Bloodthirsty Liberal

Hamass: we’re not sorry after all.

The Hamas government in Gaza on Saturday backtracked on its apology earlier this week in which it expressed regret for harming Israeli civilians in rocket attacks.

The apology had signaled a rare deviation from Hamas’ violent ideology, and the subsequent zigzag reflects the Islamic militants’ conflicting objectives.

…

“We apologize for any harm that might have come to Israeli civilians,” the Hamas government wrote.

On Saturday, the government claimed the response to the U.N. was misinterpreted.

“The report that was submitted regarding the Goldstone report does not include any apologies and what took place was an incorrect interpretation of some of its wording,” the government said in a statement.

It did not attempt to explain the contradiction and Hamas officials declined comment.

Don’t worry, fellas, we didn’t take you too seriously in the first place.

And for those who did:

A Qassam rocket exploded in an open area in the western Negev, near Sderot on Sunday. There were no reports of injures or damage.

…

The last rocket attack from the Gaza Strip came Wednesday, when a Qassam rocket exploded near the border fence in an agricultural field belonging to one of the kibbutzim of Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.

A day earlier, another rocket was fired, and this time landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council.

Hamass claimed in its “apology” (now rescinded) that they always aimed at military installations and couldn’t be blamed if their rockets veered off course.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, we’re sorry.

We’re sorry you made us mad:

Hamas, in an unusual move, has expressed regret for the deaths of Israeli civilians in Palestinian rocket attacks during fighting in Gaza a year ago.

Israel, where Hamas suicide bombers have killed hundreds of civilians over two decades, dismissed any apology for the three non-combatants hit by rockets from Gaza in the war as insincere.

In a report by a committee set up by Hamas to examine UN allegations of war crimes by its fighters, the authors said: “We regret any harm that may have befallen any Israeli civilian.

“We hope the Israeli civilians understand that their government’s continued attacks on us were the key issue and the cause,” added the report, of which Reuters obtained a copy.

In response to the report, delivered to the United Nations this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said on Friday: “For years Hamas has boasted about deliberately targeting civilians, either through suicide bombings, by gunfire or by rockets. Who are they trying to fool now?”

You answered your own question in two words, one starting with U, the other with N.

Besides, you know who Hamass considers a “civilian”, right? I think there’s an old guy in Nazareth who keeps bees and plays the clarinet. That’s about it.

And in their next breath…

At least one senior Hamas official, who declined to be named, said the movement remained ready to conduct “martyrdom operations” - suicide bombings of Israeli buses, cafes and the like, which have not, however, been seen for several years.

The Hamas report, after listing Palestinian grievances such as the Israeli embargo on Gaza, reaffirmed comments by officials of the 22-year-old Islamist movement that its improvised rockets were fired purely defensively and were aimed at Israeli military targets. They simply lacked the necessary accuracy, Hamas said.

“It should be noted that the Palestinian resistance…is not an organized army that possesses developed technological weapons,” the report said. “It may target a military site or a tank position and their fire goes astray…and hit a civilian location, despite their efforts to avoid hurting civilians.”

Sorry about those kids and old ladies, in other words, and sorry about the ones to come.

And if the Palestinian “resistance” isn’t an “organized army” with “technological weapons”, then what is it? Freedom fighters? Minutemen?

Let’s have a look:

Weapons, missiles, uniforms… and anybody wonder why the Israelis occasionally bulldoze orchards?

Yeah, but three little rockets—

Okay, 17 or 18 little rockets… come on, Israel, what about proportional response?

Okay, maybe hundreds and thousands of little rockets—what harm could these little toys do?

Yes, toys:

This kind of harm:

I will say this for Hamass: if they are sorry, at least they have much to be sorry for!

Reader Zee notes in a comment on the previous post that the Palestinians have contributed nothing to the betterment of society except the “work accident”—which is a good line.

As if on cue:

On Wednesday morning, an explosion occurred in an apartment building in Gaza City, killing a member of the Palestinian resistance and injuring 5 persons, including a couple and their two children.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 09:30 on Wednesday, a explosion from an unknown source occurred in a rented flat in a 3-storey apartment building in al-Sahaba Street in the east of Gaza City. As a result, a man was killed and 5 persons, including a couple and their two children, were moderately to seriously injured. The Palestinian police arrived at the scene and opened an investigation.

