EU-BAM responds

The EU-BAM press and public relations officer has responded to my inquiry:

Dear (Elder, I used a fake name),

Thanks for your interest in EUBAM and to get in touch with us,

As you know and despite the RCP being closed since the 9th of June, the European Union decided to maintain the European Union Border Assistance Mission - Rafah (EUBAM) in the area. Due to the prevailing political and security situation the Mission has been downsizing even if it maintains its full operational capacity. At present moment EUBAM strength is a total of 42 composed by the 34 International staff from 17 different EU states members and 8 locally contracted staff members. In June 2007 the Mission had 96 Mission members in total.

Since the beginning of the Mission in November 2005 we have had our Headquarters in Ashkelon is still in here where the Mission is based and from we continue working. Our task nowadays consists in looked at ways to increase further the EU's support to the Palestinian Authority, and in particular in helping to build up an effective Palestinian civilian and border police force. As you know the EU is playing an important role in training and mentoring the Palestinian police and this is an essential element in developing the structures of a Palestinian state.

About the annual budget I’m afraid that this is not public information, but I can tell you that part of it is paid for each Member State . In this way part of my salary is paid by Spain and in this way it differs from my colleague’s salary.

Concerning the Hajj pilgrims who traveled trough Rafah it is obvious that is not our task to condemn any action in the area. In this regards I would like to remind you that our Mission is an operational one and all policy decisions are made in Brussels . I take the opportunity as well to inform you that we are not an executive Mission and the Rafah Agreement was signed between the EU the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority but not by Egypt .

I hope that this information will be useful for you if not, please feel free to contact me at any time.

About the late response and as you can probably understand most of the Mission member including myself belong to the catholic tradition and we have been celebrating Christmas and New Year with our families. In this respect I take the opportunity to wish you a happy New Year.

With my best regards,


Maria Telleria
Press & Public Information Officer
EU BAM Rafah
Mobile: +972-(0)54/2247250
Fax: +972-(0)8/6845740
E-mail: maria.telleria@eubam-rafah.org
Visiting address: Dan Gardens Ashkelon Hotel, Ashkelon

I wasn't aware that Egypt was not part of the agreement, that this means that Egypt and Hamas can completely go around the EU's and international community's wishes for Rafah. It is interesting that the EU, so keenly interested in a Palestinian Arab state, seems to have nothing to say about this.

UPDATE: According to a report in London Al-Quds al-Arabi, Israel has written letters to Washington and the EU requesting taking over Rafah again and giving the EU observers control again over people crossing over.

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Arafat look-alike causes a stir

Palestine Today (Arabic) says that onlookers did a double-take when they saw an Arafat look-alike at a Fatah rally:
Looks like he is already attracting the attention of those handsome young men that the real Arafat liked to spend so much time with.

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6 months, 760 attacks from Gaza - according to the terrorists

Some of the presumably unemployed academics of Gaza decided to crunch some numbers to see which terror groups has done the most terrorizing between June 15 and November 30th (why they chose those dates will have to remain a mystery.

Here are the numbers, courtesy of Palestine Press Agency (Arabic):

760 armed attacks
30% Al Aqsa Brigades (Fatah)
24% Al Quds Brigades (Islamic Jihad)
18% Salah-Din Brigades (PRC)
11% al-Qassam (Hamas)
9% DFLP
8% PFLP

Number of joint operations: 165

They count: "Engagement with the occupation forces, launching missiles at settlements and military groupings and mechanisms, and blowing up bombs, sniper soldiers and settlers."

Of course, there are no "settlers" near Gaza, so they mean Jewish civilians.

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Hamas explosives cache discovered in Nablus by PA?

Yesterday, Israel revealed that it found two rockets being built in Nablus.

Israel's raids into Nablus has upset PA leader Fayyad. Palestine Press Agency reports:

Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said "The Israeli military operations in Palestinian territories, especially in the governorate of Nablus, would destroy Palestinian efforts in the area of security."

Fayyad stressed that the Israeli attacks had a significant negative impact on the intensive efforts Palestinians and the Arab world and internationally to revive the peace process.

