May 9, 2017 at 08:03 (BEX Alert, Blaming the victim, Deception, DesertPeace Exclusive, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, zionist Slander)
Yesterday, I made the following statement in THIS post …..
Zion’s mantra has always been “If the truth is hard to swallow, LIE!”
Here is proof of the pudding …
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Related report from +972 (Click on link)
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Here’s another truth showing who the REAL terrorists are n Syria …
Image by Carlos Latuff
July 12, 2015 at 10:02 (Associate Post, Cover Up, Double standards, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media Blackout, Racism)
First read the background in THIS post ….
The reason for Israel’s silence until now …
The reason is clear. The two missing men are not Ashkenazi Jews. One is reportedly an Ethiopian Jew and the other one is an Arab. Both are not considered bona fide Israelis.
And as we all know, Arabs (even those serving in the Israeli army) and Ethiopian Jews are placed at the very bottom of Israel’s social ladder.
Israel has finally officially acknowledged that two Israelis were being held in the Gaza Strip, presumably in Hamas’s custody.Israel had hoped that Hamas would disclose information on the matter, which would help Israel repatriate the two men in return for a non-costly price or at no price at all.But Hamas has acted smartly by remaining tight-lipped on the matter for the past 12 months.
Hamas should continue this wise policy as giving free information of any kind to Israel would be self-defeating and immensely harmful for the Palestinian cause, especially the cause of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners and resistance detainees languishing in Israeli jails and detention camps.
It is likely that Israel will ask third-parties to pressure Hamas to release specific information on the missing Israelis as a “humanitarian gesture.”
Israel could ask the Ramallah regime and/or the Sissi regime to exert pressure on Hamas to release the missing soldiers.
Hamas should firmly reject such deceptive tactics.
More to the point, Israel is not expected to pursue this matter with the same vigor and persistence it pursued the Shalit affair.
The reason is clear. The two missing men are not Ashkenazi Jews. One is reportedly an Ethiopian Jew and the other one is an Arab. Both are not considered bona fide Israelis.
And as we all know, Arabs (even those serving in the Israeli army) and Ethiopian Jews are placed at the very bottom of Israel’s social ladder.
But non-action by the Israeli government would embarrass the Zionist regime and expose its racist nature. In fact, we have already witnessed the Ethiopian Jewish community, which was subjected to a humiliating conversion process at the hands of the High Rabbinate in Israel, openly accuse the Israeli regime of racism vis-à-vis the black Ethiopians. (Talmudic authorities consider black Africans virtual animals).
Moreover, hundreds of Ethiopians recently took to the streets in protest against widespread racism against black Ethiopians by official Israeli institutions, prompting Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to repudiate racism.
It is imperative that Hamas exercise patience and resilience in dealing with this matter of the missing Israelis. Israel, in dealing with us, adopts Real Police in its most callous forms. It withholds medical care from Palestinian prisoners. It often flagrantly re-arrests prisoners released in the context of international agreements such as the Shalit deal.
It keeps Palestinian prisoners in prison despite the expiration of their jail terms. It keeps extending the imprisonment of “administrative detainees” for many months and years, without charge or trial.
Indeed, numerous Palestinian inmates in Israeli jails don’t actually know why they are in prison.
For these and many other reasons, Hamas must deal with Israel on the basis of reciprocity.
Finally, it should be made abundantly clear that any perceived intransigence on Hamas’s is not a goal in itself.
Hamas, indeed the entire Palestinian people, have many scores to settle with Israel. Israel is continuing to blockade Gaza, open fire on fishermen, prevent Palestinians from traveling through the Beit Hanoon border crossing, prevent the free flow of goods and services between Gaza and the West Bank, and bar Gazans from having their own seaport and airport.
Israel is also deliberately impeding the reconstruction of Gaza where 100,000 homes were destroyed and damaged during the Nazi-like Israeli blitz last year.
These are indisputable rights not excessive demands made by the Palestinians.
That is why, every asset available to the Palestinians ought to be utilized to expedite these legitimate Palestinian interests.
May 31, 2015 at 21:38 (Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Terrorism)
The real controllers of ISIS exposed
A group that is operating in Gaza and which says it is associated with ISIS has claimed that it killed a top Hamas commander.
A group that is operating in Gaza and which says it is associated with ISIS has claimed that it killed a top Hamas commander. According to the group, which calls itself the Army of the Islamic State, Saber Siam was killed when ISIS operatives placed a bomb on his car, blowing it up with him inside.
Siam was killed, the group said, because he was “a partner in a declared war against religion and against Muslims, working for the heretical government in Gaza.” ISIS warned Hamas to immediately “end its war against religion in Gaza” or “face the consequences.”
The group also sent out warnings on social media to Gaza residents to stay away from Hamas offices and buildings, lest they find themselves swept up in attacks against the group.
It was not possible to verify whether the group was associated with ISIS, or whether it even actually exists. However, Israeli sources confirmed that Hamas has been conducting actions against a group of Salafist rebels it accuses of trying to take over Gaza.
March 11, 2015 at 10:58 (Hamas, Israel, Israeli Elections, Terrorism, zionism)
As if yesterday’s post wasn’t convincing enough, zion continues its attacks against Palestinians for speaking the truth in comparing zionism to ISIS …
The head of communications for the Joint Arab List party, Raja Za’atra, caused an outrage on Tuesday when he compared the Islamic State to the Zionist movement and claimed Hamas was not a terror organization.
The true face of zion
‘Where do you think Islamic State learned these things? Look for what the Zionist movement did in 1948. The rape, the looting, the murder… the exact same things,’ Joint Arab List spokesman says at political panel.
The head of communications for the Joint Arab List party, Raja Za’atra, caused an outrage on Tuesday when he compared the Islamic State to the Zionist movement and claimed Hamas was not a terror organization.
During a political panel organized by the Bar Ilan University’s student union, Za’atra said: “Where do you think Daesh (Islamic State) learned these things?”
After someone in the audience responded with “From you!”, Za’atra continued: “Look for what the Zionist movement did in 1948. The rape, the looting, the murder… the exact same things.”
Za’atra at the panel (Photo: Bar Ilan students union)
Ignoring the loud booing from the audience, Za’atra went on: “Daesh is the strategic partner to the State of Israel’s anti-peace policy.”
Za’atra, however, does not regret his comments. “I believe in every word,” he said after the panel.
The Zionist Union issued a harsh denunciation of Za’atra’s comments. “We expect the heads of the (Arab) list to immediately renounce these outrageous comment comparing Israel and the Islamic State, as well as his remark that Hamas is not a terror organization,” the party said in a statement. “The comparison between beheaders who have no humanity, to a nation that was reborn and made many contributions to the world, is intolerable and points to ignorance and hatred.”
The party went on to say that “we believe Israeli Arab citizens expect the Joint List to promote their rights and their needs and to solve their economic and social problems, rather than fan the flames of incitement and lies that will achieve the opposite. It’s regretful that the spokespeople of the Joint List are damaging the desire of the Arab and Jewish publics to live in coexistence. The Zionist Union will fight any attempt – both from within and from without – to hurt the morality of the establishment of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic country with full equality to all. So will we also fight Hamas – an Islamist terror organization seeking Israel’s annihilation, and we will ensure it remains on the list of terror organizations.”
Coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), who was present at the panel, also issured a condemnation. “Those who allow Hanin Zoabi run for Knesset should not be surprised when her friends praise Hamas or compared the horror of the Islamic State to the Zionist movement. I’m just wondering why (Amos) Yadlin and the Labor party chose to boycott (Baruch) Marzel but didn’t mind sitting next to a Hamas supporter.”
The Joint Arab List said that “the things were said in response to provocation from one of the panel’s participants, who claimed Daesh (Islamic State) learned their acts from the representative of the Joint List. The Joint List has issued a decisive statement against Daesh’s crimes, and it condemns them regardless of any other historic event.”
Sweidan Rifat, the academic adviser for Arab students at Bar Ilan University, said that “the atmosphere during the debate was positive, and in this positive atmosphere there was also a mutual democratic dialogue between the representative of the Arab party and Jewish students.”
Report FROM
December 17, 2014 at 10:31 (European Union, Hamas)
How Psycho Gal and her cohorts might see this FROM
I’m sure her claws are at work typing a response to this wonderful news …. I will post it as soon as it appears.
