(New York Times) - James Bennet Although more than two years of conflict and a shared nationalist impulse have blurred the distinctions among the Palestinian factions, divisions of ideology endure in Nablus, which Israel calls the center for terrorism in the West Bank. The liquid crystal display on the cellular phone of a bearded representative of Hamas showed a picture of Osama bin Laden beside an image of the Twin Towers. The representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group with Marxist roots, displayed a picture of Che Guevara. A leader of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, a militant group of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, had a picture of a rifle. To the members of Hamas, there was no such thing as an Israeli civilian. All Israelis were soldiers, one said, and they would be welcome in this land only as tourists.
2003-02-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive