Hamas: 'Resistance' against Israel is only option left for Palestinians

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal addresses Tehran conference 'in support of the Palestinian Intifada'; Iranian supreme leader tells conference that UN bid for statehood will fail.

By The Associated Press and Haaretz

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal told an international conference in Iran on Saturday that "resistance" was the only option left for the Palestinians.

Meshal was addressing the "5th International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada" in Iran’s capital Tehran.

	In this photo released by the Hamas Media Office, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shakes hands with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal Cairo, Egypt on May 4, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

"Palestinians must resort to resistance no matter how costly it is, until Palestine is free and Israel is destroyed," Meshal said.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who also spoke at the conference on Saturday, assailed a two state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, saying the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations is doomed to fail.

Khamenei told the conference, which was attended by other by senior Palestinian militant leaders as well as Mashaal, that the Palestinians should not limit themselves to seeking a country based on the pre-1967 borders because "all land belongs to Palestinians."

"Our claim is freedom of Palestine, not part of Palestine. Any plan that partitions Palestine is totally rejected," Khamenei told the conference.

"Palestine spans from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean), nothing less."

Khamenei claimed that a two state solution would mean "giving in to the demand of the Zionists" and that it would "trample the rights of the Palestinian people" to live on their land.

Khamenei also called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that should be removed.

Hamas has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the Palestinian bid for statehood in the UN, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Last week, Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Abbas.of relinquishing Palestinian rights by seeking recognition for a state in the pre-1967 borders.

"The Palestinian people do not beg the world for a state, and the state can't be created through decisions and initiatives," Haniyeh said. "States liberate their land first and then the political body can be established."

Report: Gaza Terrorists use Google Earth to Pinpoint Targets

by Maayana Miskin

Terrorists in Gaza have a new tool helping them to fire on innocent civilians living in southern Israel – the popular satellite mapping program Google Earth. A group of terrorists from the Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades recently described their use of the program to a reporter for Slate Magazine.

“The technology is always improving,” a terrorist calling himself Abu Saif told journalist Sharon Weinberger. “Our struggle started with the Kalashnikov, and then it moved to the suicide bomb, then the locally made rocket, and now the Grad rocket.”

Gaza's rocket launching crews use Google Earth to aim their weapons, Abu Said said. The program is seen as superior to maps because it is more up-to-date and gives precise locations for potential targets.

Terrorists who spoke to Weinberger said they plan to continue with rocket attacks despite the deployment of the Iron Dome system, which shoots short-range rockets out of the air. “The Israelis are using a lot of money for this defense, but during the last rocket attacks, our rockets made it through,” explained Abu Hamza, a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist.

Abu Saif suggested that terrorists were getting their hands on new technologies that would help them continue attacks. “At some point in the future, the Grad will be a thing of the past,” said Abu Saif.

Terrorists are believed to have used a laser-guided missile in a recent attack on a school bus that murdered Israeli teenager Daniel Viflic.

Another way in which terrorists are using modern technology is public relations. They have begun making their own videos to send to the media in hopes of gaining support. One recent video filmed by Abu Saif's group was sent to Al Jazeera.

“In some way, rocket making has almost become an extreme form of reality television,” Weinberger suggested, “with the militants understanding that playing to the cameras is as important as, or perhaps more important than, actually launching rockets.”

 

List of Smuggling Attempts By Sea to Hamas, Hezbollah, Other Terrorist Organizations

Below are some of the attempts by terror sponsoring states to arm terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah operating in the Gaza Strip and Southern Lebanon with weapons smuggled via the sea. These attempts are those publicly made available and are not a comprehensive account of every smuggling attempt made by sea. They highlight the need for comprehensive security checks for all vessels approaching the Gaza Strip and for other vessels suspected to be carrying weapons to terrorist groups in the region.

Weapons found aboard the Santorini

May 7th, 2001: Santorini

The Santorini was intercepted on its way from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip. It contained a large shipment of 40 tons of weapons including Strela anti-aircraft missiles—the same kind that terrorists fired at and narrowly missed an Arkia Israeli passenger jet taking off from Mombassa, Kenya in November 2002. The shipment also included mortars, rifles and guns, grenades, mines and explosive material, anti-tank RPG-7 missile-launchers, and artillery rockets.
Three crew members aboard the Santorini were convicted for trying to smuggle weapons from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip—the captain, a professional weapons smuggler and two of his relatives aboard the ships had been involved in three previous smuggling attempts backed by Hezbollah and the PFLP-GC.
The Santorini ship was acquired by the PFLP-GC in a small island off Syria, and registered as Syrian. During previous smuggling attempts by the crew, arms were packed in Syria and transferred to Lebanon by a Syrian bus. Part of the anti-tank weaponry originated from Iran.

50 tons of weapons captured aboard the Karin-A

January 3rd, 2002: Karin-A

The Karin-A was intercepted in the Red Sea, heading towards the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip. It carried 80 submersible containers containing  50 tons of weapons, including: RPG-7 rockets, RPG-18 anti-tank rocket launchers, Iranian-made anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, 2200 kilograms of high explosive demolition blocks, Sagger anti-tank launchers and missiles, as well as rifles, machine guns, AK-47s, 735 hand grenades, 700,000 rounds of small ammunition, and diving equipment. The submergible containers were to be dropped into the sea and then washed ashore to the Gaza Strip or picked up by a smaller vessel and delivered to the Strip.
The Palestinian Authority was heavily involved in the smuggling attempt, especially Yasser Arafat’s former Chief Financial Officer and confidante at the time, Fuad Shubaki. The crew of the Karin-A also included senior members of the P.A . , indicating  Arafat’s direct involvement. The ship was purchased in Lebanon and sailed to Sudan and Yemen to pick up civilian goods (watermelon seeds, sesame seeds, rice, toys, and clothes) to disguise the weapons aboard.

June 8th, 2002

Two Palestinians were found swimming along the northern Gaza Strip shore armed with four grenades, an AK-47, and four ammunition magazines in an attempt to infiltrate an Israeli community

August 4th, 2002

IDF naval forces identified an armed Palestinian wearing a oxygenated scuba diving suit and carrying an AK-47, 8 grenades, 4 ammunition magazines, who was on his way towards an Israeli community from the Gaza coast.

