HAMAS LEADER OFFERS PARTIAL CEASE-FIRE, DENIES HOLOCAUST

Mashaal offers to stop civilian attacks (JPost)
Hamas has offered Israel a deal in which both sides would refrain from attacking civilian targets, the group's Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal said.

In an interview with Sky News broadcast Monday, Mashaal said the offer was identical to one made to Israel 10 years ago.

"We renew our offer to Israel to let the civilians on both sides not be a part of this conflict," he said. "We renew this offer today."

Mashaal asserted that if the IDF refrained from killing any Palestinian civilians, Hamas would only carry out attacks against Israeli military targets.

Mashaal went on to confirm that captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit was alive...

Mashaal continued by saying that Hamas believed the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was "exaggerated."

"We don't deny the Holocaust, but we believe the Holocaust was exaggerated by the Zionist movement to whip up people," he said. "We don't deny the fact but we don't accept two issues. We don't accept the exaggerating of numbers and we don't accept that Israel uses this to do what it wants."

CEASE FIRE?

Hamas Loses

ERIC TRAGER - (Contentions)

Despite initial denials from officials of both sides, sources are now indicating that an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza is imminent. According to Ha’aretz, the deal will put Palestinian Authority Presidential Guard members along the Karni, Sufa, Kerem Shalom, Erez, and Rafah border crossings, thereby fulfilling agreements that the U.S., Palestinian Authority, and Israel had reached prior to the 2005 Gaza disengagement. Hamas will play a secondary role nearby some of these crossings, monitoring the movement of civilians–though not goods–in and out of the strip.

This should be interpreted as the first major setback for Hamas since the party won the parliamentary elections over two years ago. At the very least, permitting Mahmoud Abbas’s Presidential Guard to assume control of border crossings represents a major political concession. If the Guard succeeds in stemming weapons smuggling, it will severely hamper Hamas’s military capabilities. Moreover, the ceasefire requires as a first step that Hamas stop firing rockets, which suggests that Israel’s recent operation in Gaza was highly effective in targeting key Hamas personnel and infrastructure.

Of course, the ceasefire also implies an Israeli concession, insofar as it shatters the hope that Hamas will be dislodged from Gaza by force. After all, the truce requires that Israel curtail its military operations entirely, including its targeting of Hamas officials. Still, Israel has located an opening for slowly chipping away at Hamas’s domestic power, with Abbas able to declare victory for having brokered an agreement that finally opens the border crossings-an accomplishment that Hamas’s rockets have decisively failed to achieve.

For the truce to succeed in the long run, bolstering the commitment and capabilities of the Presidential Guard must be a top priority. History should be a guide in this: last June, Hamas seized Gaza largely thanks to an ill-equipped and unmotivated Fatah force. Although the Bush administration has steered clear of the ceasefire negotiations, it should view the conditions of the Presidential Guard as critical to the peace process, which Vice-President Dick Cheney will address when he visits the region next week. Indeed, any breakdown in the Presidential Guard’s ability to control the borders would represent the final nail in the coffin for the still-nascent Annapolis “process.”

CARTER, ANNAN OFFER TO BROKER ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE

WHAT, DAVID DUKE AND MEL GIBSON WEREN'T AVAILABLE?

Carter, Annan want to talk truce (JTA)
Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan have offered to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

The former U.S. president and former U.N. secretary-general recently proposed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that they act as go-betweens in truce talks between the Jewish state and the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction, Army Radio reported Wednesday.

Should they come, Carter and Annan would require Israeli permission to enter the Gaza Strip, which has been under embargo since Hamas took power in 2006.

According to Israel's Army Radio, Jerusalem opposes the initiative but has yet to make a final decision.

ISRAEL REJECTS HAMAS PLEA FOR CEASE-FIRE

Israel rejects truce with Hamas (JTA)
Israel rejected Hamas' request for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's Army Radio reported Monday that the Olmert government received a truce offer from Hamas over the weekend, at the height of fighting in Gaza.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the overture, apparently conveyed through intermediaries, though two members of his Cabinet said it should be considered.

Tzahi Hanegbi, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and an Olmert confidant, anticipated no change in Israel's refusal to talk to an Islamist group sworn to its destruction.

"Those who favor a truce are like a man who falls off a 100-story building and, upon reaching the 10th floor, says 'So far, so good,'" Hanegbi told Army Radio.

"Out of 23 ministers, I know of two who support this," he said. "It just won't happen. What has to happen is that the Cabinet makes a decision that the armed forces should go out on a campaign to bring down the Hamas regime."

