Hamas would never acknowledge the Israeli state, said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza, on Friday in Tehran.

“They (West) want from us to stop resistance and acknowledge Israel but I herewith announce that this will never happen,” Haniyeh said though an interpreter at a ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution.

“Our message and the message of all those who lost their blood in the Palestinian lands is that all occupied lands will eventually be liberated from Israeli occupation,” Haniyeh said.

Ha’aretz didn’t publish the full quote, though they used the same AFP source as did Ynet. Here’s what Ha’aretz felt wasn’t necessary to include in that story:

“The fight will continue for the liberation of the entire land of Palestine and Jerusalem and the return of all Palestinian refugees,” he said.

They’re not talking about the West Bank only. They’re talking about all of Israel. And they’re doing it with the full backing of Iran. And according to this article by the Chinese news service, Xinhua, the Obama adminstration doesn’t have a problem with the unity deal between Fatah and Hamas. I’m actually questioning that source, because although Xinhua does publish more information on the anti-Israel groups than the mainstream wire services, it’s still the official news service of Communist China.

If, however, that story is accurate–well, the Obama administration is as dumb as I thought they were.

And that is from just one week in February, 2008.

It’s why I can’t stand posting some days, and so, I don’t.

I think it may be time to do a 180 and go back to making this a personal blog that occasionally discusses current events. I can only take so much bad news before I need a dandelion break.

Kochavi said that Israel was currently threatened by 200,000 rockets and missiles in the hands of Israel’s enemies. The missiles, he said, currently covered the entire State of Israel and were growing in their ranges and the size of their warheads.

Ehud Barak says that Iran is nearing the point where their underground bunkers will be too heavily fortified to be bombed. Moshe Ya’alon said that the missile base that exploded in Iran last year was building ICBMs capable of reaching the U.S. And now Leon Panetta says that there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will attack this spring.

Iran has responded by threatening to destroy Israel, using the same language of the Nazis:

The supreme leader of Iran issued a blunt warning Friday that war would be detrimental to the United States — and that Iran is ready to help anyone who confronts “cancerous” Israel.

[...]“Well, these kinds of threats are detrimental to the U.S.,” he said. “The war itself will be 10 times as detrimental to the U.S.”

He said Iran will support any nation or group that fights against Israel.

“The Zionist regime is really the cancerous tumor of this region and it needs to be removed and will be removed,” Khamenei said to a cheering crowd.

The AP chose not to write a headline including the threats to remove the “cancerous tumor.” Instead, the focus was on Iran openly declaring to harm any nation that helps Israel–a declaration that is not really new.

Khamenei: Iran will back ‘any nations, any groups’ fighting Israel
Iran will help any nation or group that confronts the “cancer” Israel, the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.

The London Telegraph got it right:

Iran: We will help ‘cut out the cancer of Israel’
Iran will help anyone willing to “cut out the cancer” of Israel, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today.

The Telegraph is using the AP story. They rewrote it to emphasize the points the AP thought were worth burying. Remember that next time some AP editor puts in the weasel words that Hamas “denies” getting support from Iran, or some idiot pundit tries to ell you that Hamas is not working under Iranian orders.

And now that we’ve gotten the war of the words out of the way, here’s Barry Rubin on why neither Israel nor the U.S. are going to bomb Iran.

If Israel attacks Iran now, does that mean Iran would never get nuclear weapons? No, it would merely postpone that outcome for at most a year or two more than it would take otherwise. And then it would ensure an all-out, endless bloody war thereafter.

If Israel attacks Iranian nuclear installations, would that ensure future peace between the two countries? Would it make it less likely that the Tehran regime uses such weapons to strike at Israel in the future? No. On the contrary, it would have the exact opposite effect. Again, it would ensure direct warfare between the two countries and make Iran’s use of nuclear weapons against Israel 100 percent probable.

I’ll put my faith in Barry Rubin. He’s one of the best Israel analysts on the planet.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said on Monday that the Palestinian Islamist movement will never give up its armed struggled against Israel.

The statement comes as Gaza Strip officials openly attacked the movement’s leader-in-exile Khaled Mishaal, who has decided not to run again this summer for the leadership of Hamas, for prioritising “peaceful resistance”.

“We are fighting for our dignity and rights. Jihad is our path, our life, our pride and we will not renounce it no matter the sacrifices,” said Zahar, quoted on the website of the Izzeddine Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing.

Hamas will “never give up its armed struggle against the Zionist enemy”, he said during a speech in Zeitun, a neighbourhood in east Gaza, in honour of the “martyrs” of Israel’s December 2008 — January 2009 Cast Lead operation against the enclave.

Yeah, pull the other one, it has bells on it. He’s a liar, but don’t expect that to change the media narrative that it is Israel that is blocking peace. Take this latest story, for instance. the Palestinians are saying, in effect, “We won’t negotiate until you give us everything we want.” The angle of the story, however, will be the intransigence of the Israelis.

