Reflecting on the Palestinian state which would be approaching its twentieth year of existence had Arafat and the Palestinians been interested in living peacefully next to Israel Barry Rubin writes.

Today, two decades later, there is no such state. But there could have been. The reason why there isn’t has very little to do with Israel and a lot to do with Palestinian and Arab politics. Briefly, the PNC was called on to pass a simple resolution–mere words–saying that it accepted Israel’s existence and would stop using terrorism. In exchange, it was promised U.S. and international help to receive a state.

He attributes the failure to the negotiations so far to the failure to understand the dynamic between the two sides. It’s what he aptly calls the Win/Win attitude (the Israeli/Western attitude) versus the Zero sum (the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim attitude):

When win-win (WW) and zero-sum (ZS) come together the negotiating process is something like the following:
* ZS: We demand 100 percent!
* WW: We’ll give you 50 percent!
* ZS: 100!
* WW: 75!
* ZS: Perhaps if you offer me 100 I will make a deal.
* WW: Wow, what a window of opportunity! How about 90?
* ZS: 100
* WW: 95, and that’s my last offer!
* ZS: 110!

This is the history of Israel-Palestinian negotiations, of talks about Iran’s nuclear drive, attempts to deal with Hamas or Hizballah, and diplomatic exchanges with Syria. All fail for very real reasons. But refusing to understand the fundamental problem, these failures are interpreted differently: not enough was offered, cultural sensitivities were disregarded, the table was shaped wrong, the democratic side did not prove its good intentions sufficiently.

In his introduction Rubin focused on Arafat’s “acceptance” of Israel in Geneva in 1988. That led to American recognition of the PLO until mid-1990 when a faction of the PLO atttempted a terrorist attack on Israel and Arafat refused to condemn it. In the aftermath of the American rejection of the PLO, the New York Times reported, “P.L.O. Sees Deeper Arab Hostility After U.S. Move”

A senior adviser to Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said tonight that Washington’s suspension of talks with the P.L.O. would produce ”a loathing of the Americans” and prompt the organization to seek a greater Arab show of military strength in the conflict with Israel.

At the same time, the adviser, Nabil Shaath, who lives in Cairo, said in an interview that the P.L.O. is ”not considering at all going into any military operations or any terrorist actions against civilians” targeted at Americans living in the Middle East. He said the P.L.O. would maintain its avowed commitment to peace.

So remember the PLO had just failed to uphold its obligation to fight terror and the United States was at fault for responding to that failure. The Chutzpah is incredible. But that follows from the assumption that the zero sum side believed that the West (and Israel) needed it more than they needed the z.s. to abide by its agreements.

And the New York Times faithfully reports this news from the perspective of a wronged PLO leadership, encouraging the zero sum side (the Palestinians in this case) to stick to its guns and avoid responsibility for its breach.

Gen. Moshe Ya’alon takes a different approach to the same problem. He argues that the failure to create a Palestinian state results from a refusal of the Palestinian leadership (and population in general) to accept Israel’s right to exist. That being the case, negotiations are rather fruitless. What’s needed to be done is to seek changes in Palestinian education so that they teach their children to accept Israel and maintain military pressure on Hamas.

The former is out of Israel’s hands. The latter is still possible, though the current Israeli leadership is averse to such an approach. This might be an attempt by Gen. Yaalon to make a case for a future Likud government as he is expected to possibly receive the defense portfolio should Binyamin Netanyahu return to power in an upcoming election.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The approach to threats against Israel is one of those things that is taken casually. Here’s Secretary Rice on the regular but (relatively) infrequent Qassams that still get fired into Israel despite the ceasefire with Hamas:

QUESTION: How does the ceasefire in Gaza help matters? Has it endured better than you imagined?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, it has its ups and downs, obviously. But look, I - we said early on that if there - that calm in Gaza would be a useful thing because it - the Egyptians, who - with whom we worked, have managed to keep what is a very fragile situation at least stable, and that’s certainly a help to any process of trying to move forward on the peace process.

Ultimately, though, Gaza has to be resolved and it has to be resolved on the basis of the - Abu Mazen’s program for it, which is that legitimate Palestinian Authority institutions have to be reinstated. I think we want to continue to look at what can be done at the crossings for regularization of those ultimately along the lines of the November 2005 agreement. So this is not, I think, a metastable situation, but it’s a situation that for now has seemed to allow at least people to - you know, the levels of violence to stay low, and that’s welcome.

(h/t My Right Word)

Nothing about the threat from Hamas’s building of fortifications and re-arming. Somehow Abu Mazen (she’s using his nom de guerre, how reassuring) is going to impose his authority on Gaza.

And how’s that Abu Mazen thing going? Didn’t Israel just build his confidence? Why yes they did. The New York Times reports:

Israel released almost 200 Palestinian prisoners Monday in a good-will gesture aimed at reinvigorating the faltering peace process. Hours later, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the country to make her own push for a deal between the two sides.

And what does this “good will gesture” entail?

Among those freed Monday were two men whom Israel says have “blood on their hands,” meaning they had been convicted in attacks that harmed Israelis. Said al-Atabeh, 57, who had been in custody since 1977, was the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner.

“This is a great joy for our mothers and our people, but it remains a small step because we left behind us thousands of prisoners,” Mr. Atabeh said after his release, according to Reuters.

Mr. Atabeh had been convicted in bombings that killed one Israeli woman and wounded dozens of people.

A second long-serving prisoner was Mohammed Abu Ali, who had been jailed since 1980 for the murder of an Israeli settler in the West Bank.

However, most of those set free had been arrested for lesser crimes within the past two years.

“It’s not easy for Israel to release prisoners,” said a government spokesman, Mark Regev, according to The Associated Press. “But we understand the importance of the prisoner issue for Palestinian society.”

(h/t Boker Tov Boulder)

Note that “blood on their hands” is in quotes. Why not just write “who were convicted of murder in the commission of acts of terror?” (without the quotes, of course) Why is almost as much time spent describing the prisoners by the length of time served as by the crimes they committed?

By emphasizing the time served changes their status from terrorists to prisoners. Put another way Snapped Shot asks and answers a question about the coverage of the prisoner release:

How does our “impartial” press choose to represent them?

You guessed it: As heroes.

And as far as the release of prisoners being important for Palestinian society, Israelly Cool explains why it’s important.

These murderers are but two of the “prisoners” we freed today, as a “goodwill” gesture to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. And he reciprocated with a goodwill gesture of his own - a threat that unless all the “prisoners” are freed, there will be no peace.

Speaking of gestures, this one made by the released prisoners does not mean “peace.” It means “V for victory”, and is basically a promise that the terrorism will continue.

JoshuaPundit writes (regarding Condoleeza Rice but the general point holds) about what’s not important:

No mention of course on whether it might matter a lot to the Israelis to keep these killers behind bars.I doubt that matter penetrates her consciousness.

Nor does it matter to Mahmoud Abbas, who referred to the released terrorists as ‘heroes’ and made a point of saying that no peace agreement with Israel was possible until all of the terrorists are released.Nor did eithr he or Condaleeza Rice have the common decency to mention a single word about Gilad Shalit, who’s still being held incommunicado in the Gaza Strip.

And as noted before past experience shows that these prisoner releases will lead to more terror, not peace.

Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners and five other prisoners in return for Elhanan Tannenbaum, who was held captive by Hizbullah, and for the bodies of three soldiers kidnapped on Mount Dov. According to Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzahi Hanegbi, from the date of the deal on January 29, 2004, until April 17, 2007, those freed in the deal had murdered 35 Israelis.

The Washington Post describes the issue of prisoner releases like this:

Israel has periodically released Palestinian prisoners, whose fate is among the most politically and emotionally compelling issues for the Palestinian public, to shore up Abbas’s government. Abbas favors negotiations with Israel to create an independent Palestinian state, while the rival Hamas movement has advocated destruction of the Jewish state. The releases, although modest, are designed to show that Abbas’s approach yields rewards.

“Modest?” “yields rewards?” No mention that there’s a very good chance that a portion of the terrorist released will likely return to terrorism. So who receives the “rewards” other than terrorists who have seen their terms reduced, is not clear. No mention that the fellow who “favors negotiations” considers resistance (i.e. terrorism) to be peace. There’s something really Orwellian here.

And as a Blog for All writes:

It’s supposed to help bolster Fatah in their internecine struggle with Hamas, but all it does is provide more fodder for the terrorists to hold out hope that they can beat Israel for control over all territory West of the Jordan River.

Despite the romantic terms used to describe the prisoner release, they present a real risk to Israel. When will the world demand that the Palestinians take similar risks for peace?

Crossposted on Yourish.

“I don’t care who will stamp my passport, a minister in Gaza or the president in Ramallah,” he said. “Both are using us as tools in their internal conflicts … I wish that an earthquake would come and take both sides from our life.”

The context.

According to the Oslo Accords the following prisoners are subject to release in the guise of confidence building measures.

2. The following categories of detainees and/or prisoners will be included in the abovementioned releases:

a. all female detainees and prisoners shall be released in the first stage of release;

b. persons who have served more than two thirds of their sentence;

c. detainees and/or prisoners charged with or imprisoned for security offenses not involving fatality or serious injury;

d. detainees and/or prisoners charged with or convicted of non-security criminal offenses; and

e. citizens of Arab countries being held in Israel pending implementation of orders for their deportation.

Note further that prisoner releases are listed as confidence building measures.

Earlier, someone observed that the point of the prisoner releases was to allow Israel to free Palestinian whose main crimes was membership in Fatah. After all the premise of the Oslo Accords was that Fatah had given up terror and that therefore, simply membership in Fatah should no longer constitute a crime. (I think it was Krauthammer’s observation, but I haven’t been able to find the column.)

Subsequently, prisoner releases have take on a whole new meaning. Observe the reporting on an upcoming release planned by Israel. The AP reports:

Israel’s prisons service said the upcoming release would include Said al-Atba, who has served 32 years of a life sentence for planting a bomb, illegal military training and belonging to a banned group. Al-Atba, 57, is the longest serving prisoner held by Israel and he is widely seen by the Palestinian public as a symbol for the prisoners.

The fate of the roughly 9,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails is highly emotional, as many Palestinians either know someone in prison or have served time themselves. Abbas, who is struggling to show his people the fruits of drawn-out peace negotiations with Israel, has repeatedly urged Israel to carry out a large-scale release.

“Solving the prisoner problem paves the road to solving other issues in (peace) negotiations,” said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a spokesman for Abbas. He said the inclusion of long-serving prisoners would bolster the president’s credibility with the public, which has grown skeptical over the slow pace of peace talks.

And given that releases of prisoners seem to be a benchmark for success for Palestinian “governments”, releasing prisoners to Hamas creates its own problems.

Jerusalem denies this report outright. According to intelligence sources, Khalid Mish’al, the strong man in Hamas, has recently declared that “there would be no deal for the release of Shalit without the release of Al-Barghuthi.” According to Israeli intelligence sources, the release of Marwan al-Barghuthi, who is currently the most popular man on the Palestinian street, at Hamas’s behest would constitute the death blow to the PNA, an official death certificate for Abu-Mazin [Mahmud Abbas], and a dramatic boost to Hamas in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] as well.

Imagine that. The only consideration why Israel would not release Barghouti is that it might weaken the ineffective terrorist organization Fatah in favor of the effective terrorist organization Hamas.

Nowhere in these articles is a suggestion that the continuing release of prisoners means that peace is closer at hand. Furthermore, Prisoner releases do not mean that the Palestinians will govern themselves effectively. All prisoner releases mean is that Israel is saying that terror against its citizens is not that serious. It says that even the ongoing terrorism committed since Oslo - when Fataj committed to forswear terrorism - doesn’t represent bad faith on the part of Israel’s supposed peace partners.

Whereas the prisoner releases originally were an acknowledgment that Fatah has changed, now they represent an acceptance that Fatah has not changed.

It was 10 years ago, but the late, great Shmuel Schnitzer concluded an essay on prisoner release saying:

The Israeli judicial system does not consider the murderer’s motives, whether he acted out of hatred, or vengeance, or whether he was sent by some foreign entity which has claims against Israel and thus believes that it can hold Israeli citizens as hostages in order to meet its demands. States do not surrender to blackmail, even if they have lost a considerable part of their deterrent capability. There is no good reason to twist the Israeli judicial system’s arm because our neighbors are angry and rioting in the streets. Those who sent sent the young men on their murderous missions, sent them to long years in prison and must accept the fact that they simply come home forthwith.

Another question is whether the riots and disturbances jibe with the peace agreements. Those who incite the crowds and encourage them take a heavy responsibility upon themselves even if they have reason to suppose that the new Israel might be prepared to surrender to batons and stones.

Prisoner releases as confidence building measure needed to adhere to certain specific guidelines. Those guidelines are now ignored. The way the issue has been twisted over the past 15 years has turned it from a way of building trust into a way of building up an ineffectual and insincere “peace partner.”

The worst part of this is that it effectively means that Israel as a nation, accepts terror against its citizens as an appropriate expression of the Palestinian nationalism. Fatah hasn’t changed, just the way Israel views Fatah has changed.

Meryl has related thoughts here.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad. Elder of Ziyon demonstrates the meaningless of “gestures.”

As co-blogger, Daled Amos notes in his excellent critique of the Times editorial The Peril of an Israeli Transition, the Times holds everyone responsible for a Palestinian state other than the Palestinians themselves.

I’d like to add a few observations.

1) More and more Palestinian independence is defined by their dependence on others.

2) At the end of the editorial, the editors write:

A way must be found to help turn Hamas into a legitimate and acceptable negotiating partner.

And that worked out so well, when the organization in question was Fatah.

3) We’ve been here before. A search yielded this editorial from when the Oslo Accords were anticipated.

Mr. Arafat, the P.L.O. chairman, risks his prestige and his life by standing up to radicals who hold out for the same maximalist demands he himself used to proclaim.

Then, 3 years later, after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected PM of Israel, in large part due to Arafat’s failure to move beyond the rhetoric of his past, the Times had this to say:

By meeting with Mr. Arafat, Mr. Netanyahu showed that he understands that the Likud Party’s fierce animosity toward the Palestinian leader should give way to a more moderate governing posture.

While it’s true that Netanyahu did moderate his “governing posture,” his “animosity” wasn’t the result of arbitrary prejudice as the Times suggested, but it was a reaction to his (correct) observation that Arafat did nothing but take Israeli concessions and then aid his allies fight in the commission of terror against Israel.

