Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 08, 2014

Trouble in Paradise? Hamas, Fatah squabble over salaries to Hamas workers, Gaza banks closed

Ma'an reports:

Banks in the Gaza Strip remained closed Sunday morning as a financial crisis which began Wednesday evening threatened to undermine confidence in the newly-formed Palestinian unity government.

Employees of the formerly Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip have insisted that they should receive their salaries from the new reconciliation government, and local police deployed around banks and ATMs again Sunday to prevent PA employees related to the new unity government from receiving their salaries until a solution is reached.

Hamas and Fatah, it seems, had neglected to reach an agreement on whether the newly-formed unity government would take over paying the 50,000 employees, including security officers, who were employed by the Hamas-run government that was in power in Gaza since the beginning of the political division in 2007.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that the financial crisis -- which he blamed on Hamas -- was "unacceptable."

The crisis began on Wednesday, when Gaza-based Palestinian Authority public sector employees went to withdraw their salaries from ATM machines but were prevented from doing so by security officers of the formerly Hamas-run government.

On Thursday morning, banks were unable to operate after Hamas' security forces deployed around them in protest against the unity government's failure to pay the salaries of Gaza employees who had been hired by the formerly Hamas-run government.

When banks tried to open on Sunday morning after the Friday-Saturday weekend, officers of the former Hamas government refused to allow banks to operate because they still had not been paid their monthly wages by the unity government.

If 50,000 Hamas employees aren't being paid, that is a recipe for another civil war in Gaza. Look for Abbas to beg Gulf countries to pay these salaries in the next week or two.

Also, there are reports today that Hamas attacked the Office of the Central Committee of Fatah Commissioner Dr. Zakaria al-Agha in Gaza City, and beat some of the staff.

Sources said that Hamas broke into the office Agha's office and expelled all workers and shut down the office, demanding their salaries by the Government of National Reconciliation.

Other reports said that the members of the Hamas police beat a female member of the Arab Socialist Baath Party and member of the General Union of Palestinian Women unconscious, while she tried to enter a bank in Gaza City.

The only publicly moderate Palestinian Arab resigns from his teaching job

We have previously discussed Mohammed Dajani, the leader of the tiny Palestinian Wasatia party, who is essentially the only Palestinian Arab moderate enough to publicly endorse a statement drafted by an Israeli liberal giving Jews and Arabs completely equal rights to live in the territory of British Mandate Palestine.

Dajani is also the person who visited Auschwitz with some of his students to withering criticism from his fellow Palestinian Arabs.

It looks like he has resigned from his job over that episode:

Mohammed Dajani, the Al-Quds University professor who received plaudits and threats earlier this year after leading the first organized group of Palestinian university students to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, has resigned from the university after weeks of mounting pressure.

He heads the Department of American Studies and is the director of the Al-Quds University Library, which has just moved into an impressive new building.

Professor Dajani told Haaretz he felt he had no choice after the university authorities refused to back up their private assurances with a display of public support after what he described as a campaign of “incitement” against him from some members of the university faculty.

Following the Auschwitz trip, Dajani was denounced as a “traitor” and “collaborator” by Palestinian critics and expelled from a university staff union. He says it is important for Palestinians to understand their “enemy” – the Israelis – including the role the Holocaust plays in shaping Israeli policy and consciousness.

Dajani submitted a letter of resignation on May 18, hoping the university authorities would reject it and denounce the campaign against him. Instead, he received a response from the university personnel department that his resignation would take effect on June 1.

“I wanted the president of the university to take a stand by not accepting my resignation and in doing so to send a clear and loud message to the university employees and students, and in general, to the Palestinian community, that the university supports academic freedom and considers my trip as an educational journey in search of knowledge by which I broke no university policy, rules, or regulations,” Dajani said.

“Some may consider my letter of resignation from Al-Quds University as a kind of ‘surrender’ to those opposed to academic freedom and freedom of action and of expression. I don’t,” he said. “In submitting my resignation, I feel I took the battle to a higher level. My letter of resignation from Al-Quds University was a kind of litmus test to see whether the university administration supports academic freedom and freedom of action and of expression as they claim or not.”

Dajanai said he decided to resign after his students were told that university officials had played an active part in the campaign against him, including his expulsion from the staff union – an organization he never joined in the first place. He was also dismayed that in its only official response to the trip, the university tried to distance itself from their professor, claiming he was "on leave" and acting "in a personal capacity."

