ISRAEL PARDONS 32 FATAH GUNMEN

PA official: Israel pardons 32 Fatah gunmen (JPost)
Israel has informed the Palestinian Authority that it will stop pursuing 32 Fatah gunmen in the West Bank, a PA security official said Sunday.

The official said the decision to pardon the gunmen belonging to Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, came after a three-month "trial period" during which they had refrained from carrying out attacks on Israel.

"The names of the gunmen have been completely removed from Israel's list of wanted Palestinians," the official said. "From now on, the gunmen will be allowed to move around freely and without fear of being targeted by Israel."

Over the past three months, the gunmen stayed in PA security installations after surrendering their weapons and signing a pledge to refrain from terror activities. The move was part of a deal reached between the PA and Israel under the auspices of the US.

According to the PA official, the "trial period" for another 178 Fatah gunmen has been extended for another three months, during which the gunmen will be required to stay in PA security installations before they receive a final pardon from Israel.

During the second "trial period," none of the gunmen will be targeted by Israel.

Among them is Zakariya Zubeidi, commander of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, who, according to sources in the city, continues to carry a pistol for "self-defense."

One of the gunmen who received a final pardon from Israel is Muhammad Shehadeh, commander of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in Tulkarm. He said that he had abided by the US-brokered agreement and had stayed inside a PA security facility for the past three months.

Meanwhile, Israel returned the bodies of two Hamas terrorists who carried out the suicide bombing in Dimona last week to Hebron on Sunday afternoon, Israel Radio reported.

Monday's attack killed Lubov Razdolskaya, 73, and wounded 40 others.

PARDONED FATAH "MILITANT" DETAINED FOR PLANNING TERROR ATTACKS

Pardoned Fatah Militant Detained for Planning Terror Attacks - Avi Issacharof, Yuval Azoulay and Mijal Grinberg (Ha'aretz)
Israeli Border Police on Sunday arrested Fatah militant Fares Mansour - a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades who had been pardoned by Israel two months ago in a deal with the Palestinian Authority - on suspicion that he had resumed militant activity. Mansour had signed an affidavit renouncing terror acts, however he was suspected of involvement in shooting attacks on Israel Defense Forces troops. Explosives, a rifle and a handgun were found in his home.

HAMAS PLANS SUICIDE BOMBING IN ISRAEL; FATAH BREAKS AMNESTY DEAL

Hamas Cell Planning Attack in Israel - Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Israeli forces are hunting a Hamas cell based in the Nablus area which is believed to be planning a suicide bombing in Israel. IDF officers say terrorist groups in the city are intent on sending suicide bombers into Israel.

According to Palestinian sources, some Fatah militants are still refusing to lay down their arms, and most of them are in Ein Beit Ilma or in Nablus. Moreover, several of those who signed up for the amnesty deal continue to hold on to their arms, the sources said. (Ha'aretz)

U.N. FUNDS JOB TRAINING FOR PARDONED PALI TERRORISTS

Job Training for Palestinian Terrorists - Ali Waked (Ynet News)
The UN and the PA are launching a placement project to provide professional training for Palestinian terror suspects recently pardoned by Israel.

On Sunday, Palestinian Interior Minister Abed al-Razaq al-Yahiya instructed regional governors in the West Bank to work with professionals from the UNDP (UN Development Program), which is developing the program in conjunction with the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).

The aim is to bring the men back to normal civilian life, even though a large number are members of the PA's security forces. Initial funding for the program will be provided by the EU.

FATAH'S MILITARY WING RENEGES ON DISARMAMENT DEAL WITH ISRAEL

Aksa Martyrs Brigades: We’ll no longer honor agreements with Israel. (JPost)

Fatah’s armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, announced Tuesday it would no longer honor understandings reached with Israel, and called on its members to carry weapons to defend themselves against the IDF.

“We call on all our members who handed over their weapons to the Palestinian security forces to report to their commanders so that they can be issued new weapons,” said a leaflet distributed in Ramallah. ...

The latest leaflet is seen as a challenge to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts to dismantle the Aksa Martyrs Brigades and other Fatah-linked armed groups in the West Bank.

According to the group, Israel on Monday night arrested Iyad Bisharat and Ahmed Abu Jalboush, two Fatah gunmen whose names had appeared on the first list of pardoned fugitives.

“We call on all our members to display caution and not to be deceived by the so-called amnesty from Israel,” the leaflet read. “We will no longer honor the agreements that were reached with Israel over the issue of the wanted men. We won’t hand over our guns. This is a lie designed to split the Palestinian resistance.”

The group said it had previously warned against the “plot” aimed at confiscating the weapons of Aksa Martyrs Brigades members in the West Bank. “The Israeli enemy does not respect any commitments or agreements,” it said.