The same approach is still in place. Everyone in the world is responsible for creating a Palestinian state other than the Palestinians and that an essential element of that help is to ignore ongoing Palestinian obligations towards Israel.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

An Associated Press story about how Hamas and Fatah are both clamping down on dissent in the territories that each controls observes:

The U.S. and Europe have said little about violations in the West Bank, even as they’re spending millions of dollars on police training to help lay the foundations of a democratic Palestine. The foreign trainers say the abuse isn’t carried out by security forces under their supervision.

Both Hamas and Fatah portray the sweeps as security measures, and play down rights violations as isolated.

Forget for a moment whether giving Hamas and Fatah money helps them perpetuate their wars against Israel, if the money is helping them oppress their own people isn’t that reason to stop funding them? Wasn’t the goal to have a secular democratic state living side by side with Israel? In the case of Hamas neither quality is emerging and in the case of Fatah the democratic aspect is rather lacking.

Then there’s the town of Mawassi in Gaza where Palestinians want Israel back.

Three years have passed since Israel withdrew from Gaza, and in that time the economy has gone from bad to worse. “I want [the Israelis] to come back,” says Riyad al-Laham, an unemployed father of eight from Mawassi - a mixed ethnic Palestinian and Bedouin town located in the middle of Gush Katif - who worked in the area’s Jewish settlements for nearly 20 years. “All the Mawassi people used to work in the settlements and make good money. Now there is nothing to do. Even our own agricultural land is barren.” Before Israel withdrew, Mawassi was a town of fertile corn crops and greenhouses, which - like the ones in the Jewish settlements - grew cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, and strawberries. Now, only shells remain of many of the greenhouses that were stripped of valuable materials. A town that fed itself with its produce and the money its men made from working with the settlers, Mawassi is now dependent on food handouts from the UN.

One of the premises behind the peace process is that there was no greater evil than occupation. But given Israel’s deteriorating security position over the past 15 years and the Palestinians declining freedom, isn’t time to reconsider that there’s nothing worse than occupation?

At the very least might the international community reconsider if funneling money to the Palestinians with no conditions is the best way to encourage their independence?

via Daily Alert

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

In the early 80’s Saturday Night Live had a recurring character, Tyrone Green, played by Eddie Murphy who was a “poet” whose most famous work was “Cill my landlord.” In one sketch, Tyrone shows his versatility, he’s not just a poet, he’s a conceptual artist too.

And of course the all white crowd loves him. They shower Tyrone with self indulgent adulation for his work, imbuing it with a non-existent profundity. And he repays their praise with scorn.

The dilettantes see themselves as sophisticates for embracing and understanding the noble savage. But Tyrone is not so noble.

Man #1: Tyrone, now everyone here knows that you’re most famous for writing “Kill My Landlord.” Do you suppose that you could recite that for us?

Tyrone: No! Shut up! I will recite my latest poem that I wrote about you bougie white trash scum. It’s called “I Hate White People” by Tyrone Green.

They want to be enlightened by Tyrone but are too blind to see that the enlightened artist holds them in absolute contempt.

While not 100% analogous, veneration of a similar sort has been expressed for the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who died a few days ago. Ethan Bronner writing in the New York Times described him:

Mahmoud Darwish, whose searing lyrics on Palestinian exile and tender verse on the human condition led him to be widely viewed as the pre-eminent man of Palestinian letters as well as one of the greatest contemporary Arab poets, died Saturday night in Houston after complications from heart surgery. He was 67.

And while Bronner takes pains to describe Darwish as an artist, no doubt his international acclaim stemmed from his poltics.

Nonetheless, politics played a major role in Mr. Darwish’s life and work. Born to a middle-class Muslim farming family in a village near Haifa in what is today Israel, Mr. Darwish identified strongly with the secular Palestinian national movement long led by Mr. Arafat.

Mr. Zaqtan and Mr. Abed Rabbo said he was the author of Mr. Arafat’s famous words at the United Nations General Assembly in 1974: “I come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”

He also wrote the Palestinian declaration of independent statehood in 1988 and served on the executive committee of the P.L.O. But he quit in the early 1990s over differences with the leadership and moved firmly out of the political sphere, lamenting the rise of the Islamist group Hamas and what he viewed as the bankruptcy of Palestinian public life.

But this leaves something unsaid. Why was it that he left the PLO? Bronner emphasizes that he lamented the rise of Hamas, but Darwish wasn’t necessarily such a strong proponent of peace with Israel.

Time Magazine’s Scott MacLeod’s hagiographic obituary includes this information about Darwish:

He moved to the West Bank in 1996 although he had resigned from the PLO to protest Arafat’s Oslo Accords peace agreement with Israel. Darwish, who had grudgingly agreed to sit on Arafat’s Executive Committee, accepted the principle of a two-state solution but doubted–so far, correctly–that the Oslo deal, which he felt was a sell-out to Israel, would lead to a genuine Palestinian state.

Oslo was a sell out to Israel? That claim’s consistent with Hamas. And why has Darwish been correct? MacLeod implies, of course, that Darwish “correctly” didn’t trust Israel.

But is it the fault of Israel or the failure of the PLO and Hamas to create a nation? Just this week Israel made another overly generous offer to the “moderate” Abbas and having been secure in pledges of millions from Kuwait and Israel, he rejected it.

But it wasn’t just Darwish’s objection to Oslo that is troublesome. The was a more basic problem to Darwish that Martin Peretz observes:

But the tender poetry is not what endears him to his public. There is a poem by Darwish, “Those Who Pass Fleeting Words,” not at all so tender but in fact aggressive…

Above I wrote that Ethan Bronner tried to minimize the political aspect of Darwish’s poetry, but what he wrote was extremely political and that was its appeal. Peretz republishes a translation of one of Darwish’s poems:

The time has come for you to go away
And dwell where you wish but do not dwell among us
The time has come for you to go away
And die where you wish but do not die among us

This poem was addressed to Israel. It does not speak of compromise. And this is an important point about Palestinian nationalism. It doesn’t simply seek to enfranchise Palestinians it seeks to disenfranchise Jews. For all of the flowery words that pseudo-intellectuals are using to eulogize Darwish and credit him with giving a voice to exile, they ignore - some intentionally, some not - the extremity of his views and how that extremism is the true voice of Palestinian nationalism.

Like the pretensions of the clueless fans of Tyrone Green they impute a meaning to Darwish’s art that isn’t there.

As Peretz writes about the “olive branch” line that Bronner and others mention:

Nonetheless, Darwish couldn’t keep his poetic priorities in order…or, rather, his political life for a time overwhelmed his poetry. After all, he was the poet who handed pistol-toting Yassir Arafat for his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly the infamous slogan: “I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun.” Of course, the olive branch was entirely metaphorical and the gun was metaphorical not at all.

That being the case, the line isn’t an expression of conciliation, but a threat.

In the SNL skit, Tyrone Green’s fans are clueless fools who think that Green’s “art” somehow ennobles them. In the case of Mahmoud Darwish, the media people who wrote of his death and his art believe that his poetry somehow romanticized the cause of the Palestinians. While I have little doubt that Darwish’s views represented the Palestinians accurately, it was the Irredentism he expressed that was the basis for his appeal.

In an e-mail Elder of Ziyon summed it up nicely:

Poetry doesn’t make one moderate

Darwish’s fans, for the most part, tried to hide that aspect of his poetry. What they fail to appreciate is that this is precisely why, fifteen years after Oslo there is still no Palestine. Palestinian nationalism is not mainly about the end of an exile, it is mainly about the end of an existing country. It was a sentiment that was accurately captured by the Palestinians’ poet.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Palestinian and “international” “leftist” protesters are being skunked.