November 23rd, 2002

After many attempts to communicate with an unknown Palestinian fishing boat heading from the Gaza Strip towards the direction of Israel, the bomb-laden boat exploded near an Israeli security patrol boat, moderately injuring three and lightly injuring one.

January 7th, 2003

A suspicious life raft found floating along the northern Gaza Strip coast was found to be booby-trapped with explosives.

Radio activation systems found aboard the Abu Hassan

May 21st, 2003: Abu Hasan

The “Abu Hasan”, intercepted in waters west of Haifa, was sailing from Lebanon to Egypt carrying a Hezbollah operative specializing in explosives bound for the Gaza Strip. The boat itself was a fishing boat, used purposefully to disguise its intentions. Cargo contained: a radio-activation system to detonate bombs remotely, CDs of directives on how to carry out suicide bomb terror attacks, five boxes with rocket fuses, and 25 Katyusha rocket detonators. The masterminds of the arms smuggling attempt were connected to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and Hezbollah.

May 9^th, 2006

Early in the morning of Israel’s Independence Day, the Israeli Navy spotted a suspicious vessel crossing from Egypt into the southern Gaza Strip. After ignoring repeated warnings issued by the Navy, the Navy opened fire towards the vessel, whose crew then steered the boat to hide behind a Palestinian civilian boat. The crew was then spotted to be tossing large sacks off the vessel into the water. The Navy ceased fire out of concern that the Palestinian civilian boat would be hit, and the suspicious vessel escaped. The large sacks tossed overboard were later found by an underwater robot to contain over 500 kilograms of explosives.

May 14^th, 2006

The Israeli Navy spotted a suspicious Palestinian vessel off the coast of the southern Gaza Strip and issued warnings ordering the crew to stop the vessel. Upon receiving the warnings, the crew began to toss large bags off the ship into the water. The Navy apprehended the vessel and detained the crew for questioning. The bags were later found to contain several hundred kilograms of explosives.

The Hansa India

October 12th, 2009: Hansa India

The “Hansa India”, which was charted by and sailed from Iran, was due to unload a cargo of eight containers in Egypt where it was believed to continue on to Syria or Lebanon. Following warnings from the German authorities, the vessel was not unloaded and continued to Malta where it was seized by the US military and found to be carrying bullets and industrial material intended for the production of weapons, seemingly bound for the Syrian army or Hezbollah.

November 3th, 2009: Francop

The Francop was intercepted by the Israeli Navy off the coast of Cyprus en route from Iran to Syria where it was planned to be smuggled by land to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The ship contained 36 containers with 500 tons of arms: 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets, 3,000 gun shells, 20,000 grenades and half of a million rounds of small ammunition, all hidden behind sacks of polyethylene. The arms smuggling was attempted without the knowledge of the Francop crew.  The cache had been loaded from the Bandar Port in Iran on an Iranian vessel and stopped at an Egyptian port, where the cache was unloaded onto the Francop, a German owned vessel. The cache was ten times larger than the cache seized from the Karin-A and the Victoria.

June 7^th, 2010

Israeli Navy soldiers off the coast of the central Gaza Strip near Nuseirath identified a squad of terrorists wearing diving suits on their way to execute a terror attack.

February 1^st, 2010

Five barrels packed with 15-20 kilograms of TNT explosives were deployed via the sea by the Islamic Jihad and other Gaza terror organizations to Israeli beaches. Two of the barrels exploded near the Gaza Strip, while the other three, attached by a buoy, washed ashore on the Ashdod, Ashkelon and Palmachim beaches. Activation mechanisms were attached to the barrels so that they would be detonated following a cellular device signal activated by the terror organization.
Following warnings issued by the Israeli Navy, the barrels found along the Israeli shores were detonated in a controlled manner by Israeli Police sappers, and no one was injured.

March 15th, 2011: Victoria

The Victoria, a German owned ship, was discovered by the Israeli Navy to be carrying over 50 tons of weapons in three containers, concealed behind bales of cotton and sacks of lentils, including 60 mm and 120 mm mortar shells, C-704 anti-ship missiles, and ammunition for Kalashnikov assault rifles. Most of the weapons, including the C-704 missiles, were manufactured in Iran and came with Farsi-language instruction manuals which sported symbols of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on their covers.

From: http://idfspokesperson.com/2011/07/05/list-of-attempts-by-terrorist-organizations-to-smuggle-weapons-via-the-sea/

Jordan opposes a Palestinian state.

A senior Jordanian official says the Hashemite kingdom will vote against a Palestinian statehood bid scheduled to be put before the UN General Assembly in September.

"Jordan's top national interests will be in danger if the Palestinian Authority declares statehood unilaterally – especially in everything related to the issue of refugees, water, Jerusalem, and the borders," the UAE-based al-Bayan quoted a Jordanian state official as saying.

The high-ranking official added that a unilateral Palestinian declaration of state is in Israel's best interest, as it wants the state to be established "within the borders of the separation fence" – a move that would effectively erase the border between the West Bank and Jordan, which the kingdom vehemently rejects.

The report says Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit publicly expressed this opinion during a speech he made two months ago before fellow statesmen.


This was, according to the report, "the beginning of the exposure of Jordan's decision to publicly stand its ground before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas".
Meanwhile, the paper also reported that Jordan is preparing to cancel the identification papers provided for Palestinian statesmen and their families. The decision was explained as a move that began with a 1988 ruling "to disengage from the West Bank and maintain Palestinian identity".

However, the paper claims this decision displays the deterioration in relations between the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, also seen in the Palestinian decision to prefer Egypt to Jordan as mediator in the truce talks between rival factions Hamas and Fatah.

From: http://yourjewishnews.com/8038.aspx

Lull ends, rocket fired from Gaza

Qassam rocket explodes in southern Israel after several attack-free weeks

A Qassam rocket exploded Thursday evening in an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council.

No injuries or damage were reported in the strike, the first of its kind in southern Israel in recent weeks.


