Khaled Abu Toameh: Why a Palestinian State Will Become a Source of Instability
This is precisely what Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries want: to turn the Gaza Strip into an Israeli, and not Arab, problem.JCPA: Internal Hamas Debate about Rethinking Policies
There is good reason to believe that the Arabs are not going to change their attitude toward the Palestinians once a Palestinian state is established. The future Palestinian state will have to continue relying on Israeli and Western aid in order to survive.
And if Israel and the West do not come to their assistance, the Palestinians will find themselves begging at the doorsteps of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State. Then, the future Palestinian state will be anything but a source of stability in the Middle East.
The results of the Gaza war have caused Hamas serious distress, something its leadership did not foresee before launching the war with Israel. The movement now appears to be in a process of stocktaking and reassessment in light of its situation, including the difficulties in rehabilitating the Gaza Strip, the bitter rift with the Palestinian Authority, and the deterioration in relations with Egypt. Among other things, Egypt has been constraining Hamas’s ability to arm itself.A Fantasy-driven Muslim World can Never Become Modern
To this must be added the effects of the weakening of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent-movement of Hamas, and of the strengthening of the Islamic State as an organization that, in the name of Islam, has been challenging Arab regimes and Western states as it acts to establish the Islamic Caliphate-the goal to which Hamas also aspires.
A recent conference at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah addressed the issue of “The Political and Strategic Status of the Gaza Strip.” Among the topics discussed were the difficulties Hamas is encountering in the domestic, national, and regional spheres and the need for a thorough rethinking of its tactics and strategy.
In the last century those Renaissance and Enlightenment values finally triumphed in China, India, and China.
But not in the Muslim world, which went back on one of its periodic regressions to the fantasy past. The worst thing is that the Islamic Reaction to the past has been supported by Western politicians -- Jimmy Carter did it with the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran; Bill Clinton failed to get Bin Laden at least four different times; and now Obama, worst of all, consistently tries to make “friends” by religious maniacs in Qatar and Turkey, in the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.
This is crazy, of course. But Obama is also the most mentally stuck person ever to occupy the presidency. He will never change.
The coming presidential election will therefore mean do or die for America and the world. We must find political leaders who are not delusional. It seems like a pretty basic idea, but twice in the last six years Americans have voted for a fantasy-driven person -- supported by a fantasy-driven media.
As the Iranian Bomb will soon teach the world, mass fantasies have a way of cracking under the pressure of facts.
It’s better not to wait for that to happen.
‘Egypt thwarts Islamic State-linked bid to hit Israeli targets at sea’
Egypt thwarted a bid by Islamic State-affiliated terrorists to attack Israeli targets in the Mediterranean Sea last month, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Monday. The terrorists commandeered an Egyptian Navy missile boat for the planned attack, the TV report said, but were stopped at sea by a pursuing vessel, and eight people were believed killed in the ensuing battle.OU 'Adopts' Family of Murdered Druze Officer
At the time of the incident, on November 12, the Egyptian military said one of its navy vessels came under “terrorist” attack in the Mediterranean, leaving five servicemen injured and eight others missing at sea. Four boats used by the assailants were destroyed and 32 of the suspected militants were arrested and are under interrogation, the military said in a statement at the time.
Adding fresh detail to that account, Monday’s Israeli TV report said Islamic State-linked Sunni extremists “staged an accident” and were able to install one of their own group in temporary charge of an Egyptian missile boat. They set out for sea from the port of Damietta, and intended to target Israeli boats and/or gas installations in the Mediterranean.
The Orthodox Union (OU) was moved by the story of Zidan Seif, the 30-year-old Druze police officer who was murdered by terrorists at the Jerusalem synagogue in Har Nof, as he tried to stop their attack in which they murdered four Jews.Israeli stabbed by Palestinian woman in West Bank
Rabbi Avi Berman, Director General of the Orthodox Union in Israel, recently visited the Seif family home in the town of Yanuh-Jat in the Galilee.
Rabbi Berman told the family of the strong desire on behalf of Jewish communities from the United States to thank them for their son’s heroics and express their sympathy, and added, "Dozens of rabbis, donors and members of the communities asked me to come here and thank you on their behalf to your wonderful family who raised a man who sacrificed his life for others."
An Israeli was stabbed and lightly injured Monday morning in the West Bank south of Jerusalem.Gush Etzion Stabbing Victim: 'It Was a Miracle'
The female Palestinian attacker was shot and badly injured by security forces after assaulting the victim at Gush Etzion junction, on a major road in the Etzion settlement bloc.
Emergency services provided first aid to the victim.
