~from The Daily Star

It is a damning indication of just how bad things have become in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip when Fatah militants there must look to Israel for protection from their Palestinian rivals. The Jewish state announced on Monday that it would help a group of 150 Fatah fighters who had fled weekend clashes in Gaza relocate to the West Bank, after determining that they would face “imminent danger” if they were to return home. The scenes of Israel coming to the rescue of Palestinians after a bout of Arab fratricide were reminiscent of the events of Black September, during which scores of Palestinians sought asylum in Israel to escape King Hussein’s crackdown on thePalestine Liberation Organization. The only difference this time around is that instead of seeking refuge from a heavy-handed Arab crackdown, Palestinians are fleeing from the murderous hands of their own Palestinian brothers.

Achievement of the Palestinian cause requires that all factions maintain a semblance of orderliness and keep their eyes on the price of independent statehood. In this both Fatah and Hamas have been miserable failures. Both have put partisan interests ahead of national ones and therefore have failed to maintain anything like a united Palestinian front. Even the mediation attempts of Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia have not been enough to curb the political infighting and internecine bloodshed that have served to further threaten the Palestinians’ very right to existence.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has been deteriorating since the international community callously decided to punish an entire people for having exercised their democratic rights in the legislative elections of January 2006. But the Hamas movement is now exacerbating the situation by undermining the rule of law in the territory. After accusing its Fatah rivals of carrying out a deadly bombing late last week that killed five Hamas leaders and a little girl, the Islamist party launched what can be only be described as a witch-hunt, rounding up some 200 Fatah activists. Fatah provided an equally bad example of governance in the West Bank when it retaliated against the move by rounding up scores of people it branded “Hamas activists,” including many judges, students and activists who have no known affiliation with the Islamist party. On both sides of divided Palestine, civilians must now add Fatah and Hamas to the long list of threats to their security and wellbeing.

The events of the last week are just the most recent example of how the situation in the Occupied Territories has gone from bad to worse under the watchful eyes of elected Palestinian “representatives.” Hundreds of people were killed last year when the two groups allowed their rivalry to degenerate into street violence. Hundreds more were prevented from going about their normal activities such as attending school, going to work or expressing political views.

Over the past few days the two Palestinian factions seem to be close to repeated the same disastrous mistakes. We have seen Palestinians denigrating the legitimacy of other Palestinians, Palestinians making war on other Palestinians, and Palestinians arresting other Palestinians, while the Jewish state has come to the rescue of those Palestinians who fear for their lives. Israel has never looked so good.

Read about this at EuropeNews and it should be a shocking reminder of just how perverted the justice systems of the West have become.

The picture is an affront to all victims of terrorism and their families. Abu Qatada, Al Qaeda’s ambassador in Europe, strolls along a busy London street fondling his prayer beads.

This is the first photograph of the greying 47-year-old - said to be one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist suspects - since he was released on bail from a high-security prison after the courts ordered that he could not be sent home to Jordan because his human rights would have been breached.

It was taken on July 7, hours after the families and friends of the 52 innocent people killed in the London transport suicide bombings three years ago remembered their loved ones at a memorial service.

The radical cleric was freed three weeks ago when a judge ruled that there were no grounds to detain him after previous attempts to deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror attacks and bomb plots, were defeated in the courts.

So apparently if you’re a terrorist and you can’t be deported that also means you can’t be detained.  Hell, it’s much easier just to let you go so that you can do it again–perhaps your freedom will inspire other would-be terrorists to blow up innocents as well!  What a win-win situation all around…

The fanatical preacher, who was 20 stone but slimmed down on prison food, was pictured on a shopping trip near the £800,000 home he shares with his wife and children.

Exact details of the location where the Qatada family are living on benefits of an estimated £50,000 a year are protected by court orders.

Indeed, the more one reads the more one thinks to oneself…hmmm…the life of a radical Islamist cleric/terrorist doesn’t sound so bad.  Sure, one could find oneself hiding in the Pakistani hills, but then again, if one could only make it to the UK, one could instead lead a life of luxury and relaxation…

Neighbours who came forward soon after Qatada was freed spoke of their outrage over having such a man in the area while British soldiers are being killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The decision to free Qatada has left Britain’s anti-terror laws in tatters and the taxpayer facing a bill of tens of thousands of pounds to keep the preacher under surveillance by the security services.

