Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: hamas

Showing posts with label hamas. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Five rockets shot towards Israel last weekend

09/28/2013 08:00 28 SEP: Over the past 2 days, Pal. operatives fired 5 HMRs ["homemeade rockets"] from Beit Hanoun, NG, toward the Green Line. 3 rockets exploded prematurely.

The terror groups are still trying to strike at Israel. Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it isn't.

This is besides the three projectiles the week before.

2 rockets, one mortar fired towards Israel yesterday

TOI notes:

A mortar shell from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area near Israel’s border with Gaza on Sunday evening. No injuries or damage were reported.

Aside for a Kassam rocket that landed near Ashkelon last Wednesday, the border with Hamas-controlled Gaza has been relatively quiet in recent months.

However, what the Israeli media didn't notice was that there were also two Qassam rocket launches yesterday - both of those rockets fell short in Gaza.

Gaza-NSO reports:

09/23/2013 08:30 23 SEP, 0800: Pal. ops. fired 1 HMR from N-E of Al Moghraqa area, MA, toward the Green Line; the rocket dropped short. No injuries were reported.

09/23/2013 08:10 MU, 23 SEP: Overnight, 1 Mortar fired from Beit Hanoun, NG, toward the Green Line. 1 HMR fired from E of Rafah toward the Green Line; the rocket dropped short. No injuries were reported.

[HMR="Home-made rocket." MA=Middle Area. NG=North Gaza. Ops="Operatives."]

It looks like Palestinian Arab terrorists are getting restless. The number of articles complaining about Jews visiting the Temple Mount is still increasing (Islamic Jihad is calling another rally tomorrow to protest it) but it seems more likely that these attacks, including the two fatal attacks on Israeli soldiers, are linked more to the "peace talks" and to Islamist groups, losing popularity because of Egypt, and trying to redirect anger into the usual, reliable Zionist enemy. (Avi Issacharoff predicted Hamas stirring things up in Gaza to help get out from under the Egyptian shadow.)

Egypt's Al Ahram slams Hamas

Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper published a withering attack on Hamas today.

The deaths caused by members of the [Hamas] Qassam Brigades arrested in clashes with the Egyptian army in Sinai confirms unequivocally that Hamas and its leaders' claims not to interfere in the affairs of Egypt are false; the marches organized by Hamas in Gaza's streets features the yellow logo of the Fourth Square [where Egyptian MB members were killed]...

Hamas is pushing globally accusations that the Egyptian authorities shut down the Rafah crossing as collective punishment on the Palestinians in Gaza, saying it is against international law, yet they do not mention one sentence about their responsibility of the occupation of Gaza.

Egyptian authorities confirm that the closure of the crossing is due to security requirements, and to preserve Egyptian national security from those who abuse it, and it is a temporary condition and the crossing is open from time to time for humanitarian cases and for those stranded on both sides, students and patients.

As long as Hamas insists on its positions and its interference in the affairs of Egypt, there are no signs of a solution for the return of the Rafah crossing to work normally, and Hamas has to recognize that this policy has caused severe damage to the interests of the Palestinian people. The goal of political power should always be to provide all the demands of everyday life of the people and preserve their rights and to defend them, but Hamas instead use all residents of Gaza to be fuel for its policies of sectarianism.

Hamas is aware that there are treaties governing the work of international border crossings, which places obligations between sovereign states under international law. Agreements signed between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli side for the PA to manage the crossing is what bothers Hamas and makes a joke of their positions...

When President Mahmoud Abbas intervened with the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing for humanitarian cases and students who want to attend their universities, and patients who need treatment, Egypt responded by opening the crossing. The Palestinian ambassador in Cairo Barakat al-Farra working in coordination with the Egyptian authorities at the Rafah crossng arranged the logistics. Hamas' reaction was amazing as it banned the students from crossing, and even assaulted and arrested some of them under the pretext that their coordination was with the Palestinian embassy in Cairo! This action confirms that Hamas does not really want to solve the problem of the crossing and return it to normal, but it wants to keep it closed to be used in order to continue its assault on the Egyptian authorities for political purposes, The policy of Hamas aims only to increase the suffering of the Palestinian citizens and the continued blockade in Gaza; if Hamas was really serious in opening the crossing they would have been welcomed a move initiated by President Mahmoud Abbas that by Egyptian authorities responded to them.

Hamas is trying to twist the issue of the crossing to achieve political goals. They are presenting it to the world as a humanitarian issue and using language such as saying that Egypt is imprisoning an entire people, including students and pilgrims, and preventing patients from treatment and broadcasting videos of specific cases as a crime committed by Egypt...

Funny how these complaints about Hamas sound so familiar...

Remember when Goldstone distinguished between Hamas and "armed groups?"

