Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 09, 2009

Hamas shoots mortars at aid convoys, no one cares

While the UNRWA gets its collective panties bunched up over supposed Israeli violations of humanitarian law, they are completely, absolutely silent over Hamas' direct attacks on Gazan aid.

We have already seen that Hamas confiscates aid at gunpoint once it gets into Gaza, takes the lion's share, then sells the rest to Gazans and takes profit, before any other agency gets their part.

Not a word from UNRWA.

Today, we see that Hamas broke the three-hour truce by firing at the Kerem Shalom crossing while humanitarian aid was being delivered.

Not a word from UNRWA.

I know this sounds crazy, but it is almost as if the UNRWA is solidly on the side of the terrorists!

Ha'aretz (Hebrew only so far) has news of some outstanding archaeological finds in the City of David in Jerusalem. When the English version comes out I'll reproduce it, but the most stunning find is the one pictured here, of a 2 cm high pomegranate.

The reason this is interesting is because the description of the building of Solomon's Temple in I Kings 7 includes:

40 And Hiram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for king Solomon in the house of the LORD: 41 the two pillars, and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; 42 and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were upon the top of the pillars; 43 and the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases; 44 and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea; 45 and the pots, and the shovels, and the basins; even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king Solomon, in the house of the LORD, were of burnished brass.

h/t My Right Word

Al Aqsa's late night pr0n

EoZ friend Henrik emails me:

Danish press says that al-Aqsa TV by accident switched to showing Polish po-rn tonight. Apparently a technician switched the source for image to Polish station Patio TV, that was at the time showing a po-rn movie featuring a nude blonde playing around with a veil.

To make it even funnier, the soundtrack wasnt changed, so for six minutes, Gaza residents were watching Polish po-rn with a soundtrack of Arab war-songs :-)

The clip, which is hilarious and absolutely not suitable for work, can be seen at The Jawa Report The ubiquitous green Arabic news crawl continues underneath the woman and her veil and Arabic music plays, turning the entire thing into a Arabic po-rn music video.

Syrian pilots stopped from attacking Israel?

According to a couple of Palestinian Arab newspapers, quoting the Hebrew Omedia site (I could not find the original,) seven Syrian pilots were conspiring to fly over and bomb Israel a few days ago. Syria found out about the plot and arrested them, and also told their pilots that if anyone goes on such an adventure, Syria would kill their families.

It added that Syria is keeping a tight lid on any pro-Hamas demonstrations.

A UN resolution that Hamas can love (updated)

The UN passed a cease-fire resolution that Hamas can wholeheartedly support, according to its own twisted logic. Itis a shame that the US couldn't see through the diplo-speak to understand this enough to block it.

Let's look at how Hamas will interpret UN Security Council Resolution 1860:

1. The Security Council stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Hamas: Which will indicate that we drove the Zionists out of Gaza.

2. The Security Council calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment.

3. The Security Council welcomes the initiatives aimed at creating and opening humanitarian corridors and other mechanisms for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid.

4. The Security Council calls on member states to support international efforts to alleviate the humanitarian and economic situation in Gaza, including through urgently needed additional contributions to UNWRA and through the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee.

Hamas: Perfect. We have never bothered to set up any infrastructure for humanitarian aid since we took control of Gaza, leaving all normal functions of government to NGOs and, when not a danger, Fatah members who continue to get paid by the PA. This way we can continue to work on our primary mission as the leaders of Gaza - building a terror infrastructure.

5. The Security Council condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorist.

Hamas: We agree. The Zionist entity is purely terrorist, targeting our civilians. We are against attacking civilians and only shoot rockets at military targets.

6. The Security Council calls upon member states to intensify efforts to provide arrangements and guarantees in Gaza in order to sustain a durable ceasefire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the sustained reopening of crossing points on the basis of the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access between the Palestinian Authority; and in this regard, welcomes the Egyptian initative, and other regional and international efforts that are underway.

Hamas: We are not a member state so this doesn't apply to us. The member states have already tried to stop smuggling and failed, so we are fine with that part of the paragraph.

As far as the Egyptian border is concerned, we call on Egypt to work with us directly to open Rafah fully and bypass international and Israeli involvement, which is consistent with the EUBAM agreement and will give us international recognition as the legitimate rulers of Gaza.