But the PA leadership is in a pickle - they claim that they have the ability to secure Nablus, and in fact have already done so, and yet Israel is discovering weapons that can significantly alter the status quo where the PA has some nominal autonomy.

It is with this background that we can read this story in Ma'an:

Palestinian security services revealed on Friday that a new type of explosive material has been discovered in Nablus, believed to be part of a Hamas arsenal to be used in a coup against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Palestinian intelligence officer Abdullah Kamil said the explosives were discovered in a bomb-making factory in Nablus.

He added that Palestinian security services had also found a large quantity of weapons belonging to Hamas in Nablus. He said that "sleeping cells" belonging to Hamas in Nablus were planning to use the weapons and explosives to stage a coup in the West Bank.

Ma'an Arabic adds:

Abdullah Kamil, Palestinian intelligence official, told Ma'an that Palestinian security services revealed the existence of explosive materials that is the most serious discovery of its kind in the history of the Palestinian National Authority in the governorate of Nablus in recent months, believed to be belonging to Hamas.

He told Ma'an that these explosive materials were found in one of the buildings in Nablus, which are used to manufacture bombs were designed to strike Israeli targets "serve partisan agenda contrary to the national interest" and the objectives of the National Authority.

He noted that a Palestinian Intelligence press conference will be held next Sunday to reveal details of what was carried out by the security services to detect cells and find weapons belonging to Hamas.

He pointed out that the Israeli daily incursions did not produce anything, so Israel decided to do a big, and thanks to the Authority and the security agencies and citizen awareness of the security agencies would continue to work to provide adequate internal security of the citizens of Nablus.

This sounds very much like a couple of months ago when the PA claimed, to much fanfare, to have discovered rockets in the West Bank - that turned out to have been pipes kids set up to imitate rockets. They are trying very hard to falsely show effectiveness of their huge security services when it is politically convenient when in fact they have done nothing against terror, and only have acted against some crimes like car theft.

(Notice also how they exclusively blame Hamas for weapons and explosive caches in the West Bank and don't say a word about Fatah's terror cells there.)

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Freedom of the press, al-Jazeera style

People love to talk about how al-Jazeera changed the face of Arab journalism. This is no doubt true, but as the New York Times notes, this hardly a matter of press freedom:

When a Saudi court sentenced a young woman to 200 lashes in November after she pressed charges against seven men who had raped her, the case provoked outrage and headlines around the world, including in the Middle East.

But not at Al Jazeera, the Arab world’s leading satellite television channel, seen by 40 million people. The station’s silence was especially noteworthy because until recently, and unlike almost all other Arab news outlets, Al Jazeera had long been willing — eager, in fact — to broadcast fierce criticisms of Saudi Arabia’s rulers.

For the past three months Al Jazeera, which once infuriated the Saudi royal family with its freewheeling newscasts, has treated the kingdom with kid gloves, media analysts say.

The newly cautious tone appears to have been dictated to Al Jazeera’s management by the rulers of Qatar, where Al Jazeera has its headquarters....

The policy also illustrates the way the Arab media, despite the new freedoms introduced by Al Jazeera itself a decade ago, are still often treated as political tools by the region’s autocratic rulers.

“The gulf nations now feel they are all in the same boat, because of the threat of Iran, and the chaos of Iraq and America’s weakness,” said Mustafa Alani, a security analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. “So the Qataris agreed to give the Saudis assurances about Al Jazeera’s coverage.”

Those assurances, Mr. Alani added, were given at a September meeting in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, between King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and top officials in the Qatari government. For the meeting, aimed at resolving a long-simmering feud between the nations, the Qataris brought along an unusual guest: the chairman of Al Jazeera’s board, Sheik Hamad bin Thamer al-Thani.

Repercussions were soon felt at Al Jazeera.

“Orders were given not to tackle any Saudi issue without referring to the higher management,” one Jazeera newsroom employee wrote in an e-mail message. “All dissident voices disappeared from our screens.”