Be sure to see yesterday’s post about her
Hamas removed from EU
terrorist list on technicality
European Union General Court annuls decision to keep Hamas on list of terrorist organizations, but temporarily maintained measures against it for three months or until an appeal was closed.
Reuters, AP FROM
The European Union’s second highest court annulled on Wednesday the bloc’s decision to keep Hamas on a list of terrorist organizations, but temporarily maintained the measures for a period of three months or until an appeal was closed.
The General Court of the European Union said the contested measures were not based on an examination of Hamas’s “acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities” but on imputations derived from the media and the Internet.
The court insisted that its ruling was based on procedure and did not “imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group.” It therefore ruled that the asset freezes should stay in place for three months, pending further EU actions, in order to ensure that any possible future freezing of funds would be effective.
The court’s decision followed an appeal filed by Hamas against its inclusion in the European Union’s blacklist.
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq welcomed the decision. “This is the correction of an error and an injustice that was caused to Hamas,
which is a national liberation movement.”
The lawyer for Hamas, Liliane Glock, told AFP she was “satisfied with the decision.”
Although Hamas is expected to present the decision as a victory, Israel and the EU say that the change will not have an effect on the group’s position as a terror group in Europe as the court will be given a few months to rebuild the file against Hamas with evidence that will enable the Gaza-based group to remain on the list of terror organizations.
Hamas’s military wing was added to the European Union’s first-ever terrorism blacklist drawn up in December 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Hamas’s political wing was added to the EU’s list of terror organizations in 2003 after a diplomatic effort led by Israel and the US.
A few months ago, the Court of Justice made a decision to remove the Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan terror group, from the EU’s terrorist list because of similar reasoning. The court concluded that the file did not have sufficient legal evidence proving the group was a terror organization. However, as is expected in the case of Hamas, the court gave the EU a window of time to re-submit its request and build a stronger legal file against the Sri Lankan group.
Hamas, aware of the case of the Sri Lankan group, saw an opportunity to remove itself from the EU’s terror list which prevents all European nations from contacting the organization. Hamas appealed to the court on the same grounds as the Sri Lankan group.
According to reports from within Israel, some European countries, fearing the possiblity that Hamas would be taken of the EU’s terror list, have already begun collecting intelligence information that could be useful in building a strong case against the group.
Israel, on its part, has a department dedicated to the issue within the Foreign Ministry and has already been collecting incriminating evidence against terror organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
The weakness of the current case against Hamas, and against the Tamil Tigers, was said to be due to the nature of the European process for declaring entities as terror organizations. In the European system, the list must be reviewed every six months which resulted in the Europeans using unclassified material and media publications to rebuild the files, which were then automatically approved.
The Europeans feared presenting classified intelligence material to the court, with the apprehension that the information would ultimately end up in the hands of Hamas and aid the terror group. Therefore, the Europeans relied on low-level material to build the file against Hamas. The EU now realizes that it will have to introduce more solid evidence.
Another reason for the court to have accepted the appeal by Hamas to take themselves off the EU’s terror list could be the court’s attempt to strengthen its stance within the EU – not fearing confrontation with European countries.
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The first zioresponse (Cick here to read)
October 18, 2014 at 17:05 (Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, Deception, False Flags, Gaza, Hamas, zionist Slander)
And we all know that CNN never lies ….
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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is notorious for making theatrical attempts to find “distractions” or “red herrings” in order to divert attention from his unceasing efforts to decapitate all chances for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank.
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What makes Israel so hell-bent on lumping Hamas with ISIS?
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By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is notorious for making theatrical attempts to find “distractions” or “red herrings” in order to divert attention from his unceasing efforts to decapitate all chances for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank.
Netanyahu has effectively tripled the building of Jewish colonies in the West Bank. He has also allowed millenarian Jewish settlers to carry out almost daily provocations against Islam’s third holiest sanctuary, namely Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque. This could trigger a worldwide conflagration that would put an end to peace efforts in the region. Netanyahu hopes to desensitize any semblance of Western, especially American, opposition to Israel’s lebensraum policy in the West Bank and the Jewish states’ unrelenting efforts to kill any remaining prospects for the establishment of a Palestinian state. However, Netanyahu’s diversionary tactics seem to have been blunted by two main recent developments: The Swedish decision to recognize a future Palestinian state and the British Parliament vote to do the same. None the less, the news from London and Stockholm is not expected to make Netanyahu change his mind or rethink his policy. After all Netanyahu is more of a dishonest demagogue and pathological liar than a straight, honest statesman who would value truth and rectitude. Netanyahu would insist and swear that Israel wants peace and aspires for peace. He would go as far as making all sorts of solemn testimonies and eloquent statements underlining Israel’s desire for peace. But the truth of the matter is that all of his declarations are sanctimonious and mendacious. In the final analysis, however, a country that truly desires peace doesn’t build hundreds of settlements on its neighbor’s territories. A country that truly desires peace doesn’t transfer hundreds of thousands to live on a land that doesn’t belong to them. Netanyahu and the other shipyard dogs of Israeli hasbara would never cease invoking old lies that the settlers are simply returning to their fathers’ land. But would anyone under the sun give up his home and land if a stranger showed up, insisting that the property belonged to him and claiming that his ancestors owned or occupied the area five thousand years ago??? Needless to say, this analogy more or less epitomizes the entire Palestinian question. Red herring policy Israel’s “red-herring policy” is not new. During Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser’s rule, Israel argued that if only Nasser would stop rotating in the Soviet orbit, peace would be around the corner. In the 1970s and the 1980s, Israel argued that if only the PLO and its leader Yasser Arafat would recognize Israel and revoke the PLO charter that called for Israel’s destruction, peace would be within reach very soon. In fact, Netanyahu himself repeatedly blamed the lack of progress in talks with the PA on Palestinian disunity, namely the rift between Fatah and Hamas. In numerous TV interviews, he argued that the “the Palestinians are not speaking in one voice. Let them get united first.” However, when Hamas and the PA finally agreed to reconcile, Netanyahu got quite hysterical and convulsive. He warned that the PA would have to either make peace with Hamas or Israel, claiming that Palestinian national unity was the ultimate antithesis to peace. Now, Netanyahu is playing the same Hasbara game once again. And the reasons for this game of make believe remain unchanged, namely morbid Israeli efforts to distract attention from Israeli recalcitrance, intransigence, and rejectionism. The ISIS Mantra His ultimate goal is to make the international community demonize Hamas and therefore distract the world’s attention from Israel’s nefarious occupation. But Hamas, a national Islamic liberation movement that appeared on the Middle East’s political horizon after winning transparent democratic elections in 2006, is simply something different. Hamas’s strategic goal is liberty, not domination, or hegemony or anything of this nature. Hamas’s ultimate goal is to enable the thoroughly tormented Palestinians to live a normal life. like the rest of the peoples of the world, free from Nazi-like Jewish Zionist roadblocks and checkpoints, enable them to travel freely, pray freely in their mosques, especially in Jerusalem’s Aqsa Mosque, to harvest their olive fields freely and be able to move and commute freely from one locality to the other. Is this too much? Hamas wants the Palestinian people to live in dignity and be able to do the sort of things that other peoples around the world take for granted. Hamas would like to see the Palestinian people free from the specter of fear and terror, including arbitrary arrest at the hands of Gestapo-like Israeli soldiers who routinely raid Palestinian homes in the quite hours before dawn. In brief, Hamas is not evil. That is why at least 50% of the Palestinian people back Hamas. In fact, Israel doesn’t hate Hamas because Israel believes Hamas is evil. As far as evilness is concerned, even Satan himself learns from Israel. Israel hates Hamas for an entirely different reason, namely the conviction that Hamas is the main hurdle that prevents or impedes the realization of Israel’s ultimate goal: the liquidation of the Palestinian cause. It is not true that Hamas stands in the road to peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel has been negotiating with the PA (not in good faith) for over 20 years, but to no avail. The failure of peace talks between Israel and the PA cannot be attributed to Hamas. Those claiming it was are simply not telling the truth. The real cause is Israel’s adamant insistence on retaining the spoils of the 1967 war. |
October 1, 2014 at 08:30 (Corrupt Politics, Deception, Hamas, Israel, Terrorism, zionist Slander)
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The rise of ISIS and its rivalry with other groups does pose a challenge but in a less direct way than Netanyahu suggests. In a visit earlier this month to Jordan, I found Da’ash (as ISIS is known according to its Arabic acronym) on everybody’s lips regardless of an individual’s political affiliation. Those of an Islamist bent regarded the upstart as a challenge and a rival, not an ally.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, left; anti-ISIS fighter, right / Getty Images
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Speaking at the General Assembly this week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu repeated a refrain he has sounded for three decades (since his days as Israeli ambassador to the U.N.) — that all forms of terrorism are different sides of the same coin and have civilization as their target:
So when it comes to their ultimate goals, Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas. And what they share in common all militant Islamists share in common. Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabab in Somalia, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Al-Nusra in Syria, the Mahdi army in Iraq, and the Al-Qaida branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines, India and elsewhere.
