FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Three Katyusha missiles were fired at the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona today; two of them struck the city. There were no injuries but there was significant property damage. Hezbollah denied responsibility, and the Lebanese army claims to have prevented an additional rocket from being launched.

The IDF suspects that the rockets were launched by a Palestinian group that wanted to start a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It was also suggested that possibly it had some connection to the ongoing struggle between the Lebanese army and the Fatah al-Islam organization in the refugee camps.

Just the usual everyday Arab terrorism against Israel. Just like breathing, they fire a few rockets, do a drive-by or maybe a bombing inside Israel. Even during the horrendous fighting between Hamas and the hapless Fatah in Gaza, somebody took time out to launch a few Qassams at Sderot. The multiplicity of terrorist groups, all with their particular brand of ideology, religious, secular, allied with Syria, funded by Iran, connected to al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood — they all have the same way of expressing themselves, which is to try to kill Jews.

Unless the Jews are unavailable, in which case the fruit of the highly developed Arab civilizations has to content itself with murdering and dismembering Arabs associated with other factions, looting, or other less satisfying pursuits.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Palestinians, terrorism, Katyusha, Qassam rocket

Here’s a picture of a Hamas terrorist clowning around at the Rafah terminal (the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza) which is now in their hands. Possibly he’s trying to send the message that weapons, explosives, and terrorist operatives will pass through the border even more freely than before.

Hopefully they can eat TNT in Hamastan, because it’s not clear where their food will come from. They did manage to shoot at least 4 Qassams at Israel today, so apparently the high-priority part of their economy is functioning.

Technorati Tags: Hamas, Gaza, Rafah

From Israel 21c:

Do they really want to boycott this?

The decision by a British academics’ union to urge its members to boycott their Israeli counterparts has generated outrage and concern among academics and supporters of Israel. The stunningly illogical decision to shun Israeli academic institutions threatens some of the organizations most involved in promoting peace and human rights in Gaza and the West Bank and could impede progress Israeli universities enable in scores of fields.

Read the entire article here

I do want to add something: the boycott is illogical, unless it’s more important to help Hamas and Hezbollah in their project to destroy Israel than it is to promote human rights, peace, scientific progress, academic freedom, and all that good stuff that the boycotters pretend to be in favor of.

Once you understand motivations, a lot of ‘illogical’ and irrational behavior becomes explainable. Why do the Arab nations treat the Palestinian refugees so badly? Because they care more about hurting Jews than helping Arabs.

And the same goes for the organizers of the UCU boycott.

Technorati Tags: UCU, Israel

Mahmoud Abbas intends to form a new Palestinian Authority (PA) government, without Hamas and with Salam Fayyad, the Western-educated finance minister as Prime Minister.

The US expects the international aid boycott — which was placed on the PA as a result of Hamas’ refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and accept prior agreements between Israel and the PA (i.e., the Oslo agreements) — to be lifted. US military aid to Fatah in the West Bank will certainly increase.

Abbas’ Fatah movement is in a much stronger position in the West Bank than it was in Gaza, in part due to the Israeli security forces de facto control of the area. Hamas now has total control of Gaza, having wiped out any traces of resistance from Fatah.

Hamas, of course does not accept Abbas’ government as legitimate and maintains that Ismail Haniyeh is still Palestinian PM. It will be interesting to see how various governments in the Arab world and the West will line up. My guess is that Iran and Syria will support Hamas, while most of the West and the ‘moderate’ Arabs will support Abbas. I’m certain that Israel will soon resume transfers of Palestinian tax money to the new Fayyad government.

This situation will have negative and positive consequences for Israel. Negatively, there is now a full-fledged terrorist state on Israel’s southern border, although practically speaking, Hamas’ preparations for war — the weapons smuggling, tunnel-digging, etc. — were probably not significantly impacted by the now-eliminated Fatah presence. It’s not clear how Israel will deal with the issue of supplying water and electricity to an officially hostile Gaza, nor whether this will make a difference in the scope or kind of operations Israel will mount to suppress Qassam rocket fire, which has continued (although at a slightly reduced rate) through all of the recent chaos.

Positively, Hamas’ influence on the West Bank will probably decline, at least if Abbas and Fatah have anything to do with it.

This will certainly drive Abbas closer to the US and Israel. Some have suggested that Israel and the PA now have an opportunity to negotiate a peace agreement. This is a long shot. The PA would have to accept the idea of a state alongside Israel, and the same intractable issues of the past remain: refugees, Jerusalem, borders. Even if the difficult questions could be resolved, then — unlike in the past — no such agreement could cover Gaza. But talks would be advantageous in any case, since they might lead to a reduction of Israeli control (the checkpoints) in return for real action against terrorist elements.

