Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Ottime notizie da Israele

                     *Associated Press/AP Online
JERUSALEM - Israel has stopped targeting Palestinian
militants for death, Israeli security officials said early
Wednesday, fulfilling a key Palestinian demand for a truce to end
four years of violence.
In another step forward in relations, a senior Israeli
official said Israel has decided to resume diplomatic contacts with
the Palestinians after cutting them off for almost two weeks over a
bombing in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been encouraged by the Palestinian investigation
into the Jan. 13 bombing that killed six Israelis and the deployment
of Palestinian security forces in Gaza to stop attacks on Israelis,
said the official, who requested anonymity.
Meanwhile, other Israeli officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Israel has informed the Palestinians of their
decision to stop targeting militants for death. It came after
generals from the two sides met Tuesday to plan deployment of
Palestinian police in central and southern Gaza, to prevent
militants from attacking Israelis.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert suggested Wednesday that Israel had
decided to refrain from some military operations.
"Always our decisions were in accordance with the
reality on the ground and it seems that if there is a real chance
that there is Palestinian activity to prevent terror ... this is
something we need to relate to."
Vice Premier Shimon Peres went a step further, saying
Wednesday; "If there won't be reasons for targeted killings,
there won't be targeted killings."
Israeli officials have been reluctant to state publicly what
Israel will do in response to a reduction in Palestinian attacks,
saying only that "quiet will be met with quiet."
Since Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas took office earlier
this month, he been negotiating with militant groups about a truce
declaration. In return, the militants are demanding that Israel stop
its military operations and halt its killing of militant leaders.
The groups agreed to a one-month halt in attacks to test
Israel's response.
On Tuesday, the Damascus-based leader of the violent Islamic
Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, described during a telephone interview with
The Associated Press his group's conditions for a truce.
"If the Zionist enemy (Israel) abides by certain
conditions, such as releasing all prisoners and detainees and
halting all acts of killing, assassination and aggression against
our people inside and outside (the Palestinian territories), the
general national position of all Palestinian factions has become
that they are ready to positively deal with the idea of a temporary
truce," Mashaal said.
Israel is holding about 7,000 Palestinian prisoners,
including some responsible for bloody attacks, but Israel has not
agreed to free them.
The security officials said Israel would not act on its
current target list of militants, but they warned that if
Palestinians resume hostile activity, they will target those
responsible.
Speaking from an undisclosed location in Beirut, Lebanon,
Mashaal told the AP that the success of the truce effort depended on
Israel.
"This is a moment of test," said Mashaal, who is
based in Damascus, Syria. "It puts the responsibility on the
international community and the United States to force Israel to
recognize the Palestinian rights."
Israel has killed dozens of suspected Palestinian militants
in targeted raids during four years of conflict, many in helicopter
missile strikes as well as bombings and ambushes.
Israel defended the practice by saying that it was
preventing further attacks, but human rights groups have criticized
it. Many bystanders have also died in the attacks.
The most prominent Palestinians killed in the targeted
attacks were the founder of the violent Islamic Hamas, Sheik Ahmed
Yassin, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, killed in helicopter
missile strikes a few weeks apart last year.
After nightfall Tuesday, the Palestinian public security
commander, Maj. Gen. Moussa Arafat, met with the Israeli commander
in Gaza, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, at the Erez crossing point between
Israel and Gaza, their second session in a week.
They discussed plans for a police deployment in southern
Gaza at the two-hour meeting, which came just days after some 3,000
Palestinian police deployed in northern Gaza to guard against
militant rocket attacks on Israeli communities. No rockets or mortar
shells have hit Israeli communities since last week.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told AP that
beginning Thursday, police would take up positions near Khan Younis
and Rafah in southern Gaza - frequent flashpoints of clashes between
Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. He said another security
meeting was expected Wednesday.
Erekat also said he had been in touch by phone with aides of
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to prepare for a possible
meeting with Abbas. He said contacts with Israel were going well,
but the two sides had not begun to discuss the agenda for a meeting.
Speaking before Israel's parliament Tuesday, Sharon harshly
criticized opponents of his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and
dismantle four West Bank settlements by this summer.
Sharon said that "in the past year, there has been an
upsurge of voices threatening the integrity of Israeli
democracy." Without mentioning the pullback plan, Sharon
complained that a minority in Israel was unwilling to accept the
will of the majority.

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Mi sembra solo una messa in scena. Una messa in scena necessaria in quanto 
Abu Mazen sta facendo un gioco estremamente pericoloso per il governo 
sharon: sta cercando di realizzare la pace.
Se ci fosse davvero la buona volonta' da parte di israele perche allora 
confiscare le terre palestinesi a Gerusalemme:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/530047.html
Si accettano scommesse che ci sara' un nuovo attentato contro israele che 
"forzera' " israele ad attuare misure molto restrittive, misure che a loro 
volta genereranno le reazioni dei palestinesi. Cosi' che il gioco del 
governo sharon potra continuare indisturbato.
Premetto che questa sarebbe una delle poche volte che preferirei perdere una 
scommessa...
Vedremo..
K
-- 
"Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity"