Saturday, June 23, 2007

PM shelves U.S. proposal for negotiations with Abbas

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected, during his visit to the United States last week, a proposal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Israel negotiate a permanent settlement with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.......

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni shares Rice's approach, but Olmert is strongly opposed to the idea. He believes that any settlement reached should be implemented, and fears a situation in which Israel approves the agreement, but Abbas fails to sell it to the Palestinian public. In that event, Israel might be pressured to make further concessions to make Abbas' task easier.

Olmert agreed several months ago to launch talks with Abbas over "a political horizon," on condition that these deal not with the three core issues - Jerusalem, permanent borders and the refugees - but only with the nature of the future Palestinian state, its systems of government and law and security arrangements for the territories. Political sources in Jerusalem say that as Abbas becomes stronger and more able to sell the agreement to his people [my translation: to impose the agreement by force], Israel will agree to expand the discussion agenda to include the core issues......."

Hamas war chief reveals his plans for Gaza peace


The man now controlling Gaza City talks exclusively to Mitchell Prothero about his plans

Sunday June 24, 2007
The Observer

"......'He said if we entered his compound, he would kill himself.'
'Abu Obieda begged him not to commit such a sin,' interjected Abu Khalid, one of his lieutenants. 'He promised him that he and all of his men would be protected if they just surrendered. And finally they did. And all of them are still alive and free in their homes.' Fatah officials in Gaza confirm the story but asked that the commander not be identified for fear of shaming him......

.....'The Fatah men we fought are not my enemy,' said Abu Obieda. 'They are just soldiers like any of us here in this room. The decisions they had to follow came from outside of Gaza: from Ramallah, from the Israelis, from America. I do not hate the men of Fatah; they are our brothers.'

Abu Obieda sees the fighting as a failure by the Palestinian people on both sides of the political divide. 'We are not happy,' he said. 'I am not proud to have defeated and killed the men of Fatah. This is a shame on all Palestinians because we love each other.'

The problem, he explained, was a corrupt security regime led by the Fatah security chief, Mohammed Dahlan, who had led repeated attacks, arrests and executions of Hamas members over the past decade.......

He said Israel 'forced us to this point, but we are not ready to do it again. People need help; they need jobs, money and police. They don't need fighting between brothers.'

Despite his months of planning for such a war, Abu Obieda was surprised by the speed of the victory: 'I expected it to take one month. That is what we planned for and trained for. But then at the beginning, all the Fatah commanders escaped their compounds in ambulances and left for Egypt. They left their men to die. Who could do that?'......

.... 'They all had left,' Abu Obieda said. 'The Fatah fighters are brave but would you fight for a commander who left you alone to die for his war?'

He confirmed that some top Fatah officials with links to Dahlan were arrested and investigated. He insisted all had been released but admitted some summary executions happened during the fighting without authorisation.'Hamas does not do that, but during the battle some men who were very hated for killing Hamas members were executed by the family members of their victims. We have put a stop to that, for it is wrong. Now any Fatah leader can return and will be safe.'....."

Egyptian paper: Documents show Dahlan was working with AlQaeda with the idea of blaming trouble on Hamas


"Hamas has turned over to the Egyptian authorities substantial parts of the intelligence information that fell into its hands when it overran the headquarters of Fatah-controlled security headquarters in Gaza on Thursday, according to what sources told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masriyoun. This is the first reported use of the information in question, which has been a topic of speculation.

The sources said the documents include information about the involvement of the group of Dahlan and Shabak in cooperating in an organized way with the Mukhabarat of Israel and America, including attempts to inundate Egypt with drugs smuggled from Israel via Gaza, and the distribution of hundreds of thousands of counterfeit dollars in tourist areas of Sinai, to damage tourism in the area.

The documents also refer to the role of Dahlan in inciting Bedouins of Sinai to threaten to support Israeli policy, and to involve their people in smuggling members of "terrorist organizations" into Sinai to undertake operations against tourist installations there, both to hurt Egyptian tourism for the benefit of Israeli tourism, and also to cause trouble between Egypt and Hamas on the assertion that these persons were followers of Hamas.

The sources said the documents also show that Dahlan commissioned a large number of Fatah people to work in other Arab countries, including Egypt, to gather intelligence which was passed on to Mossad and to the Mukhabarat of America. And that he gave orders for wiretapping the Egyptian mission in Gaza and its communications with Cairo, and of an Egyptian security delegation, in addition to his involvement in the kidnapping of a member of that delegation last year, Hissam Muwassali later released as a result of Egyptian pressure.

The documents also show the involvement of Dahlan in bringing down a number of top Hamas people, via placing of advanced electronic equipment usable by Israeli planes to determine their location and kill them, as happened in the case of Ahmed Yasin, Dr Abdulaziz al-Rantisi and others. And his involvement with Mossad in administering slow poison to Yasser Arafat in order to eliminate him......."

Here is the original Egyptian paper source (Arabic) which was supplied earlier by Fatima:

مجموعة دحلان تجسست على مصر لصالح "الموساد" وهربت عناصر "القاعدة" إلى سيناء

MEMRI Loss


By Kurt Nimo

"As we have known for some time now, MEMRI, short for the Middle East Media Research Institute, specializes in disinformation by distorting translations of film and print media stories originating in Arabic, Iranian and Turkish media. In essence, what MEMRI does is change the context of news stories by way of mistranslation and excision. Call it MEMRI loss, the deliberate mangling of media......

.....In other words, Olmert used the MEMRI lie as the cornerstone for his argument that Iran must be attacked and Bush agreed. It wasn’t long ago the neocons made up similar lies about Saddam Hussein, lies that have so far resulted in the murder of more than 750,000 Iraqis.

For those of us who know something about history, these neocon lies may be accurately compared with the lies and disinformation used by the Nazis to ultimately invade countries and slaughter millions of people. MEMRI, according to Norman G. Finkelstein, employs “the same sort of propaganda techniques as the Nazis. They take things out of context in order to do personal and political harm to people they don’t like,” or people Likudniks and neocons want the United States military to mass murder.

Finkelstein had a close encounter with MEMRI in 2006, when “he gave a TV interview in Lebanon on the way the Nazi Holocaust is used to silence critics of Israel,”.....

MEMRI is a main arm of Israeli propaganda,” explains Finkelstein. “Although widely used in the mainstream media as a source of information on the Arab world, it is as trustworthy as Julius Streicher’s Der Sturmer was on the Jewish world.” Ken Livingstone, mayor of London, accuses MEMRI of “outright distortion,” while former CIA case officer Vince Cannistraro has written that “they (MEMRI) are selective and act as propagandists for their political point of view, which is the extreme-right of Likud,” in other words, the people associated with MEMRI—David Wurmser, Douglas Feith, Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle and other neocons—are racist reactionaries, no different than the above mentioned Julius Streicher (instead of hating Jews, the neocons hate Arabs and Muslims).......

Naturally, when the depleted uranium tipped bunker busters and cruise missiles begin taking out grandmothers and babies in Iran, MEMRI, the mass murdering Likudniks and neocons will be to blame.

However, instead of justice, the perps will likely move on to teach a new generation of psychopaths at Georgetown University or retire to palatial estates on land ethnically cleansed of Palestinians."

The Wall of the World's Largest Open-air Prison: Palestinians stand near the wall separating Gaza Strip from Egypt, right, in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah, Friday June 22, 2007 (AP).


Inmates of the World's Largest Open-air Prison Go to the Beach: A view of Palestinians enjoying the beach in Gaza City, is seen Friday, June 22, 2007 (AP).


Smoke from artillery and tank shelling rises from the Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon (AFP).


Children from the Palestinian Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli, eat donated lunches at the Loukman School in Tripoli, Lebanon, which is a temporary home for families to escape the fighting (AP).


A Palestinian youth dives into the sea from a fishing boat at the port of Gaza City, in the Gaza Strip, Saturday June 23, 2007 (AP).

I used to do the same in that same spot.....over 40 years ago....

Israel, Fatah crack down on Hamas


Contributed by Lucia

"RAMALLAH, West Bank - In a widening crackdown on Hamas, Israel arrested the founder of the group's military wing Saturday and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pushed forward with a plan to cut off cash to the Islamic militants......

Abbas on Friday ordered all non-governmental groups, including those allied with Hamas, to get new operating licenses. They now have a week to comply. A senior Palestinian official confirmed Saturday that Hamas-allied groups are the target of the review.

Heads of NGOs warned that Abbas' decree may be difficult to enforce since Hamas' social network provides vital services in an increasingly impoverished society, often stepping in where the cash-strapped government fails to deliver.......

Before dawn Saturday, Israeli troops arrested the founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank, Saleh Aruri, prompting allegations by the militant group that Israeli and Palestinian security forces are coordinating their moves in the crackdown.

Aruri had been released in March after serving 15 years in an Israeli prison.......

However, Amjad al-Shawwa, coordinator of the Palestinian NGO Network, said it will be difficult to shut down badly needed charities.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, 60-year-old Aishe Moussa on Saturday picked up her monthly $50 from a local Islamic welfare office. She said that with one son dead and three in an Israeli prison, she couldn't feed her grandchildren without the assistance. "If they close this place, it means we will face hunger and humiliation," she said.

Nidal Shabana, head of one of the biggest welfare associations in Gaza, al-Mujamma al-Islami, noted his group provides for 5,000 orphans and runs two clinics, 16 kindergartens and two schools.

"We are shocked by the decree of the president," he said. "We are associations that provide humanitarian assistance to all people."......."

Time to Liquidate Palestinian Rights.....
This Time By a "Palestinian" Bought and Paid For.....
It is All in the Open Now

INTERVIEW WITH HAMAS CO-FOUNDER MAHMOUD ZAHAR


Spiegel Online

"......SPIEGEL ONLINE: How would a Hamas-led Islamic state look?

