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Peace Process

'Gaza retreat won't end terror'


By Ryan Jones
June 13, 2004

The governments of Israel, Western Europe and the United States have celebrated Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to unilaterally evacuate all Israelis from the Gaza Strip as a means to jump start the stalled peace process and curb the scourge of "Palestinian" terrorism.

But the Hamas terrorist organization Saturday announced it has other plans.

During a meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in Gaza, Hamas leaders set the stage for continuing their brutal terror war against the citizens of the Israel, even after Gaza has been ethnically cleansed of its Jews.

They said without a total Israeli surrender of Gaza's airspace, borders and coastline, in addition to the removal of all Jewish settlements and IDF bases, they would not consider the retreat an adequate concession, and "resistance" operations would continue.

Under the terms of its signed agreements with Israel, the PA is obligated to dismantle groups such as Hamas, not include them in the decision-making process.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday told Sharon the world community is ready to mobilize in order to ensure Israel's flight from Gaza is a "success."

Gaza summit

Qureia traveled to Gaza Saturday to hold consultations on the future of the area following Sharon's planned Israeli retreat. Invited to partake in the talks were the various Muslim terrorist organizations based in the Strip.

Qureia discussed with the other terror bosses Egypt's offer to help train their forces in what the Arabs have presented as a plan for maintaining "security" in Gaza after the departure of the IDF.

Under the terms of its various signed agreements with Israel, the PA is obligated to disarm and dismantled terror groups, not include them in the decision-making process.

That commitment has been systematically violated for more than a decade.

'Terror won't end'

As with previous Israeli concessions, Jerusalem and the governments of the West have touted the planned Gaza withdrawal as a means of encouraging the "Palestinians" to halt their terrorist activities.

But following Saturday's meeting, senior Hamas terror chiefs told reporters their group would not sign on to any deal that required it to curb its murder of Israeli Jews.

"Evacuating the Gaza Strip does not mean an end to the Israeli occupation [sic]," said Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar. As such, "the only guarantee we can give so far is the continuation of the resistence [read:terror war]."

In typical fashion, Al-Zahar set the stage for "legitimizing" the continued slaughter of Jewish men, women and children by saying Israel's retreat from Gaza was not enough without the surrender of the area's borders, airspace and coastline.

Israel is opposed to relinquishing control over these strategic assets, fearing the illegal arming of the Gaza Strip with long-range weapons would get out of hand were it to do so.

Eager for withdrawal

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Friday displayed his eagerness to see Israel vacate the Gaza Strip by promising Sharon the mobilization of the international community to ensure the retreat is a "success."

Annan called both Sharon and Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to thank them for their joint efforts to come to reach a security agreement regarding Gaza, and said the world body would be standing by with assistance and resources to help with the implementation of Sharon's "disengagement" plan.

The last time the UN promised to help ensure the success of an Israeli retreat was in May 2000, when then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak was preparing to pull out from Lebanon.

Since then, the thousands-strong UN "peacekeeping" force in southern Lebanon has consistently failed to halt Hizballah attacks on northern Israel.

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