Free Republic

Hizbullah’s deputy secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, asserted over the weekend that it was not in Europe’s interest to be “subordinate to the United States.” In a statement released Sunday, Qassem said: “I say to the European countries, if you want to enjoy distinction (in the region), then you should not scrutinize the resistance movements in the region, especially those in occupied Palestine, by describing them as terrorists.” He added that labeling these movements as terrorist would mean that the Europeans would “lose the people in this region.” “Now that the Oslo Accords and the Madrid (Peace Conference) have died,” he...

More Palestinians are openly criticizing the strategy of suicide bombings and voicing mixed feelings about Arafat. JERUSALEM – After 21 months of open conflict, many Palestinians are rethinking two key elements of their struggle against Israel: their leader and the use of violence against Israeli civilians. Decades of backing Yasser Arafat and years of fighting Israel with suicide bombers have not produced any positive gains, a growing number of Palestinians now say. "There have been suicide bombings for years," says Fatheeyeh Budair, whose son Issa killed himself and 15 Israelis in a bombing near Tel Aviv in May. "And there...

<p>On May 21 the State Department issued its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism report for the year 2001. Elsewhere in the government, terrorism is addressed with a new seriousness. The report, however, whitewashes the now thoroughly documented terrorist activities of Yasser Arafat and Fatah, Arafat's umbrella political-paramilitary organization inside the PLO.</p>

DUBAI: Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, said the Palestinian uprising against "Zionist injustice" must go on, in an interview published in the UAE daily Al-Khaleej. "The Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Zionist injustice and aggression is a holy war and a legitimate resistance", Sheikh Tantawi said. "That's why the intifada must go on, until the Palestinian people achieve their aim, even if it means more victims. We must not lose hope and submit to Zionist terrorism supported by America", he added. He also said that "martyr operations (suicide attacks) against the occupying army and armed settlers...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Some Palestinian parents are doing what Israeli tanks and bullets have been unable to do - stopping suicide bombers. Palestinian psychologists say a growing number of parents in the West Bank and Gaza have been seeking help to keep their children from becoming suicide bombers. "This has been happening more and more often in the last few months as the Palestinian resistance has deepened," said Mahmud Sehwail, the general director of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture in Ramallah. "The parents say they have detected a significant change in the behavior of their...

(April 14) - "To know the competitiveness, jealousies, chaos and blind chance that prevail in the news business is to realize that an all-media conspiracy is an impossibility. "Yet it is difficult to find a rational explanation for the almost total uniformity with which the media make decisions on the newsworthiness of Israeli events." - David Bar-Illan, "Eye on the Media" Sept. 1994 IT WAS not originally my intention to reprise the column made famous by my predecessor, David Bar-Illan. When you get this job, you get an office in which Jerusalem Post founder Gershon Agron's portrait gazes over you...