The startling assortment of groups; the lumping of a Shiite movement (Hezbollah) with those that can treat Shi‘a as apostates; the linking of Israel’s enemies with those now targeted by the United States — all this is politically convenient. But is it accurate?
Well, yes of course — in the same sense that France’s François Hollande, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Israel’s HaPoel Tel Aviv all spring from the same socialist movement. It’s not clear how such claims aid understanding, analysis or policy.
The rise of ISIS and its rivalry with other groups does pose a challenge but in a less direct way than Netanyahu suggests. In a visit earlier this month to Jordan, I found Da’ash (as ISIS is known according to its Arabic acronym) on everybody’s lips regardless of an individual’s political affiliation. Those of an Islamist bent regarded the upstart as a challenge and a rival, not an ally.
There seems to be some level of sympathy for Da’ash not because of the barbarity of its behavior but for its ability to threaten an international order that is seen as unjust. I spoke with Jordanian officials who seemed more concerned with the interest Da’ash generated among disaffected Jordanians than its actual core supporters.
But that places the leadership of some of the groups Netanyahu identifies in a very awkward position. On the one hand, they reject Da’ash’s ideas, methods, textual interpretations and agenda. On the other hand, they note that Da’ash defiance strikes some chords among the youth and that its actions grab agenda-setting attention. Their response is therefore somewhat guarded — to criticize Da’ash’s deeds and doctrines but in tones that fall far short of the horrified revulsion expressed elsewhere. The result sounds cagey and calculated — because it is.
Recent U.S. moves to engage Da’ash militarily may help these groups square the circle — not because the groups are all the same but because of the way in which they are rivals jostling for position. By turning their critical words against the U.S. — and thus shifting focus to the deeply unpopular U.S. military and security presence in most of the region — such rivals can maintain their distance from Da’ash without losing those whose inclinations might otherwise gravitate to more radical or disgruntled forces.
In two conversations with Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leaders — one whose extremely hawkish views landed him in prison once and the other whose extreme dovish views have led to his estrangement from the movement — I was struck by the identical way they referred to Da’ash. They both brought it up (I was interviewing them for utterly unrelated work I’m doing on Islamic legal debates) and went on to describe it as a violent movement whose ways they found wrong but still saw as a product of the violence and occupation inflicted on the region. Such a stance was sincere — but also politically adept.
All actors are caught making some difficult political choices. Da’ash’s opponents of various stripes are trying to figure out how much they share and how much they can combat their foe militarily without aggravating the situation politically.
Israel likewise faces some difficult political choices with Hamas. Netanyahu’s formulation of the problem to an international audience may be politically useful in garnering sympathy for Israel in some circles. But when Israel turns its attention from speechifying to hard realities, it will likely conclude that its Hamas problem does not get easier by making it so much larger.
Nathan Brown is a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.
The views expressed in this article is the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.
August 28, 2014 at 08:32 (Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Peace Process, War, War Crimes)
The actual victory is that the madness seems finally over!
Be sure to read THIS post from yesterday.
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The speech followed the release of polls earlier in the day showing widespread belief in Gaza that the Palestinian military resistance had increased its deterrence capacity and overwhelming support for the firing of rockets into Israel.
In his speech, Haniyeh hailed the people of Gaza and the resistance forces for their steadfastness in the fight against Israel, which claimed the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians — the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians — and left 64 Israeli soldiers dead, in addition to six civilians in Israel.
“Those whose blood was spilled and the martyrs were the fuel of this victory,” Haniyeh said during the rally, emphasizing to the crowd of thousands that the resistance had been preparing for the battle for years.
“It is not possible to express this victory with words and speeches,” he added.
“The victory is beyond the limits of time and place. This battle is a war that lacks a precedent in the history of conflict with the enemy,” he said, stressing that the group was preparing for the “ultimate battle” for the liberation of Palestine.
“The war began with fire on Haifa and ended with fire on Haifa,” he told the crowd, highlighting the fact that Hamas had managed to fight throughout the seven-week Israeli assault and emerged with its military strength intact.
“The Palestinians who couldn’t celebrate Eid al-Fitr because of the fighting and because they were on the battlefield, today celebrate the celebration of victory.”
Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida also gave a speech in Gaza on Wednesday night, arguing that the conflict had shown the need to “completely revise the methods of national struggle.”
“Negotiations are not enough with these occupiers,” he told a large crowd gathered in Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiyya neighborhood, which was devastated during the Israeli ground assault.
“Resistance unified the people, and that is our big achievement,” he added. “We will not return to divisions or disputes.”
“The resistance forced the ceasefire out of its enemy and did not allow them any strategic or tactical achievements,” he continued. “It crushed its pride that has been fabricated for decades through media outlets, and laboratories of psychological warfare.”
He also stressed that his was not a “victory speech,” adding: “Our appointment with the victory speech will be in the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem). This is merely an inevitable step along the way.”
Hamas has hailed the conflict with Israel as a victory for the group and the Palestinian resistance more broadly, stressing that Gaza is coming out of the battle having gained concessions from Israel while Israel has not managed to dent its military power.
Israeli authorities said at the beginning of the assault that their goals were to end rocket fire and later added the destruction of tunnels underneath Gaza that it said would be used to launch attacks into Israel.
Although the Israeli government says it destroyed all the tunnels, Palestinian militant groups dispute this. Rocket fire, meanwhile, continued into Israel until the final moments of the conflict.
The long-term ceasefire agreement, meanwhile, promises a gradual easing of the Israeli-imposed economic blockade of Gaza, which Israel has maintained with Egyptian support since 2007.
Although the Palestinian delegation team stressed the need for the re-opening of the airport and seaport in Gaza, these demands will be discussed further in a new round of talks next month.
Israel’s primary demand — for a disarmament of Gaza militant groups — has not been realized.
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Strong belief in increased deterrence
The speeches come hours after an opinions poll released by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion showed a widespread belief in Gaza the deterrence capacity of the Palestinian resistance groups following the conflict.
More than 75 percent of Palestinians surveyed in the poll, which was conducted from August 14-19 among 1,000 adult respondents across Gaza, thought that as a result of the conflict Palestinian militant groups had an increased deterrence capability.
This belief was reinforced by a tremendous rise in support for the firing of rockets into Israel, which the poll showed was supported by an overwhelming 88.9 percent of respondents, a nearly 100 percent increase over a Jan. 2013 poll which showed only 49 percent support.
Israel’s military strategy toward Gaza has relied on the use of massive military force to cow the population at large and diminish support for Hamas, but the poll results suggest that the Palestinian population has instead rallied around the armed resistance groups.
Despite the heavy civilian casualties suffered in Gaza — the UN estimates that 70 percent of the more than 2,100 dead have been civilians — many Palestinians were surprised by the effectiveness of Hamas fighting capabilities during the seven-week long conflict.
The Israeli military suffered its highest casualty rate since it attempted to invade Lebanon in 2006, while Hamas launched cross-border raids targeting military sites in addition to firing rockets into distant cities like Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa on a regular basis.
The poll also showed mild support for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s performance during the operation, with 54 percent saying they approved while more than 38 percent expressing disapproval.
Although Abbas was criticized for failing to act in the early weeks of the bombardment, the PA’s involvement in indirect long-term negotiations with Israel in Cairo provides a possible explanation for the general approval.
The United Nations Relief and Work Agency, which offered refuge to around 485,000 Palestinians displaced by the fighting, also enjoyed widespread approval, with more than 71 percent saying the agency had done a “good” job.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, however, came out of the conflict with extremely low levels of approval, with nearly 65 percent rating his performance negative, 17 percent positive, and 13.5 percent “balanced.”
“Hamas was hit hard and got none of its demands,” Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem, his first comments since the ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday evening.
