Iraq's President Talabani meets Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei in Teheran

Presence of occupiers, the main problem facing Iraq

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei told the visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his accompanying delegation Tuesday evening that the paramount issue facing Iraq at the moment is the presence of the occupiers and lack of security.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to give unstinting support to the serving Iraqi government, its president, its premier, its administration and its parliament which are elected by the Iraqi people," Ayatollah Khamenei reaffirmed.

The IR Leader said the Iraqi people had shown such a presence and balloting performance which had had no precedence in the history of the country.

"The opponents of the status quo are actually playing discontent with the will and interests of the Iraqi people. America and Britain top the opponent circle and some of the regional states are unfortunately acting against the interests of the Iraqi people as well."

Ayatollah Khamenei underscored readiness on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran to extend all cooperation to the government and nation of Iraq to restore security in the country.

"Americans are against the expansion of relations between Iran and Iraq and try to disrupt the ties. We must stand up to their attempt," Ayatollah Khamenei urged Talabani.

The Islamic Revolution Leader urged the Iraqi nation, especially its political and cultural elites to enhance their unity and solidarity, adding that the spy services of America, Zionist regime and some countries on their turf in particular are to blame for the Iraqi insecurity and the ongoing atrocities.

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to America's move to arm several terrorist outfits inside Iraq, saying that the issue will prove harmful to America as they once faced the consequences of a similar move in Afghanistan a few years ago where they moved to arm some Afghan outfits.

Ayatollah Khamenei then warned about America's incendiary policy in the region, especially in Palestine, adding, "The Palestinian situation, namely the infighting between the Palestinian brethren and the imposed pressure on the people-elected government are really heartrending."

"Under such conditions, the regional nations and countries has no solution but to bolster their might and enhance their ranks against the bullying powers," Ayatollah Khamenei underlined.

Ayatollah Khamenei underlined that the regional nations can indeed stand against the superpowers by working together, adding that had the nations put on resolve, they can do any work they wish among others to bring America to heel.

In the meeting, which was also attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iraqi President praised the IRI's nation and government for their unwavering support to the Iraqi nation.

Jalal Talabani said that the Iraqi government views expansion of relations with Iran as a necessity and will follow the course seriously whatever the enemies' desire and will surrender to no foreign pressure in this regard.

Concerning the lack of security in Iraq, the Iraqi President revealed that the Iraqi Police go unarmed. "Currently, out of five Iraqi policemen only one police carries weapon," he said, adding that to counter insecurity, the Iraqi government had adopted decisions to arm the Police and other forces.

Turkey Army Urges Iraq Attack

ANKARA, June 27--The head of Turkey's powerful armed forces reaffirmed on Wednesday his view that a cross-border operation into northern Iraq was needed to crush Kurdish rebels based there.

His comments pile more pressure on Turkey's government to allow a military operation, just weeks before parliamentary polls.

The staunchly secular military dislikes the Islamic-rooted ruling AK Party and political analysts say the generals are trying to portray it as weak on terrorism. AK is widely expected to win re-election in July.

"I have said (in April) that we need a cross-border operation and that this would bring benefits. I repeat this view now," General Yasar Buyukanit told a news conference shown live on Turkish television.

But he stressed the need to act within the law in tackling the security threat.

Turkey's parliament, now in recess ahead of the July 22 elections, would have to reconvene to authorize any serious cross-border military operation.

"We have to conduct our fight on a legal basis. We cannot go beyond the laws," he said in Isparta, southwest Turkey.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week that Ankara would take military action if necessary.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in fighting between security forces and rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The Imperial noose tightens around Gaza

Intense consultations have been taken place between top Imperial representatives and Fatah thugs (the USA are, as pretty much everybody already knows, deeply involved in the anti-Hamas operations). Today, Imperial forces have made several deep incursions into the Gaza strip. According to at least one Palestinian news agency, this is actually an invasion of Gaza. I personally doubt this very much, but this could well be the first preparatory phase of a full-scale invasion.

In the meanwhile top US Neocon John Bolton has stated that sanctions and diplomacy have failed and it may be too late for internal opposition to oust the Islamist regime, leaving only military intervention to stop Iran's drive to nuclear weapons. He added that he was "very worried" about the well-being of Israel. If he were in Israel's predicament, he said, "I'd be pushing the US very hard. I am pushing the US [administration] very hard, from the outside, in Washington."

(Bolton is, of course, quite correct about one thing: no "internal opposition" is going to "oust" anyone from power in Iran)

In the meantime, and on a lighter note, here is a small quiz: in which country in the Middle East does a religious radio station ban a male singer because his voice is "too feminine" and thus forbidden as pious man are forbideen to listen to female voices?

Taliban controlled Afghanistan? "Mullah" ruled Iran? Wahabi Saudi Arabia?

Nope.

Israel.

But in all fairness to the "only democratic state in the Middle-East" something like that could also have happened under the Talibans.

Translation of Fatah torture video

I have recently posted a video which, according to the Western Imperial media, shows Fatah people being tortured by Hamas. In reality, of course, what the video shows is Hamas people being tortured by Fatah thugs. A Palestinian refugee in Austria, Kawther Salam, whose excellent website I highly reccommend, has now provided a translation of the atrocities shown on this video:

The first scene shows a pointed metal stick pushed into a prisoner’s spine, the prisoner is groaning of the pain, asking the jailer for mercy. Then we hear the jailer asking the prisoners “Who is your master ?” and all the prisoners answer together “Samih”. The full name of “Samih” is Samih Al Madhoun, head of Muhammad Dahlan’s death squads in Gaza. He kidnapped these prisoners and he is perhaps the person who is torturing the prisoners in this video. Samih Al Madhoun was killed on last June 14 ago when he was trying to escape from Gaza via the sea: he was chased down after he murdered somebody at the border on his way out.

The next scene shows how somebody with military boots steps on the chest and stomach of a prisoner and beats him with long lash, all the while and asking the prisoner “Who is your master ?” and ordering him to answers “Samih”. All the prisoners shout and moan of pain while repeating chants of victory for Samih, as demanded by the torturers. In these chants, the prisoners insult themselves and express their “admiration” and fear of Samih.

