By Ryan Jones
Sep 27, 2005
The escalating violence in the region and the fading post-disengagement hopes of restarting the Road Map peace process can all be blamed on Israel's insistence on militarily defending its citizens, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Over the weekend, Gaza-based ?Palestinian? terrorists ? the same ones PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas promised to disarm over two years ago ? fired more than 40 Kassam rockets at Jewish civilians living in the western Negev region.
Israel responded with fierce, but extremely limited, military action in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
PA officials, pointing to the Israeli retaliation and brushing aside its cause, now insist the Jewish state is solely responsible for the growing tension and the detrimental effect it is having on ?peace? efforts.
Speaking from Ramallah, PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh urged Washington to intervene and stop Israel from killing the terrorists his regime refuses to arrest.
?A resumption of Israeli targeted assassinations is very dangerous ... [and] will lead to the destruction of the peace process and stability in the whole region,? Rudeineh told reporters. ?We are asking the United States, especially, to move immediately? to put an end to Israel's war on terror.
Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said it was Israel's arrest of terrorists in Judea and Samaria and its bombing of Hamas positions in Gaza, rather than the weekend Kassam barrage, that had led to a ?collapse of the ceasefire.?
PA Information Minister Nabil Sha'ath labeled Israel's defensive action as ?criminal aggression,? and PA Interior Minister Tawfiq Abu Khoussa said the actions would be used to justify ?a new era of violence.?