Confirmed

Hamas Leader Admits Training by Iran -Marie Colvin

A senior Hamas commander confirmed for the first time that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been training its men in Tehran for more than two years and is currently honing the skills of 150 fighters.
(Sunday Times-UK)

Official praise for terrorist

Official PA Daily: Killer Is Holy Martyr -Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook

Mahmoud Abbas' official PA daily newspaper has honored the killer of the eight students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid - Holy Islamic Martyr. Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the killer on the front page, with the caption, "The Shahid Alaa Abu D'heim."

In response to earlier PMW reports on the widespread Palestinian honoring of terror, Congress made it illegal for the U.S. to give money to entities that "advocate" terror.
(Palestinian Media Watch)

Centrality of Gaza

Gaza First -Calev Ben-David

It is the current status of Gaza - and not the future dispensation of the West Bank - that occupied the ranking position on the agenda of Secretary of State Rice' discussions in Israel.

It is now more than abundantly clear that Gaza is not an obstacle that can be circumvented and left for last. If anything, the opposite is true. Now is the time to focus preeminently on Gaza first, and the task of changing the reality on the ground there, before whatever precious little is left of the peace process heads permanently south.
(Jerusalem Post)


PA Report on Gaza Takeover -Zvi Bar'el

The report of the Palestinian commission to investigate the capture of Gaza by Hamas in June 2007 paints a terrifying picture of military and political helplessness, internal disputes, family loyalties, [and] a lack of talent and ability to administer military and political forces.

Its most significant revelation is that Mahmoud Abbas knew Hamas was about to take control of Gaza and did not manage to prevent it. This raises questions about the assumption that Israel can depend on the Fatah leadership and on Abbas personally to be able to control the situation.

The report provides a harsh response to the dilemma of whether to strengthen Abbas. It suggests that the diplomatic horizon or its absence and the Israeli attitude toward the PA had little effect on the strengthening or weakening of Abbas.
(Ha'aretz)

Erasing Hamas

Closing in on Hamas? -Yisrael Ne'eman

[E]ventually Israel will need to fully crush Hamas. But is it possible?
Several steps must be taken:

Militarily Israel needs to physically divide up Gaza. This cuts north-south traffic of men and military supplies. Every night there must be dozens of incursions, forays, arrests and the destruction of Hamas military installations. This same policy was used in the West Bank to break Yasir Arafat’s terror offensive and proved successful.

[T]he army should not sit in stationary positions but rather engage in counter terror activities and remain on the move. Only road blocks in the open areas need to be somewhat stationary...
[Mideast: On Target]

Wall Street Journal: UN resolution a lemon

Irresolution on Iran -Editorial

The Bush Administration is hailing as a diplomatic triumph Monday's 14-0 Security Council resolution further sanctioning Iran for its nuclear programs. For its part, Tehran calls the UN action "worthless," and unfortunately the Iranians are closer to the mark.

The weakness of this resolution, though masked by the show of unanimity, demonstrates that the "international community" has reached the outer limit of what it is prepared to do to stop Iran from becoming the world's 10th nuclear-weapons state. There is no more juice to be squeezed out of this lemon.
(Wall Street Journal)

The young victims

The victims of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.

Top row: Avraham David Moses (16), Ro'i Roth (18), Neria Cohen (15), Yonatan Yitzhak Eldar (16)

Bottom row: Yochai Lifshitz (18), Segev Peniel Avihail (15), Yehonadav Haim Hirschfeld (19), Doron Meherete (26)

"Unyielding Solidarity"

Conference of Presidents Condemns Barbaric Attack

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations condemns and deplores the outrageous and barbaric attack on the young students in a Jerusalem yeshiva, Mercaz Harav, which resulted in the deaths of eight people and the wounding of many more.

The nature of this attack, against civilians in a religious institution, underscores the nature of the enemy which Israel confronts and the extremist ideology of hatred that drives them. We extend to the families of the victims, their friends and to all the people of Israel our sympathy, support and unyielding solidarity.
(Conference of Presidents)


Releasing Terrorists: Palestinian attacker previously in custody

Abu Dhein [the terrorist] was arrested by Israeli authorities four months ago and then released two months later.
(AP/USA Today)

Jihad strikes Jerusalem again

Worst terror attack since April 2006 -Etgar Lefkovits

A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at a central Jerusalem yeshiva late Thursday night, killing eight students and wounding 10 others, police and rescue officials said.