The employee noted that coverage of Saudi Arabia was always politically motivated at Al Jazeera — in the past, top management used to sometimes force-feed the reluctant news staff negative material about Saudi Arabia, apparently to placate the Qatari leadership. But he added that the recent changes were seen in the newsroom as an even more naked assertion of political will.

“To improve their relations with Qatar, the Saudis wanted to silence Al Jazeera,” he wrote. “They got what they wanted.”

One of the things that make interpreting news from Arab news outlets difficult is having to know the spin that these sources use to begin with and filtering out the lies. Minstream journalists don't even seem to try.
(h/t EBoZ)

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Today's rocket news

From Ha'aretz:

Israel Defense Forces troops operating in the West Bank city of Nablus discovered Thursday evening two rockets that were in the process of being assembled.

The rockets, which resemble the Qassam rocket that has plagued communities along the Gaza Strip for years, already had fins and rods that were apparently intended to function as a launcher.

There have been several attempts in recent years to fire rockets at Israel from the West Bank, although in the past the rockets have only traveled a few dozen meters.

A military source said the secret cache was discovered thanks to IDF's freedom of operation in the West Bank, which has allowed it to thwart Palestinian attempts to develop rockets in the area.

And last night:

The al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, announced on Wednesday evening that it had launched a rocket at the Shaked settlement in the northern West Bank. There has not been any report of a rocket falling in the area.

It sounds like the second story is probably greatly exaggerated by the terrorists, but the first one sounds like it is only a matter of time before rockets hit Israel's center.

But meanwhile, in the south, ten rockets were fired on Thursday, including a Katyusha. Estimates vary on how many Katyusha rockets have been smuggled into Gaza under the watchful eyes of our friends the Egyptians, so far the number appears "small," perhaps a dozen or so. Of course, a Katyusha is more than just a deadly weapon - it is a terror weapon and can place all of Ashkelon under the same intolerable situation that Sderot is now in.

The escalation is clear. Israel's long-term reaction is far muddier.

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What does EU-BAM do?

I've posted a bit about EU-BAM Rafah, the EU program to monitor the Rafah crossings. Its website has no press releases since September when it announced:

EUBAM Rafah maintains its full operational capability despite the closure of Rafah Crossing Point since 9 June 2007.

In remarks to journalists after the meeting Mr. Solana congratulated mission members for their excellent and important work which constitutes an essential aspect of the EU's support to the Palestinian Authority.

I have been wondering what exactly these people are doing. I dug up one other document on the EU website from December concerning their current activities; mostly they are now helping out another EU group called EU-COPPS.

And as of mid-November, they were still hiring.

It would be reasonable to get more details about this group that clearly has not done anything related to its mission for six months now, especially since there are multiple employees still on the EU payroll. So I emailed both the public relations head and deputy:

I am a blogger, following the news stories of Palestinians crossing the Rafah border in both directions since Hamas took over Gaza. My understanding from your website press release in July was that EUBAM has not completely given up on monitoring Rafah and keeps observers in the area. But I have been struck that there has been no official EUBAM comment on the reported violations of the original Rafah agreements between Israel, the EU, the PA and Egypt.

Specifically, I am referring to the Hajj pilgrims who traveled through Rafah to Egypt in mid-December, the possibility that they will return (since confirmed) through the same crossing (perhaps including known terrorists and millions of dollars,) as well as the reported movement of over a hundred members of Hamas and other militant groups from Egypt to Gaza through Rafah in September and October.

Is there any official EU-BAM comment on these activities? Are they condemned? In light of these activities, why are the observers still in the area? How many observers are there and who pays their salaries while they are waiting to re-deploy?

How many EU-BAM employees are there? What is the annual budget? Where are the EU-BAM employees still deployed in the Middle East staying?

Thank you very much for any response you can give.

I first emailed them on Sunday, and then twice more. The deputy email address bounces back. The main public relations person named Maria Telleria, who is living in the Dan Gardens Ashkelon Hotel on the Mediterranean, has not responded after repeated attempts. (Her number is 972 (0) 542 247 250.)

Anyone out there want to give it a try?