I ASK YOU, WHERE'S THE TRUST?

"Dismantled" Fatah group says it is ending its "cease-fire" " (ELDER OF ZIYON)

From Ma'an: The general commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, in the West Bank announced an end to their three-month ceasefire on Friday. Abu Uday said in a statement that the ceasefire was now over and that the Brigades will respond to the recent Israeli assassinations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. "We will not stand idly by while witnessing massacres of our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We will respond to these massacres and we give the green light to all our brigades. Thus we will calm the hearts of the martyrs' families," he said. But I thought that the Al Aqsa Brigades were dismantled by the PA! And then ten days later it was disbanded again! And that after they were dismantled they were still taking credit for attacks from the West Bank! And the last one occurred only yesterday! And I could have sworn that Al-Aqsa in Gaza has been sending daily rockets towards Israel! Could it be - just maybe - that murderous terrorists and their "moderate" Fatah leaders aren't the most honest people in the world?

OLMERT: NO TRUCE WITH HAMAS

Olmert rules out Hamas truce (JTA)
Ehud Olmert ruled out any truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli prime minister on Sunday quashed talks of a possible cease-fire with the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction in Gaza, reaffirming international demands that Hamas first unilaterally foreswear terrorism and accept the Jewish state.

"The State of Israel has no interest in negotiating with those that refuse to accept the basic principles of the Quartet," Olmert told his Cabinet.

"This applies to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and anyone else. He who accepts the Quartet principles is a negotiating partner, but he who is not ready to accept them is no partner and our policy will not change."

Israel stepped up deadly airstrikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists last week following a surge of rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza. That prompted Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, to offer truce talks with the Olmert government. Some members of Olmert's Cabinet said the overture should be considered, while others said a truce would only allow Hamas to rearm and regroup.

"This war will continue," Olmert told his Cabinet, referring to the Gaza offensive.

Olmert: No Talks with Hamas Until It Recognizes Israel - Barak Ravid, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff
Prime Minister Olmert told the cabinet Sunday that the government would not hold talks with Hamas until it recognizes Israel. "The State of Israel has no interest in negotiating with entities that do not recognize the Quartet demands," he said. The Quartet of Middle East negotiators has demanded that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept previously signed agreements between Israel and the PA. "Whoever accepts the Quartet principles will, in principle, be a partner for negotiations....Whoever isn't willing to do so, to our regret, cannot be a partner for dialogue with us. This policy will not change." (Ha'aretz)

ISRAEL: HAMAS "PLAYING GAMES" WITH CEASEFIRE TALK

Israel: Hamas "Playing Games" with Ceasefire Talk - Gil Hoffman and Herb Keinon
After Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Israel Channel 2 television Tuesday that he was prepared to negotiate an end to the rocket attacks on Israel, senior Israeli government officials indicated that an end to rocket fire from Gaza alone would not be enough to bring about a halt to IDF action in Gaza. Hamas would also have to stop building up its military capabilities. "Israel cannot allow a situation where Hamas is free to build a formidable military machine in Gaza," said one government official. Prime Minister Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said Hamas was "playing games," and that Israel would not deal with Hamas until it accepted the international community's three benchmarks: forswearing violence, recognizing Israel, and accepting previous agreements. "Our partner for discussions on the Palestinian side is the legitimate Palestinian government," Regev said. "Hamas has excluded itself from talks by its continued rejection of the international community's benchmarks."

President Shimon Peres called Haniyeh's overture a "pathetic and misleading attempt to divert international attention away from the crimes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad....If Hamas and Islamic Jihad stop firing rockets at our women and children, Israel will immediately hold its fire, so there is no need for negotiations....Hamas does not give hope to [the Palestinian] people. Its sole purpose is to sow destruction, bloodshed and war, and the moment it ceases its violent crimes, quiet will once again reign in our region." (Jerusalem Post)

HAMAS BEGS FOR MERCY

Hamas Calls for Truce With Israel (AP)
GAZA CITY, Gaza City (AP) - On Islam's most important holiday, the leader of Gaza's Hamas government appealed Wednesday for a cease-fire with Israel and said his people—battered by Israeli military strikes and international sanctions—are greeting this year's feast with "tears in our eyes."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman said there could be no deals with Hamas until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel, though one Cabinet minister said Israel might consider outside mediation with the Islamic militants.

Israel and Hamas have never had direct contacts because of the group's violently anti-Israel ideology. But they have agreed to short truces negotiated by third parties.

