Bloodthirsty Liberal

United they fall:

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahhar said Saturday that while the movement agreed to a deal with Fatah to form a transitional government, Hamas was concerned it may actually undermine the reconciliation accord between the parties.

“We specifically agreed on a non-partisan cabinet of technocrats to prepare for elections … implementing the deal may lead to undermining the (initial agreement),” Zahhar told reporters.

…

Zahhar said on Saturday that Hamas wants to implement reconciliation, but raised discussions in how to protect the agreement at the latest meetings, indicating its opposition to Abbas’ role in the new government is ongoing.

First of all, Mahmoud, a “cabinet of technocrats” (though distinctly partisan) is what we have here. You don’t want it, trust me.

Second, right back at ya:

Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf Saturday accused in an interview on Voice of Palestine radio some Hamas leaders in Gaza of opposing the Doha agreement in order to maintain the internal division, which has benefited them.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and President Mahmoud Abbas agreed in the Qatari capital Doha that Abbas would form and head the new government as a compromise solution after Hamas strongly objected to Abbas’ nominee, current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Despite of all Hamas practices, Fatah insists on implementing the reconciliation agreement and ending the division, said Assaf.

Hey, that’s awfully big of you, Ass…af.

Let me simplify things for our newer readers out there. In order for the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians to evolve, their factions should at least be on speaking terms. Well, at least not on shooting terms. But international aid (about their only source of income) hinges on Hamass being excluded from any government, as it is an overt, avowed terrorist organization. And much as the international aid organizations just ache to lavish wealth upon the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians, they can’t quite bring themselves to do so. Genocidal ethnic hatred is still a tender spot for Europe.

Even that distinction is farcical, however, when you consider that Fatah is barely less radical, hardly more peaceable than Hamas. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is Fatah’s armed wing, just as Hamass has the The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade—or, as I call it, the Dizzy Dean-Casey Kasem Brigade. As we reported merely four days ago, Al Aqsa shells Israel, too.

Let’s say Fatah were the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan has a terrible, terrible history—as shameful and despicable as can be described. But largely neutered now. No crosses are burned on lawns anymore, no churches firebombed. They still have a hateful ideology, one that should be rejected, shunned, and despised by every decent person, but other than a vicious beating or two—and their unchanged, elinminationist philosophy—they don’t get up to much these days.

Now let’s say Hamass is the Aryan Nation, American Nazi Party, The Order, Posse Comitatus, and various white power skinheads, all rolled into one.

The European Union and United Nations would bankroll the Klan, but not the Aryan Nation. I hope you appreciate the distinction.

Not that it matters who did it, but the terrorists allied with Israel’s peace partner, Mahmoud Abbas, just shelled Israel:

The military wing of Fatah said Tuesday that its operatives fired a locally made projectile at the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

The Al-Aqsa brigades said in a statement that the rocket was fired at 8:30 p.m. in response to Israeli attacks on Jerusalem.

“Israeli attacks on Jerusalem”? Don’t ask. It makes about as much sense as negotiating with terrorists sworn to your destruction.

Color me unsurprised:

The EU said it will keep on giving money to the Palestinian authorities despite their new deal with Hamas, an organization which is listed as a terrorist group by the EU.

“The EU looks forward to continuing its support, including through direct financial assistance, for a new Palestinian government that should uphold the principle of non-violence,” Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the Fatah of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas announced in Qatar an agreement to form a unity government.

The EU is the main donor to the Palestinian Authority and currently provides some 450 million dollars a year in aid meant to help refugees and support state-building measures, such as creating a police force in the West Bank.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the Hamas-Fatah agreement, saying that that if would mean that the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process is over.

…

“If President Abbas moves to implement what was signed today in Doha, he will abandon the path of peace and join forces with the enemies of peace,” Netanyahu said.

“Hamas is an enemy of peace. It’s an Iranian-backed terror organization committed to Israel’s destruction,” he added.

And Europe just shrugs.

These guys are beautiful—in an ugly sort of way:

Qatari mediation efforts between rival PLO groups Fatah and Hamas have succeeded and the twin terror organizations have signed a reconciliation agreement, it was reported Sunday. The impasse over the identity of the interim prime minister has been solved — but there are already threats within Hamas to split the organization.

…

Al Arabiya news network reported Sunday that senior officials in Hamas are threatening to split the terror group in two, because they do not accept Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister, even in a transitional government.

