The Last Exile

I have not been blogging about the (first-in-ages and ages) meeting of the General Assembly of Fatah being held in Bethlehem – mostly because I have been too busy watching it spiral out of control. Talk about a train wreck. Originally it was scheduled as a three day event but things have spun out of control so badly and fractional divide so deep that the meeting has now been extended until some kind, any kind, of a resolution on anything other the then alleged right of killing more Jews can be reached. The Jerusalem Post carries this round up to date:

The conference, which opened on Tuesday, was originally scheduled for three days. However, sharp differences that erupted between Fatah representatives during Wednesday’s morning session prompted the faction leaders to change their plans and extend the conference.

The conference was nearly suspended following a heated exchange between several delegates. Tensions escalated to a point where organizers ordered all journalists to stay away from the conference hall. The main dispute erupted after Fatah delegates discovered that their leadership had no intention of presenting them with a detailed report about the faction’s financial, political and administrative status.

Surprise, surprise.

Another argument broke out over the representation of Fatah members from the Gaza Strip in the two key decision-making bodies, the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council. Some 400 Fatah members from the Strip were unable to attend the conference in Bethlehem after Hamas barred them from traveling to the West Bank. A handful of Gazan Fatah operatives who did make it to the conference accused the Fatah leadership of trying to keep them away from the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council. Had it not been for the intervention of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the conference would have “exploded into violence and anarchy,” delegates told The Jerusalem Post.

One delegate said that prominent Fatah representatives from the Gaza Strip, including top operative Samir Mashharawi, had stormed out of the meeting after discovering that elections for the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council would be held despite the absence of their stranded colleagues. Many delegates also expressed discontent over the way the Fatah leadership had chosen participants in the conference. Dozens of people attending the conference were not real members of Fatah, they said.

“In some cases, we discovered that veteran and wealthy Fatah officials had appointed their drivers, secretaries and neighbors as delegates to the conference so that they could vote for them in internal elections,” one delegate from the West Bank told the Post. “This shows that Fatah is not serious about reforming itself or injecting young and fresh blood into its institutions.”

No. Never. I don’t believe it.

Abbas was summoned to the conference hall in a last-minute bid to prevent the failure of the discussions. Abbas told the angry delegates that the Central Committee, which is dominated by old-timers, had not prepared a detailed report about the finances and administrative conduct of Fatah because the policy speech he had delivered at the opening session was sufficient.

“My speech was actually a detailed report about Fatah and the general situation,” Abbas was quoted as saying. “This was not my private speech. It was prepared in coordination with dozens of members of the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council.” He urged the delegates not to boycott the conference so as not to give the Palestinians’ enemies an excuse to rejoice. Regarding the grievances of the Gaza Strip’s Fatah members, Abbas promised that they would be permitted to vote for the two bodies via alternative means, including e-mail messages and mobile phones.

Absolutely. I completely understand. Abbas has spoken; be grateful.

The Fatah representatives have yet to discuss the repercussions of their faction’s defeat by Hamas in the January 2006 parliamentary election, and the case of Yasser Arafat’s unexplained death in 2004, Sha’ath told the Post. He said that because of the many issues on the agenda, the Fatah leadership had decided that it would take a few more days to conclude the discussions.

On the second day of the parley, it was still unclear whether the delegates would be required to vote for a new Fatah platform. A top aide to Abbas said the PA president did not see any need to vote for a new platform because his speech on Tuesday could be considered the Fatah political program.

And why should they vote on any new platform when it has already been decided for them by their uber-friendly democratic chairman-for-life Mahmoud Abbas?

More articles on the conference can be found here, here and here.

The Jerusalem Post has rather unintentionally amusing article regarding the European Union whining about picking up the dole tab for the Palestinians and claiming the ‘EU taxpayers bear settlement burden’. Oy vey – insert me rolling my eyes.

Israel’s settlement policy helps strangle the Palestinian economy and makes the Palestinian government more dependent on foreign aid, the European Commission said Monday. In an unusually harsh statement, the commission said that “it is the European taxpayers who pay most of the price of this dependence.”

