You just have to love the irony of this:

Three small pipe bombs were thrown at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza city Friday, a church official and police said.

A church official in Gaza City, Nabil Ayad, said one bomb was thrown at the facade of the church, shattering glass windows of a nearby van. The main entrance was blackened.

Two other small bombs were thrown inside the church compound, Ayad said. The extent of damage was not clear yet, Ayad, the caretaker of the church said.

There were no reports of injuries. Police officials said the assailants hurled small pipe bombs at the church, which make a loud noise, but cause little damage.

They’re indiscriminate, angry and violent about being characterized as indiscriminate, angry and violent.

How much you want to bet this doesn’t appear in the next State Department report of religious freedoms as Islamic intolerance of the holy sites of other religions?

A sweet, happy, and healthy new year to all of my Jewish readers.

For my non-Jewish readers, a traditional Rosh Hashana food is apples with honey. It’s eaten to represent a sweet new year.

Also for my non-Jewish readers: Have a good weekend.

You have to give it to Hamas: They make my job a lot easier by not lying like Abbas and Arafat.

Palestinian PM Won’t Recognize Israel
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Sep 22, 2006 (AP)— Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Friday he will not recognize a government that recognizes Israel. Haniyeh spoke a day after moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas indicated that a coalition government of Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah movement would recognize the Jewish state.

“I personally will not head any government that recognizes Israel,” Haniyeh said in a mosque sermon in Gaza City on Friday, laying out his group’s positions in coalition talks with Abbas.

At the United Nations on Thursday, Abbas indicated that the planned national unity government between Hamas and his Fatah Party would recognize the Jewish state.

But Haniyeh’s political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, told The Associated Press on Friday that “there won’t be a national unity government if Hamas is asked to recognize Israel.” Instead, he reiterated Hamas’ offer of a long-term truce.

Then you have to give it to the media, for continuing to pretend there is a snowball’s chance in hell that Hamas will change its attitude.

Mahmoud Abbas’s assurance to the United Nations last night that any Palestinian coalition government he led would recognise Israel and renounce violence has starkly exposed the gulf in efforts to achieve Middle East peace.

[...] The Palestinian President has been trying to negotiate a unity government between his Fatah movement and the Islamic movement Hamas, which decisively won parliamentary elections in January.

Palestinian politicians hope that forming a new, coalition administration, with a softer line on Israel, will persuade the international community to lift the crippling economic sanctions that it imposed because of Hamas’s refusal to disband its militias or change its constitution, which calls for Israel’s destruction.

Mr Abbas has been in coalition talks with Hamas for two weeks, and the two sides have reached a preliminary agreement that the new government would strive to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel - implying, without explicitly stating, recognition of Israel. Renouncing violence is also part of the preliminary agreement.

The talks have faltered because the West and Israel have pressed for Hamas to state clearly its willingness to recognise Israel. This Hamas has refused to do.

No, the talks have faltered because Hamas wants to destroy Israel, and has remained clear and open about its goals. It is a terrorist group, established to destroy Israel, and will not change that purpose. The gulf is in the fact that the world cannot seem to wrap its collective brain around Hamas saying they want to destroy Israel, and meaning it.

How many times does Hamas have to refuse to recognize, negotiate, or deal with Israel before the world will admit that Hamas has no intention of doing so?

I’m thinking as many times as it takes until Hamas is destroyed. Or until the Messsiah comes. Whichever comes first. (Here’s hoping it’s the former, and it’s soon. No, wait, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Messiah come in my lifetime, but hey, I’m an eternal optimist.)

So, will the world find a way to send money to the terrorists in Gaza? I’m on the fence on this one, but I think ultimately, the terror-enablers of the UN, the EU, and the State Dept. will win.

And oh yeah—watch for some analysts to blame Israel for weakening Abbas, instead of admitting that he had no power in the first place, and that he has the same goals as Hamas. He just keeps them quiet.

Ahmadinejad says he’s just a great guy. He has nothing against Jews, or anyone else.

“We love everyone in the world Jews, Christians, Muslims, non-Muslims, non-Jews, non-Christians,” he said, adding “we are against ugly acts.”

Liar.

“‘In this historical war, the situation at the fronts has changed many times. During some periods, the Muslims were the victors and were very active, and looked forward, and the World of Arrogance was in retreat.

“‘Unfortunately, in the past 300 years, the Islamic world has been in retreat vis-à-vis the World of Arrogance… During the period of the last 100 years, the [walls of the] world of Islam were destroyed and the World of Arrogance turned the regime occupying Jerusalem into a bridge for its dominance over the Islamic world…

He says Hezbullah is on its own. That Iran doesn’t support it financially or materially.

Ahmadinejad was vague when asked if Iran would stop arming Hezbollah and comply with a U.N. Security Council resolution to disarm the Lebanese guerrilla group, which fought a 34-day war with Israel this summer. He said Iran gives only spiritual and cultural support to the Shiite Muslim group.

Liar.

At the conference, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke to the representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, members of the Society for the Defense of the Palestinian Nation, and members of the Islamic Students Union, and an audience of hundreds of students.

In his speech, he described his vision of an age-old confrontation between the world of Islam and the “World of Arrogance,” i.e. the West; he portrayed Israel and Zionism as the spearhead of the West against the Islamic nation; and he emphasized the need to eliminate Israel – which, he claimed, was a goal that was attainable.

Speeches were also delivered by representatives of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al.

Liar.

“‘This occupying country [i.e. Israel] is in fact a front of the World of Arrogance in the heart of the Islamic world. They have in fact built a bastion [Israel] from which they can expand their rule to the entire Islamic world… This means that the current war in Palestine is the front line of the Islamic world against the World of Arrogance, and will determine the fate of Palestine for centuries to come.

Liar.

“‘Is it possible that an [Islamic] front allows another front [i.e. country] to arise in its [own] heart? This means defeat, and he who accepts the existence of this regime [i.e. Israel] in fact signs the defeat of the Islamic world.

“‘In his battle against the World of Arrogance, our dear Imam [Khomeini] set the regime occupying Qods [Jerusalem] as the target of his fight.

Liar.

“‘I do not doubt that the new wave which has begun in our dear Palestine and which today we are also witnessing in the Islamic world is a wave of morality which has spread all over the Islamic world. Very soon, this stain of disgrace [i.e. Israel] will be purged from the center of the Islamic world – and this is attainable.

[...] “‘The issue of Palestine is by no means over, and will end only when all of Palestine will have a government belonging to the Palestinian people. The refugees must return to their homes, and there must be a government that has come to power by the will of the [Palestinian] people. And, of course those [i.e. the Jews] who came to this country from far away to plunder it have no right to decide anything for the [Palestinian] people.

Liar.

Ahmadinejad has one purpose, and one purpose only: To distract the fools of the West while he helps his masters prepare for war. His speech to the UN was filled with more religious references, and he’s readying the world—in his eyes—for the twelfth imam. Iran is not interested in peace. Iran is interested in its own interests, which are not convergent with Western interests. If Iran gets the Bomb, the world is in trouble.

Omri and I are on the same page on this one: Monkey Boy wants the Bomb, and then he wants to lob it at Israel. And if that were to happen, the U.S. would be next on the list.