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Suppose all you had to go on was Reuters news:

Palestinians warn settlement plan will cloud talks

PARIS (Reuters) – Israel’s plan to build houses on occupied land near Jerusalem will cloud renewed peace talks, the Palestinian Authority said on Sunday, the day before an international aid conference opens in Paris…

“The Paris meeting tomorrow is an important step forward. We hope the Israelis will not put any obstacles in front of the understandings of Annapolis,” Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah told reporters on Sunday…

“We need a clear cut Israeli decision concerning this (settlement) issue, which is very sensitive and important to the Palestinians. This issue is going to reflect itself, whether positively or negatively, in the coming negotiations,” he said. [my emphasis]

The place in question is a Jewish neighborhood called Har Homa, which is on the southeastern part of Jerusalem, between it and the Palestinian controlled town of Bethlehem. The area is within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, on land that was captured from the Jordanians in 1967 (pre-1948, most of the land was owned by Jews). The area was taken from Jewish and Arab owners by the municipality in 1991; the owners were compensated and no residents, Jewish or Arab, were displaced. The neighborhood was built in 1997.

Har Homa

Presently it has 6000 residents. The so-called “settlement plan” is to build housing for an additional 300 residents within the existing neighborhood.

In addition to the Palestinians, both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon (‘illegal’) and Condoleezza Rice (‘unhelpful’) have criticized the Israeli action.

But even if you think that Israel will ultimately turn over some areas within Jerusalem’s boundaries to Palestinian control, the Palestinian argument that all the territory held by Jordan in 1948-1967 belongs to them — regardless of whether it is populated by Jews or Arabs — is not supportable.

Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem is no more illegal than Jordan’s conquest of it in 1948. And keep in mind that Israel allowed all faiths access to thir holy sites, while Jordan expelled or murdered the Jews that lived in East Jerusalem, turned synagogues into stables, and for 19 years refused Jewish access to the holy places.

Given that an agreement with the Palestinians that will include an end to terrorism is highly unlikely in the near future, Israel’s action to strengthen Jewish neighborhoods in strategic areas — Har Homa serves as a buffer between Bethlehem and its suburbs and Jerusalem — is quite reasonable. Reuters’ description of this as a “settlement plan” is misleading at best.

And Condoleezza Rice’s support of Palestinian objections to Israel building homes inside a Jewish neighborhood within the boundaries of Israel’s capital is not what one expects of an ally (it is of course precisely what we expect from the UN). But then the US is not behaving like much of an ally lately.

Nevertheless, as Lenny Ben-David (‘The strategic significance of Har Homa’) points out, the remarks of Moon and Rice are likely to be taken by the Palestinians as tacit approval for a campaign of terrorism against Har Homa, and we can expect to see this soon.

Technorati Tags: Har Homa, Jerusalem

Everybody’s jumping on the bandwagon:

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Another UN agency joined the chorus of alarm on Friday about the devastating consequences of Israeli restrictions on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, in the run-up to a Palestinian donors’ conference.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that the restrictions Israel tightened after Hamas seized armed control of the territory in June could irrevocably damage the Gaza economy.

It was the third international report released this week about the mounting difficulties endured by the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, following findings from the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

Let’s leave aside the fact that huge amounts of Iranian money are being spent to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza, to support the construction of fortifications on the Israel-Gaza border, to pay the Hamas ‘security’ forces, and to keep the Qassam missile factories humming.

Let’s look at some of the reasons that the Israeli authorities are not allowing free passage from Gaza into Israel.

Today a Qassam rocket damaged a kibbutz factory. Luckily no one was injured. Yesterday a woman was seriously hurt in Sderot when a rocket crashed through the roof of her home and exploded, throwing her into a wall. On Wednesday, more than 20 rockets hit in and around Sderot, and one person was injured. This has been continuing day in and out since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

The Palestinians complain that sick people have to pass through checkpoints if they need medical treatment that is only available in Israel. In July of 2005 (shortly before the withdrawal) a young woman named Wafa al-Bis was arrested at one of these checkpoints carrying explosives. The BBC described the incident:

Israeli officials said Ms Bis, who comes from the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, was burnt in a cooking accident five months ago, and had received treatment on humanitarian grounds in the Beersheba hospital.

