03-Aug-15: A firebomb attack on an Israeli car in Jerusalem

The scene of tonight's attack [Image Source]

We were alerted to trouble, as has happened many times in the past, by the shrill sounds of emergency vehicles on the highway that passes closes to our Jerusalem home. The very warm evening, the open windows, the still air - all helped ensure the tension spread quickly.

The reports in the past hour on the major Israeli news channels - television, various breaking-news websites, text messages, Twitter - say there has been a firebomb attack on an Israeli car traveling on one of the major roads of north Jerusalem:

Two people were injured in a Jerusalem firebombing attack on Monday night. A 27-year-old Israeli woman was moderately hurt by the Molotov cocktail, suffering burns on her body, Channel 2 reported. The car she was riding in rammed into a nearby car, lightly injuring the driver of the other vehicle. The woman was evacuated to the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, and the injured man was transferred to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment. The attack took place near the Beit Hanina neighborhood in East Jerusalem. [Times of Israel, August 3, 2015]

Still in flames [Image Source]

Beit Hanina, an Arab neighbourhood of Jerusalem, is served by the Jerusalem Light Rail, giving its 27,000 residents (up from 1,600 in 1945 - the proximity to Israel's fast-growing capital city has always served as a magnet for Arab immigration) easy access to downtown and other parts of the city. It's a prosperous part of town with a villa precinct that is home to some prominent Palestinian Arab figures including the former PA prime minister Salam Fayyad.

Ynet adds some detail:

The wounded woman's husband managed to escape the vehicle unharmed. A passerby, around 20 years old, who tried to put out the fire that broke out was lightly hurt from smoke inhalation. Another man was lightly hurt when the car rolled back and hit another vehicle - which was partially damaged. The vehicle was completely burned. The woman... is suffering from first- and second-degree burns on 15 percent of her body, was taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Karem, while the man was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital. Police and Border Police forces were dispatched to the area and are searching for suspects. [Ynet]

We are hearing helicopters overhead suggesting the search is still fully underway at this hour (21:30).

Inevitably, some of the reports frame the attack on an Israeli car as an Arab response to the lethal firebombing this past Friday morning ["31-Jul-15: In the wake of a lethal arson attack"] in Duma, a Palestinian Arab village near Nablus.

13-Jul-15: Is the Mahmoud Abbas crony circle disintegrating?

Mahmoud Abbas and Yasser Abed Rabbo, Ramallah, 2010 [Image Source]

Not so tight these days

It would be greatly overstating things to say we admire the Palestinian Arab leadership.

About Hamas, any extra words are superfluous.

The kleptocratic PA/PLO/Fatah insiders who have gotten away for years with the pretence of being a democratically-elected regime in search of peace with their Israeli neighbours are in reality a cosy bunch of past-their-use-by-date clique comrades. Not a single one of whom has asked (or has even been required to ask) Palestinian Arab voters for their electoral support for almost a full decade.

Their most recent parliamentary election took place on January 25, 2006. The last PA presidential election took place more than a year before that, on January 9, 2005, when Mahmoud Abbas was elected to a four year term that he keeps extending indefinitely. What he has wrought in the years since then has been a disgrace [see for instance "10-Mar-15: The not-so-moderate Palestinian Authority and the terrorism it enables"].

It's painfully obvious, as well, that there is a sort of gentlemen's agreement among Western countries not to mention this embarrassment publicly. Undermining the legitimacy of Abbas and the merry men of his inner cabal seems to be perceived as diminishing the chances for the fair, just and equitable peace that is about to break out and just around the corner. Needless to add, that tacit support is one of the key issues in ensuring peace remains perpetually around the corner and even further away.

Abbas is now 80 years old. It's evident that age has not diminished his passion for suppressing the opposition, particularly among the closest of his colleagues:

Yasser Abed Rabbo, who has criticized Abbas’s policies and leadership, was removed two weeks ago as the Palestine Liberation Organization’s No. 2. He was replaced by Abbas confidant Saeb Erekat. Abed Rabbo told reporters Sunday he was fired without a vote, and that this “harms not only me” but the organization. Abbas’s office had no comment... [Times of Israel, today]

There are reports as well that Abbas has raged against a group of other Palestinian politicians "trying to undermine him with financial support from the United Arab Emirates". Foes on that list include former Palestinian prime minister Salaam Fayad (whose not-for-profit organization Future for Palestine was raided by PA police in June, and its money frozen), and Fatah tough-guy Mohammad Dahlan, now-exiled and living (very, very comfortably) in the Emirates. Both, along with Abed Rabbo, are considered rivals for Abbas' autocratic throne.

A December 2014 article in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Akhbar foreshadowed the direction in which things are moving:

...Abbas may be on the cusp of implementing a number of decisions to sack figures who are no longer toeing his political line, especially since his phobias about conspiracies targeting him have shifted from his known opponents to figures who were once close to Abbas ["Is a coup being plotted against PA President Abbas?", Alakhbar English, December 19, 2014]

Abbas' ambitious - and frustrated - 'young' rival (he is now 71) sticks in our memory particularly because of the outrageous claim he made in the wake of the Palestinian Arab terorist massacre in central Jerusalem in 2001 which our daughter Malki was murdered:

Palestinian legislative council member Hanan Ashrawi said the pizza parlour attack was part of a cycle of violence. Palestinian information minister Yasser Abed Rabbo went farther: "Sharon provoked it. Sharon waited for it. Sharon wanted it," he said. ["Israel stunned by Jerusalem blast", BBC, August 9, 2001]

Abed Rabbo is malevolent, but no fool. Condemning vile acts of terrorist savagery is dead easy when, in the very same breath, you explain to the world in general and your own political constituency in particular that really it was never your own side that did the evil but the enemy.