In May, Dajani met with Prof Sari Nusseibeh, the outgoing university president, and Dr Imad Abu Kishek, the incoming president, who assured him privately that they were committed to academic freedom at Al-Quds, that he had broken no university rules in taking his students to Auschwitz and that none of the university’s leadership supported the campaign to oust him from the university. Dajani says he decided to test their resolve by submitting his resignation so they could reject it and give him their public backing – but they didn’t come through.

Dajani spoke at a peace forum in Israel last month, in English. The entire video is here.

Idiotic Norwegian "expert" explains why Jewish homes have red tile roofs

From Tarud's Blog (Norwegian):

How many lies it is possible to get in a single short story? The Palestinians and their friends in Norway have long ago lost any shame in lying about Israel. And the competition is fierce between "friends of Palestine" in Norway about who can find more imaginative liars.

Norwegian People's Aid is one of the organizations that have positioned itself at the forefront in the fight for demonization of Israel. On April 28th 2014 the Chairman of Norwegian People's Aid, Finn Erik Thorsen, held a lecture in Molde. According to one of the spectators at the lecture, Thorsen, who regards himself as a "Palestine expert," told horror stories about "Zionists and the Jewish state that is controlled by the Russian mafia."

One of the most colorful stories was about red roof tiles. He showed a picture of a [settlement] house with red roof tiles and asked a rhetorical question: "Do you know why Palestinians are not allowed to use red roof tiles on their houses in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and only the (Jewish) settlements use such roof tiles?" And the answer was: "It will be easier for the Israeli bombers to identify Palestinian houses when they bomb them, while they avoid hitting the Jewish houses."

The natural reaction for those who do not know the situation in Judea and Samaria must be one of shock and anger: Poor Palestinians, this sounds pretty awful, does it not? But the correct question should be: how many lies can you find in this tiny anecdote? Here's a list:

1 Most Palestinians in Judea and Samaria live in areas A and B under control of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA has full responsibility for zoning and import of building materials, including the type of roof tiles that can be used. There are no Palestinian regulations that prohibit the use of red roof tiles.

2 Israel has no laws or regulations that prohibit the use of red roof tiles in Area C which is under Israeli control. This means that both Arabs and Jews who build in this area can use red roof tiles in their houses, if they want to.

3 Red roof tiles on houses in a neighboring village can not possibly help a pilot of a bomber to hit its target. It would have been more logical if the target was colored red.

4 Israeli aircraft does not bomb houses in Judea and Samaria.

5 The Israeli air force is regarded as one of the best in the world. Israeli aircraft use precision weapons that can hit its target with great accuracy both day and night, and is completely independent of the color of the house or on the roof tiles.

6 The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) do not attack civilian buildings. Houses used by terrorists are not protected by the Geneva Convention and can be considered military targets.

7 Red roof tiles are traditionally used in many countries of the world including Israel and Norway . I can not find any evidence to suggest that in some countries the red roof tiles help selection of military targets, or to distinguish military from civilian buildings.

8 The main reason that most Palestinian houses do not have red roof tiles is that they do not tile their roofs at all. The traditional Arab architecture in the area includes a solarium that can be used for different purposes.

9 A number of houses built in recent years in Arab settlements in Israel, Judea and Samaria, have red tiles.

10 Many houses in Jewish towns and villages have a rooftop terrace, or use tiles with a different color than red.

Apparently, it is even easier to lie about Israel in Norwegian than it is in English. I don't think even Mondoweiss or Electronic Intifada are idiotic enough to make this claim - but the head of this Norwegian NGO can spout such stupidity with impunity.

By the way, here's an 11th reason:

The first neighborhood outside of the Old City of Jersualem, called Mishkenot Sha’ananim (“Tranquil Dwellings”), was built in 1860 by the wealthy Jewish philanthropist Moses Montefiore. Influenced by Mediterranean architecture, Montefiore designed the settlement of terraced row houses with red roof tiles. Since then, this style of construction - terraced house with red-tiled roof - has became a prototype for Jewish residences all over Israel.