Back in 2009, the Goldstone Report asked Hamas about whether they were responsible for rocket attacks on Israel. Hamas humbly responded:

1635. In response to questions by the Mission, on 29 July 2009, the Gaza authorities stated that they had “nothing to do, directly or indirectly, with al-Qassam or other resistance factions” and stated that they were able to exercise a degree of persuasion over the armed factions in relation to proposed ceasefires. While noting that the weaponry used by the armed factions was not accurate, the Gaza authorities discouraged the targeting of civilians.

The report did not express any skepticism over this absurd distinction between Hamas and the Al Qassam Brigades.

If there are still any idiots that cling to the idea of a separate, unaffiliated "armed wing" of Hamas that has nothing to do with the "political wing," here's a photo for you:

This shows Hamas "political leader" Ismail Haniyeh taking part in a parade organized by the Al Qassam Brigades in the Shati camp west of Gaza City.

Then again, Goldstone would probably have said that Haniyeh is just the "Grand Marshal."

Report: Hamas prevented Gazan students from going to Egypt

From the PA's official WAFA news agency, confirmed by Palestine Press Agency:

Hamas police Wednesday prevented Gaza students seeking to travel to Egypt through Rafah crossing to reach their colleges abroad from leaving the Strip, according to the students.

They said that around 200 students gathered at Rafah crossing after Egypt has decided to open it for a couple of days to allow students and other humanitarian cases out of Gaza.

However, Hamas members attacked the students with clubs and pushed them back with their jeeps to prevent them from leaving Gaza.

Students said that Hamas did this because they coordinated their travel with the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, as requested by the Egyptian authority to facilitate their travel.

The Palestinian embassy in Cairo had asked students who want to leave Gaza to attend colleges abroad to coordinate their travel through it due to the closure of the Rafah crossing since last week following an attack on Egyptian security personnel in Sinai.

Egypt agreed to open the crossing briefly on Wednesday and Thursday for special cases after President Mahmoud Abbas Monday called the head of the Egyptian intelligence, Mohammed Tohami, and requested that Egypt allows students, the sick and humanitarian cases to leave Gaza.

The siege of Gaza by Hamas continues!

Tamarod Gaza notes that Israel-PLO talks have been more successful than Hamas-Fatah

The Tamarod Gaza movement, meant to topple Hamas, now has 45,000 Facebook fans and has been getting more media coverage lately.

A message they released today is refreshing in its honesty.

The PLO has negotiated with the Zionist enemy at some length (twenty years) and the negotiations did not reach the desired goal, but it has made some achievements in the political field and there are those who see it and there are those who do not want to see ... a piece of land called Gaza and more the West Bank [are under Palestinian control] and [many countries and the UN] recognize the State of Palestine on paper, etc....

Here, a question arises: over seven years now of the obnoxious division between Fatah and Hamas, they have been negotiating to end the division and they did not achieve anything tangible! How many years they need to negotiate to end the division???

While Tamarod is as anti-Israel as anyone, this is the first time I have seen any Arab, let alone a Palestinian, admit that the Oslo process has helped the PLO achieve enormous gains both politically and in concrete terms. Even the Western media portrays the "peace process" as something that has been at a deadlock forever with Israel often being the party blamed for no progress - but here, in Arabic, at least one group acknowledges (in a backhanded manner) that the PLO has gained a great deal through the process.

Which means that Israel has conceded a great deal during the process.

The PLO? They have given up nothing tangible. Their major party Fatah still says, today, that they have not abandoned "armed struggle" and terror - and it is still part of their platform.

It is interesting that it takes an Arab group to point out what so few Westerners are willing to admit as they continue to blame Israel for everything.

Latest Egyptian rumor: Muslim Brotherhood army being formed in Gaza under Hamas

News out of Egypt is unreliable, to say the least, as the pro- and anti-Muslim Brotherhood sides hurl nutty accusations at each other.

Egypt's Youm7 newspaper quotes unnamed senior Egyptian officials as saying that the new head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mahmoud Ezzat, had fled to Gaza several weeks ago and is now overseeing a new mini-army of Gaza militants and1500 Muslim Brotherhood soldiers and smuggled from Egypt into Gaza through tunnels.

These troops are being trained with Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades, according to the rumors, and they are in two areas of Khan Younis. It is being funded by the Muslim Brotherhood and is receiving weapons from Turkey, smuggled to Gaza through Cyprus, including anti-tank missiles.

The rumor gets a little more fantastic when it says that some of the weapons are stolen from both the Egyptian and Israeli armies.

(What is true is that Mahmoud Ezzat has not been seen for several weeks, since he was appointed in his new role. The idea that he is directing operations from Gaza is a bit far-fetched, though.)

The commenters are taking this seriously, though, with one suggesting that it is time for the Egyptian army to hold its own "Cast Lead" against Gaza, damn the civilian casualties.

