Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that his country would continue to support Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas until “the collapse of Israel.”

Iranian news agency Khabar quoted him as saying to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that he and the Iranian people as a whole consider it their religious and national duty to support Hamas “until the big victory feast which is the collapse of the Zionist regime.” (more…)

Two boats carrying 44 ‘Free Gaza’ ‘peace’ activists reached the shore of Hamas controlled Gaza Saturday.

The activists are from 17 countries and consider themselves activists for peace. They consider the Israeli blockade of Gaza to be illegal and inhumane. (more…)

‘Israel has said it will transfer to the West Bank about 120 Fatah supporters who fled the Gaza Strip after clashes with Hamas,’ Al Jazeera reports. ‘Monday’s announcement marks a reversal of a previous decision, which had seen 32 men detained by Hamas after they were sent back on Sunday.’ (more…)

It seems that the minor civil war between Hamas and Fatah is flaring up once again; Hamas has now, in response to a series of bombings in Hamas-controlled Gaza, arrested several representatives of Palestinian President and leader of Fatah, Mahmous Abbas (Abu Mazen). (more…)

Salafi Jihadists are becoming increasingly active in ‘Palestine.’ They are garnering more support than ever before, and they are partially responsible for the increasing radicalization of Palestinian Arabs. If you think Fatah and especially Hamas are evil and extreme, just take the following comparison made by Salafi Jihadists into consideration: “compared to us, Hamas is Islamism Lite.” (more…)

How this can surprise anyone, is beyond comprehension. Of course Israel’s enemies are celebrating; the Israelis released many terrorists, and in return got the bodies back of Israeli soldiers who had been killed by other terrorists. That’s not a victory for Hezbollah, Iran, Hamas, etc., and a major defeat for the Jewish nation-state. (more…)

Israel’s cabinet approved ‘a rare prisoner swap with the Shiite militia Hezbollah, agreeing to free a convicted murderer and others in exchange for two Israeli soldiers who are believed to be dead.’ Yes, you read that correctly; Israel is willing to give up terrorists and will, in exchange, receive the bodies of two murdered soldiers. (more…)

In what will undoubtedly soon be called one of Israel’s biggest mistakes in the last five years, the news has hit the wires that Israel has agreed to a truce with Hamas in Gaza. The deal has been brokered by Egypt, and it will start this Thursday. (more…)

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations struck back hard at former US President Jimmy Carter, for meeting with leaders of the terrorist organization Hamas recently. In a luncheon brieving for reporters, sponsored by The Israel Project, Ambassador Dan Gillerman said that Carter “went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas.” (more…)

Fox News reports that former US President Jimmy “Israel is an Apartheid state” Carter may meet with the leadership of terrorist organization Hamas. Carter is reportedly planning to meet with Khaled Meshal, the exiled head of the Palestinian terror group, on April 18 of this year, during a trip to Syria. (more…)

With all the good and ill will in the world, I can’t make too much of this. More funny than anything else:

H/t

The leader of the militant group Hamas — the Palestinian faction that took power in Gaza in a military coup last year and ever since has been raining missiles down on Israeli border towns — has offered Israel a deal: we won’t kill your civilians if you don’t kill ours. (more…)

Vanity Fair has what could potentially be a bombshell up. According to VF, the United States provoked a civil war in Palestine, thinking that Fatah would win it. (more…)

Ok, this is just sad.

Ahmad Abu Halabiya: The truth is that some of these earthquakes may be artificial, while others are natural. What is dangerous is the excavations underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque and the network of tunnels that was built. These have begun to threaten the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore, any earthquake – whether natural of artificial – measuring more than 5.5 or 6 on the Richter Scale will definitely have an impact, unless Allah decrees otherwise. This will have an impact on the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This is where the danger lies, whether the earthquake is artificial or natural. In any case, it is not impossible for the Jews to generate an artificial earthquake one way or another, in order to accomplish their goal of destroying the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as a step towards the construction of their false temple, God forbid.

The case against the Holy Land Foundation was an open-and-shut one - the nominal charity was almost certainly guilty of funneling money to Hamas, an organization that most Americans recognize as a sponsor of terrorism in Israel and beyond.

So how did the U.S. government lose the case? The Investigative Project on Terrorism’s new report sheds a bit of light on how some jurors were bullied into voting against their consciences by their peers.

The three jurors interviewed by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) showed the Neal-created perception as skewed. All three jurors say they disagree with his views of the evidence and the prosecution’s case. To them, it seems clear that Neal made up his mind going into the jury room and refused to consider any argument in favor of guilt. He preferred to read the court’s instructions rather than look at exhibits in evidence, they said. And his often snide manner intimidated and bullied those who disagreed with him.