The official web site of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) identified the man who was killed as one of their members - Abu Dajana ‘Abdul Rahman, 23, from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City - and stated that he was killed in the course of a Jihad mission.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reiterates its call for Palestinian resistance groups not to store explosives in residential areas to avoid hurting civilians, and states that the storage of weapons in civilian-populated areas constitutes a violation of international legal rules related to the protection of civilians.

Good luck with that.

In other accident news:

Today afternoon, unknown persons detonated a bomb near a convoy of vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) near Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. A vehicle was damaged, but no casualties were reported. This latest attack is part of the state of security chaos and proliferation of weapons plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 14:15 on Thursday, 04 February 2010, a bomb planted by unknown persons exploded near a convoy of 4 vehicles belonging to the ICRC while traveling on Saladin Road opposite to al-Shawa fuel station near Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip. The explosion of the bomb, which had been planted two meters to the east of the road, resulted in smashing the front and side windows and damaging the front of the last vehicle in the convoy….

What, did you think we were done?

This morning, unknown persons detonated a bomb in a car belonging to Yousef Sarsour, a Hamas leader in Khan Yunis, and fire was set in the entrance of al-Basha resort in Gaza City. These two attacks are part of the state of security chaos and misuse of weapons plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

…

In a separate incident, at approximately 05:30 on Tuesday, 02 February 2010, unknown persons set fire in the entrance of al-Basha resort in al-Daraj neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. The resort belongs to Mohammed Zakareya al-Sawafiri. The entrance and the banner of the resort were damaged.

Oops!

More accidents!

An Eritrean national was shot dead by Egyptian police 1 kilometre south of the Kerem Shalom crossing on the border with Israel and Gaza at dawn on Thursday, according to Egyptian security sources.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, two African migrants were killed and one was injured when Egyptian border police opened fire at a group of ten migrants attempting to cross the border into Israel, the sources added.

…

One Eritrean national was injured after being shot in the chest and one migrant of unknown nationality was killed by a bullet wound to the back, the sources said.

Five Eritrean and three Ethiopian nationals turned themselves in to Egyptian police following the incident, according to sources.

The migrants admitted to illegally trying to enter Israel to seek work, the sources concluded.

Do you suppose the mother of the “migrant of unknown nationality [who] was killed by a bullet wound to the back” had that in mind for him when she brought him into the world?

The anonymity is the saddest part.

We interrupt the Scott Brown Show to bring you this important announcement.

When a right and proper leftist is abused by Egypt, what is she supposed to do?

Say it with me, now: blame Israel

Oh the shame of it all. Last month, 1,300 pro-Palestinian activists from the US and Europe came to the region in the name of peace and social justice to demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Led by the self-declared feminist, antiwar group Code Pink, the demonstrators’ plan was to enter Gaza from the Egyptian border at Rafah and deliver “humanitarian aid” to the Hamas terrorist organization.

But it was not to be. Led by Code Pink founder and California Democratic fund-raiser Jodie Evans, the demonstrators were not welcomed by Egyptian authorities. Many were surrounded by riot police and barbed wire as they demonstrated outside the US and French embassies and the UN Development Program’s headquarters. Others were barred from leaving their hotels.

Those who managed to escape their hotels and the bullpens outside the embassies were barred from staging night protests in solidarity with Hamas on the Nile. In the end, as the militant Israeli pro-Palestinian activist Amira Hass chronicled in Haaretz last week, all but 100 of them were barred from travelling to Gaza.

The lucky few allowed into the Strip included neither Evans nor her friends, former Weather Underground terror leaders Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayres. But they bore no grudge against Egypt. The Egyptians were mere puppets of the real culprit: Israel. As Evans said, “It’s obvious that the only reason for [Egypt’s treatment of the demonstrators] is to make Israel happy. Israel is behind the refusal [to allow the demonstrators into Gaza] - what other excuse could there be?”

I was tempted to make a joke here about blaming Florida for being denied admittance to Wyoming—but we’re past education here. Past logic, discourse, debate.

What we are left with is rank, unadulterated Jew-hatred. Even “anti-Semitism” seems too clean and clinical—we need the Germanic (appropriately), not the Latin, to describe the bitterness from the Left.

Which is when they are at their happiest:

Unfortunately for the lucky 100 who were permitted to enter Hamastan, the diversions didn’t end at the Egyptians border. Hamas immediately placed them under siege. The Palestinian champions had planned to enjoy home hospitality from friends in Gaza. But once there they were prohibited from leaving the Hamas-owned Commodore Hotel and from having any contact with local Gazans without a Hamas escort.