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"There must be violence against women"

This is an actual title of an article in the Yemen Times. To ensure that no one can accuse me of editing it to make it look worse than it is, here is the entire article - all I did was highlight some of the passages:

There must be violence against women
By: Maged Thabet Al-Kholidy majed_thabet@hotmail.com

This title may sound strange, but it’s actually not just a way to attract readers to the topic because I really do mean what it indicates. Violence is a broad term, especially when used regarding women. In this piece, I want to shed light on those instances where violence against women is a must.

First, we should know the meaning of the word violence. Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English defines violence as “behavior that is intended to hurt other people physically.” However, the term violence mustn’t be confused with other concepts and terms such as gender inequality or absence of women rights.

Occasionally – if not daily – we hear about events occurring in Islamic and Arab societies. Some human rights organizations recently have attacked violent acts against women, standing against any type of violence – even that between a father and daughter – and citing the cases of some women as examples.

Consequently, they offer solutions such as complaining to the police, taking revenge or leaving them men, who are either their husbands, fathers or brothers – with no exceptions.

One such case involved a woman whose husband allegedly had beaten her. Without revealing the husband’s reasons for doing so, such human rights organizations immediately urged the wife to complain to the police and the courts, while at the same time generalizing the instance and other similar solutions to any type of violence.

If a man and woman are husband and wife, the Qur’an provides solutions, firstly reaffirming any logical and acceptable reasons for such punishment. These solutions are in gradual phases and not just for women, but for men also.

For men, it begins with abandoning the marital bed, by opting to sleep elsewhere in the house. After this, they may discuss the matter with any respected person for the husband’s or the wife’s family, who could be in a position to advise the wife. If this also does not work, then the husband yields to beating the wife slightly. They do this because of a misunderstanding in the Quran, as the word says Darban, which is commonly understood today as beating. However, in Classic Arabic it means to set examples or to announce and proclaim. The more accurate meaning of this last one is that the husband finally has to set forth, to make a clear statement or proclamation, and if these measures fail, then divorce is preferable.

Similarly, wives may take actions such as abandoning the marital bed, following by leaving the husband’s home for that of their parents, brothers or any other relatives. They may do this more than once, but if such action fails, they may not continue to live with their husband and via their relatives, they may request a divorce.

Despite such instructions, beating is considered a type of violence, according to human rights organizations, which urge women to complain to the police. I just wonder what kind of families our societies would have if Muslim women started doing this regarding their husbands.

Relationships between fathers and daughters or sisters and brothers also provoke argument from human rights organizations, which propose the suggested solutions for all relationships. Personally, I don’t think fathers or brothers would undertake such behavior unless there was a reason for it.

Fathers are responsible for their daughters’ behavior, but human rights organizations deny this too. Brothers also should take action regarding their sisters’ behavior, especially if their parents are too old or dead. If a daughter or sister makes a mistake – especially a moral one – that negatively affects the entire family and its reputation, what’s the solution by such organizations?

According to them, women should complain to the courts about any type of violence against them. Likewise, should fathers and brothers complain to police if their daughters or sisters violate moral, Islamic or social norms?

Fathers should handle their daughters via any means that suits their mistake; thus, is it better to use violence to a certain limit or complain to the police? Shall such women then complain to the police against their fathers or brothers? It’s really amazing to hear this.

In some cases, violence is necessary, but there must be limits. Those “good human rights organizations” don’t make any exceptions in their solutions because their aim is to serve society. Will it be a better society once we see wives, mothers, sisters and daughters going from one police station and one court to another, complaining against their husbands, fathers, brothers and even sons?

As the proverb goes, “If the speaker is mad, the listener should be mindful.” This proverb is good advice for every man and woman not only to keep their ears open, but also to avoid the misleading propaganda of such organizations, whose surface aims hide other destructive ones to destroy society’s religious, social and moral norms. This matter requires consideration.

Dear readers – especially women – don’t think that I hate or am against women; rather, I simply mean to preserve the morals and principles with which Islam has honored us.

I hope my message is clear, since it’s really quite relevant to the future of our societies, which must be protected from any kind of cultural invasion.