The Palestinian Authority will not restart direct peace negotiations with Israel unless Jerusalem recognizes the borders of a Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday according to the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA).

“If the borders are set it’s possible to return to negotiations, but the Israelis do not want established borders” Abbas said following a meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah II.

The fact that the negotations are for exactly that purpose–to discuss the borders of the Palestinian state–will not be mentioned. And how do I know this will happen? Because the above is the Jerusalem Post’s version of the AP story, with an interesting change in wording to the quote. Here’s what the AP writes:

Palestinian officials said they submitted their proposals, but that Israel did not. “If we demarcate the borders, we can return to negotiations, but Israel does not want to do that,” Abbas said Wednesday, after talks in Jordan with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Israel says it has submitted a document outlining the areas that need to be discussed, but it was not characterized as a proposal.

Interesting change, from “demarcate” to “set”. The JPost is actually the simpler of the two. Demarcate means exactly that: To set borders. But it’s a word that many people don’t know.

Let’s translate the rest of the above subtext: “it was not characterized as” means that Israel did not clearly state it was, or label it as, a proposal. You see how the AP can get away with the bias? Look at the Palestinians, all ready to submit border proposals, but the Israelis refuse to do so. So it’s only logical the Palestinians will now say they won’t sit down to talk until Israel submits a border proposal. Lies, lies, and more lies, and they are passed along uncritically by the news media, in particular the wire services. The rest of the article serves up more Palestinian excuses, and more beat-downs to Israel (and especially Netanyahu).

Underlying the impasse is Abbas’ conviction that it’s impossible to reach an acceptable border deal with the hard-line Netanyahu.

The Palestinians are ready for minor adjustments in the lines of the West Bank through land swaps, but Israel has not submitted a proposal. Netanyahu has not endorsed the land-swap concept and insists that east Jerusalem belongs to Israel.

Netanyahu has also rejected Palestinian demands that he halt construction in Jewish settlements on occupied lands or recognize the pre-1967 war’s cease-fire line as a baseline for border talks.

Abbas argues that without such assurances, there is no point in returning to negotiations. He fears Israel will use continued negotiations as a diplomatic cover for seizing more land, through settlements, that the Palestinians want for their state. Israel counters that the Palestinians have not made a halt to settlement construction a condition for peace talks in the past.

Note that makes four paragraphs in a row where Abbas is held up as the model of reasonableness, willing, nay, urging negotiations–but that evil, bad, wicked, awful, horrible Bibi–well, he won’t do a thing to move negotiations along. Here are the only positive words on Israel that can be found in this article:

Israel is eager to keep talking and to “try to achieve a historic agreement before the end of the year,” an Israeli government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. “We hope that the Palestinians aren’t looking for an excuse to walk away from the table.”

It was followed by the anti-Israel section quoted above, thus utterly negating the point of the quote.

What objective media? When I read things like this, I marvel that that most Americans are still friends of Israel. The media is trying its damnedest to change that. Thankfully, they’ve failed.

It would be funny if it weren’t so serious: The IDF caught a Palestinian would-be suicide bomber and eight pipe bombs. How did they catch him? The wires sticking out of his clothing gave him away. Thank God for stupid terrorists.

No, really, Hamas is moderating, we swear it: Sure, they’re willing to make peace with Israel. Hell, even the AP is reporting the contrary:

Hamas’ prime minister in Gaza says the anti-Israeli militant group will never give up its arms, its territory or its claims on Jerusalem on behalf of the Palestinians.

Best part of the story? The last graf, which, of course, is the one that gets cuts from most World News sections of your local paper:

But not heard was “Kill the Jews!” a slogan used by ultraconservatives three days earlier upon Haniyeh’s arrival.

Why isolation won’t work: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is on a four-nation South American tour. The Monroe Doctrine is called for here, especially as his first stop is Venezuela. That’s the country whose leader, Hugo Chavez, says we’ve been giving South American leaders cancer. It is the most awesome weapon since the Zionist Death Ray that killed Yasser Arafat.

Four senior Fatah officials complained over the weekend that Hamas authorities banned them from entering the Gaza Strip, forcing them to return to the West Bank.

The four men – Ismail Jaber and Rouhi Fattouh, top advisers to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Fatah central committee members Sakher Bsaisso and Muhammad Madani – said they were stopped by Hamas policemen at the Gaza side of the Erez checkpoint on Friday.

(Just a reminder, the Erez checkpoint is one of the Israeli entrances into Gaza. Hm. Anti-Israel forces keep on saying Gaza is completely closed off. Do you think–do you think they may be lying?)

