FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

Senior officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said Jerusalem wanted to hear a formal announcement from the new Palestinian Authority government saying it accepted the Quartet’s three benchmarks before transferring frozen tax revenues to the PA.

The cabinet is expected to take up the issue of releasing the funds, believed to be more than a half billion dollars, at its upcoming meeting on Sunday. The Quartet’s three conditions are the recognition of Israel, the renouncement [sic] of terrorism, and the acceptance of previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. — Jerusalem Post

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone would insist that the PA actually do something about corruption, about the criminal gangs that prey on the Palestinian population under its protection, and about the fact that so many of its ‘security’ officers are also members of terrorist groups?

If the idea is that ultimately the new Fayyad government will develop into more than just a shell to be used to fight Hamas and an excuse for the Quartet to force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, and that ultimately it will be a vehicle for coexistence between Israel and at least the West Bank Palestinians — then it will need to be a real government that provides actual benefits, and not just a parasitic class that rules by force.

In order for this to happen, it will have to change drastically. It will have to provide openings for younger people (which means it will have to find younger Palestinians that still accept the idea of coexistence, possibly difficult today).

It will have to stop defining itself in terms of the struggle with Israel (as Fatah does by charter) and start defining itself in terms of service to its citizens. If it can’t do this, then it will never be able to get popular support, and in the long run even American arms and money will not save it — and West Bank Palestinians — from Hamas.

As I’ve said before, in order to survive, it will have to put helping Arabs above killing Jews.

Technorati Tags: Palestinians, Fayyad, Israel

Jimmy Carter…what can he be thinking?

DUBLIN, Ireland: The United States, Israel and the European Union must end their policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian people to deepening conflict between the rival movements, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday…

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas…

Carter said the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an “effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples.” — IHT (AP)

Without exaggeration, Hamas is the most explicitly antisemitic organization that has any actual power since the NSDAP (the German Nazi party), both by word and by deed. It is also anti-Christian.

Hamas has chosen terrorism against civilian targets as its preferred tactic to achieve its goals, one of which is the destruction of a legitimate nation and the murder or dispersal of its people.

Hamas took over the Gaza strip in a violent coup in which hundreds died. This was not a democratic action.

Hamas intends to create an Islamic state, that is, one that is governed by Sha’aria, where women and non-Muslims have few rights, where images are prohibited (an unknown soldier statue in Gaza was destroyed for this reason), and where homosexuals will be stoned to death. This is not the kind of state that Jimmy Carter would want to live in, and I bet he wouldn’t want his daughter to live there either.

The Palestinians are cursed with horrible leadership, by Hamas and Fatah and also by all of the gang leaders and clan bosses that make their lives miserable. But Hamas is so much worse (despite its ability, lauded by Carter, to make the terroristic trains run on time).

Somebody (not me) might make the argument that because Hamas has been legitimately elected to control the Palestinian Authority, we should leave them alone.

But only a fool or a knave could suggest that we ought to support Hamas.

You decide which Carter is.

Technorati Tags: Carter, Hamas

Daniel Pipes has written the definitive analysis of the Hamas takeover of Gaza and its consequences for Israel, the region, and the US:

The Fatah-Hamas differences concern personnel, approaches, and tactics. They share allies and goals. Tehran arms both Hamas and Fatah. The “moderate” terrorists of Fatah and the bad terrorists of Hamas equally inculcate children with a barbaric creed of “martyrdom.” Both agree on eliminating the Jewish state. Neither shows a map with Israel present, or even Tel Aviv.

Fatah’s willingness to play a fraudulent diplomatic game has lured woolly-minded and gullible Westerners, including Israelis, to invest in it. The most recent folly was Washington’s decision to listen to its security coordinator in the region, Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, and send Fatah $59 million in military aid to fight Hamas – a policy that proved even more bone-headed when Hamas promptly seized those shipments for its own use.

One of these days, maybe, the idiot-savant “peace processors” will note the trail of disasters their handiwork has achieved. Instead of mulishly working to return Fatah and Jerusalem to the bargaining table, they might try focusing on gaining a change of heart among the roughly 80 percent of Palestinians, those still seeking to undo the outcome of the 1948-49 war by defeating Zionism and constructing a 22nd Arab state atop Israel’s carcass.

You must read the entire article here.

Technorati Tags: Daniel Pipes, Hamas, Fatah, Israel