One of the prisoners wears a black shirt with the logo of the “Executive Forces”, what means that this prisoner was a Hamas member. This prisoner is tortured very seriously, the jailer all the time asks him: “Who is the dog, what’s written on your shirt? Who is the dog who gave you this shirt?” - the prisoner is forced to answer that the dog is Said Siyam (the former minister for interior and security from Hamas). After that, the jailer repeats the same question again and again with his jackboot on the prisoner chest, while the prisoner groans of pain and repeats the same answer to his jailer, again and again. The jailer beats the prisoner on his neck with the long lash. The prisoner cries and screams of pain while answering “Said Siyam is the dog”.

All the other prisoners in the same room scream together and repeat that “Samih” is the hero, “Samih, Samih … !”. In the scene, the jailer orders all to sing, all the while beating them. A prisoner sings: “Oh mother, the beautiful youth has departed from me and disappeared …” (Arabic: "Yamma Rahal Anni Zeen Al-Shabab we gab").

Another prisoner screams while the jailer beats him. I hear him groaning and asking the jailer for the mercy of God and saying. “I didn’t say that, I swear in the name of my God that I didn’t say that”. All the while, the loud blows of the lash on the body of the prisoners can be heard.

In another scene the jailer in military uniform is seen stepping on the prisoner’s chest and asking him “Who is your Master ?”. The answer is “Samih”. Another question: “Who is the dog ?”. The answer is “Walid”, after which the jailer beats the prisoner and orders him to say that the full name of the “dog” is Walid Al-Shaqrah. The prisoner repeats, “Walid Al-Shaqrah !”. Another question by the jailer: “Who is the person you worked with and whose sister is a whore and fucks around ?” The prisoner answers: “Walid Al-Shaqrah !” (Walid Al-Shaqrah is one of the officers of the “Executive Forces” of Hamas).

The groans of pain of the prisoners become louder and louder while the jailers beat them and order them to sing for Fatah: “Fatah is the mother of the people (nation), keep your Fatah flag raised, the victory is for Fatah”. The prisoners repeat this loudly several times, “Fatah is the mother of the people (nation), keep your Fatah flag raised, the victory is for Fatah” (Arabic: “Fatah ya um al-jamaher, khalli raitek marfoa, mansorah ya fatah mansorah !").

( After that the jailers beat all the prisoners and order them to sing for Abu FadhiMuhammad Dahlan, who has a son called Fadhi): “Abu Fadhi is our Master, Abu Fadi is our darling, with our spirits and our blood, we will sacrifice for Dahlan !” (Arabic: “Abu Fadhi Sayyedna, Abu Fadi Habibna, bel-roh bel-dam nefdik ya Dahlan !”). This chant is repeated many times by the prisoners. After this, the jailer orders them to chant: “Abu Fadhi is the master of the creation, Abu Fadhi is the Master of the universe. Our God has placed Abu Fadhi over the whole Universe !” (Arabic: “Abu Fadhi sayed al-kon, Abu Fadhi hattoh rabna (Allah) fok al-kon !”). These chants are repeated several times under the blows from the jailers.

After that, the jailer orders the prisoners to sing another song for Muhammad Dahlan: “Abu Fadhi is our darling, Abu Fadhi is our darling. Go and destroy Tel Aviv, go and destroy Tel Aviv !”. (Arabic: “Abu Fadhi ya habib, Abu Fadhi ya habib, roh damer Tel Abib, roh damer Tel Abib !”). This is also repeated several times under the blows from the jailers, who then order them to sing: “Walid Al-Shakrah is coward, and a mercenary for Iran !” (Arabic “Walid Al-Shakrah ya jaban, ya amel la Iran !”). This song is also repeated by the prisoners. Then the jailer orders them to repeatedly sing “Hamas Shia, Hamas Shia … Walid coward … ” (Hamas is Sunni, as are most Palestinians). During all of this the prisoners are cuffed kneeling on the floor, their eyes are covered, and they are continuously being beaten by the jailers.

Everyone we fight in Iraq is now "al-Qaida"

Everyone we fight in Iraq is now "al-Qaida"