Initial reports from the IDF indicated the victim was a civilian.
The army said forces at the scene “overcame the suspect and transferred her for further medical assistance.”
Josh Yehoshua Lorech is the victim of the stabbing attack on Monday, in which a female Arab terrorist of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction attacked him with a knife at Gush Etzion Junction in Judea.Clashes break out in West Bank town after stabbing attack
Recounting the attempt to murder him, Lorech said on video "I stood at the hitchhiking station, I spoke with someone who I knew who stopped in his car to pick up hitchhikers. As I was speaking with him, suddenly I felt a blow here on the left side."
"I was kind of in shock until I managed to turn around and I saw a black figure moving away from me, who it turns out was a female terrorist. At the same time I saw out of the corner of my eye that I had a knife stuck into me here, I took it out. I didn't feel too much, I didn't fall on the floor," recalled Lorech.
Residents of Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem clashed with Israeli police Monday, in the wake of a stabbing attack on an Israeli by a 22-year-old woman from the West Bank town.Developing: Israeli seriously injured in suspected hit and run in West Bank
Police attempted to disperse the rioters with tear gas.
Security forces surrounded the home of Amal Taqatqa before the clashes broke out, shortly after she attacked an Israeli earlier in the day at the nearby Gush Etzion junction south of Jerusalem.
Her father was arrested, according to Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
Taqatqa was shot by soldiers at the scene and was brought to Hadassah-Ein Kerem hospital in serious condition. The Palestinian Ma’an news site said she was affiliated with the Fatah movement.
An Israeli aged about 50 has been seriously hurt after being struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run in the West Bank, Magen David Adom paramedics said.Terrorists Firebomb Home in Beit El in Samaria
The man is receiving treatment, and paramedics have initiated resuscitation efforts.
The incident occurred between Migdalim and Ma'aleh Ephraim.
The IDF said it has launched a pursuit of the vehicle involved in the incident. Soldiers are assisting paramedics in treating the injured man, who is in critical condition.
Judea and Samaria police said they do not yet know what caused the collision, adding that they have set up checkpoints and are searching for the driver.
One or more Palestinian Authority terrorists hurled a firebomb Sunday night at a home in the Jewish community of Beit El, in the Binyamin region of Samaria. No one was injured, and the attackers fled.3 charged in plot to attack MK Feiglin on Temple Mount
If the Arabs had “succeeded” by burning the house to the ground and wounding or killing the residents, the establishment media would have been all over the story.
But, like rock-throwing, it was barely reported.
Three east Jerusalem residents were indicted over the weekend on suspicion of conspiring to throw stones and fire crackers at Likud MK Moshe Feiglin and activist Yehuda Glick on the Temple Mount in late October.Self-Determination Shouldn't Stop with "Palestine"
Attorney Yifat Pinhasi claimed in the indictment that the three suspects had planned to stay in Al-Aqsa mosque the night before Feiglin and Glick's visit to the Temple Mount and to emerge during the visit to throw stones and firecrackers at them.
According to Pinhasi, the three were planning "to injure a person using cold weapons and with a nationalistic motive."
It seems that quite a few European countries are in the process of "recognizing" the "state" of "Palestine." The question arises as to what the appropriate response from Israel should be to these actions by the Europeans.Hamas says unity government is over
Here is a plan:
If Belgium recognizes "Palestine," then Israel must recognize the separatist movements of the Flemish, the Walloons, and the Belgium Germans, and officially recognize the right of each group to set up its own state.
If Denmark recognizes "Palestine," then Israel must recognize the separatist movement of the Faroese and officially recognize the right of the Faroe Islands to be an independent state.
If Finland recognizes "Palestine," then Israel must recognize the separatist movements of the Åland Swedes, and officially recognize their right to set up their own state.
Hamas announced on Sunday that the unity government established with Fatah over the summer has ended.Fatah official denies unity government mandate has ended
The unity government’s six-month term has expired, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said at a press conference in Gaza City, adding that talks would take place regarding a future government, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
Hamas “isn’t interested in incitement, but rather seeks to maintain national unity,” he said.
Gaza’s leaders responded to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused Israel and Hamas of secretly negotiating. Hamas called on the Palestinian president to stop spreading lies, Israel Radio reported, and accused Abbas’s forces of arresting its members for political reasons.
Faisal Abu Shahla told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency that there was never any agreement that the government would fall if the unity government had not completed the steps it was tasked with, including holding elections, within six months. A national reconciliation pact was signed in June.MKs: Use PA Terror Salary Money to Pay IEC Debt
“If the Hamas movement has retracted the reconciliation agreement and the termination of rivalry, that is a different case,” he said.