Shortly before 9:30 pm, the Color Red rocket alert system was activated in region. A few moments later, an explosion was heard in the area.

read more: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4083323,00.html

Ilana Curiel

Low-profile, influential Hamas founder Shama dies

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A founder of Hamas in the Gaza Strip died Friday of a stroke after decades as an influential yet little-known figure at the helm of the Palestinian militant organization. He was 76.
Muhammad Hassan Shama, revered by Hamas loyalists but nearly anonymous outside Gaza, was one of the eight founders of the Islamist group in the 1980s. After his death, Hamas publicly announced Friday for the first time that Shama had been the leader of the secretive Shura Council, its top governing body.

read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110610/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians_obit_shama

Haniyya: “No Negotiations With the Enemy, No Concessions On National Rights”

Palestinian Prime Minister of the dissolved Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyya, stated on Friday that his movement is united and strong, and that the only language of negotiations with the occupation understands is the language of resistance.

 

Speaking to worshippers during the Friday noon prayers at the Al Omary Mosque in Gaza, Haniyya stated that Hamas is united and strong, and denied any internal conflicts among its leaders.

He stated that his government and the Hamas movement are committed to unity, to the Palestinian national interests, and that there will be no negotiations with the occupation.

read more: http://www.imemc.org/article/61421?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PalestineNews+%28Palestine+News%29

Israel Is Cancer and Must Be Uprooted: New Hamas Rep to Tehran, Ultimate Goal Is to Destroy the Zionist Regime

• Posted by Naked Emperor News

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency)

New Hamas representative to Tehran told in an inaugural interview that the ultimate goal of the movement was to free the entire Palestinian land, destroy the Zionist regime and rescue the revered Quds from the claws of the Zionists.

Khaled al-Qoddoumi said Hamas would not pay any attention to the negative propaganda of the western media that Hamas should or would withdraw from the path of resistance.

In a first interview with Iranian media after arriving in Tehran, Qoddoumi, who replaced Osama abd al-Mo’ti early in May, said Israel has no belief in living alongside the Palestinian nation.

The senior Hamas member refuted any option of compromise with Israel and underlined resistance as the only way of struggling with the occupiers and restoring the rights of the Palestinian nation. He predicted that one day, the Quds would return to the lap of the world of Islam.

read more: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/israel-is-cancer-and-must-be-uprooted-new-hamas-rep-to-tehran-ultimate-goal-is-to-destroy-the-zionist-regime/

Report: Mashaal supports withdrawal from politics to avoid global isolation after "resistance enterprise" was weakened.

By JPOST.COM STAFF  

  

Hamas is considering withdrawing its participation from future governments in Gaza, Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Hamas officials told AP that the idea has grown popular recently and is supported by Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal. The move is reportedly aimed at avoiding global isolation.

read more: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?ID=224259&R=R1&t=t

Once Again, FBI’s ‘Muslim Outreach’ Welcomes Terror-Tied Man

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/once-again-fbis-muslim-outreach-welcomes-terror-tied-man/?singlepage=true

 

Despite knowing the Hamas ties of Kifah Mustapha, the FBI gave him a guided tour of a top-secret counterterrorism center and access to classified investigative techniques.

 

by Patrick Poole

 

Court documents filed last month by the Department of Justice in a federal civil rights lawsuit shows that Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Robert Grant of the FBI Chicago field office had warned the Illinois State Police: newly appointed Muslim chaplain Kifah Mustapha would never pass an FBI background check.

Mustapha’s long association with terrorist group Hamas occurred at virtually the same time that Mustapha was admitted into the FBI Citizens’ Academy sponsored by SAC Grant’s Chicago office. The Academy program required a background check and included a guided tour of the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the FBI Academy at Quantico.

The statements made by SAC Grant were noted in a motion for a protective order filed with the court and noted in a report published by the Investigative Project. The DOJ’s motion states:

In each conversation, SAC Grant stated that Mustapha would not pass an FBI background check if he applied for an FBI chaplain position and then proceeded to explain the bases for his opinion.

The DOJ motion is in response to the lawsuit filed by Mustapha after his state police appointment as Muslim chaplain was revoked. Mustapha had initially been accepted as state police chaplain, but after a news story aired reporting Mustapha’s terrorist connections and terror support, the state police conducted another background check. During this check was apparently when the conversations with SAC Grant took place, which resulted in the state police revoking Mustapha’s appointment. Mustapha then sued, claiming ethnic and religious discrimination, with his case being supported by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has also been identified by the FBI as a terrorist front for Hamas.

The FBI, which is not a party to the lawsuit, is seeking to protect the information they shared with the state police on Mustapha, claiming it would reveal sources and collection methods.
There’s not much mystery as to why SAC Grant would tell the Illinois State Police that Kifah Mustapha couldn’t pass an FBI background check. Mustapha is a known Hamas operative, including his prior employment with the Holy Land Foundation, which was listed as a specially designated terrorist group by the U.S. government in December 2001, and whose executives were convicted of terrorism support for Hamas in 2008 and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Mustapha was personally named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator (#31) in the case, and employment records submitted during the trial showed that he received more than $154,000 for his work with the Holy Land Foundation between 1996 and 2000.

Also during the trial, FBI Special Agent Lara Burns testified that Mustapha sang in a band sponsored by the Holy Land Foundation that regularly featured songs dedicated to killing Jews and glorifying Hamas.
In a deposition he gave in a civil trial concerned with the murder of a Chicago teenager killed by Hamas while waiting for a bus in Israel, Mustapha admitted that he was the registered agent for the Holy Land Foundation in Illinois, and also to his involvement with other Hamas front groups, including the Islamic Association for Palestine. He was later hired as an imam by the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, which the Chicago Tribune noted in 2004 has long been a hotbed of Hamas support.

What makes the statements by SAC Grant so puzzling is that at virtually the same time that he was telling the state police that Mustapha couldn’t pass an FBI background check, Mustapha apparently passed an FBI background check when he was admitted to the FBI Citizens’ Academy under the sponsorship of Grant’s office.

The Citizens’ Academy webpage on the FBI’s own website states:

Because of the classified investigative techniques discussed, nominees must also undergo a background check and get an interim security clearance.

In at least some of the FBI programs, each nominee must meet the approval of the special agent in charge. This glaring contradiction has been noted by Mustapha’s attorneys in his lawsuit against the state police, who have issued a subpoena to the FBI requesting all materials involving the FBI background check conducted for Mustapha’s admittance to the FBI Citizens’ Academy.

