Hamas paranoia hits a new peak

On Monday I reported that the deputy head of the "political bureau" of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, was accusing Egypt of wanting to exercise sovereignty over the Gaza Strip as it had before 1967. His evidence was the increase in helicopter flights from the Egyptian army over Gaza.

That theory was nutty enough, but now Hamas spokesman Dr. Salah Bardawil has run with it and really turned on the crazy.

According to Bardawil, the Egyptian helicopters are not coming from Egypt, as initial reports indicated, but from Israel. This means, he thinks, that the helicopters are being inspected in Israel first and Egypt is cooperating with Israel in this enterprise of Egyptian surveillance. Why Israel, with its drones and blimps and airplanes, needs Egyptian help is not quite explained.

But Bardawil, like all good Arab despots and their officials, spins a conspiracy theory that goes beyond Israel and Egypt.

You see, John Kerry announced the resumption of negotiations between Israel and the PLO in...Jordan! This means that the US and Israel are pushing both Egypt and Jordan to re-occupy Gaza and the West Bank, respectively! The PLO, Hamas' enemy, is of course part of this scheme as well. Bardawil characterizes Abbas' agreement to (pretend to) negotiate is "national suicide."

Hamas' paranoia comes, of course, from Egypt's decision to treat it virtually as an enemy - one that both kills Egyptian Army soldiers and one that steals scarce fuel from Egypt. Without Muslim Brotherhood patronage, Hamas is lost, and its seeming ascendancy on the back of the Arab Spring has evaporated.

Yesterday, both Israeli and Egyptian helicopters were reported to be seen in Gaza skies. Chances are that there is a low level of security coordination between Israel and Egypt as far as activities in the Sinai and in destroying smuggling tunnels is concerned, as the Camp David agreements require Israeli permission for any increase in Egyptian army presence in the Sinai - permission that Israel has been liberal in granting, to allow the Egyptian army to fight the Islamists and jihadists in the Sinai and to protect its border with Gaza.

Bardawil's paranoid fantasies clearly reflect Hamas' mindset and its fear of losing its grip on power. It sees things like the Palestinian "Tamarod" Facebook page, with nearly 20,000 members. Today, it even accused Fatah  of being behind that movement, when it is obvious that Tamarod Palestine hates Fatah and Hamas equally.

As with the revolution beforehand, the new Egyptian coup affects the entire region. However, it is way too early to count the Islamists out. There is no strong, well-organized and popular alternative; slogans against the Islamists is not enough to hold any nation together. So while Hamas and the MB are down, they are hardly out.

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Hamas reportedly breaks bones of PRC terrorist who shot rockets - and that's a good thing

Last Friday, two rockets from Gaza were fired into Israel.

According to Palestine Press Agency, the Nasser Saladin Brigades of the PRC terror group announced that one of their members was arrested and beaten by Hamas on Saturday, fracturing his limbs. They said that the reason for the arrest was suspicion of shooting the rockets. (As far as I can tell, the PRC didn't take credit for the launches.)

Outside of the obvious human-rights problem that Hamas and the PA don't care about their own laws, this is actually the best possible situation in stopping terror attacks.

Both Hamas and the PA control land and have established quasi governments from which they derive their legitimacy. This is a source of pride, and pride is a huge motivating factor in the honor/shame society of the Arabs.

Therefore, it is something that must be protected at almost all costs.

Without negotiations and without fanfare, Israel makes it clear that if it is attacked, she will respond. The responses necessarily involve the hated Jews either physically coming to the areas that the attacks originated from or attacking from the air. Either way, it weakens the perceived sovereignty of the PA and Hamas over the lands that they govern, and this is a source of shame. Therefore, it must be avoided.

And if that means that these groups will stop their own citizens from attacking Israel, then that is what has to be done.

Peace can only occur if it is in the self-interests of the parties. The reason that two decades of the Oslo process have not brought a real peace is that the terms given violate the self-interests of both parties.