But this may be a win-win. The West really shouldn’t recognize a government with Hamass in it: they are avowed terrorists (so are Fatah, but that’s one of those “inconvenient” truths). So, now we get to have the charade of a united Palestinian Arab government, while still having plenty of well-armed terrorists outside of it, threatening (and committing acts of) genocide, as their charter declares.

Which is pretty much where we’ve always been.

Which one do you believe?

This one?

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that Hamas leader abroad Khaled Mashaal had agreed that:

- “There will be no military resistance.”
- “The permanent solution is on the ’67 borders.”

According to Abbas, Hamas agrees to a permanent solution on the ’67 borders.

Or this one?

Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Ismail Haniyeh said that Hamas may work for the “interim objective of liberation of Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem,” but that this “interim objective” and “reconciliation” with Fatah will not change Hamas’ long-term “strategic” goal of eliminating all of Israel:

“The armed resistance and the armed struggle are the path and the strategic choice for liberating the Palestinian land, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river, and for the expulsion of the invaders and usurpers [Israel]… We won’t relinquish one inch of the land of Palestine.”

In his speech, Haniyeh also promised that Hamas will “lead Intifada after Intifada until we liberate Palestine – all of Palestine, Allah willing. Allah Akbar and praise Allah.”

It’s actually a trick question:

For many years, the PLO promoted a “stages plan” that would first create a Palestinian state on the 1949 – 1967 armistice lines, and then work from that position to destroy Israel.

Senior Fatah official Abbas Zaki recently stated that this remains the goal for Fatah as well, but that “you can’t say it to the world. You can say it to yourself.”

Anyone who speaks of Arabs and Israelis in terms of peace is a charlatan, liar, stooge.

It makes sense: an “invented people” invent all sorts of crises, conflicts, and chaos.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has declared war on all informal meetings between Israelis and Palestinians, Hatem Abdel Kader, a senior Fatah official, said over the weekend.

Fatah’s decision came following a series of meetings between Israeli and Palestinian peace activists and academics to promote peace and “normalization” between the two sides.

Last week, Palestinians thwarted an attempt by a group called the Israeli Palestinian Confederation to hold a conference in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

At the conference, Israelis and Palestinians were expected to vote for a joint parliament that would offer itself as a “third government” for the two peoples.

Palestinian protesters stormed the Ambassador Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem and forced the Israeli organizers and hotel management to cancel the event.

The following day, a similar anti-normalization protest in Bethlehem forced the group to cancel a planned conference near the city.

Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh, who was supposed to speak at the conference, had to cancel his appearance after receiving threats from Palestinian activists belonging to Fatah and other groups.

You know Fatah: they’re the “good” Palestinian Arabs, as opposed to the “bad” Arabs, like Hamass, who do things like renounce any thought of peace with Israel. Fatah’s not like that, you see, not their style. They’re good. That’s why this administration (and all previous ones, it must be admitted) say they are Israel’s peace partner and why they order Israel to “get back to the damn table!

If the pursuit of peace was ever immoral, this is that time.

Or has it?

You’re just too good to be true,
Can’t take my eyes off of you.
It’s hard to sign a truce pact
With this knife in my back

Efforts to achieve reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas have stumbled over the formation of a Palestinian unity government and the reconstruction of the Palestinian Authority security forces, representatives of the two rival parties said over the weekend.

Hamas, meanwhile, denied a report that claimed that it has agreed to abandon the “armed struggle” against Israel in favor of a peaceful and popular “resistance” against settlers and IDF soldiers.

Hamas did not make any pledge to suspend the armed struggle against Israel, said Hamas legislator Salah Bardaweel. “These reports [in the Arab media] are untrue,” he said.

…

[O]ver the weekend it transpired that differences between the two parties remained almost the same as they were before the summit.

In addition to the ongoing dispute over the make-up of the proposed unity government, Fatah and Hamas have failed to solve their differences over the reconstruction of the security forces and the release of detainees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip being held by both sides.

But I thought this time was going to be different!

Ring the bells from the highest cathedral… if they have any cathedrals in Gaza?

A Palestinian source said that preliminary meetings between Hamas and Fatah officials have led to mutual understandings between the sides, Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam reported on Saturday.

According to the source, the understandings will be officially published after a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Politburo Chief Khaled Mashaal, scheduled to take place in Cairo next week.

