There’s been a lot of activity between terrorist factions–I mean, Hamas and the PA–this weekend.

Gazan civil war?- A Palestinian policeman was killed on Sunday in a Gaza gun battle with Hamas militants, Palestinian police sources said. Around 30 people, 10 of whom are Palestinian Authority security personnel were injured in the worst outbreak of internal Palestinian fighting since Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip last month. Palestinian sources in Gaza said Hamas terrorists are firing mortar shells at Palestinian Authority police stations in Gaza City neighborhoods.

A number of police stations have been completely demolished, while others were set ablaze as a result of the mortar fire.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry has released a statement placing blame on Hamas for the escalation.

“Hamas has breached the Palestinian factions’ agreements and the Palestinian Authority’s orders to lay down its arms,” the ministry said in a statement. “The clashes erupted after PA police offices attempted to confiscate weapons of gunmen who were in a car. The gunmen proceeded to fire at the officers; this caused the outbreak of the recent events.”

Well, we can hope, but we’ve seen this before, and it’s always fizzled out after a few hours. I can’t see it doing more than that. Especially in light of this:

Armed Hamas activists held parades in Gaza’s northern neighborhoods, and fired in the air to express their identification with fellow militants engaged in violent fighting with PA officers.

Police officers have yet to interrupt the parades, despite the PA’s decision to ban the public bearing of arms.

Then again, this seems a bit more serious:

Hours later, riots and armed exchanges broke out in the Sheikh Raduan neighborhood in Gaza, when Palestinian Authority security forces began confiscating weapons held by non-PA groups. At least four people were injured in the clashes. Battles then erupted across Gaza, including the Nasser neighborhood and the Balati Shati refugee camp. As the PA forces clashed with Hamas members, Hamas used Gaza’s mosque speaker system to mobilize its forces.

In one of the first incidents, PA forces fought with Hamas members, including the son of former Hamas terror chief Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Witnesses said a mass riot broke out when Palestinian police began collecting the weapons, and the PA placed a checkpoint in the area.

A car containing Rantisi and other Hamas members was pulled over at the checkpoint for a search. Rantisi refused, and continued driving. Palestinian police fired on the vehicle’s tires, and the car’s occupants got out and confronted the PA officers, and throwing rocks at them. At the same time, armed al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members began fighting with Palestinian police.

Funny, though–I can’t find any word of this anywhere but in the Israeli press. Reuters has nothing. And nobody else seems to be willing to publicize the fact that palestinians are killing each other.

Of course, if it were the IDF they were battling–well, you know the rest.

Originally published November 19, 2003

An Egyptian asks: Why am I a Zionist?

I received a letter from an Egyptian named Heba yesterday. I’m afraid I don’t know gender of Egyptian names.

Hi Meryl, hope this email makes it past the trash can. I have a few questions here to ask, which are sent in good will and not meant to be offensive, so I hope they don’t come out that way. First, I would really like to know why you defend Zionism so much? I know the history of the Holocaust and other acts of persecution of Jews all over the world, but if you conceive that Jews have a right to create an independent state, don’t you think the Palestinians should have that right too? I fail to see how a people who have been subjected to so much torture and prejudice over the years can allow themselves to subject others to it.

In your critique of the Guardian’s article on the Turkey bombings you made fun of the author because she wrote of how the Jews there felt and what they thought, while the actual Jews who lived there obviously felt otherwise. So, my point is, what’s happening to the Palestinians and what’s reported is not a bunch of lies, I am Egyptian, living here in the Middle East, and I have met and known too many Palestinian refugees to know for fact that it isn’t so. For heaven’s sake, I had a classmate with a scarred arm because of a bullet shot at her when she was 3 years old by an Israeli soldier- that was of course right before her parents moved here to Egypt.

So, what I’m saying is that I would really like to understand Zionism and Zionists. For instance, you’re American, so your country and state is the U.S. so why do you need another country to call your own? Judaism is a religion like any other religion and can be practiced any where like any other religion, and if Jews aren’t allowed to do that then they should fight for their right to do so and not move somewhere and start a state. So what I want to understand, from a seemingly intelligent and well read person, is why you support Zionism, because I have met Jews who don’t.

This has been a bit too long, I apologize. Hope I don’t get some sarcastic thrashing on your website.

Let’s take the points one at a time, and Heba, I’m not sarcastic to people who are looking for straightforward answers.

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Folks, sorry if you’ve been unable to log in and post a comment. Seems the login button got lost in the shuffle of the new template, and I haven’t had time to figure out what I did with it.

I’ll suspend the login process until I can fix it, or until I get too many stupid comments, depending on which comes first.