(more…)

The Spiegel Online has an interview up with Mahmoud Zahar, co-founder of Hamas. Hamas told the Spiegel among other things, that Hamas wants to turn Gaza into an Islamic state:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: After heavy fighting, Hamas won control over the Gaza Strip last Saturday. But it’s not clear what your party now intends to do. The assumption in the Western world is that Hamas wants to establish an Islamic state in Gaza. Is this true?

Zahar: Of course. We want to do that, but with full support of the people. At the moment we can’t establish an Islamic state because we Palestinians have no state. As long as we don’t have a state, we will try to form an Islamic society.

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

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

Yeah, because the Sharia leaves a lot of room for religious tolerance and the freedom of individuals: as long as they do exactly what the Koran tells them to do that is. If they do not, they should - essentially - be killed. Zahar has a somewhat limited view on freedom: he considers freedom to be the obligation to live an “Islamic Life.”

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the West there is a fear that the Gaza Strip may become a playground for international terrorism. Is this danger real?

Zahar: Our people can’t distinguish between resistance and terrorism. We’re fighting for the liberation of our land from an occupation. When people in Europe had to fight the Nazis, they were honored, later, as freedom fighters. No one would have called Charles de Gaulle a terrorist.

On the other hand, no sane person would compare Zahar to De Gaulle either.

And good news for those who say that we should ship suitcases filled with money to Gaza:

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

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

H/t Jihad Watch where Robert Spencer offers some commentary of his own.

The Spiegel has an article up about what once was the headquarter of the Fatah-controlled Security Force in Gaza, which has been taken over by Hamas.

Hamas allows interested individuals to visit this headquarter: Hamas says that many of its members have been interrogated, tortured and murdered in its chambers.

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

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

“This building is a symbol of injustice in stone,” says Abu Mohammed, an officer in Hamas’s militant al-Qassam Brigades, who led the attack on the complex. He and his unit have occupied the compound since the building was captured, and Abu Mohammed is using the gatehouse as his office. “We came because we wanted to see the place where our brothers were killed,” he says.

Of course, it is undoubtedly true that Fatah has not treated Hamas members well. There is no doubt in my mind about the treatment quite some Hamas prisoners received. However, one should take whatever Hamas says with a grain of salt:

In the room next to the guard booth, large puddles of blood are drying out, surrounded by swarms of flies. “Fatah used this room to shoot people,” says the al-Qassam militiaman.

But why the security force would have performed executions in a room with two windows, directly adjacent to the gate of the complex, remains unclear. One can’t help but suspect that Abu Mohammed’s men may have used the room to shoot Fatah men who wanted to surrender.

Eyewitnesses last Thursday reported that the Fatah members who were defending the building were shot in the head, one after another, when, with their shirts removed and their hands held above their heads, they had attempted to surrender.

Abu Mohammed, of course, denies these allegations by saying: “We didn’t kill a single one of them. That would be un-Islamic.”

Sure.

Andrew C. McCarthy wrote an interesting article for NRO about the Bush administration’s decision to isolate Hamas and (but) to embrace Fatah / Abbas. Andrew writes:

President Bush’s stirring post-9/11 message that regimes the world over have to choose between aligning with civilization or with terrorists should officially be interred in war-torn “Palestine.” Seriousness about the doctrine is the only realistic way to defeat our enemies, and now we make a mockery of it. A mockery built on the trifecta-fiction that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is an avatar of peace, that his Fatah faction has aligned with civilization, and that the Palestinian people — the ones who freely chose to install Hamas as their parliamentary majority and who have trademarked “Intifada” as an instrument of statecraft — are somehow worth prostituting ourselves over.

In the Palestinian civil war, the Bush administration has unabashedly cast its lot with Fatah. The United States, in the midst of its own global war against Islamic radicalism, is promising additional millions in foreign aid for a cabal which maintains its own jihadist wing, and which is so thoroughly corrupt — having pocketed much of the foreign aid billions that poured in over the last two decades — that Palestinians opted for the more transparent Hamas terrorists when given the option…

Abbas proceeded to urge a throng of 50,000 Palestinians to re-aim their guns at the “occupation” (that would be Israel) instead of turning them on each other: “[W]ith the will and determination of its sons, Fatah has and will continue,” he brayed. “We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation…. We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation….”