The commission said expropriation of fertile land for Israeli settlements, roads that serve settlers only and West Bank checkpoints helped constrain Palestinian economic growth and made the Palestinian government more dependent on aid. The European Union is one of the largest donors to the Palestinian Authority. The commission said that in 2009 alone, it had paid more than 200 million euros ($280 million) to help cover the Palestinian budget deficit.

I know it’s fashionable to characterize “Jew Only” roads in the disputed territories but it’s not accurate. All Israeli citizens, be they Druze, Arab, Christian or Jew can drive on the so-called settler roads which Palestinian nationals are restricted from using. It wasn’t always this way, but there are only so many sniper attacks, ambushes, stoning and gasoline bombs thrown into Israeli licensed cars before someone in the IDF says – enough. Of course, there are roads in the disputed territories which restricted to only Arabs….as in no Israeli-Jews but Israeli-Arabs are allowed – brownie points to be the first who can figure out who is in charge of those ‘roads’.

The EU really has two choices – tell the Palestinians the buck has stopped or suck it up and pay out. The EU whiners don’t really comprehend how much worse the tab could be – especially if the Netanyahu Administration bows to international pressure and institutes a building settlement freeze:
The Jerusalem Post:

The last thing that Abu Mohammed al-Najjar wants is for Israel to succumb to US and European pressure and halt construction in the West Bank settlements. As far as the 58-year-old laborer is concerned, freezing the construction would be a disaster not only for him and his family, but for thousands of other Palestinians working in various settlements in the West Bank.

(…)”I don’t care what the leaders say and do,” al-Najjar told The Jerusalem Post at one of the new construction sites in Ma’aleh Adumim. “I need to feed my seven children, and that’s all I care about for now.” The phenomenon of Palestinians building new homes for Jewish settlers is not new. In fact, Palestinian laborers have been working in the construction business from the first day the settlements began in the West Bank.

Today, Palestinian Authority officials estimate, more than 12,000 Palestinians are employed by both Jewish and Arab contractors building new homes in the settlements. In some cases, Palestinians have found jobs in settlements that are located near their villages and towns.

Jamal Abu Sharikheh, 27, of the village of Bet Ur al-Tahta, has been working as a construction laborer in Givat Ze’ev for the past three years. Asked if he had any problem building homes in the settlements at a time when the international community was demanding that Israel freeze the construction work, the father of four also said he was trying to support his family “in a dignified manner.” (…)”If they want us to leave our work, they should offer us an alternative,” Abu Sharikheh said. “We don’t come to work in the settlements for ideological reasons or because we support the settlement movement. We come here because our Palestinian and Arab governments haven’t done anything to provide us with better jobs.”

Back in Ma’aleh Adumim, most of the Palestinian laborers said they had no problem revealing their identities. “We’re not doing anything wrong,” explained Ibrahim Abu Tair, a 42-year-old father of eight from the village of Um Tuba, southwest of Jerusalem. “We’re not collaborators and we’re not terrorists. We just want to work.”

(…)”We can’t tell the workers to stay at home without providing them with solutions,” admitted a Palestinian official in Ramallah. “We’re talking about thousands of families in the West Bank that rely on this work as their sole source of income.” Some of the laborers said that boycotting work in the settlements would be ineffective and pointless because their employers would have no difficulty replacing them with Chinese or other foreign workers. “Look how many foreign workers there are inside Israel today,” complained Jawdat Uwaisat, 44, of the village of Sawahreh in the Bethlehem area. “There are about 150,000 workers from different countries who have taken our places of work inside Israel. They are even bringing workers from Thailand and Turkey.”

He said that he and his colleagues working for Israelis earn almost three times what they would receive doing the same work for Palestinian construction companies. “The Palestinian employers pay us NIS 100 to NIS 150 a day,” Uwaisat said. “The Israeli companies, by contrast, pay NIS 350 to NIS 450 a day. That’s why many of us prefer to work for Israeli companies, even if the construction is in the settlements.”

(…)”If you see how big some of these settlements are, you will understand why the talk about a two-state solution is kalam fadi [nonsense],” commented Iyad Mansour, 55, of the Kalandia refugee camp, who has been working in Ma’aleh Adumim for the past three years.

