Can Israel afford any more "Goodwill" to Abbas?

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer Mon Aug 18, 11:44 AM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel said Monday it will free two of its most prominent Palestinian prisoners — a militant mastermind from the 1970s and a gunman elected to parliament while behind bars — among 199 inmates to be released as a goodwill gesture to embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
While the move will give an important boost to the moderate Abbas, it drew fierce criticism from some Israeli politicians, who said it could undermine attempts to free a captured Israeli soldier held in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

What has Israel gained? Is there a limit to goodwill?

Face painting day

Members of the Palestinian security forces stand together before a demonstration of their techniques in the West Bank town of Jericho May 28, 2008.
REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK)

Look it's Flag Day and their painting their faces the colors of a ficticious country's flag.

Someone call the tailor

Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security force demonstrate their martial arts skills during a graduation ceremony in the West Bank city of Jericho, where they arrived earlier in the day from Jordan, Wednesday, May 28, 2008. Six hundred members of Abbas' police force graduated in Jordan and returned to be deployed in Jericho Wednesday.
(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

Will the ISM now protest/harrass PA Police?

JPost.com » Israel
May 6, 2008 13:28 Updated May 6, 2008 14:28
Kabatiya man hurt as PA police attackedBy

Palestinian Authority policemen that began deploying in the Jenin area Saturday haven't all been greeted with roses and champagne.

On Tuesday, an unarmed 21-year-old Palestinian man was seriously wounded in Kabatiya when gunmen fired at the PA security forces that were deploying in the village located south of Jenin.
Officials say the man is now on life support at a hospital.
The PA forces set up roadblocks in their search for the assailants.
The PA police commander in the Jenin district, Suleiman Imran, told Israel Radio that when the new police forces entered the village they were also pelted with stones.
Medics say police later shot two stone-throwers in the legs.
...

Where's the protest, the "natural reaction", the rage? The police shot "children of the stones" as Arafat called them. It's the big bad police against the poor defenseless children throwing stones.

My guess is this is going to be another ho-hum story of Arab on Arab violence and nobody will really care. Because only when there's Jew on Arab violence is it really a newsworthy story.

"It's the strike dummy"

Palestinians stand by their cars lined up near a gas station in Gaza City, Monday, April 7, 2008. Gaza's fuel distributors say they are on strike to protest Israel's reduced fuel supplies to their territory. Israel reduced fuel shipments to Gaza several months ago to pressure Palestinian militants to halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns. The restrictions have disrupted car traffic throughout Gaza.(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

So is the "petrol shortage" (See The caption runs out of gas) because of the strike by gas station owners or because of the reduced fuel supply?

The caption runs out of gas

Hamas police march through a street which is free of cars due to a petrol shortage, in Gaza City main street, Tuesday, April 8, 2008. The ruling Hamas militant group on Tuesday threatened to storm the Egyptian and Israeli borders if the two countries don't lift their blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel reduced fuel shipments to Gaza several months ago to pressure Palestinian militants to halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns and the restrictions have disrupted car traffic throughout Gaza(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

At this moment in time, there are no cars driving on my street can I simply say the street is empty due the high cost of gasoline? How does he know the lack of cars on the street are due to a "petrol shortage"? There are cars running in Gaza and maybe they don't want to drive down this particular street. Look at this picture of Gaza City where they are driving.

Loose-loose for Israel

Israeli police ban Palestinian event
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer 45 minutes ago
JERUSALEM - Israeli police on Tuesday broke up a Palestinian event meant to promote Jerusalem as the world's next "Arab Cultural Capital."
The Palestinians want next year's celebrations to strengthen their claim to the disputed city. But Tuesday's crackdown sent a strong signal that Israel will not go along with the decision by the 22-member Arab League to bestow its cultural prize on Jerusalem.
"We want to exploit this for Jerusalem," said Ahmad al-Ruweidi, head of the Jerusalem unit in the office of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Two years ago, the Arab League quietly designated Jerusalem its 2009 "Arab Cultural Capital," an honor that rotates among Arab countries. Winners typically use the occasion to showcase their attachment to Arab culture, sponsoring poetry, music, dance performances, lectures, school activities and sporting events.

This was just a loose-loose situation for Israel. If Israel allowed it to on, the Arabs would have lavished unpresecidented amounts of money and publicity (propoganda). Now that Israel barred the propoganda event, they'll just lavish tons of money, tout themselves as victims of the merciless Israelis, make this a resaon why they should have Jerusalem as their capital and still pour out tons of propoganda.

The key word is truely "exploit".

US to transfer $150m. to Palestinians

Mar 19, 2008 14:51 Updated Mar 19, 2008 15:26
US to transfer $150m. to Palestinians
By ASSOCIATED PRESS RAMALLAH, West Bank

The US is transferring $150 million in aid to the Palestinian government in the coming days, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad announced Wednesday.

PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.Photo: AP
The payment is part of a total of $550 million the US pledged to pay to the Palestinians over three years, part of a total of $7.7 billion in pledges from international donors made at a conference in Paris in December.

Call, Email, Fax your Senator and tell him/her that you don't want any of your tax money(yes, it's your money not your senator's money) to go to the PA for any reason. Please use proper discretion, be polite and curteous. Look at VIPAC for some letter suggestions. http://www.vipac.org/archive/

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Then contact the President and the Vice President and tell them the same thing. Please use proper discretion, be polite and curteous.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

The contact the Secretary of State and tell her the same thing. Please use proper discretion, be polite and curteous.

http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php?p_sid=7N2FT7_i&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xMTEmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x

Doesn't this seems dangerous?