(h/t Spiker's Corner)

06/07 Links: J Street: Anti-Israel, Pro-Lying; Brussels Attack Claims 4th Victim

From Ian:

J Street: Anti-Israel, Pro-Lying

The liberal fringe group J Street is facing renewed questions over its purported dishonesty to journalists and editors after one of its top campus officials penned an op-ed that was so thoroughly riddled with factual errors that a leading Israeli publication was forced to delete the piece and apologize.
Jacob Plitman, the president of J Street U’s National Student Board, recently attacked several pro-Israel groups in an editorial published by the Times of Israel (TOI). However, TOI editors quickly removed the piece after at least four major factual errors were discovered, according to an explanation of the incident provided to the Washington Free Beacon by sources close to the incident.
This is not the first time that J Street has come under fire for misleading reporters and editors at major publications.

MAEL: Unpacking J Street's 'Myths and Facts' Page

J Street suffers from one major problem- an inability to tell the truth. Again and again the organization misleads both the public and its constituents on matters of policy, funding, and co-sponsorship. In its attempt to ignore the film the J Street Challenge and other critics, J Street often relies on its 'Myths and Facts' page, even claiming that "the Myths and Facts page offers a more comprehensive address of the film’s catalog of spurious allegations."
The fact that the leftist lobby group has a need for such a page should be cause for concern in itself. The Orwellian contents on the page only confirm the widespread concern that J Street misrepresents the truth. Rather than address any of the issues that J Street's critics has raised, the George Soros-funded group resorts to double-speak to "diffuse" the situation. Here are four such examples of J Street's public relations spin, with J Street's "Myths and Facts" followed by commentary:

Is the International Consensus on Jerusalem Fracturing?

If Israelis have not been willing to vocally and uncompromisingly assert their rights to their own undivided capital before the court of world opinion, then it is hardly surprising if those who don’t have much love for the Jewish state have taken this as a cue to further delegitimize Jewish rights in Jerusalem. Both the Europeans and the Obama administration insist that they are friends of Israel, but if Israelis want to know what real friends look like then they can look to Stephen Harper’s government in Canada and now to Tony Abbott’s in Australia. The decision to no longer refer to East Jerusalem as “occupied territory” is a bold and brave move that displays a degree of moral clarity that one could barely imagine coming from Obama’s State Department and certainly not from London’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Ideally, the move by the Australians will be repeated by other governments, but if nothing else it calls into question the attitude in Europe that holds the illegality of the Israeli presence in north, south, and east Jerusalem to be an open and shut case.

Australia just made an enormous contribution to the Middle East peace process

So why has the Australian announcement advance peace, if it has angered the Palestinians?
Because the history of Middle East peace negotiations is the refusal to speak the truth to the Palestinians, and instead, to cower at false claims of illegal occupation and Apartheid. Such diplomatic cowering, evidenced by John Kerry’s futile shuttle diplomacy, simply encourages even more unreasonable and unrealistic Palestinian demands.
If peace ever is to be achieved, it will be when the Palestinians accept that they can get no more from international boycotts and pressure than they can get through direct negotiations and meaningful concessions. The Australian announcement brought that moment a little closer.
The U.S. finally moving our Embassy to Jerusalem would move the peace process even closer still.

First the Jews steal the keffiyeh, hummus and falafel. But now: Kenafa!

We've seen many times that Palestinian Arabs claim that Jews have "stolen" their culture, by eating hummus and falafel, or by wearing Jewish keffiyehs and claiming it is their own (which, actually, it might be.)

Now, Dr. Salim Nazzal says that the Jews have gone too far, by eating (and supposedly claiming) kenafa, a sweet dairy dish.

I have never heard that Jews claim this dish. Kenafa apparently originated in Egypt, although there seems to have been a variant that was centered around Nablus using their cheese.

Nazzal's complaints are hysterical:

Zionists now using a new tactic to integrate themselves in the area knowing that it excluded them. This tactic is based on the theft of Palestinian culture and claiming it for themselves, in other words they want to say that they are not invaders from overseas as it is, but Eastern people of the region. And their claim that the Kenafa sweets are Jewish is the latest thing from the mind of the Zionist Jew who lives an existential crisis and a crisis of identity, despite his military superiority. Just claiming this shows the crisis in which they live. It is a crisis of legitimacy of their presence in Palestine.