Here we see justifications for wife beating, honor killings and child abuse, all in the name of "preserving morals."

The author is too obtuse to ask whether, using his exact logic, women have the right to use violence against men who are straying from their upstanding, Islamic character or otherwise violating "social norms."

UPDATE: I didn't see that Jihad Watch had already taken this article apart very nicely.

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Newest sharia question: divorce by SMS?

From AFP:

An Egyptian woman is seeking clarification from a court on whether her husband's declaration of divorce by text message is legally valid, a state-run newpsaper reported on Thursday.

After missing a call from her husband on her mobile phone, Iqbal Abul Nasr received a text message from him saying "I divorce you because you didn't answer your husband," Al-Akhbar said.

In line with sharia (Islamic law) men do not need to go to court to file for divorce. A unilateral declaration of divorce by a man, repeated three times, formally ends a marriage.

It was the third time Abul Nasr, an engineer from Cairo, received a divorce text message from her husband, prompting her to seek a legal decision from the a family court on the status of her marriage.

If the court declares the couple divorced, it would be the first reported case of divorce by SMS in Egypt.

The subject of divorce by SMS has been highly debated across the Muslim world and some Islamic countries like Malaysia have banned the practice.

According to Egypt's state-run statistics bureau, a couple files for divorce every six minutes in Egypt.

In case there are any women out there I might have accidentally married the last time I was in Vegas, I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you.

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"Purifying the Arab land"

As much as "moderate" Arab countries try to present the West with the impression that their problem with Israel is merely the "occupation" from 1967, it doesn't take too much digging to find out the true aim, even today - the utter destruction of Israel.

Today's proof comes from a throw-away sentence in the Yemen Times, mourning the loss of its parliamentary speaker Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar.

Sheikh Al-Ahmar is one of a few personalities that gained sincere respect and highest consideration from all the Yemeni people, as the deceased proved to be ‘a man of national compromise’, thanks to his key role and direct contribution to resolving multiple national issues and defending the Yemeni Revolution since its early stages....

Throughout his life of struggle, the late sheikh played an effective role in addressing issues of the Arab and Islamic nations. Despite difficulties encountering his efforts, the man has been ever present with an effective contribution to addressing all the vital issues of high concern to the Islamic world. Palestine, for instance, had been always present and immortalized in the man’s mind until he passed away. Over years, the man used to give a top priority to purifying the Arab land from the Zionist occupation and dominance.

The idea of an Aryan-like "purification" of "Arab land" is not assumed to be objectionable or controversial; it is a given that the Yemen Times readership will, in total, agree with that aim. The existence of a Jewish state is considered a pollution of the great Arab nation, something that must be excised completely. Almost certainly, all Arabs would prefer to see the entire country uninhabited than to have Jews control it. It is not a political issue nor an issue of putative "justice" - one doesn't use the word "purification" in a political or judicial context. It is Arab shame that drives their thinking, and everything else is a smokescreen to justify what is in the end a visceral hatred.

This is what can be found not far beneath the surface of all Arab thinking; perhaps as a temporary measure they will insist publicly for the end of the "occupation" but their real aims are pretty easy to still discern, as they were before 1967.

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Read my lips

A number of JBloggers have already talked about the outrageous ruling by public security minister Avi Dichter that Jews are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, or at least move their lips in prayer:

Dichter wrote his interpretation of Israeli law "is in line with the rationale that bans Jews from praying at the site, in light of serious concerns that this will serve as a provocation, resulting in disorder, with a near certain likelihood of subsequent bloodshed."

This is eerily reminiscent of the British rulings in wake of the 1929 Arab riots that Jews blowing a shofar at the Western Wall after Yom Kippur was also a "provocation" and cannot be allowed (my images of newspaper clippings are missing but the posting is still there.) Not to mention the more recent arrest a year ago of Jews blowing a shofar at the Kotel haKatan on Rosh HaShanah.

What Dichter doesn't understand is that by stopping these "provocations" he is not appeasing anybody, so not only does he hurt Jews who want to worship - an egregious human rights violation - he is not even accomplishing what he intends to.