The appeal from Ismail Haniyeh, who heads the Hamas government in Gaza, came in a phone call to an Israeli TV reporter, said Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu. It followed a two-day air assault by Israeli forces that killed 12 Gaza militants, two from Hamas and 10 from Islamic Jihad.

Israel "should stop its attacks and siege," Nunu said. "Then a truce would be possible, and not unlikely."

HAMAS SEEKING TRUCE WITH ISRAEL?

Report: Hamas Seeking Truce with Israel - Avi Issacharoff
The London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Sunday that Hamas is seeking a truce with Israel. Senior Hamas officials have been trying recently to persuade its military wing to stop firing rockets at Israel in order to prevent a large-scale Israeli military strike. The paper reported that the leader of Hamas' political wing in Damascus, Khaled Meshal, met recently with the secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad in Lebanon to discuss the matter. Palestinian sources told Ha'aretz that the intention was to unilaterally initiate a month-long cease-fire as a test. (Ha'aretz)

ISRAEL REJECTS HAMAS PLEA FOR BREATHER

ISRAEL HAS REJECTED A HAMAS PLEA FOR A TERMPORARY "CALM" SO THAT IT CAN RE-ARM AND PRESS FOR ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION. AS WE KNOW, HAMAS "CEASE-FIRES" ARE WORTHLESS. THE "FIRE" DOESN'T CEASE AND HAMAS JUST USES ISRAEL'S BACKING OFF TO CATCH ITS BREATH. HAMAS' REQUEST SEEMS TO INDICATE IT'S ON THE ROPES. I HOPE ISRAEL CONTINUES TO PRESS IT'S ADVANTAGE.

Hamas rebuffed in approach to Israel: source.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A prominent Hamas official tried to open discussions with Israel to ease confrontation in the Gaza Strip but was rebuffed, a Palestinian official familiar with the situation told Reuters on Friday. Public broadcaster Israel Radio said Israel rejected an approach from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, through a “mediator,” to a senior Israeli defense official before the Israeli security cabinet declared Gaza an “enemy entity” on Wednesday. The Palestinian source told Reuters that Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June, had sought talks with Deputy defense Minister Matan Vilnai, offering to rein in rocket fire into Israel in return for an easing of Israeli border controls.

HEZBOLLAH WAS CLOSE TO SURRENDERING LAST SUMMER

'Our men would surrender if the war lasted 10 more days' (JPost)
"The cease-fire acted as a life jacket for the organization [at the end of the Second Lebanon War]," a Hizbullah officer said in an interview aired by Channel 10 on Tuesday. In the interview, the unnamed officer said Hizbullah gunmen would have surrendered if the fighting last summer had continued for another 10 days.

His statement sharply contrasted with those made by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah on several occasions since the monthlong war. At the end of the war, Nasrallah said his organization had gained a "divine victory."

The officer shown on Channel 10 said the organization's gunmen had been running low on food and water and facing rapidly diminishing arms supplies. The officer also said that many Hizbullah commanders were ordered to hide before the war started, and that the gunmen who remained were forced to fire Katyusha rockets from inside urban populations because of the IDF's efficiency in destroying launchers minutes after a launch had been detected. He said that when the gunmen relocated to cities and villages, they knew innocent civilians would be hurt as a consequence.

The quick arrival of IAF jets at rocket-launch sites, sometimes only four to five minutes after a Katyusha was fired, "surprised" Hizbullah, the officer said.

ARMS SURRENDER FARCE

Our World: The joke's on us by CAROLINE GLICK (JPost)
'It's all a joke. It's just a joke." That's how the Palestinian terror commanders in Judea and Samaria explained the show they made of handing in their weapons to Fatah commander Mahmoud Abbas's official militias over the weekend.

"This is all a big joke," they told reporters while posing for pictures. "Abbas asked us to sign a declaration saying we won't attack Israel and so we are." And why not? The Palestinian Authority Chairman agreed to pay them thousands of dollars in exchange for the photo opportunities. There is also the non-financial incentive. In exchange for their propaganda photos and their signatures on declarations not to engage in terror anymore, Israel has pledged to take these murderers off of its wanted list. So just for participating in a satire, these men get to walk without fear for the first time in years.

The deal between Prime Minister Olmert and Abbas claims that 178 members of Fatah's Aksa Martyrs' Brigades terror organization will hand in their weapons and pledge to stop being terrorists. From now on the only Palestinians in Judea and Samaria who will bear arms will be members of Abbas's "official" security forces. But since most of these men are already members of those official militias, and the rest are set to be commissioned in short order, the deal has no impact on any of them.