Then there is the PA unhappiness with the Hamas World Tour:

The Damascus-based chief of Hamas was instrumental in getting Syria to accept an Arab observer mission into the country, the head of the Arab League said on Friday.

[...] But a top Palestinian official slammed Meshaal’s action, saying it contradicts Palestinian policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of any country.

“Khaled Meshaal has no right to launch any mediation bid for the sake of Syria or any other country,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, told AFP in Ramallah.

“Palestinian policy has always been of no interference and still is,” he said, adding that such action “harms the interests of the Palestinian people.”

Not to worry, though, because Hamas spokesliars had an answer to that.

Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal’s role as mediator in the Syrian uprising is in the interests of Palestinian refugees in the country, senior party official Salah al-Bardawil said Saturday.

Okay, so then I guess the Hamas visit to Tunisia is an example of that famous togetherness that Karl Vick told us about a few months ago.

A visit by Gaza’s Hamas leader has angered the official Palestinian representatives in Tunisia who say they were ignored during the talks with the new government, a Palestinian source said Saturday.

[...] “The Palestinians are furious. Neither the government nor the foreign ministry, nor the (Islamist) Ennahda party informed them of the dates and programme of Haniya’s visit, as they should have,” the Palestinian source told AFP.

Whoa! The PA is furious because it’s being edged out of meeting the Islamists by an Islamist leader? The deuce you say!

Another source told the Arabic language newspaper El Maghreb that the lack of communication could hamper reconciliation efforts going on between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party.

Gee, that reconciliation isn’t as easy as some people said it would be, is it?

Haniya confirmed Saturday there had been no contact between his team and official Palestinian representatives in Tunisia but brushed it off.

“There is no problem,” he said at Sidi Bouzid in the centre of the country. “We Palestinians meet each other inside and outside Palestine.”

Of course he brushed it off. He wants the world to make Hamas the official Palestinian representative organization. And in Islamist countries, apparently, that’s what’s happening. The result so far: Hamas will be leaving Damascus for Tunis. Lovely. Another Palestinian terror group headquarted in Tunisia. What could possibly go wrong with that?

As for that famous Hamas ceasefire, which the AP contends Hamas has “mostly” observed, well, 680 rockets rained down on Israel last year. Some ceasefire.

Gee, why is it that we don’t believe a word about the so-called Hamas moderation? Because it isn’t happening, hopeful editorials in the Chicago Tribune aside. Open your eyes, people. Hamas will never accept a Jewish state in the “Islamic waqf” of “Palestine.” Read their charter.

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that. Palestine is an Islamic Waqf land consecrated for Muslim generations until Judgement Day. This being so, who could claim to have the right to represent Muslim generations till Judgement Day?

There is no moderation of Hamas. There is only a change in strategy to achieve its goal:

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

So interpret the Hamas-Fatah agreement for what it is: A show so that Hamas can continue to strengthen itself until it feels strong enough to take on Israel. Ismail Haniyeh thinks that Hamas is beginning to reach that point. He thinks the Arab Spring has greatly strengthened Islamists and weakened Israel’s position in the region.

“Israel is disturbed by this. It knows the strategic environment is changing. Iran is an enemy. Relations are deteriorating with Turkey. With Egypt, they are really cold,” Haniyeh said. “Israel is in a security situation they have never been in before. The Palestinians are winning more than anybody else due to what’s happening in the Arab countries. That will come out clearly in the future.”

Really? Never? Israel has never been surrounded by Arab and Muslim nations that want to destroy it? Clearly, Haniyeh is forgetting his history. While it’s true that the Islamist takeover of the Middle East is very bad news for Israel, it’s not like Israel hasn’t been invaded by several Arab armies at once. I’m not minimizing war. It will be horrible. But Haniyeh is kidding himself if he thinks that Israel is in a unique situation today. Except for the thousands of rockets stockpiled by Hamas and Hezbullah, things are about the same as they were in 1948, 1967, and 1973. But I find his words strangely comforting. The Arabs are always fighting the last war. Israel is fighting the next one.

Obama is cutting jobs, not just the budget: Say, those huge defense cuts that Obama wants to implement? Besides cutting the manpower in the Army and Marines, don’t forget that army bases will close, cutting even more jobs. Somehow, that part of the story isn’t being written by anyone. I’m all for cutting waste, and even for getting the U.S. Army presence out of Europe. But I think it’s foolish beyond words to cut the Armed Forces manpower down to the levels Obama wants. Jimmy Carter did that, and look what happened on his watch.

Oh, look. Another suicide bombing in Syria: Reallly finding it hard to sympathize in any way, what with knowing how many people the Dorktator is responsible for blowing to pieces over the years. I doubt this will be the last suicide bombing in Syria.

