Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Rifts in "unity" - before the ceremony!

From YNet:

The news agency Maan reported that the signing of the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement in Cairo is being delayed because of a seating arrangement issue.

According to the report, an argument has broken out over the spot where Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal will sit. According to another report, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to sit next to Mashaal, and demanded to be presented as the Palestinian president instead of the head of his political party.

From other Arabic news sources, it seems to me that Hamas is not accepting Abbas as president of the PA even under this agreement (this has long been their official position, since his official term in office ended.)

Which is just one more indication that this agreement is a sham. Hamas will retain its own security in Gaza and it will be part of the government as much as Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's - enough to veto whatever they don't like but not subservient to it or subject to the PA's laws.

(h/t Richie)

Vowing revenge for Bin Laden in Jerusalem, Gaza (videos)

Here is a video of a preacher at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem calling for the death of Obama and Bush for killing Bin Laden:

(original uncut video was uploaded by the preacher himself on Monday. YNet story here.)

Here is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh condemning the assassination and calling Bin Laden a holy warrior.

He is now part of the Palestinian Arab government.

(h/t Joel)

Text of Hamas/Fatah agreement: Vagueness defined (updated)

I had mentioned that the draft text of the Hamas/Fatah unity agreement was extremely vague so as to ensure that any substantive decisions are pushed off as long as possible, probably until at least September.

Here it is in its entirely, in English, so you can see how Hamas and Fatah studiously avoided agreeing on anything real:

1. Elections

A. Election Committee:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree to identify the names of the members of the Central Election Commission in agreement with the Palestinian factions. This list will then be submitted to the Palestinian President who will issue a decree of the reformation of the committee.

B. Electoral Court:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree on the nomination of no more than twelve judges to be members of the Electoral Court. This list will then be submitted to the Palestinian President in order to take the necessary legal actions to form the Electoral Court in agreement with the Palestinian factions.

C. Timing of Elections:

The Legislative, Presidential, and the Palestinian National Council elections will be conducted at the same time exactly one year after the signing of the Palestinian National Reconciliation Agreement.
2. Palestine Liberation Organization

The political parties of both Fatah and Hamas agree that the tasks and decisions of the provisional interim leadership cannot be hindered or obstructed, but in a manner that is not conflicting with the authorities of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

3. Security

It was emphasized that the formation of the Higher Security Committee which will be formed by a decree of the Palestinian President and will consist of professional officers in consensus.

4.Government

A. Formation of the Government:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree to form a Palestinian government and to appoint the Prime Minister and Ministers in consensus between them.

B. Functions of the Government:

1. Preparation of necessary condition for the conduction of Presidential, Legislative and the Palestinian National Council elections.
2. Supervising and addressing the prevalent issues regarding the internal Palestinian reconciliation resulting from the state of division.
3. Follow-up of the reconstruction operations in the Gaza Strip and the efforts to end the siege and blockade that is imposed on it.
4. Continuation of the implementation of the provisions of the Palestinian National Accord.
5. To resolve the civil and administrative problems that resulted from the division.
6. Unification of the Palestinian National Authority institutions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
7. To fix the status of the associations, Non-Governmental Organizations and charities.
5. Legislative Council:

Both Fatah and Hamas agree to reactivate the Palestinian Legislative Council in accordance to the Basic Law.

It took three years for Egypt to convince Hamas to sign this wishy-washy document.

Not only that, but some of the smaller factions that signed the document did it with reservations on some of its contents.

The entire exercise in "unity" is a scam meant to fool the West long enough to get the issue of statehood in front of the UN.

Paragraph 2 is part of the scam. It is meant to placate the West by saying that the PLO, which runs the PA, is not bound by any Hamas decisions not to recognize Israel. However, as I have pointed out, as soon as "Palestine" is declared, the PLO will disappear and Hamas can fully participate in foreign affairs.

Security is the main sticking point between the parties, as they derive their power from their security forces. Yet only one sentence talks about this topic, and that sentence is pretty much "to be defined later."