The police developed this new method for scattering violent demonstrations and tested its effectivity in the last demonstration which took place in the West Bank village of Naalin.

Use of the “Skunk” is by means of an especially foul-smelling liquid spraying machine.

Over the past few years, security forces have been compelled to deal with a large number of demonstrations against construction of the separation fence in the West Bank village of Bilin and lately, in Naalin.

So, how did it go over?

The Border Guard reported that after the first usage of the “skunk” the Palestinians fled in order to shower and change clothes.

You know, I’d be happy to send them a few bags of Tig poop. But then, they wouldn’t need to import it. Israel is full of cats.

I await the cries of human rights violations for the use of nonlethal, but stinky, means of dispersing “protesters.” Funny how the AP almost never manages to mention the rock-throwing and other violent means of “protest” in use in these, ah, “protests.” (Okay, that’s my scare-quote quota for the week, and it’s only Sunday.)

Ethan Bronner contributes an analysis of the rescue of the Hilles clan by Israel. He gives one explanation why Abbas didn’t want to receive the Hilles clan.

In truth, the relationship between the Fatah leadership in the West Bank and the Hilles clan was poor. President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah, who is allied with other former Fatah leaders in Gaza, was angry that the Hilles clan stood on the sideline when street fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza in June 2007. Some Hilles members are with Hamas. And generally the clan cares about itself more than about either party. Send them back, Mr. Abbas told the Israelis.

The results of this incident?

So for now, the Hilles clan has been neutralized, Hamas has increased its power, Fatah leaders are seen as two-timing and indecisive, and Israel helped save the lives of some of its enemies. The streets of Gaza were deserted Monday night as Hamas police officers raided apartment buildings where Fatah loyalists lived.

So it does appear that Abbas’s claim about wanting more of a Fatah presence in Gaza had some truth. Still it’s hard to say that he comes of as looking good.

Finally Bronner concludes with two interpretations of the episode:

Israel felt it was not getting the credit it deserved. As Avi Benayahu, an army spokesman, said on Army Radio, “There is no other army in the world that would take such a humanitarian approach to help Palestinians, some armed, being chased and fired at by Hamas.” He added that “Israel has not received any praises for its actions. Yet this is the kind of army we have.”

Sufian Abu Zaida, a Fatah lawmaker, told Army Radio he had a slightly different interpretation of what the Hilles drama meant from a Palestinian perspective.

“When a person is faced with the choice of being killed by his own people or arrested by his enemy, he will prefer to be arrested by his enemy,” he said. “And this gives you a pretty good picture of how bad and cruel the situation is in Gaza.”

(”[B]ad and cruel,” do you think that Gershom Gorenberg stays up at night ravaged by his conscience? More on the Israeli army’s view here.)

Khaled abu Toameh (h/t Elder of Ziyon, Daled Amos) writes that it wasn’t simply a rejection of the Hilles clan that led Abbas to hesitate before allowing them in, it was a general prejudice against Palestinians from Gaza.

Past experience has shown that the Palestinians in the West Bank have never been enthusiastic about the presence of their brethren from the Gaza Strip among them.

Shortly after the establishment of the PA in 1994, former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat deployed dozens of policemen from the Gaza Strip in a number of West Bank cities. This resulted in an “intifada” by the residents of these cities, many of whom openly rejected the presence of the Gazans in their communities. In many cases, West Bank families refused to rent out apartments to the “undesirables” from the Gaza Strip.

The experience was repeated in June 2007 when hundreds of Fatah members fled the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s violent takeover of the area. Most of those who arrived in Ramallah are still finding it impossible to rent apartments in the city.

The reporting on this incident has, of course, used the word “clan.” There’s a story behind it.

Back in 1997, IMRA republished an article by Graham Usher, Arafat revives tribal power. After describing the lethal results of a clash between two clans in Gaza, Usher wrote:

“Since the PA was installed in 1994, Arafat has based his rule on two crucial constituencies. One was his Fatah movement, many of whose cadres were absorbed into the PA’s burgeoning and often lawless security forces. But the other was Arafat’s deliberate reempowerment of Palestine’s traditional or tribal families, like the Abu Samhadanahs or, for that matter, the Al-Dhairs. In Rafah, the two constituencies have become one, with tribal and political loyalties so interwoven as to be inseparable.

“For Palestinian analysts like the sociologist, Isah Jad, the PA’s “revival of tribal structures” is not only inimicable to Palestinian hopes for a law based and democratic society. It is corrosive of the modern national consciousness Palestinians have forged out of their conflict with Israel. For 30 years, says Jad, “the national movement conducted a long struggle to weaken loyalty to the family and the tribe and strengthen the concept of nationalism and loyalty to the homeland. Any rebuilding of tribal structures will reinstate the family and the tribe as the individual’s first loyalty.”

Arafat’s revival of the clans was done to ensure his hold on power, even at the expense of national aspirations. The events over this past weekend show how corrosive Arafat’s effort has been. My guess is that identification with clans also is behind the disdain shown towards Gaza’s Palestinians by their brethren in the West Bank.

More on clans here.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

I*Consult reflects on the recent rescue of a number of Fatah loyalists from Gaza who were saved by Israel over the weekend. He points out that Israel was simply doing something it had done a number of times before and casts the effort in a positive light.

Israel Matzav writes that this is an ill-conceived effort to prop up a weak (and undeserving) ally.

IDF reserve officer Yoel Tzur accused the government of ordering an ‘idiotic’ rescue when it ordered IDF soldiers to risk their lives to rescue the Fatah-affiliated Hilles clan, which was fleeing Gaza on Saturday. According to Tzur, the rescue was not a ‘humanitarian’ act, but was an attempt once again to prop up the flimsy government of ‘moderate’ ‘Palestinian’ President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen.

Fatah’s refusal to receive the members of the Hilles clan is being spun:

Mr. Abbas ordered nearly 200 fighters from his own Fatah faction back to Gaza, insisting that Fatah must retain a presence there. Gaza has been controlled by Hamas since a violent takeover in June 2007.

Fatah is not ready to write off Gaza, and Mr. Abbas also fears that Hamas there could export rebellion to the West Bank, which Fatah still dominates.

This is, of course, only spin. It’s hard to see how 200 Fatah terrorists could hold any sway over thousands of armed Hamas terrorists.

Marred by a single gratuitous swipe at Israel, Fugitive Peace portrays this flip flop as Abbas making another bad bet on Mohammed Dahlan.

At any rate, bad tactical mistake by Abbas to backtrack. His most reliable ally in Gaza, the Hillis clan, must now feel like it has no backing from him. This makes Fatah’s foothold in the strip even weaker than before, and it makes Abbas more dependent on Dahlan.

So Israel is betting on Abbas who has now shown weakness by turning to Israel to aid his allies and then betraying those allies, ostensibly to strengthen his position in Gaza. In all likelihood this makes him appear increasingly weak, undermining his own standing in Ramallah.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Last week a number of bloggers noted that AP had a picture of girls at a summer camp in Gaza. Cute. They were holding a missile aloft. Not so cute.

Backspin wonders how many papers carried the picture.

Mere Rhetoric comments:

The neat thing about these summer camps is that they don’t just brainwash Palestinian kids into really, really hating Jews. They brainwash Palesitnian kids into really, really hating Jews and they show them how they can do something about it.

