Showing posts with label self-death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-death. Show all posts

Thursday, March 05, 2009

  • Thursday, March 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
An 18-year old's body was recovered from a tunnel collapse a week ago.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count rises to 47.

UPDATE: Another body recovered plus one I had missed; 49.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

  • Sunday, March 01, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Two rockets fired this morning were claimed by the "Palestine Hizbollah" group. That group started in October, about a month before the "lull" ended, claiming that they would not respect any cease fire and castigating the groups that "abandoned resistance." Interestingly, they refrained from firing rockets until the lull ended in November. And now that there are daily rocket attacks against Israel, they have been the only group to claim responsibility for any of them.

Clearly, this group is a front. Their first operation was jointly claimed with Islamic Jihad - when Hamas was claiming that they were still holding by the "lull." But during the Gaza operation, it became clear that Islamic Jihad and the other major terror groups in Gaza had strong operational ties with Hamas, so it became harder for Hamas to claim that any rocket fire after the "unilateral cease fire" had nothing to do with them.

Hence, a new terror group pops up, at a very convenient time for Hamas. It is clear that rockets such as the improved Grads fired yesterday - that penetrated a fortified school in Ashkelon, and in all likelihood was aimed at exactly that target - were smuggled in by Hamas, which owns the weapons tunnels and which rules Gaza pretty comprehensively. Yet credulous people believe that Hamas is holding its end of the cease fire bargain.

In other news, a 40 year old man was abducted, tortured and killed in Gaza.

5 were killed in another tunnel collapse. Recent rains were blamed.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 46.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

  • Saturday, February 28, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The PLO called a general strike on Friday to protest reports that Israel was going to demolish 90 houses in Jerusalem. How exactly these strikes hurt Jews and help Arabs is just as unclear as it was in the 1930s.

A young man was strangled to death in either an honor killing or some sort of revenge killing in Gaza City.

Another man was killed in a tunnel collapse under Rafah.

Abu Marzouq, an exiled Hamas leader based out of Damascus, entered Gaza on Thursday, apparently with Israeli permission.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 40.

(For some reason I am having problems with Google Translate and cannot get to any Arabic websites.)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

  • Sunday, February 22, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Ma'an seems to have backtracked from its bizarre claim yesterday that a tunnel collapse was due to Egyptian "gas bombs." Three more bodies were pulled from the rubble from the illegal tunnel, and one more was found later in the day.

In other PalArab self-death news, an Arab man was stabbed to death while “sitting together in a friendly atmosphere” with pals in Qalqiya.

There are reports that Hamas stole medicine from a PA Ministry of Health storage facility last week.

George Galloway's British aid convoy for Gaza, traveling through north Africa, crossed the border from Morocco to Algeria, the first time that any traffic has crossed between the two countries in 15 years. No word on whether that means that Morocco's closing of its border with Algeria means that Algeria is "occupied" by Morocco, which is apparently the UN definition of "occupation" - even when it isn't.

The PalArab self-death count climbs to 38.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Work accident! Two Hamas members were killed in another of those "mysterious explosions" in Gaza.

Tunnel accident! One died, five injured in a Rafah smuggling tunnel. Ma'an claims that Egypt had fired something called "gas bombs" but the other PalArabic press just say that they suffocated. I will not count this as a self-death yet, but if Ma'an is correct, that means that Egypt just killed a Palestinian Arab and no one cares.

"Collaborators" no more: Two Gazans were executed for being suspected of collaborating with Israel. I couldn't find any mention of an arrest or trial. It's almost as if Hamas doesn't subscribe to normal standards of behavior and human rights!

When homemade projectiles turn deadly.... A Qassam rocket, invariably described as a mere nuisance when shot against Israel, fell short in Gaza - and now it is a big deal:
Two families said narrowly escaped death when a Palestinian homemade projectile hit their apartments in Al-Farahin, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday night.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted the owner of the apartments, Ahmad Abu Duqqa, as saying, “The projectile drilled through the roof causing serious damage."

"Only the heavens prevented a massacre," said Abu Duqqa, "as the projectile hit a bathroom next to my four grandchildren and their mother, who live with us after they fled their home because it is in the range of Israeli fire.”
Working to make Hamas respectable: Representatives from the Carter Center are working on reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. They met with Hamas leaders today in Ramallah. No doubt they are trying to find ways that Hamas can keep its desire to destroy Israel but can convince Europe that they don't really mean it.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 32.

