Rival Palestinian groups said they reached an agreement Wednesday on reuniting their governments in the West Bank and Gaza after years of bitter infighting that weakened them politically and caused the deaths of hundreds in violent clashes and crackdowns since. Even as the tentative agreement revived hopes among Palestinians that they might be able to form a unified front, unity between the rival groups Fatah and Hamas appeared unlikely to jump start negotiations with Israel for an independent Palestinian state.

There’s no way that Hamas and Fatah will be able to avoid going at one another.

Update: Why this deal is bad news for Israel.

Palestinians are indeed victims of mistreatment. But you won’t hear much about what they endure, unless someone can pin the blame directly on Israel. Conditions in Gaza, for example, have made for a tough existence there. But human-rights activists have turned a blind eye to the systematic assault on individual freedom that has beset the population ever since the Islamic militant movement Hamas took over in 2005.

Read the whole thing.

“There is widespread support for Fatah,” Dr. Jamil Rabah, director of Near East Consulting in the PA, told The Media Line. “They support the Fatah political process and don’t think Hamas is on the right path politically.” 

[ . . . ]

“It doesn’t surprise me that the sentiments of the people are in this direction,” Abdallah Abdallah, chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s Political Committee, told The Media Line. “Over a year has passed since the Gaza war and still people are living in the streets. People want those responsible for this to go and I think the sentiments of the people after three or more years of this is that it’s about time that those who are not capable of running the affairs of the people – go.”

Hamas swept to power in Gaza first by exploiting people’s frustration with the corruption of the Fatah administration, and then through a violent show of force. Popular support for suicide bombings and attacks on Israeli civilians was high, and Hamas was able to claim to the world (though maybe not with an altogether straight face) that it was a “legitimate” political party. Now, after promising to “crush” Israel and succeeding in doing little more than crushing Gaza, it seems that the Hamas option has lost its shiny lustre to a lot of disillusioned Palestinians.

But it would be a mistake to take this polling data at face value. People vote out of ideology, sure, but also out of self-interest. And in the Palestinian territories, where hatred is a powerful weapon that can be stirred up almost at will to redirect people’s frustration, these things can shift quickly. There will be those who will back the strongest horse, those who go looking for the options that are even more extremist than Hamas, and those who will get disgusted with voting altogether in a place where democracy doesn’t exactly have deep roots.

We’ve seen this before. Support for a political approach rises among Palestinians when there appears to be no threat of any progress actually being made. The minute this threat arises – whether at Camp David in 2000, or after Oslo or Wye – the people balk and something triggers another wave of violence. And if it’s not Hamas out in front, then support will go towards whoever is shouting the loudest, shooting the most, and inspiring the most fear.

And what the poll won’t tell you is that the bigger picture in the Middle East is also a factor – maybe the factor. As Iran battles Saudi Arabia for regional dominance, Hamas is engaged in something of a proxy war against Iran-sponsored Hezbollah, jockeying for power using the gruesome metric of dead Israeli civilians as credentials.

But, for the moment at least, Hamas’s popular support is way down. And if the Palestinians actually had real elections, this might actually have implications.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers have suffered back-to-back setbacks with Israel’s successful test of a rocket shield and Egypt’s push to block smuggling tunnels.

The Iron Dome rocket defence system, reportedly to be deployed near Gaza in May, would deprive Hamas of its main leverage against Israel – the threat of rocket salvos. Egypt’s underground anti-tunnel barrier of steel beams, now under construction, could eventually cut Hamas’ supply of cash and weapons.

The looming double squeeze is poised to limit Hamas’ options and change the rules of engagement on Gaza’s volatile, blockaded borders.

Hamas officials refused to say which names were holding up the deal. But the -based Arabic daily al-Hayat said they included Ibrahim Hamed, the former commander of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank and mastermind of a Jerusalem suicide bombing that killed 11 people in 2002, and Abdullah Barghouti, a mastermind of several suicide bombings serving several dozen life sentences.

Hamas appears to be demanding the release of Abbas Sayid as well, a planner of the Park Hotel suicide bombing on Seder Night 2002 that killed 30 people, according to lawyer Jawad Immawi, a senior official in the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs ministry, which employs many of the lawyers who represent high-level inmates.

That’s right, they mean the terrorist bastards behind attacks like this one. This is the Hamas that the world’s apologists keeps insisting is a “legitimate government” and should be dealt with.

The fact that Israel is even considering such a deal – the fact that it had already agreed to release hundreds of other terrorists from prison – speaks only to the value that it puts on Shalit’s life and the life of every one of its citizens. This, of course, is exactly what Hamas exploits as a weakness. And by negotiating with Hamas, Israel plays straight into its hands.

And of course, it’s tough for Hamas to complain that an Israeli life and a Palestinian life are valued unequally (by the media, by the West, etc.) when they insist on the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for one IDF soldier.

Hamas will claim this deal – if it goes through – as a major victory, will use it to bolster its standing versus Fatah, and will argue that it proves that violence works. And really, with deals like these, it’s hard to argue with that logic. How many more innocent lives will fall victim to the newly-released terrorists? How many prisoners will Israel need to swap for the next kidnapped soldier?

I want nothing more than for Gilad Shalit to return home, safe and unharmed. But at what price?

Read between the lines. We have:

• The truce being contingent on the re-opening of border crossings. Translation: Hamas is low on weapons supplies, and wants a time-out with easy access to re-arm.
• An expiry date on the truce of 18 months, after which all bets are off and the whole song-and-dance will start all over from scratch.
• Hamas doesn’t refer to this as a “truce”, but as the Arabic word “hudna”, which has a completely different meaning. It’s got nothing to do with a desire for reconciliation; instead, it’s viewed as a tactical move.
• And of course, no deal for the release of Gilad Shalit.

But we all know what will happen. Hamas will announce the truce with great fanfare. It will then blatantly proceed to ignore and violate the truce daily. Israel will close its eyes as long as possible before finally having no choice but to respond. And then the world will universally condemn Israel for “violating the terms” of the truce.

I wonder if Meryl Yourish will launch another Shudna Watch in her blog?

“How long will Arab blood continue to be spilled, only to hear those who admit to miscalculating the scope and scale of Israel’s response?” Mubarak asked in a speech marking Egypt’s national day to honor its police force.

Mubarak’s comment came in reference to remarks reportedly made by Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal, who admitted at the end of the three-week Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that he did not anticipate the scope of Israel’s operation. Similar sentiments were expressed by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah at the end of the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Mubarak went on to say that resistance movements must take responsibility over the welfare of their people. “The resistance must take into account victories and losses. It is responsible for the people, who in turn should settle the score [with the resistance] over the gains it has achieved, but also the sacrifices, the pain and the destruction it has caused,” he said.

The split in the Middle East is heating up, with the rival Palestinian factions serving as proxies, as usual:

The Egyptian president also hinted that Hamas and other militant Palestinian factions are serving the Iranian agenda in the region, especially since the fighting in Gaza ended. “They are trying to take advantage of Israeli aggression to force a new reality on the current Palestinian and Arab situation. A new reality that will alter the equation and reorganize the balance in favor of known regional powers and will serve their agenda,” Mubarak said. His comment came in response to Meshal’s recent calls for the establishment of an alternative Palestinian body, to rival Fatah in representing the Palestinian people.

It’s not much of a secret that there’s no love lost between Hamas and Egypt, which supports Fatah in the factional struggle. Mubarak is appealing to the EU and the international community to try and maintain the regional balance of power. But analysts speculate this could be costly for him at home, where the extremist Muslim Brotherhood (from which Hamas is an offshoot) could make political gains in Egypt at Mubarak’s expense. The peace between Israel and Egypt has always been chilly and fragile, and it’s looking shakier than ever.

As for Israel? As long as Palestinian factions gain popular support by being perceived as the toughest against Israel, Israeli citizens will continue to pay the price for this power struggle.

Hamas acknowledges the existence of Israel but formal recognition by the group will only be considered when a Palestinian state has been created, the movement’s leader Khaled Meshaal said on Wednesday.

Softening a previous refusal to accept the Jewish state’s existence, Meshaal said Israel was a “reality.”

“There will remain a state called Israel, this is a matter of fact,” Meshaal said in an interview in the Syrian capital, where he lives in exile.

“The problem is not that there is an entity called Israel,” said Meshaal. “The problem is that the Palestinian state is non-existent.”

Before anyone gets too excited, let’s keep in mind that Hamas has refused to change its charter calling for Israel’s destruction, has refused to formally recognize Israel despite Western pressure, and continues to call for the so-called “right of return” of Palestinian refugees that would, in effect, destroy Israel through demographics. Not to mention that it continues to launch rockets and suicide attacks into Israel at every opportunity.

Still, this soundbyte is a baby step, even despite the convoluted logic that only a terrorist could come up with:

“As a Palestinian today I speak of a Palestinian and Arab demand for a state on 1967 borders. It is true that in reality there will be an entity or state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land,” said Meshaal.

“This is a reality but I won’t deal with it in terms of recognizing or admitting it,” he added.

Um, yeah.

“When you walk in the streets of Gaza City, you cannot but close your eyes because of what you see there: unimaginable chaos, careless policemen, young men carrying guns and strutting with pride and families receiving condolences for their dead in the middle of the street.”

This is how Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority government and a former newspaper editor, described the situation in the Gaza Strip in an article he published on Sunday on some Palestinian news Web sites.

The article, the first of its kind by a senior Hamas official, also questioned the effectiveness of the Kassam rocket attacks and noted that since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip, the situation there has deteriorated on all levels. It holds the armed groups responsible for the crisis and calls on them to reconsider their tactics and to stop blaming Israel for their mistakes.

“Gaza is suffering under the yoke of anarchy and the swords of thugs,” Hamad wrote. “I remember the day when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and closed the gates behind. Then, Palestinians across the political spectrum took to the streets to celebrate what many of us regarded as the Israeli defeat or retreat. We heard a lot about a promising future in the Gaza Strip and about turning the area into a trade and industrial zone.”

Hamad said the “culture of life” that prevailed in the Strip has since been replaced with a nightmare. “Life became a nightmare and an intolerable burden,” he said. “Today I ask myself a daring and frightening question: ‘Why did the occupation return to Gaza?’ The normal reply: ‘The occupation is the reason.’”

Dismissing Israel’s responsibility for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, Hamad said it was time for the Palestinians to embark on a soul-searching process to see where they erred.

“We’re always afraid to talk about our mistakes,” he added. “We’re used to blaming our mistakes on others. What is the relationship between the chaos, anarchy, lawlessness, indiscriminate murders, theft of land, family rivalries, transgression on public lands and unorganized traffic and the occupation? We are still trapped by the mentality of conspiracy theories – one that has limited our capability to think.”

Unusually frank words from any Palestinian official. But considering the source, this is pretty astounding stuff.

Some are taking this at face value, calling it a “flying pigs moment”.

But I’m a natural born cynic, and when something seems suspicious, it’s usually because it is. Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of this. I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something tells me that this is going to turn out to be a part of a new powerplay game between Hamas and Fatah, and that, as many suspect, Hamas is looking to throw a monkey wrench into the U.S.’s policy of backing Fatah by confounding Bush’s view that Fatah are the guys in the white hats and Hamas are the guys in the black hats.

If, however, Hamad was really being candid here, I hope for his sake that he has a lot of bodyguards.

