Bloodthirsty Liberal

We get criticized here occasionally for not showing enough sympathy to the plight of the Palestinian people (I know, right?).

Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike—we do not think Palestinians should be slapped across the face.

By other Palestinians:

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns measures taken by the security services in Gaza against activists of Fatah Movement in the Gaza Strip to prevent them from commemorating the 45th anniversary of the establishment on the movement on the 1st of January. Security services in Gaza arrested dozens of activists of Fatah movement during the last week of December 2009. A number of detainees were violently beaten and were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment.

…

They confiscated kefiyehs (mufflers) and mobile phones from a number of students. Dr. Riad al-’Eila, Dean of Students’ Affairs, and Dr. Jaber al-Da’our, Deputy President of the University, intervened to in an attempt to persuade security officers to such attacks, but the security officers moved towards the campus of female students to storm it. When Dr. al-’Eila intervened again, a security officer insulted and slapped him on the face.

…

“On 31 December 2009, the police arrived at my home and arrested me accusing me of possession of flags of Fatah Movement. They took me to a police station in al-Shati refugee camp. When I arrived there, they covered my head, and a police officer hit me on my head. When I resisted him, many police officers kicked me and violently beat me using sticks and gun butts until I fainted. I woke up when they sprinkled cold water over my body. They then took me to an interrogation room, where they ordered me to take off my upper clothes. They questioned me about the possession of flags of Fatah Movement. They violently beat me on the feet and thighs. The interrogation and beating lasted for an hour, after which they tied me and beat me again. At midnight, they took me to al-Nazara (a fenced space area that is used as a detention place). They detained me there naked although the weather was so cold. On the following day, I was subjected to several rounds of interrogation about the same issue. The interrogation continued until midnight, after which they forced me to sign a pledge not to participate in activities of Fatah Movement, to comply to decisions of the government in Gaza and to abstain from violating order, otherwise I would pay a fine of 3,000 NIS. They then released me.”

…

On 02 January 2010, the police investigation bureau summoned a number of students from Hayel ‘Abdul Hamid Secondary School in Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. The students, aged 16, were interrogated about the distribution of a statement of Fatah Movement at school. During the interrogation, they were violently beaten. One of the students sustained a fracture to the right hand and bruises throughout the body, and another one sustained bruises throughout the body.

…

On 03 January 2010, the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, Eihab al-Ghussain, stated that the Ministry did not prevent any local activities in the Gaza Strip related to the 45th anniversary of the establishment of Fatah Movement.

Of course not. Anyhow, they all got off easy:

Fatah supporters light candles to celebrate the anniversary of the movement because the security services in Gaza prevent them from organizing celebrations on this occasion. A dispute arose between the policemen and the victim’s sons Sami, 40, ‘Amer, 27, and Mohammed, 22; the policemen beat the three civilians and arrested Mohammed and ‘Amer. In his testimony to PCHR, Sami al-Sweirki stated: “When she saw my two brothers in the jeep, my mother - who was in the shop - tried to pull them out of the jeep. My mother suffered from a heart disease and from high blood pressure and diabetes. One of the policemen hit her on the back and another policeman pulled her into the jeep. Then they drove away at a very high speed.”

‘Amer al-Sweirki testified: “My mother began to suffocate and told my brother and me to take her to hospital. The policemen did not respond to her appeals and continued to drive to al-Tufah Police Station. She began to lose consciousness. Then the policemen took her to al-Shifa Hospital in the jeep. Her condition continued to deteriorate until she died before arriving at the hospital.”

That’s terrible.

Sympathetic enough for you?

And let us be the first in Bloodthirstan to wish Fatah a Happy Birthday. Forty-five, and lookin’ good!

I’m sure I’m repeating myself, but I support statehood for Palestine if only so they can get straight to the civil war they so desperately want:

Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said Tuesday that his Movement filed a lawsuit against Mahmoud Abbas for telling lies and rumors about Hamas, categorically denying that his Movement suggested a presidential and legislative extension for several years.

In a press statement to Al-Jazeera net, Dr. Zahhar noted that the lawsuit was filed after Abbas fabricated lies about the escape of Hamas leaders to Egypt during Israel’s war on Gaza.

He added that the charges were pressed with Gaza courts, but he ruled out that the Palestinian prosecutor in the West Bank will summon Abbas for questioning because of the current circumstances.

Abbas during his speech on Tuesday before the central committee of the Palestine liberation organization (PLO) fabricated another lie saying that Hamas had offered him a secret deal to extend his term of office and the mandate of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) for three to four years.