'Palestinians' paid thousands in arms surrender farce (JNW)
Scoffing could be heard throughout the Palestinian Authority areas Sunday and Monday as dozens of wanted Fatah terrorists relinquished their weapons in return for tens of thousands of dollars, and a clean bill of health from Israel.

The arrangement was approved by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who Saturday night signed an agreement granting amnesty to 180 men on Israel's wanted list.

Opposition Knesset members slammed the plan as a "mixture of criminal spin and plain stupidity."

In accordance with the deal, a terrorist who handed in an M-16 rifle received $15,000, while an AK-47 was "surrendered" for $3750. Smaller guns earned their owners up to $6,000. The money paid to these killers came from donations made to the PA by the international community.

Apart from the dollars, the men who had been wanted - some for years - for their acts of criminal violence against Israeli Jews were free to come out of hiding and bask in the embrace of their people.

And a week after paying this "price" for their sins, the agreement stipulates that these terrorists will be "integrated" into the Palestinian Authority's "security forces" and issued with weapons to replace the ones they just surrendered for cash.

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 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.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

Newest Hamas-Fatah truce collapses (JPost)
Following another day of fierce fighting in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Fatah leaders announced a new cease-fire that went into effect at 8 pm. But even after the cease-fire was announced, gunmen belonging to the two sides continued to exchange gunfire in several locations.

At least 20 Palestinians were killed and 35 wounded in Wednesday's clashes, most of them militiamen belonging to the warring groups.

Scores of Palestinian and foreign journalists were trapped for more than three hours inside their offices in two buildings in the center of Gaza City because of the fighting between the two parties. No one was hurt. The journalists were able to leave the offices buildings after Fatah and Hamas withdrew their gunmen from the area.

The latest cease-fire, the sixth of its kind in the past three days, was announced following a phone conversation between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Syria-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, a senior PA official in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post.

HAMAS MANAGED TO KILL FIVE OF ITS OWN TERRORISTS:

Five Hamas members were killed when a jeep they were traveling in came under fire in Gaza City. The five had been arrested by forces loyal to Abbas on charges of participating in the latest fighting. Two security officers who were accompanying the five Hamas men were also killed in the attack.

HEZBOLLAH OVERFLOWING WITH ROCKETS

IT APPEARS THAT THE U.N. IS DOING A BANG-UP JOB OF ENFORCING THE CEASE-FIRE AND PREVENTING WEAPONS SMUGGLING FROM SYRIA & IRAN TO HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON.

Hizbullah Leader Nasrallah: "We Can Fire 3,000 Rockets a Day" - Yaakov Lappin (Ynet News)
Hizbullah "could launch between 1,000 and 3,000 rockets daily," its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah claimed in an interview with a Dubai satellite TV station last week. Nasrallah's comments were reproduced on Hizbullah's Arabic language website on Saturday, under the heading: "We could launch...3,000 rockets daily in a war in July."

YOU CALL THIS A CEASEFIRE?

Straining a "Ceasefire"? (HonestReporting)

At what point do Palestinian terror and missile attacks constitute a breach of a "ceasefire"?

Over the past few years the media has consistently downplayed or ignored Palestinian violence, while apportioning blame on Israeli retaliatory or preventative actions as the cause of "escalating violence" or "breaking of ceasefires". It appears, yet again, necessary to protest this inaccurate and misleading representation of the conflict.

Unless you read the Israeli press on a daily basis, it is almost impossible to get a full and accurate picture of events in Israel and the Palestinian territories from the international media. One could get a false impression of relative quiet in the absence of media reports of mass casualty events.

A 22 April Associated Press report says that: "Hamas militants called Sunday for a fresh wave of attacks against Israel after troops killed nine Palestinians in weekend fighting, straining a five-month-old cease-fire."

Thus, Israel is blamed for "straining a ceasefire". According to the AP: "The Gaza truce has largely held, though militants have frequently fired rockets into Israel and have attacked Israeli patrols along the border fence." How serious must Palestinian actions be in the eyes of the AP before a "ceasefire" is broken? Why are Israeli counter-measures designed to protect this truce regarded as violations while constant Palestinian terror is not?

Recent Israeli operations against targets in Gaza are a direct response to the latest Qassam missile attacks. Yet, the AP saves this for the third paragraph of its report: "The fighting also included a Palestinian rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot that damaged a home."