So how exactly did Kifah Mustapha with his extensive terror ties get cleared to participate in the six-week FBI program? That’s precisely the question I asked when I first broke the story last September about Mustapha being given a guided tour of the top-secret NCTC and the FBI Academy. After my initial story was published, one Homeland Security official contacted me informing me not only that “the plugs had to be pulled” in order for Mustapha to be admitted to the FBI program, but that “the NCTC has Kifah Mustapha on the highest watch list we have.”

Mustapha’s terrorist ties are hardly a secret since much of the information available publicly is from FBI agents testifying in court, court and deposition transcripts, and exhibits entered into evidence by federal prosecutors during the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.

But as soon as my report was published, the FBI began to double-down and defend Mustapha’s inclusion in the program. FBI Chicago spokesman Ross Rice told the Washington Times: “If we thought he was a security risk, we wouldn’t have included him.” But we now know from the DOJ’s filing in the lawsuit that SAC Grant thought Mustapha enough of a security threat to repeatedly mention it to his Illinois State Police colleagues.

Another FBI spokesman, Paul Bresson, also spoke to Fox News, which reported:

“He’s a prominent figure in the community,” Bresson said, adding that the sheik has not been convicted of a crime. “It’s not like we gave him secret access or classified information.”

But the FBI did give him access to the top-secret NCTC, which even many Homeland Security and federal law enforcement officials are not able to enter and whose location is secret. And by its own admission posted on their own website, the FBI gives Citizens’ Academy participants access to “classified investigative techniques,” which is precisely their stated reason why they must first pass a background check and receive a limited security clearance.

After all, the FBI itself advertises its academies with the promise: “Want to find out first hand how the FBI works? Hear how the Bureau tracks down spies and terrorists?” No doubt, terrorist operatives like Kifah Mustapha are very interested in how the FBI conducts terrorist investigations, and in this case the FBI knowingly let at least one terrorist operative in on those secrets.

No wonder then that as soon as the media started asking questions, both FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Security Advisor James Clapper refused to address the issue just a few days after I broke the story.

Kifah Mustapha’s lawsuit and the admission by the DOJ about SAC Grant’s statements about Mustapha to the Illinois State Police, along with the FBI’s inclusion of Mustapha in their Citizens’ Academy program, expose the pure schizophrenia that characterizes the U.S. government’s “Muslim outreach” efforts. Time and again we see government agencies knowingly and willingly reaching out to terrorist operatives as official representatives of or interlocutors with the Muslim community (eg., Abdurahman Alamoudi, Anwar al-Awlaki, Louay Safi, et al).

But what we see in this most recent court filing is that what law enforcement and Homeland Security officials are willing to say in private to their colleagues about their “outreach partners” is the exact opposite of what they say when they repeatedly get caught in their own “outreach” traps and begin publicly defending terrorist operatives when asked about it by the media.

It is clearly time for Congress to get to the bottom of the U.S. government’s hopelessly failed and utterly counter-productive Muslim outreach programs that empower and legitimize terrorist operatives like Kifah Mustapha and expose other law enforcement agencies that are unwilling to participate in such duplicity to lawsuits by terrorist fronts masquerading as “civil rights organizations” such as CAIR. The FBI has established mutually exclusive positions on their outreach partner Kifah Mustapha and it is long past time that these agencies are held to account.

Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to Pajamas Media, and an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforcement and the military.

Lebanese army won’t allow a repeat of the al Nakba day, report

http://www.yalibnan.com/2011/06/02/lebanese-army-wont-allow-a-repeat-of-the-al-nakba-day-report/



May 15 was the al Nakba day and June 5 is
the al Naksa day.

Fatah leader in Lebanon Munir Maqdah said on Wednesday that all Palestinians including Fatah and Hamas groups will take part in the Naksa Day rally scheduled for June 5.

“All Palestinian factions will participate in the event, including institutions from Lebanon’s civil society.”
He told the Central News Agency.

“The May 15 clashes are a ball of fire that will keep on growing until it burns the occupier until the Palestinians are granted their right to return to their homeland,” he added.

Palestinian sources told the news agency that the demonstrators are planning on marching to the Lebanese-Israeli border on June 5, where they will set up tents at Maroun al-Ras and at the Khiyam prison.

They added that preparations and contacts are underway with Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah, and other parties in order to stage Sunday’s rally.

Ten protesters were killed and 112 were wounded in a shooting incident at the Lebanese-Israeli border where Palestinians were demonstrating on Sunday May 15 , security sources said.

June 5 marks the Naksa day the day of defeat . It is the day when the Arab armies were defeated by Israeli in the 1967 six day war . Syria lost the Golan Heights, the Palestinians lost the west bank and Gaza and Egypt lost the Sinai desert.

Security sources told Kuwaiti newspaper al Anbaa that the Lebanese army won’t allow a repeat of the al Nakba day protests that took place in Maroun al Rass. The sources stressed that the army will not allow Israel any more excuses for more killings

One source told the daily that the army recently succeeded in foiling an attempt to fire a rocket towards Israel … the person was detained just before firing the rocket.

Opportunity Missed, Opportunity Made

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9667/pub_detail.asp

Mark Y. Rosenberg

President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad.

"The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." This well-worn quote from Israeli diplomat Abba Eban can be trotted out once again in light of the recent "reconciliation" between the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.  Just last week, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister Salam Fayyad (both Fatah men) had Israel on the diplomatic ropes, harnessing stability in the West Bank and growing international pressure on Israel to ensure recognition of an independent Palestine by the UN General Assembly in September. By (re-)joining forces with the Islamists of Hamas, Fatah has almost surely sacrificed their hard-won advantage for a tentative show of Palestinian unity. What's more, this "missed opportunity" presents Israel with its own chance to score some diplomatic points and advance peace negotiations from a strengthened position.

Some analysts view the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement as a positive step for both the Palestinians and for the possibility of peace. If the two groups can set up and maintain a joint government of the West Bank and Gaza, and if Hamas can be convinced to moderate its eliminationist stance toward Israel, then the PA will be able to proceed with UN recognition-or even negotiations with Israel-as a unified authority, fulfilling a clear pre-requisite for true independence.  

