By Nabil Al Mulhem
Albawaba.com - Damascus
Secretary general of the Islamic Jihad has reinstated that the military operation planned by his movement against Israel might exceed the Palestinian territories to be carried out inside the Jewish state.
“I do not rule out this possibility, “ said Ramadan Shalah in a statement to Albawaba.com in Damascus on Friday. “The conditions in the field will determine the scope of the movement’s operations.”
However, the Islamist Palestinian leader said that his faction “is not looking forward to drag the region into a wide-scale war, but seeks the liberation of the occupied land through resistance.”
Shalah added that the Palestinian authority should defend its people as long as there are confrontations with Israel.
The Islamic Jihad marked in Damascus the same day the fifth anniversary of the assassination of its leader Fathi Shiqaqi at he hands of the Israeli Mossad in Malta.
At a rally held by the movement on this occasion, Deputy Secretary of Hizbollah, Naim Qassem, referred to arrangement between the Lebanese group and the Islamic Jihad. He did not elaborate on such cooperation for security reasons.
Qassem assailed the Arab regimes charging that “they use their arsenals against their peoples, instead of Israel.”
“We do not want them to fight Israel,” he said, “but we do not want them to fight us for the sake of Israel.”
Qassem went on to analyze the Israeli mentality basing his judgment on his group’s experiences from the war with Israel that resulted in Israeli pullback from the occupied part of south Lebanon.
“Israel panicked whenever one of its soldier was killed by a Katyosha rocket. Not only that, but its hospitals used to be packed with soldiers suffering nervous shocks from the attacks.”
For his part, Ahmad Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command said the Intifada had its impact on the stability of the Arab regimes. He attacked the Arab leaders for what he described as a feeble position at the recent Arab Summit.
“It was not a summit held to save Al Aqsa Mosque. Rather, it came to support the Sharm el Sheikh summit, the Oslo accords and to protect the thrones and influential people,” he said.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