The 8:45 p.m. shooting at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva broke a two-year lull in terror in the capital and sent students scurrying for cover from a hail of gunfire - a reported 500-600 bullets - that lasted for several minutes.

As security forces raced to the scene, the gunman fired round after round of ammunition into the library at the seminary, religious Zionism's flagship institution. [T]he terrorist carried a blue Israeli identity card and came from east Jerusalem.

[A] paramedic said he saw several dead yeshiva students on the library's floor. "Some of them were still holding sacred Jewish books smeared with blood from which they were learning before they were murdered," he said.

[Jerusalem Post]

Hamas' dream

What Hamas Wants -Editorial

The Palestinian radicals who are firing rockets into Israeli towns measure success by the number of civilians who die. Here's the weird part - they don't care whether it's Jewish Israelis who die or their own Palestinian brothers. More significantly, Palestinian groups such as Hamas view the death of each Arab woman or child as a propaganda victory in the religious war against Israel.

This is, sadly, old news. In the 1980s, before the Palestinians had rockets, they would arrange for children to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers, then they - the Palestinian fighters - would fire bullets at the Israelis from inside the crowds. Hamas' real objective was not to kill Israeli soldiers but to ensure Arab children got killed in the crossfire. Was this depraved? You bet. But it was effective.

Israel is a liberal democracy and it didn't like being blamed for the deaths of civilians, so gradually it disengaged from the disputed Palestinian territories. In the case of Gaza, Israel withdrew completely. No matter, Hamas wanted to continue the fight, which brings us to today.
(Ottawa Citizen-Canada)

Hamas support

Palestinian Civilians Answer Hamas Call to be Human Shields

During the [recent] IDF activity in Gaza, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad frequently called upon Palestinian civilians to gather in places where, they claimed, the IDF was about to attack, to have them serve as human shields, exploiting the fact that the IDF avoids deliberately harming Palestinian civilians.

On Feb. 28, Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV called on the residents to gather at the house of Ma'amoun Abu 'Amer. An hour later, dozens of Palestinians were gathered on the roof to serve as human shields to prevent the house from being hit.
(Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)

Target: Tel Aviv

Israel's War to Halt Palestinian Rocket Attacks -Dore Gold

After Israel's disengagement from Gaza, the number of confirmed rocket strikes against Israel increased by more than 500 percent.

The disengagement from Gaza led to the loss of Israeli control over the Philadelphi route between the Gaza Strip and Egyptian Sinai, allowing for a significant increase in the range and quantity of rockets in the Palestinian arsenal.

As long as the Philadelphi route is open for Hamas smuggling, the risk to Israel will grow as Iran exports rockets of increasing range to the Gaza Strip. The port of Ashdod is the next likely target, but should Fajr rockets reach Gaza, there is no reason why Hamas cannot pose a threat to Tel Aviv.
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)


Iran's Proxy in Gaza -Noah Pollak

Iran has invested heavily in Palestinian terrorism. Gaza exists for the Iranians as another forward operating base, a projection of power similar to but not as capable as Hizbullah.

The defeat of their proxy in Gaza would be a serious loss to Iran.
(Commentary)

Reflections on the coming Gaza incursion

Hamas Using U.S. Weapons Against IDF -Khaled Abu Toameh

Hamas gunmen [are] using many American-made arms seized from the Fatah-controlled PA security forces.

Hamas is hoping that once the fighting is over, it will be able to declare "victory, as Hizbullah did after the war in 2006," said a Palestinian source.
(Jerusalem Post)


Loud Silence from Arab World -Zvi Bar'el

[T]he very mild Egyptian reaction indicates that the IDF raid is perceived by the Arab world to be first and foremost a war against Hamas, not the Palestinian people.
(Ha'aretz)


Israeli City Shocked as Palestinian Rockets Hit -Aron Heller

By reaching Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people about 11 miles north of Gaza, Hamas raised the stakes considerably. It is one of the largest cities in southern Israel...

"The fact that more than a dozen rockets have targeted the major population center of Ashkelon is a sign that the terrorists have broken through a new threshold in their war against the Israeli civilian population," said Mark Regev.

Israeli officials assume that new and improved rockets were smuggled into Gaza when its border with Egypt was breached in January, bringing Ashkelon into range.
(AP/Washington Post)


Saturday in Gaza -Steven Erlanger & Taghreed El-Khodary

Hamas said that Malak Karfaneh, 6, died Friday from an Israeli strike on Beit Hanun, but locals said that a Palestinian rocket had fallen short and landed near the house.

