FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

The BBC reports:

Iran has sentenced two dissident journalists from its ethnic Kurdish minority [to die] for being “enemies of God”.

Rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), says Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar were sentenced by a court in the eastern city of Marivan…

Iran has executed over 100 people so far in 2007, most of them by hanging.

A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said that the two journalists had “taken arms to topple the system”.

How often do journalists “take arms”?

Usually they write stuff. Reporters Without Borders says,

At [Hassanpour’s] trial, which was held behind closed doors, he was found guilty of “activities subverting national security” and “spying.” His interviews for foreign news media including Voice of America were cited by the prosecution. According to his family and one of his lawyers, Sirvan Hosmandi, he was transferred to Sanandaj prison on 18 July.

They have 20 days (from July 16) to appeal.

With a total of nine journalists currently detained, Iran continues to be the Middle East’s biggest prison for the press and one of the world’s ten most repressive countries as regards freedom of expression in the media.

Technorati Tags: Iran

This makes me furious:

Palestinians have paid a heavy price for the capture of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit and there is no need to continue holding him in captivity, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday, adding that it was possible to reach a deal to secure the soldier’s release with the help of Egyptian mediation. — Jerusalem Post

So now Israel needs to pay yet again, a price payable in freed Hamas murderers?

In my opinion, the problem is that Palestinians have not yet paid a high enough price — one high enough to cause them to release Schalit.

Speaking of prices paid, something which occurred to me (and seems to have occurred to some Fatah people) is that Abbas, the Teflon ‘moderate’, doesn’t seem to have paid much of a price himself for the Hamas takeover of Gaza. It seems that he’s getting more money and arms than ever, and now has center stage in the new, revitalized ‘peace’ process.

At last, the Palestinians now know why Hamas managed to capture the entire Gaza Strip so easily and without facing tough resistance, if any. It’s all because of 60 Fatah security officers and political operatives who freaked out and fled to the West Bank and Egypt instead of remaining in their positions to thwart the Hamas “coup.”

The 60 “culprits” were implicated in a 200-page report that was delivered to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah last weekend by members of a special commission of inquiry that spent a whole month probing the reasons behind Fatah’s humiliating defeat.

Headed by Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Abbas aide and veteran Fatah operative, the commission has become known among Palestinians as the Tayebograd Commission – along the lines of the Winograd Committee that investigated last summer’s war between Israel and Hizbullah.

But unlike the Winograd Report, the Palestinian commission chose to lay most of the blame on some of Fatah’s security commanders and low-level political activists…

“We kept warning President Abbas that Hamas was planning a coup in the Gaza Strip and that it was training its men and smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip, but he did not take us seriously,” said a senior PA security commander who fled from the Gaza Strip to Ramallah. “Our president chose to negotiate with Hamas leaders Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh about political partnership even while it was obvious that Hamas was planning to stage a bloody coup in the Gaza Strip.” — Khaled Abu Toameh, in the Jerusalem Post

Technorati Tags: Israel, Schalit, Abbas, Fatah, Hamas, Gaza

Palestinian reconciliation?

Secret talks aimed at solving internal Palestinian instability are being held between Hamas and Fatah officials, Ma’an reported on Friday.

According to the Palestinian news agency, the aim of the negotiations was to reestablish the Palestinian Authority unity government which crumbled several weeks ago. — Jerusalem Post

It’s impossible to expect that the situation in which there are two Palestinian “governments” can continue forever.

It isn’t likely that Hamas will disappear. Fatah isn’t capable of destroying it, and it won’t go away on its own.

Israel and the US seem wedded to the idea that they have a moderate partner in Fatah, and that the quick signing of a peace agreement with them that will produce some kind of Palestinian state will somehow render Hamas irrelevant.

But no agreement that can be signed can possibly include enough concessions to make this happen. Imagine what Israel would have to give up on the issues of borders, refugees and Jerusalem!

So the more likely scenario is that Israel will be dealing with another Palestinian unity government before too long, whether or not a ‘peace’ treaty has been agreed to.

Hamas, after its conquest of Gaza, has a much stronger position toward Fatah than before, so it’s hard to believe that it won’t end up dominating the government, de facto if not in number of ministers.

So the situation will be that all of the military ‘bolstering’ that the US has done for Fatah will be accessible to Hamas, as will international aid funds (since everyone will have to recognize the unity government).

Further, if a ‘peace’ treaty has been signed with Fatah, Israel will certainly have been forced to make real compromises on the major issues in order to get it. But what will it be worth?

Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestinian Authority, Fatah, Hamas

The increasing frequency of terrorist attacks by Islamists in Thailand gets very little play in the US media. Commentator Barry Rubin describes some of the reasons why the rational, pragmatic Thais have difficulty understanding the Middle Eastern mindset that gives rise to the phenomenon.

Reading the Middle East in Bangkok

By Barry Rubin

Bangkok

A fascinating way to try to improve one’s own understanding of the Middle East is to try to explain the region to people from a totally different culture and history. I’ve done this in several far-flung places around the world but Thailand provides a particularly interesting example of the particularity and–in global terms–bizarre nature of the Middle East.

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