Meanwhile, I think that Israel and the US has the right to demand of Abbas and/or Fayyad that in return for their support, an end must be put to the al-Aqsa brigades terrorist activities against Israel. It does not make sense for the US and Israel to arm terrorists that will turn their guns on Israel or transfer them to Hamas.

If there is to be any hope for the Fatah PA to get real popular support, it will have to reduce the level of corruption and control the various private gangs and militias that operate in association with it. There’s no historical precedent for this, but one can hope.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Abbas, Fayyad, Fatah, Hamas, Gaza, West Bank

Where’s Dan Parkinson when The Beeb needs him?

The BBC apologized this week for referring to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and promised not to repeat “the mistake,” following a complaint by four British organizations.

Arab Media Watch, Muslim Public Affairs Committee, Friends of Al-Aksa and the Institute of Islamic Political Thought sent a joint complaint to the BBC after a presenter on its Football Focus program on March 24 mentioned that Jerusalem was Israel’s capital and “historic soul.”

In a letter to the complaining NGOs, Fraser Steel, head of editorial complaints at the BBC, said: “We of course accept that the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and that the BBC should not describe it as such…”

[Israeli] Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said in response: “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. It is the right of every sovereign state to determine which city will be its capital. If this is not accepted by everyone today, I am confident it will be in the future.”

London-based Arab Media Watch told The Jerusalem Post: “Under international law, neither east nor west Jerusalem is considered Israel’s capital. Tel Aviv is recognized as Israel’s capital, pending a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.” — Jerusalem Post

I’m not a lawyer, but this is impossible. West Jerusalem, where the Knesset is located, has been in Israeli hands since 1948. Before that, it was controlled by the British, and prior to that, the Turks. Possibly Arab Media Watch thinks that ‘International law’ means ‘any old UN resolution’.

Indeed, the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, despite the fact that the State Department is afraid to allow its embassy to be moved there.

Technorati Tags: BBC, Israel, Jerusalem

The One Voice Movement has proposed a series of propositions, sort of a petition, for which it wishes to get a million Israeli and Palestinian votes. They believe that the great majority of both peoples are moderates who reject violent extremism and who want a two-state solution, and that their poll expresses the sense of this great peaceful majority.

The propositions represent a mildly left-wing position, but they contain key ambiguities which will be interpreted in totally different ways by both sides. Without clarification, the statements become meaningless. For example, what are ‘minority rights’? Who are ‘political prisoners’? What is a ‘fair and just’ settlement for refugees?

Another thing to keep in mind is that the sample of people who vote here is self-selected. Because the whole project seems to tilt leftwards, few right of center Israelis would choose to take part. So the results have to be taken with a large grain of salt.

My impression is that the ambiguous questions along with the self-selection of the sample make this project more of a public-relations effort intended to give the impression that a large majority of Israelis and Palestinians agree on the general parameters of a solution to the conflict, than an actual attempt to move toward a solution.

(more…)

So Hamas has taken over Gaza and the Palestinian Unity Government is essentially dead. Is this good or bad for Israel? Some commentators, like Ami Isseroff, think it’s awful:

What is happening in Gaza, the destruction of the Fatah by the Hamas, is an unmitigated disaster for United States and Western policy, and a grave threat to Israel…

A relatively small force of Hamas Islamist extremists are liquidating the possibility of a two state solution. Any possibility of peaceful coexistence is being swept into the dustbin.

I’m not so sure. Was Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah a partner to negotiate a two-state solution? Even Isseroff apparently isn’t sure:

No Israeli government could agree to Mr. Abbas’s terms of peace, which include return of Palestinian refugees and surrender of all of East Jerusalem, including Israeli national institutions there such as the Hebrew University on Mt Scopus, the historic Jewish quarter of the Old city and the Western (Wailing Wall).

As he points out, Israel was dragged kicking and screaming by the US to cooperate with the Hamas-controlled PA. But he adds,

…Israel did not oblige those who wanted it to grant more concessions in order to strengthen Mahmoud Abbas. It is unlikely that any such concessions would have really helped Palestinian moderates however. Every concession that Israel made was always seen as a victory for “armed resistance” and not for moderation. At the same time, every concession and every offer were always denigrated as too little, any number of prisoners offered as a confidence building gesture was considered to be a Zionist trick.

Let us remember also that the so-called ‘moderate’ Fatah has a ‘military wing’, the al-Aksa Martyrs brigades, who cooperated in this years’ only successful suicide bombing, in Eilat, and who have never stopped trying to kill Israelis regardless of Abbas’ words.

Let us remember that Fatah is the creature of Yasser Arafat, the spiritual and political heir of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem. Abbas was Arafat’s right-hand man. What can we expect of such an organization, such a man?

