Danny Rubinstein's Blog

Hamas PM Haniyeh: Retreat to 1967 borders will bring peace

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 23 May 2006

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told Haaretz Monday that the Hamas government is prepared to agree to an extended cease-fire if Israel withdraws to the 1967 lines.

"If Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders, peace will prevail and we will implement a cease-fire [hudna] for many years," Haniyeh said during an interview in his south Gaza office. "Our government is prepared to maintain a long-term cease-fire with Israel."

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Fingering the collaborators

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 3 May 2004

Occasionally there is an outbreak of panic about collaborators among the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, such as occured over two weeks ago in the Gaza Strip after the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Rantisi was aware that Israel had targeted him for death, and that they were trying to kill him. At least once before he was saved from an assassination attempt, and since then he had taken extra security measures: he surrounded himself with bodyguards, switched hiding places, and didn't travel in his familiar car. In spite of that, the Israeli security services managed to catch up with him and to kill him, only a few weeks after he was chosen to head Hamas in Gaza.

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The victory of the Hamas way

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 19 April 2004

The liquidation of Abdel Aziz Rantisi put an end, in one fell swoop, to the Palestinians' feverish occupation with what they term "the Bush declaration" (likened in all publications in the territories to the Balfour Declaration). Palestinian reaction to the killing of Rantisi was, of course, consistent - condemnation and rage, and popular demand for revenge. The reactions to Bush's declaration were also almost all uniform - anger at what the Palestinians view as an Israeli-American consensus on three issues that belong to the permanent-status settlement: the borders, the settlements and the refugees.

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Rising Hamas is undaunted by loss of leader Yassin

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Independent, 28 March 2004

I met Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas founder killed in an Israeli attack last week, shortly after he was released from prison a few years ago.

His humble residence in Gaza, typical of the homes of other Hamas leaders, stood in great contrast to the luxurious homes of Palestinian Authority Fatah leaders in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas leaders have always had a reputation for modest living. Possessing no luxury cars, sumptuous offices or designer suits, they became adored by the Palestinian street.

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Yassin's death may be end of PA in Gaza

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 23 March 2004

It is very possible that the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin will be the final nail in the coffin of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. Just recently there were attempts to rehabilitate, even slightly, the PA security forces: The Palestinian National Security Council, headed by Yasser Arafat, published a plan for imposing law and order in the Strip, and the Palestinian media reported on special forces that had begun patrolling the streets of Gaza.

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The most dramatic step since 1967

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 1 March 2004

As construction of the separation fence continues, it becomes increasingly clear that this is the most dramatic step taken by the state of Israel since the occupation of Judea and Samaria in June 1967. In its current form, the fence will influence the nature of the conflict between us and the Palestinians more than any single event in the past 37 years; more than the annexation of East Jerusalem and the settlement enterprise, more than all of the wars fought since that time in Israel or the entire region, more than the Oslo Accords, and more than the Palestinian intifadas. The early results of the separation fence are already apparent.

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Making threats, cultivating an image

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 9 January 2004

Two prominent Palestinians, Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) and Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, gave expression last night to the prevalent mood that the frozen peace process has created among the Palestinian public.

Qureia's words in favor of establishing a single binational state echo statements that have recently been made in the Palestinian media by political activists and academics. Many Palestinians have come to understand that for Israel, the threat of a binational state is the greatest threat of all.

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The street is pleased

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

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Abu Mazen cannot commit suicide

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 21 August 2003

Not even the bloody suicide bombing in Jerusalem will bring Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to relentlessly pursue the activists of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad. He and his ministers in the Palestinian government will not use force to restrain the Islamic fanatics; they will not even confiscate their weapons. Abbas and his Minister of State for Security Affair Mohammed Dahlan are no doubt under great pressure from the Americans to do just that and the Israeli government is also insisting on it - but in the present reality in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it is simply not possible.

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Frustrated and powerless

DANNY RUBINSTEIN

Ha'aretz, 20 August 2003

Palestinian spokesmen said last night that everyone had expected a revenge attack by Islamic Jihad following Israel's killing of senior Jihad operative Mohammed Sidr last week - but now that the attack has come, and proved so deadly, they fear that it will mark the end of the cease-fire (hudna) and of attempts to implement the road map peace plan.

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