A detente, however, is in the interests of both parties. Over the years Israel has established just such a detente by exploiting the fact that the PA and Hamas have something to lose by not cooperating. They want to stay in power? Fine - as long as Israel is left alone, their own leadership is safe.

This is the closest thing to peace that is possible in the conflict. Thuggish methods to enforce the truce is not ideal, but it is much better than rockets landing on schools.

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Hamas official says Egypt wants to take back Gaza

Felesteen, a Hamas newspaper, reports that the deputy head of the "political bureau" of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, is accusing Egypt of wanting to exercise sovereignty over the Gaza Strip as it had before 1967.

Reports from Gaza indicate that this morning, for the third time this month, Egyptian helicopters hovered over the sector, apparently during Egyptian army operations to destroy smuggling tunnels.

Israel has not interfered with Egyptian aircraft over Gaza.

Marzouk says that the helicopters show that Egypt wants to re-assert its rule over Gaza. This is, of course, nonsense - no one wants Gaza. Gazans would leave en masse if a single Arab country would welcome them as equal citizens. But that vaunted Arab hospitality and support for their Palestinian brethren only goes so far. (Even when Egypt controlled Gaza, they kept it as a sort of prison for all Palestinians who ended up in Egypt.)

Marzouk also reiterated that Hamas has no desire to attack Egypt, and that all the news reports about Hamas members being arrested or killed along with Sinai jihadists are lies.

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Hamas terrorists mourn Helen Thomas

From Hamas' Qassam Brigades English website, in one of the rotating headlines:

They also proudly show the video where she recommends ethnically cleansing Jews from the Middle East. This is the "stand" they are referring to.

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Hamas, complaining about "humanitarian disaster," asks Israel for more fuel

Here's an unusual article on Hamas' Qassam Brigades (English) website.

Instead of its usual Israel-bashing, Hamas is trying to arouse world opinion against Egypt's crackdown on smuggling tunnels, specifically fuel smuggling. (This article is not on their Arabic site, so this is only meant for English-speaking readers.)

The Gaza Strip is living a nightmare about a life-sapping blockade looming, with Egypt’s army having or destroyed or shut hundreds of underground border tunnels with Gaza, the lifeline for the Gazans after Hamas won 2006 elections, and the following Israeli border blockade.

The unraveling question haunting Gazans’ minds is whether Egypt’s political unrest would continue to affect their access to life basics, particularly fuel, which no longer could reach the Gaza tunnels.

Fuel shortages have seen Gaza environment, health, and transport sectors remarkably crippled, worsening the humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave.

The vast majority of Gaza’s 1.7 million used to opt for the cheaper Egyptian fuel. However, head of the government’s petroleum directorate Abdul Nasser Muahnna said last week “Gaza’s gas station syndicate which had reduced its dependency on Israeli supplies of fuel in the past, has now asked Israel for fuel provisions to head off the shortage,”

Remember, Egypt's fuel that was smuggled to Gaza was subsidized by Egypt for her own citizens, which then sold them to Gaza at a discount. Hamas is pretending that they have a right to subsidized fuel from Egypt that Egyptians themselves cannot spare.

For years, Israel has had capacity to pump more fuel into Gaza. Hamas had refused.

Now comes the sob story:

Gaza municipal councils announced a few days ago that the continued fuel crisis would affect vital sectors and subsequently cause an imminent humanitarian disaster.

Spokesman of the councils said that “since the power generators running the Gaza’s 57 sewage pumps highly depend on diesel fuel, it would not be working as far as the fuel crisis didn’t defuse,”

Moreover, water wells which amount to 190 and constitute Gazans’ main source of water for drinking, agricultural and domestic use basically depend on diesel-powered generators.

While solid waste collection services have also disrupted due to the flaring fuel problem. Head of Gaza Municipality’s Health and Environment Department Abdel Rahim Abu Qumbuz said that “50% of solid waste collection vehicles that transport more than 1,500 tons of waste daily from the neighborhoods and streets of the Gaza Strip to landfills have suspended work.

“The accumulated thousands of tons of harmful waste shall ensure spread of many infectious diseases provoked by rodents and flies,” he followed.

