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| By Israel Insider staff June 20, 2007 |
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, addressing his people on TV Wednesday in an unusually fiery speech, slammed Hamas for attacking "national symbols" during its Gaza takeover and, adopting for the first time the terminology of the rest of the world, referred to them as "murderous terrorists." He said that Hamas replaced the "national project" with "its project of darkness," and expressed outrage at the ransacking of the house of Yasser Arafat, in which his Nobel Prize was stolen.
Abbas accused Hamas of trying to set up its own state in Gaza, a step he said would scuttle Palestinian hopes for independence. "It's a fight between the national project and this small kingdom they want to establish in Gaza, the kingdom of Gaza, between those who are using assassination and killing to achieve their goals, and those who are using the rules of law."
He said that although he had tried to prevent the conflict through "continuous dialogue," instead "we are seeing assassination of leaders of Palestinian security and Fatah in Gaza."
The result, he said, was that "The PLO flag is being trampled beneath Hamas's feet."
Abbas accused Hamas of trying to assassinate him on a planned visit to Gaza a month ago, digging a tunnel under a road where his car was to pass and trying to fill it with 250 kilograms of explosives. He said he had watched videotapes of the operation, showing militants with Hamas insignias on their shirts doing the work, dismissing Hamas claims that the explosives tunnel was aimed at Israelis. "I have sent these tapes to all the Arab countries, to show how this dark movement is acting," he said. He said the Hamas militia was now illegal, but he warned Israel not to take advantage of the Gaza situation to tighten its control of the West Bank.
"The coup seekers through their madness have given a golden opportunity to those who want to separate Gaza from the West Bank," he said. |
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