The Elder of Ziyon blog has been keeping a calendar of Qassam attacks and Israeli responses, demonstrating that while Israel has exercised an enormous amount of restraint over the past months, the Palestinians have not actually enforced the Gaza "ceasefire" that they claim to be adhering to.

Some Palestinians claim that their Gaza attacks have been in response to Israeli operations in the West Bank, where a "ceasefire" is not in effect. Much of the media, while focused on Israeli counter-terror measures, have, however, forgotten the constant Palestinian terror efforts that led to the IDF operations in the first place. This April alone, the following incidents illustrate that the media's impression that Israel shattered the calm is anything but accurate:

• Islamic Jihad terrorist captured near Tel Aviv after his bomb belt fails to detonate
• Palestinian bride arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out suicide bombing
• 3 Israelis injured in shooting attack near Modi'in
• Hamas calls for further kidnappings of Israeli soldiers
• Israeli cars shot at in West Bank
• Israeli civilian wounded in West Bank drive-by shooting
• Arrests prevent huge Hamas-planned car bomb in Tel Aviv
• Egypt arrests would-be Hamas suicide bomber near Israeli border
• Palestinian rockets hit Sderot home; several Israelis treated for shock

We urge our readers to look beyond the pages of their local newspapers and keep abreast of the actions that Palestinian terror organizations continue to attempt against Israeli civilians. Links to Israeli newspapers, organizations and other information resources can be found on our Essential Links page.

To ask the AP what it defines as a "ceasefire", please send your constructive comments to mailto:feedback@ap.org?bcc=letters@honestreporting.com.

HAMAS SUPPLYING ISLAMIC JIHAD WITH ROCKETS

Hamas Arming Islamic Jihad with Rockets - Ze'ev Schiff and Avi Issacharoff (Ha'aretz)
Israeli security sources on Thursday said Hamas is providing the rockets for Islamic Jihad's rocket attacks against Israel, while maintaining a front of abiding by a cease-fire. The sources said Hamas has adopted a strategy of duality, in which it continues its violent activities against Israel notwithstanding a cease-fire. A similar strategy was used by Arafat, who committed in agreements to preserve cease-fires, but retained ties with extremist organizations that would continue terrorist activities against Israel.

As long as Hamas continues to cooperate with Islamic Jihad, sources say the value and reliability of a cease-fire agreement is dubious. Also Thursday, nearly 200 gunmen from the military wing of Hamas and the Executive Force demonstrated in Jabaliya in Gaza against the unity government and declared that they will only abide by orders from former foreign and interior ministers Mahmoud al-Zahar and Said Sayam.

HAMAS TO ISRAEL: TRUCE IS OVER

WHAT TRUCE?

Hamas Military Wing: Truce Is Over - Yaakov Lappin (Ynet News)
Hamas' Qassam Brigades have declared an end to a ceasefire with Israel, according to a statement released on Wednesday. The call to end the truce appeared on Hamas' official website, in both English and Arabic. Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, cited the death of Islamic Jihad commander Mahmoud Qassem in Jenin as the reason. Qassem was shot by Israeli Border Police on Tuesday, after security forces traced a foiled suicide bomb attack planned for Tel Aviv back to him. "The time has come to restore the honor of the Palestinian resistance," Abu Obaida said.

HAMAS AND FATAH SIGN POWER-SHARING AGREEMENT

Hamas and Fatah sign unity accord (JPost)
Rival Palestinian leaders signed an agreement in principle on a power-sharing government Thursday in Saudi-brokered talks in Mecca.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, of the mainstream Fatah movement, and Khaled Mashaal, leader of Hamas, signed the accord at a ceremony hosted by Saudi King Abdullah in a palace overlooking the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine.

The deal sets out the principles of the coalition government, including a promise that it will "respect" previous peace deals with Israel, delegates said. It also divvies up Cabinet posts in the new government.

"We have achieved progress in some points, and there are no points that can hinder reaching an agreement," he told a press conference. "We have a clear decision not to let the Mecca dialogue fail. We have no option: either to succeed or to succeed said Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad on Thursday afternoon."

On the second day of their marathon summit, Fatah and Hamas were still working on the second part of the agreement: to what degree a new government will recognize previous peace deals with Israel.

That issue is key to whether any government that emerges from the Mecca conference will be accepted by the United States and Israel. If they judge that Hamas has moderated enough as part of a new government, it could mean the lifting of the painful financial boycott of the Palestinian Authority government and a resumption of the peace process with Israel.