ABBAS ATTACKS ISRAELI 'WAR CRIMES' AND 'INTENTIONAL MURDER' OF 2 YOUTHS AS
DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO BUST CEASE FIRE
By Michael Widlanski
JERUSALEM--May 5, 2005

The official Palestinian Authority (PA) media opened their reports
Thursday with a slashing attack on Israel for "deliberately killing" two
Palestinian youths yesterday as part of an intentional Israeli plan to bust
the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire.

The Palestinian broadcast media, quoting a spokesman for PA leader
Mahmoud Abbas, said that Israel planned the deaths of 'Uday 'Aasi, 15,
and Jamal 'Aasi, 17 who were killed when attacking fence-building
operations near Beit Liqiyya.

"The two youths were martyred heroically when the Israeli Occupation
Army fired its weapons at them in the village of Beit Liqiyya north west of
Ramallah when they opposed Israeli bulldozers building the racist separation
fence. Glory and eternity to our immaculate martyrs." (PBC 7 AM)

The Palestinian media said that a spokesman for PA president Mahmoud
Abbas condemned the "war crime" as "an intentional escalation which was
designed to destroy the 'hudna,' and it will bring forth reactions."

Neither the Palestinian media nor Palestinian officials specified what
"reactions" might be forthcoming.

Israeli Maj. Gen. Ya'ir Naveh suspended the Israeli army commander at the
scene of the shooting, pending completion of an investigation of whether the
soldiers were justified in shooting at the men who attacked them with rocks.

"The Israeli government is not carrying out its agreements to withdraw
from our cities, to release our prisoners, and it is building a barrier
fence on our lands," declared a statement by the presidential spokesman
read on PBC television and Voice of Palestine (VOP) radio.

"The Israeli government is sending a message of terrorism to us,"
reported Khalil Abu-Arab, the VOP correspondent in Ramallah during a report
Thursday morning, using the term "irhaab" (terror) repeatedly, a term which
is not employed in the Palestinian media to describe Palestinian actions.

Meanwhile, the head of Israeli military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze'evi
(Farkash) has spent the last two days trying to send a message of
conciliation and optimism. In an interview on Voice of Israel radio, Gen.
Zeevi said he believed that PA leader Abbas was working hard to curb
Palestinian violence and to collect arms held by Palestinian terror groups.

Gen. Ze'evi made similar comments in a cabinet briefing yesterday, but
his conclusions and analysis were challenged strongly by Avi Dichter, the
head of the "Shabak" or "Shin-Bet," Israel's domestic intelligence service.
They have also been challenged by Israeli army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Moshe
Ya'alon, but both Dichter and Ya'alon are being pushed out of their jobs
within a few weeks.

An Israeli sergeant, Dan Telesnikov, was killed by Islamic Jihad
terrorists in Tulkarm, a Palestinian city where the PA leadership was
supposed to have disarmed insurgents several weeks ago, and there is
considerable discomfort in the Israeli army about the politicization of
intelligence reporting and operations.

Gen. Ze'evi and several analysts vetted by him have contended that the PA
has also sharply curtailed Palestinian incitement against Israelis such as
stopping "martyr films."

However, the official Palestinian radio and television outlets have
actually stepped up incitement in several ways such as through the
broadcasting of virulent mosque speeches, embracing terrorists as "martyrs"
and derogatory references to "the Tel Aviv government."

[Background Note: "Hudna" is a temporary ceasefire between a Muslim and
a non-Muslim, but the PA and the Hamas have consistently used the term
"tahdiyya" which means even less-a partial "lull" or "cooling-off". Abbas
holds the title of chairman of the PLO and president or chairman of the
Palestinian Authority ].

REPORT COMPILED BY MICHAEL WIDLANSKI ASSOCIATES.
COMMISSIONED BY THE CENTER FOR NEAR EAST POLICY RESEARCH.
[Permission to quote or reprint from article conditional on citing Michael
Widlanski or Michael Widlanski Associates.]

Dr. Michael Widlanski is a specialist in Arab politics and communication
whose doctorate dealt with the Palestinian broadcast media. He is a former
reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times
,The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post.