That was less than six months ago — despite administration assertions on Monday that Abbas is “a partner who is committed to peace.” And none of it was a surprise. When Abbas was seeking election in 2005, he declared to a cheering mob in Gaza that Palestinian terrorists being sought by Israel were “heroes fighting for freedom.”

After that, Andrew takes a closer look at Fatah’s constitution (which isn’t exactly filled with positive statements).

Although I understand Andrew’s reasoning: that the US has made a deal with the devil, I think that he is wrong, in so far that the West has to do something and that now is a great opportunity to force Abbas to moderate Fatah and to work on a lasting peace. Lord knows that I am not exactly a big fan of Fatah either, but in this case Fatah is - certainly - the lesser of two evils.

It is time for some true realism in America’s foreign policy. I agree with those who say that talking to Hamas is completely useless, but Fatah and Abbas have indicated on several occasions that they might be willing to compromise, which means that talking to Abbas and helping him might pay off.

Fatah is not ‘good,’ but a regime does not have to be ‘good’ for the West to deal with it: the regime must be willing to compromise and to give us something of value (with, of course, something for them in return).

Investor’s Business Daily has a good editorial up about former President Jimmy Carter:

Has Jimmy Carter gone off the deep end? He’s now scolding the West for refusing to bankroll Hamas terrorists who’ve just seized power at gunpoint in Gaza. It’s a new low in coddling terrorism.

The answer, according to the IBD (and I agree) is: yes. From the editorial:

The statement [”The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah”] was so malevolent and illogical as to border on insane. Carter wasn’t honest enough to say he was rooting for terrorists who started a terrifying new war in the region and trashed what little democratic rule the Palestinians had. Instead, he tut-tutted the West for being insufficiently sensitive to the fact that Hamas thugs were democratically elected in 2006 in an “orderly and fair” vote.

When one party has started a civil war, democracy isn’t exactly the issue anymore. Just being elected does not justify making warfare on your fellow citizens. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeatedly points out that those who are elected democratically have an obligation to govern democratically or they aren’t democrats. Hamas has blown its right to democracy.

And:

Crazier still, Carter insisted Hamas was entitled to American aid because Fatah had been getting it. But he left out some details: Hamas is a terrorist organization that had broken six previous cease-fires, and its campaign platform vowed to destroy Israel. Hamas would gladly take Western cash to make good on that campaign promise to voters.

No one in the West is obligated to support an international terrorist organization just because it “won” an election. The proper response is to cut it off until it renounces violence.

Does the West encourage other countries to become Democracies? Yes. However, Democracy does not just mean what the majority (or a significant part of the population) wants: it is also about respecting human rights, protecting certain basic freedoms, and, generally, being a good member of the international community.

When Palestinians elect a terrorist organization into office, they should not complain when the West cuts off all aid. Hamas is an, I repeat, terrorist organization. We are not, in any way, shape or form, obliged to support a terrorist organization.

There are some people who seem to believe that it is all about Democracy. It is not. The majority of the people can vote to kill the minority. Does that mean that we have to support this decision?

Of course not you will say.

Good - Hamas wants to kill all Israelis and destroy Israel. Therefore, we are not obliged to help Hamas. In fact, if we give money to Hamas, Hamas will most likely not only use it to help Gazans, but also to buy weapons with which they will attack Israel and destroy (read: kill) all opposition.

Ahmed Yousef wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about the situation in Gaza. Strangely, Yousef defends Hamas - in the very first paragraph he explains why, according to him, Hamas’ take-over of Gaza was not a “coup.” At the very end of the op-ed all becomes clear: “Ahmed Yousef is the political adviser to Ismail Haniya, who became the Palestinian prime minister last year.”

Ah, that explains it then.

Lawhawk at A Blog For All says it all:

Let’s just ignore all the assassination attempts by Hamas on Fatah’s Abbas and other top leaders, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Let’s ignore the Hamas thugs throwing Fatah thugs off rooftops or executing them in hospitals or firing on crowds of Fatah thugs seeking to flee Gaza to Israel.

Hamas isn’t providing political stability. It’s enforcing its brand of law and order according to Islamist precepts. If you’re a member of Fatah, you’re toast. Law and order consists of Hamas thugs doing what they do best - cowing those without the guns into doing their bidding. As for getting basic services going, perhaps the Palestinians should consider using piping for sewage rather than rockets. As for the economics, perhaps they should consider growing agriculture in greenhouses instead of looting them and then using the remnants as rocket launching facilities or terror training camps.

