For the Hebrew-challenged, the tweet comes from Israel Radio reporter Gal Berger and says that Hamas is planning a 12:00 press conference at the (luxurious) Adam Hotel in Gaza to disclose who is behind recent explosions in Gaza. Fatah claims they will blame Ramallah (i.e. Fatah).
Obama may consider himself Jewish but that doesn't make him Israeli
Some of you might recall that Times of Israel editor in chief David Horovitz once told me that he could not live in Israel if he believed there was no chance of 'peace' with the 'Palestinians.' But David isn't as naive as that statement might make you think, and he has been a vocal critic of President Obama. In a devastating piece in Wednesday's Times of Israel, he blasted Obama's claim that he 'knows how we feel.'
What you so evidently haven’t fully
internalized, however, is the extent to which we Israelis in the middle
ground — the non-zealots, the ones who don’t want to annex the West Bank and subvert our democracy, and who don’t
want a single binational entity between the river and the sea that puts
an end to Jewish statehood — have been battered by recent history, and
continue to be battered by the events unfolding all around us.
You seek to assure us that this deal with Iran
is in our own best interests when we know that Iran — which almost
daily calls for our destruction — will paint any agreement as a victory
and a vindication, and will utilize that ostensible victory to step up
its efforts to harm us, via terrorism and via its proxy armies in
Lebanon and Gaza, while also continuing to do its utmost to cheat and
bully its way to the bomb. We know that the deal will cement this
bleakest of regimes in power in Tehran, and that it was your negotiators
who blinked, who never forced the regime to choose between survival and
its nuclear program, when the financial leverage was available to
impose that choice.
You implore us, again and again, to give more
thought to the plight of the Palestinians, to turn away from leadership —
in the seemingly ever-present shape of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu — that peddles the politics of fear, and instead to choose the
path of optimism and opportunity. But Israel just elected Netanyahu
again, ignoring your entreaties, because the evidence of danger outweighed the evidence upon which to build hope. And here’s the irony, Mr. President: Your policies and your rhetoric haven’t helped.
You complained in the interview that there are
lots of “filters” between you and the Israeli people, who therefore are
not getting your message directly. (This, amusingly, in an interview
conveyed verbatim into the living rooms of the people of Israel, in
prime time, on our most-watched television channel; the full interview is also online here.) Believe me, Mr. President, the problem is not with the messenger. The problem is with the message, and the actions.
...
Have you truly internalized the fact that five years ago, Israel was
contemplating relinquishing the Golan Heights, the high strategic
ground, for a peace deal with Bashar Assad. Where would that have left
us now? Utterly vulnerable to the brutal spillover of anarchic violence
across that border.
Have you really, truly internalized that
Israel left southern Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, to the applause
and reassurance of the international community, only to see the vicious
terrorist armies of Hezbollah and Hamas fill the respective vacuums?
Have you really, honestly, utterly internalized that Hamas booted out
the forces of the relatively moderate Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza in a
matter of hours in 2007, and that there is every reason to believe that
Hamas would seek to do the same in the West Bank were Israel to do as
you wish, and pull out? And Hamas in the West Bank would entirely
paralyze this country. A single Hamas rocket that landed a mile from the
airport last summer prompted two-thirds of foreign airlines to stop
flying to Israel for a day and a half — including all the major US
airlines. A single rocket. Hamas rule in the West Bank would close down
our entire country.
...
But here’s where, with the greatest respect,
you’ve failed us thus far, Mr. President. You got the settlement freeze
six years ago, you got the prisoner releases in 2013, but what did you
wrest from Abbas? Did he stop the incitement against Israel? Did he
moderate his positions on the “right of return”? You fault Netanyahu for
his bleak wordview, but did you castigate Abbas for entering a
governing partnership which gives Hamas veto power over his ministers?
Did you tell him, sorry, that’s not going to work for us? No. You said
you’d keep right on dealing with him.