My elation at Steve and Olaf’s release was quickly replaced by outrage when I heard about their forced conversion. The video turned my stomach. It should turn the stomach of every American and every person of whatever nationality who believes that the concepts of liberty and freedom have any value and any meaning. What sort of religion, in this day and age, would demand converts at the point of a gun or the blade of a sword? What sort of religion would even want such “converts?”

In any event, as has been pointed out elsewhere (and it was my first thought after hearing about this “forced” conversion), Centanni and Wiig are now marked men if they retract their coerced statement of faith. That would make them apostates under Islamic doctrine, subject to the death penalty at the hand of any devout Muslim who wishes to glorify Allah by carrying out the sentence. So it isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

Read the rest. Now.

As Harper said: “There is a crisis because of the actions of Hamas and the actions of Hezbollah.” Exactly. Who kidnapped Israeli soldiers? Who fired rockets into Israeli neighbourhoods?

This is an interesting point of departure – the prime minister dares to speak truth, not to power, but to terror.

You can be certain that Harper’s unambiguous language was not written at Foreign Affairs. They don’t do plain speaking over there. They also like to be on both sides of this issue.

But the prime minister is making foreign policy himself, and he is realigning it significantly in the Middle East, as well as with the United States, to reflect first principles.

He can’t be doing it for the votes. The Jewish community in Canada votes overwhelmingly Liberal. Israel never had a better friend in Canada, until now, than Brian Mulroney, and it never got him anywhere with Jewish voters. There are also twice as many Muslim as Jewish voters in this country, and they’re not happy with Harper choosing sides. This is not even to mention the anguish in Canada’s Lebanese community, largely based in Montreal and Ottawa. As many as 50,000 Canadians, holidayers and dual citizens alike, found themselves stranded in the middle of a war zone last week.

If there’s no political gain in it for Harper, the only reason for him to be taking such a clear stand in favour of Israel is that he’s acting out of conviction.

MacDonald, who, it must be said, is a very intelligent man even on issues on which I disagree with him, is not giving Israel carte blanche. Far from it. He believes that Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s provocation is “disproportionate”. Okay, he’s entitled; a fair number of Israelis believe the exact same thing. But he’s applauding Harper for taking the stance that, proportionate or not, Israel’s reaction is one of defence against a terrorist organization, and that no moral equivalence can be drawn between the two.

Politicians who speak their minds are a bit of an anomaly in this country. Canadians aren’t used to them, and many aren’t quite sure what to make of Harper. I’ve never been a fan of Harper, but I do have to give him credit on this one. Trouble is, his “moral stance” is unleashing such a backlash that it threatens to cancel out the original intent. Would a waffling Liberal government have made itself such an easy target for criticism? Sure, that’s a backwards analysis. But think about it: If hatred of Israel gets stirred up into an even bigger frenzy because Harper is a convenient target as a right-winger who backs Israel, then who benefits in the long run?

In an early episode of The West Wing, Joey Lucas (played brilliantly by Marlee Matlin) bursts into Josh’s office demanding to know why the DNC is choking off funding for her candidate, who is trying to unseat a far-right Republican. The answer? Josh explains that “Every time he comes out with one of his declarations about brown people crossing the border, the DNC slaps it into a direct mail campaign and he’s good for two or three million dollars.” In other words, the Democrats get more mileage out of having a convenient poster boy for the far right to attack than they would get out of winning the seat.

Well, politics often work that way, unfortunately. In Quebec, for instance, support for sovereignty goes up during the years when the Liberals are in power, and down during the years when the PQ is in power. Why? Because it’s easier to attack from the opposition than to govern from the majority.

Is Harper, by signalling his clear intention to stand behind Israel in this conflict, doing more harm than good in a realistic sense, even though he’s theoretically doing the right thing? I wonder.

In Gaza, Hamas is thrilled that they have more “martyrs” and more fodder for inciting hatred. They’re stepping up their attacks as Israel is caught fighting on two fronts.

In Israel, nobody is celebrating. Olmert is talking and reacting tough against Lebanon; Bush is including Syria and Iran in his warnings.

The powder keg is simmering, and appears to be nearing a boiling point.

Lynn asks, is it war yet?

If it is, I have no doubt that Israel will stand strong and do what is required, but I cringe nonetheless. Anxious parents with sons and daughters in the IDF know that the country will not cave or yield, but it doesn’t make the situation any easier. I fear this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

The main purpose of the Israeli operation in Gaza is twofold: One, is to take measures in order to allow the release of the Israeli kidnapped soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, and the other is to stop the Kassam missiles from being shot at Israeli civilians in the south part of the country. Since about ten months ago, Israel pulled out entirely from Gaza back into the territory which is recognized by the international community as part of the State of Israel.

In other words, there are not any occupying forces in Gaza since August of last year. And since then, there wasn’t one day of rest for the people of Israel that live in the south part of our country. Almost on a daily basis, there are missiles shot at them, with one purpose in mind of those who are doing it. This is to kill innocent Israeli civilians in schools, or in their homes or in the streets as they are trying to do every day. This is something that is entirely intolerable. Israeli people like every other people, deserve to be protected.

More here.

From today’s Reuters: Israel rejects Hamas ceasefire call.

From the headline, the casual reader would make the assumption that big bad Israel is at it again, rejecting the perfectly reasonable offer of a peace-loving Hamas.

Hah!

Rocket attacks? Kidnapped soldiers? Terrorist attacks? The fact that any cease-fire offer by Hamas is nothing but a ruse anyway? Well, none of those are even suggested by the headline, and are only vaguely referred to in the text of the article itself.

A better headline might read something like “Israel stands strong against Hamas’s blackmail” or, perhaps, “Israel sees through Palestinian terrorist government’s transparent cease-fire ruse”.

But of course, headlines like that would be called – what else? – biased.

Update: Here’s Meryl with more anti-Israel-media-bias-of-the-week, this time from AP.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab states are expected to speed money to the Palestinian Authority within days to help it pay its employees after Israel halted tax payments, Palestinian officials said.

[ . . . ]

Hamas, which has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, trounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s long-dominant Fatah movement in the January 25 parliamentary election.

In a joint statement issued in Islamabad, Islamic allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia urged the world to accept Hamas’s victory and “avoid premature judgments and hasty conclusions.”

Hamas has urged foreign donors to maintain aid but says it could still find other sources of funding in the Arab world. It has sent a delegation on a tour of Arab countries to urge them to keep the money flowing.

Unemployment in the Palestinian territories runs high, at 22 percent, and half the Palestinian population lives in poverty. In Gaza, many Palestinians live on an average of $2 a day.

Let’s see… we’ve got the requisite reference to Palestinian poverty, to Israel’s withholding of financial transfers, and to the election results and their aftermath. The implication, of course, is that it’s Israel’s fault that the Palestinians are living in poverty.

What’s missing? That’s right: no reference whatsoever to the fact that the billions of dollars of aid that have poured into the Palestinian coffers to-date used to finance terrorism, urge suicide attacks, build explosives and rockets, purchase weapons, and train militias. Oh yeah, and to line the pockets of the Palestinian Authority, and to finance Suha Arafat’s shopping habits. And no mention of the fact that Israel, if it were to release the money, would be contributing financially to attacks on its own citizens.

And the high Palestinian unemployment? No mention of the fact that, prior to 2000, unemployment was much lower because so many Palestinians were working in Israel and crossing the border daily without any problems. Nothing about how the chosen strategy of violence forced Israel to close these borders and therefore cost so many Palestinians their livelihood. No reference to how all the jobs were in Israel because the Palestinians haven’t built any industry, infrastructure or opportunity – in short, necessary ingredients for a sustainable state. Or how, despite claiming to want statehood, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to the Palestinians that a viable state can’t live forever on handouts. It’s so much easier to talk about destroying Israel than to talk about actually building a state, isn’t it?

And it’s more convenient to imply that Israel is to blame for Palestinian poverty than it is to tell the truth, I guess.

Money’s tight for humanitarian causes. But to kill Jews? They’ll be lining up to write the cheques.

Bullshit.

The Palestinian people have chosen one form of terror over another form of terror. The only difference between Hamas and Fatah is that Hamas is open about its aims, while Fatah carries out terror attacks and then pays lip service towards “condemning” them. The people chose Hamas because it is perceived as less corrupt than Fatah, not because of any failings of the peaceful alternative. There was never a peaceful alternative.

The real question is, now what? There will be an element who insists on turning a blind eye to the truth and fooling itself that Hamas will reform, suddenly giving up its weapons because it’s got a role in government. These are the same people who keep insisting that there’s been a truce effective this past year.

The United States will refuse to deal with Hamas… maybe. Expect a lot of waffling on that one in the coming months. Europe will deal with them, probably with lip service about how much they’ve “changed”. Again, these are the same people who repeatedly insist that there’s a truce.

For Israel – dare I say – little is likely to change. Negotiations were a non-starter even with Abbas, and Israel will still have to prioritize security measures in defence of its citizens, just as before. Maybe there will be less hypocrisy now. But don’t count on it.

Tim Blair has a roundup of reactions. Jonathan has some day-after musings. And, as usual, Meryl has lots to say.

There’s little I could add that isn’t being said all over the media or the blogosphere already. So I’ll just say this: While the results aren’t yet in and the implications are still to come, today’s election was both good news and bad news: Good news that democracy, of a sort, is beginning to take root for the Palestinians. Bad news that so many are flocking to candidates bent on extending the self-destructive path of violence and rejectionism that got the Palestinians to where they are today. After all, Hamas’s main goal is Israel’s destruction, and despite what the world media is saying, Fatah – far from being a force for peace or moderation – is not much better in the terrorism department. It kind of makes our Canadian party choices seem a whole lot more attractive by comparison.

The Israeli embassy last night became the latest critic of George Galloway after it denounced him for choosing Interpal as his nominated Big Brother charity, claiming it is a front for Palestinian terrorists. The organisation vehemently denies the charge.

[ . . . ]

However, UK ministers are coming under increased pressure to ban Interpal. In August 2003, the US administration claimed it was “a principal charity utilised to hide the flow of money to Hamas”, branded it a “specially designated terrorist” organisation and froze its assets in America.

Interpal was also banned by Israel in 1997.

Surprised? Nah, not really. Galloway’s true colours have been clear for a long time, and this is far from the most shocking thing he has done. Then again, raising money for terrorists who blow up innocent Israelis is probably considered a good thing in Galloway’s twisted mind.

(Hat tip: Tom).

What happens when a terrorist organization decides to enter the political arena? Does it automatically become legitimate?

[ . . . ]

The truth is that terrorists by definition have entered the political arena from the start because terrorism is violence with a political agenda. Without the political context, bombing, kidnapping, and shooting are simply crimes. Terrorism, like war, is politics by other means, an extension of politics when negotiation or discussion break down – or never existed.

The questions also are misleading because we have discovered that the world’s commitment to morality and justice is relative: It varies depending on the players involved. Especially when it comes to the Middle East, the world’s moral clarity gets muddy, the moral compass goes haywire.

[ . . . ]

We cannot be fooled by [Hizbollah] or by Hamas. Terrorists in suits and ties remain cold-blooded killers.

Terrorist organizations have a history of trying to “go legit” while still maintaining their original violent purposes. But Gil Troy’s argument cuts both ways: if a terrorist in a suit and tie is just a terrorist, then how is a democratically-elected terrorist preferable to dictatorship? If a society gets the leadership it deserves, then shouldn’t we let democracy unfold?

That doesn’t mean, of course, that any other government – Israel included – should be forced to deal with them.