Rather than being permitted to judge the situation in Gaza for themselves, they were carted onto Hamas buses and taken on “devastation tours” of what their Hamas tour guides claimed was damage caused by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead. And then these international protesters were forced to participate in a Hamas-organized march to the Erez crossing.

As Hass tells it, in “a slap to many feminist organizers and participants,” no Palestinian women were allowed to participate in the march, which “turned into nothing more than a ritual, an opportunity for Hamas cabinet ministers to get decent media coverage in the company of Western demonstrators.”

…

Hass’s participation in the pro-Hamas propaganda trip is a bit surprising. In November 2008, she was forced to flee from Gaza to Israel after Hamas threatened to kill her. At the time, Hass appealed to the Israeli military - which she has spent the better part of her career bashing - and asked to be allowed to enter Israel from Gaza, after sailing illegally to Gaza from Cyprus on a ferry chartered by the pro-Hamas Free Gaza outfit.

But I’m getting tired of this. These skanks and skunks are such loathsome and detestable company (Latin has its uses, too), I can’t stand to be around them, even to expose their execrable language and behavior.

I like to be more positive (you know me!):

COGAT Announcement: Summary of 2009 Shows 28% Rise in Humanitarian Aid To Gaza

…

During 2009, international organizations were more active in the Gaza Strip despite the complex security situation in Gaza. There was an increase of 125% in the number of internationals crossing into the Gaza Strip and some 400 delegations of foreign officials, including activists and diplomats, who have entered Gaza Strip in coordination with the Gaza CLA.

Furthermore, there was a 28% increase in the transfer of humanitarian goods from Israel to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings.

…

During the operation there were approximately 1,600 cases where the Gaza CLA coordinated the evacuation of populations from combat areas, and of casualties via international organizations, including the Red Cross. In addition, 1,400 truckloads of humanitarian goods were transferred from Israel into Gaza Strip through the crossing points, during the fighting, coordinated by the Gaza CLA and supplied by international organizations.

During the conference, Gaza CLA commander Col. Moshe Levy, said: “the fruitful cooperation between the Coordination and Liaison Administration and the international organizations allows us to respond to the needs of the Palestinian population in Gaza, which currently lives under a regime of terror.”

“Because of the cooperation and the support given by international organizations, there is a wide and varied supply of food and medicine in the Gaza Strip, a fact well established by in official reports of UN personnel,” added Col. Levy.

There I go getting all logical again. Israel not only allows aid to the Palestinians (unlike Egypt), it allowed aid and medical treatment during its war on Hamass, Operation Eat Lead. And the hoors in Code Pink would have known that if they had asked to be among the 400 delegations of diplomats and “activists” Israel allowed to cross its border.

Logic, BTL, stop it!

You’re right, you’re right… I’ll just call them the names they deserve. But as a gentleman with too much respect for the fairer sex, I’ll have to log off to carry on as I must.

It’s a pity reader Chris has crawled back under that rock, because he would have been filled with righteous indignation over this story:

[Israeli] authorities will set a new mechanism for shipping international aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, following anger over recent aid convoys for Gaza, [Israeli] Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit told [Israeli] news sources Friday.

The new mechanism requires all aid for delivery to the Gaza Strip to be handed over to the [Israeli] Red Crescent at the Al-Arish terminal. The aid will be processed by the Red Crescent and handed over to the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza following an inventory, Abu Al-Gheit explained in the [Israeli] paper Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat.

The decision came after riots broke out at the Rafah border when a convoy of international activists staged a demonstration calling on [Israeli] officials to open the Gaza border and allow 500 Gaza supporters and 220 vans of aid into the besieged Strip. The demonstration, joined by Hamas supporters on the Gaza side of the border, broke out into violence and lead to the shooting death of an [Israeli] soldier.

[Israeli] security forces in Cairo struggled earlier in the week with a second delegation of internationals who arrived in Cairo hoping to carry out a Freedom March in Gaza on New Years Eve. The more than 1,300 supporters were denied entry into Gaza, and a series of protests organized in [Israel] were quashed. [Israeli] law prohibits public gatherings of more than six people.

Oh, dang it, what happened to my spell-checker? For every Israel and Israeli, read EGYPT and EGYPTIAN.

EGYPT is restricting aid to the Palestinians, EGYPT is building a wall, EGYPT is demolishing and gassing tunnels—and EGYPT restricts freedom of assembly.

Human rights organizations and the United Nations could not be reached for comment. (Neither could Chris.)