For its part, the Movement of Hamas stated Tuesday that Abbas’s speech was full of contradictions and lies, and misled the public opinion.

Wow, a leader whose speeches are “full of contradictions and lies, and misle[a]d the public opinion”? That’s gotta suck.

These two factions hate each other almost as much as the socialist Democrats hate the Blue Dogs.

At least our senators don’t act like this—yet:

The offices of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in Khan Yunis were raided earlier this week. According to Hassan Abu Kaware’, UAWC coordinator in Khan Yunis, he headed to UAWC offices on Monday morning, 14 December 2009. He found that the computer at his desk was missing. He explained that he did not find any traces of destruction on walls or windows, and none of the files or the other possessions in the offices were stolen. Abu Kaware’ reported the incident to the police who did not travel to the scene to conduct an investigation. The police only took his testimony in the police station.

It should be noted that this is the third attack of its kind in the Gaza Strip this week. The offices of Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) and the Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) were stormed and attacked by unknown persons over the course of last weekend.

Sounds like the work of home grown, right wing terrorists to me. Probably GIs returning from Iraq.

This, on the other hand, has the fingerprints of Mahmoud Abbas all over it—and may explain Zahar’s intemperate rant above:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns Palestinian security services arrest and illegal detention of Hamas supporters in the West Bank. PCHR calls upon the Palestinian National Authority and security services in Ramallah to stop arbitrary arrests and to release all political detainees.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, Palestinian security forces have waged a campaign of arrests in the past two days, during which they have arrested dozens of members and supporters of the movement. This campaign coincides with the 22nd anniversary of the establishment of the Hamas movement. … At least 116 individuals have been arrested.

The Palestinians yammer on and on about the symbolic importance of Jerusalem as the capital of their future (and always will be) state.

I think Gettysburg is a better fit.

PS: The title of this post refers to the name chosen by Rod Smart, a player in the short-lived XFL football league. It appeared on the back of his jersey.

We should send one each to Zahar and Abbas.

Circle your calendar, boys and girls, the Palestinian love-in is scant months away:

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal’s recent visit to Egypt has brought the Islamist movement and Fatah closer to ending their differences, sources close to Hamas in the Gaza Strip revealed on Tuesday.

In another sign of rapprochement between the two parties, Hamas has welcomed plans by senior Fatah officials to visit the Gaza Strip for talks aimed at resolving the crisis.

The Fatah officials who are expected to visit the Strip include Nabil Sha’ath, Jibril Rajoub, Mahmoud al-Aloul and Fakhri Bsaiso.

The sources said that Mashaal has agreed to sign a “reconciliation accord” with Fatah after the Egyptians promised to permanently reopen the Rafah border crossing between Sinai and southern Gaza.

Get that? Egypt has had the door locked and the blinds drawn against the Palestinians, while Israel, which allows tons of aid shipments almost every day is routinely described as a prison camp commandant.

Smart country, Egypt.

Anyway, Palestinian unity is like jumbo shrimp, an oxymoron. No matter how jumbo, they’re still shrimp; no matter how unified, they’re still Palestinians.

The Egyptians, the UN, all of the so-called friends of the Palestinians (Heh. Heh-heh.) have been waiting for them to leave their petty squabbling, their internecine fighting, their civil war behind them, and to move into a peaceful future united and resolute.

Heh.

Nabil Amr, a long-time political ally of Mahmoud Abbas, has described the Palestinian Authority president as a “third-world tyrant.”

Amr also joined a long list of top Fatah officials who have accused Abbas of stealing the recent elections for the faction’s Central Committee and Revolutionary Council.

Amr’s attack on Abbas came as a surprise to many Palestinians and is a sign of the continued squabbling within Fatah.

Until last week, Amr was one of Abbas’s closest advisers.

Oh wait. Did I say “so-called friends of the Palestinians”? That’s what I meant to say:

The Ministry of Health in the de facto government in Gaza accused the UN refugee relief agency UNRWA on Thursday of withholding a shipment of medical supplies and equipment for months.

In a statement, the de facto Ministry of Health said that “the seizure of drugs by UNRWA has affected the lives of thousands of patients who needed treatment and medicine urgently. Dozens of patients have died because of the lack of medicine and because of the ongoing [Israeli] siege.”

…

The ministry said this action was not befitting UNRWA’s otherwise impressive record as an organization. “We in the Ministry of Health condemn such behavior by UNRWA, an agency we have known for years, that has stood up and supported the Palestinian people and defend them in all international forums.”

The statement went on to accuse UNRWA of complicity in the blockade of Gaza.