You berate Netanyahu for ruling out
Palestinian statehood on election eve, dismiss his subsequent
re-endorsement of a two-state solution as full of “so many caveats” as
to be unrealistic, and warn that Israel is consequently losing
international credibility, and that this makes it harder for you to
defend us internationally. But love or loathe Netanyahu, his concerns,
Mr. President, are compelling. Hamas did anticipate reducing Israel to rubble last summer, and only the extraordinary performance of Iron Dome prevented this. Hamas would try to take over the West Bank if we pulled out — and then to tunnel under and fire rockets over our borders.
Abbas has not encouraged his people to
internalize Jewish sovereign legitimacy in this part of the world. And
along with that hope you espied for a better future there is hatred,
too, in so many young Palestinian faces. Think of the toxin that must
have been absorbed by the 16-year-old Palestinian who stabbed to death
an 18-year-old Israeli soldier, Eden Atias, asleep next to him on a bus
in Afula, northern Israel, in November 2013. Think of your daughters, of
around that age, as I think of my children, and recognize how remote
from their most basic, decent, humane instincts is an act such as that,
and how systematic and relentless the climate of anti-Israel hostility
must be in the Abbas-controlled West Bank to have produced that killer
and others like him. The expansion of settlements discredits moderates,
and makes it easier for terrorist groups to recruit, but that’s not the
root of the hatred, the root of the conflict. At its heart, the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict marches bloodily on because the Palestinian
leadership refuses to acknowledge that the Jewish nation has any
legitimacy here.
And you, Mr. President, so ready to fault us
for failures, ready even in your interview to cite American failures and
mistakes and lost values, have failed to insist on a similar
self-reflection, and morality, and assertion of humane values from the
Palestinians and their leadership.
Yes, we are mighty Israel, a military force to
be reckoned with, an economic powerhouse, and they are the poor
Palestinians, ostensibly only seeking statehood. But take a step back
and we are a tiny sliver of land, nine miles wide at our narrowest
point, on the western edge of a vast landmass filled with hundreds of
millions of people largely hostile to the very fact of our existence. If
our enemies were to lay down their weapons right now, Mr. President,
there would be peace. If we were to lay down our weapons, our country
would be destroyed. And therefore, Mr. President, we will need a great
deal more reassurance before we dare to hope.
Read the whole thing. Obviously, I don't agree with everything he said, but this will give you some idea why the Right keeps winning elections in this country.
(Linked article in tweet is in Hebrew. Short summary below).
The resolution was proposed in September right after Operation Protective Edge. Its goal was to ensure a stable cease fire between Hamas and Israel. But Abu Mazen saw it as a trap. He believed that if the 'Palestinian Authority' went into Gaza, he would have a fight with Hamas and the 'Palestinian' public would turn against him. If his forces went into Gaza and did not have a fight with Hamas, he believed that Israel would blame him every time Hamas shot a rocket. Abu Mazen also believed that the 'Palestinian Authority' going into Gaza would end the 'reconciliation' talks between Fatah and Hamas.
The resolution also called for funds to reconstruct Gaza. De facto, since a donors' meeting in October, very little money has been collected for that purpose.
One has to question whether Abu Mazen ever intends to unify the 'West Bank' and Gaza under his rule.
End of summary. My take. It's really quite simple. Abu Mazen prefers living to being in charge and having to meet expectations. If this ever happened, he'd be assassinated within a week.
I don't know whose idea this was, but I could have told you in a New York minute that Abu Mazen would never agree to it.
Pot calls kettle black: Hamas accuses PA of 'misusing' Gaza reconstruction funds
Hamas is accusing the 'Palestinian Authority' of 'misusing' Gaza reconstruction funds.
In a statement, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said some ministers of
the Palestinian national consensus government "admitted that the money
allocated for Gaza reconstruction was being added to the PA budget."
This
confession, he said, "proves that the real reason behind the delay in
reconstruction of Gaza is that the PA has been messing with the
reconstruction money and exploiting the suffering of Gaza's people."
Because, after all, the funds were only used for their intended purpose when Hamas was in charge....
International community pledges $5.4 billion for Hamas, less than $1 billion to fight Ebola
This week there was a parlor party to raise money for one of the world's great humanitarian issues. No, it wasn't Ebola. The world doesn't have time for that and cannot even come up with $1 billion to fight it. It's Gaza where for the third time in six years the world is pledging billions of dollars to reconstruct after Hamas brought on a war. What's wrong with this picture? Michael Freund comments.