What about what’s happening in Egypt, where the first hints of democracy have yielded a corrupt election where there are no clear “good guys”, because the people being prevented from voting and running were associated with the ultra-fanatic Muslim Brotherhood? What is the preferable outcome – a fair and impartial election of terrorists, or an “election” of so-called moderates thanks to rigging and intimidation? As it happened, we had a rigged election of terrorists, so it’s almost the worst of both worlds. But how does that fit in with the theory that we ought to push for democratic reforms in the Middle East?

One thing is for certain: As long the world continues to reward terrorists by giving them legitimacy in political arenas, terrorism will continue to thrive.

Well, it seems the US has forgotten all about it:

“Our views on Hamas are well known. Hamas is a terrorist organization. We will not deal with a terrorist organization. However, we believe that it’s up to the Palestinians to determine who will participate in their election,” the senior administration official said.

Their explanation is equally winning:

U.S. officials and diplomats have said that any shift in policy was pragmatic: Hamas-funded social services are popular with many Palestinians; it is winning local races and could make a strong showing in the parliamentary elections. Some Hamas-backed politicians and affiliates are seen as moderates.

European allies, including Britain and France, have been pushing behind the scenes for Washington to drop its call to dismantle Hamas completely.

Anyone who thought that the EU would be a helpful or neutral party in the peace process should pretty much end that notion with the last statement.

Hamas leaders vowed to continue fighting Israel as tens of thousands cheered and waved the group’s green flags and masked gunmen hoisted assault rifles, rockets and anti-tank missiles.

“We will not rest and will not abandon the path of Jihad and martyrdom as long as one inch of our land remained in the hands of the Jews,” said Raed Saed, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza City, using the Arabic term for holy war.

“We are celebrating our victory in Gaza and now we are headed toward Jerusalem, Nablus, Akko, Haifa, the Galilee and all of Palestine,” he said.

“Sharon, you should know that we will win – the only language spoken will be the language of weapons. We are young people who aspire to die for Allah and for the weapons we are carrying.”

Catch that language? Jerusalem (not “East Jerusalem”), Nabulus, Akko, Haifa, the Galilee and all of Palestine.

For the uninitiated, that means Israel.

I was cautiously optimistic at the start of the pullout plan, figuring that Sharon had a strategy and that this could at the very least break the stalemate and get Israel out of a region it didn’t want in the first place. I have to sadly concede that those opposed to the plan were probably right – not for religious or ideological reasons, but because it set a very dangerous precedent in rewarding terrorism.

Just when the violence was starting to wane, just as the Palestinians were starting to believe that maybe their approach was a mistake, the Gaza pullout handed them a victory to re-energize their ranks and start up the bloodshed all over again.

I’d hoped I was wrong about that. It sadly appears that I was right.

In the meantime, Hamas is giving the real picture:

Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced on Monday that they have reached an agreement with the Palestinian Authority according to which the two groups would not be disarmed.

[ . . . ]

“We stressed during the meeting that the Palestinians have the right to continue the resistance [against Israel] and that there would be no attempt to collect weapons from the resistance groups,” he added.

“The weapons of the resistance were founded to defend the Palestinian people and resist the occupation. The Gaza victory was achieved with the weapons of the resistance, which is the only strategy to drive Israel out of the rest of our lands.”

Any questions?

An Iraqi bomb attack killed 98 people. We barely even blink anymore with the news of terrorist attacks in Iraq – maybe because they’re so commonplace, maybe because people assume it’s a country at war so for some reason these things are expected, maybe because some people even tacitly support them in their intense hatred for Bush and the Americans. I don’t know about any of that, but I do know that the 98 lives that were lost are just as tragic as 98 lives lost anyplace else, and that we need to stop taking terror for granted in Iraq.

In “what truce?”, part one zillion, five Israelis were wounded – 2 seriously – in mortar attacks on Neveh Dekalim, and the weekend saw over 10 Qassam rockets fired on Sderot. It is unclear which of the Palestinian factions is behind the attacks, though Hamas appears to be involved in the former. You know, the same Hamas that the Guardian thinks ain’t so bad despite its mandate to seek Israel’s destruction.

And the new Harry Potter book was released yesterday, to the delight of fans everywhere. I’ll wait to borrow someone’s copy, and hopefully nobody will spoil it for me before then.

Sickening.

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, responsible for many suicide attacks on Israelis, condemned the London bombings.

“Targeting civilians in their transport means and lives is denounced and rejected,” Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the group’s political bureau told Reuters in Damascus by telephone.

Is that so? So all those bus bombings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and Haifa and Beersheva were what if not attacks on “civilians in their transport means and lives”?

Excuse me, I think I’m going to be sick.

Palestinian police, enforcing a ceasefire with Israel, arrested two men from a suspected Hamas rocket squad after a gun battle in the Gaza Strip but freed the militants soon after, officials said on Tuesday.

[ . . . ]

In return for their freedom, the two militants, promised to abide by an agreement that militant factions reached with Abbas in Cairo in March to respect the ceasefire the Palestinian leader declared along with Sharon in February, Abu Khoussa said.

Yeah, right. Because that agreement has been respected oh-so-well:

Describing the clash, Abu Khoussa said, a third militant had escaped arrest: “The three were in a car, en route to fire rockets, when police waved for them to stop. Gunmen opened fire at the police, forcing policemen to fire back.

“Policemen controlled the situation, took away the car, arrested the gunmen and took away their arms,” he said, adding that the third man ran away and avoided the police.

A Palestinian security official said police found rockets in the vehicle.

The Hamas gunmen accused the police of opening fire first and said there was no plan to launch rockets. Another militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it carried out a rocket attack on Israel from nearby shortly before the Hamas men were arrested.

Oh yeah, that cease-fire. The nonexistent one. Why didn’t you just say so?

But the media continues to pretend that a cease-fire exists, just as they continue to pretend that Abbas is actually interested in fighting terrorism. Why tell the truth when the lies sound so much prettier?

Reading between the lines, though, we see the telling of an entirely different story. For example, the article claims that the “sides are moving quickly”. Let’s see what each side has done so far:

“Today, in my meeting with chairman Abbas, we agreed that all Palestinians will stop all acts of violence against all Israelis everywhere, and, at the same time, Israel will cease all its military activity against all Palestinians everywhere,” he said.

Yay, no more violence. But…

But the Palestinian militant group Hamas immediately called the deal into question. The group’s representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told The Associated Press it would not be bound by the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire declarations.

So in other words, the terrorists will continue their attacks, and Abbas will continue Arafat’s tradition of claiming to have no control over them and nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, Israel will have tied its hands in being able to respond.

Moving on…

In signs the two sides are working quickly, Palestinian negotiator Hassan Abu Libdeh said the leaders agreed that 500 Palestinian prisoners would be freed immediately by Israel, to be followed by 400 more at a later stage.

So Israel is sending more terrorists back on the streets, freeing them to kill again. What are the Palestinians doing in return?

Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, a key parliamentary committee narrowly approved a bill that would allow Mr. Sharon to carry out his planned pullout from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank in the summer. The vote passed 10-9 on a subject that has split the party and angered one of its main constituencies — settlers and their supporters.

Nope, that’s another move by Israel. A biggie. Still searching for a Palestinian concession here.

During the summit, Mr. Sharon also invited Mr. Abbas to visit him at his ranch in southern Israel and Abbas accepted, according to a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Gideon Meir. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said that meeting would take place soon.

Nice gesture. Maybe they can go snorkeling together. But I’m not sure how this amounts to any kind of Palestinian concession.

Gissin said that as part of Israel’s halting of military operations, it would stop its controversial assassinations of wanted Palestinians, as long as the Palestinians kept militants under control.

Another concession from Israel. Where are the Palestinian confidence-building moves?

Whoops, we’ve reached the end of the article. I haven’t seen any yet.

I suppose it’s that people are so sick of war, they’re grasping at straws for hopes for peace, even though they’ve all been down this road before and they know full well where it leads. Sad, but not really unpredictable.

Last month, El-Merhebi told the court he was driven to the crime by news of Israeli attacks on Palestinians. The arson “was an emotional response,” he said. “I was reacting to acts of violence in the Middle East that I saw on television.”

A note left at the scene of the blaze claimed the attack was in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Sure, blame the media. Blame Israel. Blame anyone but himself. This time, that strategy won’t work, because El-Merhebi is in jail now where he belongs.

Big news, right?

Excuse me if my skepticism causes me to read a little further:

A senior Hamas leader indicated Monday that the extremist group is halting attacks on Israelis while the Palestinians prepare to choose a new leader (emphasis mine).

So this isn’t a cease-fire, it’s a temporary ploy for Hamas to jockey for political power in the leadership struggle among the Palestinians.

Ok, reading on:

He also said that Hamas would consider a formal ceasefire if Israel reciprocated. He said Israel must be prepared to release Palestinian prisoners, withdraw from occupied land and stop assassinations of militants.

“The truce should have a price,” he said. “There is no truce from one side. The truce should be two-way. But “a truce with continued Israeli aggression is not acceptable to us.” (All emphasis, again, is mine).

In case you haven’t read Hamas’s charter lately, “withdraw from occupied land” is Hamas-speak for all Jews out of Israel, since Hamas considers all of Israel “occupied land”. When they say end the occupation, they don’t mean Gaza, they mean Tel Aviv.

Ok, so we’re back on familiar ground here. So much for the halting of attacks and talks of truce.

But being a curious type, I decided to check out what the Israeli press has to say on the subject. This from Ha’aretz:

Senior Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yusef told Israel Radio that the militant Islamic organization is interested in joining a national unity government with the Palestinian leadership, and to that end would agree to a hudna (ceasefire) that would last 10 years.

So now it’s not a halting, it’s a “hudna”. I should think that the last “hudna” should have taught everyone a lesson. This article from last year should quell any lingering notions anyone might still have about Hamas’s sincerity:

Has Hamas seen the light? Has this determined band of killers finally grasped that its suicide bombings and jihad rhetoric make its goal of a Palestinian state ever less likely to be realized?

[ . . . ]

Has Hamas renounced all this — suicide bombing, martyrdom, jihad, extinguishing Israel, spreading Islam to the four corners of the globe? No, it hasn’t. Its three-month cease-fire isn’t even in any meaningful way a first step to doing so. Consequently it is still dead set against the old Arab nationalism on which the Palestinian Authority is now ostensibly based. The successor of this nationalism, if Hamas remains true to its Charter and has its way, will be its intransigent and bloody form of Islamic radicalism. Nothing indicates that this is no longer its goal.

That’s why the Hamas truce is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

And that’s why any new truce wouldn’t be, either.

But let the spin continue.

Update: Damian Penny has the story of how Canadian taxpayers are funding Hamas.

Debbye has thoughts on the CBC’s “Greatest Canadian” contest, something I’ve tried to avoid watching because I knew it would make me very very angry. Judging by the top 30, it seems we’re propagating our own stereotypes as a nation, voting in hockey players, any popstar or movie star with crossover American success, and iconofied politicians. The fact that this is a contest where Don Cherry can place in a top 10 alongside Alexander Graham Bell should say it all. *Sigh*.

Imshin is absolutely required reading, lashing out at those who believe that Israel should not exist. She also points to this article, published in the Guardian, about anti-Americanism and antisemitism in Europe.

And this is a little late, but Burnside has packed in his keyboard. Another casualty of the blogosphere. He’ll be missed.

“Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another,” Hanson told CBC TV.