If, as might be the case, the rise and rise of Abed Rabbo who just a few years ago was described as "a staunch Abbas confidant" but who was already relieved of his PLO duties (by Abbas) in December 2014, has now come to an end, some revealing exposures may be on the way.

For instance, about corruption - here is what Abed Rabbo said from inside the Abbas circle, and from a position of insider power, just a few months ago

 “Abu Mazen [Abbas] wants to consolidate all authorities with his cronies,” Abed Rabbo was quoted as saying, claiming that Abbas was planning to hand over Abed Rabbo’s authorities to Ramzi Khoury, head of the Palestine National Fund. “He acts in a dictatorial way, wishing to control everything related to money.” ["Palestinian official bashes ‘dictatorial’ Abbas", Times of Israel, December 14, 2014]

If this is what one of Abbas cronies said while still being a crony, now that he is not he might find it convenient to expand on the details.

10-Dec-13: EU may have located the billions it "lost" in Palestine. Or not.

[Image Source]

Some weeks ago, we wrote here about financial corruption and how it impacts on people's lives in the worst way. See "13-Oct-13: Massive scandal in Palestinian Arab financial affairs? No!". We followed it up with a second piece: "7-Nov-13: A principled effort to stop foreign aid being stolen? Probably not.")

Both referred to a report in the October 13, 2013 edition of the London Times:

£1.95bn EU aid lost in Palestine Times, London | Bojan Pancevski, Brussels | Published: 13 October 2013 | Billions of euros in European aid to the Palestinians may have been misspent, squandered or lost to corruption, according to a damning report by the European Court of Auditors, the Luxembourg-based watchdog. Brussels transferred more than £1.95bn to the occupied territories between 2008 and 2012 but had little control over how it was spent, the auditors say in an unpublished report seen by The Sunday Times. EU investigators who visited sites in Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank noted “significant shortcomings” in the management of funds sent to Gaza and the West Bank. Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the EU. A spokesman for the court declined to comment.

Not exactly the kind of reporting that causes our hearts to sing. The passive language of that Times of London headline was outrageous, of course. Two billion pounds lost? Were they dropped, forgotten, mislaid?

Inspiring motto: the auditors are guarding
European taxpayers' hard-earned money.
A pity this is the first audit of the torrent
of EU funding to the Palestinians in 13 years.
Still, better late than never...

Obviously not. We noted then and numerous times in the past seven years of blogging here that European funding of the Palestinian Arabs is a story of ongoing massive malfeasance, as the article itself suggests. The influence that money on that scale has on active, ongoing terrorism and incitement to terror is clear to anyone who wants to see. (We provided some details at "10-Nov-13: Who finances those savage acts of terror? And why is this so poorly understood?")

We exchanged a flurry of emails with the press officer of the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg in October. Turned out that despite the confident language of the London Times reporter (whose response we have not managed to get), the audit report into the colossal Palestinian scandal had in fact not been published, and still has not. Other than to say that

A report touching on aid to the PA should be published toward the end of the year

the agency's lips were sealed about it at the time. But that's about to change. 

Everyone who pays the smallest attention to what is known about Arafat, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority understands that the taint and smell of financial impropriety hangs heavy in the air. Yet despite this, the last time an audit into EU funding of the Palestinians was done was... 13 years ago. 

Patten, Arafat, Prodi, Shaath

Given the effect on human lives, that's simply incomprehensible. And almost entirely un-noticed or unremarked by the mainstream news media.

We're hoping there have been no behind-the-scenes manipulations underway to minimize the political fallout of another Palestinian Arab foreign aid scandal. Stranger things have been known to happen (see "9-Sep-13: Snouts and troughs"). 

Will the as-yet-unreleased report about billions having disappeared in the darkness of the Palestinian regime's private parts be buried or detoothed? Tomorrow, in Brussels, we may find out. 

An EU announcement says:

Since 2008, the EU’s largest programme in the occupied Palestinian territory has been PEGASE Direct Financial Support (DFS), which provided approximately €1 billion in funding from 2008 to 2012. This European Court of Auditors performance audit examined if the Commission and the European External Action Service had managed this programme well for that period. PEGASE DFS seeks to help the Palestinian Authority to meet its obligations to civil servants, pensioners and vulnerable families, maintain essential public services and improve public finances. The main conclusions and recommendations of the report will be presented to the press by Mr Hans Gustaf Wessberg (SE) the Member of the Court responsible for the report.

It happens at 10:30 am, Western Europe time, tomorrow, Wednesday. There will be live video coverage via the European Commission Audiovisual Service here. We're told from Brussels this morning that the video will archived for on-demand review afterwards.

We're hoping some enterprising journalists will press for post-report reactions from the likes of Baron Patten of Barnes and former PA prime minister and finance minister Salam Fayyad, each of whom have played a key role in the giving, the taking and the massive opacity that has accompanied the process from the outset.

We're a little less optimistic that members of the Yasser Arafat family will share what they know about those missing millions. But perhaps someone from the EU's OLAF office will step forward and fill in some of the missing details.

UPDATE Tuesday night, December 10: See "10-Dec-13: In Brussels, is the EU preparing to whitewash PA corruption?"

