Bush Freezes Assets of Hamas Leaders, Backers BURBANK, Wash. (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Friday announced a freeze on the assets of six leaders of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and five organizations accused of financially supporting the group. Bush said in a written statement that he ordered the U.S. Treasury Department (news - web sites) to act following Tuesday's suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem, which killed 20 people. "By claiming responsibility for the despicable act of terror on Aug. 19, Hamas has reaffirmed that it is a terrorist organization committed to violence against Israelis and to undermining progress toward peace between Israel and the Palestinian people," Bush said. Bush, in the Pacific Northwest to promote his environmental record and raise money for his re-election campaign, said, "I call upon all nations supportive of peace in the Middle East to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization."
Great Move by Bush. If a group wishes to act as terrorists we must cut off their funding and go after them. Under the same token, we should cut funding to Israel because shooting a rocket into an apartment building is terrorism as well. Assasinations of people is an act of terrorism. Wrong is wrong.
According to the Geneva Convention, shooting a rocket into an apartment building is not a war crime if enemy combatants are being harbored by the residents of the apartment building. Using your logic, the United States is a terrorist nation for attacking the Taliban.
Excellent move by the Bush Administration. I wished it was done earlier, but this is a powerful, non-violent way to address the situation.
How about the residents who have no idea there are terrorists in their building and have absolutely nothing to do with the whole thing. Using your logic if their are 30 apartments in a building and and one of them is sheltering a terrorist, unbeknownst to the rest of the families in that building it is okay sluahgter them all.
If the residents don't know there are terrorists there, then they aren't "harboring" them, are they? That was a lousy attempt of making me look callous, but you failed with your faulty logic.
a good move and overdue they should not be allowed to operate here at all, not raise money, and not be promoted. they are a terrorist organization, and a worthy target. I say grease them in the home base in Syria.
LOL, I can't figure you out. In some threads, you call people "chicken hawks" and "cowards" for supporting our President's ambitions in Iraq, and then in other threads you are ready to move on Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. You need to pick a side and stay there.
I'm sure all of the children that died in that apartment building were 'harboring terrorists' With that rationale, the Palestinians should be able to attack and bomb anyone in Israel because military service is a requirement in the country for ALL men and women. So every individual is, was, or will be a member of the IDF except for a religious sect that have a government exemption.
International law speaks to this as well. If human shields are used in war, then the combatants hiding behind the shields are liable for their deaths. You know as well as I do Khan, that the majority of Palestinians support these suicide bombers. Their culture is broken, but how can it be fixed? I completely disagree also with your constant assertion that Israeli military responses against legitimate Hamas targets are as immoral as suicide bombers targeting teenagers.
But do you understand my assertion that if EVERY Israeli man and woman must serve in the military by law when they turn 18, then they all are military in that respect and legitimate targets. An attack against a group of 10 adults could be viewed as an attack on military personnel or former military personnel. And the Israeli public continues to support violence and a segregationist attitude that creates the mechanisms that spawn extremism. The more you blast buildings the more you support another generation of violence. I personally think they are both wrong and think that if they all want to kill each other than that is fine by me. But we are financially linked into this conflict because of the billions of dollars we give Israel, their US Made Planes and Tanks as well as their significant nuclear capability. That is what pulls us into this mess.
Yes, I understand that logic, although we both realize it is immoral to target teenagers. You must understand too that segregation is the only answer at this point. There aren't any suicide bombers coming from Gaza because there is a fence. The West Bank needs a fence around it too, so the Palestinians have the suicide bomber option taken away.
Then why not just close the settlements and end a strong majority of the violence? A proposal for the occupied territories to be turned into a self-ruling Palestinian state has been denied by Isreal time and time again. Its Ironic because the whole world now says they'll recognize Israel within the 1947 borders, what it originally wanted, but now it wants more. Even if there was a separate country, both Jewish and Palestinian extremists would still be upset, but their numbers would dwindle and if you had a real Palestinian government with something to lose and a country they would not last long at all. The fact that millions of Palestinians live in a police state run by the IDF and have little to no access to water, food, jobs and other necessities is environment that is culminating with a desperation so profound, that one will take their own life simply to kill others. I just don't understand why Israel won't compromise and go back to the 1967 borders and allow the occupied territories to become a Palestinian state.
I'm not a pacifist. I believe war has its utility. Why attack Iraq when Syria and Saudi are the two to take down? That kills terrorism at its two fountainheads, eliminates the best Arab military in the region, pulls the slats out from under Hamas, and secures twice the oil reserves of Iraq.
Ehud Barak essentially offered this and Yasser Arafat never offer a counterproposal. The 1967 borders will never be back, but Israel is willing to give up land to make up for it.
Then why not just close the settlements and end a strong majority of the violence? A proposal for the occupied territories to be turned into a self-ruling Palestinian state has been denied by Isreal time and time again. Its Ironic because the whole world now says they'll recognize Israel within the 1947 borders, what it originally wanted, but now it wants more. Even if there was a separate country, both Jewish and Palestinian extremists would still be upset, but their numbers would dwindle and if you had a real Palestinian government with something to lose and a country they would not last long at all. The fact that millions of Palestinians live in a police state run by the IDF and have little to no access to water, food, jobs and other necessities is environment that is culminating with a desperation so profound, that one will take their own life simply to kill others. I just don't understand why Israel won't compromise and go back to the 1967 borders and allow the occupied territories to become a Palestinian state.
I agree. First though, the suicide bombers have to be stopped, so the Israeli people can feel safe. If the Israelis feel more secure, I think Likud will be voted out of power, and then a more Liberal coalition will force the dismantlement of the settlements. If the Palestinians want the settlements gone, they must stop the violence. It is in the Palestinian's control, in my opinion.