As anyone can see, there's no "there" there. This unity government legitimizes terror but keeps its intentions fuzzy so that the US, UN and EU won't notice it.

The Arabs are counting on one basic fact, one that has rarely let them down:

Western leaders tend to be eternally optimistic, they have short memories, and they are mesmerized by such nice sounding words as "unity."

(h/t Zach, source: Rafah Today.)

UPDATE: Here is the list of groups that signed the agreement:

— Fatah
— Hamas
— Islamic Jihad
— Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
— Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
— Palestinian People’s Party
— Palestinian Popular Struggle Front
— Palestinian Liberation Front
— Arab Liberation Front
— Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command
— Dzb Baath Arab Socialist Party (Syria)
— Palestinian Arab Front
— Popular Resistance Committees
— Palestinian Democratic Union (FIDA)

(h/t George Hale)

The Palestinian Arab terror convention in Cairo

Right now, in Cairo, pretty much every Palestinian Arab terror group is meeting to sign the short unification document between Hamas and Fatah.

There are lots of Hamas leaders from both Gaza and elsewhere, including Khaled Meshaa, Mahmoud Zahar, Khalil al-Hayya, Izzat al-Rishq, Mohamed Nasr, Osama Hamdan, and Abu Marzook.

But also leaders of Islamic Jihad (Ramadan Shallah), the PFLP-GC (Ahmad Jibril), the DFLP (Khaled Atta), the Popular Front (Khaled Atta,) the Palestine People's Party, the Palestine Popular Struggle Front, and several more.

In addition, other political leaders like Mustafa Barghouti and Munib al-Masri are there.

And the Fatah delegation just arrived as well, including Mahmoud Abbas.

Every group listed here has a history of involvement with terror. Some 13 groups signed the reconciliation letter, I cannot find a comprehensive list.

Many people in the room mourned the death of Bin Laden.

Early reports are saying that Catherine Ashton and Ban Ki Moon might attend the ceremony tomorrow.

These observers are apparently celebrating the biggest gathering of Palestinian Arab terrorists in years.

There is one person who is notably absent, however. The only semi-moderate Palestinian Arab leader in history, the only one who has had no involvement in terrorism, Salam Fayyad is in Ramallah.

The terrorist crowd, however, intends to gain recognition for their fake state from France, the UK, the rest of the EU and the entire world. Their refusal to negotiate with Israel and their refusal to compromise is being rewarded in spades.

And the world seems to be buying into the idea that such a state is a good thing.

The state that these people support would have a single purpose: to eliminate the Jewish state. It will not accept millions of "refugees." It will not negotiate with Israel over water or Gilad Shalit. It will throw away every agreement ever made.

How can such a state make the world a better place? What problems will it solve? Who will be better off after it is created? Why, in any universe, is a state run by these people the least bit desirable?

And why is there zero criticism of this insane, hateful, terrorist initiative from any Western countries?

Max Blumenthal trots out a lie (NewsRealBlog)

My latest post at NewsRealBlog, written by request:

Max Blumenthal uses the assassination of Osama Bin Laden as an excuse to push the ridiculous claim, advanced by Israel-haters for years, that Binyamin Netanyahu was overjoyed at the events of 9/11.

Blumenthal says that Netanyahu called the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon “very good.” But what he glosses over is the question he was answering....

The question was specifically about US-Israeli relations, not about what he thought of the terror attacks. Netanyahu answered accurately and then immediately realized that this obvious truth could be twisted by people with an agenda–like Blumenthal–so he clarified what he meant.

Blumenthal, like all Israel-bashers who suffer from terminal intellectual dishonesty, ignored the context of the comment.

Yet the truth is undeniable–9/11 did make Americans wake up and realize what Israel has gone through for decades. It caused previously complacent Americans to realize that there was a global threat from Islamist terror groups. It woke up the government to be less sanguine about what national security means in an era of jihadists deliberately targeting civilians.