Food for the Ronulan conspiracy nuts: The IDF and the U.S. European Command are gearing up for a major missile defense drill–in Israel. It is my fondest hope for my nephew the Marine that he gets to take part in next year’s exercise. (And if he does, you Israeli blogger friends of mine had best hide your daughters, because he is young, smart, handsome, and a United States Marine. The girls adore him.)

And yet, they’re still going to be used as civilian shields by Hamas: Gazans held a disaster preparedness drill. See title.

So bizarre I don’t know what to think: It isn’t enough that someone created a Lego concentration camp. A museum bought it and will display it. Sorry, but the ick factor is far too high for me. And oh, who bought it? A Polish museum. Shyeah, the Poles are totally over their Jew hatred. Really. Truly.

Sure, cutting the budget for soldiers always works out well: Obama wants to cut half a million troops over next ten years as part of his idea for modernizing the U.S. Armed Forces. While I agree that we do need to make our air and naval forces cutting edge, I think it’s utterly absurd to drop the number of standing troops. Boots on the ground is what did the job in Iraq. There’s no substitute for it.

Islamists who put country before themselves? I’m not sure what to think of this. The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leadership refused Iran’s offer to make a deal with the Dorktator and join in against their countryment to prop up Assad. Since the Brotherhood is all about helping itself, I suspect they refused to deal because they know a losing situation when they see it. It’s curtains for Assad, I tell you. Curtains.

You and what navy? The Iranians took the opportunity of the Fifth Fleet’s leaving the Persian Gulf to say that they chased us out. Uh-huh. Sure. We’re sooooo scared. So scared that the Pentagon said, in effect, tough sh*t. We’re staying.

No, please! Don’t leave me! Bashar al-Assad is going to meet with Hamas and try to convince them to stay in Syria. Shyeah, right. When they’re kissing up to Erdogan and dissing Israel in unison with the Islamists of Turkey? Iran’s not going to be able to bankroll them much longer. Alternatives must be found. So it’s a good news/bad news thing. I’m starting to believe the fall of Syria is going to happen this year, and that when Syria falls, Hezbollah loses much of its influence and power. The flip side, of course, is Turkey and Egypt and the Islamist Spring.

Awwww. The Iranian currency is falling: And of course, Iran says its wholly unrelated to sanctions. Sure. The fact that now, anyone doing business with Iran’s central bank can’t do any business with the U.S.? Nothing to do with it.

But what if Abbas is holding still, and Hamas is moving closer to Abbas? That’s what’s been happening, from nearly all appearances, for the last two or three years, and everything coming out of the Cairo meeting points in the same direction. The head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, and Abbas spoke for two hours, Abbas in the big chair, Meshaal on the couch with two others. Afterwards both met the cameras smiling. “There are no differences between us now,” Abbas said. Mashaal went with: “We have opened a new page of partnership.” And on whose terms? Hamas stands for resistance, its formal name being the Islamic Resistance Movement. But in the Gaza Strip where it governs, Hamas has largely enforced a truce with Israel since January 2009. And in Cairo it signed a paper committing itself to “popular resistance” against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. That’s “popular” in contrast to “violent” or “military” resistance. We’re talking marches here. Chanting and signs, not booby traps or suicide bombs.

Hamas is now denying utterly that there was even a chance that they would stop trying to destroy Israel. In fact, they’re laughing at the thought.

Hamas on Thursday dismissed claims that its Damascus- based leader, Khaled Mashaal, had ordered the movement’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, to stop armed attacks against Israel.

The statement came in response to a report in Haaretz that Mashaal had instructed his men to cease attacks on Israeli targets.

The report claimed that Mashaal issued the order “based on understandings” he had reached with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during their recent talks in Cairo.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum described the report as “trivial,” saying it did not even merit a response.

And that’s not all. It’s pretty funny, actually, when terrorists quite plainly state that they’re not changing, they never changed, and they never will change, right on the heels of a major media piece insisting that that, indeed, is what is happening. Or at least, it would be funny, if only lives weren’t at stake here. The media promotes the narrative that terrorists don’t really want to destroy Israel, even while those same terrorists state their intent quite clearly.

Barhoum said that Palestinians had a “legitimate right” to engage in armed resistance against Israel in order to “defend themselves and their lands.”

According to Barhoum, claims that Hamas had abandoned the armed struggle “reflect the state of despair that the Israeli government is facing as a result of the firmness of the Palestinian resistance.”

Hamas’s Interior Minister Fathi Hammad told a visiting Tunisian delegation of supporters that the Palestinians would “pursue the path of resistance against Israeli occupation.”

There is also the reporting of the Hamas anniversary celebration, which Karl Vick didn’t seem to find interesting enough to mention. It must have had something to do with all those “Death to Israel” moments. In fact, Time seems only to portray one side of the issue as not caring about peace, and it isn’t Hamas.

No, you’ll never see a Time cover story declaring that the Palestinians really don’t care about peace. Because that would go against the narrative.