Doc's Talk: Israel's partner in negotiations - the Fatah

Friday, October 26, 2007

Israel's partner in negotiations - the Fatah - takes credit for drive by shooting

David Bedein , The Bulletin

Jerusalem - On Wednesday, an off duty IDF soldier from the Israeli Givati Infantry Brigade was badly injured and a civilian was lightly injured in a shooting attack on the trans-Samaria road near the entrance to Ariel. Responsibility for the shooting was claimed by the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing. The Fatah leadership, including Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and aides to Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen, clarified: "This is not our official policy." Fahmi Zaarir, a spokesman for Fatah in the West Bank, however, told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot that "Fatah's official position is to maintain an agreed-upon calm on both sides, but Israel's latest actions throughout the West Bank do not enable the organization to control its men."

The armed terrorists infiltrated the main road of Judea and Samaria in a small blue GMC van. When they passed a bus stop at the entrance to Ariel, they fired a long volley at the Givati soldier who was waiting at the stop on his way home.
The bullets hit the young soldier in his stomach and legs. In addition, a civilian was lightly injured by this fire. The two casualties were taken to hospital for treatment, where each underwent surgery.

The terrorists' vehicle continued to move on the trans-Samaria road eastward while firing at passing cars on the road.

The Fatah terrorists continued to drive until they reached the village of Jamain, near Ariel. At the entrance to the village, they abandoned the van, set it on fire and fled, apparently in another vehicle that awaited them. A road out of Jamain reaches close to Nablus.

Immediately after the incident, IDF forces began to comb the area and set up roadblocks on roads in Samaria, in an effort to locate the terrorists. Israeli Security sources said that there had been warnings of intentions to stage shooting attacks on the roads, particularly in Samaria.

Security sources noted that in the past month, there has been an increase in the number of shooting attacks against Israeli vehicles throughout the West Bank.

Israeli Security Official: The Trouble Starts With Fatah
The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah are defined by both the U.S. and Israeli governments as a terrorist organization, yet both governments ignore that operative legal definition and choose to define the Fatah as a moderate peace partner, invited to attend the Middle East Summit in Annapolis on Nov. 26.

However, in a seminal analysis for the Israeli media provided by an Israeli security official who had been the Israeli intelligence chief for Judea and Samaria, the official noted that "The Fatah leadership, headed by Abu Mazen, is careful on every opportunity and before every extended microphone, to condemn terror and call for its cessation. But even while they speak, their soldiers - the members of the El-Aksa Martyrs Brigades - are immersed over their heads in terror. In the past few days, we have received painful terrorist reminders from them: Yesterday, the shooting attack in Ariel, and recent intentions to assassinate Olmert during a visit to Jericho."
The Israeli security official also noted that "the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades are still linked to Abu Mazen [aka Mahmoud Abbas - D.B.], all of whom receive a monthly salary from the budget of the Palestinian Authority, some of whom even serve in uniform as part of the Palestinian security forces."

Several hundred wanted Fatah men recently received full amnesty from Israeli pursuit, after many efforts made by Abu Mazen in his talks with Mr. Olmert to achieve the "amnesty for wanted men" agreement.

Yet according to the Israeli security official, "Abu Mazen has not kept his part of the agreement. Most, if not all, of the wanted men did not give up their arms to the Palestinian police as required by the agreement ... . Abu Mazen also continues to pay their salaries and to provide them with comfortable living conditions in his camps and headquarters. Fatah operatives in the West Bank enjoy the best of both worlds: They take advantage of Israel's uncompromising war against Hamas and Islamic Jihad to gain strength, and have become the source of terror in the West Bank. In the past few weeks, there has been an increase in the number of shooting attacks on West Bank roads, fortunately without casualties. Most of the attacks were committed by the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades."

The security official noted that while Hamas is known to be pressuring its members to carry out a large terror attack in order to derail the conference, "Now it has become apparent that our concerns should be aimed in a different direction - that Abu Mazen's soldiers will be the ones who will succeed in carrying out a large terror attack that will spoil the conference at Annapolis."

Egypt/Hamas Cooperation
The Middle East Newsline confirms that Israeli military intelligence has determined that Egypt has intensified its strategic cooperation with the Hamas regime in Gaza.
The Israeli intelligence community has assessed that the regime of President Hosni Mubarak was maintaining a closer relationship with Hamas than with the Palestinian Authority and that Egypt and Hamas have coordinated the flow of weapons, missiles, explosives and insurgents along the border between the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza.
Earlier this month, Egypt enabled nearly 100 Hamas and Islamic Jihad insurgents to move from the Sinai town of El Arish to the Gaza Strip. Many of the insurgents were identified as operatives trained in weapons production in Iran and Lebanon.

For its part, Egypt has provided a number of "photo opportunities" for the media to demonstrate the effort that Cairo has invested in blocking the flow of weapons to Gaza.

On Wednesday, Egypt reported the capture of 500 kilograms of TNT in Rafah near the Sinai-Gaza border.

On Thursday, Israel's military killed two Hamas operatives near the Egyptian border.
Israel has repeatedly demanded that Egypt sever ties with Hamas and close the Rafah passenger terminal. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee that Egyptian security arrangements along the Gaza border were unsatisfactory, and said she discussed the issue with Mr. Mubarak last week.

"We have received very disturbing reports in recent weeks that Egypt has not only failed to stop the flow of arms into Gaza, but certain Egyptian authorities are cooperating with the terrorist organization Hamas in smuggling vast amounts of modern weaponry into the Gaza Strip."

Meanwhile, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Tom Lantos said that Egypt has denied cooperation with Hamas and insisted that insurgents were entering the Gaza Strip by breaching the border wall.

On Oct. 21st, Israel Security Agency Director Yuval Diskin said 73 tons of explosives were transported by Egypt to the Gaza Strip since June 2007. In all, Hamas obtained at least 1,650 rocket-propelled grenades and 6,000 bombs in 2007 through the good offices of the Egyptian government. At the same time, Hamas has transferred to Egyptian hospitals more than 100 of its fighters who were wounded in clashes with Israel.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

Doc's Talk