The Last Exile

A rather new political meme has been mid-wifed and delivered via this New York Times article by Avinoam Bar-Yosef which suggests Marwin Barghouti needs to be released to keep the peace process going…. First, massaging the background

The Israeli peace camp has often called for the release of Barghouti, but the security establishment has strongly opposed it. The 52-year-old, life-long activist is held responsible by Israel for directing many attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, and he was sentenced in 2004 to five life sentences

And the meme.

No. Actually I see no evidence of this of Israelis moving to the left when it comes to the peace process….if anything, I would suggest Israelis are voting rightwing and becoming far more hawkish, while economically, most Israelis stand firmly on the left – just think of the success of the recent of the housing protests.

I suspect this is the meme is the hope of the last bastion for the Israeli media, who are the last, and greatest concentration of lefties, still left in Israeli society. Mazel Tov with the meme…but it might have more weight; if the organization Barghouti lead (the Tanzim wing of PLO) was not the terrorist recruitment arm for Al Aqsa’s Martyrs’ Brigade. Some of us can still remember the havoc and blood of the intifada.
The Ballad of Oslo’s Children.

Arutz Sheva, is reporting the Palestinians are outraged that they are being held accountable for their actions.

Palestinian Authority officials cried foul on Tuesday after reports circulated saying Israel would levy sanctions, the PA’s semi-official Maan News reported. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a cabinet meeting with his eight senior ministers on Tuesday evening to discuss imposing sanctions on the cash-strapped PA following the unilateral moves by PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations. It was decided at the meeting to freeze funds normally transferred to the PA under existing bilateral agreements, and to accelerate construction in Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, and Maale Adumim.

The meeting of senior Israeli ministers came just days after UNESCO voted to admit the PA as a full-member state – and PA official’s stated intent to join no fewer than fifteen other UN organizations. “The Israeli decision to speed up settlement construction with the construction of 2,000 new housing units is an Israeli decision to accelerate the destruction of the peace process,” presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. “And the freezing of funds is stealing money from the Palestinian people,” he added. Rudeina also called on the Middle East Quartet — the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States — to “put an end to this recklessness.” Abbas advisor Namir Hammad told Maan that Israeli sanctions were “a clear violation of international conventions and initiatives,” and proof that Israel is not serious about peace. The United States has already frozen funds to the PA over its statehood bid, and followed up by freezing funds to UNESCO after the PA was admitted as a member to that organization earlier this week.

Both Israel and the US maintain PA moves at the world body are a direct violation of the 1993 Oslo Accords – signed by Israel, the US and the PA – which creates a bilateral framework for solving problems and forbids unilateral moves. The Oslo Accords mandate the PA’s very existence.

Imagine, making the Palestinians pay for the consequences of their own actions…how absolutely novel.

Via Batya, I learned there is a Qassam counter.

The mission statement:

QassamCount lets people know about every Rocket (whether it is a Katyusha, Grad, Qassam, or RPG) fired at Israel. Many media outlets do not report on these attacks so it’s up to us to provide you with the facts – and up to you to report them to the world. Our mission is to serve as a “factual backbone”, providing you with the facts so you can share them with your friends.

…and in good other news, Canada cuts funding to UNESCO. My pocketbook thanks the government.

Apparently, Hamas has ‘imposed’ a ceasefire on the Gaza Strip. So far only rockets have rained into Israel today.

But my WTF moment for this morning came courtesy of the Palestinian Authority comments reported in the Toronto Star’s report on the ‘ceasefire’

What I really do wish is that someone would ask the Palestinian Authority’s ‘spokesman/men’ how exactly will the PA be able to assert control over Hamastan? Oddly enough, the Associated Press report managed made to make that same point in the next paragraph.

Abbas, who wields limited power in the West Bank under Israel’s overall security control, asserts no such control at this time. Hamas routed his loyalists from Gaza in a violent 2007 takeover, and a reconciliation pact the two sides signed in May has stalled. Hamas, backed by Iran, opposes both peacemaking with Israel and Abbas’ statehood bid.