LGF has a video up of “Ahmed Yousef in an appearance on Hizballah’s Al-Manar TV, explaining to the audience that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks—just like the US was behind Pearl Harbor.” Part of the transcript:

These events were preceded by very detailed planning, conducted by strategists, who wove the strands of this plot. Some people were probably recruited, and, as has been pointed out by a certain Western intellectual, Israel excels in espionage within the US. and is capable of disguising many operations as Islamic. In other words, Israel is capable of penetrating certain Islamic circles, of directing and running them behind the scenes, so that they will conduct operations from which Israel benefits. Anyone who considers the events of 9/11 cannot say that the Muslims gained anything. There’s another dimension, which some people may have noticed. No one could have captured the pictures of the attack so perfectly except for the cameras in the hands of several Mossad agents, who were near the scene of events, and succeeded in filming this scenes so that it will always serve zionism to remind the world of the Arabs’ and Muslims’ crimes against America.

Yeah, definitely a good decision of the New York Times to print his column.

The New York Times has a couple of interesting articles up about the situation in Gaza: after the fighting, Hamas is now busy trying to enforce its authority. Of course, we will have to wait a bit longer to see what Hamastan will look like, but so far, the first signs are not exactly encouraging:

Ghada, 50, a Palestinian Christian, is afraid to go outside. When she does, “You have all these men suddenly in the street with these long beards, and they look at you in surprise, from up to down, and their look is, like, why are you like this?” Several times, young men have told her she should be killed for not wearing a head covering.

Ghada, who did not want her last name to be mentioned also said: “Look at how Hamas and Fatah fought each other, and they’re both Palestinian and both Muslim. If they do this to each other, what can they do to others? Now it’s to the advantage of Hamas to make it calm, but afterward we don’t know what they’re up to.”

She is quite right about that. Thomas Friedman wrote a great column about the Palestinian civil war, noting that, in effect, what goes around comes around:

certain habits, especially bad ones, die hard — and they can end up warping your own society as much as your enemy’s. You can see what’s happened here: If it’s O.K. to wear masks when confronting the Jews, it eventually becomes O.K. to wear masks when confronting other Palestinians. If it becomes O.K. to use suicide bombers against the Jews, it eventually becomes O.K. to use suicide bombers against other Muslims. What goes around comes around.

The column is also noteworthy because Friedman spends some time on the outfit both Hamas and Fatah forces wear, more specifically the fact that all of them wear masks when they are fighting. This mask sends - essentially - a terrifying message for the average Palestinian since it essentially says: “I don’t play by the rules. Be afraid, be very afraid.” Wearing a mask allows both sides to commit the most horrible crimes, while remaining anonymous. They can throw their Palestinian brothers off the highest buildings in Gaza, nobody can identify them. Thus, there is no reason to feel ashamed of what they are doing to their own country (except for the fact that they behave like a bunch of immoral savages, but that never stopped them before).

Israel meanwhile, once again proves that she has the moral highground by letting ill Gazans cross the border into Israel, where they can recieve much needed medical treatment. Once again - as usual - Israel shows her humane face, while the Palestinian thugs of Hamas kill as many ‘enemies’ as they can while letting their Palestinian ‘brothers,’ who did not ask for the conflict in the first place, die because they cannot receive the medical treatment they so desperately need.

Of course, there is also good news for some Palestinians, namely: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush have publicly embraced Mahmoud Abbas. Olmert promised to work with Abbas “to provide the Palestinians with a real, genuine chance for a state of their own.”

Bush has decided to focus solely on the West Bank: “the administration is pursuing what some have called a ‘West Bank First’ strategy in which money, aid and international political recognition would be heaped on the West Bank, enabling Mr. Abbas to develop a showcase government there that would attract support from ordinary Palestinians.” I have called for such a policy myself as well, and I am glad that Bush agrees: Hamas should be completely isolated, starved even (as a figure of speech), while the West Bank prospers. Pour money into the West Bank, demand some concessions from Abbas in return (no celebration of terrorism on PA TV for instance) and let the Palestinians see what happens if they embrace moderation.

The Haaretz calls on the Israeli government to allow refugees from Gaza to enter Israel, with which I agree although Israel should make sure - first and foremost - that those who enter are not terrorists.

In the end, this is a great opportunity for Israel to, finally, be considered to be the ‘good guy.’ Israel has lost many PR battles, it is time - I’d say - for a victory. Help Gazans to get out of Gaza. Give medical treatment to those who need it. Isolate Hamas, invest in the West Bank. Do that and the situation changes quite drastically in Israel’s favor.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The United States, Israel and the European Union must end their policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian people to deepening conflict between the rival movements, former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was addressing a conference of Irish human rights officials, said the Bush administration’s refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas was “criminal.”

Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas…

Carter said the American-Israeli-European consensus to reopen direct aid to the new government in the West Bank, but to deny the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, represented an “effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples.”

Great - the Idiot-in-Chief has spoken. Remember, this is the same man who accuses Israel of being an Apartheid state. I find it amazing that Carter continues to defend the terrorists of Hamas. Well, on second thought, I do not actually: Carter speaks for the left-wing of the Democratic Party - the Wing that considers Palestinians to be victims and Hamas to be heroes / freedom fighters. The Wing that has no problem with comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and Gaza to Auschwitz.

Carter, as usual, believes that the Palestinians should be treated as children; they do not have to take responsibility for anything. They are victims. They do not have a say in what is happening to them - it is all Israel’s and America’s fault, according to Carter and his ilk.

I wish newspapers would stop quoting Carter. He has become completely irrelevant.

More about the situation in Gaza at On Faith.

Charles Levinson continues to blog about the situation in Gaza. It seems that Hamas is - slowly but surely - making it impossible for people to buy cigarettes, which is - of course - quite a terrible thing for smokers but not exactly life threatening. More importantly, “Hamas has moved to restore law and order in Gaza, including putting traffic cops at busy intersections to direct traffic.”

Today, Charles published this post about how Hamas smuggled weapons into Gaza as to be able to commit the coup it committed last week. Many Fatah officials are angry at Abbas, because he refused to smuggle weapons for them into Gaza.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Christians living in Gaza fear for their lives. According to the JP, they are increasingly attacked by extremist Muslims. As a result, Christian Gazans “appealed to the international community [on Monday] to protect them” against before mentioned extremists. “Many Christians said they were prepared to leave the Gaza Strip as soon as the border crossings are reopened.”

Over the past few days, a Christian school and Church in Gaza city have been attacked by Muslim terrorists. “Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in the Gaza Strip, said: “The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church. hen they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment.”

They did not just destroy “the” Cross, they destroyed every single Cross, and burned every single cope of the Bible they could get their hands on. The good news:

He said Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas phoned him on Sunday night to express his strong condemnation for the attack. “President Abbas promised that he would do his utmost to prevent such attacks on Christians here,” he said.

The bad news: Abbas has no influence whatsoever over what happens in Gaza. He can say everything he wants, he can promise whatever he wants, but Hamas is in power now and Hamas considers Christians to be infidels who should either be killed or forced to leave Gaza.

Hypocritically enough, “Islam Shahwan, spokesman for Hamas’s Executive Force in the Gaza Strip, denied responsibility.” He said: “We have instructed all our men to withdraw from the area. We will punish anyone who targets churches and public institutions.”

Yeah, I’m sure you will. Just as I am sure that you love Jews, but hate “Zionists.”

Here are some couple of interesting articles about the situation in Palestine / Gaza and the West Bank:
- “Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday issued a decree outlawing the armed groups of Hamas and said its members would be prosecuted.” Abbas wrote he has decided to “consider the Executive Unit and the militias of the Hamas movement illegal, due to their military coup against the Palestinian legitimacy and its institutions.” As a result, “anyone who is involved in any of these two groups is going to be punished, according to the law and the orders of the state of emergency.” Hamas’ reaction: Abbas is a traitor who is part of some grand American-Israeli conspiracy to “bring down the Hamas government.”

- Israeli PM Ehud Olmert met with UN Secretary General Ban to discuss the situation in Lebanon and Gaza. According to the JPost, “Olmert asked that a draft plan be drawn up in Israel regarding the possibility of an international force on the Gaza border.” Sadly, “there was little likelihood that such a deployment would materialize.” Both Egypt and Hamas strongly object to such an international force (because such a force might make it impossible for Egypt to smuggle weapons into Gaza).

- Gazans, meanwhile, aren’t very positive. Asef Hamdi summarized the situation quite accurately: “In simple words… welcome to the Taliban lifestyle.”

- Meanwhile, incoming Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is believed to be planning “an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush Hamas.” No one can blame Israel for attacking of course considering the fact that rockets are fired from Gaza every single day at Israel. However, it seems to me that Israel would be wise to refrain from attacking for quite a while. As I have said before, starve Hamas. Enforce the borders. Make sure that nothing comes in and that nothing gets out of Gaza. Isolate Gaza completely. Then, if Hamas decides to launch more than one terrorist attack against Israel (I’m talking about coordinated terrorist attacks), strike back hard or, better yet, strike against Hamas leaders in Gaza, but let time to its work - let Gaza collapse.

