PalArab press roundup

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, while welcoming Israel's "goodwill gesture" of releasing 198 PalArab prisoners, emphasized that there can be no peace agreement unless Israel releases every single terrorist and murderer. Because they are the heroes of Palestinian Arab society, among the "moderates" like himself.

There is a report that Abbas wants to meet with another of those heroes, Samir Kuntar, when he visits Lebanon later this week.

Even so, Abbas' PA continues to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank. Apparently, Hamas members in Israeli jails is unacceptable but in PA jails it is OK.

Abbas' government is set to give $100 to some 63,000 unemployed Gaza workers and fishermen on the eve of Ramadan, thus alleviating any pressure on Hamas to take care of Gazans and freeing up Hamas funds for more important things like rockets and guns.

Egypt is said to be ready to open the Rafah crossing tomorrow to allow hundreds of Gazans and Egyptians stuck on the wrong side of the border to return to their respective areas.

Israel allowed some 1800 gas pipes to enter Gaza. Hopefully they are plastic.

Jordan is planning to enter the fray as Arabs criticize Israeli excavations around the collapsed Moroccan Gate as undermining the Temple Mount and they continue to accuse Israel of covering up any Muslim artifacts they find while faking Jewish archaeological finds. (Of course, Israeli archaeologists have found and do publicize Islamic finds, and Arabs are the ones who have been proven to destroy any vestiges of Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount.)

A writer published in two papers his disgust at Al Jazeera for allowing Israelis to be interviewed on that channel. He claims that Israel gets millions of dollars worth of free propaganda by Al Jazeera's interviews, that Israeli TV never allows any Palestinian Arabs to appear on its channels, and that allowing Israelis on Arab TV is "inadvertant normalization" with the Zionist enemy.