The two are slated to discuss the implementation of the inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement, as well as the Parliamentary and presidential elections.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Youssef, the former political adviser of Hamas prime minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh, noted that the two sides have agreed that the next Palestinian government will be based in Gaza, adding that the next prime minister may also be a resident of the Strip.

The Strip—I love that. Makes it sound like Las Vegas.

Now that you mention it…

I couldn’t be happier for the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. They’ve waited a long time for this.

Of course, Arab definitions of “reconciliation agreement” are sometimes at odds with our own—if their definitions of “ceasefire”, “peace”, “activist”, and “resistance” are any indication. Indeed, such “mutual understandings” in the past have been a hint to duck for cover before the shooting (at each other) starts.

With the Israeli press lying low for the holidays, I thought I’d open up the Pally news sites for a look at how they see the news.

One of my favorite stops is the amusingly named Palestinian Center for Human Rights. (Are they sure about that “for”?) They spend most of their time excoriating Israel as an occupying power, but when they have space to fill, a few truths leak out:

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the arrest of a number of Hamas members by the security services in the West Bank. The arrests coincided with the speech of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before the UN General Assembly, despite the reconciliation reached between Hamas and Fatah in May. PCHR calls upon the government in Ramallah to put an end to summons and arrests based on political grounds.

Not to be a pedant, but shouldn’t that read “because of” reconciliation, “despite” it?

And anyway, what reconciliation?

Hamas denied Saturday any agreement to meet with Fatah to resume reconciliation talks, as had been announced.

Hamas leader Ismail al-Ashkar said Friday that there had never been an agreement to meet with Fatah, despite statements from party official Azzam al-Ahmad.

Al-Ashkar said there is no communication with other than what was decided in Cairo in May. He said Fatah should stop playing with words and make a serious effort to achieve unity.

Not exactly unifying rhetoric itself, is it, Ismail? Which is why this news is so typical of the Palestinian Arab territories:

A child was wounded by shrapnel in her hand while in her school yard in Izbat Beit Hanoun area in the north of the Gaza Strip, when an explosion took place in a nearby military training site. This incident is a part of the state of misuse of weapons and attacks on the rule of law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

So much material in such a small paragraph! First, how is judenrein Gaza an “occupied” territory? If it’s occupied by anyone, it’s Hamass.

But the bigger issue is the location of a “military training site” (read “terrorism training camp”) next to a school. Israel has made this point repeatedly about Palestinian Arab terrorists—why don’t the Palestinian Arabs make it themselves?

And then there’s news like this, which happens with depressing regularity:

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 22:45 on Friday, 16 September 2011, a dispute erupted among members of the Foraa family and members of the Dalloul family near al-Imam al-Shafi Mosque in al-Zaytoon neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. Firearms were used in the dispute resulting in the deaths of Rami Fadel Fora, 30, who was hit by several bullets throughout the body, and Abdullah Awad Fora, 18, who was hit by a bullet to the neck. Additionally, three members of the Fora family were wounded.

…

In another incident, at approximately 10:30 on Thursday, 15 September 2011, the body of Siham Faraj al-Ghmari/al-Arir, 27, from al-Shujaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, was brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Medical sources stated to a PCHR fieldworker that al-Ghmari died as she was hit by two bullets to the head and the left shoulder. The spokesman of the Palestinian police, Major Ayman al-Batniji, stated to a PCHR fieldworker that that Palestinian police opened an investigation into the incident and arrested al-Ghmari’s husband.

A gang dispute and an honor killing—are we sure statehood is right for these people? Maybe on some underpopulated Pacific island. It worked for Australia!

Don’t read too much into this: after all, we have North and South Dakota, two Carolinas, and a couple of Virginias.

Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar hinted Tuesday there may be attempts on Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas should he visit Gaza.

In an interview with the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, Zahar added Abbas would not be visiting Gaza.

Zahar stressed that Hamas was not interested in jeopardizing the internal security situation in the Gaza Strip should Abbas decide to visit and cause internal Fatah violence to occur as a result of “unsettled accounts.”

Actually, they don’t need two states. They have Gaza. At 139 square miles, it’s only a little smaller than St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and positively dwarfs Monaco and Vatican City. And if you built it up like Manhattan (NYC, not Kansas), it could house about ten million people—six times its current population. It can have statehood, and two area codes, just like Manhattan, too.

Do I have to think of everything?