I am not seeing any Jews complaining that Palestinians love to eat matzoh. No one would be upset if Palestinian Arabs started claiming cholent or gefilte fish - it would actually be funny. It seems that the existential crisis is not from the Jewish side - we have lots of traditions from all over the world, thank you - but from the "Palestinian" side where people freak out over supposedly having their culture "stolen."

If culture can be so easily stolen, maybe it wasn't your culture to begin with.

06/06 Links Pt2: The Apartheid Libel, Demolished; AJ Journalist: Jews Should Know Their Place

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: The Apartheid Libel, Demolished

Whatever critics may think about Israel’s control of parts of the West Bank, the “apartheid” label is such a gross distortion that it can only discredit them. It is inaccurate in terms of both international law and the facts on the ground. And it raises the question of why critics of Israel use the label, despite the risk of discrediting their arguments with their rhetorical overkill.
The answer can be found in the unique international response to South Africa’s apartheid regime. Numerous countries, from Turkey to Russia to Armenia, occupy and annex territory. Numerous countries—perhaps most—are grossly undemocratic, discriminate against minorities, and deny political rights to much or all of their population. Yet only the apartheid label resulted in orchestrated international sanctions that sought to completely eliminate a specific regime. Falsely applied to Israel, the accusation is clearly not a serious criticism, but a diplomatic weapon. It is not about the reality it seeks to describe, but the reaction it seeks to elicit—in a word, BDS. For some, it serves as a scare tactic to push Israel toward dangerous concessions. For others, it is a step toward literally destroying Israel as a Jewish state. Israel has paid a very high price for avoiding anything like apartheid. Creating Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and much of the West Bank has required Israel to forcibly expel its own citizens from all of Gaza and parts of the West Bank. And it has subjected Israel to an unprecedented terrorist war coordinated by the PA, as well as ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza. Yet the international community continues to perpetuate the libel of the apartheid accusation. This indifference to the price in lives and security Israel has paid seems to suggest a stark truth: Whatever Israel does, it can never be safe from such diplomatic demagoguery.

The Anti-Zionism of J Street

The biggest problem with the controversial group isn’t its bullying, mischaracterization of opponents, outrageous lobbying positions, or childish huffing and puffing. It’s their implicit rejection of everything Zionism stands for.
Why does the Zionist movement still exist, while the Women’s Suffrage movement has been gone for nearly a century?
Both movements were founded and led by utopian visionaries whose dreams were initially decried—both inside and outside their circles—as unrealistic, if not dangerous to their group’s well-being. Both based their claims on liberalism, dignity, and human rights. And, most importantly, both movements succeeded in their goals. The Jewish people now have a sovereign state of their own, while women have the right to vote in almost every country on earth.
It seems, then, that the questions of women’s right to vote and the Jewish people’s right to a state are both answered. The debates ought to be over. No one would seriously suggest that after nearly a century, women should now be disenfranchised. Similarly, the 66-year existence of a Jewish state is an immutable and irreversible fact, and no mainstream figure is arguing for its abolition. So why, and why now, is the American Jewish community undergoing such a storm of conflict and recrimination over the issue of Israel?

Cleveland Unites over Anti-Semitic murals

Anita Gray, regional director of the ADL has described the paintings as "highly offensive and anti-Semitic." adding "We are appalled by the intolerance and bigotry these signs convey...The owner of this establishment has the right to have it decorated as he chooses, but we urge fellow members of the community to join us in saying, loudly and clearly, that such hate is not welcome here, and we categorically reject it."
The owner of the gas station/grocery store Brahim "Abe" Ayad Ayad was born in the United States but is of Palestinian descent. Expect JVP to express its outrage at the Zionist lobby attempting to stiffle Palestinian activism in 3, 2, 1.....

Mayor calls for graphic mural to be taken down at Biggies gas station

Teen tour says Haifa is part of "Palestine"

"Go Palestine" is "A Summer Experience for Diaspora Palestinian Youth and Friends (Age 14-17)."

The brainwashing starts early:

We look forward to welcoming our campers here in their homeland and to helping them explore as much of Palestine as possible. Go Palestine is planning trips not only throughout Ramallah but to other cities as well such as Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nablus, and Haifa. For instance, campers swim in the Mediterranean Sea and absorb the breathtaking view of Palestine’s hills as they hike across the West Bank. Visits to olive groves and villages such as Birzeit and Taybeh, in addition to volunteer work in the refugee camps, will give a full picture of life in Palestine.