Even though the story seems filled with holes, the fact that it even gets such prominent play in Egypt (and even gets leaked by Egyptian officials to the media) says volumes about how Hamas and Gaza itself is regarded as an enemy.

Hamas says Gaza is a "prison" - and it aims to keep it that way

Hamas minister Ghazi Hammad said that the continued closing of the Rafah crossing has converted Gaza into "a big prison."

One suggestion that had been made to help out at Rafah was to let the PA take over the crossing, as it did before the Hamas coup in Gaza, and according to existing agreements between Israel, the PA and the EU who had observers at the crossing. There were even rumors that an agreement had been reached. But Hamas rejected the idea, saying that this would put Israel in control of the crossing, which is unacceptable.

There was another report that the PA and Israel agreed to further open up the Erez crossing for Gazans who have a good reason to leave; they would be bused to Jericho and from there travel to Jordan and anywhere else in the world they need to go. (This might be an alternative for this Minnesota family stranded in Gaza.)

But Hamas rejected that as well:

The Hamas government in Gaza on Wednesday voiced its rejection to use the Erez crossing with Israel as an alternative to the Rafah terminal with Egypt after the latter was shut down following a deadly attack.

"The Palestinians can never accept the Erez crossing, which is under Israel's security control, as an alternative to the Rafah crossing," Ghazi Hammad, Hamas deputy foreign minister told a news conference in Gaza.

So Hamas is complaining that Gaza is a prison, but anything that might actually help Gazans escape the "prison" is unacceptable to Hamas.

If Gaza is a prison, then Hamas is the warden.

Tamarod Gaza gaining steam; releases video slamming Hamas

I had mentioned the Tamarod Palestine Facebook group that was making Hamas so nervous.

That group was against both Hamas and Fatah. But Tamarod Gaza is only against Hamas, and they are growing, now with over 30,000 Facebook "Likes."

They are pushing for a major anti-Hamas rally in Gaza on November 11, and just released a video slamming Hamas for its actions.

The video says that Hamas practices "murder, torture, vandalism and bullying, bribery, smuggling, as if they were one of the gangs in the Middle Ages, but it's shameful shameful that they practice [these crimes] in the name of religion and the homeland and the resistance..."

The group misses the old Hamas, the one that fought only against Israel. "The Hamas of today is not the Hamas of Yassin," they say.

Tamarod Gaza's message ends by saying "All our options are open, but we disagree with you as to the choice of weapon. We are not raising arms against our brothers, but you are; we are after bloodshed but you are; we do not drag bodies in the streets, but you do; we will not kill children and men, women and young people, but you do; we do not demolish mosques, but you do; we understand Palestine and its people and their will, their pride and dignity but not you."

Hamas has said that Fatah is behind this group and has started a crackdown on suspected members.

Gaza could get lots more goods through Israel, but they choose not to

This week I had an email conversation with the COGAT Gaza spokeswoman about the precise process of how goods get transferred into Gaza.

Here is how it works. (These are mostly COGAT's words, I edited them from multiple emails):

When a Gaza businessman wants to order goods from Israel privately, his first stop would be at the PA offices. There, there's a committee that is in charge of integrating all the requests and putting them in order, the Civil Committee of the PA, according to the format that is familiar to both sides. After that, it is that committee's job to pass a list of trucks that are to cross the next day. The head of the civil committee is in direct contact with the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) and they work with him closely every day, through phone calls and meetings, in order to make the work process efficient. The PA committee is the CLA's POC, but it is not the one ordering the goods.

When the lists are received at the Gaza CLA, they get to the approval process, and once they are approved they are passed to the CLA's representatives at Kerem Shalom, who are the first to receive the truck drivers the next morning.

As of today, the capacity of Kerem Shalom is 400 trucks per day. Due to the number of requests from the PA Civil Committee the number of trucks crossing per day never reaches 400. It can go up to 300 trucks on a good day.

Of course, if the Palestinian side would like to add more trucks to cross at Kerem Shalom, they're free to do so. The Israeli side will make its arrangements to meet the demands.

Unfortunately, many trucks are a no show at the crossing, for Palestinian personal matters. The trucks are coordinated, and are on the list, but every day the CLA sees a large number of blank forms for trucks that never crossed. That depends almost entirely on the Palestinians. Should they decide to cancel a truck for whatever reason, the CLA only knows about it at the end of the day, when they sum up the merchandise that went through. (It appears possible that the Israeli seller might renege sometimes as well, but that doesn't appear to be the normal case.)

The Palestinian businessmen do their coordination with Israeli private companies on their own. They only interact with COGAT (through the PA) when it comes to making sure the goods actually cross.

My comments:

While Kerem Shalom can handle 400 trucks a day, and perhaps 300 actually are hired typically, often dozens of the expected trucks never make it, for whatever logistical reasons that the Gazans canceled the delivery at the last minute. Last week about 10% of the expected trucks did not arrive.