The Arabic press is not reporting this as a victory - they are upset that Jews are allowed to go to the Temple Mount altogether. From Ma'an Arabic:

warned Sheikh Mohammed Hussein General Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian - Preacher of the Holy Al Aqsa Mosque - from the occupation authorities to allow any of the extremist Jewish settlers and prayer in the Al-Aqsa mosque yards.

This came in response to a request by two members of the Knesset, the Israeli occupation authorities to allow them to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and demonstrate linkages.

The Mufti told a press received "Together," a copy of which, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in all precincts and accompany the mosque to worship Muslims alone may not be the object of this was to change the situation or interfere in the affairs of the mosque to impose a new reality, the occupation authorities blaming the serious consequences of such These prayers, which comes in the context of repeated incursions to the mosque.

He called on citizens and Mufti Ebrahim Al-Aqsa mosque to take more caution and prudence of heroes and the failure of such schemes.

The Mufti rejection of this aggressive designs against the Al-Aqsa Mosque, reminding Balaguetham done by Sharon before eight years of Al-Aqsa Mosque and led to the occurrence of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, stressing that the Palestinians and Muslims will keep a firm barrier against any attempts to interfere with or harm the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its facilities.

Mufti also called the Arab and Islamic leaders and peoples, governments need to move to shoulder their responsibilities religious and historical preservation of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and with the increasing Israeli attempts to attack by all ways and means of the occupation authorities against the Palestinians and sanctities.

And from Palestine Today (Arabic):

For his part, Sheikh Ekrema Sabri warned President of the Supreme Islamic in the occupied Jerusalem in the press statement following the meeting the immediate urgency of the body yesterday of the imminent danger posed to the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sheikh Sabri described this statement as a serious development betrays a right-wing Israeli government's intentions that are subject to the wishes of pressure groups and Jewish religious extremist, calling on the Palestinians to overcome their internal differences and pay heed to these threats to the Al Aqsa Mosque.

By acceding to absurd Muslim demands in the name of religion, Dichter is giving Arabs veto power over anything that happens anywhere, as they use the fig leaf of "religion" to accomplish political goals. This is another way that terrorism has won - the supposed "Al Aqsa Intifada" has pushed Israeli leaders who don't care about their own religion to violate the human rights of Jews who do care to toe the line, accept second class status and keep the shtetl mentality of not upsetting the gentiles - all in the name of an illusory "peace" that will never, ever come.

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Missed a couple in 2007

It turns out that the same day that 4 were killed during a funeral in Gaza by a grenade, two more Palestinian Arabs were murdered in a family feud that I had missed - including an 80-year old man.

From PHRMG's statistics:

	Muhamad Abd El-Lateef Kana'an	80	/	Hizma-Jerusalem	shooting	14.12.2007	Killed by shooting from Unknown gunmen in family fight.
	Omar Abd El-Lateef Kana'an	35	/	Gaza	shooting	14.12.2007	Killed by shooting from Unknown gunmen in family fight.

They mention another death on the 24th that I'm not sure if I counted so I'm staying on the safe side.

So the presumably final total of Palestinian self-deaths in 2007 is 611.

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"Survivor" - Israel edition

One of my co-bloggers over at Israellycool, Brian of London, just wrote a small, heartwarming post:

Only in Israel would the prize for the winning team in a weekly Survivor challenge be a Shabbat Dinner with Challah, honey, wine and Shabbat Candles for the whole team.

And only in Israel would the winning team share that prize with the losers because Jews don’t stop other Jews from eating a Shabbat dinner.

Jews know a thing or two about surviving.

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Abbas takes credit for opening Rafah. Did Olmert allow it?

A few interesting wrinkles on the story:

The moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is in Cairo and raised the pilgrims' plight in a meeting with Mubarak, said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki.

"The Egyptians completely coordinated their return with the Israeli side," Malki said.

"We asked Egypt to help, and the president (Mubarak) said he would do his best, and he did," said Nabil Shaath, an Abbas aide who attended the meeting.