Zahar: There would be no difference from how it looks today, because our customs and traditions in Gaza are already Islamic. Marriage, divorce, daily business -- everything is Islamic. As soon as we have a state, then everyone will have their freedom. Christians will remain Christians, parties could be secular or even Communist.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: If an Islamic state is the ideal, why are there not more of them?

Zahar: If there were free and fair elections throughout the Arab world, Islamic forms of government would win everywhere. Islam is against the corruption, weakening, and materialism which have destroyed societies in Europe and America. Families are broken (in the West); there are AIDS and drugs. We don't have such things here......

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What will improve for people in Gaza now that Hamas is in control?

Zahar: The good thing is that we can now collect information about our enemies and informants from foreign powers. We will look for Israel's spies.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Last week there were street battles in the West Bank between Fatah and Hamas militias. Fatah maintained the upper hand. How will Hamas loyalists defend themselves in the event of any new fighting?

Zahar: Let me ask you: How have we defended ourselves so far against the Israeli occupation?

SPIEGEL ONLINE: With bombs and attacks?

Zahar: Exactly. But you said that, not me.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The split between Hamas and Fatah has never been wider. Are you still in contact with one another?

Zahar: Yes, we speak to each other. But we're looking for the true Fatah so its members can take part in our new organization and plans for the future. The true, pure Fatah is the real loser (in this conflict) because its party in the West Bank is collaborating with Israel. In Gaza we have beaten those elements that collaborate with Israel. We have beaten everyone who represented an obstacle -- the ones who wanted to keep us from defending ourselves.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The militant wings of Fatah and Hamas have been fully armed over the last few months. Are these weapons still in circulation?

Zahar: There are naturally very many weapons around now. Two years ago, one bullet in Gaza cost around €3.50 -- now it would cost 35 cents. The American aid money has been translated into weapons. Thank you, America!

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Isn't such a large number of weapons in the hands of militias -- some controllable, some not -- a huge security risk? What would happen if splinter groups started to shoot at each other?

Zahar: So far we haven't confiscated any weapons. If there are problems with splinter groups, we will disarm them and take the weapons for ourselves."

نموذج دحلان في السياسة العربية


An Informative Article (Arabic)
Contributed by Fatima


مفكرة الإسلام: "دحلان مكلف من وكالة المخابرات المركزية وأجهزة أمريكية أخرى بتنفيذ مهمة" محددة"، هذا قول خبيرة التخطيط السياسي في الجامعات الإسرائيلية د.هيجا ياو مجارتن وشرحت الخبيرة الإسرائيلية طبيعة هذه المهمة بأنها تصفية أي مجموعات مقاومة لإسرائيل داخل حركة حماس وخارجها.

والآن بعد سقوط دحلان المروع في غزة على يد أبطال القسام يبقى السؤال الملح : هل أصبح لزاما على الشعوب العربية أن يسوسها أمثال دحلان ؟

إن الخطوة الأولى لمواجهة ذلك النموذج يقع على عاتق المفكرين والباحثين كي يدركوا العوامل التي ساعدت على ظهور هذه النوعية من الساسة ويدرسوا الخلفيات التي دفعت بهؤلاء إلى تولي زمام أمور كثير من الشعوب العربية والإسلامية.

فالحياة السياسية العربية في العقود الأخيرة عانت من الاختراق بشتى طرقه وأنواعه مما سمح للفساد المالي والإداري والأخلاقي يتغلغل فيها حتى وصل إلى مستويات غير مسبوقة وهذه المجموعات المخترقة والتي ينطبق عليها النموذج الدحلاني قد أدت بممارساتها إلى تراجع الأمة العربية استراتيجيا ونتج عن قياداتها هزائم عسكرية وسياسية غير مسبوقة .

خصائص النموذج الدحلاني :

1. الفساد المالي: النشأة الفقيرة قد ندفع الشخص لأن يكون عصاميا صاحب خير كثير التقرب من الله وفي أحيان أخرى تصنع رجلا حاقدا حاسدا والمعلومات عن نشأة محمد دحلان تكشف أنه من مواليد 29 سبتمبر عام 1961 لأسرة فقيرة في مخيم خان يونس بقطاع غزة وأسرته تنحدر من قرية حمامة قضاء غزة والتي تعود للأراضي المحتلة عام 48 ونشأ كبقية الأطفال في المخيم ويقول مقربون منه في هذه الفترة أنه يكن له شبشب حذاء يحميه من الحر في شوارع خان يونس الطريف والغريب وبرواية أحد المقربين منه أن دحلان عندما دخل غزة في العام كان مديوناً بمبلغ 300 دولار لأحد الضباط الفلسطينيين ولكن كانت هناك صفقة كبيرة وقعت بين محمد دحلان وجبريل الرجوب وخالد إسلام الكردي ويوسى غينوسار رئيس جهاز المخابرات الإسرائيلي سابقاً سنة 1994 فقط بعد دخول السلطة لأريحا وغزة بثلاث شهور وكانت الصفقة عبارة عن إلغاء توكيل الشركة الموردة للبترول ومشتقاته للضفة وغزة وإعطاءه لشركة أخرى وهي شركة دحلان وشركاه السابق ذكرهم مما أدر أرباحاً على دحلان تقدر حسب إحصائية بنكية بحوالي 2 مليون دولار.
بعد ذلك أصبح مالكاً لفندق الواحة على شاطئ غزة وهو المصنف كواحد من أفخم فنادق الخمس نجوم في الشرق الأوسط وبعد فضيحة ما عرف ب معبر كارني عام 1997 عندما تم الكشف أن 40% من الضرائب المحصلة من الاحتلال عن رسوم المعبر والمقدرة بمليون شيكل شهرياً كانت تحول لحساب سلطة المعابر الوطنية الفلسطينية والتي أتضح في ما بعد أنها حساب شخصي لدحلان

2. التآمر ضد أصحاب الفضل: فتآمره على عرفات كان واضحا ومعروفا فقد بدأ جهوده للسيطرة على حركة فتح منذ عام 2002 وحاول الانقلاب بقوة السلاح على عرفات في يوليو عام 2004 لكنه فشل وكشفت الصحف الإسرائيلية عن رسالة أرسلها دحلان لوزير الدفاع الإسرائيلي شاؤول موفاز في يوليو 2003 تتحدث عن الحالة الصحية السيئة لعرفات قائلة إن السيد عرفات أصبح يعد أيامه الأخيرة ولكن دعونا نذيبه على طريقتنا وليس على طريقتكم وتأكدوا أيضا أن ما قطعته على نفسي أمام الرئيس يوش من وعود مستعد لأدفع حياتي ثمنا لها. بحسب رواية صحيفة الديار اللبنانية بتاريخ 06/08/2004 أي بعد أسابيع قليلة من محاولة الانقلاب التي قادها دحلان ضد عرفات تلقى عرفات تحذيرا من مسئول في احد أجهزة المخابرات في دولة صديقة بأن وزير الداخلية في عهد حكومة أبو مازن العقيد محمد دحلان يحيك مؤامرة تستهدف حياته أبو عمار الذي كان يمشي في تلك اللحظة جيئة وذهابا ويداه خلف ظهره وبعد ان استمع لدحلان عقب استدعائه كاتما غضبه نظر في عيني المتآمر وقال له اسمع يا دحلان: قاتل أبيه لا يرث.

وكشف أسامة حمدان ممثل حركة حماس في لبنان عن أن محمد دحلان طلب مساعدة حركة حماس في الانقلاب على أبو عمار خلال حصاره في مقر المقاطعة.
وقال حمدان خلال لقاء مباشر على قناة anb اللبنانية إن دحلان حاول تنفيذ انقلاب على أبو عمار واتصل بنا لمساعدته في ذلك وكان ردنا بأننا لن نشارك في انقلاب على رئيس السلطة حتى يأتي لنا رئيس على الدبابة الأمريكية أو يسقط علينا بالبراشوت.

و على قناة العربية قال أقرب مستشاري عرفات هاني الحسن أنه عرف قبل اغتيال عرفات بسنتين أن دحلان هو رجل إسرائيل لقتل عرفات

3. محاولة الإستحواذ على مفاصل القوة: تكمن قوة دحلان الحقيقية في أن جهازه يمتلك أفضل تسليح وأفضل أجهزة وإعدادات سواء أجهزة تجسس متطورة أو أجهزة حماية ووقاية وأجهزة اتصال فائقة الجودة تضاهي أجهزة المخابرات الإسرائيلية وأفضل دعم أمني والاهم من هذا انه اخترق تقريباً جميع الأجهزة السياسية والأمنية والاقتصادية في غزة وله رجالات أيضاً في الضفة الغربية وله كذلك طاقم إعلامي متكامل يعمل على مدار الساعة في الترويج له في الصحف المحلية وكذلك قاموا على تجهيز أكثر من صحيفة وموقع إلكتروني لنشر الأخبار التي يريدها دحلان وتوصيل سياسته كذلك ولا يوجد في غزة في أي جهاز أمني من عقيد أو عميد أو رتبة عسكرية في غزة إلا وهو بحاجة لدحلان لأنه لن يتمكن بغير دحلان من التحرك في أي مكان خاصة لمصر أو إسرائيل أوالأردن عبر الحدود تحديداً لعلاقات دحلان مع الجانب الإسرائيلي حيث نُقل عن أهل غزة بأن معبر المنطار سابقاً وأيرز كانا يُفتحان لدخول موكبه المؤلف من 11 سيارة وموكب زوجته المكون من 3 سيارات وأيضا مستشاروه الأربعة عشر.

