Word: aqsa
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...that could cost him his job and very possibly his life. No sooner had Abbas agreed to a cease-fire last Tuesday than Palestinian militants staged two brazen attacks. First they fired mortars and rockets on Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. Then 300 gunmen from Hamas and the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades staged an assault on the Saraya, the main prison and Palestinian Authority military base in Gaza City. In response, Abbas took his boldest step yet to assert his authority, firing at least 25 top security officials and going to Gaza to rebuke Hamas leaders in person...
...more immediately the future of Israeli settlements and the seperation fence, and even steps required to sustain a truce. The reason? The basis of Abbas?s truce declaration was not a new commitment by the Palestinian security services to wage war on militant groups like Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyr?s Brigade, but a voluntary truce or ?hudna? adopted by those groups in exchange for Israel agreeing to end attacks on their leaders, ease conditions in Palestinian territories and free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails...
...Sharon, of course, insists he has no intention of dealing with the likes of Hamas and the al-Aqsa Brigades, and insists that if Abbas is serious about reviving the U.S.-backed ?roadmap? to peace his first priority will be to systematically disarm and dismantle the organizational infrastructure that would allow those groups to return to arms should the ?hudna? fail. Having voluntarily embraced a ceasefire, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa brigades have made clear they have no intention of disarming - and Israeli security officials warn against accepting an arrangement that simply allows them breathing space. But Abbas...
...Mahmoud Abbas owes his presidency in no small part to the backing of the al-Aqsa Martyr?s Brigade, who facilitated his election by persuading the more popular imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti to withdraw from the race. (The most authoritative Palestinian polls suggest Barghouti would have beaten Abbas by four percentage points.) Many of their grassroots members are also the rank-and-file of Abbas?s uniformed Palestinian security services, on whom he would have to rely in any crackdown. Hamas, meanwhile, has moved into the mainstream of Palestinian politics, and in recent municipal elections in Gaza its candidates...
...destination with which he?d not be comfortable. While making ritual deference to the ?roadmap? - a document with which Sharon has never fully supported - the Israeli leader emphasizes that its first phase requires Abbas to begin disarming and dismantling the operational structures of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Brigade. The Palestinians will seek to delay any such actions and seek more by way of political concessions from Israel in order to keep the ?hudna? intact...