PalPress, autotranslated:

In turn spokesman said Fatah Fahmi Azaaarir that President Abbas "Abu Mazen" made a great effort with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to solve the problem of pilgrims from the Gaza Strip and ensure their return to their homes as urgent humanitarian issues in the first degree.

He added in a statement Azaaarir journalist arrived in Palestine Press News Agency a copy of "Hamas tried to exploit the issue politically and pilgrims rejected accusations put forward by officials in Hamas coup against Egypt despite all what Egypt for the Palestinian cause and humanity."

Earthtimes:

Meanwhile, Mubarak and Abbas also discussed the plight of more than 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims who were stranded on Egyptian territories pending authorization to return to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing point.

But as the leaders talked, the Egyptian authorities had already agreed to reopen the Rafah point ahead of allowing the pilgrims to make their passage.

Also from PalPress:

Israeli political sources said today that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved quietly to Egypt for the opening of the Rafah crossing to solve the problem of pilgrims trapped in Egypt since week. "

And the relocation of Israeli military intelligence sources as saying that "Olmert does not want Hamas to exploit this crisis and the approaching visit of the American President George Bush to the region."

The sources added that "Egypt informed Israel intends to open the Rafah crossing to the Gaza Strip and pilgrims but Israel gave approval for a quiet opening to pilgrims."

These developments came pilgrims crossing and also following his talks Palestinian President who visited Cairo today and make unremitting efforts to end the crisis pilgrims.

Debka:

Their return was similarly unmonitored. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has apparently decided not to kick up a fuss for fear of provoking violent Hamas outbreaks that would spoil US president George W. Bush’s visits to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt, starting Jan. 8.

Cairo claims Israel was notified of its reversal but made no response, while Jerusalem denies being informed. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who flew to Cairo to press Egypt to give way to Hamas, Tuesday, Jan. 1, claims Israel was informed.

Israeli security sources further report that Egypt took advantage of Israel’s blind eye to get rid of 300 Palestinian terrorists, who were detained in Sinai - some of them al Qaeda and its allied Fatah al Islam activists, who were smuggled in from Lebanon. They entered Gaza under cover of the returning pilgrim group.

Ma'an:

A security source in the Palestinian de facto government in Gaza Strip told Ma'an that dozens of Fatah activists who fled the Gaza Strip after the Hamas takeover in June 2006 have entered the coastal enclave along with the Hajj pilgrims.

The security source told Ma'an that Hamas security forces arrested dozens of the Fatah fugitives for "security reasons," as several of them were suspected of crimes, including corruption.

Things are very muddy, to say the least. Did Olmert tacitly agree to allow Rafah to be opened to avoid an embarrassing episode when Bush visits? Did Mubarak and Olmert set it up to give Olmert plausible deniability? It sounds like something Olmert would do, and his denials also sound like something he would do.

Did Abbas really appeal to open Rafah, or is he trying to take credit after the fact? My guess is the latter, especially given the Earthtimes report above.

There is no question that Hamas is the real winner in this whole sorry episode, but no matter how you slice it Egypt has consistently chosen to side with Hamas from early December to now.

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Hamas lying about its "martyrs"?

An intriguing claim being made by the (anti-Hamas) Palestine Press Agency says that a Hamas leader that was announced today as having been killed by Israeli airstrikes was in fact killed by Fatah two days ago:

Confirmed and reliable local sources in the Gaza Strip said that "promised Mahmud Farraj north," one of the most prominent militia leaders Field Hamas lawless in Gaza City, which claimed that the movement quoted today in Israeli shelling that targeted the Shajaiyeh neighborhood at dawn today , deceased since the day before yesterday, which caused fired during clashes between the militias of Hamas and elements of the Fatah movement in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood two days ago.

The sources indicated that Hamas hid the body in the north of the hospital and did not announce the news of his murder ...and was found after examination that [he was killed] two days ago after being [shot] twice in the chest.

This isn't reliable enough to add to my self-death count but it is interesting. There is more honor in dying as a martyr by Israeli fire than in being killed by a Fatah terrorist.

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