How very odd of the Associated Press; no doubt an editor feel asleep on the job and all well be back to normal in the next AP report.

The Popular Resistance Committee is an ad-hoc terror group composed of representatives from the various Palestinian militant terrorist fractions. Hamas is equally representative among the PRC, which is the ‘how and why’ when the PRC launches an attack into Israel (not the disputed territories) kills multiple Israeli soldiers and takes one soldier captive and the Israelis must negotiate with Hamas for his return. It is impossible to believe that the highly organized and planned multiple attacks on Israeli civilians last Thursday just outside Eilat, and planned by the Popular Resistance Committee could have trained and launched this attack without the knowledge of Hamas. Make no mistake, the Palestinians launched an attack within the recognized and undisputed borders of Israel against civilian buses and private civilian vehicles.

This attack was launched and staged to primarily attack Israeli civilians. The deliberate targeting of civilians is just the kind of behaviour which would have the international community issuing writs of indictments for war crimes – if it was committed by any other group of people rather than the Palestinians. The rocket barrages aimed deliberately at civilians is just the kind of behaviour which would have the international community issuing writs of indictments for war crimes provided – it was not committed by the Palestinians.

Not one single international writ will be issued against any Palestinian for the deliberate attack, maiming and murder of Israeli civilians. The Israelis know this, which is why they do not outsource the security of Israeli civilians to the international community. In fact, Hamas has yet to investigate any of the war crimes alleged to have been committed by Hamas members as set out in the UN Goldstone Report. Whether you agree or not with Israeli conclusions or even justice; you cannot deny or claim that the Israelis did not launch investigations. Hamas, never launched any investigation, nor will it.

The Israeli have not launched any retaliatory strikes against any non-military targets within the Gaza Strip. This is not to say Palestinian civilians have not been killed, but those have been killed were the result of being in close proximity of known military targets. It is the world of difference between these positions.

Yesterday, Hamas announced the ‘truce’ with Israel is over and umpteen rockets were launched against Israel from Hamastan with the express purpose of attacking Israeli civilians. Israel has continued to strike at suspected and known military targets within the Gaza Strip with no signs of possible let up and rumours of a ground attack are imminent.

Hamas is now calling for a renewed ‘ceasefire’ with Israel while allowing the ‘PRC’ to refuse. This is called having your cake and eating it too. In Hebrew, we refer to this as – chutzpah.

From Palestinian Media Watch comes this Palestinian Authority TV documentary which recently aired on August 10th.

“They [Israelis] know for certain that our [Palestinian] roots are deeper than their false history. We, from the balcony of our home, look out over [Islamic] holiness and on sin and filth (Jews’ praying at Western Wall) in an area that used to have [Arab] people and homes. We are drawing our new maps. When they [Israelis] disappear from the picture, like a forgotten chapter in the pages of our city’s history, we will build it anew (residential area). The Mughrabi Quarter will be built here (on the Western Wall Plaza).

The television network of the so-called ‘moderate’ Palestinians. Now according to a certain blogger of my acquaintance, accusing the Palestinians of “anti-Semitism or racism, is a stretch. To put it mildly.” For some strange reason ’stretch’ isn’t the word which comes to mind when I think Palestinian anti-Semitism. As rampant as Jewish anti-Semitism has been for centuries within the Arab world; what I find far more disturbing is those who enable Palestinian racism and prejudice by giving it a complete pass.

Update: Since Dr. Dawg just can’t seem to get it. Maybe a picture of the handiwork of the people he works so hard to provide moral cover will help him get it.

Jerusalem Post:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Thursday with a US Democratic Congressional delegation currently visiting the region, telling them that he is seeking a Palestinian state without settlements, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The sound you will not hear is any progressive wavering in the cause of Palestinian statehood. When Leiberman talks transfer of Israel’s Arab minority to a potential future Palestinian state the progressive left works itself into a frenzy of denunciations of Lieberman’s racism, but have chairman Abbas call for a ‘Jew-free’ Palestinian state, and not even a dawg barks in protest. I have to hand it to the progressives who are unstinting in their calls of condemnation of the Israeli state for racism and so-called ‘apartheid’ policies but who do not have the slightest qualms in helping the Palestinians establish their own little corner of apartheid.