25-Feb-13: Whipping up the flames

There remain some optimistic voices but they all seem to be on
the Israeli side. Palestinian Arab figures seem intent on showing
a third chapter in this ongoing war is already  underway [Image Source] 

The first signs of spring are here. But there is no mistaking the dark clouds headed our way from the neighbouring villages, towns and cities of the Palestinian Authority. That's the body formed in 1994 as part of a series of agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, and that renamed itself, first, as the Palestinian National Authority and then a few weeks ago as the State of Palestine. A state calling itself that was proclaimed in November 1988 (repeat: 1988).

This matter of what they're called is not so simple. As Wikipedia points out, the PA is not the same as, and should never be confused with, the Palestine Liberation Organization. Only one of those two organizations has a seat at the United Nations under the name "Palestine" and "continues to enjoy international recognition as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people". 

That organization happens to be... the PLO.

The entity calling itself "State of Palestine" also does not speak for or represent the Arabs of Gaza who are under the de facto control of a branch of the Moslem Brotherhood called Hamas.

Specialist practitioners of international law can probably explain and separate out the various strands of this description so that it makes sense. For most other people. say 99.999% of the international community, it's confusing, misleading, incoherent and unhelpful. Which is a good way to describe some of the more recent developments.

‘Third intifada’ is already here, PA officials say

Times of Israel | Stuart Winer | February 24, 2013 |  Four thousand five hundred Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails went on a hunger strike Sunday to protest the death of Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat in Megiddo Prison the day before, amid a wave of clashes in the West Bank that has been stoking Israeli concerns of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.  Palestinian officials on Sunday morning warned that another popular uprising was indeed unfolding, but asserted that protesters would stick to the path of nonviolence. “The death of the prisoner is the culmination of an already tense situation,” Kadoura Fares, a former PA minister and the head of the Palestinian prisoner’s club, told Maariv. “All of the incidents reveal a clear trend – we’re facing an intifada. The hunger-striking prisoners and the tense demonstrations, the violent clashes during which Palestinian civilians are killed, and the frozen peace process – all indicate that we’re sitting on a barrel of dynamite”... Senior Palestinian official Jibril Rajoub denied allegations that the Palestinian Authority was stoking the protests, and expressed hope that cooperation with Israel would stave off the violence. “I say on behalf of the entire Palestinian leadership that we won’t initiate any bloodshed,” he told Israel Radio, asserting the Palestinians’ right to “nonviolent resistance... I want to say to all Israelis: Your right-wingers will not draw the Palestinian people into violence. I hope there will be a joint intifada, a joint spring, between the Palestinians and the peace camp [in Israel] that believes in peace and coexistence with two states for two peoples,” he said. The Palestinian Authority’s position was that protests must remain nonviolent and that there should be no return to the kind of violence that reigned during the Second Intifada, he asserted. “Not a single person should be killed, no matter who he is or what his beliefs are,” Rajoub said [more]

Hearing Jibril Rajoub try to calm the Palestinian furies is a little bizarre. He's the boss of the Palestinian Football Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee; this past summer, we quoted him here ["26-Jul-12: The Olympic Games start tomorrow. What have we learned?" congratulating the Olympic organizers for declining to remember the dead of the Munich 1972 massacre. Rajoub is himself a seasoned terrorist [see "We salute Shalit's kidnappers, says Jibril Rajoub"] who has been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for engaging in acts of terror over the decades. He owes his freedom to a notorious 1985 transaction (eventually known as the Jibril Deal) in which he was among 1,150 Palestinian Arabs freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by a terrorist group. 

The death of Arafat Jaradat, the Palestinian prisoner, caused the PA prime minister Salam Fayyad to express his shock. 

A statement issued by his office called on the Israeli authorities to uncover the “true cause” of his death as soon as possible. On Saturday night, defense establishment officials invited the Palestinian Authority to take part in Jaradat’s post-mortem examination  [Times of Israel]

The post-mortem took place this past Sunday at Israel's National Center for Forensic Medicine near Tel Aviv. And while it was carried by Prof. Yehuda Hiss, the legendary long-time head of the institute, in the presence of Prof. Arnon Afek, director of the Health Administration at the Ministry of Health, as well as Palestinian pathologist Dr. Saber Aloul. Here's what Israel's Ministry of Health (as conveyed by the Independent Media Review Analysis website) reported yesterday:

During the autopsy, no signs of external trauma were found apart from those pertaining to resuscitation [attempts] and a small graze on the right side of his chest. No evidence of disease was found during the autopsy. Two internal hemorrhages were detected, one on the shoulder and one on the right side of the chest. Two ribs were broken, which may indicate resuscitation attempts. The initial findings cannot determine the cause of death. At this stage, until microscopic and toxicology reports are in, the cause of death cannot be tied to the autopsy findings.”

Given the dangerous mood of incitement in evidence among the Palestinian Arabs, the decision to offer the right of participation in the autopsy to a representative of their side might be seen as a wise move. Or maybe not.

Palestinian Authority says Israel tortured inmate to death

Times of Israel | Stuart Winer | February 24, 2013 | The Palestinian Authority on Sunday accused Israel of torturing to death Palestinian inmate Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat, who died in jail on Saturday, setting the stage for a dramatic escalation of ongoing protests in the West Bank. Israeli officials said Jaradat died of a heart attack, and denied he was beaten or subjected to any treatment that could have led to his death. The PA convened a press conference to issue its accusations of blame against Israel — a step certain to raise tensions surrounding Jaradat’s scheduled funeral on Monday. “The information we have received so far is shocking and painful; the evidence corroborates our suspicion that Mr. Jaradat died as a result of torture, especially since the autopsy clearly proved that the victim’s heart was healthy, which disproves the initial alleged account presented by occupation authorities that he died of a heart attack,” Palestinian Authority Minister of Detainees Issa Karake said at the press conference Sunday evening. Dr. Saber Aloul, director of the Palestinian Forensic Medicine Institute, who participated in the autopsy conducted by pathologists at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, claimed to have determined that markings on Jaradat’s body proved that he was beaten and tortured to death.