7. The Security Council encourages tangible steps towards intra-Palestinian reconciliation including in support of mediation efforts of Egypt and the League of Arab States as expressed in the 26 November 2008 resolution, and consistent with Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008) and other relevant resolutions.

Hamas: We agree that the Palestinian people should be united under their democratically elected leaders, Hamas.

8. The Security Council calls for renewed and urgent efforts by the parties and the international community to achieve a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace with secure and recognized borders, as envisaged in Security Council Resolution 1850 (2008), and recalls also the important of the Arab Peace Initiative.

Hamas: This is so watered down as to be meaningless, so, sure, why not, as long as the international community considers tactical truces to be "peace."

9. The Security Council welcomes the Quartet's consideration, in consultation with the parties, of an international meeting in Moscow in 2009.

Hamas: Keep on talking while we keep on firing in legitimate self-defense at Israeli schools that we call "military bases."

While at first glance it appears to be "balanced," in fact only Israel has any obligations under this resolution - to give Hamas a symbolic victory, which is the only kind that Arabs recognize. Hamas is not mentioned once. Hamas has no obligations under this resolution. The word "rockets" is not mentioned specifically, and Gilad Shalit is not mentioned at all.

Under these terms, Hamas gains immense prestige and bragging rights, Gazans continue to live in misery, and Israeli residents will still be subject to regular rocket fire that the UN is powerless to stop.

UPDATE: Even so, Hamas rejected the resolution:

Hamas rejected the resolution, with spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri telling Arabic news channel al-Jazeera from Yemen, 'We are not concerned by the decision because Hamas was not consulted and it did not take into consideration the interest and demands of our people in Gaza.'
The Islamic Jihad also said in a statement the council's decision was not acceptable.

A Hamas spokesman from Damascus put it this way:

Abu Marzouq: We have three conditions for any peace initiative coming from any state.

First, the aggression of the Israelis should stop. All of the gates should be opened, including the gate of Rafah between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Finally, Israel has to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

We are not saying we will stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel - we are only talking about stopping the aggression from the Israelis against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

When others talk about a ceasefire, they are saying all military operations should stop.

But we are sending a message [by firing rockets]: "We will not surrender. We have to fight the Israelis and we will win this battle."

We know we are going to lose a lot of people from our side, but we are going to win, inshallah.

Iran urges assassinations worldwide

From the National Council of Resistance to Iran website:

A one-million-dollar reward for the assassination of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s President, has been set up, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) front organization has announced. Sadegh Shahbazi, secretary of the so-called “Student Justice-seeking movement,” announced the reward.
Shahbazi, the IRGC front organization’s secretary, announced the news of a million dollar prize for assassinating the Egyptian President at the sit-in in Mehrabad airport. He added: Just as we have a bounty for the assassinations of the Zionist army commander, head of Mossad, and War Minister, we also have a reward for the assassination of Hosni Mubarak.
Shariatmadari, Khamenei’s representative in Kayhan daily, in a January 5, 2009 editorial, entitled “Mourning Sacred Ghassem,” issued a command to start carrying out assassinations in various countries.
In the editorial, Shariatmadari recounted a story from a 13 year old teenager who had gone to the front lines during the Iran-Iraq war with the permission of the mullahs’ current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, and was later killed. Shariatmadari compared him and other teenagers who were sent to mine fields by the regime, to “Ghassem,” a young man who fought alongside the revered Shiite Imam Hussein in 680 and died. The editorial goes on to say:
“In Gaza, all of Islam has come head-to-head with all of infidelity. Bush is not Christian, Olmert is not Jewish, and Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah are not Muslims. This is a war of opposing parties, just like the forced war [with Iraq] and the 33 day war [in 2006 in Lebanon]. Today, this war is in Gaza. As the Imam [mullah regime’s founder Khomeini] used to say, with the revitalization of true Islam of Prophet Muhammad, the Great Satan roared and issued a call to all the other big and small devils. … Now that the war in Gaza is the point of conflict for all of Islam against all infidels, why should the act of confronting the Zionists only be limited to the borders of occupied Palestine? Are the people of Gaza not representing the entire Muslim world in their fight with the Zionists? Therefore, offering broad support, including military support, to them is the duty of all Muslims and all Islamic countries. Today, the people of Gaza are on the front lines, but the war front is much larger than the internal confines of occupied Palestine. As such, attacking the backers of the Israeli military, i.e. its global and regional supporters, is an inalienable right of all Muslim people. Outside of occupied Palestine, the latter are easily accessible. Can one not easily attack some Arab leaders and US-imposed governments? The interests of the US, Britain, Germany, and other supporters of Israel, are easily accessible – or, we should say, they are “within range.” … The time to take revenge against the violent Zionists, these corrupt and destructive forms of disease, has finally come. … Therefore, the talk of a cease-fire only serves to grant an opportunity to carry out future crimes and has no other rationale.”