“Hamas wanted a port and airport in Gaza, the liberation of Palestinian prisoners, the mediation of Qatar and Turkey and the payment of salaries for its employees.
“But it got nothing.”
The seven-week conflict claimed the lives of at least 2,140 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them civilians according to the United Nations, and 64 soldiers and six civilians on the Israeli side.
“Hamas has not suffered such a defeat since its creation. We destroyed attack tunnels, killed nearly 1,000 enemy combatants, including senior officials in the movement, destroyed thousands of rockets and hundreds of command posts,” Netanyahu said.
Both sides’ guns fell silent on Tuesday, with Israel agreeing to ease restrictions on the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza, and allow fishing boats up to six nautical miles offshore.
The sides have yet to agree on other issues, such as the freeing of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for militants handing over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting.
Negotiations are also yet to take place on Hamas’ key demand for a Gaza seaport and airport.
“We have agreed to help reconstruct the territory for humanitarian reasons, but only under our control,” Netanyahu said.
“It’s still too early to know if the calm has returned in the long term,” he warned.
“We won’t tolerate any firing on Israel, and our response will be even stronger.”
August 18, 2014 at 14:42 (Corrupt Politics, Gaza, Hamas, Israel)
Where do the U.S. and Israel want Hamas: as part of a transparent political system, or in underground tunnels?
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Where do the U.S. and Israel want Hamas: as part of a transparent political system, or in underground tunnels?
By Sam Bahour
Palestinian “unity,” reconciling tensions between Hamas and Fatah, is being revered as the foundation that can extract Gaza from the misery wrought upon it byyet another brutal Israeli military onslaught. The devastation from what Israel called “Operation Protective Edge” is overwhelming: nearly 2,000 Palestinians dead, over 10,000 wounded and paralyzed, and a third of the 1.8 million people in Gaza homeless. Added to this human tragedy is the rabid destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. Palestinian political “unity” requires an operating political system, which is something that Israel dismantled long ago with official Palestinian acquiescence. Anyone seriously wanting to see Palestinians survive this latest Israeli attack should support the reemergence of a fully operating Palestinian political system, rather than just the replacement of a pair of failed political monopolies with a reconciled but leaderless political duopoly.
If this newly founded Palestinian “unity” was cemented in a strategic political agreement and emerged from a unified political system that was representative in nature, one may have hope. But it was not. It is a unity of Fatah and Hamas, two non-representative political entities, one more militant today than the other, but both equally squeezed into a political corner that not only challenges their strategies to end the nearly five decades of Israeli military occupation, but also casts doubt on their political legitimacy.
On June 3, 2014—more than a week before three Israeli teenagers from the Gush Etzion settlement in the West Bank were reported kidnapped and murdered—I made the following comments on the Middle East Eye website and on my Facebook wall regarding the unity agreement reached in Cairo on April 23, 2014:
Palestinians have finally created what has been coined as a “unity government” after nearly eight years of paralysing division between the two largest political parties, Fatah and Hamas. This step is extremely overdue, but should be welcomed nevertheless for what it is: a baby step in the right direction, finally accepting government for what it is, a branch of politics and not some technocratic institute.
The Palestinian political spectrum is much more colourful than the bipolar duopoly that this new government depicts. If Palestinian decision-makers are serious about reconstituting an operating Palestinian political system, then no time should be wasted in passing a political party law so new political groupings, mainly youth groups, can organise politically, and then subsequently be allowed to enter elections for all levels of Palestinian governance—starting with the PLO and ending with the Palestinian Legislative Council.
In the meantime, US and Israeli threats against the government because Hamas has joined it are strategically misplaced. One must ask, where does the US and Israel want Hamas to be: in a transparent political system, or in underground trenches? Regardless, the Palestinian government is not any other country’s business unless, that is, they allow Palestinians to choose the Israelis we accept to lead Israel.
On July 3, 2014, the Israeli Air Force conducted 15 air strikes in Gaza supposedly directed at Hamas targets in response to a rocket attack from Palestinian militants. The subsequent bombardment of Gaza during July cut short the unified government’s efforts to take serious steps forward to solidify the unity agreement.
In a fury to stop the mass killing and destruction that came with the latest aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attempted to leverage the still-fresh unity agreement. Abbas appointed a “unity delegation” to negotiate with Israel indirectly, given that Hamas refuses to negotiate directly, for a permanent ceasefire.
Negotiating a ceasefire agreement was not planned to be the first act of the unity government, but Israel successfully disrupted any planned unification of the Palestinian political system by imposing the latest humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Instead of beginning organizational tasks such as reunifying ministries, integrating Gaza’s security personnel into the national security institutions, merging two legal systems, and holding national elections, the “unity government” effort morphed into a “unity delegation” to deal with the ceasefire. There is a huge difference between a unity government based on a unified political system and a “unified delegation” focused solely on saving what remains of the Gaza Strip.
Given the horrific carnage in Gaza, few in the West will even recall that the Israeli government lashed out against any unification of the Palestinians, threatened to cut funding, and took punitive measures to further entrench their state of military control over the West Bank. A very plausible argument can be made that massive destruction of Gaza and rampaging in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were all orchestrated to ensure Palestinians remain divided and Hamas continue to be perceived as a legitimate threat to Israel, providing the perfect justification for not ending the Israeli occupation.
With the ceasefire being the centerpiece of “unity,” I posted these remarks in the Middle East Eye on August 8, 2014:
The sheer use of the word “ceasefire” is insulting. It depicts an artificial symmetry that the Palestinians have fell for, even though reality on the ground is totally contrary.
For a fragile, non-representative, Palestinian unity delegation to be engaged in “ceasefire” negotiations with their military occupier (it means little if done directly or through intermediaries) sets up Palestinians for an Oslo-like phase, where, no matter what is agreed, the Palestinian side will be signing away rights that have been stripped from them by Israel for decades.
These rights, first among them protection, should be secured by Third States under their obligations toward the Fourth Geneva Convention, without the need for “resistance” or “ceasefire” talks.
A “ceasefire” simply reinforces the false impression that there is some hint of symmetry between Palestine and Israel. There is not! Furthermore, to be conducting these “ceasefire” talks [in Cairo,] the capital of a country that participates in the siege of the Gaza Strip, should be an embarrassment to every member of the Palestinian negotiating team, first among them Hamas.
After all the dead are buried in Gaza and the mourning process comes to a close, politically we will be exactly where we were two months prior to this tragedy: living the illusion of unity in the absence of a legitimate political system. Meanwhile, the reality of military occupation keeps us physically and politically fragmented, led by unelected leaders, and sustained more than ever by foreign donors who have their own agendas. These are the ingredients for yet another round of violence.
Written FOR
August 15, 2014 at 08:21 (Chutzpah, DesertPeace Editorial, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, United Nations, War, War Crimes)
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Israel …..
A State that has NOT stood on its own financially since its inception
A State that has ignored EVERY UN Sanction against it since its inception
A State that has sent spies to the very nations that have kept her alive
A State has displace millions of people from their homes and properties
A State that, in this decade alone, has murdered thousands of innocent civilians including women and children
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YET, this is how the zionists portray the latest events …
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Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lashed out Wednesday at the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of granting “legitimacy to terror organizations” by investigating Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
“UNHRC gives legitimacy to murderous terror organizations like Hamas and Daash (Islamic State),” he said, accusing the rights body ofoverlooking “massacres” committed elsewhere in the Middle East in favor of investigating Israel for defending itself against rocket attacks from Gaza.
The UNHRC has selected Prof. William Schabas to head an investigation into Operation Protective Edge. Speaking in a 2013 panel, Schabas clearly revealed his great eagerness to bring about the prosecution of Israel over its actions in Gaza, even if that involved“twisting things and maneuvering” in the international legal arena.
Asked about the possibility of prosecuting Israel for “ecocide” as well, Schabas expressed optimism on gradually enlarging the scope of legal accusations against Israel. “Years ago there were no courts at all,” he noted. “When [the term] ‘genocide’ was invented there was no court at all. There was no court for crimes against humanity, but we have them now. And with a bit of luck and by twisting things and maneuvering we can get them before the courts.”
Schabas did not deny Wednesday, in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2, that the international community has a double standard regarding Israel’s conduct of war.