Sure, by all means, go institute your settlement building freeze and cut off the legal productive livelihood of 12,000 plus Palestinian families but just don’t ever ask me for a nickel to finance their dole tab.

Which progressives of all stripes will never mention. Arutz Sheva:

IsraelNN.com) A new report from the IDF’s Civilian Administration shows that of 293 illegally built structures owned by Jews in Judea and Samaria in 2008, 36 percent or 105 were destroyed. However, of 646 Palestinian Authority Arab-owned structures illegally built on Jewish-owned or state-owned land in Judea and Samaria, only 17 percent or 111 were destroyed. The figures were leaked to the Hebrew-language daily Maariv.

In essence, the report showed the Israeli officials are more than twice as likely to enforce building laws by demolishing buildings when those accused of illegal building are Jewish, rather than Arab.

MK Uri Ariel of Ichud Leumi, who follows the activities of the Civilian Administration, said he was unsurprised by the report. “Sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring illegal Palestinian building is going to get us in big trouble,” he warned. Ariel accused the extreme political left of discriminating against Jews while claiming to act in the name of justice. “The High Court’s decisions allowing the eviction of Jews are not just at all, but rather are discriminatory and are used only against Jews,” he said. He called on the government to take note of the results of the previous government’s policy regarding illegal building, and to change that policy immediately. The government must start applying the law equally in all sectors, he said.

Meanwhile there is no stay of execution for a Palestinian convicted under the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Revolutionary Code of Justice for selling land to Jews….but Israel is the ‘apartheid state’…..

There was a time in American history when racially motivating lynching was a fact of life…Arutz Sheva:

“As I look at you, I couldn’t be more proud of the fact that you stepped up to be the founders of a Palestinian state,” U.S. Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton told a battalion in his speech to the troops Monday in Tulkarm. Dayton is responsible for the military training of the PA special forces. The statement was reported by the Reuters news service.

I wonder if anyone enterprising reporters have thought to ask US Lt.-Gen. Dayton what how he fells about the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Revolutionary Code of Justice?

Well, the short answer is Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas mandate to govern has expired. According to Palestinian Constitutional Law (insert appropriate oxymoron joke here), if no election has been held to elect a chairman directly, the role of chairman must now pass to the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, but this being the Palestinians, nothing is as simple as that for a multitude of reasons – the least – not being this one. Jerusalem Post:

According to the Palestinian constitution, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council is supposed to serve as acting PA president for a period of 60 days, after which presidential elections are to be held.

The current speaker of the Hamas-dominated PLC, Abdel Aziz Dweik, is serving a 36-month sentence in Israel for membership in a terrorist organization. His deputy, Ahmed Bahar, also a senior Hamas official, is based in the Gaza Strip. Some Hamas spokesmen said in recent weeks that one of the two men would become acting PA president on January 9.

Of course, Abbas being the good democrat and moderate man, (insert all shades of Arafat here) we know him to be, has not intention of stepping down – for at least another year….

Abbas’s aides said he has no plans to step down in the near future, claiming that the PA’s Basic Law allows him to stay in power for another year.

Abbas was elected in January 2005 to a four-year term. Hamas officials said that as of Friday they would not recognize Abbas’s status as president of the PA. But they also made it clear that they would not demand his resignation for now “because of the war” in the Gaza Strip.

“This is not the time to talk about such matters,” said one Abbas aide. “President Abbas was elected by a majority of the people, and as such he’s the legitimate leader. He represents all the Palestinians and not only those living in the West Bank.” PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad told reporters on Thursday that the law calls for holding presidential and legislative elections simultaneously. And since the legislative elections are due to be held in January 2010, Abbas is entitled to stay in office for an additional year, he explained.

Can you imagine the outcry if Bush tried to pull this move?