Nah, this is only hyperbole, and probably a mistranslation. There's nothing to be concerned with here.

Today's UNRWA hypocrisy

A week ago, the UNRWA slammed Israel for not allowing enough humanitarian aid into Gaza, implying that the security concerns of Israel were meaningless compared to the needs of the Gazans:

[UNRWA Commissioner Karen Abu Zayd] said Israel has closed down the Karni crossing, the main gateway for cargo into Gaza where it is normally delivered, for security reasons.
She said UNRWA was told by the Israeli humanitarian coordinator that all other crossings aren't open because "there is intelligence about serious preparations for security operations."
"We wonder if it's serious enough to really keep things completely closed and to keep people on their edge of subsistence," she said.

She of course knows very well that mortar fire on the crossings is very common, and sometimes fatal. Yet she airily downplayed Israel's security concerns as not being nearly important enough to stop giving aid to Gazans.

Today, the UN is singing a different tune, in the wake of the death of a UN driver under unclear circumstances:

As a result of the incident, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it was suspending operations relating to the collection and distribution of humanitarian aid.

But here, too, there seemed to be confusion.

Richard Miron, the chief UN spokesman in Israel, told the Post that UNRWA was not suspending all of its operations, but just those relating to humanitarian aid.

"It's too dangerous and our staff are not safe," he said, adding that UNRWA would still be operating its schools and other centers in Gaza.

You mean, the possibility of being shot at can cause the UNRWA to stop delivering all humanitarian aid? What about the starving, bleeding, imprisoned Gazans that the UNRWA wants Israelis to give their lives for? Aren't they more important?

Of course not. To the UNRWA, the value of Israeli lives is literally zero, the value of Gazans is somewhat higher, and the value of UNRWA personnel is at the peak, according to their own statements.

(h/t L. King)

Summing up Hamas (MEMRI)

MEMRI put together this great compilation of Hamas leaders' statements showing their hatred for Israel, Jews, Christians and Americans.

More on the jihadists' joy at dead civilians

From the NYT (h/t EBoZ):

The emergency room in Shifa Hospital is never calm, but on Thursday, the 13th day of Israel’s assault on Gaza, this place of gore and despair was also a lesson in the way ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth.

...One [patient] was a 21-year-old man with shrapnel in his left leg who demanded quick treatment. He turned out to be a militant with Islamic Jihad. He was smiling a big smile.
“Hurry, I must get back so I can keep fighting,” he told the doctors and anyone else who would listen.
He was told that there were more serious cases than his and that he needed to wait his turn. But he insisted. “We are fighting the Israelis,” he said. “When we fire we run, but they hit back so fast. We run into the houses to get away.” He continued smiling.
“Why are you so happy?” a reporter asked. “Look around you. Don’t you see the misery that you are helping to cause?”
A girl who looked about 18 was screaming from pain as a surgeon removed shrapnel from her leg. An elderly man was soaked in blood. A baby a few weeks old and slightly wounded was looking around helplessly. A man had a head injury, with parts of his brain coming out. He was on a stretcher, his family wailing at his side.
“Don’t you see that these people are hurting?” the militant was asked.
“But I am from the people, too,” he said, his smile incandescent. “They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”

This recalls not only this posting I wrote yesterday but also a YNet report from Tuesday (h/t Henrik):

s the Israeli operation in Gaza wears on it appears Hamas has relinquished any visage of a socio-political party, abandoning its claim to govern the residents of Gaza in favor of engaging in open war at their expense.