Channel 2‘s anchor, Danny Kushmaro, asked Schabas if there is not a double standard involved when that thousands of innocent civilians were killed in Chechnya by the Russians, and by NATO forces in Libya, yet there was “not one international investigation,” whereas Israel acted in self defense in Gaza and two investigations have been launched in the course of six years.
“There are a lot of double standards in the international level,” answered Schabas. “This is explained by the relative strength of the powers,” he added, and noted that some claim there is a double standard in Israel’s favor in the UN Security Council, where anti-Israel resolutions are vetoed.
August 10, 2014 at 08:40 (Collaboration, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, War, War Crimes)
Egypt seems to be trying to act as broker in negotiating a ceasefire between the warring factions of Israel and Palestine, BUT …. an important element is missing from those talks. The Palestinians are NOT being represented at all so what you have in actuality are talks between Israel and itself ….. talks that will obviously lead nowhere.
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And thanks to Uncle Sam that budget is unlimited
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From HaAretz, a report on the Palestinian view of the ‘talks’ …
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There is some confusion in the Palestinian delegation about who is actually conducting their negotiations. According to Egyptian sources, every idea that is raised goes to Hamas’ political leader Khaled Meshal for comments, agreement or rejection. His delegates in Cairo have no authority to decide – in contrast to Islamic Jihad representatives, who were instructed by the organization’s leader to accept Egyptian proposals.
Read the full Report HERE
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Below is a post from last night outlining the source of that confusion …
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THIS IS WHAT THEY PROPOSE AS THE LEADER OF GAZA
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WHY NOT GO ALL THE WAY AND PROPOSE THIS INSTEAD?
We can call it a Troika 😉
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I really had to laugh when I read the following report from Ynet ….
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Egyptian ceasefire plan introduces PA control in GazaAnalysis: Israel seems prepared to accept passage of goods, people between Gaza, West Bank; diplomats considering release of prisoners withheld during peace talks. * Egypt’s intelligence chief, Major General Mohamed Ahmed Fareed Al-Tuhami, is taking action at ceasefire talks in Cairo to consolidate an initial agreement focused on a ceasefire and humanitarian relief. According to the emerging agreement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) will have control over the Philadelphi Route to prevent further construction of smuggling tunnels beneath the border between Egypt and Gaza. By following this plan, Abbas and forces under the PA would be responsible for monitoring or destroying entrances to smuggling tunnels on the Palestinian side and the Egyptians would do the same from Sinai as they have done up till now.
 Under the Egyptian initiative, the PA would gain control of the Philadelphi Roue. (Photo: AFP)
These plans for the Philadelphi Route are all part of the Egyptian ceasefire plan which would include the opening of the Rafah border crossing under control of the PA and which Abbas’ negotiators seem ready to accept within the framework of their reconciliation government with Hamas, restoring some form of control and status to the PA in the Gaza Strip. In accordance with the current outlines drawn up by the Egyptians, Israel is required to facilitate the movement of goods at the Kerem Shalom border crossing as well as the movement of people between Gaza and the West Bank through the Erez border crossing. Israel is prepared to agree to such a deal. The Israelis have also signaled that they are prepared to grant the Palestinians expanded fishing rights off the Gaza coast, but demand that Israeli forces will be able to monitor a security parameter from the west to the fence surrounding the Strip in order to make sure that Palestinian organizations aren’t digging new smuggling tunnels. It’s not completely clear if the Israelis are demanding a permanent presence in the security parameter or simply the right to enter the area when there is suspicion of a tunnel being dug and about to emerge in Israeli territory. According to the Egyptian initiative, besides having control of the Philidelphi Route and the Rafah border crossing, the PA will act as a middle man, passing funds from Qatar to Hamas in the amount required to pay some 43,000 government officials who have not been paid for quite some time. The efforts to reach an agreement are being held mainly in Cairo, but are also taking place by telephone between the Israelis, Egypt, the PA, the US, and a few countries representing EU interests. The UN envoy Robert Serry is also involved in these efforts. These efforts are complex, but can be easily separated into two different political fronts or goals to be achieved. 1. The involved parties are working to achieve an immediate ceasefire that will allow for humanitarian relief to reach Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 2. The general consensus is also that a long-term agreement needs to be reached that will include an international declaration to prevent Hamas’ military build up under either Palestinian or international supervision, and a large aid package to rebuild the Gaza Strip. The Israeli delegation is not currently present in Cairo, mostly because their presence isn’t necessary for talks to continue. The envoy that returned to Israel on Friday already gave the Egyptians their stance on the initial agreement. So far, Egyptian mediators have not phoned and asked the Israelis to change or reconsider any of their terms. Therefore, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can say without hesitation that he is not negotiating with Hamas while Israel remains under fire. At least for the time being, the Israeli envoy doesn’t seem to be preparing to return to Cairo, but such action is possible.
 A rocket that fell near a town in the Eshkol Regional Council as fire from Gaza continued Saturday. (Photo: Eshkol Regional Council Spokesperson)
Israel, Egypt, and the PA all have mutual interests in the Egyptian initiative which intelligence chief Al-Tuhami is currently trying to sell to the Palestinians. At the moment, Hamas is standing by its demands, but according to assessments in Cairo and Jerusalem, the group will eventually agree to a ceasefire and the terms of the initial agreement. The sides will then sit and talk out the main diplomatic truce. Prisoner releaseIsrael will most likely agree to release Palestinian prisoners that were denied their freedom during the last round of peace talks. This move will strengthen PA leader Abbas and at least partially meet Hamas’ demands to release certain prisoners. However, right-wing politicians in Israel deny reports regarding the possible release of prisoners who were released in the deal for Gilad Shalit and re-captured during Operation Brother’s keeper in the West Bank. Bassam as-Salhi, a member of the Palestinian envoy to Cairo, said Saturday that the Palestinians have postponed Israel’s suggestion to release prisoners in exchange for the bodies of Israeli soldiers. As-Salhi spoke to Ma’an News Agency on Saturday saying that the Palestinians are refusing to discuss the subject of the soldiers in the framework of the ceasefire talks. He said that the delegates would be ready to raise the issue after their other demands were met.
 Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is making a push on the international front to come to an agreement in Gaza. (Photo: Emil Salman)
Meanwhile, in the international arena, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is pushing for an agreement that will finance the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip with funds from the US, EU and possibly even the UN while making sure to enforce strict inspection to prevent the military build up of Hamas and other Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip. Hamas proactively continues to fire rockets at Israel in relatively small amounts. Even Hamas doesn’t want to anger the Egyptians and lose points in international and Palestinian opinion. Therefore, they are simply allowing Islamic Jihad to fire the rockets while seemingly putting limits on them. This policy allows Hamas to keep its stockpile of rockets for another day. Israel is responding to rocket fire by hitting targets picked out by intelligence efforts during the fighting including operation and control centers which were already attacked but which Hamas is trying to reoccupy. Israel is also attacking with comparative restraint in order no to upset Egyptian efforts to reach a stable ceasefire. |
August 8, 2014 at 10:34 (DesertPeace Editorial, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Occupation, Oppression, Palestine, Peace, War, War Crimes)
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It looks like the Ceasefire has come to an end ….
Hamas has legitimate demands for it to have continued, but they are dealing with a most stubborn entity which is backed by US unlimited funding.
Hamas’ original Demands
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First a video dealing with those demands…
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1. Return of IDF tank positions so that farmers can work their lands
2. Freeing of all prisoners arrested since June 23 (when 3 Israeli teens were killed by Hamas operatives), and improving the conditions of those currently in prison.
3. Lifting of Israel’s naval blockade around Gaza along with the complete opening of the land border crossings.
4. Establishment of an international airport and seaport in Gaza.
5. Expansion of Gaza fishing zone by six miles.
6. Open the Israel-Gaza Rafah border crossing permanently under UN supervision, instead of under Israel’s watch.
7. 10 year truce with Israel along with the deployment of an international observer force on the border.
8. Israel must never enter Gaza under any circumstances and protect Palestinian Muslim worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
9. Israel must refrain from interfering with the newly created unity Palestinian government between Fatah and Hamas.
10. Rehabilitation of Gaza Industrial Zones and allowance for Gaza to create a border protection force.
All of the above are legitimate!
All, or most of the above, will not be met by Israel.
BUT
There are forces within Gaza that are working in the interests of Israel at the moment as they once again began firing rockets into Israel this morning.
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THIS IS WHAT IS CONTINUING
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Here a rocket from Gaza hits near a school in Sderot ….