Consider the following. At the Gaza donor conference, which was held in
Cairo, a whopping $5.4 billion was pledged, half of which will go
towards rebuilding efforts while the rest will be used to sustain the
budget of the Palestinian Authority, which now includes Hamas, through
2017.
In other words, even though the Palestinians siphoned off
previous aid and used it to prepare for war with Israel, they are once
again becoming recipients of Western largesse.
Needless to say,
the funds pledged are not contingent on Hamas disarmament, nor will any
demands be made of the terrorist group to cease building tunnels to
try and burrow into Israel and murder innocent civilians.
Worse
yet, by alleviating the humanitarian difficulties confronting Gaza
residents, the international community is effectively reducing popular
pressure on Hamas to refrain from sparking another conflict and
mitigating popular anger against the terrorist group.
Indeed, the
decision to funnel billions to Gaza is so dramatically short-sighted,
and so remarkably stupid, that it makes one wonder if Europe and the
Obama administration even understand what their own interests are.
After all, why on earth would they want to assist Hamas, even
indirectly, to strengthen its position vis-à-vis the Palestinian
population? The inanity at work here is even more pronounced when one
considers that the United Nations has been having difficulty raising
just $1b. to fight Ebola.
Although the disease has killed more
than 4,000 people and spread to at least seven countries, UN Deputy
Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said on Friday that just $250 million – a
mere one-quarter of the amount needed – has been raised thus far. “I
now appeal to all member states to act generously and swiftly,”
Eliasson said, adding that, “Speed is of the essence. A contribution
within days is more important than a larger contribution within weeks.”
And
so, even though the number of Ebola cases is reportedly doubling every
three to four weeks, billions of dollars will be lavished on Gaza
rather than on the jeopardized populations of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
First, the promised funds absolve Hamas of any responsibility for the
catastrophe it brought upon the Palestinians during the confrontation
with Israel.
Now the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip will no longer be asking Hamas
to compensate them for the loss of their houses and family members. Any
Palestinian who asks Hamas for financial aid will, as of now, be
referred to the PA or the donor states.
Hopes that the catastrophic results of the confrontation would
increase pressure on Hamas or perhaps trigger a revolt against it have
faded now that the PA and the donor states have become the address for
distributing financial aid.
Second, the talk about rebuilding or repairing infrastructure in the
Gaza Strip is the best thing that could have happened to Hamas. The
funds promised by the donor states will help rebuild various
Hamas-controlled installations in the Gaza Strip, such as ministries,
security bases, universities, mosques and charities. The infrastructure
in the Gaza Strip is almost entirely controlled, directly and
indirectly, by Hamas.
All investment in the Gaza Strip's infrastructure will ultimately
serve Hamas's interests, even if such work is being carried out by the
Palestinian Authority.
Third, Hamas members and supporters would be among those entitled to
some of the money coming from the Western and Arab donors. The
Palestinian Authority would find it impossible to hand out money only to
Abbas loyalists in the Gaza Strip, having already promised to take care
of all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, regardless of their political
affiliations.
Four, the financial aid has not been conditioned on Hamas laying down
its weapons or even ceding control over the Gaza Strip to the
Palestinian Authority. From now, the PA will be working toward
rebuilding the Gaza Strip while Hamas will use its own resources to
smuggle in additional weapons and prepare for the next war with Israel.
This seems to be the agreed division of responsibilities between Hamas
and the PA.
Five, there is no guarantee that the billions of dollars would have a
moderating effect on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip or turn them away
from Hamas. Some Palestinians are even worried that the international
community might be trying to bribe the PA to stop it from pursuing plans
to seek unilateral UN recognition of a Palestinian state. Others
believe the promised funds are intended to stop the PA from signing the
Rome Statute as a first step toward joining the International Criminal
Court, in order to file "war crimes" charges against Israel.
Oh - and did I mention that Hamas 'only' asked for $4 billion? The international community really outdid itself on this one.