Minister of Local Government Mohammed al-Farra warned Thursday that an environmental disaster may surface in the near future as United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has recently stopped to sponsor Gaza municipal councils with diesel for waste collection vehicles.

Alongside the diesel fuel crisis that faced by the ministry, what is aggravating the problem, Al-Farra added, is that the International donors reneged on its commitment to supporting the hygiene sector, and halted its support for the drivers and street cleaners,.

“As an alternative to the diesel-powered vehicles, we’re seeking to recruit 1,000 cleaners provided that 50% of them have four-wheeled carts, in order that municipalities continue to work in raising the level of cleanliness in the Gaza Strip.

The health sector has been squarely affected by the fuel crisis. Ministry of Health warned against the acute shortage in the quantities of fuel to run the power generators supplying hospitals, blood banks, medical centers, public health laboratories in the Gaza Strip.

Spokesman of the ministry Ashraf al-Qidra said that “the overall health services are directly harmed by the current crisis; the public hospitals, medical clinics, laboratories and blood banks need a monthly amount of nearly 10,000 liters of diesel to run, a monthly of 150,000 liters of gasoline to run transport vehicles, ambulances,”

“We have rescheduled the movement of ambulances and transport services in general to be at the minimum and work only during emergencies; we are afraid of the consequences on the Palestinian patients if the crisis continued to exist, as there is 579 patients, including 15 children, with renal failure who undergo 1,800 dialysis sessions per week, 110 infants lying in incubators,” the official said.

Ministry of Transport and Communications said Tuesday “in light of the inaccessibility of petroleum products to the Gaza Strip through the border tunnels, more than 70,000 taxi drivers have been jobless,”

Spokesman of the ministry Khalil Zayan said at a press conference held Thursday in Gaza that “about 20,000 public service vehicles, and 30,000 private vehicles have been disrupted,”

The only fuel that Hamas has been getting regularly from Israel is cooking gas.

But as I have shown, Israel had provided diesel for their fuel plants in the past. Hamas regularly manipulates the amount of fuel arriving from Israel to create these regular "humanitarian crises".

Hamas can find the money for importing rockets, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank weapons they can aim at schoolbuses. But to pay market rates for fuel is simply not acceptable for this terrorist organization that is holding 1.5 million people hostage.

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Egypt says helicopter over Gaza was "to protect our sovereignty"

Last week I noted Arab reporters that an Egyptian helicopter hovered over Gaza for about an hour. The Times of Israel quoted Israeli sources as saying it accidentally strayed over Gaza for only a few minutes.

Now, an adviser to the interim Egyptian president is saying it was deliberate.

Al Ahram reports that Dr. Mustafa Hijazi, a political adviser to the president, said that the Egyptian overflights over the Gaza Strip comes as part of a security framework for the protection of Egyptian sovereignty. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon he said that there are military operations to clear the Sinai cleared of terrorists and to defend its "sovereignty of the homeland."

Clearly, Egypt is still regarding Gaza as a major threat to its own security, even though Hamas stresses that it has no desire to hurt Egypt.

Israeli moves to defend its own territory from threats from Gaza are a bit more likely to result in UN condemnations, though.

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Hamas starts begging Egypt for fuel

Al Ahram reports:

Hamas spokesman Ehab Al-Ghaseen said on Wednesday that the Egyptian army has initiated a campaign to close smuggling tunnels to Gaza.

"These campaigns were initiated for specific political reasons," added the spokesman.

Al-Ghaseen stressed the need for a formal commercial alternative before the tunnels are closed, saying that calls to Egypt have been made concerning the matter.

The suspension of smuggling activities has led to a serious gas shortage, added Al-Ghaseen, who underlined the tunnels' importance to the Strip.

Remember that Gaza can get much more fuel from Israel, but it is at market rates and not subsidized by the Egyptian government the way the smuggled fuel is.

Here is a video showing the Egyptians destroying a reservoir for fuel near the Gaza border that was meant to be pumped by smugglers into Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian NGO Network issued a joint press statement condemning Egyptian media incitement against Palestinians, aimed at "defaming Palestinian citizens."