Not only that, but the US has used Israel as the model on how to fight terror. We went on the offensive, forcing the enemy to fight trained soldiers rather than have the luxury of planning attacks on innocent civilians on our shores. We used unmanned armed drones, sophisticated electronics intelligence, and beefed up our more traditional human intelligence, just like Israel. We adopted Israel’s methods on how to fight in urban areas while minimizing casualties of civilians. We used Israeli technology and methodology to help treat battlefield injuries and to help defeat threats from IEDs and missiles.

Even at home, city police forces and hospitals took lessons from Israeli experts on how to deal with local threats.

Bibi was correct in that 9/11 helped US-Israeli relations, on many levels.

To say that he therefore is happy about 9/11 is, however, pure slander. It would be similar to saying that CNN was considers 9/11 “very good” because its ratings soared as the only 24-hour news channel at the time, or that the head of the Department of Homeland Security is thrilled that 3,000 Americans died because their deaths gave him a high-profile job and budget. In short, Blumenthal’s charge that Netanyahu–and, by implication, all Zionists–are happy when Americans die is nothing short of obscene. It is a sick, transparent attempt on his part to drive a wedge between America and Israel.

To him and his friends on the far Left, the strong relationship between the US and Israel is the real evil that must be fought, not radical Islamists who want to see Blumenthal dead just as much as they want to kill all Jews and Americans.

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, in Syria... (video)

This video is supposed to show Syrian police shooting at demonstrators in Barza al-Balad, near Damascus:

This one allegedly shows a man who was shot (and said to be killed) in Homs on Saturday:

Iran: "Bin Laden a Zionist stooge"

From Iran's always-entertaining PressTV:

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Osama bin Laden's death clearly shows that the al-Qaeda leader had an expiry date and the US was obliged to kill him.

“Bin Laden, whom all Muslim nations despised, was simply a stooge in the hands of the Zionist regime [of Israel] to show a violent image of Islam following the 9/11 attacks,” Deputy Head of Iran's Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Esmail Kowsari told Mehr News Agency on Monday.

“The death of Osama Bin Laden reflected the removal of a one-time US pawn, and marked the end of an era and the start of another in US' subversive policies in the region,” he added.

I guess, by that logic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also a Zionist stooge because he makes Iranian politicians (like this guy) look like complete idiots, thus helping Israel's image in the international community.

In fact, PressTV might be Israel's best weapon!

Egypt rejects USAID money

Al Masry al Youm reported last month:

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced that its annual assitance program in Egypt, sheduled to be implemented in mid 2011, should satisfy the direct needs of Egypt in the fields of employment, economic development and combating poverty.

USAID allocated a significant portion of its assistance over the past years to bolstering democracy in Egypt.

In a statement, USAID said the program will be implemented with the help of NGOs, Egyptian, American or international, and the private sector.

USAID also said it is seeking to respond to the needs specified by the Egyptian community in the field of democratic development.

Indeed, the USAID Egypt site says:

The U.S. Government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has made significant contributions over the past 30 years to help improve the quality of life of all Egyptians. Nationwide programs in health, education, trade facilitation, small and micro-enterprise, tourism, and infrastructure development have benefited Egyptians acrosscountry, especially those in under-served areas. US economic assistance to Egypt through the United States Agency for International Development has totaled more than $28.6 billion since 1975.

The Egyptian government has formally rejected this aid - saying that it included too many conditions.

From Ikhwanweb (there are a number of Egyptian newspapers in Arabic reporting the same thing):

Egypt has officially rejected conditional US aid worth USD 150 million in light of US economic support to Egypt, helping it overcome its economic woes and support the process of democratization in the post-January 25 revolution.

The US embassy in Cairo has received a formal letter from the Egyptian Foreign Minister that the Egyptian government rejects US conditions on aid and unilateral coercive economic measures by the US Agency for International Development.