Monkey Moon bashes Israel for non-existent 'settlement construction'
Moadim l'Simcha, a happy holiday to all of you.
Just a day after Housing Minister Uri Ariel admitted that there is a de facto building freeze in Judea, Samaria and 'east' Jerusalem, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attacked Israel for 'settlement building.'
Ban was in Ramallah, where he held a joint news conference with
Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government Prime Minister Rami
Hamdallah. Just a day earlier he justified Hamas terrorism by saying its
cause is Israeli "occupation," at a Cairo donor conference on Sunday that raised $5.4 billion for Gaza.
"While rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability. We
must give renewed attention to the West Bank. I once again strongly
condemn the continued settlement activity by Israel," said Ban on
Monday, according to AFP.
The statement may be a reference to construction plans in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamatos that far-left group Peace Now raised to thwart Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit with US President Barack Obama two weeks ago.
The move was in fact merely the approval of building tenders at
some future date in the Jewish neighborhood of Israel's capital, and
leaves intact the building freeze gripping the area.
Moon also attacked 'provocations' on the Temple Mount after Israeli police prevented 'Palestinians' from preventing Jews from ascending the Mount (you should have heard all the noise around 6:00 am this morning) by locking them in the al-Aqsa mosque.
"I am...deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem. These only inflame tensions and must stop," said Ban.
There's more - read the whole thing. It has to make you wonder why Israel bothers to be in the United Nations at all.
Moadim l'Simcha, a good holiday to all of you. This is the first time I have been online since the day on which access to the computer is prohibited ended at sundown last night. I was busy with family matters.
A reminder that here in Israel there is only one holiday day at each end on which work is prohibited (rather than the two there are overseas), and therefore, I can be online on Friday afternoon.
It seems that Western donors - who have been asked to finance the 'reconstruction' of Gaza over and over again only to see their money go for weapons - may finally have had it with Hamas and its leadership. The donor countries are said to be suffering from 'fatigue.'
To that end, a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned there was "considerable donor fatigue."
"We have seen infrastructure projects that we have contributed to
which have been destroyed," the diplomat said, adding that skepticism
had existed even before the recent conflict.
Ample evidence has proven that Hamas uses UN and other aid money, as well as materials,
to build terror tunnels into Israeli territory with the aim of
attacking Israeli citizens - instead of providing buildings to its own
citizens.
[A] network of over 30 tunnels was found during the
ground offensive, with each tunnel costing roughly $3 million to build.
For every Hamas terror tunnel, the IDF stated, there was enough building
materials to build 86 homes; seven mosques; six schools; or nineteen
medical clinics.
Meanwhile, Hamas has begun to rebuild terror tunnels into Israel on
foreign aid money - but despite this, the UN already joined the PA in making a call for $550 million to rebuild Gaza.
But it seems that the West isn't 'fatigued' enough. Despite the 'donor fatigue,' the West is accepting the 'Palestinians' narrative without question.
Earlier this week, Hamas and the PA met in a unity government meeting
in Gaza to present the pretext of the PA being in charge of the
going-ons in Gaza - a stunt the international community praised - and PA
"foreign minister" Riyad al-Malki was confident the message was enough.
"Our initial predictions are that the (donor) conference will be a big success," he said this week.
But a second diplomat, who did not want to be named, said the
Gaza cabinet meeting was "not enough to reassure donors" - even if it
was enough to reassure the political machine.
Here's hoping that the donors' conference is a resounding failure.
Hamas' Zahar: 'We need a foothold in 'West Bank' to finish Israel off quickly'
For those of you who think that 'negotiating' with a 'Palestinian Authority' that includes Hamas is no big deal, please consider the words of Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, a doctor who slits throats for a living. This is from the first link.
Last
week, Hamas Political Bureau member Mahmoud Al-Zahar stated that Hamas
wants to build an Islamic state in all of Palestine, meaning it would
replace Israel:
"[Some]
have said Hamas wants to create an Islamic emirate in Gaza. We won't do
that, but we will build an Islamic state in Palestine, all of
Palestine."