Israeli officials say that up to half of Palestinian rockets fall inside Gaza.
(New York Times)


Striking Hamas Increases Chance for Peace -Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

"I have recently heard criticism that civilians are being hurt, that the State of Israel is using too much force. Nobody has the right to preach morality to the State of Israel for taking basic action to defend itself and prevent hundreds of thousands of residents of the south from continuing to be exposed to incessant [missile] firing."
(Prime Minister's Office)


The End of the "Guilty Israeli" -Yossi Klein Halevi

We Israelis who once wanted nothing more than to leave Gaza forever now realize that we may have no choice but to return, at least until relative quiet is restored to our border.

The first intifada created a substantial bloc of guilt-ridden Israelis ready to take almost any risk for peace. As the Oslo peace process came into being, the guilty Israeli became the most potent source of Palestinian empowerment. Israelis felt so desperate to end the occupation that they withdrew their army and uprooted their settlements from Gaza in 2006.

[T]oday the guilty Israeli has become nearly extinct. Gaza was a test case for Israeli withdrawal, and the experiment was a disaster. How, Israelis wonder, can we evacuate the West Bank and risk rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?

So we move toward the next terrible round of conflict. This time, though, for all our anguish, we will feel a lot less remorse. Because even guilty Israelis realize that, until our neighbors care more about building their state than undermining ours, the misery of Gaza will persist.

(Los Angeles Times)

Knife behind the back

The curse of the moderates -Caroline Glick

The most striking example of th[e] post-September 11 American penchant for choosing its allies unwisely, is the Bush administration's embrace of Fatah.

The US has lavishly supported it politically and financially, and has trained Fatah militias while opposing any Israeli military plan to defeat Fatah on the military or political battlefields.

Just as the Clinton administration upheld Yasser Arafat even as he built his terror armies while negotiating with Israel, so the Bush administration upholds Mahmoud Abbas as he follows in Arafat's footsteps. While waxing poetic about his yearning for peace in his talks with Israelis and Americans, inside the PA [Abbas] supports terrorists, and in addresses to Arab audiences he explains that he shares the terrorists' strategic goal of destroying Israel.

On Thursday, Jordan's Al-Dustur daily ran an interview with Abbas [who] boasted about his refusal to accept Israel's Jewish identity. He argued that the only difference he has with Hamas - which he hopes will join Fatah in a unity government - is that he thinks that the use of violence against Israel is counterproductive today. As he put it, "At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different."

Abbas bragged about his role as a terrorist in the 1960s and about Fatah's role as the founding father of modern terrorism. In his words, "We [Fatah] had the honor of leading the resistance and we taught resistance to everyone, including Hizbullah, who trained in our military camps."

[T]he US must redouble its efforts to seek out and cultivate the anti-jihadist forces in the Islamic world. Until it does so, rather than win the war, it will continue to stymied by the Musharrafs, Zardawis, Sharifs, Mubarak's and Abbases of the world who promote jihad while speaking of moderation, stability and democracy.

[Jerusalem Post]

Protection from terror tech

Israel as seen from space

Adjusting Fundamental Security Concepts -Gabriel Siboni

Countries such as Syria and organizations like Hizbullah in Lebanon and Palestinian organizations have built up high-trajectory fire capabilities as a key part of their operational capability.

Given the special conditions Israel faces, mainly the size of its territory, its minimal strategic depth, and the concentration of its population and strategic infrastructure within a narrow and crowded area, it is imperative to examine the implications of the changing nature of the threat to Israel.
(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
[Photo: NASA]

Displaying his feathers: some things never change

Abbas Does Not Rule Out Resuming Armed Conflict with Israel -Roee Nahmias

Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that he does not completely rule out the possibility of resuming the armed conflict with Israel. In an interview with the Jordanian newspaper al-Dustur, Abbas said he is against an armed conflict at this time, but things may differ in the future.

Abbas also said he objects to Israel's definition as a Jewish state: "We negated the concept in the Annapolis peace conference and it almost ended because of it...they wanted us to state we recognize Israel as a Jewish state in the closing statements, but we wouldn't hear of it."
(Ynet News)

Pro-Israel blogger under attack

Swedish Civil Servant Demoted for Pro-Israel Views

A Swedish Migration Board employee with 20 years' experience, Lennart Eriksson, 51, says he was demoted due to his pro-Israel political views.