The upshot is that Kerem Shalom is not being run at capacity - not even close. If Israel's "siege" was so painful, one would expect that the crossing would be over capacity and that there would be pressure to expand it. But even now that Egypt has cracked down on smuggling, Kerem Shalom is not close to its limit. It has increased transfers markedly, from 4700 in February to 6600 in July, but it can handle far more.

It seems apparent that Hamas prefers goods to be sent through Rafah than from Israel, for a number of reasons. One is that the PA is not involved in Rafah tunnels. Another is that Hamas can tax tunnel goods at will. Yet another is that fuel and some other smuggled goods are cheap because Egypt subsidizes them, so Hamas can buy things like construction material and diesel at a discount. And the fourth is that Israel happily ships goods to businessmen and to NGOs, but not to Hamas. (Also, dual-use materials are still restricted so Hamas has no choice but to smuggle those.)

People and businesses in Gaza don't need that many imports from Egypt - but Hamas does.

The simple fact is that if Gaza was suffering from a "crushing siege," Kerem Shalom would be operating at capacity. It isn't.

"Pepsi defies the occupation"

Last year I noticed that various soccer teams and tournaments in Gaza featured the Pepsi logo and advertising. Pepsi apparently didn't mind their association with Hamas terrorist leaders:

Further research showed that the sponsorships were done by a local Gaza bottling company, Yazegi, that apparently has permission to use the Pepsi logo when sponsoring sporting events and the like.

Pepsi never responded to inquiries about their public association with Hamas.

Now, this year, Gaza is again seeing the "Pepsi Cup" football championship during Ramadan. The Yarmouk Stadium that hosts the tournament was bombed by Israel during Pillar of Defense because it was used as a launch site for terror rockets aimed at Israeli civilians, and Yazegi helped repair or cover up the damage that is still there.

Yazegi represents itself as Pepsi in Gaza, and on their Facebook page they say, directly, "Pepsi defies the occupation" - "occupation" being the Arabic code-word for Israel itself.

Is this message one that the Pepsi corporation supports?

Perhaps Israeli sellers of Pepsi should inform the company that they don't appreciate being told that Pepsi is "defying" their country and supporting those who want to destroy it.

You can complain on Pepsi's US Facebook page. Demand that the company dissociate itself from the Gaza bottling company using its name to support terrorists and to promote messages of hate against Israel.

(The winner of the Pepsi Cup tournament was the Islamic Society of Gaza.)

Another Palestinian Arab hero

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian minister of prisoners’ affairs on Tuesday warned of possible deaths among hunger-striking prisoners and highlighted that their health had seriously deteriorated.

Issa Qaraqe said any tragic results at this stage would result in serious escalation amid prisoners and lead to negative consequences which could affect US efforts to restart peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.

Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer from the ministry of prisoners’ affairs, who visited the Jordanian hunger striker Abdullah Barghouthi in hospital, confirmed he was in real danger after 95 days on hunger strike.

According to al-Khatib, Barghouthi “can’t feel his left hand and can’t stand up.”

He also suffers from spells of dizziness, she added, highlighting that he also has symptoms of kidney and liver troubles and could face kidney failure if he continues with the strike.

Barghouthi has already lost 30 kilograms, according to al-Khatib quoting his doctors.

He has been hospitalized at Haemek Medical Center in Afula in northern Israel since shortly after he started a hunger strike on May 2.

Al-Khatib had noted earlier that he was chained to his hospital bed by his legs and his left hand.

Poor Abdallah Bargouthi! He must be a good guy for the Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs to be so concerned for his well-being.

An earlier Ma'an article, from July 20, gives slightly more details:

A lawyer for the PA ministry of prisoners' affairs said Barghouthi, a Jordanian citizen, could go into a coma at any moment.

"I saw him breathing very heavily and he began to have fainting spells," Hanan al-Khatib said Friday after visiting him in Afula Hospital.

...Barghouthi is serving 67 life terms, the highest sentence ever handed down by an Israeli military court. He has been detained since March 2003.

A Hamas leader, Barghouthi was convicted of involvement in multiple attacks in Israel.

Oh, you mean he was a terrorist? Who would've guessed?

I wonder what attacks he was involved with?

Nothing big. He just built the bombs for the Sbarro pizza shop bombing, the Moment Cafe bombing, the Hebrew University bombing, the Zion Square refrigerator bombing, and the Rishon LeZion nightclub bombing. In other words, he was Hamas' chief bombmaker and responsible for the deaths of 66 Israelis.

Note also how the PA is working so hard on behalf of a Hamas bomber. There's unity for you!

One more detail:

He has been on hungers strike since May 2 and is demanding to serve the remainder of his sentence in a Jordanian jail, under the Wadi Araba agreement between Jordan and Israel.

I can find nothing in the Wadi Araba agreement that mandates prisoner exchanges.