This prospect, however, is extremely unlikely. First, the bloody rivalry between Fatah and Hamas has been ongoing since the PA's violent schism in 2007, which resulted in a Hamas-ruled and a Fatah-ruled West Bank. Each faction's security forces have repeatedly cracked down on the other side, arresting or assaulting party leaders and members, displacing elected officials, shutting down affiliated media outlets and civic groups, and breaking up-often violently-gatherings and demonstrations. Meanwhile, PA soldiers in the West Bank have received US training and have been coordinating their anti-Hamas efforts with Israel.  In this context, the creation of a professional, "non-factional" Palestinian security force-a core element of the unity agreement-is simply too tall an order, particularly in Gaza and particularly with competitive elections slated for next year.

Second, the PA's chances of securing General Assembly recognition for Palestine are greatly reduced with Hamas on board. While Abbas and Fayyad had received signals of support from the European Union and other powerful international players before the agreement, most Assembly members will be hard pressed to support statehood for a Palestine governed by an organization whose raison d'etre is the destruction of another such member.  And while some observers assume that Hamas' decision to reconcile with Fatah-facilitated by Egyptian interlocutors-means it is prepared to soften its stance toward Israel, this is a bad assumption to make. If anything, regime change in Egypt has strengthened Hamas by removing an enemy in Hosni Mubarak and increasing the influence of its parent movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. While Hamas may be looking to move its headquarters out of a suddenly unstable Syria, now is not the time for it to drop its rockets and recognize Israel.

Moreover, even if Hamas did opt to "recognize" Israel-perhaps to gain access to the copious foreign aid on which the PA depends-such recognition would be meaningless without a corresponding renunciation of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees to (historic) Palestine. Given Israel's already delicate demographic balance between Jews and Arabs, any but the most token influx of Arab refugees would destroy Israel as a Jewish state. As a result, any pledge to recognize Israel that doesn't address the right of return is simply not credible.

Indeed, in order to take full advantage of this latest "missed opportunity," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must set his sights beyond Middle Eastern politics-as-usual. Instead of simply staving off UN recognition of Palestine by reminding the world that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that the PA is not ready for peace, he must now reiterate that Israel is willing to make peace with any state or authority that will truly accept its existence. Such acceptance must go beyond simple recognition or "normalization" of relations, as offered by the Arab League's 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. And it must go beyond Netanyahu's own insistence that Israel be recognized as a "Jewish and democratic state," a formulation that implies Israel should be defined by its (former) adversaries. Rather, accepting the existence of Israel means giving up-permanently-on the "right of return."

In return, Israel must be willing to leave (most of) the West Bank and accept an independent Palestine next door. Israel needs peace to survive-its occupation of over 2.5 million Palestinians is clearly not sustainable-and it cannot afford to miss opportunities as recklessly as the Arabs.

Family Security Matters Contributor Mark Y. Rosenberg is the Israel, West Bank and Gaza analyst for Freedom House. 

RECRUITING AND BRAINWASHING OF A TERRORIST - SCOOP

Abbas talks security strategy with Islamic Jihad leaders

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=222921

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH 

PA president discusses statehood; Spain will support UN bid, Sha’ath claims after meeting with consul-general.

 

Under the auspices of Egyptian authorities, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo on Monday with Ramadan Shallah, secretary- general of the Islamic Jihad organization, and his deputy, Ziad Nakhleh.

The PA, meanwhile, announced that Spain has decided to recognize a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines before September.

The meeting between Abbas and the Syrian-based Islamic Jihad leaders dealt with ways of consolidating Palestinian national reconciliation, a PA official said.

The two sides also discussed the PA security crackdown on Islamic Jihad operatives and supporters in the West Bank, the official said.

Islamic Jihad has condemned the ongoing crackdown and urged the PA to release all its members, especially in wake of the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation accord that was reached in Cairo three weeks ago.

Under the former regime of Hosni Mubarak, Islamic Jihad leaders and members were unwelcome in Egypt.

An Islamic Jihad official said the talks also focused on ways of “confronting future challenges and Israeli threats.” He described the meeting with Abbas as positive and thorough.

Abbas, who arrived in Cairo, also held talks with Gen. Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, and briefed him on the latest developments surrounding the stalled Middle East peace process.

Abbas also briefed Tantawi on the outcome of the emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Qatar last weekend.

The ministers voiced their backing for Abbas’s plan to ask the United Nations in September to recognize a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines.

In a related development, PA negotiator Nabil Sha’ath announced on Monday that Spain was planning to recognize the Palestinian state before September.

Sha’ath’s announcement came after he met in Ramallah with Spanish Consul-General Alfonso Portable.

Sha’ath said the PA was pursuing its efforts to secure additional backing and international recognition for the statehood bid.

He said the Spanish diplomat stressed that his country would support making the state of Palestine a member of the UN.

Sha’ath said he was planning to visit Armenia, Moldavia, the Philippines, Mexico and Columbia to persuade these governments to support the statehood bid in September.

Show support for Israel

It has been well documented that Iran directly influences Hamas, with many calling Hamas a "puppet" terrorist organization for Iran. Now, Iranian President Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor is calling for suicide attacks against Israeli civilians - including Israeli children - saying that such attacks are not only "allowed," but are even "an obligation."

The impact of these statements cannot be underestimated. It is clear that Hamas has the blessing of Iran to continue its brutal terror attacks against the people of Israel.

To side with Hamas is to not only side with the terrorist organization, but also to fuel the dangerous Iranian regime. We must show our support for Israel against these outrageous attacks.

Stand with Israel, and send a powerful message to President Obama that we must support our greatest ally in the region, not the terrorists - Hamas and Iran. Sign our Petition to Protect Israel, Not Terrorists.

In appreciation for taking action in support of Israel, I would like to give you two vitally important resources absolutely free - the ACLJ's powerful full-length film, The Export: Radical Islam's Map to End Democracy, and our new booklet, Shari'ah Law: Radical Islam's Threat to the U.S. Constitution.

In The Export, world-renowned experts in Middle East affairs detail for you the threat of radical Islam. This film specifically explains the background behind Iran's dangerous influence on the region, including its control over Hamas and the threat that poses to Israel.

Our booklet on Shari'ah law focuses on the system of laws that radical nations like Iran and Islamic terrorist organizations like Hamas wish to impose on the entire world, including here in the United States.

These resources are critical for you to understand the drastic nature of the threat to Israel and the world.