- A senior Fatah officer explained why he and his buddies did not fight against Hamas and, instead, surrendered: “we are very disappointed with our leadership.” He explained: “We decided to surrender to [Hamas’s armed wing] Izaddin Kassam because we didn’t feel that our commanders and leaders were behind us. Many of our commanders had fled to Ramallah and Cairo, where they were issuing orders to us from air-conditioned hotel rooms.” It is quite remarkable that Abbas did not order his troops to fight back (until too late).

- Meanwhile, Israel says that it will not allow Fatah “to slaughter Hamas members in the West Bank like Hamas did to Fatah last week in the Gaza Strip.” My question: why not? Let it happen. Palestinians hate Israel no matter what Israel does. Let the Palestinians divide their land into two separate entities: Hamastan and Fatahstan.

- Outgoing Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz isn’t happy. “Peretz was outraged that Olmert and Barak were so quick to replace him. He told Olmert in a conversation on Friday that the telephone vote took him by surprise and that Barak violated a promise to him that the handover in the Defense Ministry would be coordinated in a respectful manner by the two of them.” Peretz (one of Israel’s worst Defense Ministers in the history of the country) said: “It’s not as if Barak is Rambo coming to save us. So why is [his appointment] being handled so hastily and disrespectfully?”

- And, lastly (from the JP that is), there is this column by Khaled Abu Toameh, called “Palestinian Affairs: Fatah’s final death blow.” Khaled explains why he believes Hamas was able to take control of Gaza so easily. In short: Palestinians believe that Hamas is the lesser of two evils. Fatah is incredibly corrupt. The problem: once Hamas rules, Hamas will become corrupt as well.

Next, lets go to the Haaretz:
- “Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayad said after being sworn in Sunday that his first priority would be to restore security to the PA.” He said: “The first piority of our government is security and the security situation. The mission will be difficult and hard, but not impossible.” That of course depends: if he includes Gaza, it might be a bit more difficult that he anticipates. If, on the other hand, he is strictly talking about the West Bank he’s probably right.

- Aluf Benn wrote an op-ed about Ehud Barak. Aluf explains why Barak changed role models: first, he was a big fan of Winston Churchill, nowadays, he looks at General Charles de Gaulle for inspiration.

Gideon Levy writes: “Slightly before Shabbat came in on Friday evening, U.S. citizen G. reached the Palestinian side of the Erez Crossing. G., the headmaster of a private school in Gaza, may have been the last Westerner to leave the Strip. The last one to leave did indeed turn off the lights: The Palestinian side was empty.” Read this column if you want to see a perfect example of the idiocy of the left on this issue.

- Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel conclude that Hamas is a wolf in moderate clothing. Really? I dunno, I don’t think that there is much ‘moderate’ about Mickey “the Martyr” Mouse.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Israel has offered to remove the economic embargo on Hamas if kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit is freed and Kassam rocket attacks stop, the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Sunday morning.

The message was reportedly conveyed to the Islamic group via Arab mediators.

A Hamas source in the Gaza Strip was pessimistic about the seriousness of the proposal, telling Al-Hayat that it was an Israeli attempt to “put out the feelers” on the now Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

A spokesman for Hamas further said that Alan Johnston would be released soon. Johnston is a reporter for the BBC and was kidnapped last March in Gaza. According to Hamas, he was kidnapped by individuals who belong to the Durmush clan. Hamas - reportedly - threatened the kidnappers that if Johnston would not be released soon / this weekend, Hamas would use force.

Sadly, in the words of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, “there is nothing new yet regarding Alan.”

That sounds like a great deal for Hamas, no? All they have to do to is to release an Israeli soldier (if he is still alive) and stop firing rockets at Israel (on a daily basis). Both conditions, it seems to me, can easily be met. In return the terrorist organization gets just about everything it wants regarding the Gaza Strip. Money, water, food, factual recognition… Not a bad deal at all.

And Israel? Well, Israel gets it soldier back and an economically stronger neighbor, ruled by a bunch of extremists. Hamas will use all the money it gets to further strengthen its position in Gaza (and possibly the West Bank). More children will be taught that the sole purpose of their existence is to blow themselves up on a crowded Israeli market; we will see more videoclips of Mickey “the Martyr” Mouse; every now and then, a Hamas militant will cross the border into Israel to cause havoc; Gazan women will be forced to dress according to Hamas’ dress code; those who do not support Hamas will be killed; indeed, not quite a pretty picture.

This is quite ironic, isn’t it?

Enraged Fatah leaders on Saturday accused Hamas militiamen of looting the home of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat in Gaza City.