Abu Shahla was responding to comments made earlier in the day by Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, who said the unity government’s mandate had come to an end.
According to MKs, the PA has been using money that Israel collects for duties and taxes on behalf of the Authority, to pay the salaries of terrorists. Families of terrorists in Israeli prisons receive the money, and in this way, said MKs Orit Struk (Jewish Home), Eliezer Mozes (UTJ), Nissim Ze'ev (SHas), Shimon Ohayon (Yisrael Beytenu), Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid) and Miri Regev (Likud), Israel was indirectly supporting terror.EU wants to recognise a “Palestine” that doesn’t exist
The MKs requested that the Committee discuss the matter, demanding that the government do “the minimum possible.” If international agreements require that Israel transfer money to the PA, legal contracts require that the PA pay its bills to the IEC, so the government is perfectly justified under all aspects of international law in deducting that money from the PA payments and transferring them to the IEC.
The PA owes the IEC at least NIS 1.4 billion ($360 million), and has not made payments to the Israel Electric Company in at least four years.
There is some dispute as to how many countries globally have already stated this recognition, ranging between 112 and 134. But however many have done so, you cannot manufacture a sovereign state by wishing or voting it into existence if the building blocks for an independent nation-state do not exist.Jordan, Israeli Ally or Dangerous Enemy
Under accepted international norms, a state is defined as having a permanent population, a defined territory, a stable government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. The fictitious “Sate of Palestine” falls down on all those points. There is no state in existence today that can legitimately be called “Palestine” except the one state that chooses not to: Jordan.
Every vote or governmental statement recognising the imaginary state of Palestine is further encouragement for the Palestinian Authority and PLO to continue to avoid making the kind of compromises that might lead to a genuine peace agreement. Every vote is a nod to Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to achieve statehood outside of a negotiated settlement.
The result is a precarious stability, and considering that its present king is married to a woman whose family is from Shechem, when their son rules, if the kingdom lasts that long, there will be what's known as a "Palestinian" sic king.US to Supply Israel with 3,000 JDAMs for ‘Smart Bombs’
There are those Israelis and Jews who want Jordan to be called "Palestine," sic, but I'm not among them. I consider it a very dangerous mistake. That's because it gives recognition to the faux people and their faux culture and fictional history.
For quite a few years, Israel has done its best to keep a peace with Jordan. For quite a few years after the 1967 Six Days War, the Israeli movers and shakers were convinced that Jordan would come begging for peace with Israel in exchange for the so-called "west bank," but that never happened. Jordan wasn't interested in fully annexing Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley and providing it with modern infrastructure. During the nineteen years of Jordanian occupation of the areas, there had been no development.
When Israel took over after the Six Days War, it discovered a totally backwards area. Even when we moved to Shiloh in 1981, and our phones were via the nearby Turmus Aiya village, the phones had local operators like in the very early twentieth century. Every night the villages went dark about 10pm, because they turned off their generators. Piped water and sewer systems were also built by Israel.
The U.S. Defense Department has announced it will supply Israel with 3,000 upgraded Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits for $82 million, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported.Cricket Judge Death Shocks Israel With Existence Of Cricket (satire)
The shipment will be completed by November 2016, and Janes said that the contract is a “modification to a $307.5 million award made to Boeing in October for baseline JDAM tail-kits for Morocco, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.”
The upgraded JDAM turns unguided bombs into ”smart bombs” by using a GPS guidance system.
Indeed, the players and spectators of cricket in Israel are by and large immigrants or foreign workers from South Asia. A handful of British-born locals or visitors occasionally participate in informal competitions, but few others in Israel have encountered cricket in its full, unmitigated horror.Hanukkah Reignites Expat Dunkin Donuts Vs. Krispy Kreme Debate (satire)
“Supposedly cricket has rules, but a lot of good they apparently do,” remarked Mira Cohen, 44, of Jerusalem. “I’m keeping my children indoors until this scare subsides.” The mother of four said that despite the recent wave of terrorist stabbings and attacks with motor vehicles, she had felt relatively safe, but that her newfound awareness that cricket exists was too much to bear.
Less than a week ago, a player in Australia met a similar fate, but the populations of cricket-loving countries have long been inured to the tragic nature of the pastime. Israel, which until its establishment as a state was only under British rule for about two decades, never had a chance to absorb this unsavory aspect of British culture to the same extent as its counterparts in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, New Zealand, Australia, and assorted other former colonies that Britain controlled for more than a century.