Monday, February 16, 2009

From Ma'an:
A Palestinian was killed on Monday morning and four others were injured in a mysterious explosion in the northern Gaza Strip, medical sources reported. One Palestinian, identified as Rajab Usama Subuh, 25, was killed in the blast, while two of four others injured in Beit Lahiya were in critical condition just before noon on Monday.
Earlier, Gazans had claimed this came from an Israeli artillery shell, but the IDF denied any activities in the area. The PalArab self-death count in 2009 is now at 29. UPDATE: This was not a work accident, just an apparent case of stupidity:
Palestinian hospital officials say a 25-year-old Gaza man has been killed and five people have been wounded in a blast along the border with Israel.

Palestinian security officials say the explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya was caused when people who were melting down scrap metal for recycling inadvertently threw an explosive device into the fire.

This no longer falls into my definition of self-death (although, as Richard from Augean Stables points out in the comments, it is a Darwin Award candidate,) so we are back down to 28, unless more information comes out.

(h/t PTWatch)

Sunday, February 15, 2009

  • Sunday, February 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
A 46 year old Palestinian Arab woman was shot and killed in Gaza, as terrorists were training in the former Jewish settlement of Nitzarim and a stray bullet hit her in the chest.

A man who was abducted by Hamas in early January died from his injuries last week.

Hamas claims that they have body parts of an Israeli soldier. Interestingly, this sounds like the same fake soldier that Hamas claimed to have abducted and kept for two days, yet they cannot produce his name or any identifiable information about him.

What do the settlements and Gilad Shalit have in common? They are both considered "obstacles to peace!" According to the DFLP, Israel's insistence on the release of Shalit is making a truce so much harder, and of course (as with the settlements) it is Israel's fault that there is no peace.

The rumors of an imminent agreement, including the release of Gilad Shalit and Marwan Barghouti, have been going on for weeks now; they seem to be accelerating. I haven't been talking about it much because it is still pure rumor, but just letting you know that the stories have been coming out every day about breakthroughs in negotiations. Similarly, there are also stories about negotiations on the verge of collapse.

Muslim leaders continue their daily accusations of Israeli attempts to destroy Al Aqsa. Today they claim to have seen cracks in the ceiling, and they are blaming Israeli excavations that they are convinced are going on beneath the Temple Mount.

A programming glitch seems to have caused a number of SMS messages to be sent to Jordanian cell phone users saying, in English and Arabic, "Welcome to Israel. We wish you a pleasant stay. We hope you enjoy the roaming services we provide." I'm sure that someone will use this as proof that Israel is planning to attack Jordan.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count rises to 28.

Friday, February 13, 2009

  • Friday, February 13, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Three Qassams were shot from Gaza this morning, and a group called the "Hezbollah Brigades" claimed responsibility for two of them. These small groups give Hamas plausible deniability although the chances that Hamas had no knowledge of the rockets is slim to none. (Despite what unnamed "Israeli security officials" supposedly said to The Telegraph.)

A clan clash near Hebron killed one and injured three.

This weekend, for the first time in five years, Israel will allow Arab citizens to visit Nablus without getting permission ahead of time. A similar program for Jenin started a couple of months ago. Gee, you think that there might be something to the "peace for peace" idea?

Maybe not. A five kilogram bomb was discovered by the IDF near Jenin.

Hamas is making noises that both an agreement for a temporary "calm" with Israel and an agreement with the PA (where the PA would re-assert control over the Rafah border) are imminent.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 26.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

A deranged man in the West Bank savagely beat his three daughters and wife. His 15-year old and 3-year old daughters were killed, a third is critically injured.

Last month, a 13-year old Syrian boy, worried about his parents finding out his grades were low, killed them and three other members of his family.

The “Imad Mughniyya Brigades" have taken credit for a shooting attack on an Israeli car in the West Bank near Beit El last night. No one was hurt.

The Arab world (as well as the far-left) have decided that the word "fascist" is the best term to describe Avigdor Lieberman. One wonders why "moderate" Arabs who espouse a Judenrein Palestine are never given the same appellation.

Meanwhile, Hamas describes the three major winners in the elections as "terrorists" and accuses Lieberman specifically of planning to dynamite an Egyptian dam in order to drown the Palestinian Arabs. The dam in Egypt is very far from Gaza, but perhaps Hamas members didn't learn geography in the UNRWA schools they attended.

Ma'an publishes a nonsensical op-ed saying that Palestinian Arabs hate democracy because of how the Israeli elections went.

Firas Press' regular publishing of pictures of cute Palestinian Arab kids continues with this smiling future jihadi.

