Kilgor
04-03-2005, 09:27 PM
Marie Colvin, Jerusalem
April 04, 2005
PALESTINIAN fighters have revealed that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group is paying up to $US9000 ($11,600) for each attack aimed at breaking the fragile truce with Israel.
In the first concrete evidence of Iranian interference in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the men – all on Israel's most-wanted list – said the militant Lebanese group had sent the payments to the West Bank over the past four years.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made it clear that one suicide bomber in Tel Aviv could prompt him to abandon negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and might even delay Israel's disengagement from Gaza, which is planned for July.
The men said most of the money from Hezbollah had been sent to Islamic Jihad, the militant fundamentalist group that has sent suicide bombers into Israeli cities.
All members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the mainstream Fatah group founded by Yasser Arafat, the men knew of the payments because they liaised with Islamic Jihad in their area, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
"They would send Islamic Jihad money in amounts of something like $US4000," said Ala'a Sanakreh, the 27-year-old leader of the group. "It's easy – they just use Western Union," he said, referring to the global money transfer service.
Sanakreh and his fellow fugitives spoke to The Sunday Times in a house in the Balata refugee camp, which is under Israeli security control. Despite the present truce, the Israelis could come after them at any moment.
The group has a primitive but effective warning system of placing boys on rooftops overlooking the alleys of the camp.
Sanakreh said he had taken the money from Hezbollah when former Palestinian leader Arafat had stopped paying Fatah's fighters.
"We disagreed with the Islamic Jihad people because Hezbollah would send money only for attacking Israel. They did not take care of the shaheed (martyr) families. So we then stopped taking the money."
According to Sanakreh, those who had since been offered money by Hezbollah had turned it down. Their leaders had made it clear that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should be given a chance to negotiate with the Israelis.
But Sanakreh said he had received a call from a Hezbollah representative in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Other militants in the West Bank, who would not be named, said the same man had called groups offering money to get them to mount an attack.
Mr Abbas solidified an agreement to keep the peace two weeks ago in Cairo by persuading 13 of the most radical Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to co-operate.
Since then, the price of a bullet in Gaza has fallen from about $US9 to $US5. The sermons in the mosques are also evidence of a new era. Preachers are no longer calling for sacrifice, but guiding the faithful on which way to vote in Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for this year.
Islamic activists are mounting a strong challenge to Fatah, and Hamas is debating whether to accept ministries in a post-election Palestinian government negotiating with Israel, which it does not recognise.
Sanakreh said that although he was not privy to politics on any senior level, he believed from his discussions with local Islamic Jihad members that the money offered for fresh attacks came from Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard.
Even though the truce is holding, the money from Hezbollah, which takes its orders from Tehran, appears to be evidence of Iran's desire to stop a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Sunday Times
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12742250%255E2703,00.html
Suprise suprise....
April 04, 2005
PALESTINIAN fighters have revealed that the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group is paying up to $US9000 ($11,600) for each attack aimed at breaking the fragile truce with Israel.
In the first concrete evidence of Iranian interference in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the men – all on Israel's most-wanted list – said the militant Lebanese group had sent the payments to the West Bank over the past four years.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made it clear that one suicide bomber in Tel Aviv could prompt him to abandon negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and might even delay Israel's disengagement from Gaza, which is planned for July.
The men said most of the money from Hezbollah had been sent to Islamic Jihad, the militant fundamentalist group that has sent suicide bombers into Israeli cities.
All members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the mainstream Fatah group founded by Yasser Arafat, the men knew of the payments because they liaised with Islamic Jihad in their area, near the West Bank city of Nablus.
"They would send Islamic Jihad money in amounts of something like $US4000," said Ala'a Sanakreh, the 27-year-old leader of the group. "It's easy – they just use Western Union," he said, referring to the global money transfer service.
Sanakreh and his fellow fugitives spoke to The Sunday Times in a house in the Balata refugee camp, which is under Israeli security control. Despite the present truce, the Israelis could come after them at any moment.
The group has a primitive but effective warning system of placing boys on rooftops overlooking the alleys of the camp.
Sanakreh said he had taken the money from Hezbollah when former Palestinian leader Arafat had stopped paying Fatah's fighters.
"We disagreed with the Islamic Jihad people because Hezbollah would send money only for attacking Israel. They did not take care of the shaheed (martyr) families. So we then stopped taking the money."
According to Sanakreh, those who had since been offered money by Hezbollah had turned it down. Their leaders had made it clear that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should be given a chance to negotiate with the Israelis.
But Sanakreh said he had received a call from a Hezbollah representative in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Other militants in the West Bank, who would not be named, said the same man had called groups offering money to get them to mount an attack.
Mr Abbas solidified an agreement to keep the peace two weeks ago in Cairo by persuading 13 of the most radical Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to co-operate.
Since then, the price of a bullet in Gaza has fallen from about $US9 to $US5. The sermons in the mosques are also evidence of a new era. Preachers are no longer calling for sacrifice, but guiding the faithful on which way to vote in Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for this year.
Islamic activists are mounting a strong challenge to Fatah, and Hamas is debating whether to accept ministries in a post-election Palestinian government negotiating with Israel, which it does not recognise.
Sanakreh said that although he was not privy to politics on any senior level, he believed from his discussions with local Islamic Jihad members that the money offered for fresh attacks came from Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guard.
Even though the truce is holding, the money from Hezbollah, which takes its orders from Tehran, appears to be evidence of Iran's desire to stop a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Sunday Times
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12742250%255E2703,00.html
Suprise suprise....