Sarkozy retracts peace deal claim

[oberliner]

The office of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has retracted statements he made saying that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had accepted a Franco-Egyptian peace plan for Gaza.

Sarkozy's office intially said on Wednesday that he was "delighted by the acceptance by Israel and the Palestinian Authority of the Franco-Egyptian plan" presented in Sharm el-Sheikh by Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president on Tuesday.

An official in Sarkozy's office said later in the day that the French statement was merely a reaction to Israel's positive comments about the plan and that it was not announcing Israel's acceptance of the Egyptian proposal.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/200917111614136903.html

[StudsT]

1. Without any leadership from the U.S. this is turning into a 3 ring circus

of the macabre and no one will accept anything untill they know where the new admin stands.

and their silence is deafening

and so it goes...

StudsT

[ohio2007]

2. Middle East: Hamas 'executes six suspected collaborators' ( talking to Israelis without approval )

Jabaliya, 7 Jan. (AKI) - Hamas security officers have executed six Palestinians suspected of supplying information to the Israeli military and guiding its warplanes in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot reported on Wednesday. The Israeli assault is believed to have killed more than 600 Palestinians and injured nearly 3,000 since it began 12 days ago.

Among the alleged collaborators were three brothers, one of whom attempted before his arrest to swallow a cell phone SIM card believed to contain evidence of his conversations with Israeli security officials.

A fourth brother from the same family was executed last week after trying to flee from a bombed Gaza jail. He was imprisoned for collaborating with Israel in relation to the assassination of the head of the Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committee.
Reports on summary executions have also been received from other parts of the Hamas-ruled territory but the exact number of victims is unknown.
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=3.0.2883878335

The family probably belonged to the Fatah party.