What does Fatah do for Israel? Here are some things:

• By allowing itself to be labeled ‘moderate’, it provides an excuse for international donors, who wish to make points with their oil suppliers and domestic Muslims, to funnel money to the terrorist militias.

• By pretending to be a peace partner, it provides a lever by which the US and others can force Israel to make dangerous security concessions which can then be exploited by the terrorist militias.

• By appearing to be a counterforce against Hamas, it provides an excuse to pump even more weapons into the hands of the terrorist militias.

Hamas is no more hostile to the Jewish state than Fatah; it is just more honest about its intentions, more efficient, better motivated, more effectively led, and less corrupt. Because of this it is more dangerous, but it also adds a measure of clarity to the struggle, which in the long run might spell the difference between survival and destruction for Israel.

The hard fact that many people do not wish to face is that today there is no shortcut to peace for Israel. There is no partner such that, if only the right formulation could be found, if only Israel would be willing to give up a little more, peace would be at hand.

Today it’s necessary to prepare for a long, difficult struggle (as if it hasn’t been long enough and difficult enough until now) in which Israel’s enemies must be defeated and thereby come to understand that the only real solution is coexistence.

Israel made a historic mistake when she signed on to the Oslo process with the evil, duplicitous Arafat. As a result, the conflict was extended, not shortened, possibly by decades. But there’s no going back.

For the foreseeable future, the road to peace runs through conflict, not compromise.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Fatah, Hamas, Palestinians

Hamas men are displaying remarkable brutality as they cement their conquest of Gaza:

At least 25 Palestinians were killed and 80 were wounded as Hamas fighters overran two of Fatah’s most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and shot them to death gangland-style in the street in front of their families…

A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed before their wives and children.

“They are executing them one by one,” Amjad said in a telephone interview, declining to give his full name for fear of reprisals. “They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting.” — Jerusalem Post

Hamas claims that they have found documents indicating that Fatah was working with the CIA. Of course the US has been up front about providing aid for Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization. The surprise is not that the CIA was involved, but that they continued to supply weapons to Fatah when the end of the story should have been obvious for months (thanks to Conflict Blotter for the photo, captured from Hamas TV).

Fatah officials here confirmed that Hamas had seized large amounts of weapons and military equipment belonging to Abbas’s security forces in the Gaza Strip. Some of the weapons were supplied to the PA in recent weeks by Egypt and Jordan as part of a US security plan to boost Fatah-controlled forces.

Hamas said it had seized thousands of M-16 and Kalashnikov rifles and pistols, communication equipment, armored vehicles, trucks, binoculars, military outfits, tents, sleeping bags, hand grenades, mortars and documents.
– Jerusalem Post

Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security forces to respond only defensively and not to attack Hamas directly, and he is reported to have spoken to Hamas leader and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who agreed to jointly call for a cease-fire. This strategy appears to have been a serious mistake — unless Abbas has made some kind of deal to save his own skin.

Lots of Fatah officials have not been as successful. Here’s a description of one Fatah man’s last phone call:

Hamas has stormed the home of Jamal Abu Jideyan, general secretary of Fatah in Northern Gaza and an Al Aqsa Brigades commander, and assassinated him. About 20 minutes ago we were listening to Sawt Al Hurriya, a Palestinian radio station, as Jideyan’s brother called into the station frantic. Hamas militants had surrounded the family’s home in the Jabbaliya refugee camp and had fired 16 RPG rounds at the home, with 35 family members inside, he said. “They’re firing at us, firing RPGs, firing mortars. We’re not Jews,” he screamed into the telephone live on air, gun fire bursting in the background.

Abu Jideyan himself was dragged outside and shot, his head almost removed from his body by bullets.

As it stands today, there are two Palestinian entities for Israel to deal with, one in Gaza that is pure Hamas, and one in the West Bank which is only Hamas-dominated.

For now.

Thank you, Mr. Dry Bones, and also Beth for finding this for me!

Technorati Tags: Gaza, Fatah, Hamas

A Mighty Heart, directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Archie Panjabi. Based on the book “A Mighty Heart: the Brave Life and Death of my Husband Danny Pearl”, by Mariane Pearl and Sarah Crichton.

When I heard that a PR firm was distributing passes to a pre-release screening of a film about Daniel Pearl, I thought: this is the last film I want to see. Free or not. Angelina Jolie or not.

As you probably know, Pearl was the Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Pakistan in 2002 by al-Qaeda linked jihadists and beheaded shortly thereafter.

I was afraid of two things when I sat down in the theater. One was that the film would show Pearl’s murder, or even dwell on his captivity. I’ve forced myself to watch enough Jihadist footage to last several lifetimes; I don’t need any more.