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Here is the Israeli response ….
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Here is DesertPeace’s response to WHAT CAN AND SHOULD BE
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It CAN …. It WILL be done! We have NO OTHER CHOICE!
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ENOUGH ALREADY!
FROM BOTH SIDES!!
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Dr. Mads Gilbert adds the following thoughts
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Dr. Mads Gilbert from Tromsø, Norway (Twin City with Gaza City), was working at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza during the last Israeli onslaugt on Gaza. When he returned from Gaza to his home-town Tromsø on July 31 2014, he went straight from the airport to give this spontaneous speech at a large solidarity demonstration for Gaza held at the same time. The regional newspaper “Nordlys” (“Northern Light”) streamed the demonstration and featured Dr. Mads’ speech on their web-site. They have donated the video. It was transcribed and subtitled in English through a solidarity effort by Norwegian film and video professionals. The video can be shared and used for non-commercial purposes.
Friends of Gaza posted this on YouTube.
August 7, 2014 at 19:15 (Deception, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, War, War Crimes)
The national chorus is trying to fake a victory. In the absence of many achievements, they’re also trying to fake the fall of Hamas. Previously it had faked “national unity,” “steadfastness” and of course the heroism and morality of the Israel Defense Forces. It has dismissed the volleys of global criticism as anti-Semitism. That’s our national chorus, the chorus of fakers.
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The national chorus is trying to fake a victory. In the absence of many achievements, they’re also trying to fake the fall of Hamas. Previously it had faked “national unity,” “steadfastness” and of course the heroism and morality of the Israel Defense Forces. It has dismissed the volleys of global criticism as anti-Semitism. That’s our national chorus, the chorus of fakers.
GOC Southern Command Sami Turgeman, one of the military leaders of this brutal war, said, “Our fighters overcame the enemy.” An Israeli businessman wrote me from New York in response, “Real Madrid overpowered Sakhnin.” A terror organization, or an army of daring warriors? The chorus has changed its definitions.
The commentators vie with one another to spew the most words about how Hamas is on the ropes, but the truth is quite different. Its leaders, who are now meant to crawl out of their burrows, view the destruction sown by Israel and wave the white flag, are indeed emerging to a different Gaza. It was destroyed in a month, but most of the bill will be submitted to Israel, which will be forced to pay it. We’re not talking only about the worldwide wave of enmity against it, but also about one more generation of Gazans who will retain forever the shocking memories of death and destruction and grow up in an atmosphere of terrible (and justified) hatred. An Israeli victory? Very doubtful.
The national chorus has obscured the fact that Israel acceded to Hamas’ demand for the IDF’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, as a condition for agreeing to the cease-fire. It also ignores the fact that in the wake of the war, Israel is suddenly willing to talk to representatives of the Palestinian unity government. Is that not a Hamas success? The chorus chuckles now over Hamas’ demand for a seaport and an airport. Unfortunately, Gaza will presumably not get its (justifiable) wish on this matter. But to laugh?
The chorus is also sniggering at the resignation of Britain’s first female Muslim cabinet minister, over her government’s position on the Gaza conflict. “Why should she resign? After all, they started it,” one television anchor babbled, and the commentators explained that there were actually other reasons for her resignation. That’s how the chorus misrepresents the world’s position.
National unity and the home front’s steadfastness was another place where the chorus was off-key. Although there were impressive expressions of solidarity, any unity that existed was of aggression, incitement and ultra-nationalism. One can even question the home front’s steadfastness. It’s better not to think about what would have happened to the home front had Iron Dome system not protected it. Of course it’s good that this was the case, but there was no real test here. One day of a semi-siege of Ben-Gurion International Airport, and Israel began to reconsider. No steadfastness there.
Even the warm embrace extended to the troops, however moving, understandable and authentic, blurs the overall picture. Israel was filled with billboards and posters: The nation loves its soldiers, the nation is proud of them. We cannot comment on the love. But is pride indeed the (only) emotion evoked by the IDF these days? What exactly is there to be proud of? The defense systems were indeed impressive, but can a military victory over a guerilla group, accompanied by an almost unbridled attack on a civilian population, be considered an impressive military victory, a source of pride?
There were many examples of heroism and sacrifice in this war, but pride isn’t the only thing the IDF bequeathed to Israel — far from it.
At the end of the war we cannot forget that the destruction and mass killing in Gaza were the work of IDF soldiers, the ones that Israelis so love to love. The pilots, the armored corpsmen, the artillery gunners and the infantry didn’t decide to go to war, but their commanders shaped its character, and they executed it.
“We salute you,” and “Thanks to the brave fighters,” as some headlines crowed on Wednesday? Yes and no. Thanks for your sacrifice and bravery, no thanks for the death and destruction you sowed. Around 1,900 dead, including about 700 women and children, around 10,000 injured, 30,000 homes damaged and a half a million displaced persons, most of them now homeless, are numbers not of pride, but of shame. As for those responsible, the chorus cannot get them wrong. Hail, hail, Israel.
August 6, 2014 at 11:26 (Corporate Media, From The Media, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, zionist Media)
WOOPS ….. they already did! CIF Watch is on top of things, unfortunately they are the wrong things … See their dribble HERE
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The London Times refused to run an ad featuring Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel speaking out against Hamas’ use of children as human shields.
The ad sponsored by The Values Network, which was founded by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, has run in The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, among other U.S. newspapers. The refusal was first reported by the New York Observer.
The London Times refused the ad because “the opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers,” according to a statement from a representative of the newspaper, the Observer reported.
Headlined “Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it’s Hamas turn,” the ad began running last week. It reads, in part: “In my own lifetime, I have seen Jewish children thrown into the fire. And now I have seen Muslim children used as human shields, in both cases, by worshippers of death cults indistinguishable from that of the Molochites.
“What we are suffering through today is not a battle of Jew versus Arab or Israeli versus Palestinian. Rather, it is a battle between those who celebrate life and those who champion death. It is a battle of civilization versus barbarism.”
Countering the London Times statement, Boteach said in his own, “Elie Wiesel is one of the most respected human beings alive, a Nobel Peace Laureate, and is the living face of the Holocaust. No greater expert on genocide exists in the whole world. His call for the end of child sacrifice by Hamas, who use children as human shields, and a stop to their genocidal charter, which calls for the murder of Jews everywhere, could only offend the sensibilities of the most die-hard anti-Israel haters and anti-Semites.”
July 19, 2014 at 19:32 (Deception, DesertPeace Exclusive, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, zionist Slander)
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zios claim this was from Gaza …. ‘Hamas using children as human shields’ …
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Look where it’s really from …
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June 20, 2014 at 10:48 (Collaboration, Collective Punishment, DesertPeace Editorial, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, War Crimes)
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In its quest to find three Israeli teenagers Israel has literally turned Palestine upside down. The timing could not have been more perfect as the main goal was to put a halt to the conciliatory moves of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas has given his full cooperation to the Israeli government, once again proving where his loyalties lie.For this he was highly praised by his fellow zionist leaders.
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President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (photo credit: Kobi Gideon/Flash 90)
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There was no comment from Abbas regarding THIS and other recent actions by the Israelis. For his role in helping to enforce the continuing division of Palestine and his continued cooperation with zion he was duly condemned by the leadership of Hamas. Netanyahu expects this to be the end of whatever unity government the Palestinians had hoped for. As far as he is concerned, the whole operation should now be called Operation Mission Accomplished rather than Operation Brother’s Keeper.
ENOUGH OF THIS MADNESS!
Now is the time to initiate a true Operation Brother’s Keeper and finally recognise that we ARE ALL brothers, Israelis and Palestinians. If this doesn’t happen there will be no end in sight to the madness on both side of the wall.
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June 2, 2014 at 08:51 (Corrupt Politics, Fatah, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Authority, zionist harassment)
Despite the fact that the two defacto Presidents of Israel and Palestine head off to the Vatican together early next week, the government of Israel is doing everything in its power to sabotage the new Unity Government scheduled to be sworn in by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority today …
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The reconciliation pact, intended to repair a fierce seven-year rift between Hamas and Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction and to reunite the Palestinian geographic territories under one rule, prompted Israel to halt the stalemated American-brokered peace negotiations on April 24. Now the focus turns to whether the new government can deliver overdue Palestinian elections after six months as promised — and, in the shorter term, whether it can persuade Egypt to reopen Gaza’s southern Rafah crossing and address the fuel shortages and skyrocketing unemployment that have plagued the coastal strip for months.