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

June 23, 2007 (updated below) Josh Marshall publishes an e-mail from a reader who identifies what is one of the most astonishing instances of mindless, pro-government "reporting" yet: It's a curious thing that, over the past 10 - 12 days, the news from Iraq refers to the combatants there as "al-Qaida" fighters. When did that happen? Until a few days ago, the combatants in Iraq were "insurgents" or they were referred to as "Sunni" or "Shia'a" fighters in the Iraq Civil War. Suddenly, without evidence, without proof, without any semblance of fact, the US military command is referring to these combatants as "al-Qaida". Welcome to the latest in Iraq propaganda. That the Bush administration, and specifically its military commanders, decided to begin using the term "Al Qaeda" to designate "anyone and everyeone we fight against or kill in Iraq" is obvious. All of a sudden, every time one of the top military commanders describes our latest operations or quantifies how many we killed, the enemy is referred to, almost exclusively now, as "Al Qaeda." But what is even more notable is that the establishment press has followed right along, just as enthusiastically. I don't think the New York Times has published a story about Iraq in the last two weeks without stating that we are killing "Al Qaeda fighters," capturing "Al Qaeda leaders," and every new operation is against "Al Qaeda." The Times -- typically in the form of the gullible and always-government-trusting "reporting" of Michael Gordon, though not only -- makes this claim over and over, as prominently as possible, often without the slightest questioning, qualification, or doubt. If your only news about Iraq came from The New York Times, you would think that the war in Iraq is now indistinguishable from the initial stage of the war in Afghanistan -- that we are there fighting against the people who hijacked those planes and flew them into our buildings: "Al Qaeda." What is so amazing about this new rhetorical development -- not only from our military, but also from our "journalists" -- is that, for years, it was too shameless and false even for the Bush administration to use. Even at the height of their propaganda offensives about the war, the furthest Bush officials were willing to go was to use the generic term "terrorists" for everyone we are fighting in Iraq, as in: "we cannot surrender to the terrorists by withdrawing" and "we must stay on the offensive against terrorists." But after his 2004 re-election was secure, even the President acknowledged that "Al Qaeda" was the smallest component of the "enemies" we are fighting in Iraq: A clear strategy begins with a clear understanding of the enemy we face. The enemy in Iraq is a combination of rejectionists, Saddamists and terrorists. The rejectionists are by far the largest group. These are ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs, who miss the privileged status they had under the regime of Saddam Hussein -- and they reject an Iraq in which they are no longer the dominant group. . . . The second group that makes up the enemy in Iraq is smaller, but more determined. It contains former regime loyalists who held positions of power under Saddam Hussein -- people who still harbor dreams of returning to power. These hard-core Saddamists are trying to foment anti-democratic sentiment amongst the larger Sunni community. . . . The third group is the smallest, but the most lethal: the terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda. And note that even for the "smallest" group among those we are fighting in Iraq, the president described them not as "Al Qaeda," but as those "affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda." Claiming that our enemy in Iraq was comprised primarily or largely of "Al Qaeda" was too patently false even for the President to invoke in defense of his war. But now, support for the war is at an all-time low and war supporters are truly desperate to find a way to stay in Iraq. So the administration has thrown any remnants of rhetorical caution to the wind, overtly calling everyone we are fighting "Al Qaeda." This strategy was first unveiled by Joe Lieberman when he went on Meet the Press in January and claimed that the U.S. was "attacked on 9/11 by the same enemy that we're fighting in Iraq today". Though Lieberman was widely mocked at the time for his incomparable willingness to spew even the most patent falsehoods to justify the occupation, our intrepid political press corps now dutifully follows right along. Here is the first paragraph from today's New York Times article on our latest offensive, based exclusively on the claims of our military commanders: The operational commander of troops battling to drive fighters with Al Qaeda from Baquba said Friday that 80 percent of the top Qaeda leaders in the city fled before the American-led offensive began earlier this week. He compared their flight with the escape of Qaeda leaders from Falluja ahead of an American offensive that recaptured that city in 2004. The article then uses the term "Qaeda" an additional 19 times to describe the enemy we are fighting -- "Qaeda leaders," "Qaeda strongholds," "Qaeda fighters," "Qaeda groups," the "Qaeda threat," etc. What is our objective in Iraq? To "move into neighborhoods cleared of Qaeda fighters and hold them." In virtually every article from the Times now, anyone we fight is automatically designated "Al Qaeda": * June 21 (by Michael Gordon and Alissa Rubin): American troops discovered a medical aid station for insurgents -- another sign that the Qaeda fighters had prepared for an intense fight . . . In a statement, the American military said it had killed 41 Qaeda operatives. * June 20 (by Michael Gordon): The problem of collaring the Qaeda fighters is challenging in several respects. . . The presence of so many civilians on an urban battlefield affords the operatives from Al Qaeda another possible means to elude their American pursuers. . . . Since the battle for western Baquba began, Qaeda insurgents have carried out a delaying action, employing snipers and engaging American troops in several firefights. * June 19 (by Michael Gordon and Damien Cave): The Qaeda and insurgent strongholds in Baquba are strongly defended, according to American intelligence reports [though even that article described the enemy in Baquba as "a mix of former members of Saddam Hussein's army and paramilitary forces, embittered Sunni Arab men, criminal gangs and Qaeda Islamists"] *June 17 (by Thom Shanker and Michael Gordon): With the influx of tens of thousands of additional combat troops into Iraq now complete, American forces have begun a wide offensive against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia on the outskirts of Baghdad, the top American commander in Iraq said Saturday. The commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in a news conference in Baghdad along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said the operation was intended to take the fight to Al Qaeda's hide-outs in order to cut down the group's devastating campaign of car bombings. . . . The additional American forces, General Petraeus said Saturday, would allow the United States to conduct operations in "a number of areas around Baghdad, in particular to go into areas that were sanctuaries in the past of Al Qaeda." From The Washington Post today: The battle came Friday to the town of Khalis, about 10 miles northwest of Baqubah. U.S. forces saw a group of al-Qaeda in Iraq gunmen attempting to avoid Iraqi police patrols and infiltrate Khalis from the southwest, according to a U.S. military statement. . . . . With those deaths, at least 68 suspected al-Qaeda operatives have been killed in the offensive, according to the U.S. military's tally. And here is the headline from CNN's article yesterday: Note that, in the sub-headline, CNN totals the number of "militants" killed as 68, which, in the headline, magically becomes "68 al Qaeda militants killed." That is because, in our media, everyone we kill in Iraq, and everyone who fights against our occupation, are all now "al Qaeda." Each of these articles typically (though not always) initially refers to "Al Qaeda in Iraq" or "Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia," as though they are nothing more than the Iraqi branch office of the group that launched the 9/11 attacks. The articles then proceed to refer to the group only as "Qaeda," and repeatedly quote U.S. military officials quantifying the amount of "Qaeda fighters" we killed. Hence, what we are doing in Iraq is going after and killing members of the group which flew the planes into our buildings. Who could possibly be against that? Are there some foreign fighters in Iraq who have taken up arms against the U.S. occupation who are fairly called "Al Qaeda"? Probably. But by all accounts -- including the President's -- they are a tiny part of the groups with guns who are waging war in Iraq. The vast, vast majority of them are Iraqis motivated by a desire to acquire more political power in their own country at the expense of other Iraqi factions and/or to fight against a foreign occupation of their country. To refer to them as "Al Qaeda" so casually and with so little basis (other than the fact that U.S. military officials now do so) is misleading and propagandistic in the extreme. Making matters much worse, this tactic was exposed long, long ago. From the Christian Science Monitor in September, 2005: The US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq "feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the insurgency flames, they make up only about 4 to 10 percent of the estimated 30,000 insurgents. And in January of this year, the Cato Institute published a detailed analysis -- entitled "The Myth of an al Qaeda Takeover of Iraq" -- by Ted Galen Carpenter, its vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, documenting that claims of "Al Qaeda in Iraq" is "a canard that the perpetrators of the current catastrophe use to frighten people into supporting a fatally flawed, and seemingly endless, nation-building debacle." What is always most striking about this is how uncritically our press passes on government claims. War reporting in Iraq is obviously extremely difficult and dangerous, and it takes a great deal of courage to be in Iraq in order to file these stories. There is no denying that. But precisely because of those dangers, these reporters rely almost exclusively on the narratives offered by U.S. military officials selected by the Bush administration to convey events to the press. Almost every one of the articles referenced above is shaped from start to finish by accounts about what happened from American military commanders (with, in isolated instances, accounts from Iraqis in the area). That is inevitable, though such accounts ought to be treated with much greater skepticism. But what is not inevitable is to adopt the patently misleading nomenclature and political rhetoric of the administration, so plainly designed to generate support for the "surge" (support for which Gordon himself admitted he has embraced) by creating the false appearance that the violence in Iraq is due to attacks by the terrorist group responsible for 9/11. What makes this practice all the more disturbing is how quickly and obediently the media has adopted the change in terms consciously issued by the Bush administration and their military officials responsible for presenting the Bush view of the war to the press. UPDATE: Posts from other bloggers who previously noticed this same trend demonstrate how calculated it is and pinpoint its obvious genesis. At Kos, BarbInMD noted back in May that Bush's rhetoric on Iraq had palpably shifted, as he began declaring that "Al-Qaida is public enemy No. 1 in Iraq." The same day, she noted that Bush "mentioned Al-Qaida no less than 27 times" in his Iraq speech. As always, a theme travels unmolested from Bush's mouth into the unexamined premises of our newspapers' front pages. Separately, Ghillie notes in comments that the very politically cognizant Gen. Petraeus has been quite noticeably emphasizing "the battle against Al Qaeda" in interviews for months. And yesterday, ProfMarcus analyzed the top Reuters article concerning American action in Iraq -- headline: "Al Qaeda fight to death in Iraq bastion: U.S" -- and noted that "al qaeda is mentioned 13 times in a 614 word story" and that "reading the article, you would think that al qaeda is not only everywhere in iraq but is also behind all the insurgent activity that's going on." Interestingly, in addition to the one quoted above, there is another long article in the Post today, this one by the reliable Thomas Ricks, which extensively analyzes the objectives and shortcomings in our current military strategy. Ricks himself strategy never once mentions Al Qaeda. Finally, the lead story of the NYT today -- in its first two paragraphs -- quotes Gen. Odierno as claiming that the 2004 battle of Falluja was aimed at capturing "top Qaeda leaders in the city." But Michael Gordon himself, back in 2004, published a lengthy and detailed article about the Falluja situation and never once mentioned or even alluded to "Al Qaeda," writing only about the Iraqi Sunni insurgents in that city who were hostile to our occupation (h/t John Manning). The propagandistic transformation of "insurgents" into "Al Qaeda," then, applies not only to our current predicament but also to past battles as well, as a tool of rank revisionism (hence, it is now officially "The Glorious 2004 Battle against Al-Qaeda in Falluja"). source: http://uruknet.info/?p=m33953