Seraphic Secret worries:

I am sane enough to be worried about a political mind-set that is determined to appease a culture of Islamo Nazis.

The Muqata rounds up the varied options available to the children of Gaza.

While Fatah may not be running any camps in Gaza, they apparently are running at least one near Hebron. Given that Fatah’s a moderate organization they chose to name the camp after - a terrorist, Dalal Mughrabi.

Elder of Ziyon writes further:

The Palestinian Authority has also named two summer camps after Ayyat al-Akhras, a 17-year old who exploded herself in a Jerusalem supermarket. They’ve also named one after Wafa Idris, another female terrorist who murdered and injured many.

In addition, a camp was named for Jihad Al-Amarin, the founder of the suicide terror division of the Al-Aksa Martyrs’ Brigades.

You can tell a lot about a people by looking at their heroes.

Of course such summer camps are nothing new.

Last summer Ali Waked of Ynet reported:

At the Fatah summer camps the kids eat cold cuts but at Hamas’ camps they get kebabs (ground-meat skewers) and falafel. Tens of thousands of children spend the summer in the Hamas-sponsored camps in the Strip. After the classes about the Prophet and Islam, they visit the beach and the zoo. Weapon courses? Forget about it

However Khaled Abu Toameh of the Jerusalem Post cast doubt on the claim that there was no weapon training.

Some Palestinian parents in the Gaza Strip are up in arms over Hamas summer camps which are being used to train children on the use of weapons and other military equipment.

The families on Tuesday also accused Hamas of inciting their children against Israel and Fatah. Some of the families decided to pull their children out of the camps after discovering the goals of the camp. Most of the children who are participating in the current Hamas summer camps are between the ages of eight and 17.

In the past, Fatah also used summer camps for teaching schoolchildren how to use weapons and for inciting against Israel and the US.

The Fatah-affiliated Palestine Press Agency reported that the Hamas camps had been established in closed areas in various parts of the Gaza Strip so that the families would not see what’s happening inside them.

In 2005, SF Gate reported:

“In this camp we learn the important things of life — good behavior, respect,” said Osama, who was spending the summer at a Hamas-run camp on the beach outside Gaza City.

They also learn how to sing “intifada songs,” including one urging them to “kill Zionists wherever they are, in the name of God.”

Charming.

In August 2000, John Burns of the NY Times reported:

It is summer camp time for 25,000 Palestinian teenagers, and strikingly unusual camps they are, too. As run by the men who handle psychological warfare for Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, they allow no horsing around in the dorm, no fun-in-the-sun by a cool clear lake, no rousing sing-alongs beside a roaring campfire.

Instead, there is the chance to stage a mock kidnapping of an Israeli leader by masked Palestinian commandos, ending with the Israeli’s bodyguards sprawled dead on the ground. Next, there is the mock attack on an Israeli military post, ending with a sentry being grabbed by the neck and fatally stabbed. Finally, there is the opportunity to excel in stripping and reassembling a real Kalashnikov rifle.

In the summer of the latest Camp David talks, a summer that was supposed to produce a final peace settlement between Israel and its Palestinian adversaries, the Palestinians’ idea of a teenage boys’ camp is a reminder of how deep old enmities run. At 90 two- and three-week camps on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, youths from towns and villages already ceded to Israel by Mr. Arafat’s Palestinian Authority are learning the arts of kidnapping, ambushing and using assault weapons.

It’s good of him to acknowledge that this kind of camp “…is a reminder of how deep old enmities run,” but which way do those enmities run. The previous month Yasser Arafat and co. had been vacationing in Camp David purportedly to reach a peace agreement with Israel’s government then headed by PM Ehud Barak. And that whole time, someone who apparently reported directly to Arafat was running these camps.

Oh, and two months later there was a “spontaneous” outbreak of violence against Israel that quickly escalated in which many “youths” were killed. If I didn’t know better I’d conclude that the summer camps were the training grounds for the many underage troops who would soon confront Israeli soldiers and that the so-called “Aqsa intifada” was orchestrated. But of course Arafat was a man of peace, eager to put his terrorist past behind him and create a state dedicated to living peacefully side by side with Israel.

Not surprisingly the Israeli government - in 2003 - charged that the indoctrination and military training that goes on in Palestinian summer camps was part of an organized effort by the Palestinian Authority to radicalize the youth.

Not only does the Palestinian media incite and influence the children and teenagers, but the education system and summer camps “brainwash” the adolescents. The adolescents are inculcated with Islamic precepts that call for and encourage Jihad against Israel. At the beginning of July the Islamic Foundation in Gaza organized summer camps called the “Al-Aqsa Martyrs summer camp”. These camps continued until the end of July. On July 2, the “Al-Quds” newspaper quoted Sheikh Dr. Ahmed Baher, the chairman of the Islamic Foundation, as saying that the foundation attempted to keep the summer camps going despite the ongoing conflict, because they deeply believe in the values the summer camps are instilling in the children.

In addition, Dr. Baher stated that there is a constant stream of children who want to participate in the Hamas summer camps, where the children receive uniforms, shoes, exercise books and attention from the camp organizers. According to him, non-religious children join the summer camps due to the vast number of attractions that the organization offers. In addition, they teach the children the history of Islam, with pictures of the “martyrs” displayed everywhere, and in this way “instill the seeds of hate against Israel.”

Similar summer camps are being conducted by the Palestinian Authority Ministry for Youth and Sport, designed to incite the children, recruit them against Israel and train them in the use of weapons for future terrorist attacks against Israel.

(via Middle East Forum)

That Hamas is running summer camps instilling a hatred of Israel in children this year is no surprise. (Except if one believes that Hamas is suffering excessively from the Israeli blockade.) This has been going on for a long time.

The politicians, diplomats, academics and journalists can claim that the fundamental problem in the Middle East that is the construction of Israeli housing in disputed areas. But as long as Palestinian society is devoted to the destruction of Israel the conditions for peace will never exist. These camps are not isolated pockets of intolerance but the foreseeable products of a culture of hatred.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The other day I commented on a story from the Washington Post that Arab states were failing to fulfill their commitments to fund the Palestinian Authority.

Since then a few other bloggers have written about the story as well as a related story in the Jerusalem Post.

Boker Tov Boulder points out that by focusing on what wasn’t paid to the PA, the story misses the bigger picture: what’s been paid to the PA and gone for naught. In fact 3 weeks ago, we learned that $1 billion in international aid had been disbursed to the PA in 6 months. (This is something that Boker Tov Boulder followed up on.)

The international community has paid out nearly a billion dollars in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State said here late Monday, while hitting out at Israeli restrictions on movement by Palestinians.

Commenting on the Jerusalem Post story Israel Matzav offers some advice to the PA:

I know one place they could cut back - they could stop paying ’salaries’ for all their ‘employees’ in Gaza who haven’t come to work in over a year. At least 40% of the ‘Palestinian Authority’s ‘budget’ is spent in Gaza, which they do not even control.

That’s right, a significant amount of foreign aid sent to bolster the “moderate” Fatah government gets funneled to the “militant” Hamas government. The claims that we must fund the PA in order to bolster the moderates is undermined by the very moderates we’re supposedly helping.

Elder of Ziyon boils it down to:

The rich Arab oil barons do not consider the PA to be a good investment.

(There’s a lot more to his argument, but that’s the bottom line. So read the whole thing.)