4. التشجيع والإعجاب به من قبل الأعداء : عندما كانت تجرى المفاوضات بين الفلسطينيين والإسرائيليين في منتجع واي بلانتيشين في العام 1997م اقترب الرئيس الأمريكي السابق بيل كلينتون من عضو الوفد الفلسطيني محمد دحلان وهمس في أذنه قائلاً أرى فيك زعيما مستقبليا لشعبك. وعندما كان الرئيس الحالي جورج بوش يحضر قمة شرم الشيخ في العام 2003م طلبه بالاسم ليصافحه مما يعكس حجم المكانة التي يتمتع بها لدى الإدارة الأمريكية وترحيب مسبق لأن يقود السلطة الفلسطينية في يوم من الأيام.

5. العمالة الواضحة: يقول أحد مسئولي جهاز الاستخبارات الأمريكية C.I.A السابقين أنه تم تجنيد دحلان في تونس في الثمانينات وتمت تزكيته وتسميته مع جبريل الرجوب الذي شغل فيما بعد منصب الأمن الوقائي في الضفة ليكوّنا سويا القوة الضاربة المستقبلية بعد اتفاقات أوسلو.وفي يناير 1994 تسربت تفاصيل عن اتفاق بين دحلان ومسئولين من جيش الاحتلال والشين بيت عرف بخطة روما لاحتواء حركة حماس وهو ما طبقه دحلان كمسئول للأمن الوقائي بحذافيره فسقط على أيدي جهازه العديد من الضحايا بالرصاص أو تحت التعذيب في المعتقلات. ويقول يعقوب بيري رئيس جهاز الأمن العام الصهيوني السابق الشاباك إنه قام في أعقاب التوقيع على اتفاق أوسلو بترشيح كلاً من جبريل الرجوب ومحمد دحلان لرئيس الوزراء الصهيوني السابق إسحق رابين للعمل معهما بشان تنفيذ الاتفاقات الأمنية بين الجانبين الصهيوني والفلسطيني.

ويذكر بيري في مذكراته: مهنتي كرجل مخابرات التي صدرت ترجمتها العربية مؤخراً أنه لم يكن يعرف الرجوب ودحلان شخصياً ولكنه كان يعرف عنهما كل شيء لذلك فإنه اقترح على رابين أن يتوجه مع رئيس الأركان في ذلك الوقت أمنون شاحاك إلى تونس لإجراء حوارات سرية مع الاثنين ولكن بيري تراجع عن السفر لتونس وسافر شاحاك بمفرده؛ حيث التقى بعرفات الذي وافق على إجراء الحوار مع الرجـوب ودحلان. ويروي بيري أنه شارك في الحوارات مع الرجوب ودحلان وتوطدت العلاقات الشخصية بين بيري وبينهما.

6.الفجور في التعدي على المخالفين: حيث يشهد أهل غزة أن دحلان أول من قام باعتقال المجاهدين في مسالخ سجون السلطة كذلك شكل دحلان فرقة للقتل ضمت عناصر شابة لا تدرك حقيقة ما ترتكبه بحق شعبها وبدأت بقتل هشام مكي رئيس هيئة الإذاعة والتلفزيون الفلسطيني جهاراً في وضح النهار في مطعم وصله دحلان بعد لحظات من مقتل مكي ليستولي على حقيبة كانت تحتوي على أكثر من مليون دولار كان مكي يحاول تهريبها للخارج وكانت يده المسلطة على رقاب الناس في الردع والإرهاب وأصبح اسم فرقة الموت يتردد في كل شارع من غزة في محاولة لتخويف الناس وكان آخر جرائم مجزرة مسجد الهداية المجاور للأمن الوقائي في تل الهوا إبان المصادمات الأخيرة.

و أنا أكتب في هذه الخصائص يتراءى لي كثير من السياسيين العرب في المنطقة ممن بزغوا في الماضي وممن لا يزالون يتربعون على عروشهم و لكن زوال دحلان كنمر من ورق كما قال الذين صنعوه على يد عصبة مؤمنة فإنها لبشارة كبرى للشعوب العربية والمسلمة المقهورة
"

Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis

There Has Never Been a True Left in Israel

By OREN BEN-DOR
CounterPunch

".....It is true that some Israeli left wingers refer to the post-1967 occupation as an apartheid regime. There are good reasons for such comparison with the old South African system. In the Occupied Territories, Palestinians are subject to arbitrary military regulations, while Israeli settlers are governed by Israeli law. It is no accident that the barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank is called by Israelis the "gader hafrada". Like the Afrikaans word "apartheid", the Hebrew word "hafrada" means "separation". The Israeli barrier separates Jewish settlements from Palestinian villages, usually also separating those villages from their farmland.

But the apartheid label should not be restricted to the post-1967 occupation. There is a more fundamental form of apartheid, of which the occupation is but a manifestation.

Apartheid in historic Palestine originated, and has persisted, in the ideology of creating a state in which Jews would be separated from non-Jews in terms of their stake in the political community. It was an apartheid mentality that nourished the desire of establishing and maintaining a state with a Jewish demographic majority and character. The well-planned ethnic cleansing, in 1948, of 750000 indigenous people was apartheid practice par excellence. It is apartheid which prevents the expelled and their descendants from returning: this apartheid denies residence to expellees from my former home district, the Galilee, but grants it, not just to Israeli-born Jews like me, but to Jews all over the world. It is apartheid law that creates a wall of discrimination between Jewish and Arab citizens of the Israeli state. It is an Apartheid mentality that prompts some Israeli Jews to view their Arab fellow-citizens as a "demographic threat"......."

Imprisoned Nablus mayor: Fatah mutineers harm their own image


"NABLUS, (PIC)-- Adly Ya'ish, the Nablus mayor, has charged that the Fatah mutineers' assaults on the Nablus municipality building last week only harmed their own image.

Ya'ish, who is held in Israeli detention, said toppling legitimacy is not in favor of anyone, but rather would harm the image of those doing it.

The mayor, who was visited by lawyer of the Nafha society defending prisoners and human rights, also denounced those elements' sabotage in the city of Nablus.

Meanwhile, armed Fatah elements on Saturday destroyed the sole Palestinian factory for artificial limbs in Qalqilia. Eyewitnesses told PIC that a number of those mutineers smashed their way into the factory and destroyed all its equipment and raw material. Preliminary estimates said that the losses were near to half a million dollars.

The Qalqilia rehabilitation society, which owns the factory, denounced the "serious precedence", and described it as a "cowardly act". The society's administration pointed out that the factory extended services to the disabled in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in addition to Palestinian living in the 1948 occupied lands and was established with international funding over a year ago."

***

Do you see the beginning of Israel's campaign of "creative destruction" at work? Soon, University professors, journalists, religious leaders and various opinion makers will start disappearing. Iraq is the model; mark my words.

Welcome to Abbas' Police State: Ma'an visits Hamas detainees in Nablus


".....Dire conditions

When Ma'an's correspondents entered the security services' prison in Nablus, they said they were struck by the dire conditions of the prison. Ma'an's correspondents expressed concern for the psychological health of the detainees.

A Hamas prisoner, Hilal Libbada, who our correspondents said was lacklustre and withdrawn, was asked about his situation, "I am fine," he said. He was asked whether he received food and drink and he replied simply "yes."

When asked what he was accused of, he said "affiliation to Hamas and conducting illegal acts." Ma'an's correspondents reported that he then looked at the prison's guard and became muted. After that he only said that he and others were against what took place in Gaza because "we are all brothers".

Another detained youth, Ala', spoke to Ma'an. He said that he owned a supermarket. He was apprehended five days ago on charge of Hamas-affiliation......"

Israeli army abducts Saleh Aruri for seeking to reconcile Hamas, Fatah


By Khalid Amayreh in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem

"Israeli occupation forces on Saturday abducted Sheikh Saleh Aruri, a moderate Hamas leader who was freed from Israeli dungeons only a few months ago after spending 15 years of uninterrupted imprisonment for resisting the Israeli military occupation of his homeland.

His relatives said a large force of soldiers, army jeeps and personnel carriers stormed the village of Arura near Ramallah around dawn, before encircling Aruri’s home and arresting him.

The Israeli army didn’t say why Aruri was arrested. However, reliable sources in Ramallah intimated that that the Israeli intelligence, the Shin Bet, which effectively controls all aspects of Palestinian life in the West Bank, was incensed by Aruri’s contacts with Fatah leaders in Ramallah, apparently for the purpose of mitigating tension between Fatah and Hamas following the latest events in Gaza.

They didn’t like the reconciliation efforts he was making. They wanted to deepen division between Fatah and Hamas, hence, they viewed his efforts as incompatible with their goal,” said a close friend to Aruri.


The source said that Aruri, who got married recently, was leading a quiet life in his village and was not involved in any politically activities ever since he was released from the lengthy imprisonment, including six years of political captivity without charge or trial, otherwise known as “administrative detention.”

Israeli leaders have been saying they will take a number of “gestures” and “far-reaching measures” to strengthen the authority of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas against Hamas. The measures include transferring hundreds of millions of dollars of frozen Palestinian tax revenue returns to Abbas, and giving a green line to the US to supply arms, possibly including armor personnel carriers, to Abbas’s Presidential Guard.

Israel hopes that by making Abbas’s government in Ramallah inherently dependent on Israel, the PA will have an umbilical attachment with Israel, which in turn would further widen and deepen the chasm between Abbas and Hamas.

However, Palestinian leaders have warned that by getting too close to Israel and the US, Abbas and Fatah risk alienating the Palestinian masses. Some observers believe that large sectors of the Palestinian masses are already viewing the Abbas authority as an American puppet."