Salafi killers murder Shia and Sunni leaders

Iran Daily reports that a suicide bomber apparently targeting a meeting of US-allied Sunni sheikhs penetrated layers of security and blew himself up in a hotel lobby on Monday, killing four tribal leaders and at least eight others, police reported. The sheikhs were associated with the Anbar Salvation Council, which had taken up arms to help drive extremists of Al-Qaeda in Iraq from the western province of Anbar, AP reported. The attack was among five suicide and other bombings Monday that killed at least 45 people across Iraq.

The BBC reports that a Shia cleric known for his stance against Wahhabism, a strict version of Sunni Islam, has been killed in the south-western Iranian city of Ahwaz. Reports said Hojjat ol-Eslam Hesham Seymari was shot dead in his home at night by two men claiming to know him. Wahhabism is practised throughout the Arabian Peninsula, most notably by the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. Ahwaz, home to a large community of ethnic minority Arabs, has seen much anti-government tension since 2005. Iran has publicly hanged 10 men convicted of taking part in a series of deadly bombings in the city last year, which were blamed on Arab separatists allegedly backed by the UK. The separatists have accused Iran's Persian majority of discrimination. Reporting Hojjat ol-Eslam Seymari's death on Tuesday, the hardline Iranian newspaper Keyhan described the cleric as a "skilful speaker who brought awareness to the youth about deviating movements, especially Wahhabism". Hojjat ol-Eslam Seymari supervised 20 mosques and "stood against the Wahhabis' investment and strong onslaught in the city of Ahvaz", the paper added. The representative of Iran's Supreme Leader in Khuzestan Province said the cleric had been martyred "at the hands of the mercenaries of Satan". "Our enemies should know that his martyrdom will guide the nation, keep alive the values and principles of the exalted Muslim faith," Mohammad Ali Jazayeri said in a statement.

It is significant that the Salafi Resistance is willing to simultaneously fight on two fronts against both the Sunnis opposed to Al-Qaeda and against the Shia. Even more significant is the fact that the Iranians accuse the Salafis of being backed by the UK while, at the same time, the Sunnis killed in Anbar are described as "allied to the US".

Which is Oceania fighting again? Eastasia or Eurasia?!

Olmert misses a huge opportunity (again)

Here is what Olmert announced at the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting:

"As a gesture of goodwill towards the Palestinians, I will bring before the Israeli cabinet a proposal to free 250 Fatah prisoners who do not have blood on their hands."

Again, besides the recurring and bizzare Israeli obsession about "blood" (more on that in a previous post), what is really important here is that Olmert will not release Barghouti.

Considering that Israel holds about 10'000 Palestinian hostages freeing 250 of them is really utterly meaningless (unless you are one of them, of course). Moreover, refusing to free Barghouti even though this is what Abbas officially demanded is truly a slap in Abbas' face by his Imperial masters.

I would argue that freeing these 250 is actually *worse* than not freeing any of them. The message this sends is that "we don't care in the least about what you need, all we care about is what we want". I am sure that the message will be received loud and clear by all Palestinians.