That was two days ago. Today, Hansen is singing a different tune. He’s demanded an apology from Israel for the latter’s call to the U.N. to investigate the former, after Israel accused UNRWA of letting terrorists use one of their ambulances to transport rockets.

Kofi Annan is sending a team to investigate. For the uninitiated, this is what is known in diplomatic circles as a “stall tactic”. Annan hopes that this show of action will mollify critics long enough for the story to blow over, and in the meantime, his investigators can get a nice falafel dinner and perhaps a soak in the Med.

Because, of course, everyone knows that the U.N. is so very even-handed when it comes to mideast politics…

Palestinian sources said late Sunday evening that a leading Hamas militant had been killed in an Israel Defense Forces missile strike on his car in northern Gaza City.

Palestinian sources said that Khaled Abu-Shamiyeh, 30, a resident of the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City, was killed and three other Palestinians were wounded in the attack. Their identities were not immediately known.

Let this be a message to all the terrorists: you can run but you can’t hide.

Today, there was a breach. And a double bus bombing in Be’ersheva that has left 12 innocent people dead and at least 100 more wounded:

Two suicide bombers exploded almost simultaneously on two buses in central Be’er Sheva on Tuesday, Southern Command Police commander Dudi Cohen said.

The explosions took place on buses numbers 12 and 63, traveling opposite the municipality building on Yitzhak Riger Street at 2:55 p.m.

Magen David Adom said 12 people were killed in the attacks, all of whom died at the scene. 100 people were wounded and taken to Soroka Hospital not far from the site of the attack. Seven are listed as critical; 12 are listed as serious, and the rest of the wounded are listed in light-to moderate condition. One of those fighting for his life in Soroka’s operating theatre is a three-year-old child, Channel 1 TV reported.

Be’er Sheva is a sleepy town in the Negev, known for its college campus life, and growing due to cheaper housing than can be found in Tel Aviv. When I drove past in July, I looked out the window and saw a few soldiers sitting at a bus stop, melting in their uniforms under the hot sun. I wonder now if any of them were on bus 12 or bus 63.

Life goes on in Israel. The Israelis will mourn and move on. The Palestinians will cheer and use the “success” to recruit dozens of new terrorists willing to strap on explosives and kill more Jews. The American candidates for election will try to spin this as a political issue. The U.N., the E.U., and most of the world will stay silent.

It makes me sick. All of it. When will it end?

Update: They’re now reporting at least 15 people dead in the attacks. Israel has acted decisively, raiding the home of the Hamas terrorist who was responsible for this cowardly act of murder.

Also, I had completely forgot that Be’ersheva is Montreal’s twin city in Israel.

Some parenting.

I personally get a little annoyed by the fact that there have been immediate predictable reactions about “the Arabs” or “the Muslims” (especially considering Zogheib is apparently Christian). The crime was perpetrated by the criminals, not by all members of a certain background or ethnic group.

That said, these particular arsonists – if found guilty – did set themselves up for having their motives questioned by taping a note to the door of the school saying that the arson was “retaliation” for Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Shiek Ahmed Yassin. In my opinion, they ought to be charged with a hate crime, not merely with arson or vandalism. Anyone who proudly trumpets hate as a motive should be punished appropriately, and a clear message should be sent that this kind of thing isn’t acceptable in Canada. I hope that, if they are indeed the guilty parties, that they go to jail for a long time.

Israeli security forces thwarted a suicide bombing planned for Tel Aviv when they arrested a Palestinian hermaphrodite armed with a 15-kilogram bomb in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.

Amal Juma’a, 32, is a hermpahrodite who goes by the name Ahmed, Palestinian Authority sources told Army Radio. The report said the terror attack was planned for Monday.

Sign of the times? Possibly.

But more likely, it’s a sign of the culture. It’s difficult enough in supposedly liberal, advanced-thinking areas of the world to have a “different” gender identity. Imagine what it must be like in a society that still treats women like chattel and has honour killings of women who are no longer virgins? Palestinian society isn’t exactly known for its advanced attitudes towards homosexuals, transsexuals, or, well, in this case, hermaphrodites.

There’s one place all the people who feel outcast or alienated can go to feel accepted, powerful, and special: to the terrorists. Groups like Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade are only too happy to help the alienated “find purpose” by strapping some C-4 to their chests and going to blow up innocent Jewish children.

In case you’re wondering, this isn’t one of those “excuses for the terrorists” postings. It makes no difference whether a terrorist is a man, woman, hermaphrodite, or a Marilyn Manson-type: a murder is still a murderer.

But it’s a sad fact that the terrorist groups prey on the weak, on the maligned, on the fringes of society. They find their killers among people to whom murder-suicide seems like a career opportunity. There’s no way to tell whether that’s the case here. But it very well could be.

Update: Stefan and Harry are also amused. It wouldn’t have been so amusing had the intended attack actually succeeded.

A pregnant mother and her four daughters were shot dead Sunday after two terrorists opened fire at Israeli cars traveling near the Kissufim Crossing at the entrance to the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip.

The dead were identified as Tali Hatuel, 34, eight months pregnant and her daughters Hila, 11, Hadar, 9, Roni, 7, Merav, 2 all from the settlement of Katif. Details of the funerals have yet to be finalized

Two soldiers and an Israeli civilian were also wounded in the attack and were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheba.

The IDF said that both of the gunmen, who arrived at the area by car, were killed in an ensuing firefight.

The Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees claimed joint responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge the assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Yassin and Rantisi.

The newspapers are all discussing the strategic implications, speculating that Sharon’s plan will be defeated and that this latest attack will only help widen the margin of defeat. From the perspective of the Palestinian terrorists, they’d love to see the plan shot down and Sharon’s government embarrassed, so their motivation isn’t so hard to question.

But for an innocent woman and her children, none of that matters now. They were just the latest victims of disgusting terrorism… and though everyone seems to have a different idea on how to react to the terror, no vote or political plan can bring them back to life.

In the meantime, the assassinations are having their desired effect it seems, because Hamas is running scared. They’ve appointed but refused to name their new leader, because they’re afraid he will also be assassinated. Of course, having secret leadership means it’s harder for them to turn their leader into a politician within the Palestinian community, or into a public figure. It means the Israeli policy is making them afraid. It means it’s working.

Please let it be true!

Update:Haaretz says they got him. Still waiting for confirmation.

Update #2: An LGF commentator posted a link to Israel Channel 10, who is reporting the story live. If you speak Hebrew, and have Media Player, go see.

Update #3: Channel 10 has changed its status on Rantisi from “killed” to “critically wounded”. Two of Rantisi’s guards were apparently killed in the missile strike, but Rantisi seems still to be among the living. They’re showing shots of Rantisi in the hospital, after being rushed there by ambulance.

Update #4: They’re back to saying his status is “killed”. Seems he was pronounced clinically dead at a Gaza hospital. Reports still conflicting. Also, they are reporting that the expected US reaction is an assertion that Israel has the right to defend itself.

Update #5: All the news outlets are confirming it now. Reuters. CNN. FoxNews. BBC. He’s really dead.

Update #6: CNN says that the three people killed were Rantisi, a bodyguard, and Rantisi’s son, Mohammed, 20.

And of course, the PA is spewing its usual threats about retaliation… just like it did after Yassin’s assassination. But the wall did its job, and the large-scale “retaliation” (i.e. attempted murder of innocent civilians to “avenge” a murdering terrorist) has thankfully not materialized. Even the Israeli reports seem a lot less fearful today than they did after Yassin’s death.

The only question is which European country *ahem France ahem* will be the first in line to surrender. After all, appeasement worked with Hitler oh-so-well, didn’t it?

In the meantime, Bin Laden is apparently ranting and raving in usual fashion about Israel and the Palestinians and swearing “revenge” for Ahmed Yassin’s assassination:

“Our actions come in response to your actions of destroying and killing our people in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. It is enough to witness the event that shocked the world, the killing of the elderly, wheelchair-bound Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, God have mercy on him, and we pledge to God to take revenge on America,” the man on the tape said.

Something makes me wonder just how much Arafat appreciates the sentiment, though. Anyone remember this?

“I’m telling him (bin Laden) directly not to hide behind the Palestinian cause,” Arafat said in an interview published in London’s Sunday Times newspaper.

Bin Laden “never helped us, he was working in another completely different area and against our interests,” Arafat said.

That was December of 2002, when Arafat – in English anyway – felt it wasn’t savvy to be seen as being too cozy with Al Qa’eda. Now it’s April 2004, and perhaps Arafat has learned that the world doesn’t care. They’ll surrender to terrorism… just as long as they get to trash Bush in the process.

We’ve come a long way.

Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad claim foiled attack on Netzarim

Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed at least two gunmen in the pre-dawn hours Monday as the Palestinians sought to attack the Gaza Strip flashpoint settlement of Netzarim, military sources said.

[ . . . ]

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed joint responsibility for the operation. The three groups have increasingly cooperated in attacks on Israelis.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad… and Fatah.

The article later says that it’s the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade wing of Fatah that was involved. But this is Haaretz – not the Jerusalem Post – now clarifying that the distinction between Arafat’s Fatah and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is so irrelevant, it doesn’t even need to be specified in a headline.

Finally, we get a little closer to the truth: Arafat directs and supports terrorism, and has no more legitimacy as a leader than any terrorist dictator thug – despite the West’s attempt to legitimatize him as the “moderate” alternative to Hamas.

That’s just BS. Hamas believes itself driven by religious purposes. Fatah is more strategic and pays lip service to secularism. But they’re both after the exact same thing: no more Israel. Hence all this “cooperation”, which the Western media is making out to be such a big deal, but, when you think about it, isn’t really all that much of a stretch.

It’s about time we called a terrorist a terrorist.

What is of great concern to me is that we are starting to see a pattern of equivocation emerge. I fail to see how an equivocating position is good for Canadians as we witness the escalation of violence and the mounting death toll on both sides of the war. When one of Canada’s ministers suggests that Israel behaved contrary to its obligations, I suggest this government is getting closer to condoning terrorist actions. When our media repeatedly defines Sheik Yassin as a spiritual leader, I disagree. I suggest that this bolsters terrorism itself. The “spiritualism” of Yassin would be considered a blasphemy by the Christian standards that I uphold, and I would suggest that the faith and values of Canada’s other religions would not condone acts of extermination, something that Yassin’s organization, the Hamas, holds as its mandate.

[ . . . ]

Honourable senators, I know how many have asked these questions, but I want to add my voice to the chorus: Who started these forms of terrorist violence? How long until we declare terrorism unacceptable? This war between Israelis and Palestinians is not merely a battle over land; it is a war between the future of civil society and a future without one.

It is refreshing that not everyone in government has lost their moral compass.

Yassin was, of course, the furthest thing from a “spiritual leader” imaginable. He was a terrorist leader, plain and simple. That the world media has insisted on dubbing him a “spiritual leader” should be taken as the basest kind of insult to all legitimate spiritual leaders of any religion.

Larry Miller has more on this point in the Weekly Standard (via Damian):

OKAY, I give up. What, exactly, is a “spiritual leader”?

I’m curious, because, as any American who reads newspapers or watches TV knows, that’s what Sheikh Yassin was: A spiritual leader. I never met the man, but I sure wish I had, because, after all, one can never have too many scholarly, elevated, Godly, spiritual leaders in one’s life, can one?

