World

Abbas Seeks Early Palestinian Elections

July 18, 2007 / 12:41 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday he would call early elections.He also harshly denounced rival Hamas in a speech before a Palestine Liberation Organization body, declaring, "even the devil cannot match their lies."

Abbas was addressing the Palestine Central Council in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He heaped criticism on Hamas because of its violent takeover of Gaza last month, when it vanquished Fatah forces loyal to Abbas.

"We will call on the council to decide on early elections," he said. "We want elections because a democratic choice is the right for all the people," he said. "We won't exclude anybody from having their say in a democratic way."

Earlier Wednesday, Palestinian officials said Abbas was considering calling an election to freeze Hamas out of the political arena. Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led government after the Gaza takeover and installed a new Cabinet with his backers.

In other developments:

Israel's unprepared civil defense left citizens exposed and highly vulnerable to Hezbollah rocket attacks during last year's Lebanon war, the Israeli government watchdog said in a scathing report issued Wednesday. The wartime defense minister, Amir Peretz, and army chief, Dan Halutz, already have stepped down. The final report, due in October, could increase pressure on Olmert to resign.

A group representing Israeli victims of Palestinian violence asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to delay the planned release of 256 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture toward the Abbas government. The Almagor group said more time is needed to review the files of the prisoners. Emi Palmor, director of pardons in the Israeli Justice Ministry, said Wednesday's legal challenge was unlikely to delay the release.

Norway plans to call two meetings this year of the Palestinian donors group it chairs to raise funds for the new Palestinian government, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday. The committee, which has not met since 2005, is co-sponsored by the United States and the European Union, and includes Japan, Canada, Russia and several Arab states.

Israeli troops arrested 19 suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank, the army said. The operation came days after military officials said they were scaling back such raids in another gesture to Abbas. Military officials said the lull was temporary while Israel worked out a deal granting amnesty to 178 gunmen affiliated with Abbas' Fatah movement. The deal was finalized early this week.

(AP)

The synchronized worldwide launch of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and last installment in the wildly popular series, falls at 2:01 a.m. local time this Saturday — on the Jewish Sabbath, when Israeli law requires most businesses to close. But many bookstores are planning to launch the book at the appointed hour. The Industry and Trade Minister, an Orthodox Jew, has threatened to fine any store that opens Saturday. Another religious lawmaker slammed the Potter books for their "defective messages."

Abbas said he would call for a change in the electoral system, eliminating regional balloting. The regional voting cost Fatah a number of seats in the 2006 election, when rival Fatah candidates faced each other and handed victories to Hamas. The Islamists handily won the election, defeating Abbas' Fatah, which ruled Palestinian politics unchallenged for decades.

Instead, Palestinians will vote for parties, a system known as proportional representation. The parliament would be divided among the parties in proportion to the votes they received.

In the speech, Abbas repeated his charge that Hamas carried out a coup against him in Gaza. "Nothing can justify the crime of the coup they committed," he said.

Hamas is "committing capital crimes, bloody crimes against our people every day, every minute, every hour," he fumed. "There will be no dialogue until they return Gaza to what it was before."

Abbas blamed Hamas for the plight of thousands of Palestinians who are stranded at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. He said his Palestinian authority reached an agreement with Israel to run the crossing with European observers, but when Hamas overran the crossing, the observers left and the crossing remains closed.

"What can we do now?" he said. "They have closed the crossing. To operate the crossing we need the Europeans, and they have left.

He said Hamas is preventing the stranded people from using an alternate route — a crossing where the borders of Israel, Egypt and Gaza meet — by firing rockets and forcing that crossing to remain closed as well.

Abbas said he would call a meeting of the PLO's top decision-making body, the Palestine National Council,. to reactivate the PLO. He said it would take over from the paralyzed Palestinian legislature. Israel is holding dozens of Hamas lawmakers in prison, and Hamas has boycotted parliament sessions to endorse Abbas' new Cabinet.

"We have to be ready to establish a Palestinian state when it comes," Abbas said.

Abbas also referred to President George W. Bush's call for an international conference about Mideast peace later this year. He said he told both Mr. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert that core issues must be negotiated now. That would include borders of a Palestinian state and solutions for the issues of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

Abbas said he would restate the Palestinian demand for an independent state at the conference.

Israel has welcomed the idea of a conference but maintains that core issues cannot be discussed as long as Palestinian violence against Israel continues.

Abbas also said that Europe has restored foreign aid, but he is still waiting for the $180 million pledged by the United States.

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