Additional
reporting by Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff.
CAIRO,
Aug 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Europe and the United States
urged the Israelis and Palestinians to abandon violent tactics in favor
of peace Sunday, August 4, 2002, while condemning the latest bombing
attack on an Israeli bus.
"I'm
distressed to hear about the latest suicide bombers in Israel,"
U.S. President George W. Bush said after a member of the resistance
Palestinian group Hamas blew himself up on an Israeli bus near the
northern Israeli town of Safad, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"There
are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have
started, and we must not let them," he said from his family's
holiday home in Maine.
For
his part, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who made his third
official visit to the region in May, also condemned the attack.
"The
government forcefully condemns the attacks today in Jerusalem and
northern Israel in which once again numerous innocent people were killed
and injured," he said in a statement.
"These
attacks are targeted attempts to torpedo, with violence and terror, the
introduction of a political solution. This kind of action must not be
allowed to succeed," he said.
Fischer
said the recent progress made by Israel and the Palestinians on finding
a peaceful solution must not be destroyed by terror and he urged the two
to continue their discussions.
However,
a top Hamas political figure, based in Damascus, dismissed the
condemnations as “biased, unbalanced, and a green light to more
Israeli terror against the Palestinians”.
Speaking
on Qatar-based al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, Khaled Masha’l, head of
the Hamas Political Bureau, said that he was surprised to see the
Palestinian Authority joining the chorus of condemnations to a
resistance attack against occupation forces.
“No
civilians were targeted in today’s attacks. All those killed and
injured were occupation troops. So, what are we supposed to do? Sit
still and give in to Israeli terror against our people?
“When
Israel used a U.S.-made F-16 fighter jet against a densely populated
area in Gaza last month, killing more than 17 civilians including 9
children, while sleeping, Mr. Bush called that heavy-handed. But
today’s martyr resistance operations are [according to Bush]
Palestinian terror, isn’t this comical?!
Masha’l
also criticized the PA for condemning the attack, and vowed Hamas will
continue its resistance till the end of Israeli occupation.
A
senior Palestinian minister lashed out at Hamas' tactic of killing
Israeli civilians, following a wave of deadly attacks by the group which
rocked Israel.
"Every
form of resistance is legitimate except hitting innocent
civilians," minister for international cooperation Nabil Shaath
told AFP.
However,
Palestinian officials, who denounced the attack, insisted Israel was to
blame because of its hard line policies in the occupied territories,
where it has re-occupied almost the entire West Bank and sealed off the
Gaza Strip.
Israeli
government spokesman Avi Pazner, for his part, said Israel will fight
"without mercy" against the perpetrators of the latest attack
in the 22-month-old Palestinian Intifada.
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Site of the Palestinian bomb
attack |
Hamas'
military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, said in a statement on
Lebanese television the bomb attack was a "further riposte to the
killing of our leader Salah Shehadeh," blown to pieces in Israel's
internationally criticized air raid on Gaza City.
Meanwhile,
observers in the region, Sunday accused Bush of being the “major
obstacle” before reaching peace in the Middle East, due to lack of any
political agenda and blind bias to Israeli aggressive policies.
“Bush
is just like Sharon. Both have no political agenda, both understand only
military solutions. On Saturday, Israeli forces and tanks swept into
Nablus, declared it a closed military area, bombed houses, shot at
people, abducted men, women and children and is still doing the same. No
one heard a word of objection from Mr. Bush, no comment whatsoever,”
an Egyptian analyst told IslamOnline, asking not to be named.
“He
declared his so-called vision about two-state solution for the Middle
East [Israel-Palestine], however, all his concern is the change of
Palestinian leadership.
“Sharon,
on the other hand, hates the word peace, and all his actions and timings
are designed to kill every and each chance of peace. As for Arafat, he
is really cornered. No Arab support, no real power, so, his only option
is peace. In this light, we may understand his condemnation of
resistance attacks and Israeli terror at the same time,” he added.
“The
question remains, when will that chain of bloodshed find a real
breakthrough? When will the peoples of the region taste the real meaning
of words like “peace, security and stability”? I mean all the
peoples of the region, including the Palestinian and Israeli peoples.”