Palestinian children play on the ruins of a building destroyed in a recent Israeli air strike, in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, March 10, 2008. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has instructed the army to halt air strikes and raids into the Gaza Strip following a recent drop in rocket fire from the territory, officials in his office said Monday.(AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

As a parent I see this situation frought with danger and wouldn't let my child paly in bombed out ruins. But hey I don't use children as bombs and human sheilds.

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Here pictures and videos of Gazan Arabs using people as human shields and Mosques as hiding places for RPG's and hand granades.

If it walks, talks and acts like...

Daled Amos quotes a Ynet report that Israel is holding the PA responsible for terrorism. Basically, the Government wants to pass legislation that since the PA is not doing anything to stop the kassam rockets fired from Gaza then the PA is responsible for the loss of life and property damage caused by the kassam rockets.

So if the PA walks like a terrorist organization, talks like a terrorist organization and acts like a terrorist organization then why is Israel not combatting terrorism and neutralizing the terrorist organization - the PA?

About that Gaza humanitarian crisis....

About that Gaza humanitarian crisis....

From Ma'an (Arabic):
The commander of the [Fatah-based] Ahmed Abu Rish Martyr Brigades yesterday claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Sufa three military-type missiles Amr 2.The battalions in a press release wrote: "This operation came in a series Covenant and fulfill the spirit of the martyr leader Yasser Arafat, the symbol, stressing adherence to the approach of resistance as a strategic choice".

There are multiple daily bombing and rocket attacks attacks against crossings between Gaza and Israel, so this would hardly be noteworthy if it wasn't for this:

Israel will allow the opening of the Sufa crossing for the passage of agricultural produce, beginning with strawberries and flowers and then expanding to include other produce, [Agriculture Minister Shalom] Simchon told Israel Radio.For the first time in weeks, the crossing was opened Tuesday for two hours to allow the passage into the Gaza Strip of 200 calves, the radio said.

In short, Alice in Wonderland exists. Hamas and the general Arab world invert logic and any scintilla of humanitarianism to further their goals.

Just another rifle

A Palestinian child sits on the shoulders of gunmen during a Fatah march in the West Bank town city of Jenin, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007. The demonstrators protested against Hamas gunmen who opened fire on a large crowd of Fatah supporters on Monday killing eight people.(AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

The child in this photo is just another gun in the eyes of the Arabs. In a society that inculcates a culture of death, being a Shaheed, to it's youth, people are just another bomb, kassam, katyusha, AK47, etc. Individual life has no meaning.

Arafat hoped to dance on the collective Jewish grave

West Bank Arafat memorial to open
By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer November 9, 2007
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The squat tomb sits in dignified quiet, decked in gleaming white Jerusalem stone on a slope soon to be carpeted green by 25 species of trees and shrubs.A two-story prayer hall and 98-foot minaret stand guard nearby, completing a memorial complex for the late Yasser Arafat that is tranquil, stately and well-ordered. It is, in other words, pretty much everything his tumultuous reign as Palestinian leader was not.
...
"On the one hand, they salute him for his achievements[Death, destruction, poverty, misery, embezzlement and corruption. emphasis added].
...
Arafat always said he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem, which he hoped would one day serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.That hope remains alive.

Because he believed in the obliteration of the Jewish people, G-d forbid. Arafat's burial in Jerusalem with Jerusalem as the capital of another Arab country would be the equivalent of dancing on the collective Jewish grave.

The tomb is built to allow the body to be retrieved easily from the concrete enclosure for reburial, Shtayyeh said. The square minaret overlooking the grave has a window on top through which a laser beam will point south toward the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's walled Old City.Even the pool surrounding the mausoleum on three sides is designed to make the structure appear to float, a sign of its transitory nature, Shtayyeh said.The place may be built in stone, but not for eternity. "The code word of all this is temporariness," Shtayyeh said.

AP Editorial article

Why don't we see headlines saying, "Arabs talk peace but Kassams, suicide bombers, preaching a death cult, etc. hurts prospects for a Palestinian state." ? The entire is one sided completely slanting to show how bad Israel is. It basically says if those mean pesky Israelis would only stop building settlements there would be peace in our time. The piece completely ignores all the murder, mayhem and brainwashing that continues minute by minute by the Arabs. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza its ridiculous to blame Israeli settlement growth as the impediment to peace in the region. In Gaza the Israelis uprooted and displaced thousands of its own citizens for the hope that peace would ensue. They've shown that the bricks and mortor mean nothing if the Arabs would reciprocate with peace. Instead they continue their culture of death, suicide bombs, etc. unabated.

Where's the journalistic integrity? Why didn't the article quote people from the Yesha Council? Why only Atabs and Peace Now?

Israel talks peace, but expanding settlement hurts prospects for Palestinian state
The Associated Press
Published: November 7, 2007
BETAR ILLIT, West Bank: The rattle of jackhammers splits the air on a windswept West Bank hilltop as workers smear mortar and lay bricks at a new apartment building in this sprawling Jewish settlement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he's ready to make a deal that would give the Palestinians a state in the West Bank. But realities on the ground — outlined in a new report Wednesday showing vigorous Israeli construction in the West Bank — could have momentous implications for the latest U.S. peacemaking push.
"Everything that Israel is doing on the ground is of course an obstacle to what are trying to achieve," said Rafiq Husseini, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Nonetheless, he said, the Palestinians want to negotiate "until the last minute."
The Palestinians said Monday that they have received assurances from the U.S. that Israel would meet its short-term obligations under the "road map," a U.S.-backed peace plan. In its initial stage, Israel is supposed to freeze West Bank settlement construction and dismantle dozens of settlement outposts scattered across the territory.