[ . . . ]

And the parade of hypocrisy tunes up its instruments, and marches again with banners waving. Israel-evil, Sharon-butcher, how could you kill such a fine, old man? For the record, this fine, old man founded Hamas, insisted then and now that all Israel must be driven into the sea, that the best way to do this was to kill the Jews, kill the Jews, kill the Jews, look for the baby carriages, that hurts them most, the Jews love life, we love martyrdom. Well, you’ve got to hand it to the man, when he’s right, he’s right. The Jews do love life more than he did, and the shattered supermarkets and discos and pizza parlors hurt them most.

Yassin was a “spiritual leader” as much as Hitler was a philanthropist. In other words, not unless your brain is wired wrong could you possibly legitimately confer the term on him.

That hasn’t stopped every major network from CBC to CNN from picking up the term in the days following Yassin’s death. It also hasn’t stopped them from accusing Israel of “murder”.

Murder isn’t the right word. For someone to be murdered, he has to be human first. Now there is a term that “spiritual leader” Yassin wasn’t worthy of.

That shocks me. I can understand skepticism about the point of taking out Yassin, or fear of the consequences. But to ask whether the assassination of a terrorist, responsible for thousands of innocent deaths, was justified? I can’t imagine what arguments the 45% who voted no could possibly have (other than the standard “well, Israel did it so it must be wrong”).

Canada on joined the wave of condemnation touched off by Israel’s assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, saying the killing was hardly likely to promote “everlasting peace.”

“We regret and condemn the death of Sheikh Yassin,” Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham told reporters outside parliament.

“We clearly recognise that Israel is an extremely difficult position, but there are different ways to go about this.

“There are ways that will contribute to everlasting peace, this was clearly not one of them.”

With all of Europe condemning Israel and even the U.S. shaking its head, I don’t know why I expected better from Canada, home of the “don’t attack us cause we won’t ever piss anyone off” mentality. But one really does have to wonder how out of touch Bill Graham is if he’s still throwing around words like “everlasting peace” as though they are real or imminent possibilities.

They see that when we try to make nice and compromise we get terror attacks. And when we’re tough and aggressive we get terror attacks. Nothing we do seems to lower the motivation to slaughter Israeli civilians — men, women, or children — and in the case of Hamas, to see the state of Israel destroyed. So since there’s absolutely nothing to lose by getting Yassin, and something to possibly gain — at least temporarily derailing the Hamas leadership structure, and hopefully weakening it long-term — so why not go ahead and do it?

It’s a similar equation as the fence. Yes, building this fence is pissing off the Palestinians big-time. But does anyone think that if we stopped building it, they would be so happy and grateful, terror attacks would stop? No. No fence equals attempts at terror attacks, and a fence equals attempts at terror attacks. So why in the world shouldn’t we support building a fence in the hopes of foiling a number of these attacks?

With nothing left to lose, let’s try to do what we can to protect ourselves. That’s the sentiment of the man on the street.

Harry disagrees:

I’m reading a lot of non-Israeli bloggers who are touting this as some huge victory for Israel and the best thing to happen since Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley made out at the MTV awards. It’s not. Yes, the man is evil. Does he deserve to die? Yes, of course. But could the security cabinet have really really thought about the consequences of this? I mean really?

Seeing as how I’m one of those “non-Israeli bloggers” that Harry accurately chastised for not being close enough to the situation to be able to fully appreciate the sentiments of Israelis, I won’t comment, except to say that somehow, I get the sense that Allison’s reaction is closer to the grim reality.

Israel Air Force helicopters fired missiles at Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin as he left a mosque near his house at daybreak Monday, residents said, and Hamas officials and witnesses said he was killed.

This is big. Huge, in fact. Yassin was personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Israelis. It’s the Israeli equivalent of getting Osama. Bigger, because of the power jockeying that’s going on between the Palestinian terror groups. In that war, Hamas has just been dealt a full-on body blow.

Of course, Hamas supporters are vowing revenge. And unfortunately, the revenge is likely to be more than just empty threats. The PA is also screaming about this, calling Yassin a “moderate”:

The Palestinian Authority on Monday condemned the assassination. “This is a crazy and very dangerous act. It opens the door wide to chaos. Yassin is known for his moderation and he was controlling Hamas and therefore this is a dangerous, cowardly act,” said Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.

It is precisely the fact that the Palestinian Authority can call Yassin a man “known for his moderation” that sheds a lot of light on what “moderation” means in Palestinian society.

My heart goes out to all the people who will likely suffer as Hamas supporters take their “revenge” for the murder of this terrorist. But ultimately, Yassin didn’t even come close to getting what he deserved. Death was far, far too good for him.

Update: CNN, CBC, and BBC all have the story. The BBC, of course, has its typical reaction:

As well as the possibility of reprisals by Hamas militants, the killing could affect diplomatic efforts to get the peace process back on track, says our correspondent.

What peace process?

This news is just emerging, so we are only starting to see some of the “analysis” that is sure to follow in the coming hours and days. But the BBC is also asking for reader reactions… that ought to be interesting sickening.

Update #2: First reaction from Gaza U – er – Concordia.

The blasts were heard around the busy hour of 5 p.m.. The first bomber blew himself up inside the port, police said, and the second bombing took place four minutes later outside the facility. The first bomber asked a young boy where he could get a glass of water. The boy, whose father was reportedly killed in the attack, pointed towards a structure, where the bomber then exploded. Rescue services spokesman Yerucham Mendola said “some of the victims were thrown a long distance” by the blasts.

What is there left to say? What words of mourning, horror, or dismay can I possibly find that haven’t been said dozens of times before?

And how to make the world understand the kind of support that the terror networks enjoy among the general Palestinian population? How do you make people understand that it’s not just an isolated few extremists, but a movement that has won over the hearts and minds of the average Palestinian on the street? How to make them understand that we have no partner for peace? Maybe by reporting things like this:

Hearing news of the attack, Palestinians took to the streets in the Jenin and Jabalaya refugee camps to celebrate. Drivers honked the horns of their cars as gunmen fired into the air to express their joy. Others distributed sweets to passersby, hailing the suicide bombers, and calling on all Palestinian groups to step up their “resistance operations against the Israeli enemy.”

When will they understand that you can’t negotiate with people whose only desire is to see you dead?

Update: Maybe a picture will speak a thousand words (via LGF):

Palestinians shout slogans as they cheer after two suicide bombers from the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza blew themselves up in the Israeli port of Ashdod Sunday March 14, 1004 in Gaza city. Sunday's bombing killed 11 Israelis and wounded 18. The Islamic militant group Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed group with ties to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed joint responsibility (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Hamas claimed today (Monday), for the first time, responsibility for the terror attack at Tel Aviv’s “Mike’s Place” pub on April 30, 2003. Yanai Weiss, 46, Ran Baron, 24, and Caroline Dominique Hess, 29, died in the bombing.

A leaflet issued by the group’s military wing, the Iz-a-Din al-Kassam Brigades, noted that the attack was carried out by two British citizens of Pakistani origin in retaliation for the targeted killing of a senior Hamas figure, Dr. Ibrahim Makadmeh.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack on the first anniversary of Makadme’s “targeted killing” in the Gaza Strip. The leaflet also noted: “This is a clear message to the Zionists: The al-Kassam Brigades will continue to fight Israel as long as the massacre of the Palestinian people continues”.

In other words, it was a slow news day and Hamas was getting antsy about having no new attacks to broadcast. Think maybe they had planned on having other news to report?

“I have given an order to plan for the evacuation of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip,” Sharon said Monday in an interview with Haaretz columnist Yoel Marcus. (The full interview with Sharon will appear Tuesday in Haaretz.)

“It is my intention to carry out an evacuation – sorry, a relocation – of settlements that cause us problems and of places that we will not hold onto anyway in a final settlement, like the Gaza settlements,” the prime minister added.

Allison and Imshin are pro. Frankly, I think most Israelis have been in favour of getting out of the Gaza Strip ever since, well, pretty much since 1967. Israel even tried to give it back to Egypt in 1978, but Egypt didn’t want it. Israelis are bitterly divided over the West Bank and over the Golan Heights, but I think that most Israelis would wish the Gaza Strip “good riddance”.

My concern is more about the “how” than the “if”. I agree with Imshin when she points out that:

Yes, I wholeheartedly support getting out of there. But not like we got out of Lebanon. Not in a way that could be interpreted as a reward for terrorism. Not if it is interpreted as weakness and serves to feed the sick Palestinian propensity for murder and mayhem. We have to be very careful how we go about this.

Maybe I’m more cynical than she is… but I don’t see how there could be any way of making this look like anything other than rewarding terrorism. First the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah. Now this. Gaza is a Hamas stronghold… and this would be the first major victory for Hamas’s strategy of terrorism for land. No good can come of that.

In a West Bank university election for the student leadership that focused on which party had killed the most Israelis, the violent Hamas swept to victory Wednesday, defeating Yasser Arafat’s Fatah.

[ . . . ]

At a debate, the Hamas candidate asked the Fatah candidate: “Hamas activists in this university killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?”

The Fatah candidate refused to answer, suggesting his rival “look at the paper, go to the archives and see for yourself. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades have not stopped fighting the occupation.”

Fatah set up models of Jewish settlements and then blew them up with fireworks. The display was meant to emphasize the group’s focus on attacking settlers and their communities – considered by Palestinians to be one of the most provocative elements of Israel’s occupation of territory they claim for a state.

Hamas countered by blowing up models of Israeli buses, a tribute to the dozens of suicide bombings its members have carried out in the past three years, killing hundreds of Israelis. Activists held samples of the group’s homemade Qassam rockets – often fired at Gaza Strip settlements and Israeli towns that border the coastal area.

Student issues were barely touched on because the Palestinians’ main problem is the Israeli occupation, candidates said.

[ . . . ]

[A university spokesperson] said the student elections have wider significance. “The Bir Zeit elections are like a barometer to measure the political mood on the Palestinian street.”

Suddenly, voting scandals, ripped-down posters, and debates over club funding don’t seem so bad. How many indications do we need like this one that the Palestinians have absolutely no interest in making peace? How much more crystal-clear does it get?

Fifty-nine percent of Palestinians believe that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad should continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including East Jerusalem, and a Palestinian state is created, a new survey shows.

Similarly, 80 percent of Palestinians say that, under those circumstances, the Palestinians should not give up the “right of return.”

The poll of Palestinians, Israeli Jews, and Israeli Arabs was released in Washington on Wednesday by Itamar Marcus, founder of Palestinian Media Watch and written by pollster Frank Luntz. It was conducted by two polling firms, the Public Opinion Research of Israel and The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.

The poll also examined Israeli and Palestinian attitudes towards the US and towards terrorism.

Nintey-six percent of Israeli Jews say the people who piloted the planes on September 11 were terrorists, while 37 percent of Palestinians share that view.

Slightly more than one in four – 26 percent – of Palestinians believe Israelis planned the 9-11 attacks.

Forty-two percent of Palestinians and 61 percent of Israeli-Arabs stated that they support the people who are attacking Americans in Iraq. Zero percent of Israeli Jews said they did.

The next time someone starts ranting about how the Palestinians would be peaceful if only they had a state, I suggest they consult the opinion polls.

Twenty hours after the IAF helicopter rocket attack on a vehicle containing Hamas terrorists in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Monday night, which was described by the Palestinians as a massacre and by MIK Ranan Cohen as a “blitz”, the air force released footage that clearly shows there were no Palestinian civilians in the street when the two rockets hit the car despite Palestinian reports claiming otherwise.