A number of "unfortunate" decisions have been made regarding Palestinian mobility at border crossings and airports to and from Egypt, the statement added. The statement did not elaborate on the nature of these decisions nor the party responsible for them.

The Network expressed sympathy for Egyptian concerns given the recent political unrest, but called on Egyptian authorities and civil society organisations to limit incitement before it damages relations between Egypt and Gaza.

The Palestinian Arabs are the victims of incitement by the Arab media? That must be an awful feeling!

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Egyptian Sufi leader says Hamas is a satanic arm of the Jews

Sufi leader Mustafa Zayed defended Egypt's closing of the Gaza borders and smuggling tunnels. He expressed support for the Palestinian Arabs who are suffering, he says, under Hamas rule, an organization that seeks to split them into separate sectors.

"Everyone knows" that Hamas is really a satanic arm of the Jews, according to Zayed.

While he expressed sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza, he also said that the problem is partially their fault, because they have allowed this rotten and demnonic organization to survive in their midst.

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Hamas TV network yanked off Egyptian satellite, and may have lost Iranian funding

In the wake of the recent events in Egypt, the interim government has taken a number of Islamist stations off of the Nilesat satellite - including Hamas' Al Quds TV.

They are telling their customers to continue to watch them through Arabsat, which reportedly broadcasts it  with much worse video quality.

But that's not Hamas TV's only problem. According to M.E. Transparent, the Al Quds TV channel was funded via Iran, and Iran has cut off funding, endangering the entire station.

The channel is based out of Beirut with offices in Gaza, the West Bank and (maybe) Damascus.

Hamas has another channel, Al Aqsa TV. According to its website it is also transmitted on Nilesat, but I couldn't find it there, so it might have been pulled as well. .

(h/t Ian)

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Israel uses balloons, radar to keep an eye on Gaza

From World Tribune:

Israel’s military has enhanced capabilities in monitoring the Gaza Strip.

The military’s Southern Command has improved training and equipment in maintaining surveillance on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The command has used its Nesher Battalion to collect combat intelligence from the 360-square kilometer strip.

“The Combat Intelligence Corps has significantly upgraded its detection systems in the past few years,” the military said.

On July 2, the military reported that Nesher integrated advanced intelligence collection assets that target the Gaza Strip. The assets were said to have included radar, remotely-operated weapons and balloons that reach an altitude 300 meters.

“These balloons have two missions,” deputy battalion commander Maj. Shai Barda said. “One is to assist the soldiers on the ground in monitoring every visible inch of the borders, and the second is to gather long-distance field intelligence that is requested from us.”

The enhancements were reported amid Hamas’ effort to rebuild its military. Officials said Hamas was focusing on the production of long-range rockets that could strike such Israeli cities as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In March 2013, Southern Command granted Nesher sole responsibility for identifying threats from the Gaza Strip. One of the battalion’s six companies was assigned the operation of the surveillance balloons.

“We see some kind of activity along the border every day,” Barda said.

“If there is an area that is not visible from the ground, these advanced surveillance balloons can go as high as 300 meters and cover any ground that may be difficult to observe from down below. Ninety-nine percent of the year, the balloons spend up in the air.”

There have been occasional stories about these balloons before - apparently they are tethered and don't directly enter Gaza airspace.

Still, I wonder what protection they have from being simply shot down.

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UNRWA cancels Gaza Marathon because Hamas refuses to allow women

In December, UNRWA announced a marathon in Gaza to raise money for children's programs.



Today, UNRWA says the marathon was canceled:

We regret to announce that the UNRWA Gaza Marathon, due to be held on 10 April 2013, has been cancelled following a decision by the authorities in Gaza not to allow women to participate.

Registered Marathon participants who still wish to come to Gaza are welcome; UNRWA is working on an alternative programme of events which will be forwarded to those interested as soon as possible.

UNRWA is disappointed with this decision, and sincerely regrets the inconvenience this may cause to those who planned to participate in the marathon.

It appears that women were allowed to run in previous marathons.

Spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said, "Unfortunately, the cancellation decision was taken after lengthy negotiations with the government of Gaza, which has rejected the participation of women in the marathon."

Notice that UNRWA stays away from mentioning "Hamas" and does not condemn or criticize the misogynist decision, only saying it is "disappointed."

And Gaza's slide into Islamist Hamastan continues, while the world pretends Hamas is "moderating."

Sort of like Egypt.

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PA facing "worst financial crisis yet" - Arabs ignore it while Israel tries to help!

From AFP:

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank is facing its “worst financial crisis” since its 1994 establishment, the Palestinian labor minister told AFP on Sunday.

Ahmed Majdalani warned that a shortfall in the delivery of aid from Arab donor nations means the PA will be unable to pay employees their July salaries or pay off debts it owes to private businesses across the West Bank.

“It is the worst financial crisis experienced by the Palestinian Authority since its founding,” he told AFP.

“What is available to the Palestinian Authority at the moment in terms of funds is not enough to pay government employee salaries this month, with Ramadan approaching,” he said.

“It is not sufficient to pay the bills that the Palestinian Authority owes to private companies.”

The Palestinian Authority has frequently warned it faces a massive financial shortfall that threatens its ability to pay thousands of government employees on time, or even at all.

A delay in salary payments would be particularly sensitive this month, as the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan begins in mid-July. Muslims often break their daily fast at large communal meals, stocking up ahead of time on plenty of food.

Last July, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said the government would pay workers half-salaries because it faced a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars.

He attended a special meeting of the Arab League to urge Arab donor nations to make good on aid pledges.

Arab nations have been reneging on promised aid to the Palestinian Arabs for years.

What is fascinating is that while their Arab "brethren" have treated the Palestinians like dirt, Israel went to the International Monetary Fund in order to take out a billion dollar loan on the PA's behalf - and to guarantee it for them!

Israel sought a $1 billion IMF bridging loan for the Palestinian Authority earlier this year, but was turned down, an Israeli newspaper said Monday in a report confirmed to AFP by a senior Israeli official.

Haaretz reported that Israel's central bank chief Stanley Fischer approached the International Monetary Fund for the money after discussing the Palestinian Authority's financial crisis with Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.

Sometime after the IMF's annual conference in mid-April, Fischer asked the body for the loan, which Israel would have taken on the Palestinians' behalf.

Israel would then have transferred the money to the Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by president Mahmud Abbas, which would have repaid the money to the Israeli government.

Israel would have remained responsible for repaying the loan to the IMF, under the deal, but the institution eventually declined to make the loan available.

Haaretz said it turned the proposal down because it feared setting a precedent of making IMF money available to non-state entities, like the Palestinian Authority, which as a non-state cannot directly request or receive IMF funding.

A senior Israeli official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed that the details contained in the Haaretz report were accurate.

Israel is willing to go into debt to help the Palestinian Arab leaders while their fellow Arabs promise lots and deliver little.

One aspect of this story that no one talks about, of course, is who exactly is getting paid a salary by the PA.

Some $5 million a month is spent on the terrorists in Israeli prison themselves. Arab car thieves don't get this stipend - only terrorists.

And in 2005, it was estimated that some 10% of the PA budget went towards terrorists and their families.

Moreover, over 60% of the PA budget goes towards Gaza, much of it in salaries for PA workers who aren't working in a vain hope that maybe the PA will one day return to power there. Some 80,000 people in Gaza are being paid to stay home, and the PA has spent over $7 billion on Gaza since Hamas took over.

So the financial crisis can be solved fairly easily, if the PA only paid people who really work and forced Hamas to spend its own money governing Gaza rather than indirectly funding Hamas purchase of weapons.

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Gaza exports clothes to British retailer. Who will boycott them?

From Reuters:

Israel allowed on Monday the export of Palestinian-made clothes from the Gaza Strip for the first time in at least five years, a Palestinian official said.

Raed Fattouh, who coordinates supplies into Gaza, said a truck carrying 2,000 pieces of mainly woolen garments were exported through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing towards an Israeli seaport en route to Britain.