[Al-Ayyam, Oct. 1, 2014]
Al-Zahar
further said that if Hamas had a military foothold in the West Bank as
it does in the Gaza Strip it would be able to destroy Israel. He alluded
to a possible future war of destruction against Israel by citing a
Surah from the Quran about "the final promise", which speaks of
destroying "the enemies" and "what they had taken over with [total]
destruction" [Surah 17:7]:
"Al-Zahar
said that if his movement [Hamas] were to 'transfer what it has or just
a small part of it to the West Bank, we would be able to settle the
battle of the final promise with a speed that no one can imagine.'"
His
expression "The final promise" is taken from Surah 17:7 of the Quran:
"Then when the final promise came, [We sent your enemies]... to enter
the temple in Jerusalem, as they entered it the first time, and to
destroy what they had taken over with [total] destruction.'"(trans.
Sahih International) Hamas using it in the context of Israel is
promising a future war of destruction against Israel.
A
recent Palestinian poll shows that Hamas indeed has a strong base of
support in the West Bank. Last week, the Palestinian Center for Policy
and Research found that were elections to be held now between Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Haniyeh would win
with 55% support compared to 38% for Abbas. Interestingly, Haniyeh would
win with only 50% - 47% in Gaza but on the West Bank Hamas' Haniyeh is
even stronger winning 57% to 33% over Abbas.
Hamas forging travel documents for 'Palestinians' to emigrate to Europe
Not only is Hamas accepting bribes from 'Palestinians' seeking to emigrate to Europe: They're also giving them forged travel documents to get them into Europe... if they survive that long. This is from the first link.
According to various reports, some 13,000 Palestinians have already
fled the Gaza Strip to Europe with the help of the gangsters. Most left
through Hamas's smuggling tunnels or by bribing its security officials
at the Rafah terminal.
Another 25,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have applied to various European countries for immigration.
Although Hamas has denied any connection to the mass exodus,
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip revealed that the Islamist movement had
set up special offices to register those wishing to start a new life in
Europe. They said that Hamas officials are providing the emigrants with
forged visas and travel documents to enable them to enter Europe.
Hamas said this week that its security forces have arrested several
suspects in connection with the illegal immigration. But the movement
refused to say whether the suspects were members of Hamas.
A Palestinian journalist in Gaza City said that Hamas has also used
mosques to encourage Palestinians to immigrate to Europe. At one of the
mosques in the southern Gaza Strip, a leading Hamas preacher told
worshippers: "Those who are not happy can always emigrate to Europe. We
do not force anyone to stay here."
Most of the immigrants left the Gaza Strip through a two-kilometer
tunnel belonging to a senior Hamas operative. Survivors told a
Palestinian Authority Commission of Inquiry that when they reached the
Egyptian side of the border, Egyptian gangsters intercepted them and
robbed them of their money.
"Hamas gangsters worked in cooperation with gangsters on the Egyptian
side of the border," said a senior Palestinian Authority official
involved with the inquiry commission. "They operated like a real mafia,
exploiting the predicament of the people, especially young men who were
hoping to find jobs and better lives in Italy and other European
countries."
Palestinians say that the emigration began long before the last
military confrontation between Hamas and Israel. But the trend has
witnessed a dramatic increase since the end of the fighting in late
August.
Save this one: Within the next five years 'Palestinian' terrorists traveling on European passports (so they don't need visas) will commit mass terror attacks in the United States, and maybe in Israel too. May God Save us all.
A reminder of the difference between the 'Palestinians' and Israel
Isn't it a pity that the New York Post chose to depict this mass adulation of terrorists as showing the difference between Israel and Hamas... as if Abu Bluff's 'Palestinian Authority' doesn't also regard the two terrorist murderers who were buried last week as 'martyrs.'
As The Jerusalem Post reports, thousands of mourners marched Tuesday
in honor of two men who were the lead suspects in the murder of three
Israeli teens.
The two dead men, Marwan Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha, were both
affiliated with Hamas, and were killed during a gun battle with Israeli
troops. Mourners waved Hamas and Palestinian flags as they carried the
two bodies through Hebron.