Not that this will stop the Palestinian people from believing the lies, mind you. They’ll probably accuse the Air Force of fabricating the video, as part of the same usual Zionist conspiracy plot that gets blamed for everything else.

Dahlan said he does not want to join the council, which includes all the security chiefs, several officials, Qurei, and Arafat, since it will not be able to make any decisions.

A source close to Dahlan said the members on the council are all rivals and the one who will be in charge is Arafat.

Dahlan was brought into the Abbas government supposedly over Arafat’s objections, and has a reputation as being against terrorism and violence.

Of course, people keep getting drawn into these Palestinian power-play shows as though they’re real . . . as though the “moderates” aren’t just playing a part for the media . . . as though anyone could get into government over Arafat’s objections. It’s all an elaborate hoax that people keep swallowing. And central to that hoax is that if Israel would just (insert action here), then the Palestinians would make peace tomorrow.

This new puppet government won’t be any different than the old one.

And I’m starting to come to the conclusion that Bush is wrong, that democracy isn’t the best precondition to impose on the Palestinians at this stage.

Democracy is a great system . . .when supported by the people. But its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness in a population that is more resistant to change than its leadership. Look at Canada’s attempt to push through gay marriage, to the opposition of a large portion of the population. When the people aren’t ready for something, in a democracy, the government is usually too weak to make it happen.

So when you have a population that’s less than amenable to drastic change, then it takes a very strong leadership to push this change through. And a courageous, visionary leadership, capable of being ahead of the times and seeing possibilities that the population may not be ready for yet. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have no such leadership. Instead, they have Arafat, a corrupt dictator content to push them around and fan the flames of hatred and violence when it suits his personal ends.

But a free and open election tomorrow among the Palestinian people would probably result in the election of Hamas.

It’s utter racist nonsense to say that the Arab countries can’t deal with democracy. But it’s political reality to say that democracy can’t be externally imposed upon a population that isn’t yet ready for it. No country in the world came to democracy without first trying a whole host of other options for decades, centuries, or millennia. It’s still relatively new to the Western World, in the grand scheme of things. And it works – precariously, shakily – but it it works here, because the values of the people are in line with the values of free and open government.

So maybe instead of insisting on democracy before heading back to the bargaining table, Bush and the outside world should insist that the Palestinians come forth with some form of leadership willing to denounce terror and embrace reconciliation – whether their populations like it or not. And they should insist that this leadership has the backing and means necessary to enforce this. That can’t easily be propped up externally either – the West has backed enough corrupt dictators in its day, and has yet to learn its lesson – but there are more options within middle east politics for this form of government. The power structures and economic and social realities need to catch up before democracy can have an honest go.

It’ll happen. And sooner, rather than later, most likely. But it can’t happen right now, as these cabinets – each more of a joke than the last – are showing us.

At least six people were killed and several others were reported wounded Tuesday, 10 of them seriously, when a suicide bomber blew up just before 6 P.M. at a crowded bus stop adjacent to the Tzrifin military base near Rishon Letzion. Security officials said there were many soldiers at the bus stop.

We can count on the Palestinian Authority – with new puppet Abu Ala – to do what it always does: nothing.

Update: There’s been a second bombing, this one in a cafe in Jerusalem. So far, reports are of at least four killed and dozens more injured in this second blast.

Hamas has claimed “responsibility” for both attacks.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned Israel’s attempt to kill the spiritual leader of Hamas, accusing the state of using excessive force and violating international humanitarian law, the U.N. spokesman said Monday.

So the U.N. doesn’t mind when innocent kids are killed. But G-d forbid anyone should try to take out a terrorist mastermind!

In the meantime, only Israel has shown a willingness to fight this terror organization, and it’s a costly fight indeed – for both sides. Today’s operation to kill senior Hamas commander Mohammed al-Hanbali cost the life of an IDF soldier and wounded four more. It also collapsed the apartment structure where al-Hanbali was hiding, meaning 28 Palestinian families became homeless. And of course, Hamas will clamour for “revenge”, which it will take out on more innocent schoolchildren riding buses, or grandmothers shopping in supermarkets, or teenagers at a nightclub.

The US and especially the EU calls this a “cycle of violence”, implying that it is an endless chain of morally-equivalent actions and reactions on both sides. They then tend to blame Israel on the ground that Israel is the occupying power and the Palestinians are being occupied. I suppose using those overly simplistic leaps of logic, this makes sense somehow.

But, of course, there is no moral equivalence between assassinating a terrorist murderer, and blowing up a busload of innocent civilians. None whatsoever. Israel is engaged in defence while the Palestinian terrorists are engaged in offence. Israel’s goal is peace and security; the goal of the Palestinians is the eradication of Israel. No, not the same thing at all.

Unfortunately, the world seems to think that the terrorists are reasonable people and that they should be tiptoed around and negotiated with. Israel knows that there is no chance of peace with Hamas, or an Arafat-led PA, calling the shots. So they’ll keep fighting this war against terrorism and the world will keep on blaming them for it . . . until it’s won.

The Qassam rocket slammed into an industrial zone in the coastal city of Ashkelon, 5.5 miles from the Gaza Strip, the army said. It was the furthest a Qassam had been fired into Israel since a Palestinian uprising for statehood began in 2000.

The rocket attack on the city of 116,000 could mark the crossing of a red line for Israel, which fears similar strikes from the West Bank against the nearby densely populated center of the country.

In the meantime, the Palestinian Authority is making a show of their so-called attempt to rein in the terrorists:

A Palestinian security official in Gaza said Palestinian forces had rushed to the area where a Hamas squad had fired the rocket at Ashkelon, preventing it from launching more rockets.

“There was a chase and a shootout,” the official told Reuters. “Our forces are still searching the area in the northern Gaza Strip.”

[ . . . ]

In an apparent clampdown on Hamas affecting thousands of needy Palestinians, the Palestinian Monetary Authority said it had frozen 39 bank accounts held by 12 Islamic charities, most of which are widely believed to be Hamas-sponsored.

By the straight way that Reuters reported this claim, it’s clear that the media is buying the PA’s act – hook, line, and sinker. It should be obvious to anyone who knows anything about the Middle East that this supposed “clampdown” is just for show, and should be taken about as seriously as Yasser Arafat’s “condemnations” of terror attacks that he bankrolled and ordered in the first place.

Israel’s goal must not be peace, but victory, because without victory there can never be peace.

So far, so good. But then he goes on to say that:

The Palestinians and their supporters seek a war of annihilation against us. We must deal with them as they deal with us. We must stop trying to differentiate between good and bad Palestinians, just as they don’t make that distinction among Jews.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Because you see, that’s letting them win. That’s letting those who preach hatred and intolerance and racism vanquish those who would seek peace.

There’s no way out of this mess by simply trying to destroy the terrorist evil. Destroy it, yes. By all means. But the effort must be two-pronged. There needs to be a simultaneous development of a new movement on the Palestinian side – a peace movement. You simply can’t trap three and a half million people in a lousy situation and not present them with a way out – your way out. Because they’ll simply gravitate towards the way out that is the worst possible way for you.

Wasserman claims that we must stop saying that the Arabs want to live in peace, because each terrorist bombing proves that they don’t. And I agree with him that the current Palestinian leadership is corrupt and supporting terrorism, the terrorist groups are gaining popularity, and Israel’s in for a big mess. The percentages of Palestinians who support suicide bombings, who think the intifada should continue, and who don’t see an option of ever living in peace with Israel are far too high. They hate us. They hate not just Israelis, but Jews. And there is no excuse for terror, and the world is in serious denial about the so-called “root causes” of Palestinian terrorism. Israel is fighting a war and the ultimate aim of war must be victory. On these points, no disagreement from me.

But the aim of victory must be peace. It may not be right or fair that Israel has to concern itself with the aftermath of smashing the infrastructures of Hamas or the Islamic Jihad. But it’s certainly in Israel’s best interest to be concerned. We must continue to make individual distinctions, even if they won’t. We must continue to reach out our hands to anyone brave enough to speak out for peace, in hopes that these tiny seedling movements will grow. We have to encourage the emergence of another way out for the Palestinians. We mustn’t become like them – those who would kill all hope – because that lets them win.

France voices objections to placing Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the European Union’s list of terror organizations, ynet reported Monday.

Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that these two organizations are terror groups. “If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU’s stand,” said Gourdault-Montagne. “However, we mustn’t limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position.”

Let’s recap, shall we? Hundreds of suicide attacks launched by these groups. Thousands of innocent civilians murdered by them in cold blood. The first line of their charters stating an unequivocal opposition to peace.

“No proof”??? What on earth more could France possibly need?

The entire article only mentions the suicide bombing that killed 20 and injured over 80, once – and in the sixth paragraph, in a single sentence (without any mention of the children killed and wounded). The focus was on Israel’s “odious crime” (the article quotes Mahmoud Abbas in a sub-header) in its assassination of Ismail Abou Chanab, the Hamas terrorist responsible for the attack. The article presents Abu Chanab in a sympathetic light, as though it was an obituary, and clearly points the finger at Israel for “only giving the Palestinian Authority 24 hours” to react to terrorism before sending in the IDF. As if 36 hours would have made any difference . . . or 48 hours . . . or a week or a year, for that matter:

Mahmoud Abbas, le premier ministre palestinien, a été informé de l’assassinat d’Ismail Abou Chanab alors qu’il était en discussion avec John Wolf, l’émissaire américain chargé de la mise en application de la “feuille de route”, le plan de paix international, qui venait de rentrer précipitamment de Washington en raison de la tournure prise par les évènements. “C’est un crime odieux qui sape nos plans d’action contre les activistes palestiniens”, a regretté Mahmoud Abbas.

La veille, son gouvernement avait décidé de contrer le Hamas et le Djihad islamique, après l’attentat meurtrier de Jérusalem, mardi 19 août, qui a causé la mort de vingt personnes, blessant une centaine d’autres. Il restait à mettre au point certaines finalités en accord avec Yasser Arafat. Comme le dit un responsable palestinien, “le gouvernement de Sharon ne nous a même pas laissé 24 heures pour prouver le sérieux de nos intentions. Il a saboté nos plans et rendu un très mauvais service à Abou Mazen”, le surnom de Mahmoud Abbas. Et cela d’autant plus qu’Ismail Abou Chanab avait été l’un des interlocuteurs privilégiés du premier ministre lorsqu’il s’était agi d’instaurer la trève.

Abbas “decided to act against terrorism”??? Yet another example of Le Monde parroting Palestinian propaganda as fact, without bothering to provide any context whatsoever. No wonder the French hate Israel, if they believe articles like this one.

Point #1: You can’t “end” a cease-fire that never existed in the first place. Throughout the so-called hudna, both terrorist groups continued to carry out attacks against Israel civilians. This announcement only recognizes the actual state that has been in place all along.

Point #2: The statement that the ending of the cease-fire is “in response” to Israel’s assassinations of a Hamas leader is hypocricy at its core. Of course, the world has a short memory. The Palestinians know that they can murder 20 innocent Jews on a Jersualem bus one day, including small children, and the next day claim that they’re ending a cease-fire “in response” to Israel’s retaliation, and that the world will blame Israel. As usual.

Point #3: Anyone who thinks Hamas’s statement against Abbas will result in civil war is kidding themselves. Abbas won’t fight back against Hamas. He hasn’t shown the slighest bit of power or courage in taking on the terrorist groups since assuming his leadership role. He’s been propped up by the US and the international community until now, but he’s got no real power. And things can only get worse, as the inevitable showdown that Abbas has been avoiding is finally called by Hamas.