Gaza's Ashour knitwear company, which was rebuilt with UK aid after it closed in 2007, will export the goods to Britain's J.D. Williams clothes outlet, a UK official said.

Since Hamas is systematically repressing Palestinian Arabs - unjustly jailing them, evicting them from their homes, and so forth -  and since Hamas controls Gaza and collects taxes from these exports, I'm sure that the "pro-Palestinian" crowd will want to boycott these clothes - and the entire JD Williams company - to help bring down the Hamas government.

That is the logic of the "pro-Palestinian" boycotters, isn't it?

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Qatar cancels "Music and Dialogue Festival": too "Zionist"

If you want to find an Israeli who is "pro-Palestinian", you won't be able to do better than Daniel Barenboim.

The Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been granted Palestinian citizenship for his work in promoting cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.

The Argentine-born musician is believed to be the first person in the world to possess both Israeli and Palestinian passports after receiving his new documentation at the end of a piano recital in Ramallah in the West Bank at the weekend.

"Under the most difficult circumstances he has shown solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian MP and presidential candidate, said at the recital held to raise money for medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.

Barenboim even managed to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza last year to perform with his mixed Arab-Jewish orchestra.

And for the past few years, that same orchestra - the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with Edward Said - has performed in a festival in Qatar.

But not this year.

The event was supposed to include three concerts featuring the orchestra under Barenboim's lead as well as a debate at a local university on the subject of "music as a contribution to peace."

Said died nine years ago, his widow was among those invited to the debate. Everything was ready, thousands of tickets were sold, but just a few days ago Barenboim was surprised to hear that the Qatari authorities announced that the festival was cancelled.

The reason? "Sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world." The official announcement further stated: "We are aware of Maestro Barenboim's special talents, but the festival under his lead is cancelled."

Apparently this is only a diplomatic pretext and the reality may be that the Qatari authorities surrendered to the pressure that was put on them by the Palestinian organization for boycott on Israel.

The Arab media insisting that the reason for the cancellation is the fact that "Barenboim represents the occupation."

Editorials in newspapers throughout the Arab world stated: "This isn't the time or place to entertain Israelis and a Zionist conductor. Qatari authorities are giving the Zionist maestro an opportunity to present a seemingly positive aspect of Israel."

Omar Barghouti, the hypocrite leader of the Israel boycott movement who has no problem getting his doctorate from an Israeli university, explains why Barenboim is such a horrible Zionist:

Although he rejects the 1967 occupation, he also rejects the return of refugees to the homes they were thrown out of during the nakba [in 1948].

Barenboim attempts to cleverly clean up Israel’s image by accepting some Palestinian rights, but at the same time he repudiates the most significant of Palestinian rights.

Meaning the right to destroy the Jewish state.

Barghouti has an entire op-ed in Al Akhbar about this, decrying how Arab countries are "normalizing" relations with Israel in academia, the arts and even sports. He loves to self-righteously force his agenda to boycott Israel on everyone but himself.

Barenboim might be spending his entire life trying to achieve peace and dialogue between Israel and the Arab world, but he still accepts that Israel has a right to exist. That is an unpardonable crime.

And Qatar cannot appear to be "Zionist" by hosting a pro-peace artist who was honored by the Palestinian Authority. That is too controversial.

This episode also neatly proves that the BDS movement is not merely against "occupation" but against the very existence of Israel itself.

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Hamas still holding Gaza hostage by refusing fuel shipments

From Ma'an:

The Gaza Strip has not received enough fuel to resume normal electricity levels, a Gaza energy official told Ma'an on Saturday.

The deal as described by al-Nunu includes longer-term measures to increase the capacity of the power plant and link Gaza's electricity grid to Egyptian infrastructure. The shorter-term requirement is the delivery of fuel into Gaza, but a disagreement on the route of the fuel still appeared to be pending agreement.

Egypt wants to stop the use of underground tunnels for delivery of Egyptian fuel purchased by Palestinian authorities, and has severely reduced supply through the tunnel network, prompting the current crisis.