It is a shame that Barghouti is starving himself to death. He deserves a much more painful demise.

Luckily, the media has grown tired of the prisoner hunger strikes (especially when none of them ever seem to actually die, since these are "modified" hunger strikes, whatever that means) and no one really cares any more about these publicity stunts.

UPDATE: Ma'an has an adoring profile of Barghouti and his terror attacks in Arabic.

Egyptian siege continues - only two groups visited Gaza in July

Palestine Today reports that there has been a sharp drop in outside parties visiting Gaza over the past month, with only two delegations allowed into the Hamas-ruled territory during July.

In contrast, some 27 groups visited in June and 20 in May.

Officials said that this is because of much stricter Egyptian rules allowing people to cross the Rafah crossing.

According to Aladdin Batta of Hamas' ministry of foreign affairs, the lack of visitors hurt the education and medical sectors.

I still have not seen anyone referring to Egypt's near-total isolation of Gaza as being a "siege" or a "blockade."

Meanwhile, Israel isn't only allowing medical patients and their families to come into Israel from Gaza, but also some families to visit relatives in the West Bank:

Many other Gazans cross into Israel to visit relatives living in Judea and Samaria. Each month, IDF officials help more than 3,000 Palestinians pass through the crossing to visit their families. This month, as Palestinian Muslims observe the holiday of Ramadan, higher numbers of travelers are visiting Israel to celebrate the holiday with family members.

Hamas starts crackdown on potential "rebels"

The Tamarod Palestine Facebook page passed 20,000 members, and Hamas is nervous.

According to Palestine Press Agency, Hamas has declared a "state of emergency" following a declaration by the Tamarod group of November 11 as a day of protest against Hamas and Fatah, on the anniversary of Arafat's death.

The newspaper says that Hamas started arresting suspected members of Tamarod in Gaza.

Hamas, continuing its recent paranoia, is blaming Fatah for the Tamarod movement to cause a coup in Gaza.

Gaza is exporting spices to the US

Palestine Today reports that, over the past several months, Gaza farmers have exported some five tons of spices to the US market, as well as 25 tons of spices to Europe this year.

Basil and mint are among the exports, and Gaza farmers are looking to add more spice crops, which have a higher profit margin and longer shelf life than vegetables.

The article doesn't mention that Israel helps Gaza farmers get up to speed on the latest farming techniques and they also help them export their goods.

I wonder how these spices are labeled. While Israel might approve the exports, that doesn't mean Americans want to inadvertently buy spices where some of the money ends up paying Hamas taxes.

Is it time to start a Gaza boycott campaign?

Hamas MP freaks out over Dr. Oz visit to Israel

Egypt's Youm7 reports that many prominent Palestinian Arabs are condemning the visit by popular TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to Israel.

A member of the Hamas Legislative Council described the visit as "support of the occupier of Arab and Islamic land, and sending a dangerous message to support Israeli settlements."

Another MP, Mariam Saleh, said, "Israel used this visit to discredit Turkish history, and try to send a message that Turkey and Israel have a strong relationship, as opposed to the popular and official view in Turkey that supports Palestinians against Israeli plans."

In addition, "[Oz] talks about the humanitarian aspects of health, but it is clear that his message is different during his visit to the Palestinian territories by supporting the killer of humanity, and expressing solidarity with the murderers of Palestinian children through direct killing of tens of thousands at the hands of the Israelis."

The Egyptian paper also noted that Dr. Oz visited Yad Vashem, which might have also raised the ire of some.

The elephants in the room, 2013

Now that US has successfully pressured Israel and the PA to attend talks, it seems to be a good time to revisit the list of "elephants in the room" that are still being mostly ignored. The list, sadly, has not changed much since I last did this in 2010.

Elephant 1: Hamas controls Gaza

Every peace plan includes Gaza in a Palestinian Arab state, and none of them has any provision on how to handle the fact that Gaza is a terrorist haven, in much worse shape since Israel uprooted the settlements there, controlled by a terrorist group that is consistently and wholeheartedly against Israel's existence. Peace is impossible with this elephant, so it is easier to pretend it isn't there. (See also Elephant 11.)

Elephant 2: Palestinian Arabs elected a terror government

In the only fair, democratic elections in the territories, the Hamas terrorists were chosen by the people. Poll after poll shows that Palestinian Arabs support terror in Israel itself. (Over 40% still support a violent intifada in 2013.) The elections proved that the conventional wisdom was wrong - and the conventional wisdom proceeded to ignore it.

Elephant 3: The current PA government was not elected

This corollary to Elephant 2 means that the current people negotiating for the Palestinian Arabs do not represent the people. Even if they sound moderate or compromising, they have no mandate. The current PA president is well past his term of office, and the current and previous prime minister were never elected (in fact, he received a tiny percentage of the vote when he did run for election.) Negotiating with the PA is, literally, meaningless.