Sometimes I get so angry while writing this stuff up that I can barely find the right keys to type.

A suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus has killed at least 20 people – including small children – and wounded over 80 others:

The bomb exploded aboard a double-length city bus in the crowded, largely ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim near the border between east and west Jerusalem. The explosion damaged a second bus, Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said. The bus was mainly filled with religious Jews on their way home from praying at the Kotel.

Ambulance services said at least 30 people had been carried away from the scene. An Israeli spokesman said 26 people were seriously and critically injured in the bombing. Another 43 people sustained minor injuries.

Fifteen children between 2 weeks and 15 years old were taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital, according to Mor Yosef, the hospital’s director-general.

They’re killing our children again. And gloating about it. Hamas and Islamic Jihad were falling all over each other to claim “responsibility” for this attack.

The news media are all focusing on the death of the (fictional) truce. But a lot more died than an agreement that was never honoured in the first place. Innocent men, women, and children had their lives stolen.

The world was feeling pretty relaxed lately – quiet on the Mideast front and all that. The Israelis knew better. Their news media was warning people to expect the worst in the coming days. The Israelis knew that this so-called cease-fire was just an excuse for these guys to regroup and plan their next attack.

I almost don’t know what to say anymore. All the screaming about how bad an idea it is to keep making “concessions” that will encourage terror fall on deaf ears. I can’t say I’m disappointed, either.

Just saddened. And angry as hell.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they still insist that the “truce is intact”.

Hah, right. This gives some excellent insight into their idea of a cease-fire. That’s when they go on killing innocent people, all the while insisting that Israel make concessions because, after all, it’s a truce.

Some truce.

“Hamas has studied all the developments and has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities,” Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters.

He said the cease-fire carried conditions and a timeframe but declined to give details or indicate when a truce would be announced. Hamas, dedicated to Israel’s destruction, has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings.

For those hailing this as a breakthrough, it’s important to remember that optimism is usually misplaced when it comes to Mideast politics. Firstly, Hamas has not said it will accept Israel’s existence or that it will stop attacks for a long time. This is merely a tactical truce, giving Hamas time to reorganize and regroup. Secondly, if Israel is attacked and reacts, it will be Israel that is criticized internationally for “breaking the cease-fire”.

Hamas is still committed to Israel’s destruction. Israel’s foreign ministry called the cease-fire “poison covered in honey”, and there’s certainly something to that.

On the other hand, if even one innocent life is saved because of the cease-fire, then far be it for me to condemn it. And hey, maybe I’m being too cynical. Maybe this is a first and important step towards a strong and lasting peace.

Maybe pigs will fly, too.

In an attempt to persuade Hamas and other radical Palestinian factions to agree to a temporary cease-fire with Israel, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas offered to give the groups political representation in a newly formed body called the unified national leadership.

Abbas, who met with leaders of all the Palestinian factions in Gaza City Tuesday and Wednesday night, told them that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed to form a unified national leadership within the PLO.

Abbas had a critical choice to make. He could confront Hamas and the other terrorist factions head-on, or he could capitulate to them. It looks like he chose the latter, and this is the worst possible news for the Palestinian people, who are being relegated to live under terrorist leadership for a long time in the future. Now, these terrorists will be given legitimacy in the Palestinian government:

Hamas leaders said following Tuesday’s talks with Abbas that they might consider a proposal that restricts terrorist attacks to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abdel Aziz Rantisi, one of Hamas’s top officials who participated in the discussions, said his movement is studying the proposal according to which it would halt its suicide attacks inside Israel but continue targeting IDF soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abbas himself has been quoted on many occasions making this distinction between innocent lives on one or the other side of the “green line”. Apparently if you live in Tel Aviv, your life is worth more than if you live in Efrat.

The US government has been propping up Abbas, and will probably live to regret this, as he is making it clearer by the day that he intends to give the terrorists full reign and control over Palestinian society. I wish it were different for them. I wish they could break free of this oppressive leadership and institute a government willing to make concrete steps towards peace. I have untold sympathy for the millions of Palestinian people who keep falling victim to corrupt leaders that throw them at the mercy of the terrorist groups.

But my sympathy doesn’t extend so far as to excuse terrorism and murder of innocent Israelis. Only the Palestinian people can decisively change their society by choosing en masse to reject Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their terrorist ilk. And this doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime in the near future.

“We call on Hamas to demonstrate that they are against all terrorist activities.”

What are they putting in that wine?

Now, 16 people are dead and 112 more wounded in the latest horrific bus bombing in Jerusalem:

Sixteen people were killed and another 112 were wounded when a Hamas suicide bomber, dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, detonated his explosives belt on a bus in downtown Jerusalem Wednesday.

Minutes after the attack, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at a car in Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians, including two Hamas terrorists, one of whom orchestrated a series of recent rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns.

[ . . . ]

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack as revenge for Israel’s strike Wednesday on the organization’s co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi, which left him wounded. The claim came in the form of statement aired on television networks, Hamas spiritual head Ahmed Yassin.

Now, the two sides are further away from peace than they probably ever were. And I’d like to be able to say that this shattered some great white hope of mine, some optimism that maybe this time things would be different. But instead, I just feel a sort of resignation and numbness to the whole affair. It’s hard to feel let down, never having gotten my hopes up in the first place.

I want to be able to make some noble speech about how these innocent Israelis were heroes, how they didn’t die in vain but in the pursuit of peace. But it would be nothing but an insulting, ridiculous lie. These people were no more heroes than you or I, and they no more deserved to die than any of us. They were ordinary citizens, going about their ordinary lives. They got on a bus, or went shopping at a market, and their lives were stolen.

And so, the familiar song and dance begins again. Israel retaliates. The world condemns violence “on both sides” without making the distinction between the instigator and the defender. Arafat pays lip service to “condemning” terrorism, while continuing to fund and encourage it. Abbas expresses sadness but says he’s unwilling to confront Hamas. Israelis mourn. And then it all begins again, until the next time.

So to all the people out there who want to sacrifice the lives of these sixteen people, and those of hundreds of others, I say fuck that. It’s enough already. How many more terrorist bombings of busses, cafes, restaurants, or nightclubs will it take until we get the message? We don’t have a partner for peace. We never had a partner for peace. All we have is an enemy who wants nothing more nor less than to see every last one of us dead.

And to those of you who say that their intent was to kill this latest round of peace talks, and that cutting off the talks would just be giving them what they want, well, that may be. But I don’t care anymore. How many times do you extend your hand in friendship, only to have it slapped, before you stop offering it?

16 people are dead today for no other reason than the fact that they wanted to live. There’s no logic anymore. There’s only sadness and senselessness.

But now, precisely how intends to rein in the terrorists to achieve that end is a total mystery, as Abbas doesn’t seem prepared to do anything but ask “pretty please”:

Commenting on the Hamas move, Palestinian cabinet minister Ziad Abu Amr signaled Abbas would do his utmost to steer clear of armed conflict with the group. The government, Abu Amr said, made a commitment “not to resort to force” in internal affairs.

There’s only one way to destroy the terrorist orgnaizations, and that is by attacking them head-on to dismantle them. As long as Abbas tiptoes around Hamas, he is only announcing that he has no real power. And the doomed-from-the-start “road map” will accomplish absolutely nothing except force Israel into further unmatched concessions.

“We will never be ready to lay down arms until the liberation of the last centimeter of the land of Palestine,” Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi said. Islamic Jihad, another group sworn to Israel’s destruction, followed suit.

Sharon can uproot every single settlement in the West Bank, and there will still not be peace. The Palestinians can get a state tomorrow, and there will still not be peace. Because the objective of the terrorists isn’t peace with Israel, it’s no more Israel.

Sharon knows this. He got elected – twice – based on his understanding of this. And yet he’s still making disastrous concessions that will only come back to haunt him. All because Bush wants to get re-elected.

Peace has to be wanted by the people. It can’t be rammed down their throats. In the meantime, concessions in a time of war are signs of weakness, and I fear Israel will pay dearly.

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated Tuesday after a five-day Israeli invasion damaged farms and buildings, but in a rare twist, their wrath was directed at Palestinian militants for inviting the attack by firing rockets from their property.

Two hours after Israeli troops left, about 600 angry residents of the town of 35,000 took to the streets in a spontaneous protest, complaining that the militants had caused Israel to destroy 15 houses and uproot thousands of olive, citrus and date palm trees. It was a rare outburst; most Palestinian demonstrations are aimed at Israel.

The protesters blocked a main road with trash cans, rocks and burning tires in a show of outrage against the militants. Most of the rockets are launched at towns inside Israel by members of the militant Islamic movement, Hamas.

“They (the militants) claim they are heroes,” said Mohammed Zaaneen, 30, a farmer, as he carried rocks into the street. “They brought us only destruction and made us homeless. They used our farms, our houses and our children … to hide.”

After decades of blaming Israel for the situation that extremists in their own population and government created, a small group of Palestinians is finally facing up to the fact that peace cannot exist alongside terrorism.

Why isn’t the media jumping all over this? Why isn’t a bigger deal being made out of this enormous turning point?

Sure, it’s small. It’s one demonstration against Hamas amongst hundreds against Israel. But the seeds of change need to start small before they grow into something larger. Yesterday, 600 people demonstrated. If enough people notice and it starts a tide, maybe tomorrow, there will be 6,000, and next week 60,000.

For all of Israel’s security measures, terrorism will only be erradicated when the Palestinian people decisively state that they don’t want it. And a few of them are apparently waking up to this fact. So why isn’t this bigger news?

Iraq hailed a suicide bomber who killed four American soldiers on Saturday and promised more such “blessed” attacks as the United States kept up withering air strikes on Baghdad.

[ . . . ]

“This is the blessed beginning on the road of sacrifice and martyrdom to inflict on them what they did not expect,” the television announcer said.

It appears at least someone has been heeding the call from Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas to export suicide bombings to other countries.

Holy indeed. All this means is that suicide bombing is gaining popularity outside Israel, due to its perceived effectiveness as a tactic. And that’s disturbing news for the rest of the world, because how to stop terrorism once it becomes widespread? Granted, there’s a difference between attacking military troups and attacking innocent civilians, but let us be very clear here: suicide bombings are used as tactics of terrorism, not military offense.

Ibrahim al-Maqadma, 51, was a founder of Hamas and the most senior Palestinian militant to be killed by Israel in a 29-month-old Palestinian uprising. Tens of thousands marched in his funeral in Gaza City, demanding vengeance.

[ . . . ]

Maqadma was known to be the top commander of Hamas’s military apparatus, which has waged a suicide bombing campaign against Israel since the signing of interim peace accords with the Jewish state in 1993.

[ . . . ]

Hamas’s military wing ordered its cells to take revenge, including killing Israeli political leaders. The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned Maqadma’s “assassination” and said it would hold Israel responsible for its consequences.

Yeah, they’ll vow “revenge”, which they’ll then try to extract on more innocent civilians. And the world will, as usual, hold the assassination of a murderous terrorist morally equivalent to the murder of high school kids.

Interestingly enough, the army says that he wasn’t even the original target – the army was after his son, Ayman, who seems to have links to Hamas’s chief bomb maker. The army captured three of his other sons in the raid.

The part I find the most telling is that today’s Gazette contained a large photo of Taha – probably one of the worst terrorists and murderers of Israeli civilians anywhere – being tended to on a stretcher and taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment.