If it weren’t for their petty squabbling, internecine fighting, and civil war, there wouldn’t be Palestinians.

Oh, and their sewage. Defecato ergo sum.

I try to hate them, but I can’t. I just can’t.

They’re just too funny:

Hamas hinted on Monday that Fatah officials who have been in the West Bank for their party’s recent convention might not be allowed to return to the Gaza Strip.

“The Gaza Strip is accessible for all Palestinian people, BUT officially and in coordination with the government in Gaza. It is not accessible for those who violated the law and coordinated with occupation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ma’an.

…

With regards to future unity negotiations with Fatah, Barhoum said, “The date of the next round was not confirmed. Egypt will release a draft about the unresolved topics for Hamas and Fatah to discuss.”

Good. You do that, Egypt. It beats putting hot pokers in your eyes. Oh wait, that’s what you do to your prisoners.

Send in the clowns. Too late, they’re already here.

Our government believes that Fatah is a big improvement over Hamass in ruining—sorry, running the lives of the Palestinians. It is official Bloodthirstan policy that they are just more corrupt; otherwise, no difference.

Who do you think is right?

Fatah leaders responded with loud applause when two terrorists who committed the worst terror attack in Israel’s history were referred to as heroic Martyrs by former PA Prime Minister Abu Alaa, at the opening ceremony of Fatah’s Sixth General Conference:

“We have in our midst the hero Khaled Abu-Usbah, hero of the operation [terror attack] led by the Shahida (Martyr) Dalal Mughrabi [loud applause from the audience]. We salute him and welcome him. And [we salute] the hero, the Shahida (Martyr) Dalal. [He shouts:] All the glory! All the glory! All the glory! All the sisters here are Dalal’s sisters.”

Dalal Mughrabi and Khaled Abu-Usbah are seen as Palestinian heroes for having carried out the bus hijacking in 1978 in which 37 Israeli civilians, 12 of them children, were murdered.

Former Prime Minister Abu Alaa (Ahmad Qurei), who read the statement, is the current Chairman of Fatah Department for Recruitment and Organization.

There’s a video at the link showing Abu La-La spewing this oral diarrhea—and of the audience eating it up (so to speak).

Not that we should be surprised. They’ve already named schools after Dalal Mughrabi. She has been called a martyr and a hero since she first slaughtered the 12 kids.

PS: Subject of schools, summer camps, TV shows, music videos—she’s the Abigail Adams of the Palestinians.

You know, I can get into this anti-Zionist nonsense myself sometimes. It’s pretty easy when you get the hang of it.

Here, you try. Read this story about the restriction of movement of the Palestinians, and see if you don’t feel moral outrage rising in your breast:

50 Palestinians who were supposed to cross into Israel from the Gaza Strip Tuesday, mostly in order to receive medical treatment here, were repelled by HAMAS security forces at the Beit Hameches Junction just west of the Erez Crossing. In the north-eastern Gaza Strip.

HAMAS operatives blocked off the road and prevented the Palestinians from reaching the crossing with Israel.

Israeli officials said the HAMAS blockade was likely part of paranoia by the terror group that Fatah officials were disguised as sick people who required treatment in Israeli hospitals, in an effort to sneak out of Gaza to attend the Fatah conference which was due to open in Bethlehem Tuesday morning.

HAMAS men at the junction ordered the people who arrived to return to the Interior Ministry in Gaza City and have their permits to leave the Strip reissued.

What’s worse, by the way: preventing sick people from getting treatment, or taking advantage of sick people by pretending to be one (which I wholly believe some were doing)?

I also feel compelled to note that in either case, the sick and the ersatz sick felt more comfortable, had more rights, and were in all ways safer in Israel than in their own benighted territory.

Oh, and that “conference” they were trying to attend? Wannsee was a “conference”, too:

At the opening of Fatah’s sixth general assembly Tuesday morning, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Hamas, calling the group “revolutionaries” and “men of darkness.” Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s Fatah-dominated PA in June 2007.

…

Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said his organization will never abandon the option of armed struggle. “Resistance was and is a tactical and strategic option of the struggle are part of Fatah’s policy” which Israel must acknowledge, he said.

Former terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, an Al Aksa Martyrs’ Brigade senior official who was released from prison in return for a pledge not to engage in terror activities, said Israel has no willingness for peace and that the Palestinians must ready themselves for the possibility that “it is war that Israel wants, and not peace.”

Meanwhile, speaking at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Jerusalem, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was not interfering with the Fatah convention and that it facilitated the arrival of as many delegates as it could to the convention because it was important that the platform produced by the delegates will be representative of a wide range of views.

