They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Fatah calls for Gaza, Lebanon cease-fire

UPI

Fatah's Central Committee has urged the United Nations Security Council to take a resolution on the spot for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon.

A statement issued Tuesday following a meeting chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas also called for an international conference for peace in the Middle East to prevent a further escalation of the violence that is threatening the sweep the whole volatile region.

"We urge an international peace conference on the basis of the Arab peace initiative endorsed at the Beirut Arab summit and on the Road Map," the statement said, holding the international community fully responsible for curbing the collapse of the peace process.

The statement also pleaded with Arab leaders to act quickly to end "the dangerous Israeli offensive" against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.

It also demanded that Arabs "draw a unified strategy for recovering our land and prisoners and the creation of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

The Fatah statement stressed that the Arab peace initiative constitutes the proper base for reviving the deadlocked peace process which Arab League Secretary General Amr Mousa has mourned, calling it dead.

"Israel's withdrawal from all Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories captured in 1967 is the political basis acceptable by the Arabs for achieving security, stability and peace in the Middle East," the statement said.

In another development, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was partially re-opened Tuesday, in one direction, to allow Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side to enter the strip.

Palestinian security sources said the decision to reopen the Palestinians' sole access to the outside world was taken after international observers returned to their positions on the crossing, which was closed for three weeks following an Israeli security warning that prompted the observers to pull out. Link