The threat posed by Hamas and its Iranian backers against Israel continues to grow daily, and it is one we must take very seriously.

Hamas has not only succeeded in infiltrating the Palestinian Authority by joining in the "Unity Government," but there is evidence that their terrorist influence is radicalizing the Palestinian government. Today, there are reports that members of Fatah - the supposedly "moderate" party that has joined with Hamas to form the "Unity Government" - are doing exactly what Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor has urged and are now under investigation for planning suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

We must urge President Obama to reverse his support for the Iran-backed, terrorist-led Palestinian government, stop fueling the terrorists with the use of their language by calling Israel a force of "occupation," and withdraw his call for Israel to return to the indefensible 1967 lines.

Let Israel know that despite what the President says - the American people support Israel. Join with the thousands of other Americans who have already done so, and sign our Petition to Protect Israel, Not Terrorists.

It is crucial for us to take a stand now, before Hamas joins the Palestinian Authority, which could occur within the next two weeks.

If you have already signed this petition, thank you! I urge you to forward this email to your friends and encourage them to stand with Israel and receive their free copies of The Export DVD and our Shari'ah Law booklet.

Thank you again for your support for Israel and the ACLJ. As always, I will continue to keep you informed as events unfold in this critical matter.

Sincerely,

Jay Sekulow,
ACLJ Chief Counsel

A rare voice of relative reason in The Daily News Egypt

A rare voice of relative reason in The Daily News Egypt:

While anti-Israeli attitudes are not uncommon in Egypt, they are becoming more virulent after the revolution so much so that 54 percent of Egyptians prefer annulling the peace treaty with Israel, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center.

The point of interest here is not to morally judge these attitudes, but to examine whether or not their underlying assumptions are logically justified. Three myths about Israel appear to continue dominating Egyptian public opinion:

1. Israel works to weaken Egypt
Common among conspiracy theorists in Egypt is the notion that Israel wants an Egypt that is weakened, divided, and torn by sectarian violence. Deputy Prime Minister Yehia El-Gamal stands out in expressing this notion while in office, though a considerable number of intellectuals and former high-level officials do not hide their belief in it. Typifying this view is the editor of the state-owned daily Al-Ahram who argued that Israel supports the counter-revolution forces in Egypt, citing the rumor that Israeli former chief of military intelligence confirmed his success in sowing seeds of division within Egyptian society.

In fact, a stable Egypt is in Israel’s interest. A divided Egypt might turn into another Iran, where organized Islamists took over a shattered state after a democracy-seeking uprising. Alternatively, it might turn into another Lebanon, where state weakness allows actors like Hezbollah to attack Israel at will. Would Israel be interested in creating a similar situation in which Jihadists join Hamas and operate from Egypt? Of course not.

At best, a chaotic Egypt might turn into a Mexico (or a Pakistan?) where another weak state fails to stop cross-border illegal immigration, drug and weapons trafficking. Thousands of African illegal immigrants enter Israeli territory from Sinai each year, despite measures taken by Egyptian authorities. Skyrocketing numbers of African infiltrators, drugs, let alone explosives, would reach Israel in case the Egyptian government loses control, or is domestically too busy to control borders.

None of these scenarios are good for Israel, and therefore it would certainly be interested not in undermining Egypt, but rather in an in-control, stable government in Cairo to keep the peace, and maintain order on the southern border.

2. Israel wants to occupy Egypt
The conventional view that Israel plans to occupy Egypt or re-occupy Sinai is part of a broader myth that Israel’s long-term strategic objective, out of Jewish religious beliefs, is to rule from the Nile to the Euphrates. Alleged “evidence” maintains that over the Knesset’s entrance hangs a map asserting that “the Land of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates,” and that the Israeli flag’s two horizontal blue lines represent the Nile and the Euphrates rivers. Yet the truth is that there is no such a map in the Knesset, and the lines in Israel’s flag are derived from the design of the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.

The “Greater Israel” claim is as true as the contention that Muslims plan to establish a world-ruling Islamic caliphate. Some ultra-extremists might want to, but the vast majority does not even think of it. First, it would take a fairly insane Israeli leadership to bear the massive military and economic burden of invading a country of Egypt’s scale. Note that occupational experiences have exhausted Israel in areas as small as the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and even the West Bank. Second, paradoxically, this claim contradicts another generally accepted view by the Egyptian public asserting that Israel is militarily superior and enjoys full, unconditional US support. Why, if this really is the case, has Israel not attempted an invasion? The answer is simple: Israel is satisfied with the current status-quo — in which, it perceives, Israel is the one deterring its neighbors and not vice versa — and is not interested in a territorial expansion that would go far beyond its capabilities.

3. Israel is all-powerful
Most Egyptians apparently believe that the premises of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, displayed in an Egyptian TV series titled “A Horseman without a Horse” in 2002, are true. Within this framework, obviously inflated notions — such as that Israel exploited agricultural cooperation with Egypt to either cultivate cancer-causing products in Egyptian soil or export these products to Egypt, and that the Mossad stood behind the December 2010 fatal shark attacks to hit tourism in Egypt’s Red Sea resorts — are easily accepted. Notwithstanding that such allegations have no factual or logical grounds, no one stops to ask why should an Israel facing serious security challenges (Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc.) busy itself with that kind of stuff.

On a larger scale, Israel, or the Jewish people (as people hardly distinguish between Jews and Israelis), is viewed as a mighty force that rules the world through Jewish communities. It follows that any Israeli (or Jewish) economic or cultural activity in Egypt is seen as part of a “grand plan” to penetrate the society and gradually pervade all walks of life. While the Israel lobby in the US and elsewhere is truly powerful, the claim that the Jewish state controls the world provides, unfortunately, a tool to cover up one’s own failures than a realistic proof.

That these misconceptions are shared by a large part of the Egyptian public, which in a representative democracy will significantly influence the foreign policy agenda, is disappointing. That is because the revolution against the old regime has not yet removed old myths which deny the public opinion credible and informed judgments, regardless of whether a democratic Egypt would see in Israel a friend or a foe.


Amr Yossef is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo

Gaza: Sheikh Yassin's house declared heritage site

Hamas to open home of spiritual leader killed in 2004 to visitors, turning location into historical landmark

The Hamas government decided to open the home of its former spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated in 2004, to visitors. 