Truly, nothing is certain but death and taxes, and Abu Qatada is surely the man who will make both those outcomes far more likely for far too many innocent people…

Read the full article here.

As electile dysfunction begins to attract and distract Great Satan concurrently with world events, perhaps it’s time to reflect on sexy bits of military diplopolitical history and the resulting nigh indestructable sexy appeal of Straussians, Pentagon Vulcans and neoconservatism in the New Millennium.

Disaster, quagmire, catastrophe, failure. Like witches cackling about a bubbly cauldron, critics and critiques enchant and re enchant a totally cursed cacophony. A pox on Pax Americana, defeat, retreat and repeat.

Such inappropiate (and boring) wickedness summoned something more than shades, spectres and hissing dissing daemoneocon denounciations. (more…)

CNN today reported that high-level Hamas officials are stating that an imminent cease-fire with Israel is in the works, and could happen within three days.

Now, I’m torn on this.  First of all, we all know that Hamas can use open-roads, and a cease-fire, simply to rearm and regroup forces.  Then again, any move toward peace is a welcom one–if it really is a move toward peace.

Maybe if things with Syria were going better, this news might, just might, be a little more welcome, hopeful, promising.  Olmert, however, has been weakened by scandal, and it seems unlikely that anything done under his ministership will have any lasting value.

Egyptian sources have confirmed that the peace deal is to go into effect Thursday. (more…)

Nobody says it quite like Meryl Yourish. And by “it” I mean, basically anything regarding Israel. Her candor is enviable, and her wit is razor-sharp. I’ve heaped praise on her before, but this time I just wanted to throw in a quick quotation–a little “rule” of sorts that I think applies here just as well as on her blog. (more…)

It’s raining in Israel.  You won’t hear about it on the weather channel, though, because it’s not your typical rain.  Sadly, the fact that rockets are raining down on the Israeli town of Sderot won’t be found easily on the regular news either.  No, it is more likely you will hear about actual rainfall in Sderot than the sort that Hamas is barraging the Israelis with.

And if you do hear about the rockets, you’ll likely get a distorted view.  Likely you’ll hear about “a few” rockets “injuring” Israelis, and then, in the next breath you’ll discover all the atrocities the Israelis perpetrated retaliating or defending themselves, as though Americans or Europeans wouldn’t react the same way to a steady downpour of missiles….

This is what we always forget when we discuss Israel–how would we respond?  After 9/11 we invaded Afghanistan.  If New York or Chicago was suddenly bombarded with a daily helping of rockets and suicide bombers, you can be damn sure the American military would respond, and probably not gently.  Israel does its best to not involve civilians, but the terrorists and militants occupy buildings and areas where the civilian population is dense.  This serves two purposes: first of all, it deters Israel from striking back with full force; second, it makes Israel look bad, and gains sympathy for the militants.

The world is quick to forget the lessons of the Holocaust.  Somehow it is easier to ignore the signs than to heed them.  It is more comforting to dismiss the Iranian calls to “wipe Israel off the map” than to stand up to these statements.    Perhaps we are too quick to desire peaceful solutions to complicated problems–not that we shouldn’t wish for peace, but perhaps we should look for it in a different manner.  I think we wish that irrational people would think rationally–that hateful people will suddenly embrace love.

Waiting for Iran and the other Arab States to come to the realization that they can live in peace with their Democratic neighbor, Israel, is a pipe dream in the current set of circumstances.  It will never happen so long as Iran is ruled by the iron, theocratic fists of the mullahs and extremists.  The extremists have no desire to find a peaceful solution, because peace undermines their power.  Don’t look to Hamas for a diplomatic solution, regardless of their newfound political status as elected gunmen.

The only way to take power from the extremists and terrorists is to cripple them, take away their effectiveness, and reveal them as the cowards and criminals that they are.  When they can no longer harm Israel, then maybe their own people will realize who their true enemies are.  Israel must, of course, do this in as humanitarian a way as possible.

Perhaps someday the mainstream media will start telling the truth about Israel and the rain in Sderot.  Until then, hopefully the online community and the supporters of Israel can keep speaking the truth, and spreading information about what’s really going on in the Holy Land.  Peace can be achieved, but not by working with terrorists whose only goal is the utter destruction of Israel.