Issa Karake, who has a history of provocative statements in his role as minister representing prisoners' interests in the PA 

concluded by asserting “the full responsibility of the Israeli occupation for this crime,” reiterating that “States party to the UN Charter and relevant international conventions, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, have a standing legal and international responsibility to compel Israel to respect the law and stop the use of torture as well as holding Israel accountable for its clear violations of international law and the rights of Palestinian prisoners.”

For its part, the Ministry of Health took care to be as explicit in its findings as is professionally possible, reporting there were no visible signs on Jaradat’s body other than those made by resuscitation efforts plus a small graze on his chest. Jaradat's funeral is scheduled for later today. You hear the word "bracing" a lot in the news reports today, referring to what the Israeli government is doing as it watches the PA leadership whip its foot soldiers into a state of riot.

The IDF said its security forces were on high alert throughout the West Bank. Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Eitan Dangot held several phone conversations with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, urging him to do everything possible to lower the flames [Times of Israel]

In addition to providing protection from those with violence on their minds, the IDF has one eye on an ongoing problem that, for some reason, Jabroub and Karake prefer not to address:

18 attempts in four months to kidnap Israeli soldiers

Times of Israel | Yifa Yaakov | February 23, 2013, 9:26 pm | Hamas and other Palestinian groups have made 18 attempts in the past four months to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for the release of Palestinian security prisoners, an Israeli general said Saturday. Avi Mizrahi, outgoing commander of the IDF’s Central Command, said Hamas was behind most of the attempts. The general, interviewed on Channel 2′s Meet the Press, was speaking amid a dramatic upsurge in violence surrounding Palestinian security prisoners, several of whom are hunger-striking. Hamas leaders have repeatedly urged their followers to try to replicate the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier who was grabbed in a raid into Israel from Gaza in 2006, held hostage by Hamas in the Strip for five years, and released in October 2006 in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including arch-terrorists.

The IDF's concerns were expressed just a few days after an earlier PA/Fatah warning/threat that violence is coming if the thousands of Palestinian Arab prisoners are not released:

Fatah official warns of violence if prisoners aren’t freed 

Times of Israel | Elhanan Miller | February 19, 2013, 7:57 pm | A Fatah official warned on Tuesday of an increase in Palestinian violence if four hunger-striking prisoners held in administrative detention in Israel are not immediately released. Eight-hundred Palestinian prisoners serving sentences in the Rimon, Eshel and Nafkha prisons began a hunger strike on Tuesday in solidarity with Samer Issawi, who has been refusing food for 200 days, and three other hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli detention. In response to the prisoners’ hunger strike, violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces continued across the West Bank on Tuesday. Kadoura Fares, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club [said] that, while Palestinians are not interested in launching a third intifada over the administrative detention of Palestinians in Israeli jails, emotions may flare out of control. “Sometimes the fire starts out small and expands to a large inferno,” he said. “If one of the prisoners dies, spirits will flare, Israeli soldiers will shoot at demonstrators, and things will get out of hand.”

The Palestinian Arab leadership do a passable job of repeatedly decrying how outnumbered and outgunned they are in their conflict with the Israelis. They - and we're thinking of the Jibril Rajoubs, the Issa Karakes, the Salam Fayads, the Mahmoud Abbases - do a far less credible or effective job of calming the hordes, of decrying terrorism and of helping their people understand the price their own society pays when they - and it's always they - resort to violent attacks on Israelis and acts of terrorism purportedly expressing the 'desperation' of their side. 

We're certain to see and hear more signs in these coming days of a third round of this ongoing war of terrorism misleadingly called an intifada. We think fair minded people can learn a lot by looking closely to see which side is working to prevent the damage and loss that will surely follow... and which is enthusiastically doing what it can to bring it on.

10-Nov-12: Diplomacy, resistance and bringing the Oslo accords to an end

Abbas Zaki speaking candidly on Al Jazeera's
Arabic edition September 23, 2011 [Video Source]

If you are interested in seeing the generations-long conflict between Jews and Arabs over the territory of Israel, Palestine and Jordan move towards a peaceful solution, you might find the developments of this past week a touch depressing.

Palestinian Authority officials went public this week with declarations that they plan to seek non-member statehood status at the United Nations over the objections of American, European, and Israeli diplomats. Khaled Abu Toameh writing in the Jerusalem Post [here] quotes Palestinian Authority officials saying the PA will ask for a UN vote soon, possibly on November 15 or 29.



Abbas Zaki (that's him over on the right), who at an earlier stage earned his living as the Palestine Liberation Organization's man in Lebanon and today serves on Fatah's central committee, is quoted this week in the London-based Al-Quds Al-Araby newspaper saying

"Once we become a recognized state, we will go to all UN agencies to force the international community to take legal action against Israel..." 

What does he mean?