PS: Tiresome, I know, but let me reiterate:

Since the end of the IDF operation in Gaza (18 Jan 2009), 703,224 tons of aid and 105,600,128 liters of fuel have been delivered to the Gaza Strip.

At the Cabinet meeting of 22 March 2009, the Government of Israel instructed the bodies dealing with the matter, to enable the entry - without restriction - of foodstuffs to the residents of Gaza from all relevant sources, after it has been verified that they are indeed foodstuffs, and this in the framework of the humanitarian efforts. The Government directed that the foregoing be scrupulously implemented.

Note: Gas for domestic use (cooking and heating) is supplied according to Palestinian demand and is not subject to any limitation by Israel. However, the fuel depot at Nahal Oz has been forced to limit its operations due to constant security threats. Work is being done to adapt Kerem Shalom crossing to the transfer of fuel. In addition, a new gas line is being built that will double the capacity to transfer gas for domestic use.

Compare with above.

Talk about holding contradictions in your mind!

The link takes you to his interview. He is a visitor at the Gush Katif Museum, which is a museum commemorating the Jewish community in Gaza which was expelled by the government of Israel in August 2005, in the demented belief that this action would bring about Peace. It brought roughly 10,000 documented rocket attacks into southern Israel instead. The Sheik’s English is terrific and his opinions rarely heard. It is the sort of thing that makes on think there is hope for the world.

- Aggie

Which do you want first?

The good?

Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank have stopped torturing Hamas prisoners, ending two years of systematic abuse, Hamas inmates told The Associated Press in jailhouse interviews.

Oh dear, I think I just gave away the bad news, didn’t I?

Human rights groups say their public pressure campaign helped bring about change, and US President Barack Obama’s no-torture policy might have helped set a new tone. However, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said the decision to halt any abuse was an independent one, part of an effort to make sure a future state is built on the right foundations.

…

However, they said the worst behavior - prisoners beaten with clubs and cables, suspended from the ceiling while tied up in painful positions and forced to stand for days - has ended.

Sounds like thet were just making their Hamass guests feel at home.

No, seriously:

A religious ruling in support of the construction of a massive steel wall on the Egypt-Gaza border is drawing fire from fellow clerics.

The steel wall intended to stop smuggling across the Egypt-Gaza border was declared permissible in a religious ruling, or fatwa, by the Islamic Studies College of the renowned Al-Azhar institution, drawing angry responses from other Muslim figures in Egypt, including from within Al-Azhar itself.

“This fatwa is not legitimate,” critical clerics of Al-Azhar said. “It contradicts previous decisions made by the Islamic Studies College in 1965 and in 1970, which prompted the defense of Palestine and the provision of assistance to Palestinians.”

…

The Islamic Studies College ruled last Thursday that the steel wall did not go against Shari’a, or Islamic law, and upheld Egypt’s right to build barriers on its territory in order to maintain its security, borders and rights.

“It is part of Egypt’s legitimate rights to set up barriers, which will prevent harm caused by tunnels built underneath the Egyptian town of Rafah,” the ruling said. “These tunnels are used to smuggle drugs and other things that undermine the country’s security and pose harm to its interests in a way that leaves us no choice but to fight it.”

Several clerics in Al-Azhar, including those in the college itself, condemned the decision to build a steel wall.

“This wall is haram (not permissible by Islamic Law),” the clerics said. “It aims to besiege the brothers in the Gaza Strip and block off all the options the Gaza Strip has to break through the Israeli siege, imposed three years ago when the crossings were closed. They prevented vital products from entering such as food, medicine and fuel, and this is a way of pressuring them to eradicate the resistance and Hamas.”

I think it’s fair to say that the Palestinians are the despised among the Arabs. And Hamass are the despised among the Palestinians.

We already reported on Egypt’s construction of an Apartheid Fence—sorry, security barrier—on its border with Gaza. I can’t find a picture, but here’s a diagram:

We might wonder why there isn’t one scintilla of the outrage there was (and still is) over the Israeli life-saving barrier—sorry, Apartheid Fence—but even when one news organization has the effrontery to cover the story, they are slandered in the most curious way:

Egypt’s minister of legal affairs and parliamentary councils, Mofid Shehab, criticized Al-Jazeera Saturday for instigating “a Qatari civil war” with its reports on a steel barrier being built on the border with Gaza.

…

He said television networks were working against the Egyptian government “in order to engender a civil war and inflame the Egyptian and Arab streets, and cause a clash of official authorities”.