The PLO doesn’t represent me

A Very Good Comment
By Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

"“The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is an illegal and illusory entity.” These are the words of Farouq al Qaddumi, head of the PLO political department, as reported by several news agencies this week.

The veteran Fatah leader living in exile is telling the truth. In fact, the PLO ceased to exist as a viable and relevant body a long time ago. Its detachment from reality, internal disintegration and monopoly by the Fatah organization reduced it to marginal significance. And when the self-rule Palestinian Authority (PA) was established following the conclusion of the hapless Oslo Accords in 1993, the PLO was more or less consigned to the museum of history, with most of its representatives and symbols coalescing into the western-backed PA.

The same thing can be said about the so-called Palestinian National Council (PNC), another unrepresentative body which Fatah uses as a rubber stamp to pass its controversial decisions, e.g. annulling the Palestinian National Charter for free in order to appease Israel and America.

Today, whenever the widely-despised champions of Oslo, people like Yasser Abed Rabbo, et al, who have long lost any significant support among Palestinians, want to show their defiance and disdain of the collective will of the Palestinian people, whether at home or in the Diaspora, all they have to do is invoke the sacrosanct mantra, namely that the PLO is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

Well, this time-worn mantra is acceptable no more. The PLO, after all, is not an immortal idol that is not subject to change; it is not above the will of the people and certainly it is not a Holy Quran or a Holy Bible.

True, two or three decades ago, especially during the 1970s and 1980s, the PLO was viewed by many Palestinians as the chief representative of the Palestinian people, mainly because it championed the Palestinian national cause. But now, things have changed. There are other forces that are shouldering the national cause, such as Hamas which defeated the PLO, e.g. Fatah, in the 2006 legislative elections.

In fact, I dare predict that if similar elections were to be held among Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Hamas would again score election victories over a petrified and unreformed PLO.

I don’t deny that the once upon a time the PLO had a certain historical legitimacy. But that was a long time a go, whereas today the only acceptable legitimacy is the legitimacy of the ballot boxes, of which the PLO is almost totally bereft.......

Undoubtedly, there are other objective issues that make the beholder question the legitimacy, even relevance, of a half-dead anachronistic organization that has a skeleton but very little flesh, if any, and certainly no soul. It is well known that the PLO Leadership is not an elected body. Even Mahmoud Abbas, the American-backed PA Chairman, was elected by a small minority of Palestinians (less than 10%) in 2005.

The rest of PLO leaders, most of them in their positions for decades, have no electoral legitimacy whatsoever. Notwithstanding, they have the audacity to claim that they represent the Palestinian people. But, in truth, they don’t.

Indeed, in light of the undemocratic decisions taken by the PLO executive committee recently, any Palestinian is prompted to asked the following questions: Who elected Yasser Abed Rabbo to represent the Palestinian people? Who elected Samir Ghoushe? Who elected the heads of these tiny groups whose followers can barely fill two or three mini buses to capacity.?.....

Secondly, the PLO has been more or less a dormant body for many years, a body that is only remembered whenever the need to suppress the will of the people arises as is the case these days.

Thirdly, the vast bulk of the PLO is now based in the West Bank in the shadow of Israeli tanks and soldiers. This means that the PLO is as pliant and subservient to the will of the occupier as is the PA. This alone should make it devoid of legitimacy and honor.

PLO defenders ( or, more correctly, “PLO beneficiaries) would invoke the so-called revolutionary legitimacy. Well, what revolutionary legitimacy are they talking about? The PLO today happens to be controlled and manipulated by people who happen to be squarely in the American (Zionist) lap, people who have lost every shred of legitimacy if only because they have chosen the “American-Israeli legitimacy” at the expense of their people and their just cause.

Indeed, a PLO that is at America’s beck and call has no legitimacy whatsoever. A PLO that constantly seeks to appease America and Israel by undoing the outcome of democratic elections is not legitimate. More to the point, a PLO that signals its willingness to compromise on paramount Palestinians national rights, such as the Right of Return and Jerusalem, loses whatever legitimacy it may have......"

أولمـــرت يريـــد «غطـــاء عربيـــاً» لعـــدوان على غـــزّة


"القاهرة ــ خالد محمود رمضان
يبدو أن قرار «الحسم المضاد» في قطاع غزة ضد «حماس» قد اتخذ على أكثر من مستوى وفي أكثر من محفل إقليمي ودولي. فرغم الإجراءات اليومية التي تعتمدها حكومة الطوارئ الفلسطينية ومنظمة التحرير لتشديد الحصار على الحركة سياسياً، لا يغيب العنصر العسكري عن بساط البحث، وهو ما سوف يطرحة رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي إيهود اولمرت على الرئيسين المصري حسني مبارك والفلسطيني محمود عباس والملك الأردني عبد الله الثاني خلال القمة الرباعية في شرم الشيخ الاثنين المقبل.
وكشفت مصادر دبلوماسية أميركية وغربية في القاهرة لـ «الأخبار» عن مسودة مشروع خطة أميركية ــــ إسرائيلية سيجري تداولها خلال القمة تتضمن اتخاذ بعض التدابير الأمنية والسياسية لمنع «حماس» من الاستمرار في فرض سيطرتها على قطاع غزة. (التفاصيل).
وقالت المصادر إن أولمرت سيضغط على الأطراف العربية لمنحه الفرصة لتدخل عسكري محدود لضرب البنية التحتية لـ «حماس» وإنهاء سيطرتها، مشيرة إلى أن لدى إسرائيل خطة أيضاً لاستهداف قادة الحركة وكوادرها السياسية والأمنية بالتزامن مع هذه العملية.
وفيما استبعد مسؤول مصري موافقة القاهرة وعمان على هذه العملية، قالت مصادر غربية إن القاهرة تتخوف من أن يؤدى أي تدخّل إسرائيلي إلى زيادة حدة التوتر على الحدود المصرية ــــ الإسرائيلية من جهة والحدود بين الأراضي المصرية والفلسطينية من جهة أخرى.
وفي السياق نفسه، ذكرت الإذاعة الإسرائيلية أن أولمرت اقترح مشاركة مسؤول سعودي في قمة شرم الشيخ «لتعزيز الانطباع بأن العالم العربي يقف وراء عباس»، علماً بأن الملك السعودي سيكون في القاهرة الاثنين المقبل.
....."


***

This news item appeared today in the reputable Al-Akhbar paper in Lebanon.

It says that the decision for decisive action against Hamas in Gaza has apparently been taken at many levels involving local and outside powers. The military component of the plan will be what Olmert will outline to Abbas, Abdullah and Mubarak next Monday in Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt.

Western and American sources in Cairo have revealed the existence of a draft joint U.S.-Israeli plan which will be proposed in that meeting. The plan includes political and military measures to force Hamas out of Gaza. Olmert will be pressing his Arab counterparts to let him carry out a "limited" military strike in Gaza to destroy Hamas' "infrastructure" and to end its control in Gaza. Simultaneous with that military operation, Israel will be targeting Hamas' leadership and both its political and military cadres.

An Egyptian official said that Egypt and Jordan are unlikely to agree to the plan. Western sources said that Cairo is concerned that such Israeli intervention would increase tension along Egypt's borders.

Israel's Radio stated that Olmert has proposed that a Saudi official attend the forthcoming summit to convey the impression that the Arab world stands behind Abbas. It is worth noting that the Saudi king will be in Cairo on Monday.

Israeli authorities to provide up to $1Billion to President Abbas to continue domestic fight against Hamas movement


"Bethlehem - Ma'an – The Israeli authorities have announced that Israel intends to transfer between 400 million and one billion US Dollars to the Palestinian Authority within the next few weeks.

Israeli Channel Two reported late on Friday evening that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "has the intention to start final status negotiations in the coming months, on the condition that [President] Abbas must fight Hamas."

Israeli political analysts claimed that "there are many steps under preparation, agreed upon by [US President] Bush and [Israeli Prime Minister] Olmert, including a joint plan against the Hamas movement on the political, economic and security levels".

It was further reported that Jordan will be asked "to pay more attention" to the West Bank, "and help in solving its problems", while Olmert will request Egypt "to make a clear position regarding the Gaza Strip, especially in regard to the crossings.""

***

Could the plan be more clear than this??

Friday, June 22, 2007

How can Blair possibly be given this job?


By Robert Fisk

"......but I remain overwhelmed that this vain, deceitful man, this proven liar, a trumped-up lawyer who has the blood of thousands of Arab men, women and children on his hands is really contemplating being "our" Middle East envoy.

Can this really be true? I had always assumed that Balfour, Sykes and Picot were the epitome of Middle Eastern hubris. But Blair? That this ex-prime minister, this man who took his country into the sands of Iraq, should actually believe that he has a role in the region......

Of course, he'll be in touch with Mahmoud Abbas, will try to marginalise Hamas, will talk endlessly about "moderates"; and we'll have to listen to him pontificating about morality, how he's absolutely and completely confident that he's doing the right thing (and this, remember, is the same man who postponed a ceasefire in Lebanon last year in order to share George Bush's ridiculous hope of an Israeli victory over Hizbollah) in bringing peace to the Middle East....

For here is a man who is totally discredited in the region - a politician who has signally failed in everything he ever tried to do in the Middle East - now believing that he is the right man to lead the Quartet to patch up "Palestine".

In the hunt for quislings to do our bidding - ie accept even less of Mandate Palestine than Arafat would stomach - I suppose Blair has his uses. His unique blend of ruthlessness and dishonesty will no doubt go down quite well with our local Arab dictators......

The Palestinians held elections - real, copper-bottomed ones, the democratic variety - and Hamas won. But Blair will presumably not be able to talk to Hamas. He'll need to talk only to Abbas's flunkies, to negotiate with an administration described so accurately this week by my old colleague Rami Khoury as a "government of the imagination"......