Commentators agree that Israel will not be the same after this tragedy. “Yes, a man has died, and that in itself is a cause for grief,” said Voice of Israel contributor Hanan Crystal. “But it’s a tragedy on a much larger scale that we’ve now, as a nation, had our innocence shattered. Yesterday, we knew nothing of wickets, bowlers, innings as a singular word, or… well, it’s too painful to continue. I’m sorry.”
While European and North American Jews emphasize the potato pancakes called latkes, in Israel the celebration of the miracle of the oil on Hanukkah more often takes the form of deep-fried dough, most commonly in the form of a filled doughnut. The confections vary widely in quality, but no quality is necessary to get a Krispy Kreme aficionado embroiled in a vociferous exchange with a Dunkin Donuts fan. The heated encounters, appropriately, call to mind the civil conflict that the holiday recalls, a generations-long spiritual struggle that persists to this day.Saudi Writer Abdullah Hamadaddin: Israel Does Not Pose a Threat to Saudi Arabia, but Iran Does
Indeed, it is often precisely the cruddy variety of sufganiyah that resurrects the dead horse, says Netanya resident Riba T. Halav, an unabashed Dunkin Donuts fan. “All it takes is the sight of that pathetic filling Israelis call ‘jam’ – a disgusting imitation of DD’s jelly.”
Western Media Ignores Jordanian Police Murdering Palestinian Teenager
According to a statement made by Jordanian Palestinian MP Lufti Dirabani, who is a relative of the boy, Palestinian teenager Ibrahim Nadir Al Dirabani was coming out of a courthouse in Amman when he was stopped by a Jordanian police officer and asked to show his ID card for no apparent reason. After that, the police officer proceeded to beat him, despite pleas from the young boy that he just needed to wait until his father came out of the courthouse to see a valid ID (underage Jordanians generally don’t have their own ID cards and the father possessed a family ID where his name was registered).Palestinian Rock-Thrower Suspended For Steroid Use (satire)
Due to the beatings, the teenager started to run away from the police officer. In retaliation, the police officer fired five bullets at the Palestinian teenager. Two did not hit the boy, three did. According to eye-witnesses, the Police officer then proceeded to stomp on the boy with his shoes as he was bleeding, proclaiming: “you are just fine you little bastard.” Eye-witnesses reported that they failed to call an ambulance and when one finally arrived, the Palestinian teenager’s body was tossed inside like cargo.
Other members of the gang were less reflexive in their reactions. “There’s a lot of pressure to perform,” said Mustafa Hijazi, 18. “I know three or four guys who use steroids all the time. I have nothing against Muhammad – I don’t know him all that well anyway – but the charges don’t surprise me. I actually expected his sentence to be more severe, considering how rampant the problem of performance-enhancing drugs has become in the last few years.” He declined to name the other youths.Former Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh: The Arab Spring Was a Zionist-Western Conspiracy
Hijazi described the perceived necessity of steroids in confronting Israeli soldiers and paramilitary Border Guards with ever-more-sophisticated riot-dispersal technology at their disposal. Increased muscle mass can help both in hitting the Israelis from a greater distance, making certain dispersal methods less effective, and by adding natural padding to insulate certain areas of the body from the impact of rubber bullets.
Jibril Fatuh, 17, a close friend of Al-Attar, dismissed Hijazi’s allegations and defended his friend. “Mustafa is jealous of Muhammad’s natural prowess with Molotov cocktails and slingshots,” he said. “I suggest Mustafa stop accusing other people of things he probably does all the time, and accuses others just to keep the focus off himself.”
Amnesty: Egypt forcibly evicted 1,165 families from Rafah by the Gaza border
Egypt has forcibly evicted an estimated 1,165 families in Rafah so that it can clear a buffer zone by the Gaza Strip border, charged the human-rights group Amnesty International, which is concerned that additional homes will be demolished in the coming weeks.Goodbye, Tahrir revolution
“The scale of the forced evictions has been astonishing; the Egyptian authorities have thrown more than 1,000 families out of their homes in just a matter of days, flouting international and national law,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Thursday.
“Shocking scenes have emerged of homes in Rafah being bulldozed, bombed, with entire buildings reduced to piles of rubble and families forcibly evicted,” Sahraoui said.