The millions of dollars that Hamas was caught trying to smuggle into Gaza has been deposited in an Egyptian bank in Hamas' name, but it cannot be withdrawn without Egyptian approval.

Jordanian "human rights" organizations started an initiative to bring Israel before a world court for prosecution for war crimes.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count is at 25.

Monday, February 09, 2009

  • Monday, February 09, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Hot on the heels of Hamas accusations that Fatah tortured a Hamas member to death, Fatah announced that Hamas abducted a 48-year old father of ten in Gaza named Nehad Saadi Aldbaki three days ago and tortured him to death.

Palestine Press Agency also mentions another person killed by Hamas a few days ago I had not counted, a member of the PFLP named
Shaqqura.

My "self-death" count of Arabs violently killed by other Palestinian Arabs in 2009 rises to 22.
A Hamas member, who was arrested on Friday, died in a PA prison. The PA claimed that he committed suicide but Hamas and his family are saying that he was tortured to death. His brother says that his body showed bruises around his waist. He had not been charged officially with any crimes. (I am going to count this as a 2009 PalArab self-death, the 20th this year. The suicide story seems farfetched, and the PA tortures people as regularly as Hamas does.)

Hamas' expulsion of Al Arabiya correspondent Wael Essam is making ripples, as many Arabs are criticizing the move. MEMRI has two of his recent reports on arms smuggling and rocket production. Essam, who has Palestinian Arab ancestry, is interviewed here, where he says that he has been kicked out of war zones before (he reported from Iraq and Lebanon) but never by his own people.

Gunmen opened fire at the PA Minister of the Interior in Nablus. Attacks on PA members and institutions seem to be increasing in the West Bank, possibly as a result of the increased prestige Hamas enjoys there for managing to hide most of its fighters for a few weeks.

Hamas is now reacting to the withering criticism it received when it floated the idea of a replacement fo rthe PLO. Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar now says that Hamas doesn't want to replace the PLO but it does want to have a much greater role in it, including the reversal of the PLO's supposed revocation of the articles in its charter that call for the destruction of Israel. Khaled Meshal says that the PLO should not only be represented by Fatah.

UNRWA is still waiting for Hamas to return the goods that it stole. Commenters at Palestine Press Agency are skeptical.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

  • Thursday, February 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Before and during the Gaza op, Hamas tried very hard to turn exploding people into an art form: (h/t Ruthie of America)
Since the start of the conflict in Gaza, the “ghost” suicide bombers have isolated themselves from families and friends. They spend their time hidden close to areas where Israeli forces deploy. On the selection criteria for suicide bombers, Abu Moath briefly explained that only young people are chosen from the ranks of al-Qassam’s battalions, which number up to ten thousand fighters. Abu Moath disclosed females are also recruited to the ranks of the suicide bombers. The candidate bombers are secretly scrutinized by al-Qassam lieutenants to make sure they are religiously committed and responsible. The next phase is to notify the bomber of their acceptance and put them through psychological and military training on weapons and tactics, especially those used by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Abu Moath asserts that all through the selection and training phases the suicide bombers are tutored by religious clerics and Islamic preachers. Upon completion of training, the bombers are sent behind enemy lines. Each group of suicide bombers is compartmentalized and does not know the location or composition of other groups to avoid compromising their comrades if one of them is captured by the Israelis. Abu Moath admits such captures happen very often because the suicide bombers operate behind enemy lines. Each suicide bomber is issued special weapons and a custom-tailored explosive belt.

Other Hamas units of suicide bombers include the “Booby-Trapped Martyrs.” These martyr units are designed to deploy on the streets and alleys of Gaza’s cities, armed with heavier explosive belts than those used by the “ghosts.” These units are as secret and compartmentalized as the “ghost” suicide bombers and deploy with Hamas commando units tasked with kidnapping Israeli soldiers.
By the way, this means that at least some of the women killed in Gaza were not civilians.

Since they were singularly unsuccessful at these attempts, it is back to the drawing board - and back to blowing up their own people.

Palestine Today and Ma'an Arabic are reporting that the "Oasis" cafe in Gaza City was blown up tonight, killing one person and injuring three others.

Since Arabs killing Arabs is considered a natural event, the news media will remain mostly quiet about this.

The 2009 PalArab self-death count, of Palestinian Arabs violently killed by their own actions, is at 19.
  • Thursday, February 05, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
We are used to seeing an insidious form of propaganda, where an op-ed piece sprinkles lies as facts to support the columnist's opinion. Since the rules for op-eds are looser than reporting, often the newspaper editors let these sorts of lies go through. (For a perfect example, see Khaled Meshal's op-ed in the Guardian last month.)