SHIMON PERES JUST CAN'T SURRENDER QUICKLY ENOUGH

Peres proposes prisoner amnesty (JTA)
Shimon Peres proposed that Israel release all Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for security in the West Bank.

Monday's Ma'ariv quoted the Israeli president as saying in an interview that given the limited mandate of the Palestinian Authority after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip, the Olmert government should demand quiet in the West Bank rather than ceding physical control of the territory at this time.

In exchange for the Palestinian Authority meeting "security benchmarks," Peres said, Israel should release Palestinian prisoners -- there are approximately 10,000, many of them terrorists convicted of lethal attacks -- over five years.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert nixed the proposal as unfeasible, Ma'ariv reported. Peres, a former prime minister whose role as head of state is largely ceremonial, was unfazed.

"The fact that I am the president of everyone does not mean that I am the president of nothing," Ma'ariv quoted him as saying, adding that "therefore he will continue to advance ideas and initiatives and propose them to the relevant people."

FATAH WELCHES ON AMNESTY DEAL

Moderate Terrorists Welch on Deal (LGF)
Remember that amnesty deal Israel offered to the “moderate” terrorists of Fatah, if they turned in their weapons and promised not to kill anybody for three months? The deal that was grotesquely promoted all over the mainstream media with glamour shots of murderers?

Imagine my surprise. Report: Amnesty deal between Israel and Fatah falls through.

Pan-Arab satellite television network Al-Arabiya reported Thursday that the agreement between Fatah militants and Israel promising amnesty to militants who turn in their weapons has fallen through.

According to the report, Israel informed the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, affiliated with Fatah that the amnesty offer is no longer on the table as half of the Fatah militants who signed documents promising to refrain from terrorism failed hand over their weapons.

Don’t expect this news to get anywhere near the same amount of coverage.

FATAH FIGHTERS REFUSE TO FULFILL AMNESTY DEAL PROMISES

Fatah-Affiliated Fighters Refuse to Hand Over Weapons or Renounce Violence Against Israel (Ma'an News-PA)
The official spokesperson of the Fatah-affiliated Martyr Abu Ammar Brigades, Abu Mohammad, announced that the group refuses to hand over its weapons or renounce violence against Israel. The announcement follows the declaration of the main military wing of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Brigades, last Sunday that its fighters had abandoned the armed struggle against Israel.

END OF THE INTIFADA

Amnesty Reflects Fatah's Lost Faith in Fighting - Harvey Morris
For Amjad Khalami, the Palestinian uprising is over. The 35-year-old emerged from five years in hiding at the weekend and gave himself up at the Palestinian security headquarters in Bethlehem to take advantage of an Israeli amnesty for wanted men. Armed resistance was, in effect, broken in 2002 when Israel reoccupied the West Bank in Operation Defensive Shield. Since then, the gunmen have concentrated on avoiding capture.

Soul-searching Fatah officials have begun to acknowledge that the armed intifada was a mistake and even to claim that Islamist extremists in Hamas pose a greater threat than the Israeli occupation. Muhammad Laham, a PA and PLO legislator who served 14 years of a 30-year sentence for his activities in the first intifada, says, "It was a mistake to militarize the intifada."

"I am a secularist. I didn't spend 14 years in an Israeli jail to see the creation of a Taliban regime in Palestine," he added. (Financial Times-UK)

ISLAMIC JIHAD REJECTS AMNESTY FOR TERROR END

BEFORE ALL IS SAID AND DONE, THE ONLY TERRORIST WHO WILL ACCEPT AMNESTY IN EXCHANGE FOR CEASING TERROR IS ABBAS HIMSELF - MAYBE. BUT CERTAINLY NOT ANY OF THE TERRORISTS IN THE WEST BANK - VERY FEW OF WHOM HE SEEMS TO CONTROL.

Islamic Jihad Turns Down Amnesty Plan (INN)
The Islamic Jihad terror gang says it refused an Israeli offer of amnesty for 20 of its top wanted terrorists in exchange for their cessation of terrorism.

It was announced over the weekend that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had agreed to grant a three-month amnesty to nearly 180 Fatah terror leaders, in exchange for their signatures on a commitment to cease terrorism. The stated reason was to strengthen Fatah chief and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

Islamic Jihad now says it, too, was offered such a deal - despite the fact that it (Islamic Jihad) is not affiliated with Fatah.

WorldNetDaily.com (WND) reports that the list of 178 wanted Fatah terrorists includes almost the entire senior leadership of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group - the organization that has claimed responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel over the past three years.

The WND report states that the list includes the head of Al Aqsa, local chiefs in several PA-controlled cities, the Al Aqsa cell that sent a suicide bomber to murder 11 people in Tel Aviv in April 2006 (including American teenager Daniel Wultz), and the Brigades murderer of Binyamin Kahane and his wife Talia in a drive-by shooting attack in December 2000.