Between “Reality TV” and prime-time soap operas, I thought I’d seen it all. But this hour of TV just set a new low. In the show – which is about the CIA – the Americans travel to Israel to attempt to broker a deal between the Israeli Mossad and the Palestinian Authority. (Yeah right!)

Even more ludicrously, an assassination attempt on the CIA staff is traced back to “extremist Israeli settlers” – including an IDF captain and a high-ranking Israeli security officer – who, according to the script, are so against peace efforts that they liaised with Hamas in order to make and detonate bombs. The entire scenario is so ridiculous, I had a hard time keeping a straight face. Never mind that right-wing Israelis, although portrayed by the media as fanatics, have never been involved terrorism, as the show suggests. And they would never in a million years dream of working with a Palestinian terror group like Hamas.

I guess the scriptwriters were afraid of seeming as though they were taking sides. But attempting to paint both sides with the terrorism brush is incorrect and unfair.

The scenes where one of the characters, ostensibly a high-ranking member of the Israeli Mossad, was speaking the most awful Hebrew I’ve ever heard, were rather amusing. (Although his boss seemed to be fairly fluent). The thing that made me literally laugh out loud, though, was when the CIA – in attempt to stop a cell phone from being used as a bomb detonator – decided to block all cell phone signals in Jerusalem. Anyone who knows how reliant Israelis are on their cell phones would understand.

Only on TV.

Mahmoud Zahar, a leader of the Hamas political wing, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that his group is “absolutely” prepared to lead the Palestinian people now. He said Hamas has the infrastructure to take over leadership “politically, financially (and) socially.”

Lest we panic, remember that all this would mean, even if it did happen, is that one terrorist would be exchanged for another. At least Hamas openly admits its aims and activities, unlike Arafat who tries to earn world sympathy by pretending to condemn terrorism while all the while funding and encouraging it.

If the Palestinian people want to be led by Hamas, they’ll be led nowhere but to more misery, dispair, and death.

Question: “Do you support resistance within the 1948 areas as well [as in the occupied territories]?”

Al-Qaddoumi: “It is the Palestinian people’s right to resist in all territories of the Palestinian land as long as Israel does not completely cease [its actions], and as long as it has no mercy on children, the elderly, trees, roads, institutions, and security personnel who have entered [the territories]… The resistance is legitimate; we are struggling for our national rights. It is Israel that bears the responsibility.”

“… Even if there is a single shot in a month, it is good for us, because we want the emotional and social pressure in Israel to continue, so that a message will be sent to the international community that there is an alternative to third-party intervention so that we can begin to arrive at a just arrangement.”

Question: “What is your opinion on martyrdom operations?”

Al-Qaddoumi: “We are fighting as a popular movement. We cannot stop every operation. We are not an army and we cannot prevent the martyrdom operations…”

Question: “Must a solution [to the Palestinian problem] come from America?”

Al-Qaddoumi: “No, not only [from America]. This problem was created by the United Nations when it decided on the partition resolution. The superpowers and the entire world are also party [to this].”

It goes on like this for a while. But the most telling quote is this one:

Question: “Then in effect your ideology is no different than that of Hamas.”

Al-Qaddoumi: “We were never different from Hamas. On the contrary; [Hamas] is a national movement and is part of the national movement. Strategically, we are no different from it.”

Now, this is old news for most people who have known for decades that there is no difference between Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, Fatah, or whatever incarnation terror takes. But Arafat likes to tell the world that this is not so. He likes to claim that his Fatah movement is against terror, even when attack after attack belies this.

Al-Qaddoumi made his position very clear: terror until Israel is obliterated. 1948 lines, 1967 lines, they make no difference to him. He just wants no more Israel – as is evidenced by his reference to the U.N. having “created” the problem when they voted on Partition in 1947. In other words, if those pesky Jews would just disappear into the sea, there wouldn’t be a problem, right?

Hamas says Arafat is a liar.

The Palestinian Authority has not tried to stop the militant group Hamas from carrying out attacks – including suicide bombings – on Israelis, the group’s spiritual leader said on Friday in an interview with Israeli TV.

The wheelchair-bound Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, said the Palestinian Authority did not actually help the group carry out suicide bombings, but gave tacit approval by doing nothing to stop the attacks.

When asked by an Israeli TV journalist what assistance the Palestinian Authority gave Hamas, Yassin, wrapped in a brown blanket, said: “They turn a blind eye or turn their back.”

The full truth would include a discussion of the documentation discovered by the IDF where Arafat signed cheques directly over to fund terrorist groups. But then, that would be expecting honesty out of a terrorist leader.

Everyone knows the Palestinian Authority funds, supports, and encourages terrorism. There’s nothing new here. But how long can Arafat ignore all the evidence against him and keep on crying innocent?

The Palestinian Authority has decided to commemorate the memory of Abdel Baset Odeh, the Hamas terrorist who carried out the Pessah night suicide bombing in Netanya’s Park Hotel last year, by naming a soccer tournament after him.

Thirty people were killed and dozens wounded in the attack, which triggered Operation Defensive Shield.

The PA’s ministries of sports and education have been naming tournaments after Palestinian “martyrs” for several years. But the decision to honor Odeh surprised many Palestinians because of his affiliation with Hamas.

Next time the Palestinian Authority claims not to condone Hamas, or says that children are not being taught to hate, remember this.

September 11th was proof. So was Bali, Kenya, Yemen, and more examples too numerous to list. Now Hamas is urging Iraq to use suicide bombers against American and British troops.

The militant group Hamas, which has carried out scores of suicide bombings in Israel, urged Iraq on Friday to copy its tactics and send thousands of attackers with explosives strapped to their bodies into a battle against American and British troops in Iraq.

“We call on the Arabs and Muslims to burn the land under the feet of the American invaders, especially our brothers in Saudi Arabia because this war is not against Iraq, it’s against the Islamic nation,” Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi told a rally in this impoverished shanty encampment.

I hate it when my predictions appear to come true, even when they’re obvious ones to call.

In a statement issued by Greece, the bloc’s president until the end of June, the EU called on Israel to lift the travel ban because the decision “perpetuates hatred and extremism.”

“The Presidency of the EU calls upon the Israeli government to reconsider this decision and to immediately lift the ban,” the statement said.

Perpetuates hatred and extremism? Israel’s mere existence “perpetuates” this hatred, according to groups like Hamas and the Islamic Jihad who routinely carry out these terrorist attacks. The Palestinians kill 23 innocent people, and Israel issues travel restrictions, and it’s Israel who’s perpetuating the violence? That’s so absurd it could almost be a joke, if it weren’t the regular position of the hypocritical European Union.

As prime minister, Mr. Mitzna would withdraw immediately from the Gaza Strip without conditions and resume peace talks with the Palestinians, the program says. If there is no agreement after a year, Israel will withdraw from considerable parts of the West Bank and draw its own “security border.”

Peace without a peace partner just means more war, but from a smaller strip of land. We can debate Israeli politics or the wisdom of Likud’s policies all day if we want, but that doesn’t change the fact that those 63% of Palestinians who support suicide bombings aren’t likely to be swayed by Mitzna’s sweet-talking. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have already vowed to “continue the struggle”, indicating that it makes no difference to them who leads Israel; their goal is to wipe Israel off the map. A unilateral withdrawal from the territories will only serve to trigger even more terrorist attacks, since they’ll have achieved something. And as long as a strategy works, it will continue.

The poll also showed that, while there is widespread mistrust of Palestinian leaders, Yasser Arafat was the most-trusted leader, with 25% support. More importantly, the second- and third-place leaders were Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of Hamas, and Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Fatah in jail in Israel for terrorist attacks.

So much for claims that suicide bombers are extremists on the fringe with no mainstream support.

“We will follow the money of terror,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference. “And we will pursue the financiers of terror as aggressively as we pursue the thugs who do their dirty work.”

This is kind of like charging Al Capone with tax evasion instead of murder . . . but I suppose any charge is better than none.

“This loss of civilian lives, of people working for a humanitarian UN agency, is completely unacceptable, said Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, in Geneva. “I must condemn what appears to be the indiscriminate use of heavy firepower in a densely populated civilian area.”

[. . .]

Feingold, the army spokeswoman, accused Palestinian militants of hiding behind civilians in the camps. “It’s a shame because the civilian population who’s not involved in terrorism … is the one to pay the price.”

But the worst comment has to come from the Danish Foreign Minister, who uses the logic that’s so twisted and yet so prevalent in the EU these days:

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, representing the European Union, warned Israel that using “excessive might” could backfire.

“It’s deeply tragic that completely innocent people again have been killed,” Moeller told reporters in Copenhagen. “It creates a new fundament for more terrorism, it creates anger.”

Yet another example of the backwards thinking of most of Europe. It’s the same logic by which people in Montreal claimed that Hillel should never have invited Benjamin Netanyahu to Concordia, because “it might provoke anger and violence”.

The blame in that case lies with the violent rioters. They can’t say “well, you made us mad, so we’re not responsible for our actions”. Imagine if a serial killer said that about his victims? Imagine if an abusive husband said that about his wife?

It’s the same thing here. Moeller is excusing Palestinian terror and its killing of innocent people ON PURPOSE as an angry reaction to Israel’s ACCIDENTAL killing of innocent people – especially ones being used as human shields by cowardly terrorists. We know that Hamas is angry and violent, Moeller is saying, so let’s condemn Israel for making them mad and maybe causing them to launch more attacks. After all, it must be Israel’s fault.

I could weep.

Reuters reports that “members of the military arm of Hamas, the Islamic militant group, have taken part in suicide attacks that have killed dozens of people in Israel.” Excuse me, dozens??? Try hundreds.

And Canada still refuses to ban Hezbollah, though on what grounds I can’t possibly imagine. How many innocent people does a group have to kill before Canada will consider it a “terrorist” group? 5? 10? 100? Do they get to accumulate points, like on Aeroplan, and cash them in for prizes? 100 points per civilian killed?

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the militant (read: terrorist) wing of Fatah, is strongly in favour of suicide bombings, but only within what they refer to as the “occupied territories”. Hamas sees all of Israel as fair game, and doesn’t draw territorial distinctions.

Well, neither do I. Since when is it okay to kill innocent people in some zip codes and not others?

Lynn at In Context phrases it better than I ever could:

There’s this thing, this distinction, going around about terrorist attacks that happen “in Israel” versus attacks that happen “in the territories.” Or between attacks on “civilians” versus attacks on soldiers or “settlers.”

It seems that if you live in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights or the Gaza Strip, you’re fair game anywhere, according to this philosophy. And if you happen to be in any of those places at any given time, regardless of where you live, you’re also fair game. It’s this philosophy that led some to suggest that the attack on Kibbutz Metzer last week was somehow more repulsive than a similar attack would have been in, say, Kiryat Arba.

There are no “good terrroists” and “bad terrorists”. There are only bad terrorists.

This stuff makes me sick.

“Our resistance will continue until we liberate our land and end this occupation. No matter who is inside the government of Israel, all of them are practicing brutal aggression against our people,” Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said.

Just more evidence that Hamas’s true aim isn’t peace, or the election of a dovish leader, or even statehood in the “occupied territories” of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. No, Hamas won’t stop until all the land it considers “occupied” (read: all of Israel) is destroyed and handed over to Muslim control.

Each Israel leader and Prime Minister is villainized, leading outsiders to believe that the root of the problem is Sharon, or Netanyahu, or Barak, or whoever . . . but the true root of the problem is Israel’s mere existence. And no appeasement will make the attacks stop. Not until the terrorists are stopped.