I bet he doesn't mention the Israeli wall which is taking so much extra land from the Palestinians. It will be a "security barrier" or a "fence" (like the famous Berlin "fence" which was actually called a "security barrier" by those generous East German Vopo cops of the time)......

And Israel likes Lord Blair. Indeed, Blair's slippery use of language is likely to appeal to Ehud Olmert, whose government continues to take Arab land for Jews and Jews only as he waits to discover a Palestinian with whom he can "negotiate", Mahmoud Abbas now having the prestige of a rabbit after his forces were crushed in Gaza.Which of "Palestine"'s two prime ministers will Blair talk to? Why, the one with a collar and tie, of course, who works for Mr Abbas, who will demand more "security", tougher laws, less democracy......"

***

Thanks Fatima for the photo
.

In Iraq, 'Lawrence' is a must read


Contributed by Fatima

from the December 08, 2004 edition of the C S Monitor

"CAIRO – In the spring of 1920, British occupation forces were tied down by an Iraqi uprising that began in Fallujah. British biplanes had rained bombs down on insurgent- occupied towns while ground forces had gone house to house confiscating weapons at the cost of thousands dead.

By August, British generals said they had the uprising well in hand. But a retired British colonel dissented, writing an article for The Times of London that was sharply at odds with the triumphal tone of officers and civilian administrators.

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour,'' he wrote from the country. "Things have been far worse than we have been told.... We are today not far from a disaster."

The author was Lt. Col. T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. And his letters are getting a fresh airing as US commanders in Iraq, military historians, and journalists reach for understanding as to the challenges the US is facing in the country......."

Iraqis to Bush: “You have left us with nothing”


A Powerful Article
By Mike Whitney

"......The Iraq war is no accident. It is the logical consequence of a corrupted system where all the protections for human rights and civil liberties have been abandoned. All that’s left is the voracity and bloodlust of an unelected oligarchy who dispense death and destruction with complete indifference. Democracy has been subverted in America---every part of the body-politic is diseased. The war is just a reflection of America’s moral degeneracy.

Am I being too harsh?

Consider this article which appeared on uruknet.info this week. It provides photos of 24 "special needs" children who were found naked, starving and lying on concrete floors, in their own excrement---their bodies covered with sores. All of them were chained to their cribs. Some of them were near death. This is the Nazi-like terror we have unleashed on Iraq under the rubric of "democracy". This is what "neoconservatism" looks like when it is stripped of its ideological pretense and we can see its true face---pure, unalloyed evil. It is no different than Hitler’s fascism.
We are starving and brutalizing children while we extol the "America’s fallen" as if one life is more valuable than another. What sort of sick joke is this? This is nothing more than cultural narcissism served up by pseudo-patriots in the political establishment who are drunk on death and power. They worship violence like a god and they are pushing us all towards Armageddon......

The US invasion has turned Iraq into a testing-ground for new theories on counterinsurgency. One by one the cities in the Sunni region have been surrounded with razor-wire; vital supplies have been cut off, check-points set up, snipers placed on rooftops, and the siege begins. Civilian neighborhoods are branded as "terrorist strongholds" and pounded with heavy artillery and aerial bombardment. We have declared war on some of the poorest people on earth—ghetto warfare with the most sophisticated high-tech weaponry ever invented.

Who will tell these peoples’ story? The New York Times? FOX News?

Here’s something you won’t read in the mainstream news: The real disposition of the war changed more than two years ago when it became apparent that the Iraqi resistance would not simply throw down their weapons and give up. That’s when the assassination of teachers and intellectuals went into high-gear. That’s when archeological sites, museums, and anything else connected to Iraqi cultural and historical identity—began to come under relentless and withering attack. The attacks on holy sites and mosques have persisted to this day. There is a conscious effort to destroy all the religious symbols and monuments which bind the people together in the shared experience of a common faith.

The same sinister forces which are inciting the sectarian violence are trying to remove all sense of kinship, brotherhood, nationalism and spirituality. Their objective is to "wipe the slate clean" and rebuild the entire society according to their neoliberal model.

If that is not genocide; then what is?......."

نجل الطالباني يطالب بقواعد أميركية في كردستان العراق



"طالب نجل الرئيس العراقي جلال الطالباني بإقامة قواعد أميركية في كردستان العراق "لمنع الظلم عن الشعب الكردي مستقبلا".

وقال قباد جلال الطالباني -وهو مهندس ميكانيكي يتولى إدارة ملف العلاقات الكردية الأميركية في واشنطن- خلال مؤتمر صحفي اليوم بمدينة أربيل إن الأكراد يرحبون بوجود قاعدة عسكرية أميركية في كردستان العراق، معتبرا ذلك في صالح أميركا والأكراد في نفس الوقت........
...."

The "Genius" of the U.S. Military: Leavenworth turns to anthropologists on Iraq

"FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — With American troops mired in Iraq and Afghanistan, leaders at the Army post where the military’s new counterinsurgency doctrine was written are turning to cultural anthropologists for help.

The relationship rekindles one that existed between the military and academics throughout much of the nation’s modern military history but fizzled after the Vietnam War.

“You have to look at things through the lens of the people on the ground to effectively know where you are going,” said Robert Kurz, an Eurasia analyst with Fort Leavenworth’s Foreign Military Studies Office......

One of the tenets of the military’s counterinsurgency doctrine, produced last year at Fort Leavenworth, is that success hinges on the government achieving the consent of the people. By gaining an understanding of the culture, the people’s basic needs and beliefs, the military can effectively neutralize insurgents who seek to render the government illegitimate, that doctrine says.

Kurz said the goal of working with anthropologists and other social scientists is to develop a climate in which cultural awareness is taught at all levels of training.....

....Not until the coalition and Iraqi forces can show that they can provide reliable security will the civilians stand up to insurgents and support the government, officers said.

Lt. Charles Bartles, an Army reservist who conducted civil affairs in Iraq, said a challenge is getting Iraqis to understand that working with the military and police to root out insurgents is in the community’s best interest, not just that of their immediate family.

Bartles’ paper for the project examines efforts to reduce the threat of roadside bombs along the routes near the Anaconda forward operating base, dubbed “Operation Turkey Stomp.” Soldiers met with each shopkeeper to explain that if a bomb went off in front of their store, the stores would be closed until they found out who planted the bomb or sold the components.

Each shopkeeper and store was photographed and published in a directory. Soldiers then gathered intelligence about each store, such as what goods were sold and how quickly......."

***

Will the, "Mission be Accomplished" now, o geniuses??

LEBANON: Challenges of returning refugees to destroyed camp


UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"BEIRUT, 22 June 2007 (IRIN) - Aid groups are preparing to return Palestinians to the ravaged Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, though it remains unclear whether a breakthrough in talks between the army and Fatah aI-Islam is imminent.

Even if fighting between the army and Sunni militant group Fatah al-Islam does end soon, tough challenges remain, aid agencies warn. Unexploded ordnance and rubble imperil the refugees’ way home. Many houses are ruined and further dangers and diseases lurk in the damaged water and sewage networks, they said......

The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) is the only humanitarian organisation entering Nahr al-Bared, taking in food, water and medical supplies in ambulances and bringing out Palestinian civilians, despite an upsurge in fighting.

However, no ambulance was able to go in on 21 June, said Virginia De La Guardia of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “It is getting more and more dangerous.”

In the past month thousands have fled the camp which once held 40,000....."

Why the US has lost


The United States in Iraq is confronted by the force of a geopolitical society united for thousands of years

A Good Article
By Abdul Ilah Albayaty and Hana Al Bayaty
(Abdul Ilah Albayaty is a political analyst living in France; Hana Al Bayaty is a member of the Executive Committee of the B Russell s Tribunal)

Al-Ahram Weekly

"Resistance in Iraq is reported to be growing in size and spreading in its capacity to operate in an increasing number of provinces, blooming in further parts of the Iraqi territory. According to the US, it is by the intervention of foreign fighters. In reality, it is the revival of Iraqi nationalism and dignity. While the occupation and its lackey government continues to indiscriminately and massively incarcerate Iraqi citizens "suspected" of ties with the resistance, it seems unable to break its different expressionsarmed, political and popularor to break the sympathy it enjoys from the population. Daily, ever larger movements of opinion express their rejection of the occupation and its puppet government. Despite spending billions in war funding and propaganda, how did the American imperial plan fail in Iraq?

First of all, its failure is due to the inability of the US administration to recognise the impossibility of breaking Iraq up into smaller conflicting states. The neocon adventure and miscalculation is based on several factors, including taking their wishes as realities, their blind and sole reliance on military force to achieve their agenda, the gathering of information from some marginal and alienated Iraqi exiles, and their avoidance of studying the historical, cultural and social characteristics of the country they were about to invade and aimed to control. Prior to the invasion, and throughout these four disastrous years of occupation, the US underestimated the strength and deep-rooted character of Iraq's nationalism and culture, which was bound to face US imperialist plans with steadfast resistance, emanating from all sections of Iraqi society, including the supposed bases of their allies......

It was evident that the US and its allies, even before the invasion were running after an illusion. Why would the Iraqi people accept and welcome a plan that would deprive them and only benefit a few? The marginalised and impoverished, the educated middle classes, the working classes, which lost the benefit of nationwide services, women and the youth, which suffers from unemployment and the absence of civil liberties, all reject US policy in Iraq. This is the source of what now and into the future will be a never-ending social struggle against the occupation and eventually its defeat, and the defeat of its policies. Without the middle class, the US cannot build a functioning state; the Iraqi middle class, all parts included, clearer and bolder, and with it the labouring classes, rejects the US occupation and its plans.....