Two peoples, two different standards.

The Globe and Mail ran a weekend feature piece by Patrick Martin on Hamas – and I am using the by-line heading here: Hamas: Agents of terror, partners in peace, or both?Martin tries very hard to give a ‘well-rounded’ both sides kind of piece. Some of it useful, some of it not so useful. I do give Martin credit for at least acknowledging that Hamas’ ties to the Muslim Brotherhood – although, calling Hamas an ‘off-shoot’ gives the Muslim Brotherhood cover from the rather disturbing violence Hamas has deployed throughout the years – both against Israelis and Palestinians. Hamas, is simply; the Palestinian Chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Like so very many articles on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there are a number of distortions, often reinforcing this ‘cycle of violence’ narrative which so many in the western world cling on to without respite. It also allows organizations like Hamas to cover up their less than savory narratives. Take this one -

It was in 1994 that Hamas first launched its campaign of suicide bombings targeting civilians inside Israel. The first such attack took place in Afula, in central Israel, when a 19-year-old bomber blew himself up at a bus stop, killing eight Israelis and wounding 34 others.

The date was April 6, exactly 40 days after an Israeli settler, Baruch Goldstein, a physician and reserve army officer, entered the mosque at Abraham’s tomb in Hebron and killed 29 Palestinians at prayer, wounding dozens of others. That was the event, Hamas leaders say, that crossed “a red line” and changed the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

…If Palestinian civilians at prayer could be attacked, Hamas reasoned, Israeli civilians would be considered targets too.

Which is all well and good…except The Beit El bombing also known as the Mehola Junction bombing in April 16, 1993 was the first ‘bombing’ Hamas took credit for – almost a full year before Baruch Goldstein’s infamous meltdown in Hevron.

Then there is this little gem:

Nothing quite says “Taliban” or even ‘moderate organization’ like a Hamas Agents attacking a wedding party inside the Gaza Strip…or the violent and bloody coup of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
…or launching a rocket attack at an Israeli school bus from the Gaza Strip and killing one Israeli school boy this past April.

For some reason, the entire history of Hamas targeting Israeli civilians inside the post-49 borders of Israel with rockets is conveniently scratched over…although, I admit, it probably is best to forget it – especially if one wants to accept Hamas can be ‘moderated’ or you have a vested interest in white-washing the Hamas narrative for mass Western media consumption.

As far as Hamas being an agent for peace goes…it probably only works as long as the word ‘peace’ and ‘grave’ are used in the same sentence.

The Toronto Star carries a fluff piece on a Canadian group seeking to raise funds to send a Canadian contingent boat to sail to the Gaza Strip which is currently under an Israeli naval blockade. Make no mistake, this is most definitely not a ‘humanitarian aid’ mission delivering food, medical or humanitarian supplies to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as Palestinian ‘activist’ Kevin Neish makes very clear, and I quote,

“The goal isn’t to send aid to Gaza, but to break the blockade,” Neish said.

While I realize it is all the rage for the alleged peace activists to go into full-scale touchy-feelie towards the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but let us not loose sight of the fact, all Hamas has to do to come in from the international cold and end the Israeli naval blockage is;

1) Denounce the use of terrorism to further political ends
2) Amend the Hamas charter so the destruction of Israel is not part of Hamas’ political mandate.
3) Return Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit to Israel.

Three simple actions which would cost the Hamas leadership nothing but probably gain them just about everything which would radically improve the quality of life for ordinary Palestinians, and yet, Hamas refuses to succumb to ‘international pressure’ to do the only moral and right thing under the circumstances.

These Israeli demands are not outrageous or beyond the pale, and if people such as Neish, were really concerned for the welfare of the Palestinians under Hamas control – he’d be first in line in bringing pressure against Hamas rather than wasting his time attempting to run a blockade which is a civilized response to indefensible barbarism. Neish and his fellow-travellers won’t attempt to apply political pressure to Hamas simply because no one does peace activist quite like a Palestinian supporter.