In his spare time he operates a personal blog in which he expresses support for democratic freedoms and for Israel, in particular. Eriksson's career hit a bump last summer when he returned from a one-year sabbatical only to learn that he was to be demoted from his job, a position he had held for six years. He claims that when his new supervisor learned of his blog, he decided to force Eriksson out of the agency.
(The Local-Sweden)

Oren: MidEast "flammable"

It's the Middle East, Stupid -Michael B. Oren

[T]he Middle East is even more flammable today because of the countless thousands of short- and long-range missiles in its armies' arsenals.

These weapons vastly amplify the potential destruction of any military confrontation while slashing the amount of decision-making time that might be needed to avert all-out war.
(Washington Post)

Israeli military props up Palestinian Authority

'Without IDF, Hamas would take over W. Bank in days'

"Without the massive IDF presence in the West Bank, Hamas would take over the institutions and apparatuses of the Palestinian Authority within days," OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni told President Shimon Peres...

[H]e said, "for the first time in a decade, the IDF, intelligence services and the police have managed to almost completely prevent terror attacks on the home front."

[Jerusalem Post]

Preventive medicine

When Jihad Came to America -Andrew C. McCarthy

On May 1990, the U.S. embassy in Cairo alerted its counterpart in Khartoum that Egypt's "leading radical," Omar Abdel Rahman, was on his way to Sudan and warned that his ultimate plan might be to seek exile in the U.S.

And yet when, immediately upon arriving in Sudan, Abdel Rahman made application at the American embassy for a visa to the U.S., the document was issued to him within a week. Visa in hand, Abdel Rahman relocated to the U.S.

He was the motivating force behind the first effort to bring down the World Trade Center buildings in a bombing that killed six adults and wounded hundreds more in February 1993. I led the team of prosecutors who in 1995 successfully convicted him and nine others.

But this was not the first terrorist act on American soil for which he bore responsibility. It was preceded, only months after his arrival, by the assassination of the radical Jewish activist Meir Kahane. Had American authorities connected this murder to what they already knew about Abdel Rahman's burgeoning activities in America, and worked to mine the reams of evidence left by Kahane's assassin in his car and home, they would have gathered the information necessary to break up a terrorist ring in its relative infancy and thereby prevent the 1993 bombing - and, perhaps, much else that was to follow.
(Commentary)

Children in the line of fire

Maria Haimov, 8 years old

Israeli Child Injured in Palestinian Rocket Attack -Shmulik Hadad

Yossi Haimov, 10, sustained serious injuries on Monday when a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinians in Gaza landed near a school in Sderot.

His sister, Maria, 8, said, "We heard the Red Alert system, quickly ran and hid, there was a small 'boom,' and then when we came out there was once again a strong explosion. We hid near the wall and then the shrapnel hit Yossi in the shoulder and his entire shoulder was filled with blood."

(Ynet News)

UPDATE:

Sderot's War Children -Anat Meidan

The most gut-wrenching moment of Monday's rocket attack on Sderot was 8-year-old Maria caressing the forehead of her older brother, Yossi, 10, while he was lying wounded on the floor...

A 10-year-old boy should not be a wounded hero, and it is completely unnecessary for an 8-year-old girl to see her brother bleeding. On Monday, a Kassam rocket wrested away the innocence and put an end to the childhood of Yossi and Maria, Sderot's war children.
(Ynet News)

Nuclear tipped jihad

Ahmadinejad, Israel, and Mass Killings -Ze'ev Maghen

Most Iranians have imbibed throughout their lives the notion - the "absolute truth" - that Zionism is a source of profound evil.

When the time is ripe - and it will be soon - the decades of propaganda pounded into the brains of Iranians and other Muslims will be reactivated in order to create an atmosphere conducive to the eradication of an entire population. Here in Tel Aviv, we haven't slept well for a while now.

The writer is lecturer in Persian language and chair of the department of Middle Eastern history at Bar-Ilan University.
(Middle East Strategy at Harvard)

Jihad waining?

Why Aren't There More Jihadists? -Reuel Marc Gerecht

It is by now accepted wisdom that the war in Iraq brought huge numbers of holy warriors to the anti-American cause. But is it true?