However, I have never seen an English-language op-ed that has as many lies as this one from Al-Arabiya, in English, by Dr. Salim Nazzal:
Many lessons can be concluded from the Gaza war. The first is the Palestinians’ great will to sacrifice to defend their home.
More like Hamas' great will to sacrifice Gazans.
...one cannot conceal the feeling of being proud of the Palestinian resistance.
As they stayed in tunnels underneath hospitals and shot rockets from mosques.

But the most insanely absurd part comes later:
According to the human rights specialist Lyna al Tabal, there is not a single item in the Geneva Convention Israel did not violate.
That's right - every single Geneva Convention! Israel must have done biological experiments against Gazans, shot at Hamas parachutists ejecting from damaged planes, and raped Gaza women, to name a few of the hundreds of Conventions.
This is a state that has more than 200 atomic weapons which means two atomic bombs for each Palestinian.
You mean there are only 100 Palestinian Arabs?
A state that has wires and check points (a check point means a slow death and daily humiliation for Palestinians) 20 times more than the Nazi check points during the Nazi occupation of Europe.
Um....yeah.
The number of Palestinians who have been imprisoned since 1967 is 30 times more than the Europeans who went to prison during the Nazi occupation of Europe.

There were hundreds of thousands of people in Nazi prisons, not counting death camps. Which means that Nazzal is claiming that far more Palestinian Arabs have been imprisoned than there are Palestinian Arabs.
The number of bombs Israel used against Palestinians is estimated to be 50 bombs or rockets to each Palestinian.
Assuming he means Palestinian Arabs in the boundaries of Mandate Palestine, that's 300 million bombs!
The number of displaced Palestinians from their ancestral home in more than 415 villages and cities, due to the European Zionist invasion of Palestine, is about 5 million Palestinians.
A neat trick, considering that there were less than a million total Palestinian Arabs in 1948.
Therefore the Palestinian resistance is a reaction to occupation. The occupation comes first; the resistance comes as a natural reaction.
See my last post about the Arab murders of Jews in 1914.
Palestinians have every right to resist the occupation following article 1 of the additional protocol of the Geneva conventions 1977 which states clearly that:
(Armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination).
Even if this applied, this means that they are covered by the Conventions, it doesn't mean that they can flout them.
Weakening the fist of Zionism is in the interest of all Europe, which the Israeli atomic bombs can reach it in few minutes.
Ah, yes, the Europeans are threatened by Israel far more than from Islamic terrorism.
Palestinians prefer to compete with the Jewish community in Palestine in football grounds and in musical halls and not in wars. This view is related to the Palestinian vision which views as Palestine more than a piece of land, but rather as a unique place where God is glorified through synagogues, churches and mosques.
A sentiment that I have not seen a single time - ever - mentioned in any Palestinian Arab media, from years of reading them. And keep in mind how many synagogues survived in the Old City of Jerusalem one month after Jordan ejected the Jews there - zero.

And this is only a sample of Nazzal's piece!

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

  • Tuesday, February 03, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
My self-death count has had a lot of guesswork since the beginning of Cast Lead, and I based a lot on a Jerusalem Post article that claimed 35 had been killed as of January 4th. Since then there have been a number of attempts to catalogue the dead, and I believe now that the JPost numbers were a bit high. I try to make sure my numbers are accurate. My rule had been, whenever possible, to only count deaths with names attached to them and I had been bothered that the 35 mentioned in the JPost never panned out.

The PCHR just published (in Arabic only so far) the most comprehensive list of those killed in infighting since Cast Lead began. According to its numbers some 16 were killed in 2008 and 16 more in 2009. I adjusted the 2008 numbers accordingly (adding 10) and I included the 16 in the 2009 numbers, plus two more in the West Bank.

As far as I can tell, all the ones I had specified were on the PCHR list, including the former B'Tselem worker; they also included some more recent ones I had missed, including a 7-year old girl killed by "misuse of weapons." And this list includes far more dead than earlier lists published by Fatah and another human rights org in Gaza.

For now, I am treating these numbers as accurate.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

  • Thursday, January 29, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
From Reuters:
A Palestinian man on Thursday accused Islamist Hamas militants in control of the Gaza Strip of torturing and killing his brother for publicly criticizing them.

Osama Atallah, a teacher, was a supporter of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the sworn enemy of Hamas, whose gunmen drove Fatah militia out of Gaza in 2007 and fought Israel's army in a three-week war this month.