Similarly, the unelected PLO is the real power behind the PA. The PA officially reports to the PLO, and all negotiations are done by the autocratic, Fatah-dominated PLO, not the PA.

Elephant 4: The current PA government has almost no power - and no respect

Outside of Ramallah, the Fayyad/Abbas government has little popular support and little power. Hamas is a very real threat to the PA in the West Bank and is quietly building its base. The attitudes that forced the PA to abandon Gaza - a lack of passion by people for its positions - could very well play out in the West Bank as well.

Elephant 5: The PA is being kept alive by artificial methods

The PA budget is bloated from "payroll" of non-working workers - but if they would slash the payroll, the people on international welfare would revolt. So the very basis of the organized Palestinian Arab workforce is a fiction being kept barely alive by ever-increasing infusions of cash with no real plan to fix the problem. (The bulk of the PA budget goes to Gaza, and much of that goes to workers being paid not to work.)

Elephant 6: Fatah remains a terrorist group paid by the PA

Despite the recent claims that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has dismantled, it is a joke meant to appease the wishful-thinkers. The PA might arrest Hamas members in the West Bank, but there still remains - today - terrorist groups that report to Fatah. Here's the webpage of one of them. There has been no serious move by the PA to dismantle their own terror groups.

Elephant 7: The first - and second - stages of the roadmap were never implemented

The entire point of the road map was to slowly build confidence, starting with the end of terror and incitement on the Palestinian Arab side, afterwards building a "provisional" state and only then going to final-status negotiations. Abbas and his team simply threw out phases I and II. By skipping to Phase III as if the other two phases were already in place, the entire exercise is simply a joke. Incitement remains at full blast and the lull in terror is tactical, not a sea-change in Palestinian Arab attitudes.

Even though the US has made statements against Palestinian Arab incitement, it hasn't moved to stop it.

This is not so much an elephant anymore quite so much as it is a proof that terror works. Before the second intifada, the world was not fully behind a Palestinian state; autonomy was still considered an option. The world never demanded 1 to 1 land swaps based on the 1967 lines - but after the terror spree they now do. And the demands of the road map to slowly build confidence before granting a state has likewise been thrown out the window.

Terror pays.

Elephant 8: The PA's goal remains the destruction of Israel

Whether it is by "right of return" or not changing the Fatah charter or by printing map after map showing no Israel, even the most moderate Palestinian leader clings to the idea of destroying Israel, and looks upon a Palestinian Arab state as only one stage in the process. One only needs to look at the maps of "Palestine" in official PA documents and schoolbooks.

A 2011 poll that remains criminally under-reported proves that when Palestinian Arabs say they want a two-state solution, it is only a stage towards their real goal of destroying Israel.

Elephant 9: Jerusalem

Most Israelis want a unified Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Most Palestinian Arabs refuse to accept anything less than all of ("east") Jerusalem as the capital of a Muslim state. The positions are not compatible and a compromise will not reduce the chances for violence - it will increase it.

Elephant 10: What happened to Gaza

Forgetting Hamas for now, the time period between Israel's dismantling settlements in Gaza and the Hamas takeover is instructive as to how Palestinian Arabs take advantage of territory they gain. They didn't build new houses or communities to reduce the "refugee camp" population, no schools or hospitals. They destroyed the greenhouses purchased for them by American Jews; they turned beautiful former settlements into training camps for terror - in other words, Israel's last major concession not only didn't help achieve peace, it ended up encouraging terror. Any claims that something similar wouldn't happen in the West Bank is the triumph of wishful thinking over experience.

Elephant 11: Palestinian Arab "unity"

Related to Elephant #1. No peace plan can work unless Hamas and the PA/Fatah reach some sort of unification agreement. This is not possible in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Hamas is powerful enough that any such agreement must include a hardening of PLO positions that would be completely incompatible with the basic Quartet demands for peace - renunciation of terror, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements.

Elephant 12: The Palestinian Arab "diaspora" and Arab intransigence

Any final peace agreement would mean that Arab countries could no longer justify keeping Palestinian Arabs in "refugee camps" nor could they justify their continued refusal to discriminate against Palestinian Arabs from becoming citizens of their countries should they want to stay. The millions of PalArabs in the Middle East becoming citizens would not be accepted by many Arab countries as it would endanger their own tenuous holds on power.

Elephant 13: Economics

Some 16 years after Oslo, the economy in the territories is still close to non-existent and wholly dependent on foreign aid. Not only is there no free market, there is no incentive to build one as the very mentality of Palestinian Arabs and their leaders is one of welfare rather than responsibility. All the plans to create a Palestinian Arab state do not consider Day 2 and how such a state would be able to sustain itself. The expected influx of hundreds of thousands of people from "refugee camps" would make it even worse. It would take at least a generation to turn the poisonous attitude of entitlement around.

