Palestinian hardliners rejected a call by new PLO chief Mahmud Abbas to lay down their weapons as a spiralling death toll in Gaza threatened to undermine his efforts to bring calm to the region.
Armed factions have so far rebuffed efforts by Abbas, favourite to be elected Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) president on January 9, to institute a new ceasefire and firmly rejected his argument Wednesday that the use of weapons since the September 2000 start of the second intifada had been a mistake.
"Such declarations run counter to the consensus among our people over the legitimacy of the resistance," Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, told AFP. "The problem is the Israeli occupation and not the resistance."
Mohammed al-Hindi, a leader of Hamas's smaller rival Islamic Jihad, said "the Palestinians need weapons of resistance against the Israeli occupation."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1515&ncid=1515&e=2&u=/afp/20041215/wl_mideast_afp/mideast_041215212142...............................................................
Well........that proposal lasted a full 6 hours.
Maybe abbas will respond FORCEFULLY to this rebuff .....and
ask .....beg again.