israel. The PLO was secular and leftist and promoted Palestinian nationalism. Hamas wanted to set up a transnational state under the rule of Islam, much like Khomeini's Iran.

What took Israeli leaders by surprise was the way the Islamic movements began to surge after the Iranian revolution, after armed resistance to Israel sprang up in southern Lebanon vis-à-vis the Hezbollah, backed by Iran, these sources said."

original link: http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?StoryID=18062002-051845-8272r

available also at this link:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10456.htm

Palestinian divide poses dilemma for Gazans
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, June 17 (Reuters) - "Who is my prime minister?"

The stark question posed by one despairing Gaza policeman faces all Palestinians in the coastal strip after their president swore in a new premier on Sunday and his Hamas rivals still backed the old one.

President Mahmoud Abbas appointed Salam Fayyad, a Western-trained economist, to head a new cabinet after dismissing a Hamas-led government following the Islamist group's violent takeover of Gaza last week.

Hamas, which trounced Abbas's Fatah in elections last year and called his formation of a new government a coup, insists Ismail Haniyeh remains premier.

But the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million residents face more than just a political dilemma since whatever choice they make, they could lose their jobs.

"Hamas wants me to go to work. Fatah says if you do you are fired. I am fired whatever I do, so what should I do?" Gaza policeman Majed told Reuters.

Majed, who gave only his first name, and tens of thousands of employees have received conflicting orders.

more:http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17581864.htm

EU to pay gov't workers in Hamas-controlled Gaza
By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM, June 17 (Reuters) - A European Union aid programme plans to continue making subsistence payments to tens of thousands of Palestinian government workers and pensioners in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, EU officials said on Sunday.

The EU payments may be one of the only financial cushions for Gazans after Islamist Hamas seized control of the territory in fierce fighting with President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

Israel and the United States want to isolate Hamas -- economically, diplomatically and militarily -- in the Gaza Strip, while allowing funds to flow to the Western-backed emergency government set up in the West Bank by Abbas.

Aid groups have warned of dire consequences for Gaza's 1.5 million impoverished residents. Israel controls the land crossings between Gaza and Israel, as well as Gaza's air space and territorial waters. Israel does not allow the crossing of people or goods via the sea or air.

The EU's Temporary International Mechanism pays monthly "allowances" -- approximately $360 each -- directly to the Palestinian Authority's non-security work force, bypassing the government.

"It will continue to cover Gaza. It's not our policy to strangle the Gaza people," a senior EU official said.

more:http://wap.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L17552175.htm