My guess is that Abbas' political future, which was never stellar to begin with, is now even in worse shape that 24 hours ago and that he will gradually have to manifest signs of frustrations with Israel.

The real questions is: will he, unlike Olmert, have the lucidity to accept Hamas' numerous offers of negotiations?

US Congress support for Israeli terrorism

An Active Complicity in Israel’s Terror
By Ghali Hassan

On June 5, 2007, the pro-Zionist U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 152, endorsing Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and Israel’s illegal and violent “reunification of Jerusalem”. The passing of the Resolution was a deliberate refutation of the UN Security Council and in contempt of world peace. While the Resolution is designed to commemorate Israel’s unprovoked and pre-emptive naked aggression against the Arab nation, it is also an attack on Arabs and Muslims in general, and an endorsement of Israel’s Zionist policy of expansion and extermination of the Palestinian people.

In order to divert public attention from the crimes of 1967, the U.S. and Israel are plotting and fanning the flames of violence between Palestinian factions. The current violence in Palestine is a U.S.-Israel engineered violence aimed at covering-up Israel’s sixty years of Israeli violence, the systematic dispossession of 800,000 Palestinians, and the destruction of Palestine.

Meanwhile, a deliberate disinformation and distortion of facts campaign by Western mainstream media is underway to mislead the public to believe that HAMAS – the democratically-elected government – has taken over in Gaza and created what is in effect a miniature “Islamist” state. What is deliberately omitted from the mainstream media coverage are Israel’s forty years of a fascist policy of dispossession and the slow genocide of the Palestinian people. The one-way street anti-Palestinians/Arabs propaganda is designed to demonise the Palestinian people and legitimise U.S.-Europe backing for Israel’s terror and brutal policies.

The reality is that HAMAS has removed (by force) a U.S.-Israel-sponsored coup d’etat against a legitimate Palestinian government at the expense of Palestinian lives. For several months, Israel and the U.S. have been training, arming and financing Palestinian collaborators and militias ¯ led by the thug Mohammad Dahlan ¯ to destabilise the HAMAS-led Palestinian government in contempt of Palestinian lives. It is no secret that the American CIA and Israel have chosen the time in deliberate efforts to destroy the recently formed Palestinian national unity government, fuelling violence and inciting insecurity and civil war. The plan failed miserably.

It is important to note that when Western leaders say they are encouraging the formation of a national unity government in Palestine, they mean exactly the opposite: the disintegration of Palestine. In a recent interview (19 June 2007) with the French daily, Le Figaro, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Isma'il Haniyah said: “Following the signing of the Mecca inter-Palestinian agreements, which permitted the formation of a national unity government, a propaganda war was launched against the HAMAS-led government”. Moreover, in addition to the strangulation and starvation of the Palestinians, the U.S. and its European allies have provided Israel with unconditional military, financial and diplomatic support.

In his recent report, former UN envoy to the Middle East, Alvaro De Soto admitted that the aim of the “Quartet” ¯ U.S., EU, UN and Russia ¯ policy of sanctions and starvation had been to “take all pressure off Israel. With all focus on the failings of HAMAS, the [illegal] Israeli settlement enterprise and barrier [Apartheid Wall] construction [on stolen Palestinian land] has continued unabated”, and in gross violations of International humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions. De Soto added that Israel’s terror “perversely designed to encourage the continued action by Palestinian [resistance]”. The Quartet imposed collective punishments to punish Palestinians for practicing their democratic right, electing a HAMAS-led government and for resisting Israel’s terror. These collective punishments, including blockade and economic sanctions, are devastating and starving the Palestinian population. It is revealed recently that more than “half the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza and the West Bank suffer malnutrition”.

In March 2003, the World Bank’s Director for the West Bank and Gaza, Nigel Roberts, told Peter Cave of the ABC: “Over half of the Palestinian workforce is unemployed, nearly two-thirds of the population is now poor. In towns like Raffa and Khan Yunis, four in five men are unemployed, each wage earner is supporting up to 18 other people, and evidence of severe malnutrition has come to light”. Back in 2000, Roberts lauded the Palestinians for enduring these collective punishments and suggested that any Western society would have collapsed under such inhumane conditions. The objective is that the Palestinians must submit to Israel’s occupation and terror, and recognise Israel as a purely “Jewish state”; an impossible demand that should be rejected by any civilised society.

The current Israel-U.S. policy is to punish Palestinians in Gaza for they dared to democratically elected HAMAS movement, while rewarding Palestinians in the Wes Bank who are ruled by unelected Western-oriented clique of corrupt bourgeoisie ¯ led by the moron Mahmoud Abbas ¯ serving Israel-U.S. interests and pliant to Israel-U.S. dictates. Israel and the U.S. are banking on the suffering and sorrow of brutalised civilians, hopping that the more the Palestinians suffer the less likely to resist and the more likely reject the HAMAS-led government. The elected HAMAS leaders are illegally imprisoned and possibly tortured in Israeli prisons.

It must be acknowledge that the HAMAS leadership has accepted all conditions imposed on them by Israel and the U.S., including a long truce with Israel and “recognition” of Israel within the 1967 borders. Countless peace proposals have been rejected and each time Israel and the U.S. imposed new conditions and creating new pretexts in order to continue the violence and bloodshed.

Furthermore, in November 2006, Khalid Meshaal, the political leader of HAMAS Movement told the German daily Junge Welt: “I think the Western world has understood by now that HAMAS will never recognise Israel Occupation. How can I recognise the one who occupies my land? It is illogical that it is demanded of HAMAS to recognise Israel. I am the victim. I am the man who is not free. I am the man living in the Diaspora away from my land. Israel has got a kind of a nation that was imposed as a fait accompli by the United Nations. We don’t have a nation. More than half of the Palestinian people are living in the Diaspora, mostly in [refugee] camps and they can’t go home. Because of Israel they can’t go home and we should recognise Israel? Who is actually in the wrong, Israel or us?”

While a media campaign of disinformation is in place to enforce the myth that Israel has withdrawn its Army from Gaza; Israel has only removed few thousands illegal settlers from Gaza to the West Bank. Gaza remains a besieged Concentration Camp. It is largest Concentration Camp on the planet. The 1.5 million inhabitants are mostly refugees from other parts of Palestine ethnically cleansed by Israeli terror gangs in 1948 Nakba.