If we make a comparison with the Soviet-Afghan war of 1979-89, which was the baptism for al-Qaeda, what's most striking is how few foreign holy warriors have gone to Iraq. While 25,000 Arab mujaheddin went to Pakistan to fight the Red Army, in Iraq we see nothing of this magnitude, even though Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, is in the Arab heartland and at the center of Islamic history.

Furthermore, the arrival of foreign holy warriors is deradicalizing the local population. In Iraq, with the anti-al-Qaeda, Sunni Arab "Awakenings," Sunni extremism is now in retreat. If bin Ladenism is now on the decline - and it may well be among Arabs - then Iraq has played an essential part in battering the movement's spiritual appeal.
(Washington Post)

VideoBite: Vantage Point

This brilliant film is highly recommended. "Playing the tape back" from different vantage points is an exceedingly creative way to build a story. You won't be disappointed.

The coming Gaza incursion

Who Is Pressuring Gaza? -Editorial

A responsible government is required, at the end of the day, to be accountable to its citizens who are under attack. Israel is not excited about a large-scale operation in Gaza, but the operation is nearing because the Kassam rocket terror is not coming to an end.
(Ha'aretz)


Hamas Still in Control -Karin Laub

The once media-friendly Hamas cabinet has been meeting in secret and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh hasn't been sighted since January, breaking his routine of leading weekly prayers at a local mosque.
(AP/Washington Post)

Emerging trend?

Pop Preacher Sings of a Tolerant Islam -Mark MacKinnon

Egyptian pop star Moez Masoud, 29, is one of a new wave of Muslim "televangelists," converting many to an interpretation of Islam that encourages social contacts between men and women and a rejection of anti-Western fundamentalism.

Critics call his message "Islam lite," but Masoud sees himself as helping reclaim a religion that for too long has been controlled by angry fundamentalists who preach in the name of Islam without following its basic precept of loving other human beings.

"These people have presented views that are just blatantly wrong about women, about homosexuals, about Jews, about jihad," he said. "I'm just removing the extra baggage that extremists have put in," he said.
(Globe and Mail-Canada)

Palestinians play Monopoly and win

Jerusalem Stateless in International Monopoly -Michal Lando

The battle for Jerusalem took a new direction this week, when a reference to Israel was removed from an on-line poll to select the cities to be featured in the international version of the popular Monopoly board game.

As Jerusalem climbed the ranks, making it to fourth place in an Internet vote to determine the 10 cities to be featured on the new version of the game, it lost an essential component: its country.

Jerusalem became the only city to be listed without a country name.

However, following complaints, all country names were removed from the list. According to Hasbro Company spokesman Wayne Charness, "Israel" was removed from the list by a mid-level employee following e-mails from angry Palestinians.
(Jerusalem Post)

Chutzpah

Ahmadinejad: Israel "Savage Animal"

In a speech broacast on Iranian state television, President Ahmadinejad said: "World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region."
(AFP)

Iran Urges UN to Condemn Israel -Edith M. Lederer

Iran urged the UN Security Council to condemn Israel over Prime Minister Olmert's warning that all options were on the table when it comes to keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman responded: "For a country whose leader describes a member state of the United Nations as a dirty microbe and a savage animal, to complain about others' statements is the height of hypocrisy," noting this was "coming from a country which is the world's major sponsor and exporter of terror."

(AP)

Christians under attack

Palestinian Militants Bomb Gaza YMCA

Gunmen have attacked the YMCA in Gaza City and blown up its library, burning thousands of books, its director says.

Eissa Saba said 14 men overpowered the center's two security guards before placing bombs in the library and main office. The guards said the gunmen had asked them why they worked for "infidels."

Gaza is home to 3,500 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox. A number of Christian institutions, regarded by Muslim extremists as un-Islamic, have been targeted by armed gangs over the past two years.
(BBC News)

Reflections on a dead terrorist

Dead in Damascus -Editorial

Before Osama bin Laden took the spotlight, Mughniyeh was probably the world's most wanted and elusive terrorist, a man with an FBI price tag of $5 million on his head. He masterminded some of Hizbullah's deadliest attacks...

Mughniyeh died in a car bombing, probably orchestrated by the Mossad, though Israel denies it. It'd be nice to think the CIA was up to this, but we have our doubts.
(Wall Street Journal)


Not Everyone Is Replaceable -Amir Oren

Mughniyeh's assassination will challenge the myth that "everyone can be replaced." This myth aims to keep Israel and other countries from targeting senior figures in terrorist organizations, under the theory that there is no point in taking such action if it further enrages the masses and stokes their determination to rally to the cause.