...Civilians are simply used as cannon fodder or human shields. Reports out of Gaza say residents who attempted to flee their homes in the northern area of the Strip were forced to go back at gunpoint, by Hamas men.

The organization is presumably interested in increasing civilian casualties in order to give rise to international pressure against Israel. Arab media reported that in an IDF strike on a UN school 30 civilians were killed, but there is no legitimate way to prove gunmen were among those killed as Hamas tends to bury these bodies quickly, thus eliminating evidence in Israel's favor.

Other civilian complaints state that Hamas gunmen pull children along with them "by the ears" from place to place, fearing that if they don't have a child with them they will be fair game to the IDF. Others hide in civilian homes and stairwells, UNRWA ambulances, and mosques.

In other reported cases Hamas gunmen hold civilians hostage in alleyways in order to provide themselves with a living barricade to ward off IDF forces.

These reports lead to the assumption that Hamas is attempting to exacerbate the atmosphere of a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, as this may promote an international ceasefire initiative. In any case the reports clearly show that the residents of Gaza have fallen prey to Hamas as well as the IDF.

Despite this, no authoritative anti-Hamas sentiments have been heard from the Gazans. However Palestinian sources claim that grievances against the group are voiced in secret. The animosity towards Israel has not disappeared, say the sources, but it is now accompanied by bitterness towards the organization many are dubbing Iranian in its extremism.

The jihadists are explicit not only in their cynical endangerment of civilians but also in their desire to see more of their people get killed, as long as the international community blames Israel.

Free Gaza calls for a "third intifada"

At the end of a long email detailing in horrific detail every death and injury in Gaza that she could detail, Free Gaza member Ewa Jasieiwcz ends off with this:

The third Intifada being urged now has to be our intifada too. As Israel
steps up its destruction of the Palestinian people, we need to step up our
reconstruction of our resistance, our movements, of our communities in our
own counties, where so many of us live in alienation and isolation. We
need to be the third intifada – people here need more and say repeatedly
that they need more than the demonstrations, because they are not stopping
the killing here. Demonstrations alone, are not stopping the killing here.

There are concrete steps that people can take, learning from the lessons
of the first Intifada and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign
to dismantle the South African Apartheid regime. Strategies of popular
resistance, strikes, occupations, direct actions. From the streets into
the offices, factories and headquarters is where we need to take this
fight, to the heart of decision-makers that are supposedly making
decisions on our behalf and the companies making a killing out of the
occupation. The third intifada needs to be a global intifada.

I suppose that she can argue that she is speaking purely about a non-violent "intifada", but when she uses that word is it clear what she means - a return to the types of terror attacks that started this whole problem.

What is notable about her advice is that she doesn't even consider the advice that many of her fellow Arabs are espousing, even after two weeks. From The National (UAE):

Regardless of the outcome of the barbaric Israeli Operation Cast Lead, one thing is certain; it is high time for Hamas to step down as the keeper of Gaza. This is where people will object and remind us that they were democratically elected. My answer to that is: Yes, but they are incompetent.

Ewa would never suggest that Hamas stop firing rockets, or that it should re-unify with the PA. No, her advice is to do everything possible to hurt Israel rather than stop terror.

Just going to show yet again what a bunch of hypocrites the "Free Gaza" movement is.

Another dreaded Open Thread

I'm going to be in meetings much of the day, so if anyone sees a cool link, place it in the comments.

As far as the Weblog Awards go, now that the category has become politicized there are tons of votes going towards beating the other guy. 86% of the voting is now for the top three in the running and the rest of us are fighting for crumbs.

And what am I going to do, dis Martin Kramer to try to catch up to him? The dude has more initials after his name than I have letters in mine, and from adding up all his impressive work experience on his resume he must be like 103 years old. I can't start attacking him for fun, he's more Elder than the Elder.

Fundametally Freund is uncomfortably close, but he dedicates his life to charity - also not a fun target, even if he only posts once every three days.

Nope, as much as I want to make it fun, I can't find a good blog to start a feud with. Oh well.

PalArab press roundup Jan 8 2009

Islamic Jihad admitted that four of its members were killed today. These admissions have been rare.

Palestine Today refers to the Katyusha rockets shot from Lebanon this morning to Nahariya as being fired to "occupied territory."