We’re talking about two men whose victims were not soldiers but three Israeli students.
Now compare this to the Israeli response to the horrific, retaliatory
killing of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khudair. Israeli
authorities pulled all stops to hunt down and arrest those suspected in
the killing.
Three Israelis have now been indicted for the killing of this
innocent Arab boy. Two of these suspects also face charges of trying to
commit other crimes against Arabs.
Israel is not perfect. But in the clash between the Jewish state and
its enemies, it helps to remember that one side uses all its might to
bring to justice those who target innocent life — while the other too
often celebrates this deadly work so long as the target is a Jew.
Yes, but that 'clash' is not just between Israel and Hamas. It's between Israel and the 'Palestinians.'
Hamas and the 'Palestinian Authority' (Fatah) only differ on tactics. They don't differ on goals. Nearly all 'Palestinians' regard those two terrorists as heroes. It's time to stop pretending that it's 'only' Hamas that hates us.
Hamas' Marzouk threatens new war if 'blockade' is not lifted
In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Hamas deputy politburo leader Moussa Abu Marzouk threatened another war with Israel if the 'blockade' of the Gaza Strip is not lifted. The current truce expires next Thursday. Israel refuses to lift the 'blockade' from its side unless Hamas is disarmed. And no one is even asking about lifting the 'blockade' from the Egyptian side.
The
deputy leader of Hamas, Moussa Abu Marzouk, insisted Thursday that
Hamas won the war, despite the apparent military setbacks.
He
said his group's popularity among Palestinians has increased and that
it would likely defeat Abbas and his Fatah movement if elections were
held today.
Early
this month, a survey conducted by a prominent West Bank pollster found a
significant increase in support for Hamas after the war.
Abu Marzouk warned that failure to negotiate a new Gaza deal and a lifting of the blockade would "lead to another war."
"We
don't want that, and the Israelis, I guess, don't like to see that
(war) again," he said in halting English, speaking in an office in a
Gaza City high-rise overlooking the Mediterranean.
Abu
Marzouk, the deputy of exiled Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, said the
people of Gaza lived in a difficult situation before the war as a result
of the blockade.
"We
can't put the Palestinians after the war in the same situation," said
Abu Marzouk, who has lived in Egypt for the past three years but has
visited Gaza several times. "They (the Israelis) have to change their
policy."
There are a lot of people in Israel who would love another crack at finishing Hamas off. Hmmm.
Gaza 'closer than ever' to splitting from 'Palestinian Authority'
In a Tuesday speech, PLO Secretary General Yasser Abed-Rabbo whined that Gaza is 'closer than ever' to splitting from the 'Palestinian Authority' and of course he blamed Israel.
Referring to the ongoing dispute between Fatah and Hamas, PLO
Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo said that the “danger of the split
between the Gaza Strip and West Bank has increased in light of failure
to end the dispute.”
Speaking at a seminar in Ramallah organized
by the Palestinian Peace Coalition group, Abed Rabbo claimed that
Israel has for many years been seeking to separate the West Bank from
the Gaza Strip “by sowing seeds of division” among Palestinians.
“Israel is today close to achieving its goal,” Abed Rabbo said.
And I thought they split in 2007 when Hamas kicked Fatah and the 'Palestinian Authority' out of Gaza.... Silly me....
Well, isn't this just a total shock. Here's 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Rami Hamdallah being pretty blunt about Hamas not distributing food and medical aid to the population of Gaza.
The Hamas-Fatah marriage may once again be over before it starts. 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen is making some noises about not trusting Hamas.
“We won’t accept the continuation of the situation with Hamas as it is now and in this shape,” he said. “There must be one authority and one regime.”
Abbas accused Hamas of running its own “shadow government” in the Gaza Strip. “They have 27 directors-general of ministries and they are running the Gaza Strip,” he said. “The national consensus government can’t do anything on the ground.”
Egyptian news website al-Dostor reported that Abbas will make an announcement on Sunday to the Arab League regarding the agreement.
JPost also has a slightly different version of the casualty report I cited earlier.
Abbas claimed that Hamas lost “only” 50 of its men during the war, while 861 men belonging to his Fatah faction were killed. He did not say how the Fatah men were killed and by who.