Mughniyeh belonged to the blacklist of arch-terrorists whose organizations will find it very difficult to replace them.
(Ha'aretz)


Saudis Let Mughniyeh Go in 1996 -Brian Ross

Former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke says that in 1996 the CIA learned that Hizbullah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh had boarded a commercial flight in Khartoum that was scheduled to stop in Riyadh.

"We appealed to the Saudis to grab him when the plane landed, and they refused," Clarke said in an interview broadcast Wednesday."We raised the level of appeals all the way through Bill Clinton who was on the phone at three in the morning appealing to the highest level in Saudi Arabia to grab him," Clarke said.

"Instead, the Saudis refused to let the plane land and it continued on to Damascus."
(ABC News)

Valentine's Day: Gaza style?

Gazans Celebrate Valentine's Day -Karin Laub

Valentine's Day is considered forbidden by Islam in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Yet on Thursday flower shops in Gaza City's better neighborhoods displayed rows of flower-filled buckets and heart-shaped decorations, and sold homegrown carnations to women in Islamic head scarves.

The Rose Flower Shop had managed to bring in 500 roses from Israel, using Gaza medical patients treated in Israel as "mules," and had about 50 roses left.

Across the Arab world, attitudes toward Valentine's Day are a gauge for the level of fundamentalism. The holiday is outlawed in Saudi Arabia, where religious police enforce the ban.

(AP)

Nasrallah next?

Assassination 'severe blow' to Hizbullah -Khaled Abu Toameh

Iran, Syria and Hizbullah accused Israel of being behind the assassination of top Hizbullah operative Imad Mughniyeh [pictured above] in Damascus and vowed to avenge his death.

The assassination came as a shock to many Arabs who said they could not understand how the assassins managed to catch up with such a prominent figure, considering the tough security measures taken by Hizbullah and Syrian intelligence services.

[An] Arab political analyst [said], "This means that Hizbullah's top brass has been infiltrated by the Israelis."
[Jerusalem Post]

Sharansky & Palestinian moderate: Bush's u-turn

Bush's Mideast U-Turn -Bassem Eid & Natan Sharansky

On June 24, 2002, President Bush presented his vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace. The real breakthrough of Bush's vision was not his call for a two-state solution or even the call for Palestinians to "choose leaders not compromised by terror." Rather, the breakthrough was in making peace conditional on a fundamental transformation of Palestinian society:

"I call upon [Palestinians] to build a democracy, based on tolerance and liberty. If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts....A Palestinian state will never be created by terror - it will be built through reform. And reform must be more than cosmetic change, or veiled attempt to preserve the status quo."

Bush's speech was supposed to shift the focus to helping Palestinians build a decent society that would protect the rights of their own people and promote peace with its neighbors.

The current peacemaking round will prove disastrous because it ignores what is most important. Rather than begin the long and difficult process to transform Palestinian society and ultimately pave the road to peace, the administration has consistently supported quick and foolish solutions: pressing for snap elections that preceded rather than followed reform and thereby brought Hamas to power.

Rather than establish a clear link between support for the PA and reform, Abbas is promised billions despite having done nothing. With the media entirely under his control, incitement continues and no one raises serious objections.

President Bush should spend his final year in office helping Palestinians begin the transformation of their society so that the vision he once spoke of so eloquently will have a chance to come to fruition some day.

We have wasted too much time strengthening leaders and reaching for the moon.
(Wall Street Journal)

Easing tension in Hebron

Arab Clan Chiefs Meet with Hebron's Jews -Efrat Weiss

Heads of local Palestinian clans in Hebron met with representatives from Israeli settlements in the area and discussed the easing of tensions between the two sides.

The Israelis said Sheikh Abu Khader Jabri told them that "I do not regard you as settlers but as residents. This city is yours just as much as it is ours."

[S]hortly after the meeting began, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades issued a proclamation throughout the city that called for dealing with the meeting's participants "with an iron fist."
(Ynet News)
[Artwork: Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, Baruch Nachshon]

Islam's Life of Brian?