When The Jerusalem Post, Yediot Aharonot and Arutz-7 reported on Hamas' policy to execute and injure Fatah members during this war, Hamas ignored it. But now that Ha'aretz' Amira Hass has written that between forty and eighty Fatah members have been executed, Hamas had to respond. So it forced a very scared Fatah leader in Gaza to deny that Hamas was killing and injuring Fatah members and their families.

Meanwhile, Firas Press goes into detail on one such instance, where a dedicated Fatah member who swore to continue in the ways of his martyred father in fighting Israel was ironically murdered by Hamas, which also shot the legs of his entire family.

Firas Press reminds us that, according to Hamas, PA President Mahmoud Abbas' term ends tomorrow, and Hamas will not recognize any Fatah member as his successor.

Palestine Today doesn't only love gruesome pictures of martyrs - they try really hard to find dead Israelis, too. But the best they could do was a photo essay showing grieving soldiers burying one of their friends, titling it "Zionist soldiers crying and screaming as they buried their dead."

A Firas Press writer strongly condemns Hamas for this war, blaming it for breaking the unity of Palestinian Arabs and acting selfishly as opposed to the interests of the people. The writer compares Hams to Hezbollah in Lebanon, also breaking from the Lebanese government to an adventure that was disastrous to the people of Lebanon.

(A UAE editorial also slams Hamas as "incompetent.")

Egypt's official Al-Ahram newspaper kept up the war of words between Hassan Nasrallah and Egypt, saying that while Egypt works quietly towards a truce in Gaza, Nasrallah is screaming from his underground hiding place that Gaza will be a graveyard for the Zionist invaders without doing anything to help. The writer sarcastically notes that Hezbollah is "bravely" confronting the occupation from their satellite channels. The editorial ended with a veiled threat towards Hezbollah, reminding them that they are still a group of fighters while Egypt has an entire army.

Terrorists brag about causing Gaza civilians to die

The video I posted earlier on Wednesday, showing some Gazans shooting a 120mm mortar towards Israel from the middle of a tree-lined street in Jabalya, was notable for something else (noticed by a commenter): the shooters were dressed like civilians.

No masks (although the Arab TV station that recorded it helpfully obscured their faces,) no guns, no uniforms - just a couple of regular looking guys.

This is a deliberate strategy by the terrorists. Not only are they hiding behind civilians, they are hiding as civilians.

The PCHR for Tuesday counted deaths as it does every day (the English version is not yet available.) It claimed that out of 83 deaths on Tuesday (of which they counted 27 in the UNRWA school), 80 of them were "unarmed civilians."

This makes it sound like the IDF has astoundingly bad aim.

But to understand it, one can read between the lines of this gloating article from the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today:

There is no visibility of the men of the resistance in the streets of the [Gaza] strip. No one sees their means of transportation, and even light weapons can no longer be seen with people publicly in the Gaza Strip. The resistance completely disappeared. Anti-aircraft artillery fires on the aircraft without them knowing the location. The whereabouts of rockets launched from the heart of the strip cannot be seen or known.

According to medical sources, the number of martyrs and wounded of the elements of the Palestinian resistance are few in comparison to the number of civilian martyrs who were killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, except for the large number of Palestinian policemen who were martyred on the first day of the war in Gaza.

Abu Mohammed - one of the field commanders in the Jerusalem Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine - said: "The goal is to take the "energy of concealment," to mislead the occupation aircraft and its agents [collaborators.]

In other words, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have made an official tactic out of using civilians as human shields and out of shooting at Israel as civilians. They are proud that the number of apparent (and real) civilian casualties has increased in recent days.

Their war policy is to violate the Geneva Conventions brazenly and officially. Their aim is to maximize the number of civilians killed in Gaza.

The video shows this policy in action. If Israel manages to hit the rocket shooters, they get counted as "civilians," and any bystanders on that street who get killed are icing on the cake for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Since the dead are "martyrs" anyway, they can justify this sick and cynical use of their own people as just another shortcut to Paradise, and each dead civilian is a victory for them, each dead body a literal prize to be photographed and shown off ad infinitum on Arab websites and TV networks.

We've always known this, but they have not usually been as forthcoming about it as this article indicates.

Do explosions look like this?

