Jihad leader signals Israel shift

Ramadan Shallah said only the U.S. can persude Israel to stop anti-Palestinian action

DAMASCUS, Syria (CNN) -- The leader of Islamic Jihad has said the goal of his and other groups is the "liberation of the Palestinian land with the border of 1967."

Ramadan Shallah, speaking to CNN, said his group -- which opposes the existence of Israel -- would be willing to entertain the idea of a cease-fire if "Israelis are ready to pull out from our occupied land, at least the West Bank and Gaza."

The remarks signal a shift in what has been the traditional position of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has opposed any negotiations with Israel and has always claimed that it wanted to recover all of Palestine, including the land that is now Israel.

EXTRA INFORMATION In depth: Mideast struggle for peace    RESOURCES Message Board: Mideast peace

On Monday, the Palestinian Authority arrested two members of Islamic Jihad and issued a warrant for one of its leaders after the group claimed responsibility for four Israeli deaths in Hadera.

Shallah said Islamic Jihad launched the drive-by attack that killed the four women because there was no real cease-fire with Israel.

He said Islamic Jihad distrusted the United States but recognized that only the United States could persuade Israel to stop taking action against the Palestinians.

Asked what it would take to get a peace deal, Shallah said it was up to the United States "at least to convince the Israelis to stop killing the Palestinians, stop hunting Palestinian activists, to put an end to all Israeli measures like the siege of the villages. All kind of Israeli atrocities. It is only the Americans who can say that to the Israelis."

Asked when Islamic Jihad would consider a cease-fire, he said: "When they use the term cease-fire, they are usually asking us to stop our resistance to a continuous Israeli aggression against our people.

"We need to believe first that the Israelis are ready to pull out of our occupied land, at least the West Bank and Gaza."

Would such a withdrawal mean an end to Islamic Jihad attacks on Israelis, he was asked.

"There is an agreement among the Palestinian factions that the goal of the intifada is to achieve the liberation of the Palestinian land with the border of 1967. If that is achievable, we will agree on that for the time being. And, the rest is something else."

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups that are anti-American and anti-Israeli.