Why the West Is Best -Ibn Warraq

Ayatollah Khomeini once said, there are no jokes in Islam. The West is able to look at its foibles and laugh, to make fun of its fundamental principles: but there is no equivalent as yet to Monty Python’s Life of Brian in Islam. Can we look forward, someday, to a Life of Mo? Probably not—one more small sign that Western values remain the best, and perhaps the only, means for all people, no matter of what race or creed, to reach their full potential and live in freedom.
[Front Page Magazine]

"Science fiction"

Israel: Gaza Threats Must End Before Palestinian State -Herb Keinon

Government officials said that, considering the situation today in Gaza, an Israeli withdrawal from large parts of the West Bank seems like "science fiction."
(Jerusalem Post)

Sderot: lost in the sauce

Blame Hamas for Gaza Suffering -Frida Ghitis

While news about Gaza fills the airwaves, there is a peculiar disinterest in the nightmare that is life for the people of Sderot and its vicinity in Israel. Every day, every few hours, the sirens wail their warning, giving terrified parents and children less than 15 seconds to take cover.

The rockets are deliberately aimed at civilians. They fall on schools and streets and day care centers. A recent study shows 56% of Sderot residents have had their home hit by a rocket or shrapnel. More than 90% say their street or an adjacent one has been hit, and almost 50% know someone who was killed in such an attack.

Every response by Israel draws international condemnation. Other countries have reacted to attacks against their population by pulverizing their opponents. Israel targeted militant leaders and tried economic sanctions.
(Miami Herald)

Good aim

Israel Hones Airstrikes -Nidal al-Mughrabi & Dan Williams

As Israel escalates its aerial campaign against militants in Gaza, it is employing hi-tech tactics designed to reduce the damage and the number of bystanders hurt.

The air force says its strikes now cause around one civilian casualty for every 20 militants killed or wounded, compared to a roughly 1-to-1 ratio when the practice was introduced in 2002.

The strikes are generally at night and employ ordnance of such low explosive power that cars that are hit often remain largely intact. "[T]he intel (on Gaza) is getting better and better," he said.
(Reuters)

Reality bites

Travel Brings Surprises -Diaa Hadid

A little travel has gone a long way toward changing perceptions in Gaza.

Many Gazans who visited Egypt remarked on the discrepancy between their more glamorous image of urban Egypt - derived mostly from movies - and the run-down border region of unpaved streets and small houses they encountered.

A trickle of Egyptians also made it into Gaza. Mohammed, an Egyptian truck driver who rented his truck to Palestinians to ferry goods into Gaza, pointed to cars crowding a nearby street and said: "I thought conditions here would be harder than this. I thought people would be starving."
(AP/Washington Post)

VideoBite: Laughing at jihad

Enjoy this 47 second VideoBite.
Content warning: mild adult theme

A caffeine boost

Dimona Suicide Bomber Had Coffee First -Laurie Copans

Revital Biton, owner of Revital's World Class Pizza in Dimona, said she wished she had called police when the jittery Arab man came in. Her customer was the bomber.

"Coffee, quick!" the bearded young man in a red coat demanded, Biton recounted. "He was tense, his eyes darting back and forth with worry....He looked strange to me."
(AP)

UPDATE:

The Israeli Lesson -Editorial

The news about Monday's suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona is that it's the first in more than a year. This didn't happen by accident, or because Palestinian radicals have somehow become less hostile to Israel.

Key to Israel's increasingly successful antiterrorist efforts has been the construction of its ostensibly "illegal" security fence, its equally "illegal" targeted assassinations of key terrorist leaders, its "disproportional" attacks on terrorist enclaves in Jenin and elsewhere, and other actions that saved innocent lives.

As Israel put pressure on terrorist leaders, they were forced to spend their time running for their lives rather than planning the next attack. As Israel set up physical obstacles to terrorism, the need for large-scale military incursions declined...
(Wall Street Journal)

Hamas rising

Strategic Implications of the Border Opening
-Maj.-Gen. Yaakov Amidror and Dan Diker

Hamas - the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ideological cousin of al-Qaeda - has gained full control over contiguous territory and population, and has now effectively become a state government without real opponents.

In sharp contrast to Fatah's yet unfulfilled promises, the Palestinian public sees Hamas' dramatic opening of the Gaza-Egypt border as the latest in a series of successful actions. Others include Hamas' surprise January 2006 electoral victory over Fatah, its kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the sustained rocketing of southern Israel, and Hamas' expulsion of Fatah forces from Gaza and the establishment of its control over the government there in June 2007.