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JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called on the international community on Sunday “not to run to recognize” the new Palestinian government scheduled to be sworn in Monday, saying it “rests on Hamas,” the militant Islamic faction that Israel and much of the West deem a terrorist organization.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has insisted that while the new government is the fruit of a reconciliation pactthat his Palestine Liberation Organization signed six weeks ago with Hamas, the government will be made up of ministers who are not tied to political factions. He told Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call Sunday that it would “represent the political agenda of the president,” according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, meaning it would recognize Israel and renounce violence — as Hamas refuses to do.
But Mr. Abbas said Saturday that Israel had nonetheless informed him that it would “boycott us,” and Ehab Bessaiso, a spokesman for the Palestinian government, said Sunday, “We are expecting some hard times to come in the next few weeks.”
Israeli officials said no decisions had yet been made regarding sanctions against the new government or how the change would affect day-to-day interactions with Palestinians. But Israel has already denied permits for the three nominated ministers who live in the Gaza Strip, which has been under Hamas rule since 2007, to travel through its territory to attend Monday’s ceremony in the West Bank, something a spokesman ascribed to “issues of politics.”
Separately, the Israeli Air Force struck two targets in Gaza early Monday morning, in what it called a response to two rockets fired from there in the past two days. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of getting ahead of the decision-makers, said, “We’re entering a new reality.”
“The question is what happens once the marriage is consummated — I think that’s a new ballgame,” he said. “In a situation that wasn’t too good to begin with, it makes the ice that much thinner.”
The reconciliation pact, intended to repair a fierce seven-year rift between Hamas and Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction and to reunite the Palestinian geographic territories under one rule, prompted Israel to halt the stalemated American-brokered peace negotiations on April 24. Now the focus turns to whether the new government can deliver overdue Palestinian elections after six months as promised — and, in the shorter term, whether it can persuade Egypt to reopen Gaza’s southern Rafah crossing and address the fuel shortages and skyrocketing unemployment that have plagued the coastal strip for months.
And there may yet be disputes to resolve. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, issued a statement early Monday morning warning that the faction does not “accept the declaration of the government Monday” if, as reported in the local news media, it would not include a ministry for prisoner affairs, transferring that responsibility to the P.L.O.
Earlier on Sunday, Hamas officials had said that the ministers who had formed a shadow government in Gaza would immediately return to their posts within the political party or as university professors; Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister, will be known simply as “deputy leader” of the movement.
The fate of more than 100,000 public-sector workers, generally two for every job, remains unclear. Similarly, uncertainty exists about the duplicate services, such as the two checkpoints — one run by Hamas and one by the Palestinian Authority — at the Erez crossing into Israel.
Among the other critical questions is how the new government will be regarded by Washington and the West.
The United States is scheduled to provide $440 million to the Palestinian Authority this year, but it is barred from funding any “government that includes Hamas as a member, or that results from an agreement with Hamas and over which Hamas exercises ‘undue influence,’ ” according to theCongressional Research Service, unless the president provides a waiver. The State Department — like the European Union — has indicated openness to dealing with the new government so long as it follows Mr. Abbas’s line.
Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said Mr. Kerry had expressed concern to Mr. Abbas in their phone conversation Sunday about Hamas’s role. “The secretary stated that the United States would monitor the situation closely and judge any government based on its composition, policies and actions,” Ms. Psaki said.
But Mr. Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that Hamas “is a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel, and the international community must not embrace it.”
The senior Israeli official noted that the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia all considered Hamas a terrorist organization and that “there are legal implications” as well as political ones “for passing money to a terrorist group.”
Though Israel has taken a hard line against the new government, it must strike a delicate balance, since the withdrawal of international aid could lead to a collapse of the Palestinian Authority. That would leave Israel responsible for the Palestinians’ education, health care and economy.
So far, the sanctions have been symbolic. Israel withheld some $6 million of the approximately $160 million in monthly taxes it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf after the reconciliation pact was signed. It declared that Israeli officials would no longer meet their Palestinian counterparts, but such tasks were simply transferred from individual ministries to the Civil Administration, which handles relations with the West Bank, according to the agency’s spokesman, Guy Inbar.
“No project is delayed or canceled,” said Mr. Inbar, noting that there had recently been joint meetings to discuss tourism and telecommunications.
Mr. Bessaiso, the Palestinian spokesman, said he expected more tax revenue to be withheld, and the cancellation of V.I.P. permits that allow top officials to travel more easily around the West Bank and into Jerusalem. There will be 16 ministers under Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, he said, some handling more than one portfolio.“Trying to portray this government as containing Hamas, and Hamas is a terrorist organization and so on, it’s not the situation on the ground,” Mr. Bessaiso said. “We call on the international community to recognize this government and to continue its support of the Palestinian people.”
May 14, 2014 at 09:57 (Associate Post, Cartoons, Fatah, Hamas, Israel, Palestine)
Image ‘Copyleft’ by Carlos Latuff
April 25, 2014 at 11:00 (Corrupt Politics, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Authority)
Do any of you really think that Abbas would forge ahead with ‘unity talks’ without the prior approval of his boss, Netanyahu?
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Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mahmoud Abbas in 2010/Getty Images
Israel is expected to cut all ties with the Palestinian unity government that is due to be formed in five weeks and even impose sanctions on it. Washington is also expected to turn a cold shoulder to the new government. At this stage, the European Union and Arab states, most of which support the reconciliation, will have to make a decision. Will they allow some 5 million Palestinians to be left with no services, no funds and no hope of a political horizon, or will they take this opportunity to shape reality in the Middle East, rather than merely observe from the side?
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“Israel is an existing fact, and the State of Israel will continue to exist. But Hamas will only consider recognizing Israel when an independent Palestinian state is established … As a Palestinian, I want a state within the ‘67 borders,” said Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal in an interview with Reuters in January 2007. It was six months before Hamas’ armed takeover of Gaza, which created the deepest, most violent rupture ever of Palestinian leadership.
Nobody in Israel took Meshal’s statement seriously, as nobody took seriously a document released by Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s adviser a month earlier. The document proposed a five-year “hudna,” or “ceasefire,” to “… enable Israel and the Palestinians to advance toward setting up two states for two peoples.”
In May 2013, Meshal told Foreign Policy, “Hamas would be open in principle to negotiations with Israel, though the reality on the ground today made such talks pointless. The [military] resistance … is a means to an end, not a goal by itself.”
The goal is a Palestinian state within the borders of 1967.
Is Hamas riper now than in the past to conduct negotiations with Israel? The panic that gripped Israel’s government in view of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation signed this week indicates that the question should be directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before it is directed at Meshal. Israel after all signed the Oslo agreements with the Palestine Liberation Organization, not with the Palestinian state. The PLO was defined as a terror organization and the talks with it took place before it recognized Israel and announced the renunciation of the armed resistance.
Hamas is not part of the PLO, but other Palestinian groups, known as the “rejectionist organizations,” are an inseparable part of it. Yet Israel never demanded that these groups recognize it before it signed the Oslo agreements.
The reconciliation will lead Hamas and Islamic Jihad into coalition with the PLO, making them an inseparable part of the formal framework that signed the Oslo agreements. It is possible of course that the new PLO will move to revoke these agreements unilaterally. But so far no inclination has been reported on Hamas’ part to condition its joining the PLO on revoking the agreements.
On the contrary, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stated that there is no contradiction between the peace talks and the reconciliation agreement. This could indicate an agreement between Fatah and Hamas to maintain the peace talks, as Meshal made clear already in 2012, when the basic reconciliation agreement between the two movements was ratified.
The reasons for Hamas’ signing the reconciliation agreement on are no secret. Since Hamas severed its ties with the Syrian regime due to the civilian massacre, it was immediately cut off from the Iranian feeding tube. Hamas cannot take advantage of Qatar’s contributions, intended mainly for development, due to the double closure of Gaza by Egypt and Israel.
Turkey is still transferring money to Hamas, but not enough to maintain and pay the wages of tens of thousands of Gazan policemen and administrative officials. Hamas must also iron out its differences with Egypt. Hamas is seen in Egypt as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian regime defines as a terror organization.
