Palestine First

The Palestinian Authority announced Thursday it had arrested 15 of its own security officers in a crackdown on terrorism following weeks of pressure from the United States, Israel and Europe.

As part of the crackdown, Palestinian security forces raided a house belonging to a senior Hamas leader, triggering a gunbattle with Hamas supporters in which one Palestinian was killed and 23 others were wounded, five seriously.

The Palestinian Authority said it arrested the officers on suspicion they participated in attacks on Israelis. Israel has long maintained Palestinian security officers are among those carrying out the attacks.

Arafat has been under intense pressure to crack down on terrorists in territory under Palestinian control since a string of December attacks killed 35 Israelis. Terror bombings prompted the Israeli Cabinet to cut ties with Arafat and sanction retaliatory strikes on the West Bank and Gaza.

Israel has maintained Arafat bears responsibility for the attacks because he failed to take steps against the groups which claim to have carried them out.

The December attacks were the latest upsurge in 15 months of violence in which hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians have died. Five of those wounded in the raid on the Gaza City home of Abdel Rantisi were Palestinian police, hospital sources told CNN.

Rantisi was the leader with the highest profile the Palestinian Authority has tried to arrest in its moves against terrorist suspects.

In the West Bank, Israeli Defense Forces officials said tanks in Nablus and deep inside Palestinian-controlled territory near the West Bank city of Ramallah had moved in a "tactical repositioning" but had not been withdrawn. The army took the positions after suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa two weeks ago.

A leading member of Hamas on the West Bank denied reports the group was considering suspending its suicide bomb attacks.

A senior Palestinian representative, Saeb Erekat, says the next move towards halting the conflict in the region is now up to Israel, after Palestinian militants announced they were suspending attacks. US Secretary of State Colin Powell met in Washington with his special Mideast envoy, Gen. Anthony Zinni, to discuss strategy, but Boucher said there are no immediate plans to send Zinni back to the region.

BBC: Words - Meanings?

Who Wants Peace in the East?
Last week, Israeli leaders announced that they severed all ties with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and began sending the army into the West Bank and Gaza to eradicate militant groups. This followed attempt to negotiate and to pressure the Palestinians to arrest and punish terrorists there. Instead, a series suicide attacks intensified and left many Israelis dead and wounded. Declaring Arafat "no longer relevant," Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said, "Israel has reached the moment of truth and, to a large extent, the point of no return."

At the UN, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that demanded both sides return to the negotiating table. The resolution would also recognize Arafat's government as an "indispensable and legitimate" party in the equation, negating Israel's declaration this week that Arafat is an 'irrelevancy' unable or unwilling to control the violence. Say the Israelis, there is no point in negotiating with him. The UN has decided otherwise, but their effort to impose a solution died on the table.

The US identified it, saying, "Its purpose is to isolate politically one of the parties to the conflict with an attempt to throw the weight of the Council behind the other party. It never mentions the recent acts of terrorism against Israel or those responsible for them." The Palestinian Authority said that was not their fault. . ."We tried our best but failed because of the unreasonable Americans." CNN Interactive: MidEast Struggle for Peace.

Unreasonable terrorists keep blowing themselves up on Israeli streets, presumably against Arafat's wishes. Arafat failed this time because of the unreasonable Americans. It is significant to note this would have passed the UN if the US hadn't stopped it. CNN Update: Hamas

POLL
A new poll conducted among Palestinians underscores the fundamental problem that makes the peace process unworkable. Only one side wants peace. The poll published Tuesday by the independent Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, showed that 57.6 percent of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza feel a "cease-fire is unjustified in the current circumstances." Also, 64 percent backed suicide bomb attacks. The poll likewise showed that 71.9 percent of Palestinians believe arresting activists is unjustifiable.

Arafat
Although the government of Israel has declared Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority "irrelevant" Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said US will continue to negotiate with Arafat.  Europe said it not only would continue to recognize Arafat's government, it would continue to send money to the Palestinian Authority.

JERUSALEM (December 19) - Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's fiery address in Ramallah yesterday, during which he said he is willing to sacrifice 70 martyrs for one dead Israeli, proves that "nothing has changed," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Ra'anan Gissin said.

December 20 - Arafat restores Israeli trust with action:
Palestinian police moved early Thursday on a Gaza City house where a top Hamas figure was hiding, a sign that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was serious about cracking down on militants in his territory. The move came hours after Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed security contacts, the first sign of a thaw after Israel’s decision last week to cut ties with Arafat’s administration.

December 21 - Hamas:
Hamas, which has said it was responsible for the recent bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa that killed 25 Israelis.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas announced that it would end suicide attacks and mortar attacks in Israel, until further notice. The statement, issued in Gaza, came after days of debate inside Hamas about how to respond to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's call for a cease-fire, and follows weeks of international pressure for the Palestinian Authority to quell the violence.  Six people were killed and over 60 wounded in battles with Palestinian police.

The Hamas statement, came after leaders of the group met representatives of Arafat, said: "We announce the stopping of all martyr operations in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 and an end to all mortar shelling. This decision is to protect our Palestinian national union and to guard our way of struggle until we get our independence, although we know the Israeli occupation and its aggression policy will continue." The group's armed wing made clear that the truce will not hold if Israel continues killing Hamas militants or if it attacks Palestinian civilians. BBC: Hamas Spokesman, Mahmoud al Zahar

Another radical group, Islamic Jihad, has said it too is considering suspending suicide attacks. Previously, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front, rejected Arafat's call for resumption of a peace process.

Israel has given a skeptical reaction to the Hamas announcement, while the United States called for a halt to all violence and urged Yasser Arafat to take more action against militants.

Arab Leaders Met Over Israel
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's President Saddam Hussein has called on Arab leaders to meet in the holy city of Mecca to discuss growing Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The Iraqi leader called it an emergency meeting in an emergency circumstance and it was seen as an effort to rally Arab support as the United States considers its next move in the war on terrorism. CNN: Iraq at a glance

The Organization of the Islamic Conference met to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict that is spinning rapidly toward war. Predictably, the conference opened with a denunciation against Israel, setting the tone for the event. "What is left after the (Israeli) occupation forces have carried out mass killings, siege, isolation, starvation and destruction of infrastructure" in the Palestinian territories, Sheik Hamad asked the representatives of the 56-member OIC. The OIC issued a communiqué calling on America and the world to stop Israel "aggression." They gave Arafat a green light. "The conference rejects any mixing of terrorism and the right of the Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian peoples to resist occupation," the communiqué said.

European Union Orders Arafat To Fight Terror
EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana said that Yasser Arafat has an "obligation" to fight Islamic militants, at the start of a new mission to contain Israeli-Palestinian violence. Solana, who also acknowledged that "miracles" were hard to come by in the Middle East crisis, spoke after separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US peace envoy Anthony Zinni. Zinni is withdrawn from the mission as this weekend, a US special envoy was recalled.