In addition to the imposed blockade, the Israeli Army continues its daily and nightly invasions across the Camp, bombing civilian neighbourhoods, destroying homes and killing Palestinians indiscriminately. On Wednesday (June 20, 2007) Israel bombed Gaza with missiles and sent tanks, killing at least four innocent civilians.

According to the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly, Palestinian medical sources reported that in October 2006, at least 23 Palestinians, mostly innocent civilians, were killed in the Gaza within 48 hours (an average of one Palestinian every two hours). Most of the killings occurred as a result of air strikes by F-16 fighter jets that bomb unprotected and undefended targets, particularly residential homes where innocent civilians are asleep. No Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in this period.

The peer-reviewed Journal of Palestinian Studies counted Israel’s atrocities from 26 November 2006 up until 3 April 2007:

Israeli forces in the West Bank killed 51 Palestinians, and three more Palestinians died from lack of care while stopped at checkpoints. Israeli forces wounded 154 Palestinians, and Israeli settlers wounded another eight. During their incursions, which included 314 arrest raids and 312 house searches, Israeli forces demolished 92 homes (other buildings were also partly or completely destroyed).

Israeli forces in Gaza killed at least 13 Palestinians, wounded 56, and arrested 22 in land and sea attacks.

Palestinian attacks, including rocket fire, killed 3 Israelis and injured 13.

Since June 2006, Israel’s “heroic” Army has murdered more than 600 Palestinian, mostly women and children. No more than six Israelis died in the same period of time. A report on June 04, 2007 by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) revealed that 3,235 Palestinian have been killed since the start of Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. The Report noted that: “141 women, 25 medics, 10 journalists, 6 of whom were foreigners, and 764 children, have been killed. It is important to mention that the murder of Palestinian children has become the Israeli soldiers’ trademark of cowardice.

The Report added that; “11,030 Palestinians were injured in the Gaza Strip and 13,100 in the West Bank. 11,000 Palestinians [including women and children] have been taken prisoners”. They are tortured on a daily basis by Israel’s Internal Security Service or Shabak. The Report revealed that: “The lands razed by the Israeli forces amount to 36,200 dunams (36,200,000m²) in the Gaza Strip and 58% of Palestinian land in the West Bank has been seized for the construction of the separation wall. 2,914 houses were completely and 2,838 partially demolished in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians are living in the worst conditions ever with regards to internal chaos, in which 160 Palestinians were killed and 835 injured in the first four months of 2007”. In addition, Israel’s Gestapo death squads are murdering Palestinian activists and politicians in daylight. However, Western leaders are happy to shift the blame on the Palestinians in order to absolve Europe of the atrocity that was committed in Europe by Europeans, and inflaming the anti-Muslims propaganda campaign.

While Israel’s illegal Apartheid Wall walls off the Palestinians, they are bombed and killed at will. “Israel has reached an unprecedented degree of arrogance when its army announced that they killed only three Palestinian civilians in the raid on Gaza on Sunday. This implies that three innocent civilians are not important, but this is by itself a recognition by the Israeli army that they have committed the crime of killing the Palestinians", said Palestinian information minister, Dr Mustafa Barghouthi (May 20, 2007) after the Israeli Army went on a rampage killing Palestinians while Israeli Western backers praising its crimes.

Many Western journalists, pundits and NGOs have unashamedly compared Palestinians living condition in Gaza and the West Bank to a “human laboratory” and Palestinians to “guinea pigs”. Isn’t time to ‘call a spade a spade’ and compare the West bank and Gaza to Auschwitz and Treblinka? Isn’t it time to stop this Judeofascism? Israel’s criminal and racist policies endured by the Palestinian people since 1948 are worse than those endured by people under Nazism. It is the longest and most criminal occupation in the history of Western imperialism.

Pro-Israel Zionists and Jews (with a few exceptions) around the world have consistently supported Israel’s brutal and criminal policies against the Palestinians. Influential Jewish leaders are consistently using and exploiting the Holocaust (and “anti-Semitism”) to block any criticism of Israel and allow it to get away with state terrorism and war crimes. Zionists around the world are enforcing the Zionist myth that Israel can do no wrong and that Palestinians can do no right.

The Holocaust and “anti-Semitism” provided Israel with excuse to kill and immunity from condemnation. According to the late Israeli academic Tanya Reinhart, the Holocaust and “anti-Semitism” have been transformed into an instrument for intimidating and blackmailing any criticism of Israel’ terror.

Further, for telling the world part of the truth about Israel’s terror against the Palestinian people, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter is viciously attacked and accused of “anti-Semitism” by pro-Israel Zionists and U.S. Jews. Carter’s critiques allege that Jews suffering under European fascism justify Israel’s Apartheid system and Israel’s terror against the Palestinians.

As John Dugard, the UN’s Special Rapporteur, a South African law professor in the Netherlands, rightly noted that, while “Israel’s laws and practices certainly resembles aspects of Apartheid … Many aspects of Israel's occupation surpass those of the Apartheid regime. Israel's large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, levelling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in Apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites”. He added: “It is difficult to resist the conclusion that many of Israel’s laws and practices violate the 1966 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination”. Indeed, according to the Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions as well as the Statute of the International Criminal Court considered the “practices of apartheid” constitute war crimes.

In Hollow Land, Israel's Architecture of Occupation (2007), the Israeli author Eyal Weitzman quoted the Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, that the Israeli army considers the war on the Palestinians as “irresolvable and permanent”. The Army has “geared itself to operate within an environment saturated with conflict and within a future of permanent violence”. It acts “just under the threshold of international sanctions ... keeping the conflict on a flame low enough for Israeli society to be able to live and prosper within it”. Indeed, Zionism was found on violence, and violence is Israel’s way of life. Israel thrives on violence and war. After all, Israel is the most militarised, racist and violent society today.