In the absence of an Arab patron, Hamas is forced to examine the possibility of adopting Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas, for his part, has good reasons of his own to reconcile with Hamas. The first is ideological. Abbas, not his predecessor Yasser Arafat, lost Gaza to Hamas. Abbas must also maintain the PLO’s title as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, as stipulated in the Arab League conference of 1974. At the time, Hamas wasn’t even part of the game. But now, Abbas must represent the entire Palestinian people if he wants to achieve international recognition of an independent Palestinian state.
Here too lies the dilemma that Abbas is placing on Israel and the United States’ doorstep. If they want to advance a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, they cannot demand to neutralize Hamas and at the same time claim that Abbas does not represent all of the Palestinians.
Israel’s automatic reaction is not surprising. It prefers to negotiate ad hoc with organizations, even terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, on specific issues, like releasing prisoners or a cease fire. It does not conduct diplomatic talks with groups that don’t recognize it. But the Palestinian Authority also doesn’t recognize Israel as a Jewish state, yet Israel conducts peace talks with it all the same.
Another contradiction in Israel’s position pertains to Hamas. Israel objected to talks with Hamas because it was a terror group and served as an Iranian agent in the region. But when Hamas cut itself off from Iran and moved to join the PLO, Israel used it as an excuse to stop the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and blame Abbas for the talks’ collapse.
Israel is expected to cut all ties with the Palestinian unity government that is due to be formed in five weeks and even impose sanctions on it. Washington is also expected to turn a cold shoulder to the new government. At this stage, the European Union and Arab states, most of which support the reconciliation, will have to make a decision. Will they allow some 5 million Palestinians to be left with no services, no funds and no hope of a political horizon, or will they take this opportunity to shape reality in the Middle East, rather than merely observe from the side?
April 24, 2014 at 10:44 (Corrupt Politics, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Palestinian Authority)
Well, not quite, but with the Palestinian representative of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas …
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The very fact that Hamas and Fatah signed a deal strengthens Israel’s demand for rigid and all-encompassing security arrangements to be set in place. The agreement will also allow Israel to claim Abbas is responsible for the handy work of Hamas and unruly terror organizations, and if he cannot control them he will prove that he lacks the capability to implement any agreement reached with Israel. Such a situation will undoubtedly be manipulated to the political benefit of the Israeli right.
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Image ‘Copyleft’ by Carlos Latuff
The unity agreement signed Wednesday is a lifeline for the Islamist organization struggling to ruling Gaza, and poses a threat to the development in the West Bank.
When one examines the articles of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, one can quickly understand that this is an old soup that has been reheated. The agreement the two sides signed was to implement previous agreements on internal Palestinian unity.
The only significant difference to grant the current deal a modicum of gravitas is the rigid timeframe it stipulates: Five weeks to the formation of an interim government, and legislative elections six months after. But the agreements Fatah and Hamas reached in Cairo and Doha also set a timeframe – one that was never implemented.
A further sign that this is a tactical move, at least for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is that the agreement fails to include the release of security prisoners held by the respective parties in the Gaza Strip (Hamas) and the West Bank (Fatah). The deal also fails to outline which principles the Palestinian security bodies of both Hamas and the PA would operate; it is also unclear how these two bodies plan to merge their respective governing administrations. Those searching for additional signs that Abbas is hedging his bet may notice that, despite a laconic statement that the deal is not incongruent with peace talks, the Palestinian leader has made little public comment on its content. Only Hamas officials Ismail Haniyeh and Moussa Abu Marzook have elaborated on the unity agreement.
It is no wonder, because Hamas is the agreement’s biggest winner. The radical Islamist group controlling Gaza is currently facing a severe economic and political crisis, and is unable to meet the needs of the Strip’s 1.5 million residents. After it turned its back on Syria and Iran, Hamas also lost Egyptian support following the ascent of the current regime there, which views it as an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood and as a group that threatens Egyptian security. As such, General al-Sisi’s forces are actively destroying tunnel after tunnel connecting Gaza to Egypt, and only occasionally open the Rafah crossing.
The unity deal signed Wednesday gives Hamas international legitimacy, which could allow it to receive aid and donations to help it extract itself from the crippling crisis threatening both its rule and the wellbeing of Gaza’s people. Today, even Turkey and Qatar are fulfilling their pledge of sending aid to Gaza.
But even more importantly for Hamas, the deal makes Abbas the person responsible for the welfare of Gaza’s impoverished residents. The PA president is already footing the bill for Gaza’s gas stations – Israel, of course, supplies the gas itself. Abbas has also been paying the wages of Fatah-affiliated teachers in Gaza, who have been sitting idle since 2007.
But now Abbas is responsible for everyone. He will have to figure out how to raise funds from the Americans and Europeans – funds that will have to reach Hamas and other Gaza-based institutions.
Another perk for Hamas is that they and other Gaza groups such as Islamic Jihad will be offered membership in the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a move that could allow Hamas to take over the organization that is the legal representation of the Palestinian people. It is important to bear in mind that Abbas derives most of his legitimacy from the fact that he is the leader of the PLO. If Hamas manages to seize power of the organization, it will take on a new, militant tone.
In contrast, Abbas and his Fatah party do not get that much out of this newfound unity. They get brownie points for actually reaching the deal, which is highly popular in the West Bank and the refugee camps. Abbas also gains an additional whip to wave at the Israelis and Americans regarding the renewal of peace talks.
One should note that, despite his statement on the lack of incongruence between the Hamas-Fatah unity and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian talks, if the conditions Abbas recently laid out for extending negotiations with Israel are met, he can still scupper this deal with Hamas just as he has done before.
Conversely, should Israel fail to meet his demands, he can blame them and the Americans for pushing him into the arms of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees. This aside, he has more to lose than to gain.
Abbas has good reason to be displeased with the agreement. He knows that any thaw in ties between him, Hamas and Islamic Jihad will be a cause for concern around the world, specifically in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are increasingly hostile towards the Muslim Brotherhood and their ilk.
But above all, the deal with Hamas poses a real threat to Fatah’s rule in the West Bank. Hamas could take over and drag the West Bank into a violent conflict with Israel, thus exporting the economic turmoil currently plaguing Gaza to the West Bank.
Israel has nothing to be sorry about. The deal between Hamas and Fatah gives Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon a PR win that can be used to paint Abbas and his men as terrorists in sheep’s clothing – a far cry from the dovish peaceniks they claim to be. The Hamas-Fatah merger goes a long way to giving weight to this claim.
In the meantime, the White House has taken an intriguing position, for it appears willing to grant Hamas indirect and roundabout legitimacy, on condition that the unity agreement does not hinder continued talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The unified Palestinian government, the Americans say, will accept the principles of non-violence and recognition of Israel, as well as previous agreements, and thus Hamas will be saved from being forced to directly accept these conditions.
But the Americans have added one more demand, which is likely to tie Hamas and Abbas in knots, for the unified Palestinian government will have to actually make good on these conditions. Words will not be enough, and rocket fire will absolutely not do.
And so Israel can notch up another win. If the deal is actualized, Abbas will become personally responsible for every rocket fired from Gaza or bomb that goes off in Israel or the West Bank. This will reinforce Israel’s security demands as part of the framework deal being hatched, and allow Netanyahu and Ya’alon to keep elaborating on security demands.
The very fact that Hamas and Fatah signed a deal strengthens Israel’s demand for rigid and all-encompassing security arrangements to be set in place. The agreement will also allow Israel to claim Abbas is responsible for the handy work of Hamas and unruly terror organizations, and if he cannot control them he will prove that he lacks the capability to implement any agreement reached with Israel. Such a situation will undoubtedly be manipulated to the political benefit of the Israeli right.
Israel’s call to cancel the scheduled meeting between peace negotiators is part of a counter-measure to apply pressure to the US and Palestinians, and place the onus of the potential failure of the talks on Abbas, thereby exonerating itself. Everyone gets to play the blame game.
So while it seems that the unity deal appears signed and ready to go, there is no certainty that Abbas will actually follow through. On the other hand, it’s safe to assume that Hamas will be more than willing to make good on its part of the bargain, should its minimal demands be met. It’s fair to say that the implementation of the agreement hinges one thing – if Israel and the Palestinians reach a deal to extend talks.
If a deal is reached, then the unity agreement will evaporate as quickly as it came together. If no such deal is reached, Abbas will continue to work with Hamas until it all implodes, yet again.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.
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Click on the following heading to see a report from Ali Abunimah …
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