They said she was making another trip for follow-up treatment on Monday, but planned to blow herself up instead.

In an interview shown on Israeli television, Ms Bis said her “dream was to be a martyr”.

She said she was recruited by the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades – an off-shoot of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction.

And here is an example of the Gaza ‘economy’ that the World Bank is so worried about:

The IDF [this August] uncovered an underground tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, the army said Wednesday. The tunnel shaft was connected to a Gaza hothouse used to grow tomatoes and situated 700 meters from the border fence…

Army officials believe that a terror attack had been foiled by uncovering the tunnel. According to estimates, Palestinians planned to use the tunnel in order to smuggle explosives and [place] them under an Israeli military or civilian target.

The IDF was also looking into the possibility that the tunnel was slated to be used to smuggle terrorists into Israel. — YNet

So here are some questions for the World Bank et al:

• Would you want the Gazans for your neighbors?
• Whose fault is it that there are restrictions on passage from Gaza to Israel?
• Wouldn’t the best way to improve the Palestinian economy be to base it on something other than murder?

Technorati Tags: World Bank, Gaza, Israel, terrorism, al-Bis

Speaking of who pays for terrorism,

WASHINGTON – The United States Agency for International Development gave the Islamic University in Gaza nearly $1 million in foreign aid from 2002 to 2006 according to an audit conducted by the agency’s inspector general…

Throughout the four-year period, the agency conducted several inquiries into its funding of the Gaza institution and on each occasion concluded that there was no reason to cease American funding.

The Islamic University also repeatedly claimed that there was no reason to halt the aid on the grounds that it did not support terrorism…

[U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill)] pointed the inspector general of the aid agency to the fact that former Palestinian Prime Minister and current Hamas government head, Ismail Haniyeh, sits on the Islamic University’s board of trustees. Additionally, Palestinian security forces seized assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades during a raid of the university in January. — YNet [my emphasis]

Why do I think they should have been suspicious of the “Islamic University of Gaza”?

Technorati Tags: Gaza, USAID, Hamas, Mark Kirk

Those of us who felt that the Second Lebanon War was an unmitigated disaster for Israel might take some comfort in the fact that a great deal of pain was inflicted on Hizbullah.

Some of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s responsibilities have been taken away by the organization’s backer Iran, the pan-Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat claimed Thursday.

Reportedly, Nasrallah is no longer in control of the organization’s military wing, which is now headed by Nasrallah’s deputy Sheikh Na’im Kassem.

The Iranian official Asharq Alawsat cites as the one who demoted Nasrallah is none other than Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei…

Western intelligence sources cited by Asharq reported that Teheran was furious over Nasrallah’s conduct during the Second Lebanon War and that was the reasoning behind the decision to diminish Nasrallah’s authority. — Jerusalem Post

If nothing else, this emphasizes just how much Hizbullah is a creature of Iran. Indeed, the same article mentions that

Hizbullah’s budget in the last 18 months has been $1 billion, to compensate the organization for the losses it suffered during the war. Hizbullah’s yearly Iranian budget stands on $400 million, [an Iranian Revolutionary Guard officer] added. [my emphasis]

Can you imagine if an enemy of the US were paying billions to terrorists in southern Canada to fire missles across the border and kidnap our soldiers?

Hizbullah is directly supplied through Syria and financed by Iran. The terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad receive similar support, as well as help from Saudi Arabia.

Keep this in mind when you hear that the conflict is between the Israeli Goliath and the oppressed Palestinian Davids.

Condi Rice should think about this when she compares Palestinians to blacks in the segregated South. And then ask herself who is paying and supplying the insurgents that are killing our soldiers in Iraq.

It isn’t Israel.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Nasrallah, Hizbullah, Iran