Israel wants permanent Abbas dialogue
(AP)
Updated: 2006-09-19 21:49
The plan aimed to establish a Palestinian state by 2005, but Israel and the
Palestinians have failed to carry out their obligations and it has languished.
Public support in Israel for the West Bank pullback sank after the militants
allied with Hamas tunneled from the Gaza Strip into Israel to kidnap the soldier
at an army post. The attack, which came after Israel withdrew last year from the
Gaza Strip, sparked a large military offensive in the Palestinian area in which
more than 200 Palestinians have been killed, most of them militants.
Israelis have also been skeptical of any serious moves toward reconciliation
with Arabs since a 34-day war in Lebanon against Hezbollah guerrillas who
carried out a cross-border attack in mid-July, killing three Israeli soldiers
and capturing two.
A poll published Tuesday showed that two-thirds of Palestinians back Hamas'
refusal to recognize Israel, although support for the group has dropped since it
took power in March from 47 percent to 38 percent.
According to the poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey
Research, 54 percent of those questioned were dissatisfied with the overall
performance of the Hamas government, with 69 percent saying they were displeased
by the dire economic situation.
The poll questioned 1,268 adults in face-to-face interviews in mid-September
and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
In other news:
-- Israeli security officials said Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered
the demolition of about 45 structures in unauthorized Jewish settlement outposts
in the West Bank, and that they would be torn down within weeks.
Peretz's earlier plans to remove 12 outposts were shunted aside in July after
the war in Lebanon broke out. Israel promised the U.S. three years ago to take
down about two dozen outposts erected after Ariel Sharon became prime minister
in 2001, but little action has been taken.
-- Masked gunmen entered the office of the official Palestinian WAFA
news agency in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis and beat up the bureau
chief, Amru al-Farra. The gunmen demanded that WAFA, which is considered to be
pro-Fatah, be more objective in its reporting.
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