The Gaza government is pressing for the Rafah terminal between the countries to be equipped for fuel transfer, and is reluctant to accept fuel to be delivered via the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

The government fears Israel will use control of supplies to squeeze the coastal strip.

However, Rafah currently is only fitted for passengers, and its development is restricted by an agreement between Egypt, Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

"We are still waiting for the Egyptian agreement to let fuel enter Gaza officially and legally," Abu al-Amreen told Ma'an.

As I have noted several times, Israel never restricted the flow if fuel to Gaza except for logistical reasons, and was regularly supplying all of Gaza's power plant needs until January 2011 when Hamas refused the shipments.

So when you cut out all the double-talk, Hamas is less interested in helping Gazans than it is in refusing to get fuel through Kerem Shalom. Hamas is using the crisis as an excuse to gain politically - and Gazans are the ones suffering because of it. Hamas knows that if the fuel goes through Kerem Shalom, there would be no political pressure on Egypt to prioritize other delivery methods, so Hamas prefers to keep Gaza in the dark - endangering  the electric supply to hospitals, water treatment plants and other infrastructure - to get its message across.

The entire crisis is an exercise in cynicism and disregard for the lives of Gazans, and yet the world is still fooled by Hamas' subterfuge.

Do you think that "pro-Palestinian" activists would ever say a word against Hamas? Have they ever?

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Sometimes, no one cares when Palestinian Arab homes are demolished

30 homes were destroyed in the territories yesterday - and there is no outcry.

The reason, of course, is that the homes were in Gaza City and it is Hamas doing the destruction.

Palestine Press Agency (seemingly now only on Facebook as a result of hackers) reports that Hamas bulldozers destroyed 30 homes and displaced dozens of families last night, because they built them on government land, sending the families into the cold without notice.

It will be interesting to see if Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch issue any reports about this.

Even more so, I look forward to seeing the condemnations from all those supposedly "pro-Palestinian" organizations who issue mountains of press releases on behalf of their beloved oppressed pets when they perceive any injustice against them.

Any injustice, that is, as long as they can blame Jews.

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In Hamas, doesn't take much to reach martyrdom

The headline of the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades website laments the death of Nabil Zaig, 41, who was a part of the terror group since its inception in 1987 (which would have made him 17 at the time.)

The article calls him a "military martyr."

But how did he die?

He drowned, after going for a midnight swim.

Becoming a martyr ain't what it used to be.

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Report: 14 "Naksa" mourners in Syria killed - by Palestinian terrorists! (UPDATED x3)

From Ma'an:

Fourteen Palestinian refugees were reported killed and another 43 injured on Monday, a report from the Palestinian government's WAFA news said.

The victims were part of a massive group in Al-Yarmok, an unofficial Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus, mourning the death of between 10-23 Palestinians by Israeli fire on the Golan Heights ceasefire line the day before.

Angered over the failure of camp leaders to organize demonstrations marking the Naksa, the anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights, an estimated 100,000 mourners were said to have attacked the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command.

Militants with the PFLP-GC reportedly opened fire on the group, who were taken to a local camp hospital for treatment. The report cited hospital staff saying 14 were pronounced dead.

During the clash, mourners reportedly set fire into the PFLP-GC headquarters, and condemned the group for its use of weapons against the crowd.

Palestine Press Agency adds that the PFLP-GC is a close partner with the Syrian leadership. Which would explain why a recognized terrorist group runs the Yarmouk camp.

Sources said that the demonstrators chanted against [PFLP-GC leader] Ahmad Jibril, Khaled Mashaal and other political leaders based in Damascus, accusing them of being agents of the Syrian regime.

This group was not "pro-Palestinian" enough to have some ceremonies to mark the 1967 war - like the Lebanese camps that had their solemn burning of tires at the entrances - so they attacked their terrorist leaders.

The terrorists did what one would expect them to do - shoot and kill their fellow Palestinian Arabs. (Note also that Syria has no problem allowing terror groups in these camps to be armed.)