One can browse wire-service photos of explosions during the first week of Cast Lead, but none of them looks like this one from AP:

(click to enlarge)

Mere Rhetoric and Snapped Shot (and others) have been looking at it, wondering if it is Photoshopped.

I don't see too much motivation for a photographer (Adel Hana, whose pictures have been reproduced on this blog a few times, including for staging photos and for selling pictures to Islamic Jihad) to enhance an explosion, which is impressive enough already.

But the flying debris makes no sense to me.

It is too high, it is too large, and appears to be way too close to the camera. It also all seems to be on the same plane relative to the camera - not in the sphere that debris should be if it was equally blown in all directions.

Snapped Shot is trying to get hold of Hana to get a larger original.

Arab world fears return of Gaza settlements

AFP wrote an interesting story about the reaction of former Gaza residents to Operation Cast Lead:

NITZAN, Israel - Like most of her neighbours, Galit Kakoun dreams of returning to the Gaza Strip which until three years ago was home to 8,000 Jewish settlers like her.

Her reminiscences of the good old days were interrupted by a siren warning of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, 15 kilometers (10 miles) away from her bew home in the small community of Nitzan.

Residents rushed to a shelter and barely made it to safety before a dull thud was heard outside.

For the former Gaza settlers, the rocket underlined what they believe was the error of Israel forcing them to leave Gaza in the summer of 2005. Israel withdrew all of its ground forces from the densely populated territory and handed it over to the Palestinians.

"The current situation never would have existed if we had stayed at home," said Orit Berger, 34, who had lived in Gaza's Gush Katif settlement bloc since the age of three.

"Now Hamas is stronger than it was then," she said.

Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007 and Israel says the offensive it launched on December 27 is aimed at wiping out the Hamas movement's ability to fire rockets on southern Israel.

Israeli authorities insist hostilities will end only when they have achieved their goals.

That, said Berger, would be repeating the mistake of 2005.

In this community of 3,000 where wooden signs bear the names of former Gaza settlements, many neighbours share her views.

"We were told: "You have to give up your home, your life in Gush Katif to give peace a chance," said Deborah Neor, her voice dripping with irony.

"Now we have left. And the Palestinians, what are they doing with this chance?" the 52-year-old geography teacher asked.

The I-told-you-so argument is also popular in Nitzan, close to the port city of Ashkelon.

"We knew it, we said at the time that if we leave, rockets would soon fall on Ashkelon and Ashdod," said Gush Katzion veteran Mauria Bentolila, 57. "We gave it all up for nothing."

Even as the toll from the Israeli offensive spirals with Palestinian medics reporting at least 660 dead, many in Nitzan dream of returning to Gaza, which Israel occupied after the 1967 war.

"I am sure we will return," said Kakoun, a 39-year-old mother of four. But she keeps her optimism in check. "If not me, at least my children."

Anat Yaakov, 49, has more ambitious hopes for the impoverished Palestinian territory of 1.5 million that is one of the most crowded places on Earth.

"I believe we will return, but only if the Gaza Strip becomes a fully fledged Israeli territory and not a series of settlements."

Not a bad article, but what I find interesting is where it can be found.

I could only find this story published in two places: The Khaleej (UAE) Times and the Arabic al-Arabiya (without attribution to AFP.) A third wildly inaccurate story, written by an Arab for Alternet, takes for granted that Israel plans to re-occupy Gaza.

This indicates that the Arab public is not nearly as afraid about nor as upset over Gazans being killed as it is about the hated Jews controlling any additional territory. Even the slightest whiff of an idea that Gush Katif would be rebuilt is enough for the collective antennae of the Arab world to twitch. There is also a little irony involved in that this story is sympathetic to Jews who were expelled from their homes, a narrative that the Palestinian Arabs feel that they should own completely.

As I've mentioned before, this fear should be exploited by Israel. When Israel's leaders say that they have no intention of re-occupying Gaza, they are taking their best bargaining chip off the table. Even if it is a bluff, or even if all they end up doing is a symbolic capture of a few square meters, the Arab world would be far more afraid of an "expansionist" Israel taking their land than by a measly few hundred killed, something Arabs do to each other much more effectively and brutally than those genocidal Zionists.

Rocket fire would stop, and many lives would be saved, if the immediate consequence of rocket fire would be a border adjustment, no matter how small.