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.

Check the skies for flying porkers: The AP profiles Israeli peace moves toward Iran. Of course, being the AP, they tell you this:

Before the revolution, Israel and Iran were close allies. Some 100,000 Jews of Iranian descent live in Israel today, many with fond memories and still strong ties to friends and relatives in their homeland. An estimated 25,000 Jews still live in Iran.

But they don’t tell you this:

On the eve of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, 80,000 Jews lived in Iran. In the wake of the upheaval, tens of thousands of Jews, especially the wealthy, left the country, leaving behind vast amounts of property.

That second paragraph, of course, is why there is such a large population of Iranian Jews in Israel.

You just can’t stop the haters from making hateful asses of themselves: A columnist in the Las Vegas Review wrote about the special post-Shabbat caucuses in Nevada on Saturday night. She called out the Jew-hate code words (“New York Lawyers”, for one) and accused some of Ron Paul’s followers of being anti-Semitic. In the comments to the article, they prove her right.

AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Pull the other one: How can you tell Hassan Nasrallah is lying? His lips are moving.

Iran will not ask Lebanon’s Hezbollah to retaliate if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, the leader of the militant group said Tuesday.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters by video link that in case of such an Israeli attack on Iran, his leadership would make a decision about a response. Hezbollah is funded by Iran.

The One Is Not Happy: Shmuel Rosner, no fan of Benjamin Netanyahu’s, points out that Bibi is going to be around for a while yet, perhaps longer than the Obama Administration, which has tried so hard to get him kicked out of office. Cue world’s smallest violin.

And just for kicks and giggles: Ha’aretz is publishing the hacked emails of the Syrian administration. Georgie-Porgie Galloway is seen slobbering over the dictator’s murderous feet in the hopes of keeping his money coming in.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The Palestinians are refusing to so much as enter the room to negotiate with Israel, so of course, the EU is trying to get Israel to offer concessions (read: bribes) to get them back to the table. Because that’s always worked before. Oh. Wait.

Okay, THAT was awesome: The Navy Seals did it again, killing Somail pirates and rescuing an American hostage, as well as a Danish one.

Early on Wednesday, two teams from SEAL Team 6 – the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden – parachuted under the cover of darkness out of an Air Force C-130 transport plane into the Somali city of Cadaado.

From there, they hiked nearly two miles to an encampment, where nine pirates were killed. The SEALs suffered no injuries. Army helicopters then picked up the SEALS and Buchanan and Thisted and flew them safely to the African nation of Djibouti.

Great job, guys!

The media has a new, scary Jewish billionaire to excoriate: A story on Sheldon Adelson gets the Negative Portrayal of the Month award for this AP profile of the billionaire donor behind Newt Gingrich, replete with shades of “Israel first” and ZOG hints, all couched in the pretty phrasing of the mainstream media. I will take this one apart later and show you how the AP manages to make it seem like Jews are behind the Gingrich campaign, and it’s partly the fault of the Citizens United decision. In the tank for Obama? All the way, you say.

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.

A true fifth columnist: An Arab-Israeli member of the Knesset talks about how the shahid is the true hero of Palestinians. Well, at least he’s being truthful–he’s for the terrorists, not for Israel.

“They are the shahids who the occupier calls terrorists and we say are fighting for the homeland,” Tibi said during his speech.

But Israeli is an apartheid state, where the Arabs aren’t allowed to vote or take part in politics… oh. Wait. And of course, he denies that he meant he supports suicide bombers. Yeah. Sure.

It’s time for the annual Israel stomp: The UN released its annual report on the condition of Palestinian human rights. Did it point out that women in Ramallah are going on a hunger strike to protest the treatment of women in the Palestinian territories? No. Did it point out that Hamas is no longer letting men cut women’s hair, that Christians can’t worship freely, and that women are being forced to wear “modest” clothing? Nope. What it did do was call the Israeli blockade of Gaza “collective punishment” and go over the list of things that mean, mean Israel is doing to the pure, innocent Palestinians. No mention of that by Ban Ki-Moon, but he sure did go overboard telling the Israelis to freeze settlements.

The Jewish National Fund: Protecting Israelis from snipers. Give generously. The JNF is working with the IDF to plant trees around Israeli border towns to prevent snipers from having easy access to targets. Tell me, what other nation in the world needs to do anything like this? And of course, the mainstream media will ignore this story completely.

The AP whitewashes the Muslim Brotherhood’s attitude on Israel:. But of course they do.

The vice president of the Christian Democratic Party wrote on his Twitter account, “I bet that the Israeli ‘tourist’ that burned Torres del Paine is one of those sent by his State after killing Palestinian children.”

Taunts of “filthy Jew” were reportedly yelled as the suspect was escorted to court.