His brother Bassam said masked gunmen in two jeeps arrived at the family home in the city of Gaza on Tuesday. They identified themselves as members of Hamas internal security and they arrested his brother Osama.

Bassam said the Hamas security service told the Atallah family Osama would be released in a matter of hours. But a Hamas government official, who is also a member of the Atallah family, later denied the teacher was in custody.

The family subsequently received a telephone call from hospital that Osama Atallah was in critical condition.

He later died of his wounds.

This is confirmed in the PalArab media.

The 2009 Palarab self-death count is now (estimated) to be at 42.

A 14-year old boy was fond dead in a well in the West Bank, but that seems to have been accidental. But a new murder I was not aware of happened last month of a 13-year old, and I adjusted the self-death count from 2008 accordingly.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The rumors that have popped up in the past day that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might have some Jewish ancestors - probably cooked up by his political opponents - is resonating in the Fatah-linked Palestine Press Agency. Its readers are not surprised, as they consider all Shiites to be really Jewish.

In PalArab self-death news, a Qalqiya resident was found shot to death in Hebron. A Gaza man was tortured to death by Hamas. And I had not yet counted yesterday's reports that a former B'Tselem worker was also killed by Hamas earlier this month. My latest gross count based on newspaper articles came before that death, so I don't think it is double-counting. So the 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 41.

The PA's Minister of Social Affairs now counts 63 trucks of aid hijacked by Hamas on the 19th and 20th of this month, something that UNRWA calls "utter nonsense." Which story makes more sense?

Hamas had promised to act like Hezbollah and pay families thousands of dollars in compansation for lost relatives or damaged homes. So far, the families that Hamas paid have received only a fraction of the promised amounts.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

  • Tuesday, January 27, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights used to be one of the better places to find out about Palestinian Arab infighting that I would use as a source for my "self-death" counts.

Yet, even though there are verified reports that Hamas has killed dozens of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza during the initial operation, and even though the PCHR has been keeping its own count of those supposedly killed by Israel and their circumstances, they have not said a word about these murders on their website.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

  • Saturday, January 24, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Fatah supporters are reporting that Hamas has set up detention and torture centers in mosques and kindergartens. One mosque was mentioned specifically, Imam El-Shafei, and the kindergarten was called al-Tahir in Beit Hanoun. Hamas also continues to attack Fatah members, blowing a wall in the house of one and shooting the legs of two brothers.

One Fatah member was tortured to death last week. The 2009 PalArab self-death count is now at 38.

There are reports that Hamas is asking Egypt to arrange an 18-month truce with Israel. Which is exactly what one would expect terrorists to do if they won a war, right?

Hamas is supposedly going to appoint Khalil Al-Hayya as the "Interior Minister" to replace the dear, departed Said Siam. This scoop came courtesy of the Iranian media, who must have some really good investigative reporters - or friends in Hamas. Remember how pundits claim that Sunnis and Shiites hate each other so much that they would never cooperate? Brilliant analysis, as usual.

PalPress reports of another case of Hamas confiscating aid to Gaza and distributing it to their own sympathizers.

PalPress also reprints an Israeli report about a soldier who says that the IDF were very close to the Shifa hospital where the Hamas leaders were holed up but they didn't go in; also that he saw how Hamas hid behind the women and children while shooting from mosques and schools. One commenter, who claims to be from Gaza, agreed:
With great regret that I am one of the Gaza Strip who have lived a war from beginning to end and talk with regret that the Zionist true

Hamas has taken the peaceful citizens and children as human shields and were firing rockets from among them and escape and hide among children and also the launch of rockets from crowded places and people's enthusiasm was in line with Israel to kill the largest possible number of people of Palestine in Gaza

Suffice God yes agent
I don't know how to translate that last phrase but I often see it in the context of sadness at tragedy, making this comment seem more likely to be legitimate.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

  • Thursday, January 15, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestine Press reports that Hamas immediately found someone to blame for Israel's successful killing of Hamas leader Said Siam and executed him on the spot.

According to the report, Siam drove to his house and kept the engine running while he ran inside. That was when the IAF got him.

Hamas claims that they extracted a confession from the informant, said to be an insider, and then shot him immediately.

The PalArab self-death count therefore goes up...

Monday, January 12, 2009

  • Monday, January 12, 2009
  • Elder of Ziyon
In the wake of the 2006 Lebanon war, with hundreds of dead Lebanese civilians and a destroyed infrastructure, a Gulf News analyst - and professor of political science at UAE University - wrote:
The controversial discussion about the quality and significance of the victory and the size of destruction caused by the war is legitimate and healthy. But, despite the massive destruction in Lebanon, the Arabs seem to be better off after the war.

