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Jail Raid Boosts Kadima Ratings, PA Seeks Redress
RAMALLAH, March16 , 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli opinion polls showed on Thursday, March16 , that a military raid on a West Bank jail to detain a senior Palestinian activist boosted the pre-election ratings of the ruling Kadima party, as a senior Palestinian lawmaker said the Palestinian Authority would seek legal redress.
Israel's top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper and tabloid rival Maariv said Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party was set to win 39 of the 120 seats in Knesset, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Public radio put Kadima's fortunes even higher at 43 seats.
Israeli occupation forces stormed on Tuesday, March14 , a US-British guarded prison compound in the West Bank town of Areha (Jericho) and detained Ahmad Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and five others.
Two Palestinian security guards were killed and 26 others wounded, five of them critically, in the Israeli raid.
Thursday's surveys -- published 12 days before the March 28 election -- mark a reverse in fortunes for Kadima whose support levels have been slowly eroding in polls over the last five weeks amid speculation over corruption charges.
In a country dominated by security concerns, 60 percent of respondents told Maariv they believed the jail raid was conducted for security reasons while 34 percent said it was prompted by politics.
Palestinians have accused Olmert of ordering the operation as an election tactic, which he denied.
Legal Redress
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel Thursday of seeking to undermine the PA.
"What happened in Areha and the crimes against the Palestinian people... is a pre-planned scheme to destroy the Palestinian Authority. This is the basis of Israeli policy," he said.
MP Erekat, a prominent Fatah leader, said the Palestinians were mulling seeking legal redress abroad over the capture of the Palestinian prisoners.
"The prisoners must be returned immediately to the Palestinian police and Israel has no legal right to try them. We are considering heading to the International Court of Justice at The Hague."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has held the Untied States and Britain responsible for the Israeli attack after they withdrew their monitors from the prison minutes before the raid.
More
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-03/16/article06.shtml
Public radio put Kadima's fortunes even higher at 43 seats.
Israeli occupation forces stormed on Tuesday, March14 , a US-British guarded prison compound in the West Bank town of Areha (Jericho) and detained Ahmad Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and five others.
Two Palestinian security guards were killed and 26 others wounded, five of them critically, in the Israeli raid.
Thursday's surveys -- published 12 days before the March 28 election -- mark a reverse in fortunes for Kadima whose support levels have been slowly eroding in polls over the last five weeks amid speculation over corruption charges.
In a country dominated by security concerns, 60 percent of respondents told Maariv they believed the jail raid was conducted for security reasons while 34 percent said it was prompted by politics.
Palestinians have accused Olmert of ordering the operation as an election tactic, which he denied.
Legal Redress
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Israel Thursday of seeking to undermine the PA.
"What happened in Areha and the crimes against the Palestinian people... is a pre-planned scheme to destroy the Palestinian Authority. This is the basis of Israeli policy," he said.
MP Erekat, a prominent Fatah leader, said the Palestinians were mulling seeking legal redress abroad over the capture of the Palestinian prisoners.
"The prisoners must be returned immediately to the Palestinian police and Israel has no legal right to try them. We are considering heading to the International Court of Justice at The Hague."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has held the Untied States and Britain responsible for the Israeli attack after they withdrew their monitors from the prison minutes before the raid.
More
http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-03/16/article06.shtml
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The storming of the Jericho prison by Israeli forces this week has brought an increase in the popularity of the government of the acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to the first opinion poll taken since the raid. The findings for Army Radio less than two weeks before the Israeli general election follow widespread Israeli media acclaim for the raid and show a rise of five seats to 43 for the Kadima Party. They have yet to be corroborated by other polls to be taken in the wake of the prison siege.
The poll also shows an unexpected rise of two seats to 16 for Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party, whose strategists are reportedly worried that the Jericho raid will boost Kadima's fortunes at their expense. It shows Labour slipping to third place with 14 seats, although other polls have shown it at about 20.
The Israeli pollster Avi Dagani said the findings for Likud showed an "outgrowth" effect of the raid, which has provoked Palestinian condemnations of Israel and of Britain and the US for withdrawing their monitoring mission from the jail. The Palestinian leadership has rejected British and US explanations that the monitors were withdrawn because of security threats and the laxity of the regime under which the prisoners were kept.
The poll also found that 61 per cent of voters thought the raid "vital from the national security standpoint", while 23 per cent attributed electoral motives to the raid. Six wanted prisoners, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader, Ahmed Saadat, who is accused of ordering the 2001 assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi, surrendered at the end of Tuesday's siege.
Israeli officials made no effort to disguise their view that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, had been weakened by the episode. Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said the US and the UK had withdrawn because the Palestinians had not "performed their obligations" and because Hamas had won the Palestinian elections. "The responsibility for Mahmoud Abbas's powerlessness lies with Mahmoud Abbas," she said.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article351759.ece
"Universally in the Muslim world, at least according to the most recent polling data, American foreign policy in several specific areas is hated by Muslims. Majorities of 85-90 percent are registered as hating or resenting American policies, towards our support for Israel, our ability to keep oil prices low, or low enough to satisfy Western consumers, our support for Arab tyrannies from Morocco to the Indian Ocean, our support for Putin in Chechnya."
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/01/int05001.html
Bin Laden's own words:
"Our terrorism against the United States is worthy of praise to deter the oppressor so that America stop its support for Israel, which is killing our children."
He's said LOTS of stuff like this, and such words speak straight to the heart of millions in the Middle East. That's why he has a following. Duh.
Chomsky:
"Like others in the region, he is also outraged by long-standing US support for Israel's brutal military occupation, now in its 35th year"
http://www.counterpunch.org/chomskyintv.html
The OBVIOUS CONNECTION between anger over Israel and terror attacks on US targets is the 800-lb gorilla in the room you zios want people to never ever notice.
I keep telling you your mind-tricks only work on WEAK minds
Reaction to Western encroachment -- which means Israel foremost because Israel has become the main spearhead -- has been a driving force behind the Islamist movement for decades, going back to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, from which Arafat, Fatah, etc. emerged. What 1967 was for you, 1948 was for them. Why is this so mysterious for you? Or are you only out to mystify it for everyone else?