Terrorist operatives and groups such as al-Qaeda, that have already used Egyptian Sinai as a rear base, can now reach Gaza without interference. Gaza has transformed from its prior status as part of the Palestinian Authority to its new role as a mini-state that is now an integral part of the Arab world.

If Egypt is forced to take responsibility for Gaza, Israel will have to more carefully weigh its military responses to Hamas terror actions originating from the Strip.
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

"Israeli consensus"

Israel Is Doing Better Than You've Heard -Peter Berkowitz

Israelis face a formidable array of national security threats. Weapons flow from Egypt into Gaza, Hamas rain[s] down Kassam rockets on Sderot and surrounding kibbutzim. In the West Bank, Israeli security forces operate around the clock to foil terrorist operations before they cross over into Israel. In the south of Lebanon, Hizbullah has rearmed. And then there is Iran...

There is a consensus among Israelis that the conditions for implementing a solution to the conflict do not now exist and are not likely to come into being anytime soon. Despite the intentions of Abbas and Fayyad, Fatah is too corrupt, the Palestinian educational system is too poisonous, Jerusalem too sensitive an issue, and Hamas too appealing to too many Palestinians. Most important, any political agreement would require the Israeli army and internal security forces to leave the West Bank, but few in Israel believe that can be done without paying an intolerable price - exposing Tel Aviv and environs, the center of the country's commercial life and home to half its citizens, to constant rocket attacks.

Because it faces up to harsh realities without losing sight of the demands of justice, the evolving consensus reflects the strength of the nation.
(Weekly Standard)

In their own words...

A Hamas Hardliner

Hamas' foreign minister, Mahmoud Zahhar [said] he would not "accept the reality" of Israel, looking ahead to a distant future when, "like your European Union," the Arab nation will form one state across its historic lands, joining up with other Muslim nations such as Turkey.

"We [Palestinians] were never an independent state in history," he notes. "We were part of an Arab state and an Islamic state."
(Economist-UK)

Shortage of terrorists?

Survivors of the attack

Al Qaeda uses two Down's syndrome women in Baghdad attack

Al Qaeda fanatics plumbed to sickening new depths yesterday when they turned two women with Down's syndrome into human bombs to kill 99 people in Baghdad.

The unwitting pawns were apparently fooled into wearing explosive vests which were then detonated remotely by mobile phones as the women mingled with crowds.

Involving women in fighting violates religious taboos in Iraq, but [w]omen can avoid thorough searches at checkpoints because of Islamic sensitivities...

Yesterday's attacks are the first ever to have involved anyone with Down's Syndrome.
[Daily Mail-UK]

Getting closer to bin Laden

CIA Kills Top Al-Qaeda Terrorist

Abu Laith al-Libi, a senior al-Qaeda terrorist, was killed in Pakistan by a CIA airstrike, U.S. officials told CNN.

Al-Libi plotted and executed attacks including a February 2007 bombing at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Cheney. He was on a "most wanted" list of 12 accused terrorists which was issued in October.
(CNN)

Returning Gaza

Give Gaza to Egypt -Daniel Pipes

Israelis had brought themselves to this avoidable predicament through incompetence, signing bad agreements, turning Gaza over to the thug Arafat, expelling their own citizens, permitting premature elections, acquiescing to the Hamas conquest, and abandoning control of Gaza's western border.

The border breaching, ironically, offers an opportunity to clean up a mess. Washington and other capitals should declare the experiment in Gazan self-rule a failure and press President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to help, perhaps providing Gaza with additional land or even annexing it as a province.

Among other benefits, this would (1) end the rocket fire against Israel, (2) expose the superficiality of Palestinian nationalism, and perhaps (3) break the Arab-Israeli logjam.

It's hard to divine what benefit American taxpayers have received for the 65 billion [dollars] they have lavished on Egypt since 1948; but Egypt's absorbing Gaza might justify their continuing to shell out $1.8 billion a year.
[Jerusalem Post]

The Gaza Breakout -Bret Stephens

Gaza is sovereign Hamas territory, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, and Egypt - not Israel - is the country that has most to fear from a statelet that is at once the toehold, sanctuary, and springboard of an Islamist revolution.

"The situation in Sinai now poses the greatest threat to Egypt's national security," writes one perceptive Egyptian blogger.
(Wall Street Journal)