I really am starting to think Israel should take PR lessons from Hamas. Something like – if you don’t stop firing rockets at us we will kill you. As crazy as it sounds it sure beats the blockade that isn’t really a blockade. Now the blockade on the Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter was a real blockade. Ynet News reports:

Israel delivered fuel on Monday to a UN aid agency in the Gaza Strip, a day after the organization said fuel shortages would force it to halt food deliveries to many refugees in the Palestinians enclave. Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel’s military coordinator for Gaza, said the fuel was piped into the Gaza Strip “as requested” by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid to about a third of Gaza’s population. UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness said the fuel would be enough to continue their food delivery operations for approximately 20 days.

Of course, neither the Israelis nor UNRWA have any kind of commitment from Hamas not to steal the fuel.

I cannot decide if this blatant Hamas propaganda piece (which I found in the Globe and Mail and credited to Associated Press) is more shameful or shameless.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The ruling Hamas party has started using police cars to ferry Palestinians around the Gaza Strip because of severe fuel shortages. Orange stickers reading, “We are ready to drive you for free,” were affixed to blue units of the Hamas-run police force.

Israel has restricted fuel supplies to Gaza in an attempt to pressure Palestinian militants to halt their rocket barrages at nearby Israeli communities. Although Hamas complains bitterly about fuel shortages, the militant group is widely believed to have hoarded supplies for its own use – especially now that it is offering its vehicles to ferry people for free.

Many residents, hit by lack of other transport, were just grateful for the service. Suzan Salman used one of the police cars to take her to a downtown hospital, where her daughter had just given birth. “It’s good that we have somebody who cares about us,” she said. “We are here to serve our people,” said Mohammed Hamza, a 25-year-old Hamas policeman. Transport has come to a near halt in Gaza since Israel reduced supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel.

Yeah right. It would have absolutely nothing to do with strikes within the Gaza Strip or hoarding or misappropriation of fuel by Hamas officials…taken from a Jerusalem Post report.

The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry on Thursday accused Hamas of robbing fuel stockpiles in two hospitals in the Gaza Strip. A statement published by the ministry claimed that Hamas had been stealing fuel from the European Hospital in the Strip for use in the group’s operations.

“The fuel was supplied to hospitals in order to satisfy their needs, in wake of the blockade imposed on Gaza following Hamas’s takeover,” continued the statement. For three days, Hamas has been preventing Gaza fuel companies from receiving fuel allocations sent from Ramallah. According to a Palestine Press news agency report, Hamas was stealing fuel and medical supplies sent from the PA Health Ministry in Ramallah to Gaza hospitals.

Reportedly, Hamas had been using the fuel for cars belonging to senior group officials and the medical equipment was being transferred to hospitals under Hamas control.

But good luck with all that.

UN suspends food aid to Gaza, again. Ynet News:

The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees is to suspend its food aid distribution in Gaza on Monday because of a lack of fuel caused by the Israeli blockade, a spokesman said on Sunday.

“We have exhausted our stocks of fuel, and are therefore forced to stop our food distributions to 1.5 million inhabitants in the Gaza Strip from Monday morning,” UNWRA spokesman Chris Gunness said. But Israel has said Gaza’s fuel tanks are full and attributed to alleged shortage to the striking Palestinian fuel distributors, who refuse to empty the tanks. The Gaza fuel association said it went on strike to protest over Israel’s supply limits. “It’s the second time in a week,” he added

Of course, we must all remember Hamas is responsible for nothing, and at all costs and in every situation, one must always blame the Jooooos.
And unless you have forgotten – the siege on Israel by Hamas continues.

The Palestinian Authority has confirmed that Hamas gunmen have been stealing fuel reports the Jerusalem Post:

The PA confirmed Tuesday that Hamas gunmen had stolen at least 60 liters of fuel meant for the Gaza power station in order to fill their own vehicles. The fuel was being stored on the Palestinian side of the Nahal Oz fuel terminal. Mojahed Salam, head of the Palestinian Authority’s gas agency, told Israel Radio that his workers were threatened at gunpoint and that he instructed them to obey the orders of the armed men so they wouldn’t be harmed. “They took control of the fuel and fired toward the terminal in order to torpedo the flow of fuel to the Strip and to pressure Egypt into reopening the Rafah border crossing,” said Salam.