Either way the result is the same - over 850 terrorists killed not counting Islamic Jihad.
"[I]f the government will not be unified, (in terms of) the weapons and
laws in the West Bank and Gaza, there won't be any partnership or
discussion with the (Hamas) organization."
"I don't trust Hamas much because they change their words all the
time. There must be a unified Palestinian Authority," remarked Abbas.
The PA chairman also confirmed reports of a stormy meeting he
had with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal in Qatar on August 21, in
which he slammed the Hamas leader for his organization's coup attempt against Abbas in Judea and Samaria.
"You are smuggling weapons, explosives and money to the (West) Bank - and not to fight Israel, but to hold a coup against the (Palestinian) Authority," Abbas reportedly said in his tirade on Mashaal.
Commenting on the meeting Saturday night, Abbas remarked "Hamas has been trying to cause the Palestinian Authority to fail since the day it was formed."
Hamas said that more than 40 of its members and supporters have been rounded up by the PA since the end of Operation protective Edge.
Another 30 Hamas activists were also summoned for interrogation, Hamas said.
On Saturday, Hamas representative Hussam Badran condemned the PA clampdown and called on all those who have been summoned for interrogation not to report.
Badran said that the crackdown was “unjustified” and constituted a “blow to the blood of Palestinian martyrs and unity."
The PA has refused to comment on the current crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank.
And I'm sure the fact that the latest poll that shows that Hamas would win a 'Palestinian election' has nothing to do with the coming collapse of the 'unity government.' Faster... faster...
If they had built an economy, they wouldn't have to schnorr
When Hamas and Fatah made their 'unity government,' they didn't bother to ask anyone's permission. After all, they consider themselves 'sovereigns' (when they're not kvetching about being 'occupied'). There's just one small problem: Over the past 20 years, the 'Palestinians' have done nothing - zip - zero to build an economy. Now, they're whining that they're going broke. It seems that you can't keep slapping someone in the face and then come to them to schnorr. The US and even the Arab countries have said enough is enough. No more money for a 'unity government.'
The Palestinian Authority "unity government" with Hamas is totally
bankrupt, according to a leading PA minister, who blamed broken promises
by America and Arab states for the dire situation.
"The government's budget is below zero, and it's starting to borrow
from banks to move forward, because only less than third of donor funds
that were scheduled to be received this year arrived," said Shawki
Al-Ayasa, Minister of Social Affairs, Agriculture, and Prisoner's
Affairs.
"The US has not provided a single penny since Jan. 1, and Europe and
Arab states only provided a third of what they were scheduled to give,"
he lamented to the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news network.
He said Gazan families who had lost their homes as Hamas and other
terrorist groups clashed with Israeli forces had received just 300
shekels ($84) in aid.
Boo Hoo. Let Hamas earn the money to pay for reconstruction. If they stopped using all their money for rockets and terror tunnels, they might even have money to pay for it.
Thousands of local Arabs took part in the rally, which was organized by the Hamas movement in Ramallah in celebration of the hard-hit terrorist organization's supposed "victory" against Israel in Operation Protective Edge.
The rally, held in the Al-Bireh neighborhood of Ramallah, was
entitled "The Pledge of Allegiance and Victory." Hamas leaders and
parliamentarians in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from
different parts of Judea and Samaria took part in the celebration,
accompanied by leaders of other Palestinian Arab organizations.
Horse-mounted Hamas activists led the rally march, waving Hamas flags
and singing the praise of Hamas's "military wing," the Ezzedine
Al-Qassam Brigades.
Children also took part in the "festivities," parading models of the
rockets fired in massive barrages by Hamas terrorists at Israeli
civilian centers during the terror war, as well as pictures of senior Hamas leaders assassinated by the IDF in targeted airstrikes.
Khalil al-Haya, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, gave a speech at the
rally via telephone in which he emphasized the right to "resistance"
against Israel.
The rally is particularly noteworthy because as mentioned above, it
occurred in the heart of the PA governmental center of Ramallah.