Why all this waste? American strategists, while building their model for Iraq, missed or disregarded the fact that social movements are based on solid realities and lived experience, and cannot just be created on the whim of a political decision, through insidious forms of pressure or by an all-out military assault on a poor population. By thinking that they could win in Iraq, US administrators, think tanks, strategists and tacticians have only proven their simple arrogance and ignorance. They should read history, and analyze the objective realities. No foreign power was ever able to control Iraq. Iraq is a small country with great dignity, a sophisticated ancient civilisational legacy, and a very experienced national patriotic movement. The US cannot break this people's will to live free and sovereign on its land, and over its resources, as all other peoples in the world. They should have asked the British."

"حماس" تكشف عن وثائق خطيرة تثبت تورط قادة أجهزة أمنية بـ"العمالة والفساد"


أكدت أنها جاءت بعدما قطع عباس باب الحوار

An Important Item

I will post the English version of this important press conference in which Hamas disclosed some important secrets from captured intelligence documents, as soon as it is available.

"كشفت حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس", عن وثائق سرية وصفتها بـ "الخطيرة جداً", كما كشفت عن بعض حقائق وممارسات الأجهزة الأمنية مدعمة ذلك بوثائق خطيرة تثبت تورّط قادة من الأجهزة الأمنية والتيار العميل في حركة فتح, في فضائح مالية وأخلاقية وتعامل مباشر مع الاحتلال الصهيوني, وتشكيل فرق موت للقتل والتعذيب وترك حالة الفلتان الأمني.

وقال الدكتور خليل الحية القيادي في حركة حماس, في مستهل مؤتمره الصحفي الذي عقده في مقر وكالة أنباء رامتان مساء اليوم الجمعة (22/6)، "إنّ حركة حماس تكشف عن هذه الوثائق بعدما قطع أبو مازن باب الحوار وكال الاتهامات زوراً وبهتاناً للحركة"، لافتاً الانتباه إلى أنها ستكشف عن الأسباب التي أدت إلى تطهير قطاع غزة من الأجهزة الأمنية التي يتباكى عليها عباس.
.....

وكشف الحية بأنّ حركة "حماس" لديها وثائق تؤكِّد تورّط جهاز الأمن الوقائي في التنصت على رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية الراحل ياسر عرفات، وعلى رئيسها الحالي محمود عباس وعلى عدد من الشخصيات من أجل ابتزاز المسؤولين، كما بيّن أنهم كانوا يُسقطون وزراء ومسؤولين فلسطينيين سابقين في الرذيلة, ويصوِّرون بناتهم في مشاهد مخزية ويساومونهم عليها في ممارسات ابتزازية رخيصة.

وأوضح النائب عن كتلة التغيير والإصلاح البرلمانية, أنّ لدى جهازي الأمن الوقائي والمخابرات العامة معلومات عن دول عربية وإسلامية، وقد ساهمت هذه المعلومات في محاصرة بعض الدول العربية، كما بيّن أنّ الأجهزة الأمنية قامت بالاتجار بالمخدرات والعملات المزيّفة.

وفي السياق ذاته؛ أعلن الحيّة أنّ حركة "حماس" ضبطت تقارير داخل مقرات الأجهزة الأمنية, تتضمن معلومات عن قياديين في الحركة وكتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام, قُدِّمت للاحتلال الصهيوني, وبعدها أقدم الاحتلال على استهداف عدد من القياديين واغتيالهم, وكان من بينهم استهدافه شخصياً وعائلته قبل أسابيع في مجزرة صهيونية مروِّعة في حي الشجاعية.
.....

وقال "حينما قالت المخابرات الصهيونية إنّ حماس سيطرت على كنز استخباراتي في غزة؛ بالتأكيد كانوا صادقين في ذلك"، وأضاف "بين أيدينا الآن, آلاف من الوثائق التي تُظهِر التجسّس وتسجيل الاتصالات"، وأوضح أنّ ما تم الحديث عنه, هو فقط 1 في المائة مما تسيطر عليه "حماس" الآن.
.....

ولم يتوقف الأمر عند هذا الحد؛ بل ثبت تورّط قادة من الأجهزة الأمنية بتسجيلهم معلومات تضر بالأمن القومي العربي, تتحدث عن دول عربية وإسلامية, ومواقع وأماكن ورجال دين وعلم وسياسة, وكل ذلك فيما يسمى تحت "دائرة العلاقات الدولية"، وختم الدكتور خليل الحيّة قائلاً "لولا خطورتها الاستراتيجية والدولية, لكشفنا عنها الآن".
....."


English Version:

Hamas reveals documents proving corruption, high treason of PA security

Mapping Israeli Apartheid in the West Bank

Contributed by Molly

"They see us all as criminals"


Caoimhe Butterly writing from Baddawi Refugee Camp, Live from Lebanon, 22 June 2007

"Standing at the entrance to Nahr al-Bared Camp a week ago in the still, oppressive heat waiting with Fatme for her sister and her nieces to be evacuated, we watched as two large army trucks emerged from the camp. Though the backs of the trucks were covered with tarpaulin and soldiers forbade the assembled journalists from filming, as the trucks roared by we could see that each contained about thirty men and boys, handcuffed, some blindfolded, most with their heads bent down towards their laps. One youth, however, sat with his head held high, staring back at the camp, with a tasseled kuffiya draped around his shoulders. His small act of defiance and pride, of rejecting the criminalization of his people and struggle, reduced Khadija, who stood next to me, to tears as she said "I am so exhausted, I feel burnt inside, as if all beauty is gone from my life, but seeing him makes me understand that I can't despair, that I have to stay strong -- to rebuild our camp and our lives."......"

The desecration of democracy


An image presumably distributed by Hamas sympathizers reads, "Punishment has come/ The leadership of the collaborationist faction in Fatah."

Philip Rizk writing from Gaza City, occupied Palestine, Live from Palestine, 22 June 2007

"......Part of a conquer and divide strategy is timing. Why did Israel wait until this moment to consider Mahmoud Abbas a "partner committed to peace" when his positions have hardly changed since his election over two years ago? Why is Israel only now considering freeing Marwan al-Barghouthi, a convicted Fatah activist? Why only now release the frozen government taxes ($570 million) that the Palestinians have desperately needed since Israel started withholding them in March of last year?

On Monday Haaretz's Akiva Eldar wrote, "If Ariel Sharon were able to hear the news from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, he would call his loyal aide, Dov Weissglas, and say with a big laugh: 'We did it, Dubi.' Sharon is in a coma, but his plan is alive and kicking. Everyone is now talking about the state of Hamastan. In his house, they called it a bantustan, after the South African protectorates designed to perpetuate apartheid."

Just as in the Palestinian territories, blacks and colored people in South Africa were given limited autonomy in the country's least fertile areas. Those who remained outside these isolated enclaves, which were disconnected from each other, received the status of foreign workers, without civil rights. A few years ago, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told Israeli friends that shortly before he was elected prime minister, Sharon told him that the bantustan plan was the most suitable solution to our conflict......"

Facing an Imminent Threat of Expulsion


Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills Need Your Help

By EHUD KRINIS, DAVID SHULMAN
and NEVE GORDON
CounterPunch

"While all eyes are on the crisis in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians who live in Susya, in the hills to the south of Hebron, are in imminent danger of being expelled from their homes. They are surely not the only ones who might be evicted from their ancestral lands in the upcoming months -- the inhabitants of the small village Nuaman just south of Jerusalem, for example, are also under imminent threat -- but they are among the most vulnerable people living under Israeli military rule in the West Bank.

The inhabitants of Susya have already experienced the harsh sword of expulsion. About two decades ago, over a dozen families were driven from their homes so that Israel could establish an archaeological park on their land. Shortly before their expulsion, a Jewish settlement, also called Susya, was set up nearby also on lands taken from these same Palestinians. Several Palestinian families were thus forced to leave the area, while those that remained are presently living in ramshackle huts and tents on a small rocky hill between the archaeological park and the Israeli settlement......

For some years, these Palestinian residents alongside the joint Israeli-Palestinian group Ta'ayush and international groups like Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove have been waging a political battle to keep the Palestinian residents of Susya in their present homes. These struggles include petitions to the Israeli courts. Unfortunately, a few days ago the Supreme Court threw out an appeal against the demolition orders on technical, bureaucratic grounds. Consequently, within a month the homes of the Susya's Palestinian residents can be legally demolished.

Those who know the reality in the territories know that it is almost impossible for Palestinians to get building permits, and casuistic arguments like those brought against our friends from Susya are regularly used to further a policy of violent expulsion. We are, however, continuing to fight this battle in the courts, and we are in the process of submitting new applications for permits. So long as we can keep the legal process alive, we gain precious time. If we fail, Susya will be destroyed­and with it, perhaps, a series of other small Palestinian villages in this area. The Palestinian inhabitants of Susya will become refugees.

The situation is dire, and the threat of expulsion immediate. To fight it, we are incurring significant legal expenses. In the short term we will need approximately $10,000 simply to defray the lawyers' costs. Ta'ayush is an organization of volunteers and has no resources of its own. We call upon you to help us to save an innocent civilian population that is about to fall victim to the concerted effort of the Israeli authorities to exile them from their lands and homes......"

A Visit to Fatah's Torture Chamber


By Ulrike Putz in the Gaza Strip
(Spiegel Online - June 21, 2007)

"A building formerly occupied by Fatah's intelligence service in Gaza was long notorious for torture and execution. Now Hamas is in control - and is letting former inmates visit the chamber of horrors.....

The children have no interest in the graffiti. Four of them are rushing through the 30-odd basement cells, their mother and aunts in tow. The nine-member family has taken the afternoon off. Where parents in other parts of the world might take their children to a chamber of horrors in an amusement park, the main attractions in the Gaza Strip these days are Fatah's torture chambers.