Egyptian minister of planning and international cooperation Fayza Aboulnaga and Finance Minister Samir Radwan visited Washington last month, asking the US to cancel a debt amounting to about $3.6 billion to help the country's new government restore growth and create jobs for young people, but Washington refused.

The cabinet says the US aid is unnecessary and rejects US unilateral resolutions with regard to the US direct funding assistance mainly to the Egyptian private sector, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and NGOs, arguing social justice is one of the more prominent roles that the country and businessmen should be committed to.

So far, no word from USAID about this.

AFP downplays Muslim Brotherhood statement on Bin Laden

From AFP:

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said on Monday that Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in Pakistan, did not represent Islam and said the United States should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Islam is not Bin Laden," Mahmud Ezzat, the Brotherhood's number two, told AFP.

"After September 11, there had been a lot of confusion. Terrorism was mixed up with Islam," he said. "In the coming phase, everyone will be looking to the West for just behaviour."

Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood said this. But AFP left out what else they said.

From the Ikhwanweb website, in Arabic:

While Islam denounces violence and terrorism it believes it was not necessary to resort to assassination stressing a fair trial of any criminal whatever the crime would have sufficed.

It is on this note that the MB calls on the Western world, its people and governments to not link Islam with terrorism, and to correct the erroneous image which has been created in this regard.

The MB however confirms its belief that there is a difference between combat and resistance stressing that combating violence is necessary however each country has its right as stipulated in international conventions guaranteed by divine laws to defend itself against oppression against innocent people as is the case of the Palestinian people and Israel's Zionists.

Ending its statement the group cites that so long as occupation remains resistance is legitimate and it calls on the United States, NATO and the EU to end the occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq, and recognize the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Furthermore the MB calls on the US to end its intelligence operations and to cease from interfering in the internal affairs of any Arab or Muslim country.

The Muslim Brotherhood statement, rather than denouncing Al Qaeda as AFP implies, actually condones Al Qaeda actions against allied troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Palestinian Arab terrorism.

Not quite as peaceful as some like to pretend.

(h/t Dan for last link)

Israel to give tax revenue to Jihadist Palestinian Authority

From UPI:

Israel, following the intervention of U.S. officials, will transfer about $89 million in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority, Israeli officials said.

The unnamed officials said the funds would be transferred next week, Haaretz reported Monday.

On Sunday, senior U.S. officials sought clarification of Israel's plans to temporarily suspend the transfer of funds to the P.A.

The officials sought the clarification after Army Radio reported Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz had decided to halt the transfer of the tax revenues to the P.A. in response to the Fatah-Hamas unity, the newspaper said.

The American officials met with members of the Treasury Department and the prime minister's office to discuss the issue and demanded a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials to arrange the transfer, Haaretz said.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office denied a decision had been made to stop the transfer of funds, the newspaper said.

Israel should absolutely freeze handing money over to an entity that includes Hamas in its government, just as it did in the past.

It is more than troubling that the US is pressuring Israel to do otherwise.

In 2006, when Israel imposed a similar freeze, it was with the full knowledge and cooperation of the US (and probably the Quartet.) So what has changed?

A tweet from Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt exposes, in this case, how insanely anti-Israel some European diplomats are:

Worried by reports that Israel government will steal tax money from Palestinian Authority. Unacceptable.

He is calling a freeze on the funds, where they will not be touched, "stealing." One would expect that a diplomat would be more circumspect in his language, but sometimes hate trumps acting like an adult.

(h/t Marcus)

"Moderate" Fatah, Jerusalem Arabs honor Bin Laden

From YNet:

Dozens of Arab residents held a rally in support of assassinated al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood Monday evening.

Some of the participants at the site hurled stones at Israel Police forces deployed in the area. Police officers responded with crowd dispersal means.

I haven't yet seen a statement by Mahmoud Abbas on the assassination. But he is a peace-seeking moderate, as we are constantly told, so no doubt this is merely an oversight. He's probably been too busy to issue a statement. Let's just assume that he is really happy and not ask him to actually commit to saying it.