Pass the popcorn: Fatah accuses Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid
The Fatah terror group headed by 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen has accused the Hamas terror group of stealing humanitarian aid during the recently completed Operation Protective Edge.
During the war, Fatah and Hamas refrained from criticizing each other and continued to insist that their reconciliation deal, which was signed last April, had not been affected.
But the statement issued by Fatah shows the gap between the two parties remains as wide as ever.
The statement accused Hamas “militias” of committing the ugliest crimes and encroachments during the war against Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.
It said Hamas representatives shot and beat dozens of Fatah members, some of whom were transferred for medical treatment in Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus.
The statement said Hamas also placed more than 300 Fatah members under house arrest, exposing them to Israeli air strikes.
Other Fatah members were kept in Hamas prisons during the war, which also endangered their lives, the statement said.
Fatah said it preferred to remain silent toward the Hamas “crimes” during the war out of keenness to preserve Palestinian unity.
Fatah also accused Hamas of confiscating food and medicine sent to the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and other countries. It said Hamas distributed the aid among its men in mosques and sold some of it in the black market.
Could Hamas and Fatah go at it again in Gaza? Bet on it....
Mohamed Abu Dayyeh, a leader of Fatah's Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was abducted by Hamas members who broke his arm & leg pic.twitter.com/KWZ9av7TbF
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) August 23, 2014
'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen may be taking reports of an attempted Hamas coup seriously, but that's not stopping him from going to Doha on Wednesday to pay homage to Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal and to Meshaal's patron, the Emir of Qatar.
Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will travel to Doha on Wednesday and hold talks the next day with the emir of Qatar and Hamas exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, the Palestinian ambassador in Qatar told AFP Tuesday.
Abbas's visit to Qatar was initially announced for Monday by Palestinian officials who are in Cairo for indirect talks with Israel on a lasting truce in Gaza.
Abbas will on Thursday discuss separately with Meshaal and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani latest developments in the negotiations in Cairo and "aid and reconstruction" in Gaza, Palestinian ambassador Monir Ghannam told AFP.
From Doha, Ghannam said Tuesday, Abbas will travel on to Cairo as part of contacts the Palestinian leadership is staging "with all the parties concerned" in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The meeting follows both the last-minute extension of a 5-day
ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - and rumors of Israel agreeing to
some of Hamas's unprecedented demands for a lasting truce - and the
revelation that Hamas recently staged a coup in Judea-Samaria.
This sounds like Abu Bluff's self-preservation instinct kicking in. Otherwise, it makes no sense for him to meet with these people. Abu Bluff was among those who was furious at John Kerry for bringing Qatar into the negotiations last month.
Or is Kerry perhaps responsible for the necessity for holding this meeting. Has Kerry made Qatar indispensable for the 'Palestinian Authority'? If yes, great job America! /sarc
Maybe you didn't take that Hamas coup seriously, but Abu Mazen sure is
One could sense some skepticism in the media over Monday's report that the Shin Bet had arrested 93 Hamas members on charges of plotting a coup against the 'Palestinian Authority.'
Shin Bet officials, in issuing details today, insist that this is all
true – and not an Israeli invention aimed at jamming a huge wedge
between Hamas and the P.A. The officials deny any connection with the
fact that all day Monday, there was high tension over not knowing if a
ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would be extended to allow for more
negotiations in Cairo.
In other words, along with the report, the Shin Bet felt obligated to issue a denial that they were making the coup story up.
While the media may not have believed the Shin Bet, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazensure does.
In a statement quoted on Channel 2 News, Abbas said that the
implications of the revealed plot “will be serious for the Palestinian
and regional situation, especially after Israeli officials published a
list and pictures of confiscated weapons."
Abbas stressed that the reports endanger the unity of the Palestinian people as its leadership tries to form a unity government.
"We are living in the shadow of the war in Gaza and under the shadow
of the presence of a unity government, which is why this new information
is a real danger to the unity of the Palestinian people and its
future," he said, according to Channel 2 News.
Hmmm. I wonder whether Abu Mazen realizes yet that the 'unity government' is just another way Hamas is trying to take over the 'Palestinian Authority.'
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