The other was that it would have a sappy ‘message’ about the ambiguity of good and evil. Or even one about how we are all somehow responsible for terrorism.

But none of this happened. The film focused on Mariane Pearl, Daniel’s wife, during the month between his kidnapping and the appearance of the videotape of his murder. It didn’t editorialize, exaggerate, introduce irrelevant subplots, invent snappy dialog, have a “love interest” (except of course Mariane and Danny) or include gratuitous violence or sex. The bloodiest scene showed the birth of their son Adam, three months after Danny’s death.

The film simply and sparely portrayed Mariane’s experiences and her feelings, the efforts to trace the kidnappers and find Danny, the ups and downs of false hopes and the final, terrible loss.

Jolie’s acting, the Pakistani street scenes, and the lack of clichés give the film an authenticity so often lacking in Hollywood products.

Is it a good film? Yes. Just don’t plan to do anything for a couple of hours afterwards.

Technorati Tags: Movies, A Mighty Heart, Daniel Pearl

The UN is a member of the stupidly-named ‘Quartet’ for the Middle East peace process, along with the US, Russia, and the EU. Alvaro de Soto, whose title was (really) “Under-Secretary-General, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, Envoy to the Quartet” has written an End of Mission Report after two years of service.

(more…)

The secret communications between Israel and Syria seem to have produced public results:

“Syria is prepared to renew talks based upon the land for peace principle, without preconditions, to bring about stability and security in the region,” [Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad] Arnous said.

The Syrian diplomat, who made the statement following a Damascus meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni, also said that Syria was determined to regain the Golan.

“President Assad is perfectly straightforward regarding Syria’s aspirations to renew negotiations based on the rubrics of the Madrid Conference,” he said. — Jerusalem Post

The Madrid Conference took place in 1991, and affirmed the principle of talks between Israel and Syria with a view to trading the Golan for a peace treaty. Talks under this framework continued during the 1990’s, ultimately failing to reach a resolution because of disagreements about precise borders and security arrangements.

Diplomacy is war by other means, to turn von Clausewitz’s famous remark around, and make no mistake: this particular diplomacy is closely tied up with war and the possibility of war.

Israel’s position will no doubt be the same as it has always been: “sign a real peace treaty that includes recognition and full normalization of relations, and you can have the Golan”.

Syria’s position, as I imagine it, will be “Hizbullah has 20,000 rockets and stronger defenses than they did when they beat you in 2006; we have more and better missiles which can strike anywhere in Israel as well as vastly improved antitank and antiaircraft weapons. Give us the Golan”.

Of course they will probably try to say it more diplomatically, since this is after all diplomacy.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Syria, Golan

Fatah may be finished in Gaza:

Hamas launched a full-scale attack Tuesday afternoon against Fatah security bases and positions in Gaza, and succeeded in taking over a number of them, Israel Radio reported.

Hamas-affiliated television said that the organization overtook the entire northern section of the Gaza Strip. After airing the report, the station was attacked by PA security forces and forced to play pro-Fatah songs…

Less then an hour after the attack, Abbas called for an immediate cease-fire…

Also on Tuesday afternoon, Fatah announced that within several hours, the faction would decide whether to stay in the unity government with Hamas, or leave the Palestinian Authority government altogether, Israel Radio reported.

The announcement coincided with a Hamas attack on the National Security headquarters in Gaza, an incident which followed a recent threat of such action by the extremist Islamic faction. National Security is one of the armed forces affiliated with Fatah.

Hamas also announced that Fatah must evacuate all buildings used by Military Intelligence, the Revolutionary Guard, National Security and Preventive Security. — Jerusalem Post

Hamas has consistently beaten Fatah militarily. There’s no substitute for motivation, even large amounts of American aid — just look at Iraq (or, historically, Vietnam).

If Fatah leaves the government, there will be no way for the EU or the US to fund Palestinian terrorism without admitting that they are funding Palestinian terrorism. Personally, I’d like to see the fig leaf stripped away, especially since Fatah is also a terrorist organization.

The US will do its best to keep Fatah in the government. We’ll soon find out if this is possible, and how much it will cost.

Update [1936 PDT]: Fatah has really gotten its clock cleaned in Gaza. Welcome to Hamastan!

Update [2110 PDT]: 37 are dead in two days of fighting. Hamas has captured large amounts of US-supplied  weapons and ammunition from Fatah, as everyone knew would happen. I hope that the idiotic idea of intervening on behalf of Fatah does not get any play in Israel — and that the US does not try to push Israel in this direction.

Technorati Tags: Hamas, Fatah, Gaza