Arafat Offers Posts to Hamas

[Random Variable]

Sun Jun 2, 3:36 PM ET

JERUSALEM (AP) - Yasser Arafat has offered Cabinet posts to Hamas and other militant groups involved in suicide attacks against Israelis as part of a government reshuffle he plans to announce in coming days, Palestinians said Sunday.

While three other radical groups have turned down the Palestinian leader's offer, saying they don't want to belong to a government that's willing to negotiate with Israel, Hamas is still weighing the proposal, the group said.

It would mark the first time in his eight years as chairman of the Palestinian Authority that Arafat formally brought Hamas into government ? a move likely to be strongly opposed by Israel and the United States, which both regard Hamas as a terrorist group.

"We are still consulting with our colleagues inside and outside the homeland and our final response will be declared before the end of this week," Hamas spokesman Ismail Hania said of Arafat's proposal.

Of the more than 60 suicide attacks by Palestinians in the current Mideast conflict, Hamas' military wing has carried out more than any other group, including the deadliest attacks. The group has rejected Arafat's call to halt them.

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[gopunk]

lets give him another one of those nobel peace thingies.

 

[Lucky]

How in the world does he think this would possibly help? I seriously think he's going senile upstairs.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Are people now going to believe the Isrealis when they say he promotes terrorism? Here is more proof.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Aw shucks. Arafat's just a good ol' boy who's trying to bring an end to the human bombings by bringing Hamas into the PA in order to mellow them out a little bit. They're all gonna sit around smokin' ganja, chewin' hash and groovin' on the young boys serving them Chips Ahoy.

 

[rbhawcroft]

the pa is another police state it has 7 security orgs, arfat is the leader bec he chairs the plo which is an umbrella group for the main resistance orgs, so he needs their support, also hamas is stronger in the refugee camps. he is also under us, eu and israeli pressure to reform the pa make it less corrup and croyist etc, he also has a record of using the radicals for self interst, who knows why he is bringing them in?

maybe it is before a peace push this summer, and he wants 'ministerial tempation' as a lever on them to conceed their position and support an acceptable offer to israel, however i dont see how any offer can be more then what was offered in syria a few months ago and rejected then by sharon.

 

[prontospyder]

very disappointing......it's time for new elections in Palestine.

 

[Dually]

I want Arafat removed now then. If he is offering government positions to terrorist organizations then he is a terrorist still.

 

[LaBang]

Don't like it. But if elections were held, i'm pretty sure that the outcome would go to the extremists. That is who the people support. Are we the americans supposed to install puppet regimes in every country that we wish?

 

[thebestMAX]

The refusal by these groups to acept these positions proves one thing, they dont want a negotiated peace. They just want to kill everybody who disagrees with them.

(Not that I trust one word that comes out of the frog faced Arafats mouth either)

 

[DaiShan]

Originally posted by: Lucky
How in the world does he think this would possibly help? I seriously think he's going senile upstairs.

It will help, it will help him, as they have a fanatical millitant wing that can aid the "Palestinian" cause. He needs millitary support if he is to continue to attack Israel.

 

[EagleKeeper]

If Hamas gets into the PLO leadership positions and another attack happens, they (PLO) can claim that it is a a splinter.

The same that washappening this sping with Arafats group.

The only good is that if Israel gets pissed off, they have the proper justification to clean house of the PLO because this politic policy will be transparent to the whole neutral world.