“They stole almost everything inside the house, including Arafat’s Nobel Peace Prize medal,” said Ramallah-based Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman. “Hamas militiamen and gangsters blew up the main entrance to the house before storming it. They stole many of Arafat’s documents and files, gifts he had received from world leaders and even his military outfits.”

Abdel Rahman said the attackers also raided the second floor of the house and stole the personal belongings of his widow, Suha, and daughter, Zahwa. “They stole all the widow’s clothes and shoes,” he added. “They also took Arafat’s pictures with his daughter.”

Of course, Arafat, the terrorist, should never have won the Nobel Peace Prize in the first place. So, in a way, one could argue that - finally, at long last - justice is done. He did not deserve it, it has now been taken away from his home.

I do wonder how the Palestinian people will react to this. Last time I checked, Arafat was quite popular. The majority of Palestinians might not be too happy with the way Hamas looted Arafat’s home.

Lets see, Hamas takes over Gaza, the result: homes of Fatah members are raided, everything that is worth more than $5 is stolen, everything else is destroyed. Aside from all the looting, people are being executed on the streets, in broad daylight.

I thought that Hamas wanted to bring peace and order to Gaza?

Meanwhile, the looting of Arafat’s home leaves Carl wondering: “How much would you pay for a Nobel Peace Prize on E-Bay?”

Noel Sheppard notices that Gazans - who are supposed to hate Israel because Israel is a brutal apartheid state - flee Gaza for… Israel. Also of interest is that Israel will allow food and other basic supplies into the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s takeover of the coastal area.

Let me join the chorus (with Charles and Joel): when will the American / Western media report about this? When? We constantly hear about how evil Israel is, how Israel oppresses the Palestinians, but now we see Palestinians fleeing Gaza for Israel and Israel sending food, water, etc. into the Gaza Strip to help out the Gazans.

Will this be reported? Probably not. After all, this doesn’t make Israel look bad.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who defied PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s “presidential decree” to dissolve the Hamas-led government, called for unity among Palestinians and urged people to remain calm as fighters from his Hamas movement consolidated their hold on Gaza.

Haniyeh said Hamas was still committed to unity agreements it signed with Fatah.

“I still affirm that the road is open and wide to reformulating these relations on a firm nationalistic basis,” Haniyeh said, speaking after Muslim Friday prayers in Gaza City.

Some serious chutzpah right there. First Hamas take over Gaza, kill Fatah members / officials, loot Fatah buildings, talking about how they will install Islamic law as the law of Gaza… then Haniyeh says that everybody has to remain calm and that he and Hamas remain dedicated to a united Palestine with a unity government. What a bunch of nonsense.

The said thing is, I am quite sure that many on the left will fall for it and will call on the West to help Hamas / Gaza financially and politically.

More about the situation in Gaza:

This packed, impoverished coastal strip had a postrevolutionary feel on Friday: the green flag of Hamas, victor over Fatah in what amounted to a five-day civil war, flew over public buildings where once the multicolored Palestinian one had been.

While the violence was largely over, people worried not only about daily survival but also about how the round of deadly infighting — killing a reported 116 people — postponed hope for an independent and unified Palestinian state.

“These are the darkest days of my life,” said Ahmad Sawafiri, 47, a taxi driver. “What comes after all of this?

“We went backward 100 years.”

Mr. Sawafiri stood in a disgusted crowd in Gaza City watching looters strip the sumptuous villa of Muhammad Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief and bitter rival of Hamas, who was not in Gaza.

A disgusted crowd? This is what happens if you let terrorists take over your neighborhood. This crowd should have been disgusted years ago. Of course, they were disgusted with Fatah:

It was, for many Palestinians, a confusing and unaccustomed sight: black-hooded and normally disciplined Hamas fighters, seemingly driven by devotion to God, stripping away chandeliers, carpets, a bathtub — earthly goods but also symbols of what many see as Fatah’s corruption and excess. After the fighters left, poor people with donkey carts arrived, sweeping up stray bits of wood and metal and even uprooting the dapper Mr. Dahlan’s garden plants.

“I will explain it to you,” said one looter, Mazen Qasas, a vendor. “I am 34. I am married. I have six children. I am looking for a lamp, anything I can sell or use for my poor house. We are very poor. This is public property. These are corrupt people,” he said, referring to Fatah leaders. “They took everything.”

Sadly for the Palestinians, Hamas is, in this regard too, no better. Hamas is run by a bunch of thugs.