Last year's trip included this on its blog:

We visited a small Palestinian village, and compared its dry environment to the lush, green settlements who redirect water from Palestinian wells to their settlements and farms.

This is of course a lie; Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria get their water from Israel and from well built just for them, nothing from Palestinian Arab wells. Also, the Palestinian Arabs have not been using all the water they are allowed to under existing agreements, and waste a huge amount of that they do use.

Somehow, the campers in this land where Israel steals all the water still manage to enjoy swimming in Ramallah. Because brainwashing kids visiting is a much higher priority than efficiently bringing water to farms.

(h/t Russell)

From the MLA:

Resolution 2014-1 (see text below) was not ratified by the membership and therefore does not represent a position taken by the MLA. Resolutions forwarded to the membership must be ratified by a majority vote in which the number of those voting for ratification equals at least ten percent of the association’s membership, which was 2,390 votes this year. There were 1,560 votes in favor of ratification and 1,063 votes against ratification. The vote therefore fell short of ratification by 830 votes.

Even so, of the people who voted, far more voted for the resolution.

A couple of week ago an internal MLA mailing list was leaked showing that some of the Israel-haters pushing the resolution were also antisemites.

Academia is in sad shape.

(h/t StandWithUs)

06/06 Links Pt1: FM lauds Australia for dropping 'occupied' Jerusalem label; False Palestinian Unity

From Ian:

Miffed by Palestinian criticism, Aussies boost pro-Israel stance

“The Palestinians handled this very badly. Such disagreements are usually handled in private,” the senior Australian source said, adding that the Palestinians’ behavior partially led to Canberra’s announcement this week to no longer refer to East Jerusalem as “occupied.” “Erekat’s letter was quite personal and does not reflect the way senior officials would usually write to each other. Apparently, they don’t put much stock in their relationship with Australia, and don’t really have appreciation for our financial support.”
Canberra also has not welcomed the establishment of the new Palestinian unity government, which is backed by Hamas – as the UN, the EU, and many countries have – but also has not severed ties with the PA, as Jerusalem would have liked. Aid will continue to flow to the new government, and Australian officials traveling to the region will continue to visit their counterparts in Ramallah. At the same time, Australia does not bar officials from meeting Israeli officials in East Jerusalem, as opposed to most other countries. (h/t Yoel)

FM lauds Australia for dropping 'occupied' Jerusalem label

Lieberman lauded Brandis' stance as a "serious approach to the issue," adding that the former's remarks were "free of populism or efforts to kiss up to extreme Islamists, who terrorize anyone who dares tell the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
"The territories [in question] have been part of Jewish history for thousands of years and were never a part of any Palestinian state, which never actually existed," Lieberman went on to say.
Lieberman concluded with the hope that "additional countries will find the integrity and courage shown by the government of Australia."

It's time to stop apologizing

Judea and Samaria are not Palestinian land; at the very most there is debate about them. We also demand full ownership of them. Our historic, legal, and religious rights to them are greater than those of Saeb Erekat and Abbas.
The fight to legitimize our hold on the land of our life depends to a large degree on our determined activity and a righteous stance. The government in Australia changed, and along with it the definition of construction in east Jerusalem. It is no longer "occupied territory" but Israeli territory, the Jewish people's only homeland.

Caroline Glick: Ending Abbas’s winning streak

The fact is that Israel has gotten nothing from playing along with American coddling of Abbas. It receives less support from Obama every day. And its willingness to go along to get along has demoralized and angered the Republicans who oppose what Obama is doing. It has given cover to Democrats who are loath to oppose the White House.
The time has come for Israel to stop playing this game, where the PLO gets to materially breach its agreements and so render them effectively null and void, while Israel, the sucker, keeps upholding them.
The time has come for Israel to stop collecting tax revenues for the PA. All of the money Israel collects and transfers to the PA is now serving Hamas directly.
And it isn’t enough to keep collecting, but stop transferring the revenues. The monies always end up being transferred eventually.
The only way to end this is by actually ceasing to serve as the PA’s taxman.
Obama won’t like it. But what’s he going to do? Facilitate Iran’s nuclear weapons program? Blame Israel for Palestinian aggression against it? Recognize and fund Hamas? The only way to get off this train is to get off. And disembarking is also the only way to impact US behavior. No single act by Israel will do more to empower the US Congress to stop funding the Palestinians than that.
And once that happens, a virtuous circle is formed, where at a minimum, Abbas’s winning streak will end.

