Monday, September 12, 2005
Move along, move along...
PA, Hamas defend synagogue razing
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas visited the former settlement of Dugit in the northern Gaza Strip, where he declared that the Israel did not leave behind any synagogues. "There are no synagogues here," he said. [Well, not anymore there aren't. -Sol]
"Israel left behind some empty buildings which that are likely to collapse. All the public buildings they left are in danger of collapsing," he said...
Anyway, in a perverse way he's right, isn't he (see the comments in this post)? Thing is, I think it's a distinction lost on the people doing the burning (and probably Abbas himself, anyway) who are fully conscious in their own minds to the idea that they are burning "synagogues."
Defending the decision to raze the synagogues, Haniyeh said Israel was trying to keep them to put pressure on the PA to protect them in the future. "These synagogues were built for political, not religious, reasons. They were built illegally and should go away with the occupation."
Meanwhile, a number of armed groups in the Gaza Strip announced that they would continue to launch attacks on Israel until it withdraws from more territories.
The armed wing of Fatah announced that it was planning to launch attacks inside Israel "until all our lands are liberated." Muhamemd Hijazi, commander of one of the Fatah- affiliated militias in the Gaza Strip, said his men were planning suicide attacks in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba...