Jerusalem----December 3......A Hamas leader said the terrorist Islamic group could accept the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and a long-term truce with Israel, signaling a possible new overture to end terrorism. Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, has made such offers before, but this was the first time since the death of Yasser Arafat and may reflect a softening of the group's stance before a Jan. 9 Palestinian election.

"Hamas has announced that it accepts a Palestinian independent state within the 1967 borders with a long-term truce," Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the top Hamas leader in the West Bank, told The Associated Press, referring to lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Yousef said the Hamas position was new and called it a "stage." In the past, Hamas has said it would accept a state in the 1967 borders as a first step to taking over Israel. Yousef did not spell out the conditions for the renewable cease-fire nor did he say how long it would last. "For us a truce means that two warring parties live side by side in peace and security for a certain period and this period is eligible for renewal," Yousef said. "That means Hamas accepts that the other party will live in security and peace." Yousef's comments indicated that four years of fighting with Israel - during which the Israel Defense Forces has targeted the group's top leaders - along with international sanctions, have taken a toll.

"The whole world should seize this opportunity and build on it because this is a realistic position being taken by the Hamas movement," Hassan Youssef, the top Hamas official in the West Bank, told Reuters Friday. He said Hamas would accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with a capital in Jerusalem, if Israel removed all troops and Jewish settlers and stopped military operations in the territories. "Of course, we would accept," Youssef said. "Then we can have a cease-fire for a period of time … It may be a long period." But he stopped short of saying Hamas would recognize Israel's right to exist or give up its claim to all of the land that was Palestine under the British mandate preceding the creation of Israel more than 50 years ago. A number of Hamas officials have previously said they would accept an independent state in territories but only as a step toward taking over Israel. "I am talking about establishing a state within the 1967 borders," Youssef said, referring to the lands Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Just a day before, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza suggested the group was ready to consider a halt to terror attacks against Israel to allow a smooth Palestinian election for Arafat's successor. But he stuck to Hamas's long-standing conditions, including a halt to Israeli raids in Palestinian areas. Israel has always rejected such initiatives as smokescreens for Hamas to keep up a campaign of suicide bombings the group has spearheaded during a four-year-old Palestinian uprising. In January, Hamas's Gaza chief proposed a 10-year-truce if Israel withdrew from occupied territories, an offer the Israeli government swiftly rejected. The official, Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, was killed in an Israeli air strike in April. Hamas's latest overtures follow efforts by PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas, the favorite in the presidential race, to coax militants into suspending attacks on Israelis before a Palestinian election the militant group is boycotting. Abbas is the candidate for Fatah, the dominant Palestinian faction, which seeks a state side-by-side with Israel.

PA Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said Abbas noticed in meetings Hamas leaders on Thursday that there were "some real developments in their policies," but refused to elaborate. Yousef said that Hamas, which said Wednesday it would boycott the January vote, was planning to participate in Palestinian politics. It had previously shunned any role in the Palestinian Authority because it rejected interim peace accords with Israel that created the governing body. "Hamas wants to join the Palestinian political leadership and there are meetings over this issue," he said.

"Hamas being a part of the political equation means Hamas will deal with the other party (Israel)." A-Zahar says Hamas may suspend attacks Just the day before, another senior Hamas member said after talks with Abbas in Gaza that the group could soon suspend attacks against Israel. Mahmoud a-Zahar said Hamas will enter negotiations with Fatah over halting attacks against Israel, probably next week. "If the Israelis stop their aggression against our people, I think through the negotiations... we can reach a final agreement," a-Zahar said. In a speech to journalists Thursday, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel would halt offensive military operations in Palestinian areas if calm prevails. Sharon said that Israel would not be part of a Palestinian cease-fire, but that it has a vested interest in calm. Israel reserves the right to hit any Qassam rocket squads or suicide bombers it spots, he said.

He added that Israel will want to coordinate security arrangements for the planned evacuation of the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank and for the transfer of evacuated territories with the Palestinians. Any terrorism during the evacuation would prompt Israel "to respond in an extremely harsh manner," he said. Since Arafat's death on November 11, Abbas has held talks with different factions, led by Hamas, in a bid to secure a cease-fire. Abbas initially received from the factions an agreement to avoid an escalation of violence with Israel in the run-up to the elections. The other aim of the talks, however, was to reach a general cease-fire, which has not yet been achieved. Sharon said if the Palestinians tackle terror and both sides fulfill their obligations, negotiations could be resumed according to the road map. Sharon also said that incitement in the Palestinian media has dropped noticeably since his public call for Palestinian leaders to stop the incitement as a precondition for negotiations. He said the Palestinians had asked not to hold diplomatic negotiations until after the PA election on January 9, but that meanwhile, contact is "nearly daily, mainly to do with coordinating various things."

Meanwhile in the United States, the father of a Jewish teen killed in Israel at the hands of Hamas terrorists testified Thursday the news didn't really sink in until he heard the announcement of his son's funeral blasted from loudspeakers on cars slowly cruising his Jerusalem neighborhood.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Stanley Boim said. "The funeral being announced was for my son, tragically taken in a terrorist attack." Boim's testimony came in the second day of the trial in the federal lawsuit accusing Bridgeview resident Mohammed Salah and several local Islamic groups of financing the Palestinian terror group Hamas. The lawsuit blames the groups for contributing to the murder of 17-year-old David Boim, an American citizen living in Israel when he was killed in the West Bank attack eight years ago.

"He was cut down by a bullet financed by the organizations against whom we have brought this lawsuit," Stanley Boim testified. Last month, the federal magistrate overseeing the case found Salah, Muslim charity Holy Land Foundation and Palos Hills-based Islamic Association for Palestine liable for Boim's death. Jurors will decide what damages they should have to pay. The lawsuit seeks $600 million, but the groups have little money. The same jurors also will decide if Oak Lawn-based Quranic Literacy Institute - accused by the Boims of providing cover to Salah and of laundering money for Hamas - should be held liable as well. After losing a recent request to postpone the trial, a lawyer for Quranic Literacy has been present at the proceedings but has not participated. David Boim was shot by two Hamas terrorists as he waited at a bus stop.

Schoolmate Yechiel Gellman, who was standing beside Boim, said Thursday the boys never saw their attackers; Boim was shot in the back of the head. Stanley Boim testified he received a call from a hospital and knew only that his son had been injured. But driving to the hospital, he learned from a radio news report of the attack that his son had been shot. At home later that day, he sat stunned as car-mounted loudspeakers, in the Israeli custom, broadcast news of his son's death. Stanley Boim's wife, Joyce, sobbed throughout his brief testimony. Gellman said the Boim family have been "broken people" since the slaying. For an hour Thursday, Boim family lawyers read to jurors the transcript of a deposition of Salah earlier this year. Salah, who has since been indicted on federal terrorism-related charges, refused to answer questions in the civil lawsuit. "Are you and have you ever been a member of Hamas?" Salah was asked by lawyers. "Are you not the U.S.-based military leader for Hamas?" As he did with every other question, Salah invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer.

ISRAEL NEWS AGENCY

Sponsored by IsraelPr.com