Elephant 14: Gaza demographics

Gazans have no room to expand as their numbers continue to grow at among the fastest rates in the world. Theoretically they could move to the West Bank but only a small percentage would. This is another Day 2 powder keg that is being ignored in the interests of a "solution" of a "Palestinian state."

Elephant 15: Palestinian Arab leaders never showed interest in independence

The West assumes that the goal is an independent Palestinian Arab state where Arabs no longer have to live under "occupation." But the actions and words of Palestinian Arab leaders have never borne that goal out; they have not worked towards building the institutions and infrastructure that would be necessary in an independent state. Their insistence on "right of return" and "Jerusalem" as issues that must be resolved before independence betray their thought processes - inconsistent with independence (neither of which require those two issues to be resolved) and consistent with a desire to destroy Israel in stages.

Elephant 16: A unilateral Palestinian Arab state would be militarized

There is no way that a new Palestinian Arab state would remain demilitarized for any length of time. The Palestinian government could invite a friendly Muslim nation to position anti-aircraft weapons within its territory; to shoot missiles at El Al planes landing a few miles from the Green Line, or to get a few thousand tanks poised to cut Israel in half.

Iran already effectively controls Lebanon and Syria and is working to ensure Gaza comes back under its orbit. They would use the nascent state of Palestine to position themselves on the West Bank as well. Just like the PA ran away from Gaza at the first sign of trouble, so would they abandon their state to Iranian proxies and Islamic terrorists.

The PLO's will to defend themselves is not nearly as strong as their will to destroy Israel, a desire that has been inculcated in them for generations. Palestinian Arab nationalism is a fundamentally weak and externally-imposed construct. Iran is poised and anxious to take advantage of the chaos that would follow a unilaterally declared state, even if at the moment they are distracted.

But the West is ready to risk Israel for that elephant as well.

Elephant 17: The so-called "right to return"

The PA is showing no interest in integrating the Palestinian Arabs outside of the territories into their state. On the contrary; the "refugee camps" in PA controlled territory continue to grow, rather than shrink. Clearly, the PA expects the bulk of the "diaspora" to go to Israel, not a Palestinian Arab state, and decades of incitement both within and without the territories have brainwashed generations of Arabs to not accept anything less than a "return" to a land that most of them have never stepped foot in. (UNRWA has been a major promulgator of this lie.)

Elephant 18: The tension between being pro-West and pro-Arab

The biggest Western success story in the Palestinian Arab territories is the existence of the "Dayton forces" that have been helping crack down on Hamas in the West Bank.

However, most Palestinian Arabs regard those forces as puppets of the West. Not only do Hamas and Islamic Jihad hammer away at this point, but ordinary Palestinian Arabs do as well. The more cooperation between the PA and Israel/US, the more the PA government is delegitimized in the eyes of its people.

Elephant 19: Corruption and human rights abuses are still endemic in the PA

Despite the publicized successes, the PA remains mired in corruption, hardly a model for an independent state. The 2008 Global Integrity Report rated the West Bank as close to the bottom in its corruption ratings. Press freedom remains low; the justice system is improving but hardly competent, and whistle-blowers are forced to go to the Israeli press to expose corruption. The success that the PA has had in weakening Hamas in the West Bank has come at the expense of massive human rights violations, including torture.

Elephant 20: Palestine would be Judenrein

Statements by PA leaders make it clear that their state of Palestine would not have any Jewish citizens allowed within. Jews whose ancestors have lived in Judea and Samaria, whether for decades or for millennia, will be legally barred from living in Palestine - an extraordinary display of state anti-semitism that is completely at odds with the Western standards that the nascent state of "Palestine" is attempting to live up to.

Elephant 21: The Muslim world's antipathy towards Israel

Even if all of the preceding elephants could somehow vanish, the Arab world and the Muslim world remains implacably against the idea of a Jewish state in the midst of supposedly Muslim lands. Iran remains in de facto control of southern Lebanon and Gaza; ordinary Jordanians and Egyptians remain among the worst anti-semites in the Arab world. The best "peace" would be bitter cold; it will not include any real normalization, and the threat from radical Islam remains potent in Arab and Muslim states. Furthermore, any tension between Israel and any of its neighbors - Hezbollah or Hamas or Syria - would result in even the moderate Arab world solidly behind Israel's enemies, no matter what. The best peace plan would result in Israel being exactly where it is today - surrounded by enemies, with less of a land buffer, and Israel relying on US money to prompt Arab neighbors to keep radicals in check.

That is not peace, and that is not security.

Elephant 22: The Arab Spring

We now see how tenuous is the hold of Arab leaders on their nations. The chances of a similar upheaval in the Palestinian Arab-controlled areas is not small. What would happen to the "peace agreement" then?

Besides that, Abbas has no successor. Poll show that if elections were held today, the new president of the PA would be a convicted terrorist now in Israeli prison. Any piece of paper signed by Abbas would be next to worthless after he is gone.