A Hamas official announced the decision will allow visitors to learn more about Yassin's "Jihadist career" as well as his activities against the "Israeli occupation."


"The goal is to commemorate his image in a place which saw him devote his life to the distribution of Islam," the official remarked.


Sheikh Yassin's wheelchair


Hamas prime minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh gave his blessing to the project, saying: "It will help us revive the memory of the Sheikh amongst the Arab and Islamic population."


Visitors will be able to see the many pictures hanging in Yassin's living room, including photos with such leaders as Former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. The wheelchair he used to get around the house and his conference room will also be on display.



The house. Books and photos


Abu Bilal Yassin, the person tasked with maintaining the site, said the home embodies "the history of the Palestinian people's resistance as well as Yassin's life."


Hamas made sure to preserve and display, for the first time ever, the wheelchair Yassin sat on when he was assassinated, as well as the blanket he covered himself with that day.

"We've transformed the house into cultural and intellectual reference points to show how modestly he lived. We'll open the house for visitors so they will learn about the Jihadist life of the Sheikh," Abu Bilal said.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4075509,00.html

Elior Levy

Published:  05.29.11, 19:46 / Israel News

Egypt Comes Out for Hamas

by Robert Spencer



In one of the clearest signs yet that the “Arab Spring” in post-Mubarak Egypt heralds a resurgent Islamic supremacism rather than a flowering of Western-style pluralism and democracy, Egyptian officials announced Wednesday that they were reopening the Rafah crossing this Saturday.

The Rafah crossing is the only official point of entry into Gaza other than from inside Israel. Egypt closed it for good in 2007 after Hamas took power in Gaza, as part of its uneasy observance of the Camp David Accords maintaining peace with Israel. The Rafah crossing had been an easy route into Israel for jihadis and their weapons suppliers who, for obvious reasons, wanted to avoid Israeli scrutiny.
 
But now it appears that peace with Israel is no longer such a high priority; instead, the new government in Egypt appears to be more concerned with accommodating Israel’s jihadist enemies. Egyptian officials announced that the Rafah crossing was being reopened in order to “end the status of the Palestinian division and achieve national reconciliation.”

 

The reopening of the Rafah crossing is just the latest indication that Egypt is heading toward becoming a Sharia state that is pursuing war with Israel. Man-on-the-street interviews conducted during the uprising against Mubarak more than once found ordinary Egyptians explaining to clueless and incredulous reporters from the likes of CNN that one of their principal beefs with Mubarak was that he maintained peace with Israel. “He is supporting Israel. Israel is our enemy,” protesters explained to the journalists who had come out looking for ringing declarations of love for democracy and pluralism. Instead, they heard that “if people are free in Egypt…they gonna destroy Israel.” Many of the demonstrators carried posters of Mubarak defaced with a Star of David drawn on his forehead.

In January, Mohamed Ghanem, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, said in an interview on Iran’s Al-Alam television station that Egypt should prepare to go to war with Israel. That same month, Iran’s Press TV interviewed an Egyptian international lawyer Marwan al-Ashaal. Al-Ashaal explained the popular discontent with Mubarak as a direct consequence of his keeping the peace with Israel: “Currently the Egyptians demand a new rule for the country, a new government, a new leader. The American-Egyptian relationships were based on Israeli security and I think Mubarak has been very dedicated to Israeli security more even than to his own people’s security or the national interests.” Al-Ashaal asserted that “we see the deals with Israel that provoked people and took them to the edge.” And he declared that Egypt is “never going to be a friend of Israel.”

Then there was the delirious welcome accorded the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual father, the Egyptian Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. In February one of the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds of the entire Egyptian revolution thronged to Cairo’s Tahrir Square to hear Qaradawi, who outdoes even the most Hitlerian Islamic clerics in his Jew-hatred and bloodlust. Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone welcomed Qaradawi to the city in 2004 and praised him repeatedly; during that visit Qaradawi explained to the BBC that suicide attacks against Israelis did not actually constitute suicide at all, but rather “martyrdom in the name of God.” In January 2009, during a Friday sermon broadcast on Al Jazeera, he prayed that Allah would kill all the Jews:  “Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people.  Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them.  Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.”  He also declared: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the people [Jews] who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler.”

That is the man who, by the record of the welcome Egyptians gave him in Tahrir Square that day, best embodies the spirit of the “Arab Spring.”
 
And so last week the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi was much more perspicacious than Western analysts when he predicted that the “Arab Spring” would lead to the destruction of Israel. For every day brings new advances toward power in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic supremacist groups allied with it. Once they finally attain that power, there is no indication whatsoever that they have any inclination to keep the peace with Israel that has prevailed, however uneasily, for the last thirty years; indeed, there is abundant indication to the contrary.

 

The Rafah crossing is just the beginning. Watch for more belligerence from Egypt toward Israel, and more Egyptian moves that redound to the benefit of Hamas. After all, Hamas styles itself in its charter as the Muslim Brotherhood for Palestine; why wouldn’t its sister organization in Egypt be interested in lending it a helping hand? And as it does so, it inches the Middle East and the world ever closer to the inevitable conflagration.




http://frontpagemag.com/2011/05/26/egypt-comes-out-for-hamas/

The Netanyahu-Abbas Exchange That Explains Why There’s No Peace, Who’s Responsible, and What Obama Doesn’t Understand

 

by Barry Rubin

“We cannot negotiate with those who say, ‘What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable.’” — President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

You can read for yourselves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the U.S. Congress. Both on regional issues and the Israeli-Palestinian question he was quite clear. His speech was vastly superior to those by Obama not just because of the policy content but because he deals with regional realities that the president ignores or just gets completely wrong.

But what I want to talk about here is a remarkable juxtaposition that no one else seems to have noticed. If you understand this article, you can understand all of the problems of the Middle East. If you don’t, please go mess up the lives of people elsewhere.

To set up this point I must first quote extensively from Netanyahu’s speech. He said:

This is the land of our forefathers, the Land of Israel, to which Abraham brought the idea of one God, where David set out to confront Goliath, and where Isaiah saw a vision of eternal peace. No distortion of history can deny the four thousand year old bond, between the Jewish people and the Jewish land.