Here is what I suppose the West and Israel do: starve Gaza. Let not one penny get into Gaza. Let Hamas starve to death. Meanwhile, we invest in the West Bank. Talk to Abbas; help out economically, politically and militarily; demand - in return - that PA TV stops broadcasting extreme views; make sure that Abbas fights corruption.

Make the West Bank prosperous and relatively moderate. The people in Gaza will notice the contrast and will break with Hamas.

In related news: “Hundreds of Fatah gunmen on Saturday stormed Hamas-controlled institutions in the West Bank, including parliament and government ministries, and told staffers that those with ties to Hamas will not be allowed to return.”

That’s right - kick out Hamas completely. Let not one active member of Hamas live freely in the West Bank. Force Hamas members to either move to Gaza, go to prison as the traitors they are, or to break with Hamas.

More:

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Fatah gunmen took over the Hamas-controlled city council and planted the Fatah flag on the top of the building. Fatah supporters also kidnapped seven Hamas supporters, and deposed a senior member of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Now the West and Israel have to reach out to Hamas and help him strengthen his position. We have to focus on the West Bank now. We, the West and Israel, have to be Mahmoud Abbas’ only hope.

Hamas has now taken over every single part of Gaza. Gaza has become Hamastan. Although a Hamas spokesman told CNN yesterday that Hamas does not want to turn Gaza into an Islamic state, Hamas fighters beg to to disagree:

“This is the first step in the establishment of the Islamic state,” a Hamas member told Ynet from inside the Preventive Security Service building. “This is Islam’s victory, Allah’s victory, and we pray to Allah for brining us this victory.”

Hamas officials announced that the building would turn into a college for religion studies, and that the Sariya – the PA’s government office building – would turn into a large religious center.

Hamas also announced that it has a list of senior Fatah officials: it will try to find these individuals, when it does, these will be executed.

Charles Levinson:

“They’re firing at us, firing RPGs, firing mortars. We’re not Jews,” the brother of Jamal Abu Jediyan, a Fatah commander, pleaded during a live telephone conversation with a Palestinian radio station.

Minutes later both men were dragged into the streets and riddled with bullets.

Charles has a blog: Conflict Blotter where he has more.

The Big Pharaoh writes:

Egypt, at least the government, is watching this with tremendous concern. My advice to the Egyptian government is to deploy thousands upon thousands of army troops on the Gaza borders and beneath. The borders there are pretty small and could be controlled. This will definitely have to be in agreement with Israel.

Meanwhile, Chris Coughlin wrote a good opinion piece for the Telegraph. Chris writes:

Welcome to the new Islamic Republic of Hamas-stan, where every Palestinian woman is obliged to wear the veil and all traces of corrupting Western influences, from pop music to internet cafés, are strictly banned.

The creation of a mini Islamic state in Gaza now appears the most likely outcome as the militant Palestinian group Hamas strikes against the more secular-minded government of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Of course, this is quite a disaster of the Palestinians who live in Gaza, but it also destabalizes the region:

And all this with Ismael Haniyeh, the Palestinian Prime Minister who came to power on the back of Hamas’s surprise election victory in the 2006 elections, yet to establish his de facto Islamic state. Even if Gaza remains under Mr Abbas’s nominal control, the implications of it becoming a self-contained Islamic entity are alarming not just for Israel, but for the wider region.

Hamas makes no secret of the fact that it now receives most of its financial and military support from Iran. The Iranian government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Hamas leadership in June last year, in which it agreed to fund the militant group to the tune of £400 million…

Hamas is trying to replicate Hizbollah’s success in Gaza, not a pleasing prospect for Israel, which now faces the threat of having two Iranian-backed, Islamic fundamentalist organisations dedicated to its destruction camped on its northern and southern borders. It is not a thought that will help Israelis sleep easy.

Iran is also training Hamas militants in southern Lebanon.

There are, in essence, a couple of things the international community can do. Perhaps the best option right now is to completely isolate Gaza - to truly enforce its borders as to make sure that nothing gets into Gaza and that nothing can get out. It is a tactic from the Dark Ages, but hey if it worked then, it might work now again. Starve Hamas.

Having Hamas in power of Gaza and Hezbollah ruling over southern Lebanon is truly a nightmare for Israel. It would not surprise me if Israel decides to act relatively soon.

The main question is of course, how to deal with Iran? Without Iran Hamas would be nowhere. Without Iran, Hezbollah would not be as powerful as it is today. Hamas is sponsoring Islamists in the region, who take over (parts of) countries and establish Islamic rule there. Israel is threatened and so are the interests of the West, especially of America.

Jules Crittenden has more.