If there was a Zionist ethos, it could be summed up as “making the desert bloom.” While the reality was not necessarily so romantic, it underscores a devotion to being independent. Palestinian nationalism, if it has an ethos it’s “let’s be wards of the international community.” Palestinian statehood has become everyone’s responsibility but the Palestinians.

The nations of the world must give them money. Israel must give them land and free terrorists.

Palestinians nationalism could be described as a passive-aggressive national movement. Why is there an International Donor’s conference to mark the progress towards creating a Palestinian state? Why isn’t Abbas or Fayyad presenting a state of the state message to their many donors explaining how they’ve promoted an industrial infrastructure, instituted government accountability, implemented a legal system that observes high standards of human rights or an educational system that promotes liberal thought? The Palestinians have no responsibilities and nothing is demanded of them.

Everyone everywhere (including numerous Israeli politicians) claim that Israel’s very legitimacy rests on the creation of a Palestinian state. But how can that be when the Palestinians don’t take the necessary steps to create such a state? Why should Israel’s legitimacy be dependent on the behavior of the Palestinians?

And when President Bush says that a stable Middle East depends on having a Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace, why does it matter more to him than to the Arab states who won’t put their money where their mouth is? (Remember that one of the complaints that the Arab world has against the United States - repeated ad nauseum - is that it doesn’t do enough for the Palestinians. But how can the United States do enough, if the Palestinians don’t take the basic steps to create a state themselves? And why doesn’t the United States turn to the Arabs and say, why should we support Palestinians nationalism if you won’t?)

The current trends in diplomacy only encourage Palestinian dependency. At what point will this be recognized and the onus of independence be placed on the ones who claim they want it?

UPDATE: Writing about a trend of Arab countries to invest directly in the Palestinian people and not the government, Daled Amos observed (similar to Elder of Ziyon):

I blogged earlier this week about how contrary to the West that insisted on pouring more millions into the Palestinian Authority to no effect, the Arab countries knew better and have resisted giving money to the PA that they have previously promised. Now it seems that the Arab countries are even smarter than that–they have approached the situation as capitalists, investing in the people instead of squandering it on the leaders.

And from the Arab side of things, Zohir Andreus writes in Killing the Dream:

It is difficult for me to be a Palestinian-Arab these days, because I’m simply ashamed. The conduct of my people in the “liberated” Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank does not leave room for any doubt: The dream of establishing a democratic and secular Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel is dissipating. My people is the only one in the world that has no state and, thank God, two governments.

So perhaps it is the governments of the Palestinians who are passive aggressive in seeking nationhood.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Yesterday I expressed skepticism that Fatah and Hamas were headed for a civil war. Maybe I was too quick. There are indications that things have indeed heated up. Whether they’ve reached a plateau or will continue to escalate remains to be seen.

Elder of Ziyon was on top of the escalation. (And I missed it before I posted.)

The NYT reports that Arrests Increase Tensions Between Palestinian Factions. Again I wonder if the arrests increase the tensions or reflect the tensions.

Tensions between the main rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah, spread from Gaza to the West Bank on Monday with reports of the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority security forces detaining more than 50 activists and academics associated with Hamas.

The timing of the detentions, which were focused in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, smacked of retaliation for a broad Hamas sweep against Fatah members and institutions in Gaza over the weekend.

(more links at yesterday’s Daily Alert.)

I think it’s safe to assume that those arrested won’t be getting married, allowed conjugal visits and given university educations. ABC News reports:

Two human rights groups on Monday decried widespread torture of political opponents by bitter Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah, and Associated Press interviews with three victims and a doctor backed the reports of abuse.

The findings emerged as the two sides carried out fresh arrest sweeps in the West Bank and Gaza — highlighting deep tensions in the Palestinian territories after a flare-up in violence over the weekend.

The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Fatah hasn’t escaped the notice of Lebanon’s Daily Star, which observes in an editorial:

Over the past few years, the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah has rapidly made its way up the list of threats to the Palestinians’ existence. In some circles, it is still fashionable to blame Israel for all of the Palestinians’ troubles, but in this instance, the leaders of Hamas and Fatah have committed crimes of equal magnitude against their own constituents. Not only have scores of people died at the hands of their armed forces, the fighting has also served to greatly undermine the Palestinian cause. It has become increasingly difficult for the international community to feel sympathy for the Palestinian people when their own leaders provide so much media ammunition to distract the world from their plight. The image of lawlessness and internecine warfare conveys the image of a people who are simply not ready for self-governance or an independent state.

Or as Lee Stevens puts it, a bit more generally:

But here’s another way to look at it: The Palestinian Authority is neither a nascent state nor a failed state project. Rather, it is a clan system of frequently competing interests that no Palestinian leader in his right mind would try to turn into a state, regardless of how much financial incentive the international community makes available. The problem is not that the Arab state system is breaking down, but rather that it never existed. And the proof is unfolding before us in, among other places, Hamas’ Islamic Republic of Gaza, the autonomous Hezbollah regions of Hezbollah Lebanon, and perhaps even someday soon in Iraq, as the Arabs redraw the borders of the region to their own taste with little concern for the international state system.

(h/t Instapundit)

I still doubt that Abbas was responsible for that blast on Friday. Hamas has strength in Judea and Samaria too, so it would be foolish of him to order something so brazen.

Even without further escalation, Hamastan will continue to be a source of instability for the foreseeable future.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

It truly is fascinating to watch the AP bias in reporting about Israel and the Palestinians. Let’s go to an old post of mine first to look at an old AP story about Israel:

Israeli Troops Kill 8 Palestinians
Israeli troops killed eight Palestinians, including a 17-year-old girl, in a two-day surge of fighting across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said Sunday.

The dead also included three militants traveling together in a car in the northern West Bank, and a man in Gaza killed in an Israeli airstrike in response to a Palestinian rocket attack.

Now let’s look at the headline that’s been going around since last night about a large, deadly explosion in Gaza:

Unexplained explosions kill 5, wound 20 in Gaza

Isn’t it interesting how the AP is so tentative about assigning blame to this attack? Funny how they’re usually so quick to blame Israel, quoting Palestinian eyewitnesses and terrorist spokesmen, yet here they are, half a day later, and the best they can come up with is “Unexplained explosions” in this headline. Hm. Why is it they would suddenly become so leery of assigning blame?

A powerful explosion ripped through a car on a busy Gaza City beach Friday night, killing a Hamas field commander and three other people, security officials said.

It was the third unexplained blast of the day in this coastal territory after a relatively calm period since Israel and the Islamic militants of Hamas agreed on a cease-fire last month. A total of five people died from the explosions, and 23 suffered injuries.

Wow, it’s the third mystery blast of the day. The crack AP staff can’t figure out who’s behind them. I wonder why that is? (Hint: Because Israel didn’t do it?) And by this time in an AP lead, you generally learn if any children were killed. The “three other people” in this lead are civilians, of course, one of them a child.

No one in Gaza blamed Israel for the violence, indicating it was likely Palestinian infighting.

Oh, how nice of the AP to explain this to us. It’s “likely” that it was Palestinian “infighting.” That’s a cute name for civil war.

The late night blast killed Amar Musubah, a Hamas military field commander, and another Hamas militant, Eyad Al-Hia, medical officials said. A child and a fourth unknown individual also died.

Earlier, unknown assailants set off two bombs in Gaza City, killing one man.

Finally, the child is mentioned, and yet, there is no age given. If this were a story about Israel causing civilian casualties, by now you would know the names and ages of all the victims, soon to be followed by mournful quotes from their relatives, and calls for revenge from terrorists. Funny how the AP writer can’t find this information out when the dead aren’t killed by Israeli fire.

