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removed | 22.09.2006 15:23
The Palestinians' ruling Hamas group will not enter into a planned coalition government if recognizing Israel is a condition, top Hamas officials said Friday, raising new doubts about President Mahmoud Abbas' ability to bring a more moderate government to power.
"I personally will not head any government that recognizes Israel," Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a mosque sermon in Gaza City on Friday, laying out his group's positions.
At the United Nations on Thursday, Abbas indicated that the planned national unity government between Hamas and his Fatah Party would recognize the Jewish state.
However, Haniyeh said Hamas is ready to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War, and to honor a long-term truce with Israel.
"We support establishing a Palestinian state in the land of 1967 at this stage, but in return for a cease-fire, not recognition," Haniyeh said.
In other developments:
In his first public appearance since the start of his group's summertime war with Israel, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah thanked God for what he called a " great divine, historic and strategic victory" against the Jewish state. He told hundreds of thousands of supporters in Beirut's suburbs he decided to appear at the rally despite threats to his life.
As Rosh Hashanah began, Israelis were entering the new year feeling insecure in the wake of the war in Lebanon, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger (audio). Polls show that 75 percent of Israelis believe the Jewish state is fighting for its survival. "Israel will survive and we have a big promise from our God in our Bible, that we'll survive," disagreed one worshipper as services began. Security is tight, reports Berger. Fearing terrorist attacks, Israel has sealed off the West Bank and Gaza, barring Palestinians from entering the country.
Fifty-three percent believe the biggest danger facing Israel in the coming year is Iran. Israelis have grown increasingly alarmed about Iran's nuclear program since a year ago, when the Iranian president threatened to wipe the Jewish state off the map.
Unidentified gunmen set off a small bomb near Palestinian police guarding European Union monitors at the Egypt-Gaza border Friday, just after the vital crossing opened for the first time in a month, Palestinian officials said. Two Palestinian policemen were injured, but none of the EU monitors was hurt.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at a Muslim shrine in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday to protest against remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that they view as an affront to Islam. The demonstration at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine, concluded peacefully. Benedict touched off the furor in the Muslim world last week by quoting a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam's founder, the Prophet Mohammed, as "evil and inhuman," and branded Islam a religion spread by the sword.
Abbas was still in New York on Friday, and couldn't be immediately reached for comment. A close adviser, Nabil Amr, clarified that the Palestinian president would not ask Hamas to explicitly recognize Israel, but to abide by Palestine Liberation Organization agreements that recognize the Jewish state.
"We expect Hamas to agree to this," Amr said.
Hamas, which swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, currently rules alone. But Abbas, elected separately last year, has been toiling for months to broaden the government in the hope of easing crushing international sanctions imposed on the Hamas-led government to force it to soften its violent anti-Israel ideology.
"I personally will not head any government that recognizes Israel," Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a mosque sermon in Gaza City on Friday, laying out his group's positions.
At the United Nations on Thursday, Abbas indicated that the planned national unity government between Hamas and his Fatah Party would recognize the Jewish state.
However, Haniyeh said Hamas is ready to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War, and to honor a long-term truce with Israel.
"We support establishing a Palestinian state in the land of 1967 at this stage, but in return for a cease-fire, not recognition," Haniyeh said.
In other developments:
In his first public appearance since the start of his group's summertime war with Israel, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah thanked God for what he called a " great divine, historic and strategic victory" against the Jewish state. He told hundreds of thousands of supporters in Beirut's suburbs he decided to appear at the rally despite threats to his life.
As Rosh Hashanah began, Israelis were entering the new year feeling insecure in the wake of the war in Lebanon, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger (audio). Polls show that 75 percent of Israelis believe the Jewish state is fighting for its survival. "Israel will survive and we have a big promise from our God in our Bible, that we'll survive," disagreed one worshipper as services began. Security is tight, reports Berger. Fearing terrorist attacks, Israel has sealed off the West Bank and Gaza, barring Palestinians from entering the country.
Fifty-three percent believe the biggest danger facing Israel in the coming year is Iran. Israelis have grown increasingly alarmed about Iran's nuclear program since a year ago, when the Iranian president threatened to wipe the Jewish state off the map.
Unidentified gunmen set off a small bomb near Palestinian police guarding European Union monitors at the Egypt-Gaza border Friday, just after the vital crossing opened for the first time in a month, Palestinian officials said. Two Palestinian policemen were injured, but none of the EU monitors was hurt.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at a Muslim shrine in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday to protest against remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that they view as an affront to Islam. The demonstration at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine, concluded peacefully. Benedict touched off the furor in the Muslim world last week by quoting a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam's founder, the Prophet Mohammed, as "evil and inhuman," and branded Islam a religion spread by the sword.
Abbas was still in New York on Friday, and couldn't be immediately reached for comment. A close adviser, Nabil Amr, clarified that the Palestinian president would not ask Hamas to explicitly recognize Israel, but to abide by Palestine Liberation Organization agreements that recognize the Jewish state.
"We expect Hamas to agree to this," Amr said.
Hamas, which swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, currently rules alone. But Abbas, elected separately last year, has been toiling for months to broaden the government in the hope of easing crushing international sanctions imposed on the Hamas-led government to force it to soften its violent anti-Israel ideology.
removed