Logically, when Israel is in a worse condition, which is the case now, Arabs are definitely better off.

Although Israel was not routed in the battle, it surely seems defeated and frustrated. It is also living in a state of doubt and comprehensive review of its military and political performance during the war.

The equation of victory and defeat between the Arabs and the Zionist state has always been and will remain zero equation. This means that when Israel is defeated, Arabs have the right to celebrate victory.

Hatred of Israel can be found in the genes of all Arabs. Although it is hereditary, its intensity varies from time to time. All facts on the ground indicate that the Arab rejection of the Zionist entity reached its peak after the aggression.

The unification of Arabs in their deep enmity against Israel is a positive matter.
This is not some crazy member of the "Arab street". This is someone who has a respected job as an intellectual, who is saying that anything that is bad for Israel is, by definition, good for the Arabs. The Arab world, and a large number of its supporters, look at the Middle East as a zero-sum game where when one side wins, the other loses.

History shows that this is not an isolated opinion; in fact, it is still mainstream Arab opinion. Even as pragmatic and moderate a leader as Jordan's King Abdullah reveals that he still looks at the conflict the same way, that what is good for Israel is bad for the Arab world, although Abdullah is much more nuanced.

Westerners must understand this mindset. We grow up with the idea ingrained in us that the best solutions to problems are "win-win", where each side can gain or at least compromise in ways where their losses are minimized. This is so obvious to most Westerners that we cannot conceive of a mentality that is exactly the opposite - that if I win, you must lose, and vice versa.

The writings of the early Zionists show that rather than trying to hurt the surrounding Arab communities, Zionism intended to enrich them with a growing economy and modernization. When Israel won the Six Day War, it immediately set out to build a new infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank for the Arabs - electricity, hospitals, clean water. The Palestinian Arab mortality rates plummeted and their life expectancy soared under Israeli rule. From the outset, Zionism was meant to be a "win-win," not zero-sum.

On the other hand, the zero-sum mentality is heavily tied to the genetic hatred of Israel that was mentioned by the professor above that is endemic among the Arabs. It goes to the root of the divide between the two cultures. Zero-sum implies hatred and eternal conflict, "win-win" implies pragmatism and peace.

At the outset of Operation Cast Lead, Israeli President Shimon Peres asked an extremely good question:
Still I have not heard until now a single person who could explain to us reasonably: why are they firing rockets against Israel? What are the reasons? What is the purpose?
Everyone who has answered that question in the explosion of anti-Zionist articles that have been written recently uses a variant of this zero-sum answer. Rockets hurt Israel, therefore it is obvious that they must be good for Arabs. Hurting Israel is a worthy goal in and of itself, independent of any consequences. From their perspective, Israel's pain equals Arab gain.

This twisted mentality is most prominent in Hamas' actions now. Hamas has stated that Israel's killing of civilians is evidence of Israel's failure in battle. In other words, Hamas considers the death of Palestinian Arabs to be a victory! There is a complete disconnect between the major goal - Israel's pain - and any desire to defend Gazans.

For Westerners, it is self-evident that the purpose of a military is to defend one's citizens. When your own population is being killed, your military has failed.

Hamas' purpose, though, is not to defend Palestinian Arabs - it is to destroy Israel. This necessarily means that they want to inflict pain on the enemy by any means possible. Their own people are not to be defended: on the contrary, they are to be used for this ultimate goal. Dead civilians are just another weapon to "win."

Moderate Arab rulers have been able to at least understand the pragmatism of the West; they know that any open conflict with Israel will cause them to lose their own positions. But as we saw with King Abdullah, the Arab mentality of seeing Israel not as a partner but as an enemy is still ingrained in the collective Arab psyche. For the "moderates," the zero sum game is still very real, but it is played diplomatically, rather than militarily.

While Israel would be thrilled to send its experts throughout the Arab world to help with agriculture, desalination, solar energy or medicine, to increase two-way trade with the Arabs, the Arab world remains leery of anything that makes Israelis happy - even if it helps the Arabs. From the beginning, Israel has wanted "normalization" to be part of any peace agreements precisely because Israel thinks in terms of win-win - but the Arabs just cannot wrap their heads around this concept.

To the Arab world, if Israel wins, the Arabs must be losing. And as long as they have this mentality, there can be no real peace.

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