It is true that Egypt has, despite rhetoric, kept the Camp David accords, but that is out of self-interest. The entire point of Palestinian Arab nationalism has been to destroy Israel, not to achieve statehood - so their self-interest coincides with taking any Israeli concession and then reneging on their end.

Hamas forges letters from Fatah (update)

Hamas claims to have gotten copies of letters from Fatah and the PLO, allegedly proving that they are behind the incitement against Hamas in Egypt.

I found a high resolution version of one of the letters, and it is obviously fake. And this is clear even without understanding the Arabic.

There is a handwritten signature on this letter - but the rest of the letter itself could not have been scanned. It is way too perfect, especially when zoomed in.

Scans always leave artifacts, whether the text is slightly skewed, or dust on the scanner, or cracks in the toner on the dark parts, or something. Here we cannot even see the edges of the paper.

Some Hamas member got a copy of the signature of some Fatah member as well as letterhead, and simply Photoshopped them around a letter that could say whatever the accuser wants it to say.

In other words, this letter cannot possibly prove anything.

Again, here is another indication that Hamas is running scared with the loss of its Muslim Brotherhood patron, and its increasingly hysterical attempts to blame its problems on its enemies.

UPDATE: Fatah responded also by saying they are forgeries - and points out that even the letterhead shown above is a forgery. While in English it says "Foreign Relations Commission" the Arabic says "Arabic Media Commission."

Hamas, spurned by Egypt, tries to get cozy with Iran again

Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil, speaking to the Xinhua news agency, stated that Hamas is "ready and welcomes all forms of dialogue with Iran to strengthen relations between the two sides."

Bardawil said that relations between Hamas and Iran "had not been interrupted at all" but he admitted that "they have become frosty since the crisis in Syria ... but we emphasize that Hamas does not want to drop relations with any Arab or Muslim party that supports the Palestinian cause."

On Tuesday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran and Hamas are resolving issues that caused "misunderstandings" between them.

This comes after the Egyptian public, and army, have come out strongly against the Gaza-based Islamist group that enjoyed close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas needs a new patron that can help it pay its bills, and tacitly backing Assad is apparently a price it is willing to pay - a move that will, if made public explicitly, cause some serious damage to Hamas' reputation in the larger Arab world.

On the flip side, Iran has been having a hard time to position itself as the leader of the Muslim world when every major Sunni group bitterly opposes it. Hamas helps Iran as well.

It will be interesting to see if Khaled Meshal, Hamas "political" head who has been moving from country to country in search of a new permanent Hamas headquarters to replace Syria, will be on board with this.

Hamas closes Ma'an, Al Arabiya offices in Gaza

Freedom of the press, Hamas-style:

The attorney-general in the Hamas-run government on Thursday ordered the closure of the Ma'an News Agency and Al-Arabiya satellite channel bureaus in Gaza.

The order was relayed to Ma'an by officials from the Hamas-run Ministry of Information and security forces.

Ministry officials accompanied by security forces questioned the Gaza bureau chief in his office on Thursday over a report published on Ma'an's Arabic site that quoted information translated from a Hebrew news site.

The report said that six Muslim Brotherhood officials had smuggled themselves into Gaza to plan an uprising against the military in Cairo, after their Egyptian president was deposed.

A ministry official told Ma'an's bureau chief that the report was false.

"Ma'an News agency insists that the Gaza Strip is involved in the Egyptian crisis seeking to intensify the incitement in Egypt against the Strip," the ministry official said.

"Ma'an deliberately publishes false news reports seeking to incite against Gaza. It has become complicit with Egyptian media outlets in incitement against the Strip and making up lies to harm the image of Palestinian resistance," the official continued.

Commenting on the accusations, Ma'an's editor-in-chief Nasser Lahham said "some people in Gaza seemingly went mad after the Muslim Brotherhood rule was ousted in Egypt.

"They take any possible occasion to wage tough attacks against Ma'an News Agency for no reason. We have lodged official complaints to the office of the Gaza premier, to the former Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouthi, to the Ministry of Information and to the union of Palestinian journalists."

And from Al Arabiya:

An office belonging to Al Arabiya television network was shut down by authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Thursday for allegedly reporting “false” information regarding the Hamas leadership.

Hamas authorities said they are going to temporarily close the office and refrain all employees from entering the building, which is located in the al-Ramal neighborhood in the center of Gaza, Al Arabiya’s correspondent said.

The correspondent said that the employees were notified by the authorities they would be arrested if they enter the office, adding that there is a number of other media offices that were also shut down.

“The Attorney General decided to close down Al-Arabiya... in Gaza for distributing false news regarding the smear campaign against Hamas and Gaza about what's happening in Egypt,” a Hamas official told AFP.

Hamas' paranoia and fear keeps increasing.