Islamic Jihad, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Call for Cease-Fire Until Election

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The New York Sun

Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leaders in the West Bank said yesterday they would unilaterally cease all attacks in Israel for 60 days to help facilitate elections for Palestinian Authority chairman, slated for January 9.


The move follows a shootout Sunday evening at the official Gaza Strip funeral tent for Yasser Arafat, which left two dead, including a bodyguard of the PLO secretary-general, Mahmoud Abbas.


While some Palestinian Arab analysts rushed to warn of impending chaos, opposition groups lined up to tell the press yesterday that they will do everything in their power to prevent internal strife.


“We will abstain from attacks on targets inside Israel during the 60-day period so that we will not be accused of sabotaging the democratic process inside Palestine,” an Islamic Jihad leader in Nablus, Abu Khaled, told the Jerusalem Post. “This decision is also being discussed at the political level abroad.”


Islamic Jihad’s Damascus-based Shura Council, essentially its higher decision-making body, has debated a declaration of a cease-fire since Arafat took ill almost three weeks ago, according to Mr. Khaled. He mentioned his group’s intention to call off what he called “martyrdom operations” no less than three times during the interview.


In a separate meeting, Nasser Juma’a, leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Nablus, said, “We accept a kind of one-sided hudna [cease-fire].”


However, he conditioned this to the “PA’s treatment of our military groups,” which he later said was a plea for financial compensation.


Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have vowed to continue fighting the IDF within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Both groups deem soldiers and settlers as legitimate targets.


Hamas will not join the cease-fire, its spokesman Sami Zuhri said last night. “We reserve the right to retaliate for Israeli aggressions,” he said in a telephone interview. Without declaring it, Israel and the terrorist organizations have quietly toned down their rhetoric and assaults since Arafat’s collapse.


A spokesmen for Mr. Abbas’s administration as PA prime minister last year, Elias Zanariri, said the groups have been mulling over a cease-fire decision for several days. He observed that by leaving open the possibility of attacking settlers and soldiers, they appear to be “giving a chance to the new leader without having to identify with his political line.”


Still, some Palestinian Arab analysts wondered whether the groups, almost totally decentralized after four years of IDF attempts to decimate them, would be able to coordinate such an ambitious policy of restraint.


“With all due respect to these leaders,” said Palestinian Legislative Council member Ziad Abu Amr, “this is a larger political decision. It should not be left to the isolated local leaders.”


Mr. Abbas met with the PA’s various security organizations yesterday afternoon and then with officials from the opposition groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP. They concluded to do everything in their power to avoid a political and military meltdown.


Still, Hamas and Islamic Jihad both announced yesterday that they will not run candidates for PA chairman. Recent polls indicate that no candidate from the Islamic groups stands a chance of winning, and Mr. Abbas remains the favorite.


[Separately, Israel reversed course yesterday and said it might coordinate next year’s Gaza Strip pullout with the Palestinian Authority if it cracked down on terrorists – a sign that Prime Minister Sharon was changing his approach after Arafat’s death, according to an Associated Press report.]


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