The camp residents, naturally, then burn down the headquarters of their leaders.

And the upshot is - there are now 14 more martyrs of the "Naksa." And the Syrians have reason to be suspicious of their Palestinian Arab "guests," which could have some interesting repercussions, as the Palestinian Arabs in Syria have mostly been on the sidelines during the rioting against the regime.

Yes, I know you need a scorecard to keep all the factions straight. One thing is clear, though - everyone hates Israel, as this video of anti-government protesters in Homs stomping on Israeli - and Iranian! - flags shows:



UPDATE: YNet reports that a visit by Hamas' Khaled Meshal started the riots! YNet doesn't mention how many fatalities, though.
(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

UPDATE 2: Palestine Press Agency updated the story. Apparently the funeral attendees resented that the PFLP-GC head Jibril and Hamas leader Meshal attended the funeral.

They accused both terror leaders of sending Palestinian Arabs to the border to get killed - to serve the agenda of Syria to distract from their own bloody war against their people.

UPDATE 3: Graphic video of one of the protesters getting shot in the head by the PFLP-GC. Viewer discretion advised.


Amazing how there is no video of Naksa protesters getting supposedly fatally shot by the IDF, isn't it?
(h/t Yael)

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Vittorio was not a peace activist. He was not a human rights activist.

Vittorio Arrigoni, who was killed yesterday by a Muslim group in Gaza, was not a peace activist. He was not a human rights activist.

And, as Zvi points out in the comments to my last post, he was not even a "pro-Palestinian" activist.

A look at his Facebook page photos show nothing about how much he loves Palestinian Arabs. Barely any pictures of him smiling with his friends the Gazans. Unlike most Facebook pages, stuffed with photos of people smiling with their family and friends, Arrigoni's page is filled with hate.

In fact, one can see how he defined himself: not as pro-anything, but only as anti-Zionist:

He never had anything bad to say about Hamas. He never campaigned for Arab countries to stop their discrimination against Palestinian Arabs. He never spoke a word demanding that "refugee camps" in Gaza be dismantled and real homes built.

Here is how he was described by his Free Gaza friend, Mary Hughes Thompson (via email):

Words can't express the shock and sense of bereavement at the loss of this beautiful man, who considered himself Palestinian.  The videos we saw of him bloodied and blindfolded were chilling, nothing like the Vittorio we knew and loved, always smiling, always wearing a skipper's hat and holding his beloved pipe.  

The anti-Israel left might consider themselves "Palestinian," but clearly some Palestinian Arabs don't.

Imagine if Christian Zionists who visit Israel in solidarity were murdered - by Jews. You can bet that their enthusiasm for Israel would cool quite quickly.

But that is because their support is built on love, not hate.

So-called "Pro-Palestinian activists" are not motivated by love. If they were, they would act completely differently. So the murders of Arrigoni and Juliano Mer-Khamis - done by the people they supposedly love - will not make a dent in far leftist "support" for PalArabs, because they don't support them in any real way.

They only have a shared hate for Israel.

One last cartoon on Arrigoni's Facebook page is stunning in its irony, an irony that his fellow activists will never, ever get:

UPDATE: One more lovely photo that Vittorio thought was wonderful: (h/t Kramerica)

His heart was overflowing with love.

To be clear...he didn't deserve to die. But he doesn't deserve to be remembered as a person who cared one bit about peace or human rights, either.

 He was a hater.

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Hamas continues to arrest and beat political opponents

Today, Hamas raided and closed the headquarters of a group called the Democratic Union of Palestine in Rafah, confiscating some of the group's files and arresting and beating its leaders.

Hamas also detained and beat 14 Fatah members.

These sort of events are happening pretty much every day, yet one would have to look long and hard to find any Western so-called "human rights for Gaza" organization mentioning them, let alone condemning them. Nothing from Free Gaza, or Viva Palestina, or IHH, or any of the other groups who so publicly claim to care about the human rights of Gazans.

Which just goes to prove that there is no such thing as a "pro-Palestinian" activist. They are anti-Israel agitators, period. And that is how they should be referred to.

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