And now, waaaay down in the story, the AP tries to assign blame for the blasts. Guess who they blame first, backhandedly?

Gaza is the scene of regular bloodshed between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants, though the territory has been quiet over the past month because of the truce between Israel and the territory’s Hamas rulers.

Uh-huh. “Regular bloodshed”—what a quaint way of putting the fighting between soldiers and terrorists. Now that we’ve got the blame-Israel-first thing out of the way, we have the real suspect, and note the difference in phrasing:

Gaza is also a common site of internal Palestinian violence between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas fighters defeated Fatah forces during five days of combat in Gaza a year ago, and tensions remain high.

It’s “bloodshed” when Israelis are fighting, but only “violence” when Palestinians fight each other. Now, the AP might tell you that they’re simply trying not to repeat the same word in two paragraphs, but there are many, many words other than “violence” that you can use for the fighting between Hamas and Fatah that resulted in over 100 deaths, including many civilians. Like, “civil war.” But then, when you’re the AP, you have to keep the narrative, and exposing the murderous actions of Palestinian-on-Palestinian “violence” isn’t sticking to the narrative of the peaceful victims of Israeli agression that only want to be left alone to build their state in peace and happiness, forever and ever.

Yet another example of the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel media bias. But don’t worry. Like Israeli Double Standard Time, that only happens on days that end in a “y.”

Mahmoud Abbas sent his condolences today to the families of the dead soldiers.

We learned, after two years of Hezbullah refusing to acknowledge proof of life, that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are dead. On this day, the president of the Palestinians, who is negotiating with Israel to create a Palestinian state, might have some words that the leader of a people tends to deliver at times like this. And indeed, Abbas has delivered greetings to those involved in the prisoner exchange.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has congratulated the family of Samir Kuntar and the four other prisoners who will be returned to Lebanon as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah.

Okay, let’s take the mindset of someone who has no dog in this fight. Abbas was a “resistance” fighter, the Lebanese captured in the war are “resistance” fighters, and Samir Kuntar worked with one of Abbas’ old buddies, Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front, and the man responsible for the hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the death of Leon Klinghoffer (in a wheelchair, shot at point-blank range). So now we see why he would congratulate the Lebanese. And even Kuntar’s family. But did he extend any condolences? You know, the leader of a people tends to send condolences to the families of the bereaved when events like this occur.

He also expressed his condolences to the families of Hizbullah fighters receiving their relatives’ bodies.

Ah. To the families of the Lebanese, but not to the Goldwassers and Regevs.

And with that action, the “moderate” Palestinian president’s mindset is shown for what it is: An unrepentant, inveterate terrorist, and leader of terrorists, whose doctoral thesis was titled “”The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement.”

These are Israel’s “partners in peace,” that Condi Rice are pushing Israel to jump ahead with in the two-state solution. And the world will continue to label him as “moderate” and make excuses for his not expressing condolences to Israel. But they will never admit that Abbas is still in the middle of a war to destroy Israel. His actions prove this, time and again.

Abbas couldn’t so much as make a polite statement regarding the loss of Regev and Goldwasser.

His silence on this topic speaks volumes.

The “moderates” in the Palestinian Authority would like Israel to hand over the corpse of a female Palestinian terrorist who took part in an attack that murdered 36 and wounded 71. Because they want to honor the mass-murderer.

The Palestinian Authority has asked Israel to hand over the remains of Dalal Mughrabi, the Palestinian woman who led the March 11, 1978 coastal road attack in which 36 people were murdered and 71 wounded.

Israel is planning to deliver Mughrabi’s remains, together with those of scores of Palestinians and Lebanese, to Hizbullah in the context of the new prisoner exchange between the two sides.

The PA said in its request that it wanted to “honor” Mughrabi by holding a big funeral for her in Ramallah.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, described Mughrabi, whose family originally came from Jaffa, as a “the first Palestinian woman to carry out one of the most courageous operations in Israel.” He claimed that in her will, Mughrabi, who belonged to Fatah, had asked her family to see to it that she was buried in “Palestine.”

Let’s take a look at what this “courageous” terrorist did:

On the morning of March 11, 1978, Dalal Mughrabi and her Palestinian Fedayeen unit of eleven members (including one other woman) landed by Zodiac boats on a beach near Ma’agan Michael north of Tel Aviv, having departed from Lebanon. They killed Gail Ruban (some sources spell Rubin [2]), an American photographer who was taking nature photographs nearby, and then hijacked a bus full of Egged bus drivers and their families on a day outing, on the Coastal Highway.

While driving, Mughrabi and her unit opened fire at the vehicles in the vicinity. An Israeli army unit, headed by Ehud Barak (who, in the 1990s, became Chief of the General Staff and later Israeli Prime Minister) pursued the bus until it was finally stopped near Herzliya. A long shooting battle between the Palestinians and the soldiers ensued. The Palestinians started shooting the passengers that attempted to escape. Eventually, the Fatah members blew up the bus which became a large deathtrap of fire. The attack left thirty five civilians, thirteen of them children, and six Palestinian guerillas killed (38 by some sources) and seventy-one civilians wounded.

This is what the PA considers a “hero.”

“We want to turn Dalal’s funeral into a national wedding, a major celebration,” the Fatah official said. “The operation she carried out off the shores of her hometown of Jaffa was heroic and exemplary. She will always be remembered as a symbol for the Palestinian women’s struggle.”

These are the people that the world insists want peace with Israel. At every turn, they prove that they don’t want peace. They honor mass-murderers, even thirty years after the attack occurred. They name soccer stadiums after terrorists. They’ve named schools after Mughrabi. And they’re going to have a big party no matter what.

Even if Israel refuses to deliver her remains to the PA in Ramallah, Fatah officials said they were planning to hold big celebrations throughout the West Bank to coincide with her funeral in Lebanon.

And just when you think they can’t get any lower, they do.

Ahmed also praised Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar for carrying out another terror attack in Israel one year after the 1978 carnage. He described Kuntar as a “stubborn and firm fighter in the ranks of the Lebanese resistance who led a very courageous operation.”

Make no mistake: The average Palestinian does not want peace with Israel. They want Israelis gone. By word and by deed, they prove this over and over again. Their society is utterly, hopelessly broken. And the world encourages it with billions of dollars in welfare to murderers.

Disgusting.

The terms of the truce are clear. Hamas is to stop all attacks from Gaza. No more mortars, no more kassams, no more attempts to kill Israelis. In return, Israel opens the crossings and sends in more goods.

Hamas keeps allowing mortars and kassams to be fired, or fires the rockets themselves. Israel closes the crossings. So what happens? Egypt begs Israel to ignore the fact that deadly missiles are raining down on its territory, and open the crossings anyway. And Israel caves.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday instructed the defense establishment to reopen the goods crossings into the Gaza Strip following a personal request made by Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman. The crossings will reopen partially on Tuesday afternoon.

According to the new decision, the crossings will operate several hours, rather than the entire day. The elements involved in the issue will form a proper plan, setting the list of priorities for the entry of goods into Gaza.

Oh, there’s tough talk.

“At the moment, our response is closing the truce. If needed, we will take other measures. It must be clear that any rocket, of any kind, is a clear violation of the agreement and we shall not ignore it,” a defense source said.

But there is only talk. Meantime, Hamas is training its terrorists on better ways to murder Israelis.