Abu Toameh explains that the move "violates decades of Palestinian commitments to pursuing peace with Israel from within a bilateral framework". He quotes Zaki saying the Oslo Accords between the PLO and Israel

"will cease to exist the day after the UN votes in favor of upgrading the status of a Palestinian state to non-member... November 15 marks the anniversary of the declaration of a Palestinian state in Algeria in 1988. November 29 marks "International Day for Solidarity with the Palestinians..." Zaki said that once the status of a Palestinian state is upgraded, the Palestinians would be able to pursue Israel for "war crimes" in the International Criminal Court."

Leaving the fighting words aside, there are other voices among the Palestinian Arabs who understand the downside. A TIP analysis published Friday says 

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is known to be against the move, and was even rumored to have resigned in protest of the pursuit. Fayyad is said to be concerned that Palestinian unilateralism will trigger withdrawals of American and Israeli financial support, causing severe economic contractions in the West Bank.

Financial support is one thing. But we think there's another that is more important. TIP says the PA's muscle-flexing (our expression, not theirs) raises doubts about the credibility of

repeated assertions by Palestinian leaders that their unilateral U.N. campaign is designed to enhance rather than damage peace talks. Zaki's words will more specifically reinforce concerns that Palestinians intend to use unilateral statehood a pretext for abandoning the Israeli-Arab peace process, risking widespread regional destabilization, and as a mechanism for waging diplomatic warfare against Israel, potentially politicizing and undermining international law... PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Ra'fat warned that Israeli diplomatic retaliation would permit Palestinians to "escalate popular resistance," rhetoric considered by analysts to be a euphemism for terrorism against Israel.

You might want to review some background ["Violence for adults"], courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch, about what the PA and its leadership mean when they talk about "resistance". It throws some light on what some Israelis mean when they say, with no small justification, that there is no partner on the Palestinian Arab side, for peace.

This seal is attached to the
PA's letter this week to UN States
[the letter in PDF form is here]

The PA has circulated a letter, still unpublished [you can see it online here as a PDF - hat tip to CHA and Inner City Press; and here as text], drafted by the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN. It describes Palestine's non-member statehood status move and outlines the delegation's requirements. It starts with a long list of formalistic platitudes, like 

"stressing the importance of maintaining and strengthening international peace founded upon freedom, equality, justice and respect for fundamental human rights... Affirming the right of all States in the region to live in peace within secure and internationally recognized borders (etc)"

Resistance is not mentioned in their draft proposal. But it's worth noting that the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations (which issued the letter to the UN) used to be called something else [source]: the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO.

Also recall what the same Abbas Zaki said when he last made minor headlines in the global media a year ago. Here's an excerpt from his interview with Al-Jazeera, aired on September 23, 2011 [the video with English subtitles courtesy of MEMI is here]

The settlement should be based upon the borders of June 4, 1967. When we say that the settlement should be based upon these borders, President [Abbas] understands, we understand, and everybody knows that the greater goal cannot be accomplished in one go. If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, evacuates the 650,000 settlers, and dismantles the wall – what will become of Israel? It will come to an end... Who is nervous, upset, and angry now? Netanyahu, Lieberman, and Obama... All those scumbags. Why even get into this? We should be happy to see Israel upset... If one says that one wants to wipe Israel out... C'mon, it's too difficult. It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say these things to the world. Keep it to yourself.  I want the resolutions that everybody agrees upon. 

Do you imagine the member states of the United Nations might care to see Zaki's commentary before making a decision on a PLO upgrade?

And if, against all the odds, they saw it, do you think it would change their view? Sadly, the outcome of multi-lateral debates criticizing Israel have been predictable for decades. Recall the wry insight of a past Israeli foreign minister and ambassador to the UN, Abba Eban, who said [source] with only a small degree of humour:

"If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions."

1-Feb-12: Fertilizer and a video that reveals more about how the war against the terrorists is going than a shelf-full of analyses

View the PMW report on YouTube

The things done for and with their own children by Palestinian Arab society have long been the subject of extremely critical comment, and with justification. 

It's almost impossible to imagine a peace between two peoples based (as inevitably it would have to be) on some degree of painful compromise, when the Arab side consistently and continually educates its children for hatred, demonization and death. Here's a tiny example.

Palestinian Authority TV's programs are beamed into most of the homes in the territories controlled by Fatah, the terrorism-friendly political party headed in the past by Arafat and today by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. 

A week ago, on 24th January, it covered a Fatah celebration in Lebanon: the glorious 47th anniversary of Fatah's founding. (Reminder: 47 years ago, when Fatah began its chapter of the war of terrorism against us, the total number of square miles "occupied" by the hated Zionist entity was precisely zero.) 

If, like us, you are unable to tune in or to comprehend the Arabic commentary, Palestinian Media Watch has just published a report - with transcript, video and pictures.

The image above shows a poster that features prominently in the televised celebration. The text reads:

"Our children are our honor and glory. They were created to be fertilizer for the land of Palestine, and for our pure land to be saturated with their blood." 

What kind of future do youngsters raised to see themselves as fertilizer build for themselves? And who is at fault - because someone surely is.

The beauty and heroism of being killed for the sake of a Palestinian state-that-never-existed is a recurring theme in Palestinian Arab culture. Grasping this, you can go some way towards understanding how an entire society has been recruited to fight a war based on racist hatred of the other. It underlies the way its 'soldiers' - thousands of whom are school children and pre-teens - publicly express happiness at the prospect of dying if only (and this is the key) their death will bring pain, harm and destruction to the despised enemy.