Arab paper bemoans Church no longer blaming Jews for killing Jesus

A writer for Cairo Portal is upset at Pope Francis' visit to Herzl's grave and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, but that is just the start.

This act is a grubby, ugly shame, especially compared to the position of Pope Pius X, at a meeting with Herzl in 1904, and his refusal to strictly to create a state for the Jews, saying his famous statement: "we can not," calling Jews at the same time to convert to Christianity!

After 110, what he's done is a flagrant shame, and it reveals and condemns the attitude of the Catholic Church: the Church deviates from the plan, and does not stop making concessions to the Zionists, at the expense of their faith and beliefs, especially over the past sixty years. The doctrinal starting point for this blatant act goes back to Vatican II (1962-1965), especially to the document "Nostra Aetate" that cleared the Jews of Christ's blood ... and put an end to the prophecy of Jesus about the demolition of the temple and the demolition of corrupt and hateful character of Judaism!

The Vatican II represents an ugly gap can not be bridged in the long history of the Catholic Church, that overthrew-its text and beliefs and heritage in order to exonerate the Jews of the blood of Christ; note that the sentences against the [Jews] are still currently in circulation in the Gospels. Therefore, this institution has lost any credibility with followers....

A final shame: to see the Vatican bend to the wishes of the Zionist Protocols and visit the Wailing Wall, which originally and historically is the Muslim Buraq wall, and put a bouquet of flowers on the grave of Herzl and visit Yad Vashem, the memorial place of the Holocaust..I add that the words "the ugliness of the Holocaust" does not represent anything, does not represent anything at all compared to the murder of an entire people.

In related news, the PA's official schoolbooks for Christian children also say that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death.

Commenter Irony Dome wrote this brilliant musical spoof of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I made slight changes and added a stanza, (and then another one by special request.) And then Irony Dome added another!

We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians
A special bunch of ancient Arabs, not some common Libyans
We're older than Cro-Magnon man and anything that's simian
We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians!

Israelis say, or so they claim
That they were here before us
But now we'll put them all to shame
With this, our mighty chorus
We'll tell them how they've got it wrong
And leave them feeling bluish
We'll tell them how we go back long
Before anything was Jewish!

JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians
Pretending we're aboriginal American Indians
We're older than Cro-Magnon man and anything that's simian
We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians!

The Neanderthals would grunt at us
'Cause they were clearly mad
That we were here before them
And this made them very sad
We saw the dinosaurs decline
When that rock hit with a clang
We saw the seas start to align
And remember the Big Bang!

JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians
Our history is so lengthy its almost Darwinian
We're older than Cro-Magnon man and anything that's simian
We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians!

We tell you all that we are as old as all the ancient geysers
We hope you don't notice that Arabs have been colonizers
Our ancient roots within this land cannot stand any scrutiny
But the world will believe anything - just look at our new "unity"

[chorus]

Our name, we know, it's long and tough
And sounds somewhat atrocious
But if we say it loud enough
They'll never know it's bogus
Where are we from, we do not know
We can't make up our minds
So we just mention settlements
And the rest is left behind!

[chorus]

We can claim with a straight face our people include Jesus
Solomon, Moses and anyone else who would please us
Our history's so flexible that we can't really lose
As long as no one reminds us that those people were Jews

[chorus]

White House ignores fact that "unity" government violates existing agreements

From the WSJ:

The question is whether the U.S. government will continue to fund the PA now that Mr. Abbas has cast his lot with a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization. U.S. law prohibits dispensing taxpayer money to any Palestinian entity over which Hamas exercises “undue influence.”

Previous attempts at reconciliation had failed in large part because Hamas had refused to subsume its armed wing to the PA. This time Mr. Abbas acquiesced to a partnership with a heavily armed terrorist group. The resulting relationship will likely resemble the one next door between the Lebanese government, with its negligible regular army, and the Shiite terror group Hezbollah, which like Hamas boasts an arsenal of Iranian-supplied missiles.