I’m shocked, how about you? The meeting in Amman between the PA and Israel produced no results. Gee, I wonder if that’s because Israel refuses to accede to the Palestinian “preconditions” (go back to the 1949 Armistice lines, give back Jerusalem, freeze all settlement activity) before negotiating. Watch for the Obama administration to insist Israel must produce “confidence-buiding” measures while requiring nothing of the Palestinians. No, wait. It’s an election year. Watch for Obama to mouth I Heart Israel platitudes.

Countdown to anti-Israel articles on this law in 3, 2, 1: Israel passed a tough anti-illegal immigrant law. Prepare for stories on how heartless Israel won’t allow starving Africans to illegally come and live there. Then compare that to the number of stories on Spain’s reaction to illegal African immigration. (Hint: Take a look at a map and see how close Spain is to Africa. They have a pretty bad illegal immigrant problem.)

Well, that was fast: Yep, the AP is on the case.

Israel’s parliament on Tuesday approved harsh new penalties on illegal migrants and Israelis who help them, passing one of several controversial measures designed to stanch the flood of Africans seeking sanctuary from poverty and conflict.

More on this later.

The Dorktator speaks: And he’s not giving up. I didn’t really think he would. Yes I did. No I didn’t. (I go back and forth on this, can you tell?)

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.

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.

“Netanyahu needs to freeze the construction of settlements and accept the ’67 outline for a two-state solution before we return to the negotiations table,” he asserted.

In other words, we’ll take Jerusalem first and talk later. Right. That’s gonna happen.

Inappropriate JHolocaust comparison alert: Sure, bringing sexual harassment charges against a man who spit on a woman and called her a slut is just like Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg laws.

Moshe compared the Israeli society’s treatment of the haredim to “persecution similar to the Nuerenberg Laws.” According to him, the very fact that a haredi man who verbally assaulted a female soldier is being accused of sexual harassment – even though many legal experts claimed there were no grounds for arrest – resembles racist legislation.

Sure. Israel is now going to create laws forbidding Haredi to have marry non-Haredia and strip them of their citizenship. Yes, what’s going on now–demanding that the Haredi nutjobs stop treating women disgustingly–is just like what happened in Nazi Germany.

I am beginning to understand the insanity of the Neturei Karta a little more now. Apparently, they’re not the only extremely religious nutjobs.

There was another election at the UN? Did you know that SecGen Ban Ki-Moon starts his second term today? Yeah, me neither. And what is he going to concentrate on?

As he embarks on a new five-year term starting New Year’s Day, Ban said one of his top priorities is to help Arab countries sustain their moves toward democracy. He also said he intended to do more for young people and women, and address frustrations over the growing gap between the rich and poor expressed by the Occupy movement.

What democracy? It’s going to be one man, one vote, one time in Egypt, soon enough. Libya? Islamists. Tunisia? Well, maybe there, but what is the UN going to do to promote democracy over Islamism? Nothing, because it is filled with Islamists and politically correct bureaucrats who will cry “Islamophobia!” at the drop of a hat.

Finally, a feel-good story: Utah passers-by rescued two drowning children and saved their lives. And one of them used a handgun to do it. (He shot out the rear passenger window to get in and reach the children.) Here’s the original story with all the details.

Of course they are: The Muslim Brotherhood is over the moon about their offshoot, Hamas. Why the love? Because Hamas is succeeding in getting the world to bend to its will. Watch. Soon, the EU will be demanding that Israel negotiate with the PA even if it’s made up of openly unrepentant terrorists who say, quite plainly, that they will accept a state along the 1949 Armistice lines as a first step towards taking all of “Palestine.”

Openly spouting jihad: The AP put this quote in its recent piece about Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and yet, somehow, it didn’t get very high placement in the article.

Haniyeh described Hamas as the “jihadi movement of the Brotherhood with a Palestinian face.’’ He said his visit to the Brotherhood center would confuse and frighten Israel.

That’s funny. I thought Karl Vick told us that Hamas joining the PLO meant that it would become more moderate, not less openly terrorist. Huh. Go figure. (Gee. Karl Vick is silent on the non-moderation of Hamas.)

Muslim ERA Watch: Yeah, like this is gonna stop them. The Egyptian court ordered the military to stop performing “virginity tests” on female prisoners. What an awesome, awesomely feminist religion, that Islam. I can’t wait to hear the apologists explain to me how a virginity test really is a form of feminism that Westerners just can’t understand.

Of course, a story the AP can really sink its teeth into: They don’t cover “honor” killings widely. They don’t cover the lack of equal rights for women in most Muslim countries. But of course, an extremist group of religious nuts mistreating girls in Israel? Wall-to-wall coverage, baby, including video at every link! Outraged editorials and op-eds in the New York Times in 3, 2, 1…