PA TV covered another 47th anniversary event, this one in Ramallah, the PA's capital, on January 5, 2012 [see the Palestinian Media Watch report here]. The festive occasion included the participation of  distinguished political leaders whom the mainstream media consistently but unjustifiably calls moderate. The broadcast shows children singing these appalling words supplied to them by their leaders and teachers:

"You have brought up and educated generation after generation. You waited patiently and discovered your heroic children. Oh, my pure land, I shall saturate you with my blood. I shall live and die upon your green ground... I shall redeem you with my life, oh my land. Your embrace warms us. Your ground satiates us, your goodness satisfies us. I shall redeem you with my life."

Evidently unconcerned as to the indictment this scene constitutes for the society in whose establishment they are complicit, the applause that follows is provided by several prominent co-conspirators. 

They include PA prime minister Salam Fayyad - "a moderate politician widely respected among the international community" (source); Secretary General of the Presidential Office, Al-Tayeb Abd Al-Rahim; Secretary of the PLO Executive Council, Yasser Abd Rabbo; Laila Ghannam - District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh; Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf.

It's not possible that the leaders present at this event failed to understand the message directed at their people's children. The facts about Palestinian Arab education of their children speak for themselves.

So does the report below.

Education at a Glance 2011, a study published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) demonstrates again that some societies have far higher levels of educational attainment than others. This news report published today ranks the 10 developed countries with the most educated populations. It's worth noting that Israel, with the smallest per capita income on the list, comes in at number 2, ahead of the United States, Japan and South Korea.

Peace cannot be made by education departments any more than war is caused by doctors. 

But there's a lot that can be learned by how countries implant expectations and ambitions in the minds of the continuing generations and how this impacts on the future. By and large, our side is focused on creating capable, concerned citizens with the equipment to succeed anywhere, and the evidence is out there to see. 

Theirs wants a young generation that will grow to become fertilizer and dirt, and the evidence for this is available to anyone who wants to look.

3-May-11: Fatah and Hamas are now officially in the same bed

Yes, we know they're praying. But what are they praying for?

AFP is reporting in the past hour that

"Palestinian factions gathered in Cairo on Tuesday signed a reconciliation deal that will pave the way for elections within a year... Representatives of 13 factions, including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party and its rival Hamas, as well as independent political figures inked the deal following talks with Egyptian officials... "We have discussed all the reservations. Everyone has agreed to take these points into consideration," [a participating politician] told Egyptian state television without elaborating. "Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will be celebrating this agreement... We must now work to implement what was agreed in the deal," he said. Among the first tasks to be tackled is the formation of a government and the establishment of a higher security council tasked with examining ways to integrate Hamas and Fatah's rival security forces and create a "professional" security service. The accord also calls for the creation of an electoral tribunal and for the release of a number prisoners held by the rival movements in jails in the West Bank and Gaza."

HonestReporting.com laid out a timely reminder a week ago of some of the unanswered questions that bedevil this highly problematic unholy alliance.

• Does this mean Hamas is pragmatic about peace? Hamas still wants to destroy Israel. It has always defied calls to renounce violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and honor past negotiating agreements. The Hamas charter remains unchanged.
• Has ruling Gaza moderated Hamas? Quite the opposite. Hamas is emboldened, imposing Islamic law,  smuggling sophisticated weapons, and watching the Muslim Brotherhood’s gains in Egypt. No goodwill gestures for Gilad Shalit from a new and improved PA are on the horizon. Need we go on?
• Will Palestinian unity pave the way for UN recognition of Palestinian statehood? It remains to be seen how durable this unity will really be. The two sides will bury their squabbles till September, but all bets are off afterwards. Remember, Hamas and Fatah already reconciled in 2007, only to see Hamas take over Gaza as Fatah supporters were literally thrown off the rooftops. And both sides have other calculations. Fatah lost its biggest patron, Hosni Mubarak, while Hamas faces losing Bashar Assad. Now, they need each other, for better or for worse.
• Is Abbas displaying statesmanship? Salam Fayyad’s state-building efforts were the PA’s main source of credibility in the West. The closer we get to September, the more the PA needs to tout Fayyad’s program. Instead, Abbas is throwing Fayyadism under the bus. That’s stupidity, not statesmanship.
• Must/does Israel prove its willingness to make peace by negotiating with a unified Palestinian government? What’s to negotiate when the other side wants to destroy you?

28-Apr-11: Dark clouds in the firmament

Our purpose in blogging is not to deal in political issues but to focus on the impact that terror has, has had and likely will have on the world - yours and ours. Yesterday's announcement of an understanding, treaty, agreement, merger, acquisition or whatever it turns out to be between Fatah and Hamas is a major cause of existential concern right across the political spectrum here today. For us, with our predisposition to seeing things in terms of acts of war and of terror, the indications are deeply worrying. Hamas prisoners in Fatah/PA jails are being freed. The weapons, the investment, the foreign aid, the political credit of Fatah/PA, mostly from the West, is flowing into the open arms of the terrorists of Hamas. It's a deeply unsettling scene.

A selection of news from the past day makes the point better than our commentary can.