At least two Palestinians were killed on Tuesday morning in an explosion in a training camp for Hamas armed wing in southern Gaza Strip, security and medical sources said.

“The paramedics evacuated two dead bodies and two wounded persons and we expect more casualties because the blast destroyed the whole facility,” said Muawia Hassanien of the Health Ministry ambulance department.

The training center is located in a former Israeli settlement in Khan Younis city in southern Gaza Strip. Security sources confirmed there was training when the explosion occurred.

And here’s the kicker of the Xinhua piece:

Since Israel refused to deal with Hamas government, most of the projects to rebuild the empty former settlement was halted and the large spaces turned into training camps for the different Palestinian militant groups.

Meantime, the world has flooded yet more money into the Palestinian coffers, and the leaders of the PA are begging for more all the time. Funny how none of that money seems to be reaching the Palestinian poor.

The international community has paid out nearly a billion dollars in direct aid to the Palestinians in six months, officials of the International Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State said here late Monday, while hitting out at Israeli restrictions on movement by Palestinians.

The chair and the co-chairs of the Paris conference, which last December came up with pledges of donations totalling 7.7 billion dollars over three years, ’strongly welcomed’ the process of disbursing the funds.

Money is raining in, and the economy of the Palestinians is not improving. Who is at fault? Why, Israel, of course.

But ‘restrictions by the Government of Israel on Palestinian movement and access continue to weigh heavily on the economic outlook.

‘Without a significant lifting of such barriers in the West Bank, and a relaxation of the restrictions on humanitarian and commercial flows to the Gaza Strip, there is a much-reduced prospect for private sector recovery, public and private investment programmes will continue to be delayed, and consequently any economic recovery will continue to be inhibited.’

Thank you, Tony Blair. It’s obvious you haven’t learned a thing since you left office. Because your Palestinian partners aren’t showing one whit of evidence that they are changing. Not at all.

In a series of reports published in the ‘al-Hayat al-Jadida’ newspaper Israel is accused of poisoning Palestinian prisoners in its custody and conducting “medical experiments’ on them.

[...] “Many of the male and female prisoners were given injections from needles they had never seen before, that led to permanent hair loss and facial hair loss. There are prisoners who have lost their sight and their sense, those who have lost their sanity and those whose mental condition is increasingly deteriorating, there are prisoners who have become barren and cannot reproduce,” the article said.

This is the official Palestinian media. In other words, international donors are paying for incitement against Israel, something that the world has never truly had a problem with. Europe is once again subsidizing the murder of Jews. Only this time, they get to pretend that they have nothing to do with it.

Thus ends your depressing post of the day. Geez. No wonder I want to discuss ice cream vendors instead of this.

I’m sure you’ve seen those motivational posters around.

(This parody was created by Despair, Inc.’s Parody Motivator Generator.)

I saw this picture and thought it must be the world’s least appropriate motivational poster.

Israelly Cool! thinks it’s part of a subliminal effort to affect people’s perceptions.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The Israeli government has decided to swap a live terrorist for two dead soldiers.

Former Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is in favor of the deal.

And isn’t the price too high? According to Halutz, “Our nation is not like all other nations. Let’s face it, we have different sets of values, which I believe are the right values. In returning the soldiers we must act from the same place we acted at the time - from the Jewish place. Redemption of prisoners, mutual guarantee.

“Sometimes the sentiment must dictate a decision… And the main thing is that the soldier and his family should know that we will do everything for them - because we have been sentenced to many more years of hostility.”

For Halutz this deal ought to pre-sage a deal with Hamas to get Gilad Shalit back. Halutz’s predecessor Moshe Yaalon disagrees:

Former IDF Chief of Staff Yaalon sparked a row Monday when he said that security prisoners should not be released as part of prisoner exchange deals in which the demanded “price” is too high.

“When it comes to the question of a deal, I am one of those who call for the minimum, and in some cases we must even say we are ready to sacrifice in the face of what we are required to pay, because the payment price is much heavier than the price of losing the hostage,” he said.

Not surprisingly Yaalon was criticized by the Shalit and Goldwasser families.

Emanuele Ottolenghi has a question about how Israel handled the situation:

When did the government know that the two soldiers were in all likelihood dead? Was it immediately after Hezbollah’s incursion into Israeli territory, on July 12, 2006? If so, the government launched a military campaign of 33 days, that cost the lives of over 130 Israelis, in order to rescue the dead bodies of two. Some explaining is in order, if that is the case.

We’ve been down this road before. In 2004 Israel released hundreds of prisoners to get the bodies of 3 soldiers who had been killed in a crossborder raid by Hezbollah, violating the international border behind which Israel had retreated month earlier.

Israel released more than 400 prisoners Thursday in a long-awaited swap with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah in exchange for the return of an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

The German-brokered exchange was completed despite a suicide bombing earlier on a bus in Jerusalem that killed at least 10 bystanders and wounded about 50 in the deadliest attack on Israel in four months. The blast occurred near Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence, but he was not in the area at the time.

“We are releasing another 400 Palestinians with a very heavy heart, because we know that these 400 will return very quickly to the cycle of violence,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said in Jerusalem.

This time again it was the Germans who helped facilitate the return of dead Jews. And the Washington Post adds, it was under the auspices of the UN.

The deal, which followed months of negotiation mediated by Germans under U.N. auspices, marked the first such swap between Israel and Hezbollah since 2004.

That’s the UN whose troops aided the 2000 cross border raid, protected Hezbollah and did nothing to enforce its own resolutions when violated by Hezbollah. It’s kind of like paying to getting your property back from the very thieves who stole it.

The New York Times reminds us that this was purportedly one of the reasons that Hezbollah carried out the raid two years ago.

Indeed, within minutes of the decision, Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station, hailed it as evidence of the group’s power. “What happened in the prisoner issue is proof that the word of the resistance is the most faithful, strongest and supreme,” Hezbollah’s executive council chief, Hashem Safieddine, was quoted as saying.

The July 12, 2006, raid by Hezbollah into Israel that captured the two soldiers was aimed at seizing bargaining chips for the group’s effort to free Mr. Kuntar and several other Lebanese.

So Israel has effectively handed a Hezbollah a victory with this trade.

And of course there’s the question of who will be next.

Three government ministers voted against the prisoner swap deal Sunday-Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann and Housing Minister Zeev Boim.

The three said that the deal constitutes a victory for the Hezbollah. “After the release of Kuntar, who will be able to stop the release of [Tanzim head] Marwan Barghouti?” Bar-On said Sunday.

The families of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will get much needed closure. The question will be at what cost.

Meryl wonders if there might be some advantage to Israel that may occur on account of the release of Kuntar for the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser:

There’s one tiny point of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I think that Israel may be clearing up all the details of her prisoners and KIA hostages as a way to clear the decks for action in Gaza. In other words: If Israel has her captives back, whether they are alive or dead, she can then start clearing out the terrorist rat’s nests with a clear conscience, and without fear that it is causing their deaths.

The only problem with that idea is that Israel just agreed to a one-sided ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza. Daled Amos asks if there’s a different consideration in play

Is it a coincidence that this exchange is taking place now, at the same time that Olmert is attempting peace negotiations with Lebanon?:

For those of you who are concerned about Samir Kuntar’s suffering in jail, Israelly Cool has some details:

Did I mention that Kuntar got married, received conjugal visits from his wife, and earned a college degree all while in prison?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Rockets hit Israel again today. And from t