After all, it might upset his natural constituency - members of the Fatah organization he leads.

Ma'an reports:

The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades mourned Tuesday the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, following his assassination Sunday by American troops in Pakistan.

His death, a statement said, "won't stop our Jihad mission against injustice and occupation," adding doubt over the veracity of claims that the fundamentalist had indeed been killed.

In a statement received by Ma'an the brigades said: "The Islamic nation was shocked with the news that bin Laden had been killed by the non-believers."

He left a generation who follows the education he gave in Jihad, the statement continued.

"The fighters in Palestine and around the world who have lost their leaders did not stop their mission and will continue in the tutelage of their masters."

Concluding, the statement said "we tell the Israeli and the American occupiers that we have leaders who have changed history with their Jihad and their steadfastness. We are ready to sacrifice our lives to bring back peace."

See? They want peace!

So the scorecard is: Some Fatah members are on the record as supporting Bin Laden, Hamas and Islamic Jihad concur, Abbas refuses to denounce him, and the only person who said anything positive about the assassination is Salam Fayyad who is probably on his way out in the new unity government.

And the world overwhelmingly demands that this group of terror supporters and enablers should have their own independent state.

(h/t Joel)

UPDATE: A different Al Aqsa spokesman denies the remarks above.

Egypt: "No comment" on Bin Laden's death

From Al Moslim, translated by Translating Jihad:

The Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil 'Arabi said that he "had no comment" on the killing of al-Qa'ida leader Osama bin Laden at the hands of American forces in Pakistan. He sufficed himself with stressing that his country was opposed to "all forms of violence."

Al-'Arabi said to reporters right after meeting with his British counterpart William Hague in Cairo: "Concerning the announcement of the death of bin Laden, Egypt is against all forms of violence, and the Egyptian government has no comment." ...

Being an "ally" ain't what it used to be.

(h/t Silke)

Real satellite image of Bin Laden's compound

It turns out that the satellite image that some thought yesterday was OBL's compound was wrong. Here it is: (Google Maps link):

And here is its proximity to the Pakistan Military Academy:

JSSNews notes something interesting about the shape of the compound: it resembles British Mandate Palestine, with the headquarters where Jerusalem would be!

It's is of course a coincidence: here is what the area looked like in 2001 (via Google Earth.) The outline was already there. But it is a little eerie!

Palestinian Arabs are Al Qaeda's most loyal supporters

From Pew Global Research:

In the months leading up to Osama bin Laden’s death, a survey of Muslim publics around the world found little support for the al Qaeda leader. Among the six predominantly Muslim nations recently surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, bin Laden received his highest level of support among Muslims in the Palestinian territories – although even there only 34% said they had confidence in the terrorist leader to do the right thing in world affairs. Minorities of Muslims in Indonesia (26%), Egypt (22%) and Jordan (13%) expressed confidence in bin Laden, while he has almost no support among Turkish (3%) or Lebanese Muslims (1%).

Al Qaeda also received largely negative ratings among Muslim publics in the 2011 survey. Only 2% of Muslims in Lebanon and 5% in Turkey expressed favorable views of al Qaeda. In Jordan, 15% had a positive opinion of al Qaeda, while about one-in-five in Indonesia (22%) and Egypt (21%) shared this view. Palestinian Muslims offered somewhat more positive opinions (28% favorable), but about two-thirds (68%) viewed bin Laden’s organization unfavorably.

It is true that Bin Laden's popularity has waned dramatically in the Arab world, and among the Palestinian Arabs as well. But you will be hard pressed to find a Western media outlet pointing out that over a quarter of Palestinian Arabs still view Al Qaeda favorably or that over one third had confidence that Osama Bin Laden was a good Arab leader.

I know - let's reward Bin Laden's biggest fans with a state - one that is ethnically cleansed of Jews!

(h/t Ha'aretz)