Right, well in other news today:

During this week’s General Conference, the United Methodist Church will be reviewing a number of resolutions urging divestment from companies doing business with Israel and the Sudan. As with most divestment drives over the last few years, this one begs the question of why Israel – a tiny country acting against a backdrop of perpetual terror targeted at it – is lumped together with the Sudanese regime responsible for close to two million deaths in its south and 200,000-400,000 (and growing) in its state of Darfur.

Well, I suppose the short answer might be that the United Methodist Church is simply upholding the longstanding Christian tradition of anti-Semitism.

What a shock to realize Mugniyah and I were the same age but the similarities end there. For example, in my 14th year I was entering high school and busy making new friends. Mugniyah, on the other hand, was busy acting as one of Yasir Arafat’s Force 17 snipers picking off Maronite Christians from the green line in Beirut. While I only retain the vaguest of memories of the friends I made from that year – Mugniyah’s enemies have never forgotten him and they are legion.

I know the Iranians, Syrians, and Hezbollah are all screaming that the Mossad planted the car bomb which killed Mugniyah but Mugniyah had a great many enemies besides the Israelis or Americans; which is what happens when you start a career of killing people at 14. I realize common Mid-East paranoida suggests there is a Mossad agent hiding behind every rock, tree, and car seat in the Middle East, but sadly, it is just not so.

In fact, I think it much more likely, that Mugniyah was killed by an enemy much closer to home. While many eyes have been off Lebanon in recent months there has been a string of car bombing targeting the Christian fraction of the March 14th movement. The last one killed Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj just this past December. Or it could be a former Phalange member, Maronite or even relative of Elie Hobeika coming back to settle accounts. What you should understand is that Mugniyah may have been a founding member of Hezbollah but this Palestinian was not cherished or beloved by all Lebanese. Hezbollah is not yet Lebanon and may it never be so.

The Jerusalem Post carries a whiff of the controversy and highlights the danger in Beirut today:

Throngs of Lebanese were turning out Thursday for two opposing Beirut gatherings – Shi’ite Muslims supporters of Hizbullah to bid farewell to its slain top commander Imad Mughniyeh, and their pro-Western opponents at a downtown square to mark former prime minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination.

The two gatherings showcased Lebanon’s divided soul but also increased fears of violence between the rival sides, prompting authorities to deploy thousands of troops and set up blockades on major roads. Amid fears of violence between the opposing sides, authorities deployed thousands of troops and blocked major roads.
Hizbullah urged crowds to its stronghold of south Beirut to march behind the coffin of Mughniyeh, the group’s former security chief and one of world’s most wanted terrorists, killed in a car bombing in Damascus. The group called on supporters to “carry on our shoulders a leader of whose leadership we were proud, and a martyr by whose martyrdom we’re honored.” “Let us make our voice heard by all the enemies and murderers that we will be victorious, no matter the sacrifices,” said a Hizbullah statement aired on the militant group’s television station Al-Manar. Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah – himself in hiding because of fears of assassination since the Second Lebanon War – was expected to address mourners through a video broadcast over giant screen.

The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority had hoped that a massive show of popular support, perhaps by hundreds of thousands, on the Hariri anniversary would force the Hizbullah-led opposition to compromise in a 15-month political stalemate that has paralyzed the country. The anniversary rally also meant to send a message to Syria to stay out of Lebanon politics. Billboards on major highways called for supporters to attend: “Come down, so they don’t come back.”
(…)
By the time Mughniyeh’s funeral gets under way in early afternoon, a few miles away in downtown Beirut, a mass rally by government supporters and opponents of Hizbullah marking the third anniversary of Hariri’s assassination was to expected to wind down.

Hariri’s supporters blame Syria for killing the prominent politician in a massive suicide truck bombing in Beirut three years ago and for a series of bombings and assassinations since. Hariri’s assassination ignited mass protests and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon after 29 years of control.

Authorities have deployed some 8,000 troops and policemen to protect the downtown rally Thursday and leading roads. Armored carriers took up positions on major road intersections, and additional razor wire was brought in to separate the two sides on rain-drenched streets.