To hew as close as possible to the letter of U.S. law, the architects of the Hamas-backed interim government have assembled a cabinet of old PA holdovers and technocrats from Gaza with no obvious links to Hamas. The maneuver was good enough for the Obama State Department. “At this point, it appears that President Abbas has formed an interim technocratic government that does not include ministers affiliated with Hamas,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters earlier this week. “Moving forward, we will be judging this government by its actions.”

But that still leaves open the question of the PA’s treaty obligations. The Oslo Accords and its progeny, including the 1998 Wye Memorandum, set very clear limits on the extent and potency of the PA arsenal. Under the Wye Memorandum, for example, the PA is required to “establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of” illegal weapons.

Nobody should count on the aging and calculating Mr. Abbas to exercise meaningful control over Hamas’s arsenal, much less its behavior. And nobody should count on the Obama Administration to apply meaningful penalties to the PA for joining forces with Hamas and flouting its obligations toward Israel. That leaves Congress, which can block funding to the Palestinians until they prove capable of governing themselves as something other than a terrorist enterprise.

Hamas' maintaining its terror wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, is only one of the violations of existing accords that are being flouted by this "unity government." Here is the text of the Wye Memorandum of 1998 showing that all three of the PA's obligations are being explicitly violated:

1. Outlawing and Combating Terrorist Organizations

The Palestinian side will make known its policy of zero tolerance for terror and violence against both sides.

A work plan developed by the Palestinian side will be shared with the U.S. and thereafter implementation will begin immediately to ensure the systematic and effective combat of terrorist organizations and their infrastructure.

In addition to the bilateral Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, a U.S.-Palestinian committee will meet biweekly to review the steps being taken to eliminate terrorist cells and the support structure that plans, finances, supplies and abets terror. In these meetings, the Palestinian side will inform the U.S. fully of the actions it has taken to outlaw all organizations (or wings of organizations, as appropriate) of a military, terrorist or violent character and their support structure and to prevent them from operating in areas under its jurisdiction.

The Palestinian side will apprehend the specific individuals suspected of perpetrating acts of violence and terror for the purpose of further investigation, and prosecution and punishment of all persons involved in acts of violence and terror.

A U.S.-Palestinian committee will meet to review and evaluate information pertinent to the decisions on prosecution, punishment or other legal measures which affect the status of individuals suspected of abetting or perpetrating acts of violence and terror.

2. Prohibiting Illegal Weapons

The Palestinian side will ensure an effective legal framework is in place to criminalize, in conformity with the prior agreements, any importation, manufacturing or unlicensed sale, acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition or weapons in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.

In addition, the Palestinian side will establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of all such illegal items in accordance with the prior agreements. The U.S. has agreed to assist in carrying out this program.

A U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli committee will be established to assist and enhance cooperation in preventing the smuggling or other unauthorized introduction of weapons or explosive materials into areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.

3. Preventing Incitement

Drawing on relevant international practice and pursuant to Article XXII (1) of the Interim Agreement and the Note for the Record, the Palestinian side will issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, and establishing mechanisms for acting systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror. This decree will be comparable to the existing Israeli legislation which deals with the same subject.

A U.S.- Palestinian-Israeli committee will meet on a regular basis to monitor cases of possible incitement to violence or terror and to make recommendations and reports on how to prevent such incitement. The Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. sides will each appoint a media specialist, a law enforcement representative, an educational specialist and a current or former elected official to the committee.:

Armed terrorists in the WB before "unity"

Not only is allowing Hamas to maintain its own terror wing a violation of these accords (as has been the allowance of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades,) but also the PA must now act to make Islamic Jihad and other armed terrorist groups illegal.

Yet even before this agreement the PA has allowed armed groups to roam around the West Bank, in explicit violation of these signed agreements.

And the White House and State Department allowed that without a peep.

As I've noted before, there is no difference between Hamas and Fatah - both maintain armed terror wings in violation of agreements. The only difference is that Fatah lies about it.

The "unity agreement" makes it harder for the Obama administration to publicly ignore its role in allowing the PLO to steamroll its commitments, but make no mistake - it knows quite well about these violations and has willfully ignored them for years. The :unity government" just adds a new layer of illegality over Washington's existing willful blindness and coddling of the PLO.

Will Congress step in and uphold US law?

(h/t TIP)