Egypt’s current enemy is political Islam, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood, and not Mubarak and his aides. The focus of the media has clearly shifted to another jailed ex-president and it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember that just three years ago, the whole country was holding its breath while watching the "Trial of the Century" on TV, while hundreds of thousands were partying in Tahrir. What is the mechanism behind the shift in media focus? Who tells the journalists what to write and demands that editors focus on Morsi’s crimes and not on Mubarak’s faults? The case of the Egyptian media is fascinating for it is not a strict and uncompromising censorship that forbids people to express their opinion, but rather a self-censorship that was always exercised by the Egyptian state-controlled and private media. Just like the judges, Egyptian journalists understood that the climate has changed, the short days of "Egyptian perestroika" were over and there was no longer a reason to dwell on the faults and misdeeds of the Mubarak regime.Egypt Warns Qatar to Stop Destabilizing It
Mubarak and his sons will soon become free men. Alaa and Gamal will probably attempt to make a comeback to business and political life. If the current Pharaoh allows it, they might even achieve some success, for both of them still have influence and connections. Their father will give interviews and write memoirs about his incredible story, and the days of Tahrir will soon be forgotten, with the generous help of Egyptian mass media.
But some things will remain the same regardless of the changing narrative. The harsh economic conditions, the poverty, the fundamentalism, the threat of terrorism, the water crisis with Africa and the lack of democracy - the very same reasons that brought on the huge eruption of popular anger back in January 2011.
In a wide-ranging interview in Asharq Al-Awsat, a pro-Saudi Arabian paper, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri warned Qatar to cease its efforts to destabilize Egypt and stated that concerning ties with Iran, “the situation has not changed much over the past 25 years. Ties are frozen and diplomatic relations severed.”Egypt Designates ISIS and its Affiliates as Terrorist Groups
Israel didn’t rate a mention in the interview.
The most immediate issue explored in the interview was the recent reconciliation of the Gulf States with Qatar that has, up to now, politically and monetarily supported both the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its offshoot Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
An Egyptian court on Sunday designated the Islamic State (ISIS) a terrorist organization and banned it in the country.US, Turkey Close to Deal on Joint Action against ISIS
According to The Associated Press, the court ruling adds that it considers all of the ISIS's affiliates to be terrorist organizations as well.
One of the ISIS affiliates is the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, which has killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police over the last year, and has beheaded several people in acts similar to those of ISIS.
Among the attacks claimed by the group since the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was the assassination of a top Egyptian police general, who was gunned down as he left his home in a west Cairo neighborhood, and a bus bombing on a tour bus filled with South Korean tourists in the Sinai.
The US and Turkey are close to an agreement on joint military action against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in northern Syria, according to the Wall Street Journal.Pope Calls Out Jihadists: Violence Against Innocents 'Shows Contempt for Image of God'
Citing officials from both the U.S. and Turkey, the paper reported that the proposed deal would allow the U.S. and its coalition partners access to Turkish air bases for launching air strikes.
The agreement would also provide for a no-fly zone along a section of the border between Turkey and Syria, which would be off limits to Syrian government aircraft and provide protection for "moderate" Syrian rebels and refugees fleeing the country's civil war.
In Istanbul Sunday morning, Pope Francis employed some of his strongest language against Islamic extremism to date, condemning jihadist violence against the weak and defenseless as “a profoundly grave sin against God.”ISIS Claims, Kurds Deny Capture of Canadian-Israeli Fighter
Francis spoke of the “plea” coming from the victims of violent conflicts, and made specific reference to Turkey’s “neighboring countries” that are “scarred by an inhumane and brutal war.”
The Pope also denounced the recent slaughter of Muslims praying in a Mosque in Kano, Nigeria, and called the massacre a “grotesque and senseless attack.” The bombing, which killed more than 100 people, is assumed to be the work of Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to establish a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria.
Francis said that “committing every act of violence – or consenting to such acts – especially when directed against the weakest and defenseless, is a profoundly grave sin against God, since it means showing contempt for the image of God which is in man.”
Jihadist websites on Sunday reported that Gila Rosenberg, the Canadian who served in the IDF and volunteered to help Kurdish forces fighting against ISIS in Syria, was abducted by ISIS militants, Israel’s Ch. 2 News reported. There has been no official confirmation of the report.Al Qaeda plot to blow up 5 passenger planes in Christmas 'spectacular'
However, two Kurdish sources – one a senior member of the fighters – cast doubt on the report, according to Israel Radio. One said she was not even in the area of Kobane, along the Turkish border, where first reports claimed she was abducted.
The threat has been taken so seriously it came close to leading to an outright ban on all hand luggage, a senior insider has revealed.
Mobile phones and electronic devices could still be banned from plane cabins, with the threat of a 9/11-style coordinated attack on London and other major cities feared imminent.
The warning comes as Whitehall officials admit that a terror strike on the UK is now "almost inevitable" particularly with British jihadis returning from fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
An airport security source told the Sunday Express: "We've been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas. They've been waiting for the big one.