Since the 1967 Israel’s unprovoked aggression against Arab nation, Israel continues a mentality of aggression and a state of terror aimed at extermination of the Palestinian people. Since 1967, Arab leaders have failed to build a military deterrence capable of defeating Israel’s aggression. Unless the Arab nation builds a military capability, Israel will continue with its expansionist Zionist ideology in the Middle East.

Congratulating Israel for its unprovoked naked aggression, ongoing war crimes and violations of International Law is admitting an active complicity in Israel’s war crimes and Israel’s Zionist policies against the Palestinians. The complicity of the U.S. and in Israel’s crimes exposed the myth of U.S. “neutrality” as “honest broker”. The U.S. and its European allies should condemn Israel and work to advance world peace and security.

Ghali Hassan is an independent writer living in Australia.

Abbas to demand release of Barghouti

by Khaled Abu Toameh, for THE JERUSALEM POST

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to demand the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails during Monday's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, PA officials said.

The officials also said Abbas would call for supplying the Fatah-controlled security forces with more weapons to thwart attempts by Hamas to try to take over the West Bank.

"We want thousands of rifles, hundreds of armored vehicles and a lot of ammunition," one PA official told The Jerusalem Post. "We also want Jordan and Egypt to help train our forces in the West Bank.

Another official said that Abbas and his aides would ask Israel to release senior Fatah operative Marwan Barghouti and hundreds of Fatah prisoners to enhance Fatah's status. "We will also ask Israel to remove most of the checkpoints in the West Bank and to increase the number of Palestinians who are permitted to work in Israel," he said. "These measures are needed to boost Fatah's standing in the West Bank and to prevent Hamas from establishing bases of support there."

He said Abbas would also ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to instruct the IDF to stop pursuing Fatah gunmen and to refrain from raiding Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank.

The official said Abbas would also seek backing for the deployment of an international force in the Gaza Strip.

Abbas, who met on Sunday in Amman with Jordan's King Abdullah, reiterated his refusal to refusal to talk to Hamas, which he accused of staging a "coup" in the Gaza Strip. He called for a "political horizon in the forthcoming stage that falls in conformity with the relevant UN resolutions and US President George W. Bush's vision" for creating an independent Palestinian state.

Asked whether Abbas expected Olmert to extend anything to him during the summit, Abbas said, "We have received promises from US and Israeli parties, but the important thing is to find these promises honored on the ground."

The Jordanian monarch released a royal court statement which read, "The king underscored the importance of seizing this opportunity for producing a clearly defined vision along with a timetable for relaunching the negotiation process."

Abdullah also urged Arab countries and the world community to extend support to "efforts under way for resuming the peace process," which he said should lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel.

In addition, Abdullah said that today's summit "should discuss possible means for supporting the Palestinian people and lifting the siege" imposed on the Palestinians after Hamas came to power in 2006.

In his first pubic speech since Hamas took control over the Gaza Strip, deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas warned the Arab states and the Palestinians against pinning high hopes on Monday's summit in Sharm e-Sheikh.

"Summits with the Americans and Israelis won't restore the rights of the Palestinians," Haniyeh said. "These rights will be restored only through resistance and perseverance."

Haniyeh's remarks came as a top PA security official in Ramallah accused Iran of backing Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh accused Israel of meddling in Palestinian internal affairs by tightening its siege on the Gaza Strip and pouring millions of dollars and weapons on Fatah in the West Bank.

He said Hamas's decision to take over the Gaza Strip came after the movement had come under pressure and attack in the past 18 months.

Haniyeh said, "We have no problem with Fatah, but with a certain group inside Fatah that was working with foreign parties against Hamas," he said. He also called on Abbas to distribute the tax revenues that Israel is about to transfer to the government of Salaam Fayad to all Palestinians.

Haniyeh denied allegations that Hamas had planned to assassinate Abbas. He said that the booby-trapped underground tunnels that were discovered in the Gaza Strip were only supposed to be used against Israel.

Fatah officials here scoffed at Haniyeh's remarks, saying he was now trying to provide a political cover for the military coup that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip.

"The man is a liar," said Fahmi Za'rour, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank. "The day will come when he will face a criminal tribunal for his crimes."

Tawfik Tirawi, head of the PA General Intelligence Service, accused Iran of supporting Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip. He told reporters that Hamas members had traveled to Iran and other Islamic countries where they underwent military training.

He denied charges by Hamas that the PA security forces had been collaborating with Israel. He said Hamas members in the West Bank have been stockpiling weapons ahead of a possible confrontation with Fatah.

Israeli Apartheid in action

ILA destroys Bedouin homes to make way for Jewish town
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent

The Israel Land Administration (ILA), with the assistance of an unusually large police force and IDF soldiers, demolished dozens of tin shack homes Monday in unrecognized Bedouin villages Um Al-Hiran and A-Tir in the northern Negev.

The ILA is destroying the village and evacuating the inhabitants so that a Jewish Community named "Hiran" can be established in the area. Fourteen shacks, which housed some 100 people, have been destroyed by bulldozers so far.

Bedouin women tried to get their children out of the house but police wanted to speed up the process so they grabbed the play pens with the children inside and did not let the mothers come near.

"Tonight we will sleep on the ground", Fajua Ab Abu Al-Cian said.

Young men, roughly 18-years of age, wearing orange shirts are taking part in the evacuation, removed the Bedouin's property from their homes and put it in piles on the ground outside.

Haaretz has discovered that these teenagers are outsourced workers who are employed by a contractor hired by the ILA. According to the evacuators, they are being paid in cash without any labor rights.

According to Adallah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the residents of the village have been living there for 51 years. They were transferred to the site in 1956 while under martial law. The land they originally owned was transferred to Kibbutz Shoval, while the Bedouin were leased 3000 dunam of land for agriculture and grazing.

In August 2001 the ILA submitted a report on the establishment of new communities, which included Hiran. The Bedouin residents living in the area appeared under the title of "special problems" that may affect the establishment of the community.

The government approved the establishment of Hiran in 2002, and in 2004 the state submitted a court order claiming that residents of Al Hiran should be evacuated as they are using state lands without permission.