I don’t see the point myself. They may call Hamass men of darkness, but all skunks are black in the dark land of the Palestinians. Seriously, except for Fatah’s notorious corruption, what’s the difference between these two packs of hyenas?

Aw, gee. Why give up so soon, Egypt? If seven rounds of reconciliation talks weren’t enough, I’m sure they would have kissed and made up after the 12th or 25th:

Egypt has ceased efforts to mediate the formation of a national unity government between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.

Officials who met with the senior echelon of Egyptian intelligence said that Cairo is instead proposing that two separate governments ? the Hamas regime in Gaza and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank ? continue to function until general elections are held.

In parallel, Egypt would like to see the Palestinian factions agree on the formation of a committee that will lay the groundwork for the next elections as well as the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.

Hamas has informed the Egyptians that it is demanding that Fatah release all of the group’s members that are currently in Palestinian Authority prisons before the resumption of reconciliation talks in Cairo, which is scheduled for to take place in two weeks.

Hamas says that if its members are not released, it will boycott the Cairo talks, Israel Radio reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in comments published Saturday, says he will accept any Egyptian proposal on reconciling Palestinian factions that “would end the siege on the Palestinian people.”

Yeah, sure you will.

You know, now that I’ve learned how many Palestinians are actually Jewish, I may have to re-think my utter contempt for them all.

Hamas is holding Fatah prisoners
in schools and hospitals. They are torturing them and murdering them.

Where is the UN?

The eyewitnesses said that a children’s hospital and a mental health center in Gaza City, as well as a number of school buildings in Khan Yunis and Rafah, were among the places that Hamas had turned into “torture centers.”

Who runs those schools and hospitals? If I were a member of the MSM, I could say that sources tell me that the United Nations is complicit in this barbarity. I might run pictures of the mangled corpses of Fatah members. Then, if it turns out that the UN had nothing to do with it, I would be on to another story.

Hamas militiamen have rounded up hundreds of Fatah activists on suspicion of “collaboration” with Israel during Operation Cast Lead, Fatah members in the Gaza Strip told
They said the Hamas crackdown on Fatah intensified after the cease-fire went into effect early Sunday morning.

The Fatah members and eyewitnesses said the detainees were being held in school buildings and hospitals that Hamas had turned into make-shift interrogation centers.

Hamas has also renewed house arrest orders that were issued against thousands of Fatah officials and activists in the Gaza Strip shortly after the military operation started.

A Fatah official in Ramallah told the Post that at least 100 of his men had been killed or wounded as a result of the massive Hamas crackdown. Some had been brutally tortured, he added.

The official said that the perpetrators belonged to Hamas’s armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, and to the movement’s Internal Security Force.

According to the official, at least three of the detainees had their eyes put out by their interrogators, who accused them of providing Israel with wartime information about the location of Hamas militiamen and officials.

A number of Hamas leaders and spokesmen have claimed in the past few days that Fatah members in the Gaza Strip had been spying on their movement and passing the information to Israel.

The following cities are having huge rallies today to protest this violence: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Madrid, Athens, Oslo, Stockholm, Berlin. There will be huge crowds outside the UN in NYC with signs demanding to end Hamas violence and genocide against Fatah. CAIR has the details.

See you there.

- Aggie

How do they treat Fatah?

The Hamas government has placed dozens of Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip.

The move came amid reports that the Fatah leadership in the West Bank has instructed its followers to be ready to assume power over the Gaza Strip when and if Israel’s military operation results in the removal of Hamas rule.

Fatah officials in Ramallah told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken.

Somebody needs to teach Hamas that old Brownie song:

Make new friends,
But keep the old,
One is silver
And the other gold.

Now, how do they expect to make friends if they are breaking hands and legs? Is that a nice way to play? Why Fatah won’t like them if they act this way:

Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.

“Hamas is very nervous, because they feel that their end is nearing,” a senior Fatah official said. “They have been waging a brutal campaign against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.”

They are so sick:

Meanwhile, sources close to Hamas revealed over the weekend that the movement had “executed” more than 35 Palestinians who were suspected of collaborating with Israel and were being held in various Hamas security installations.

The sources quoted Hamas officials as saying that the decision to kill the suspected collaborators was taken out of fear that Israel might try to rescue them during a ground offensive. The officials claimed that at least half of the victims were killed by relatives of Palestinian militiamen who were killed as a result of information passed on to Israel by the “collaborators.”

Where is Amnesty International? Where is Human Rights Watch? Why, busy blaming Israel, of course.

- Aggie