Hamas: Interim Palestinian Government Not Able to Work on Peace with Israel

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader who participated in the reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, said on Wednesday, "Our program does not include negotiations with Israel or recognizing it....It will not be possible for the interim national government to participate or bet on or work on the peace process with Israel." [Reuters-Ha'aretz]  

"Palestinians Prefer Peace with Hamas over Peace with Israel"

Senior Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi said Thursday, "If Israel thinks we have to choose between peace with it and peace with Hamas - any Palestinian you ask will tell you we prefer Palestinian unity over peace with Israel." The fact that Hamas is largely considered by the international community as a terror group was never a factor. "No Palestinian group is a terror organization in our eyes," he added. [Ynet]

Hamas Has Taken Over the Palestinian Nationalist Movement

The Palestinian reconciliation deal, if realized, heralds the takeover of the Palestinian national movement by Hamas. A "unity government" or "technocracy" - as the Palestinians called it - is a nice but empty headline. In real life, there is no a-political rule and there are no egalitarian governments. There is always a ruling side with partners being dragged behind it. The stronger, more organized, better armed side, i.e., Hamas, will rule the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. The Palestinian reconciliation deal justifies Netanyahu's warnings that any territory vacated by Israel will fall into Hamas hands and become an Iranian terror base. It strikes any proposals for interim agreements and unilateral withdrawals, intended to appease the world, off the agenda. [Aluf Benn in Haaretz]

Fayyad Will Not Be in New PA Government

Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah negotiator of the agreement with Hamas, said that Salam Fayyad, the prime minister in the West Bank who is despised by Hamas but trusted by Washington, would not be part of the interim government. [Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner in the New York Times]

Palestinians Launch Their Revolution

It's not yet certain that a political deal announced Wednesday by the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions will stick - similar pacts have been proclaimed and then discarded several times in the last four years. But one thing is sure: If Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas moves forward with the reconciliation with the Islamic Hamas movement, it will mean he has written off the Obama administration and the peace process it has tried to broker, once and for all. The reconciliation could mean the end of the West Bank administration headed by Salam Fayyad, a technocrat highly respected by both Americans and Israelis. If so, Congress will almost certainly suspend $400 million in annual U.S. aid. It could also mean the reorganization of Fatah's U.S.-trained security forces, which have worked with Israel to keep the peace in the West Bank for the last several years, and their eventual integration with the cadres of the Iranian-backed Hamas. [Jackson Diehl in the Washington Post]

Hamas-Fatah Pact: Is the Peace Process Over?

Former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, noted: "Hamas is an international terrorist organization, period. That is not just an Israeli determination but the opinion of the EU and the U.S. government. There are no diplomatic acrobatics that are possible which could make an organization that has been committed to suicide bombing attacks and rocketing Israeli civilians into a partner for peace... Will the PA now release from prison Hamas terrorists who were engaged in attacks on Israel? The PA security apparatus, which is generally praised by Western observers, will have no value if those engaging in terroristic activities are not indicted, tried and put into prison, because of the new political ties with Hamas." [Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post]

Ramallah residents wary of unity deal

The atmosphere in Ramallah following the announcement of the unity agreement between Fatah and Hamas was not particularly festive on Thursday morning, as residents expressed skepticism at the pact's chances of success... "It's all nonsense, this agreement won't be successful," said Jamil Jobra, a Ramallah resident. "It will hold for maybe a month or two, not more. There is a very large gap between the sides... "Hamas has only one way, and it's the way of terrorism, not the way of peace," another resident added. [Elior Levy on Ynet]

And this to complete the gloom:

UN Security Council Fails to Condemn Syria

The UN Security Council failed to agree on a European and U.S.-backed statement condemning Syrian violence against peaceful protesters on Wednesday, with Russia saying Syria's actions don't threaten international peace. China and India called for a peaceful resolution of the crisis, while Lebanon's UN ambassador stressed the country's special relationship with Syria. Syria's UN ambassador welcomed the council's inaction, blaming the violence on "extremist groups."  (AP)

On the other hand, the BBC is reporting in the past hour that some 200 members of Syria's ruling Baath party "...are reported to have resigned over the violent crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrations". What do local Syrian insiders, living their lives under the jackboots of Assad's troopers, know that the experts sitting at UN headquarters don't?

7-Jan-11: Defeating terror: they have their ways, we have ours

Two dimensions of the world's struggle with the terrorists in today's news. And a reminder of the side to which the "moderate" PA regime under Mahmoud Abbas belongs in the war.

Story #1

PA Releases Prisoners Involved in Terror Attacks on Israelis

Khaled Abu Toameh - Jerusalem Post 6th January 2011 (19:48 Israel time): PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday ordered the release of six Hamas detainees who were on a hunger strike in a PA prison in Hebron. Israel Radio reported that one of the prisoners, Waed al-Bitar, was involved in a terror attack near Kiryat Arba in which 4 Israelis were killed, and another prisoner was involved in a Dimona area terror attack. More

Story #2

IDF Re-arrests Hamas Members Freed by PA

Haaretz Service, Reuters and DPA - 7th January 2011 (08:18 Israel time): The IDF raided Hebron Friday to re-arrest six Hamas members that the Palestinian Authority had released the day before. The PA had taken the six into custody in September after four Israelis were killed and two injured in two separate shooting attacks in the West Bank. Hamas' military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, took responsibility for both shootings, one of which occurred on the eve of the start of direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in Washington. The six Hamas members, all Hebron residents, were first held in a PA prison in Bethlehem, south of Hebron, but went on hunger strike, demanding to be moved to Hebron so that their families could visit them. The PA moved only five to Hebron after about 40 days of the hunger strike and following coordination with Israel. The sixth remained in Bethlehem. PA officials said Thursday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered their release after direct appeal from the emir of Qatar.

Two reports separated by half a day - and a difference of 180 degrees in attitude.

In case you have forgotten, the convicted, freed and now re-incarcerated murderer, Waed al-Bitar, named in the Jerusalem Post article, is one of the Hamas thugs who gunned down four unarmed Israeli civilians, two of them women, in September 2010. We reported it ("1-Sep-10: Real people, real terror") at the time.