Some Israelis are getting fed-up with Bush and his Neocon policies

With friends like these...
By Akiva Eldar for Ha'aretz

Heavy clouds will float over today's summit in sunny Sharm el-Sheikh. The Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, Jordan and Egypt will be hovering above the four leaders participating in the talks, as will the zealots of worldwide jihad. Iran and Hezbollah will be with them on the other side, while the extreme right-wing national religious camp awaits in the corner. It is hard to say which of the leaders' chairs is shakiest and to guess where the next evil will come from - from Syria, which once again has remained on the outside; from Al-Qaida, which is rearing its head in Iraq and casting its eye on the horizon; or from the Egyptian opposition, which smells weakness in the leadership and is amassing power in anticipation of the inheritance battle.

And who isn't coming to this sad party? The United States, the superpower with the lion's share of responsibility for the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. Who stayed home? President George W. Bush, the one whose semi-hallucinatory dream of democratization has become a genuine reality of anarchy; whose adopted vision of two states - Israel and Palestine - has become during his tenure a distant dream. It is difficult to think of an American president who has caused more damage to Israeli interests than the president who is considered one of the friendliest to Israel of all time. No leader has done more than Bush - by commission as well as omission - to destroy the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas.

It was Bush who imposed the wretched elections on the Palestinians, despite Hamas' refusal to fulfill the terms of the Oslo II Accords concerning the participation of political parties in the democratic process. Bush gave his blessing to sacrificing the road map on the altar of unilateral disengagement, an act of charity toward the Palestinian "refusal front" and a death blow to the already damaged peace camp.

When Hamas was dragged into the unity government and the cease-fire agreement, with great effort, the Bush administration spared no effort to defeat the new alliance. And now, after cooking up the stew, Bush is leaving his "friends" to eat it alone, while exhorting the use of obsolete tricks to raise the dead, such as removing checkpoints in the West Bank and releasing Palestinian prisoners. The two-state vision will have to wait for the next president. What's the rush?

It's a good thing Bush wasn't around 30 years ago, when Egyptian president Anwar Sadat decided the time had come to end the war with Israel and regain the Sinai Peninsula. Bush would probably have recused himself, saying something like, "they can handle their own negotiations with Egypt. If the prime minister wants to negotiate with Egypt, he doesn't need me to mediate," as the leader of the free world said after his meeting last week with Ehud Olmert, with regard to the U.S. stance on promoting a peace process with Syria.

There is no way of knowing how Israel and the entire Middle East would look today had former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, considered problematic for Israel, sent Sadat off to work things out for himself with prime minister Menachem Begin instead of inviting them both to the peace summit at Camp David.

American intervention was one of the primary considerations leading to the Egyptian, Palestinian and Jordanian decision to reach a diplomatic settlement with Israel. Bashar Assad knocked on Bush's door and asked him to send a representative to talks with Israel, despite America's overt declarations concerning their special relationship with Israel and their commitment to its qualitative superiority. The U.S. president's shrugging off of responsibility for the peace process that began in Madrid in 1991, under his father's baton, ruined one of Israel's most important strategic assets: the belief, which bought a grace period from its neighbors, that the only place that was selling tickets to Washington and the right to enjoy its favors was in Jerusalem.

Officials in Olmert's government are sighing in great relief over the lowering of the American profile. To understand the depth of these leanings, one must go to Damascus. Vice President Farouk Shara interpreted Bush's statements using the following harsh, but accurate, words: "The American president does not want peace between Israel and Syria." Israeli intelligence officials are already warning that the opposite of peace is imminent war between Israel and Syria. This means that Bush is refusing to help prevent another round of blood-letting. What an outcry would erupt here were he to refuse to aid us by shipping a cannon or a helicopter over, and sending us out alone with the Arabs to handle the next war.

Hamas Blasts Cairo Summit

GAZA, June 24 - Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government rejected a summit planned for Egypt with Israeli and Arab leaders, saying only "resistance'' would produce results for his people.

He called any hopes generated by the summit a "mirage'' and "illusions.''

Haniyeh accused Abbas, the Western-Israel backed Fatah leader, of violating Palestinian law by dismissing his government and then appointing an emergency administration in the occupied West Bank after Hamas routed Abbas's forces and seized control of Gaza.

In his first major speech since Hamas's takeover just over a week ago, Haniyeh said Abbas's actions have resulted in the separation of Hamas-ruled Gaza from a Fatah-dominated West Bank.

Haniyeh said, "experience proves that the more pressure on Hamas and the greater the siege will only increase Hamas's strength".

The Hamas leader dismissed Israel's decision to release Palestinian tax funds to Abbas as "bribery".

He said "resistance" against Israel was the only way forward for the Palestinians, brushing aside Abbas's push for renewed peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Haniyeh accused the United States of providing Abbas's Fatah forces with money and arms in order to "oust Hamas or push it to make political concessions", suggesting Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip earlier this month was defensive.

"The arms and money (for Fatah) showed that things were going towards a pre-planned explosion," Haniyeh said.

The United States and Israel want to isolate Hamas economically, diplomatically and militarily in its Gaza stronghold, while allowing funds and goods to flow to Abbas's emergency government.

"America will not give us anything. The occupation (Israel) will not give us anything. Our rights and lands will only return to us by steadfastness and resistance," Haniyeh said.

Israel agreed on Sunday to transfer several hundred million dollars to Abbas's government, a measure designed to undercut Hamas Islamists controlling Gaza.

The money, some of the Palestinian tax revenues withheld by Israel since Hamas won a 2006 election, is part of an initial package of benefits to bolster Abbas that Olmert is likely to announce at a summit in Egypt on Monday.

Haniyeh called Israel's release of the tax money "financial bribery" and "political blackmail" aimed at "deepening the crisis and divisions" between Fatah and Hamas.

"It is our right and our money," Haniyeh said. "But this money ... should reach all the Palestinian people."

On Monday, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are to join the president of Egypt and king of Jordan for a summit meeting meant to boost Abbas in his battle with Hamas.

Haniyeh also referred to the case of British journalist Alan Johnston, kidnapped March 12 by Hamas-linked militants. Haniyeh denounced the kidnapping, saying it harms Palestinian interests.