…

Shehab’s criticism followed reports on the separation barrier currently being erected by Egypt on its border with Gaza in order to eradicate smuggling tunnels being dug there.

“This civil war network is first and foremost an Israeli tool,” he said. “It transferred reports on the Egyptian construction on the border from the news agencies in Israel and has begun to weave its usual plot.”

Al-Jazeera is an Israeli tool??? Who is this guy, Shecky Shehab?

But he eventually gets around to something a bit more believable:

The minister confirmed that armed forces were guarding construction work on the barrier, which was aimed at “securing Egypt’s border and its people”.

…

“I ask all Egyptians, and all those who support their homeland, are you willing to accept the violation of your country’s sovereignty?”

Nicely put, Shecky. I think I’ll save them for the next time somebody calls Israel an Apartheid state (tomorrow, if I know my leftists).

PS: I probably should (but probably won’t) list all the other separation barriers around the world. I recall writing about one in Saudi Arabia.

That’s life in Gaza, if you’re a chick:

The vast majority of women in Gaza face violence of varying types, a new survey has found.

The study, by the Gaza-based Palestinian Women’s Information and Media Center, found that violence against women in Gaza has increased since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in the June 2007 coup and Israel subsequently imposed restrictions on the coastal enclave.

The study found that 77.1% of Gazan women have experienced violence of various sorts, with almost half experiencing violence of more than one type.

A quarter of the women said they do not feel safe in their own homes because of violence and more than a third said they were unable to fight back as they had more urgent priorities to deal with.

67% of the women surveyed said they had encountered verbal violence, 71% mental violence, 52% physical violence and more than 14% sexual violence.

The report tries to pin the appalling level of violence against women on poverty. But Gaza was never exactly 5th Avenue. No, the real cause of change, it seems certain, lies in these words: “violence against women in Gaza has increased since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip”. I’ll leave it to the psychologists and sociologists to explore the correlation between radical Islamists and abuse of women (and child abuse, and racial hatred, and gay-bashing, and mobocracy, etc., etc.).

I’ll just observe that it undoubtedly exists.

Aggie reported ten days ago that Egypt is building an iron wall to keep the Palestinians penned in. She noted (somewhat cynically) that this violation of international law, of decency itself, was taking place without protest, without any notice being paid.

Patience, Aggie. Patience:

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a number of different occasions in recent days at Egyptian construction workers building a steel fence meant to separate Egypt from the Gaza Strip, Egyptian media reported on Thursday.

…

The Arabic BBC network reported that, according to eyewitnesses in the Gaza Strip, a number of incidents have taken place in recent days in which fire was opened at the Egyptian side of the border fence. According to various reports, fire exchanges took place between Egyptian soldiers and Gazan smugglers.

Egyptian newspaper al-Gumhuriya condemned the incident Thursday morning and defended Egypt’s “sovereign right” to build the fence as a means to pressure Hamas. The paper’s editorial argued that the fence currently under construction is “the same fence that exists now, with invisible reinforcements being made to its foundations.”

According to the report, steel plates which are 50 cm think and 18 meters long are being used to reinforce the fence, as well as plates with a 35 cm thickness and 15 meter length. The paper also slammed sources from the Egyptian opposition who criticized the construction of the fence.

“There are those who wish to present Egypt as a contributor to the blockade on the Palestinians by blocking arms smuggling passages. But these people forget that the smuggling of arms through the Sinai is a direct attack on Egypt’s sovereignty, and on its legitimacy.

“It is Egypt’s right to develop the fence which separates it from Gaza and it is its right to build a fence that will be strong and not be toppled by bulldozer, as this one was when hundreds of thousands of residents of the Strip stormed it in January 2008.”

I wonder how hard it would be to paste the name Israel in for Egypt? I wonder how Egypt would react to that excuse?

But I don’t know why the Palestinians would bitch so much. Most of the wall is out of sight:

… [A] significant portion of it to be underground. The fence will reach a depth of 20 to 30 meters and will span many kilometers along the Egypt-Gaza border, parallel to the Philadelphi route.

Meanwhile, media in Cairo reported that the Egyptian security forces uncovered 10 more smuggling tunnels linking Gaza to the Sinai on Wednesday.

And, as Aggie reported:

Egyptian forces demolish tunnels or fill them with gas almost every week, often with people still inside them, and Palestinian casualties in the tunnels have been steadily rising.

I almost sympathize with the Palestinian smugglers.

Almost.