Our September 2010 report of the murders executed by the thugs released this week,
and then recaptured by Israeli forces

Here's a reminder of what we said four months ago, in the wake of these especially cold-blooded killings:

"For those of us who can still summon up a sense of outrage after so much terror, so much hatred, so much hypocrisy, there's the matter of the so-called moderate Palestinian Arabs and their response. In today's New York Times, the Palestinian Authority's prime minister, Salam Fayyad, expresses his condemnation of the murders. These were offenses against the noble Islamic religion. No, sorry, that's not what he said. The perpetrators betrayed the noble and moral aspirations of the Palestinian people. No, sorry, that's not what he said either. Acts of terrorism and jihadist murder like these undermine the Arab right to a two-state solution. No, sorry again, that's not what he said. What Salam Fayyad, a man who knows his people very well, said is:  “We condemn this operation, which contradicts Palestinian interests and the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to garner international support for the national rights of our people.”  As so often in the past, the "condemnation" (which is really not condemnation but tactical criticism) is entirely focused on the effect it might have on other people's support. Where you stand on terror, terrorism and terrorists says everything about your morality, decency and values. The Palestinian Arab position, in its moderate and other forms, is out there for all to see."

Small wonder the PA had so few qualms about freeing the Jew-killers barely four months later.

We don't know where the organs of the European Union stand on the morality of the murders, the release of the killers, or their recapture and reimprisonment. We do know that at about the same time Abbas, president of one of the two Palestinian Arab regimes, was signing the order yesterday for the release of the terrorists from a PA jail to appease the leaders of the other Palestinian Arab regime, he was spending happy-face time with the EU's foreign minister, Catherine Ashton.

The image of arch-terrorist Arafat beaming down at the two of them seems quite apt in the circumstances.

15-Jun-10: Yet another drive-by killing from the Palestinian Arab terror machine

In a reminder of how our neighbours view co-existence, a man was killed and four others wounded by gunfire in an ambush on a quiet road in the hills near Beit Hagai. The Israeli victims, all of them police officers, were being driven yesterday (Monday) morning from Beersheba to take up their posts in the Hebron area.

Sgt.-Maj Yehoshua Sofer, 39, who had been serving in the Hebron region for 14 years, was shot in the stomach and died.  He was due to marry his fiancee in about three months.

Haaretz quotes Israeli security sources saying the terrorists drove to the site on the road connecting Otniel to Beit Hagai. They walked to the ambush location where they took up positions and opened fire on the vehicle. Searches of the area after the attack resulted in the finding of a car that had been abandoned set alight. The nearby village of Dir Ibzah was placed under curfew because evidence suggests the shooters escaped through the area. In the nearby town of Dura, a force of Palestinian security is based; the exit roads from that town have also been shut down while searches go on.

Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayad condemned yesterday's attack saying variously (according to Haaretz) he is "opposed to violence" and (this source) it "harms the Palestinian cause". Ma'an News Agency quotes him saying such acts might bring back a "cycle of violence" that would only serve the "perpetuation of the Israeli settlement scheme."

Credit for the ambush and murder was claimed Monday evening by the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the terror group that answers to Palestinian Authority prime minister Fayyad's boss, Mahmoud Abbas. Maan, a Fatah-connected news service, says the underlying cause was a need to exact retribution for the shooting deaths of nine Turkish nationals aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.

A competing claim was put in (according to the Jerusalem Post) by an unknown group calling itself, absurdly, the Flotilla Martyrs. They released a statement saying they refuse to recognize any cease-fire and they vow to continue their attacks. [As if there has ever been peace during this ongoing war.]

We have mentioned the al-Aqsa Martyrs before. For the record, the predecssor of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qurei, left little room for doubt about the affiliation when he said this six years ago:

"We have clearly declared that the Aksa Martyrs Brigades are part of Fatah. We are committed to them and Fatah bears full responsibility for the group... The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, military wing of the Fatah movement will not be dissolved and Fatah will never relinquish its military wing."

The Israeli assessment, according to IDF sources, is that the shooter is likely a lone operator or a local cell operating on its own, without direction or backing from a larger group. Terrorism in this area in recent years has trended towards attacks by individuals, but keep in mind this was the fifth major shooting assult in the West Bank, and Sofer is the first Israeli killed, so far this year.

In 2009, four Israelis were killed in attacks in the West Bank.

• In March 2009, two Judea and Samaria police officers, Yehezkel Ramazreger and David Rabinovitch, were shot dead in the Jordan Valley in a terrorist ambush. The policemen had stopped to provide assistance to a Palestinian terrorist who pretended that his car had broken down. 
• An NCO in the Kfir Brigade was stabbed to death by a PA police officer as he sat in his car. 
• And Rabbi Meir Hai, a resident of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, who was shot to death  in December.

Beit Hagai is a religious Jewish community in the historically-rich Hebron hills area. The name is an acronym of the given names of Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein, and Yaakov Zimmerman, three young students in the Nir Yeshiva in nearby Kiryat Arba. They were murdered in a Palestinian Arab terror attack on Shabbat eve, 2 May 1980.

Beit Haggai is home to a youth village which has provided a home, education, and services for dozens of special-needs children. During the First Intifada, several residents of Beit Haggai were killed in shooting attacks near the village. Three residents were killed on the roads leading into and out of Beit Hagai during the far-more-deadly period of the Arafat War, misleadingly called the Second Intifada, that started on Jewish New Year in the year 2000. The population of the village doubled, and today it has some 95 families.