But there is another truth: The Palestinians share this small land with us. We seek a peace in which they will be neither Israel’s subjects nor its citizens. They should enjoy a national life of dignity as a free, viable and independent people in their own state. They should enjoy a prosperous economy, where their creativity and initiative can flourish.

So this is a classic Western — indeed a classic liberal Western — formulation. We have our rights but we also respect your rights. Let’s find a win-win situation that benefits everyone.
Netanyahu added:

They [the Palestinians] were simply unwilling to end the conflict. And I regret to say this: They continue to educate their children to hate. They continue to name public squares after terrorists. And worst of all, they continue to perpetuate the fantasy that Israel will one day be flooded by the descendants of Palestinian refugees.

In a moment, watch Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas prove Netanyahu’s first sentence to be true.

My friends, this must come to an end. President Abbas must do what I have done. I stood before my people, and I told you it wasn’t easy for me, and I said… “I will accept a Palestinian state.” It is time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say… “I will accept a Jewish state.”

Remember that challenge.

Those six words will change history. They will make clear to the Palestinians that this conflict must come to an end. That they are not building a state to continue the conflict with Israel, but to end it. They will convince the people of Israel that they have a true partner for peace. With such a partner, the people of Israel will be prepared to make a far reaching compromise. I will be prepared to make a far reaching compromise.

In other words, once the Palestinians really acknowledge — which they have not done — the Jewish connection to the land, Israel will know they are a partner for peace and make more compromises.
Now, here’s the part nobody noticed. Abbas answered Netanyahu!

In a major speech for “Nakba Day,” that is the Palestinian day of mourning that Israel was ever created in the first place, Abbas said:

We say to him [Netanyahu], when he claims — that they [Jews] have a historical right dating back to 3000 years [BC] — we say that the nation of Palestine upon the land of Canaan had a 7000 year history [BC]. This is the truth, which must be understood and we have to note it, in order to say: “Netanyahu, you are incidental in history. We are the people of history. We are the owners of history.”

Do you understand?

Netanyahu said: We have rights; you have rights. We recognize yours and when you recognize ours we can have peace. Your refusal to recognize our rights — to demand total victory for yourself (which means Israel’s disappearance) — makes peace impossible.

And here is how Abbas (whose name cannot appear in the American media without the word “moderate” being attached to him) answered:

Well, we don’t recognize that you have any rights. All the rights belong to us! You are just a passing breeze that will become extinct and you are of no importance.

So that’s the bottom line. Even in the year 2011 — as happened in the year 1948 — even a relative moderate like Abbas simply cannot bring himself to say in Arabic: “Let’s share this land in a two-state solution.”

Ironically, Netanyahu is taking a liberal and flexible position while Abbas is taking a reactionary, imperialistic stance. Talk about accepting the “other”!

And yet not a single professor in any university class, not a single journalist or expert in the mass media will raise or even report that point. President Obama won’t pick up on it to chide the Palestinians. Nobody will start calling Netanyahu moderate and peace-seeking while saying that Abbas is extremist and peace-rejecting.

Nevertheless, what simpler and more graphic example could anyone want?

Now you know why peace is impossible. It isn’t because Israel won’t go back to the 1967 borders. It’s because the Palestinian leadership still believes and tells its people that Israel has no right to exist.

PS: Abbas’s history is of course rubbish. There is no connection between ancient Canaanites — who don’t go back anywhere near that far — and modern Arabs. Since the Canaanites weren’t Muslims, Abbas is acting as a pure opportunist since no Arab nation accepts such pre-Islamic connections any way.

But I love that phrase he said, “We are the owners of history.” In other words, we can make up any lie we want and to Hell with the consequences.

The Jewish Temple? Never existed in Jerusalem!

Did we miss a chance to have our own state in 1947? Never happened!

Is it crazy to go on fighting for decades hoping to destroy Israel rather than make a compromise peace now? No alternative. Israel doesn’t want peace.

Abbas has told us everything we need to know about who doesn’t want peace. And here’s the reality of the Palestinian Authority position (not to mention that of its partner, Hamas): if you can’t have peace without accepting Israel’s permanent existence then it is better not to have peace at all.




http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/05/25/the-netanyahu-abbas-exchange/?singlepage=true

Lebanese Businessman: Send ‘Filthy Jews’ to their True Countries

by Elad Benari

A Lebanese businessman has called to throw the Jews “back to their true countries.”

In a recent interview on the Hizbullah terror group's Al-Manar television network which was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Yasser Qashlaq, a journalist who also heads the Free Palestine Movement, said: “The natural place for [Ehud] Barak is Poland, and the natural place for that idiot, Netanyahu, is Moscow, while the natural place for me is Safed [Tzfat -ed.].”

Qashlaq goes on to say, “I would like to say to Ben-Gurion: You little boy, tomorrow, my little son will stomp on your grave. He will deport your remains to your true country in Europe, and we will return.

“Like Imam Khomeini said, back in the day, if each of us were to spit, we would drown out all five million of them,” he continues. “The number of Jews – those human pieces of filth – in my land equals one third of the people of the Nasr City neighborhood in Cairo.”

Qashlaq concludes by saying, “Netanyahu, who says that the Right of Return should be resolved outside Israel, should resolve his own problem by returning to his homeland, Moscow. These are human pieces of filth. Even Balfour, when he got carried away, and gave my land to those Jews, said that he was doing so to get rid of them. They brought us those pieces of filth, and we should throw them back to their countries.”
Qashlaq provided the main funding to a Lebanese flotilla which had planned last June to set sail towards Gaza and break the Israeli naval blockade on the Strip.

It was later reported that the flotilla had been delayed or even canceled, possibly due to warnings from Israel and the United States against the attempts to break the blockade on the Hamas terror group which governs in Gaza.

Qashlaq’s latest statements are not the first time he has called Israelis to leave Israel. In a June, 2010 interview, also on Al-Manar TV, he said, “Board the ship we are sending you, and return to your countries. Don’t be misled by the Arab leaders or the moderate camp. You will never be able to make peace with us. Our children will return [to Palestine]. There is no reason for coexistence. Even if some of our leaders or regimes sign [peace] with you – we will never sign. Do not be misled by these regimes. Return to your countries.”

(IsraelNationalNews.com)

 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144542