The headquarters of the Fatah-controlled security force in Gaza have been open to the public since last Thursday. Every day is open house now.

For years the complex was a symbol of the horror disseminated by the security forces that reported directly to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This is where Hamas men were taken after Fatah had arrested them. Some of those lucky enough to be eventually released reported that they had been tortured. Others disappeared forever......

Human rights organizations like Amnesty International have long voiced criticism of systematic human rights violations in the security force's prisons, both in Gaza and the West Bank. In this respect, the fact that Hamas captured the Fatah headquarters in Gaza last week was more than just strategically significant -- it was also a highly symbolic act......

Three days ago, his soldiers exhumed four bodies that had been hastily buried in one of the prison basements, he says wearily. They were able to identify a fellow al-Qassam Brigades member, Nasser al-Juju. They believe he was killed shortly before he was discovered: "The others have been lying in this basement for a long time."....."

Former Hamas justice minister briefly abducted in Nablus Friday


"Nablus - Ma'an - A former Hamas minister of justice was briefly abducted in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday.

Dr Ahmad Khalidi, the former Hamas minister of justice, was abducted by unidentified gunmen as he was leaving Juneid Mosque in west Nablus city on Friday around noon. Our Nablus correspondent reported that gunmen in a white Mazda car seized Dr. Khalidi but released him shortly after.

The Palestinian security forces have opened an investigation into the abduction.

Dr Khalidi is the dean of the law faculty in An-Najah University in Nablus."

PLO is "an illegal and illusory authority," PLO political chief Qaddoumi says


"Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Palestine Liberation Organization is as a "an illegal and illusory authority," the head of the PLO's political department, Farouq Qaddoumi, charged on Thursday. He also accused Palestinian President Abbas of misusing his presidential authorities.

At the same time, Qaddoumi called on the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Jordan to exert pressure on Fatah and Hamas in order to bring them together around one negotiations' table in order to produce a national accord in which future relations between the two movements would be clarified. However, Qaddoumi refused to mediate between President Mahmoud Abbas, from Fatah, and Khalid Mash'al, Hamas' politburo chief, because he does not wish to make things worse, he said.

He also accused the Palestinian Authority presidency of misusing the PLO departments. "The Preventive Security [security services considered loyal to Fatah] used to commit things which we were not satisfied with, especially after the appointment of [Muhammad] Dahlan as national security advisor," he said......

As for Fatah's role in the recent regrettable incidents in the Gaza Strip, he said, "There is a great part of Fatah who were not part of this crisis; we have distributed an internal memo advising our members not to commit any acts of revenge in the West Bank as we represent the majority of the people there."

Qaddoumi also accused President Abbas of misusing his presidential authorities. "There is a misuse of authority by the PA presidency," Qaddoumi charged. "We have always said that the [Palestinian] National Council should be elected by Palestinians in order to form a new Executive Committee for the PLO. This National Council should convene outside Palestine, but there are still manipulations and misuses of the authorities which will make the PLO lose its effect and respect."

In regard to the emergency government, he said, "this is something in the PA and for the territories."

"This cannot be generalized as this is only happening inside the territories," Qaddoumi warned. "The main reason for what happened is related and limited to the PA, which is an illegal and illusory authority," Qaddoumi charged. "The PA is the fruit of the Oslo agreements, which died when Rabin died." "

All in the Family: Disharmony in Gaza


By Remi Kanazi

"A new craze is taking form in political circles throughout the international community. After the Gazan "civil war" which killed 90 people (only 617, 910 less than the American civil war) everyone and their grandmothers seems to be an expert on Palestinian politics and its internal affairs. Hamastan, as it is now being called in Gaza, like the multitude of evil empires that have taken hold throughout world history, is scaring the bejesus out of Fatah, Israel, the US, the European Union, the Arab States, and most theater goers of Spiderman 3. The reason: Hamas, as if it was filming the promotional video, "How to Spank a Militia in 3 Easy Steps," routed Mohammed Dahlan and his US backed henchmen in Gaza before dinner was on the table......

....Yet, contrary to the thought of most Westerners, Palestinians do value democracy, as long as it doesn't come with a side of cluster bombs and forced starvation. Abbas's illegal appointment of a new government is going to sit as well with Palestinians as Jerusalem's gay pride parade sat with ultra-Orthodox Jews......

Rubbing Hamas' face in the dirt (along with the 1.4 million people of Gaza) like schoolyard bullies may seem like an after school delight, but it will only foment more hatred against Israel and more disgust with Fatah. There won't be three states, four states, or any other "new solution" to combat the power of Hamas: any vision for the future will ultimately have to pass a unified Palestinian litmus test for it to stick. Abbas can pretend that Gaza is now Hamas's mess, but he was elected as head of the Palestinian Authority, and will be held to account politically if he keeps treating Gaza like an unwanted stepchild. Even for someone who likes international popularity and money more than George Bush likes bombing brown people, Abbas will eventually come around to engage with Hamas. Whether Abbas likes it or not, his brothers are in Hamas, and no matter how well he gets along with his neighbors, if he doesn't make peace in Palestinian society, the rest of his family is going to think he's self-serving sellout. "

Palestinians at a Cross-Road


A Very Good Piece
By Elias Akleh


"......Israel had also supported Muhammad Dahlan, a collaborator who was enlisted while in Israeli jails, evicted from the Occupied Territories to join Fatah, and to become the Chief of Security Guards. Dahlan tried to discredit Arafat (the old man as he used to call him), but his Coup failed even before the start due to Arafat’s tight grip on all divisions of Security Guards.....

During the next year corruption of Fatah officials became rampant. Money from the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR) funds had disappeared and not accounted for, tax revenues of the border crossings were siphoned into Dahlan’s private Israeli bank accounts, the then Prime Minister Ahmad Qurie’s cement sale to Israeli contractors to build the imprisoning apartheid wall, and the smuggling of millions of cash money of Fatah’s officials outside the country had led the people to lose trust in the PA and to demand reform. The donor countries decided to freeze their donations until more accountable process is established......

The decision came to starve Palestinians in order to cripple, discredit and to topple Hamas government. Before the establishment of the new government the old Fatah Parliament gave President Abbas more constitutional power. Abbas also hastened to double the number of his Presidential Security Forces. The Bush administration struck financial, economical, and political sanctions against Hamas government, and forced EU, the Quartet, and Arab countries to join in otherwise face financial isolation. The administration, under the supervision of General Keith Dayton, formulated a plan to finance Abbas, train his Security forces in Jericho, in Jordan, and in Egypt, and send in death squads, under the leadership of Security Chief Muhammad Dahlan, to spread terror, assassinations, and “creative chaos” to force Hamas to react. This reaction is expected to incite civil war as Dayton has opined in his Congress session late last May. This plan was revealed by Public Affairs and Department Spokesman Sean McCormack on 22nd of last December when he declared Washington’s readiness to provide PA with large shipment of weapons to topple Hamas government. The author of the plan was Bush’s Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, who on 7th of last January called for a “hard coup” to overthrow Hamas......

The death squads started targeting Hamas officials. PA Minister of prisoner’s affairs, Wasfi Quebha, escaped assassination attempt when his car was strafed with bullets. On 13th of last December Judge Bassam Al Farra was assassinated in Gaza. On the 14th Palestinian Prime Minister, Isma’el Haniyeh, himself was the target of a failed assassination attempt while entering Gaza from his Gulf trip. On the 17th of the same month there was another failed assassination attempt against Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar. Hamas leaders sent letters to President Abbas naming members of the death squads, who took camp in Presidential compound in Gaza and used it as prison and torture centers, and asking him to use his influence to put an end to Dahlan’s death squads. Yet Abbas did not give them any attention......

The beginning of month of June ushers what seems to be a preparation for a coup against Hamas government into Gaza. On the 2nd of June Hamas Interior Ministry in a press conference expressed its concern about armored military vehicles secretly crossing the borders and stationing in Presidential compound in Gaza. It was revealed that on Friday 6/1 ten large arms shipments were transported from Jericho to Gaza under the protection of the Israeli army. On Thursday 6/7 eye witnesses reported that several hundreds of members of Fatah’s Badr Brigade had crossed Rafah crossing into Gaza to join the 450 others, who preceded them in May 16th.

A wave of assassinations of Hamas cadre followed, Muslim Imams and their mosques were targeted, some Hamas ministers were also targeted, families of Hamas martyrs were attacked, 12 of their houses were burned and demolished Israeli style and their businesses were looted and torched, and finally the house of Prime Minister Isma’el Haniyeh was targeted with missiles. The death squads, emboldened with enforcements, attacked civilian homes and businesses openly and uncovered without their usual masks. They were led by Samih al-Madhoun, Dahlan’s thug, who was executed later for his many crimes against civilians......

Jordan and Egypt recognized the legitimacy of Fayyad’s government. Jordan offered to send Badr Brigade to Ramallah to help Dahlan secure the West Bank. Dahlan had already regrouped his Security Forces in Ramallah and sent them to attack and seize all Hamas institutions throughout the West Bank. They raided homes kidnapping and imprisoning Hamas leaders and supporters. They torched 180 Hamas social services, cultural, religious, and educational centers......

Once more it seems that the American administration has successfully toppled another democratically elected government. Palestinians in Gaza seem to face another Nekba (catastrophe). This time it is not only the international community that conspired against them, but also their own leaders and brothers."

Israel to take measures to strengthen Abbas against Hamas


By Khalid Amayreh

"......Subsequently, Elliot Abrams, the American Jewish official in charge of the “Palestinian file,” reportedly connived with Dahlan and his allies within Fatah to carry out a coup against Hamas in the Gaza Strip for the purpose of eliminating Hamas and the National Unity government once and for all.