Chana Bart, a wheelchair-bound mother who was paralyzed in a terror attack in Gush Katif several years ago and was later thrown out of her home in Kfar Darom during the Disengagement, wrote a letter of protest to PM Olmert. "I am bound to my wheelchair, and those who tried to murder me will now be free?!" she wrote.

The amnesty given to the 178 is one of three gestures Olmert is offering Abu Mazen as a way of propping him up in the face of expected Hamas pressures. Hamas overran Gaza several weeks ago, effectively exiling Fatah from the area. The other gestures are the release of 250 terrorists from prison, and an entry permit to arch-terrorist Naif Hawatmeh, responsible for the Maalot school children massacre (26 dead) and other heinous attacks against Israel.

Islamic Jihad claims it received the offer to participate in the amnesty plan via the PA offices in Ramallah. A senior terrorist of the organization said that Islamic Jihad was to choose any 20 of its wanted members to have included on the list. Islamic Jihad turned down the offer, however, saying that Israel must offer a full-scale ceasefire, and not just vis-a-vis those who promise to cease terrorism.

ISRAEL ALLOWS MASS CHILD-MURDERER TO RETURN TO WEST BANK AND FATAH

Israel to Allow Nayef Hawatmeh Into the West bank: Was Responsible for the Massacare of Ma'alot School Children in 1974 (NeoconExpress)
Many of us are old enough to remember the Ma'alot massacre in 1974; members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, headed by Nayef Hawatmeh, infiltrated Northern Israel from Lebanon and after a short killing spree, they entered a school building in the small town of Ma'alot. They took around 90 children hostage; when a rescue attempt was mounted, they killed 26 children in cold blood and injured about 60 more.

Nayef Hawatmeh, leader of the DFLP and the man behind that atrocity is now being invited into the West Bank to strengthen the hand of Palestinian President Abbas in his internal battle against Hamas. What a disgusting little piece of "real politic." I guess for some folks in Israel's political class, bygones should be bygones, even when it comes to the murder of children if it suits the political winds of the moment. Ma'alot was truly the Beslan of the 1970's; an inexcusable atrocity and I am truly surprised that Hawatmeh was not hunted down and eliminated like other top PLO murderers who were responsible for less mayhem than himself.

ISRAEL GRANTS AMNESTY TO TERRORISTS; FATAH VOWS NO TERROR

Olmert confirms amnesty deal for wanted Fatah gunmen (YNet)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has confirmed Saturday reports of a deal according to which Israel will stop chasing dozens of wanted Fatah gunmen in the West Bank if they agree to disarm.

The agreement, which is aimed at bolstering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was first published by Ynet Friday evening.

Officials in Jerusalem stressed that Zakariya Zubeidi was not on the list of some 180 wanted Fatah men Israel is expected to pardon, but the al-Aqsa Brigades leader said Palestinian Authority officials have informed him that he would be included in the deal.

According to the deal, the pardoned Fatah members will be permitted to join the Palestinian security services but will be prohibited from carrying arms.

Fatah Gunmen Agree to End Attacks on Israel in Exchange for Amnesty (FOXNEWS)
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Scores of Fatah militants in the West Bank have signed a pledge renouncing attacks against Israel in return for an Israeli promise to stop pursuing them, a Palestinian security official said Sunday.

The deal would grant amnesty to 178 Fatah gunmen who will join the official Palestinian security forces, and Israel will remove them from its lists of wanted militants, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details of the agreement.

An official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office confirmed the deal would extend to wanted militants who openly renounce terrorism, and was part of a series of measures to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

ISRAEL WILLING TO STOP HUNTING FATAH TERRORISTS AND FREE OTHERS

Report: Israel willing to stop hunting Fatah fugitives (JPost)
Israel would be ready to cease arrest raids on Fatah-affiliated fugitives in the West Bank if they proved that they were ready to stop all terror activity against the Jewish state, Israel Radio quoted a report by Ma'an, a Palestinian news agency.

Reportedly, Israel had set up a list of 178 Palestinian fugitives from the West Bank, and decided that if they proved that they had ceased terrorist activity, they would no longer be sought by Israeli security forces. Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades Jenin chief Zakahriya Zbeidi was reportedly one of the names on the list.

According to the report, the fugitives would be asked to remain one week in one of the bases belonging to the Palestinian Authority's security forces, and then stay an additional three months within the confines of the territories designated "A territories" under the Oslo accords.

If they would not participate in any terror-related activities they would be able to travel throughout the West Bank without fearing arrest, as well as travel abroad, Ma'an reported.

SEE ALSO: Gov't may free pre-Oslo terrorists (JPost)
he idea of including Palestinian prisoners with "blood on their hands" who carried out terrorist acts before the Oslo Accords were signed is being discussed in Jerusalem, to "raise the level" of the 250 security prisoners that Israel will release as a good will gesture toward Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, The Jerusalem Post has learned.