According to documents seized by Hamas at the Fatah intelligence headquarters at Tel el Hawa (henceforth Tel al Islam), Dahlan was to carry out the coup on 13 July.

Abrams, who is reportedly answerable to AIPAC, the powerful American Jewish lobby, wanted to achieve two main goals, apart from undoing the Mecca Agreement and ending the unity government: These include, first, igniting a large-scale Palestinian civil war in both in Gaza and the West Bank in order to enable Israel to tell the world that “how can we make peace with Palestinians while they are killing each other?!!.”

The civil war, especially an extended one, would also enable the Jewish state to build more Jewish-only settlements and complete the Judaization of Jerusalem, including the possible demolition of the Aqsa Mosque.

And second, Elliot Abrams, probably in concert with right and far-right circles in Israel, hoped that by having a “moderate Palestinian leadership”, e.g. Dahlan, Abbas, et al, and by eliminating any opposition to Dahlan within Fatah, the US and Israel would be able to impose a “lasting solution” on the Palestinians.

According to confidential information obtained from reliable sources within Fatah, such a solution would include the following components: First, the creation of a quasi-Palestinian state on 60 % of the West Bank made up of three enclaves or Bantustans in the northern, central and southern parts of the West Bank; Annexation to Israel of the vast bulk of Jewish settlements, including Ma’ali Adomim, Ariel and Gush Itzion; renting other settlements such as Kiryat Arba for 99 years; East Jerusalem would remain under the Israeli occupation; and no Palestinian refugees would be allowed to return to their homes and towns in what is now Israel.

The outlines of the solution Israel and the US are contemplating also include giving the “moderate” Palestinian government, e.g. Abbas and Dahlan, billions of dollars for economic recovery, ostensibly to silence expected opposition to the sell-out......"

Putting all the eggs in Fatah basket

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times

"With the dust of Hamas' triumphant counter-coup in the Gaza Strip yet to settle, Israel and the United States have wasted little time on a counter-strategy, of supporting the rival Fatah organization in West Bank and trying to isolate Hamas economically and diplomatically. This they are doing by rallying the "moderate Arab" support for Fatah and, in Israel's case, by preparing for a full invasion of Gaza.

Yet none of these amount to a prudent response, and the best option would appear to be to let Hamas try its chances at ruling Gaza while various interlocutors in the Arab and Islamic world work on rebuilding the broken bridges between the two dominant Palestinian organizations......"

No Comment is Needed
By Hamed Najeeb

Hamas acted on a very real fear of a US-sponsored coup

Washington's fingerprints are all over the chaos that has hit Palestinians. The last thing they now need is an envoy called Blair

Jonathan Steele
Friday June 22, 2007
The Guardian

"Did they jump or were they pushed? Was Hamas's seizure of Fatah security offices in Gaza unprovoked, or a pre-emptive strike to forestall a coup by Fatah? After last week's turmoil, it becomes increasingly important to uncover its origins.

The fundamental cause is, of course, well known. Israel, aided by the US, was not prepared to accept Hamas's victory in last year's Palestinian elections. Backed by a supine EU, the two governments decided to boycott their new Palestinian counterparts politically and punish Palestinian voters by blocking economic aid. Their policies had a dramatic effect, turning Gaza even more starkly into an open prison and creating human misery on a massive scale. The aim was to turn voters against Hamas - a strategy of stupidity as well as cynicism, since outside pressure usually produces resistance rather than surrender......

Documents doing the rounds in the Middle East purport to have evidence for Abrams's "hard coup" strategy. One text recounts Washington's objectives as expressed in US officials' conversations with an Arab government. These are, among others, "to maintain President Abbas and Fatah as the centre of gravity on the Palestinian scene", "avoid wasting time in accommodating Hamas's ideological conditions", "undermine Hamas's political status through providing for Palestinian economic needs", and "strengthen the Palestinian president's authority to be able to call and conduct early elections by autumn 2007"......Abbas was told to scrap Mecca at every subsequent meeting he has had with Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert or with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Abrams.......

....."The desired outcome will be the transformation of Palestinian security forces and provide for the president of the Palestinian Authority to able to safeguard decisions such as dismissing the cabinet and forming an emergency cabinet," the document says......

...."Dahlan refused to deal with him, and put his troops on the streets in defiance of the interior minister. Hamas felt they had little option but to take control of security away from forces which were in fact creating insecurity," Crooke says......

.....While Hamas has successfully blocked the US-Fatah plans for Gaza, Abbas is trying to implement them in the West Bank by forming an emergency government....

Where does all this leave the White House idea to involve Tony Blair as a Middle Eastern envoy? It creates a "coalition of the discredited" - Bush, Olmert and Blair - and sounds like something from a satire since Blair has no credibility with Hamas or most other Palestinians. Better to leave it to the Saudis to revive the Mecca deal, or wait until Abbas realises he has fallen into a trap. Neither common sense nor democratic principles, let alone time, are on Fatah's side."

The End of Dissent?

A recent congressional resolution on Iran underscores the War Party's lock on the foreign policy 'debate'

By Justin Raimondo

"......Like most war propaganda, which is almost never related to reality except in the most tenuous sense, the point is not to tell the truth but to characterize the Enemy in a particular way. With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Washington to ramp up the Lobby's ferocious campaign to get the US to attack Iran – or at least credibly threaten to – the pro-Israel forces on Capitol Hill were out in full force, herding their congressional supporters into a massive display of obedience with a whopping 411-2 vote in the House.

The complete hypocrisy of our "antiwar" Democratic congresscritters, who warble that we need to "end the war" in Iraq, even as they whoop it up for war with Iran, is so brazen that it doesn't require much comment........"

Fatah Gunmen on Rampage in West Bank
This is the "Emergency Government" Which Usrael, the EU, the UN and Arab Puppet States Support and Lavish Money on.......

U.S.-led move to back Abbas gov't blocked in Security Council


"UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office has openly backed the new Palestinian emergency government and recognized the authority of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, yet a Security Council bid to support Abbas and isolate Hamas has been thwarted by the objections of Russia, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar.

The objections blocked a U.S. initiative for a Security Council declaration of confidence in the emergency government Wednesday.

Michael Williams, the secretary general's new Middle East envoy, voiced unequivocal support for Abbas and the Palestinian emergency government headed by Salam Fayad at a briefing on the Middle East for Security Council members two days ago.

The United States, supported by Britain and France, wants to add the Security Council to the international front supporting Abbas, which also includes the European Union and major Arab states. The American initiative also included a denunciation of the violence in the Gaza Strip.

However, the U.S. was forced to withdraw its initiative even before it reached the draft stage, due to strong objections from Russia, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar.

UN sources in New York said that these countries' governments object to the anti-Hamas policy and to American and European efforts to isolate the group as a terror organization. They said that Russia and South Africa have questioned the legitimacy of the Palestinian emergency government and argued that a Palestinian unity government is not only still possible, but would be preferable to the emergency government headed by Fayad, which has authority in the West Bank only.

The South African ambassador argued that the international community, especially the U.S., Israel and the Quartet, are to blame for the situation in the Gaza Strip. The Indonesian ambassador complained that the Security Council was devoting time and energy to discussions of Lebanon but ignoring the Palestinian problem.

The Palestinian observer to the UN also objected to a declaration of support for the emergency government. The observer argued that such a declaration would constitute intervention in the PA's internal affairs......"

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Netanyahu calls for deployment of Jordanian troops in West Bank


"WASHINGTON - Opposition leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu called Thursday for the deployment of Jordanian troops in the West Bank in order to help impose order.

Netanyahu told reporters during a visit to Washington that he believes that Jordan and Egypt are the key to stabilizing the Palestinian government in the territories.

The Likud chairman added that Egypt must significantly increase its efforts to prevent arms smuggling across its border into the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the United States Congress is pressuring Egypt to halt the arms trafficking, with lawmakers demanding that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to use new methods in order to apply pressure on Egypt.

The lawmakers are threatening to partially halt the transfer of American foreign aid to Egypt due to its failure to act effectively against the smuggling.....

Several dozen senators are also expected to send Rice a letter calling on her to act with utmost determination in order to convince the Egyptians to prevent smuggling across the Philadelphi Route.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II to attend a summit in Egypt early next week in what Egypt called an attempt to shore up Abbas and isolate Hamas."

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A Comment by Tony Sayegh

Connect the dots and you clearly see the outline of the bigger plan:

A "final solution" will be imposed on the Palestinians that takes away most of their rights. The Palestinian Karzai has assumed dictatorial powers and has effectively thrown out the PLC and the elected government as well as the Palestinian "Basic Law." Thus, as the Palestinian "Decider" he has put himself in the position to sign this final capitulation. Of course he will use his PLO cronies to rubberstamp the deal.

Anticipating rebellion among Palestinians, in both Gaza and the West Bank, that is where the obedient U.S. client states of Egypt and Jordan come in. The current planned and organized chaos in the W.B. will be used as the justification to introduce Jordanian troops (as Netanyahu has asked) in order to "strengthen Abbas."

In Gaza, the screws are being tightened on Egypt and the big guns of Congress are being brought to bear. I don't think the issue is that of the so-called arms smuggling; that is blowing smoke. I think that the U.S. wants Egypt to send troops into Gaza to fight Hamas, but Egypt has balked so far. That is why the pressure is intensifying. Ultimately Mubarak, as all obedient puppets, will agree to send Egyptian troops into Gaza, perhaps with an Arab League or a UN fig leaf.

Fasten your seatbelts, the end game as Usrael sees it is approaching and all efforts are being marshaled to crush the Palestinians and their rights.