National Poet or Cannibal?

Mahmoud Darwish has been reunited with his forefathers. He left a legacy of hatred, bitterness and nightmarish visions of cannibalism. Take, e.g., his poem "Identity Card":

I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The occupier's flesh will be my food
Beware..
Beware..
Of my hunger,
Of my anger!

It seems that he became hungry (perhaps even hungry and angry), ate the occupier's flesh and choked on the occupier's bone. Oh dear, oh dear! Or maybe he succumbed to the bitterness and hatred gnawing away at his heart. He was 67-years-old. He fled Israel as a young man. Had he chosen to stay in Israel, he might have benefited from the ever improved longevity our beleaguered little country is blessed with. Other, no less (perhaps even a tad bit more) respectable, Arab intellectuals stayed put under the "occupier", and despite claims of genocide, ethnic cleansing, systematic, indiscriminate yada yada, managed to live to a ripe old age: e.g. Emile Habibi, who died in 1996 at the age of 76, or 86-years-old Tawfik Toubi, may he live to be 120.
However, let it be known, that the national poet of Palestine, Le poète de la résistance, the voice of the Palestinian whoryssey, opened his identity card poem with these controversial lines: "Record! I am an Arab!" Good grief! Isn't this proof from the oracle's mouth that Palestinians are Arabs and that all the brouhaha around their being the descendants of the ancient peoples of Canaan (some even go as far as to claim that they are in fact the descendants of the Israelites, perish the thought!) is just another lie aimed at denying us our right to live in the land of our forefathers? Not only that, but lo and behold, the honorable Independent in the UK quotes literary editor Iyad Rajoub that by 1996, Darwish "was no longer the poet of resistance, he was soft, he was living a luxurious life. I was shocked. I could not imagine that he was the one who had written 'Record! I am an Arab'." Much like Suha Arafat living la vida loca to the tune of hundreds of thousands of American dollars a month.
The other honorable mouthpiece in the UK, the Guardian (of anti-semitism and anti-Zionism, no doubt) also publishes a tearjerker for the intellectual who grew up in a house where "there were no books." But most of all, the Guardian and other mourners claim that Darwish was a "poet, author and politician who helped to forge a Palestinian consciousness after the six-day war in 1967".
Thus, while distinguished scholars cannot agree whether Jewish history in the Land of Israel can be traced back to the 7th century BCE or the 13th century BCE or in between, Palestinians, the "rightful owners of the land", are still arguing whether their national aspirations go back to 1919 (well, yes, barely 90 years ago), when the First Palestinian National Congress was held in Jerusalem, demanding an independent Palestinian government in federation with Syria and rejecting Zionist political claims, or 1948 (The Creation of the State of Israel) or 1967, the Six Day War. Their claims are legitimate, we are usurpers, occupiers. All within the grand span of 90 years. I mean, what is 2,500 – 3,500 years compared to 90? Or even better, compared to 40, as the mighty Guardian itself proclaims. Darwish helped forge a Palestinian consciousness after the Six-Day War. I suppose that has nothing to do with the fact that he studied in Moscow for some time (as did Abu Mazen, by the way) and were undoubtedly recruited and trained by the KGB and also here.
So I guess, yeah, one has to admit The Guardian got it right this time. The continuing humiliation of the Arab puppets and their Soviet handlers by a tiny (but top notch) Hebrew army helped forge (make that invent) the Palestinian consciousness, which has brought more than enough misery to the Palestinian themselves, seeing as they are right now engaging in savage tribal bloodshed.
As one Arab whose name escapes me, but who is basically in charge of the Moslem Holy sites in Israel, put it: the Temple Mount mosques became precious for all the 1.5 billion Moslems worldwide as soon as Israel occupied Jerusalem in June 1967. Why? you may well ask. Well, because they no longer had access to it, except those who do have access to it. Did it mean anything to them before 1967? Not much, since one has never heard of a compulsory pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Moslems, such as the Hajj to Mecca. Besides, they didn't care much for the mosques as weeds were growing all over the compound at the turn of the century. "As long as you are mine you can rot into oblivion, but you become the apple of my eye the minute you fall into the dirty hands of the invading Zionist gangs." Mind you, there was no road to write home about from Yaffo to Jerusalem until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. The "road" was repaired to allow the Austrian Emperor his pilgrimage to Jerusalem en route to Suez for the official opening ceremony of the Canal. One might think that the Moslem rulers of the land (the Ottoman Empire), having the best interests of the "fidels" at heart, would have maintained some kind of thoroughfare to this the third holy place in Islam. One might, but then one would be wrong. The only way to travel from Yaffo to Jerusalem was on horse or camel back (or maybe donkey). The Austrian Emperor and his companions were expecting to travel by coach.
Anyways, in Palestinian parlance "occupier" has nothing whatsoever to do with the Six-Day War. The occupied territories are not Judea, Samaria and Gaza (which has become un-occupied in the mean time). Nope, what they mean is the Yahood, the Jewish State. According to sixth grade history textbooks published by the PA (PLO) - "The Modern History of Palestine" – the Green Line is an imaginary line which separates between lands occupied before 1967 and those occupied thereafter (could it be that this is what Yuli Tamir meant when she suggested teaching about the Green Line to Israeli students?

The Adoration of a Racist
Dan Margalit
August 11, 2008

Instead of mourning the loss of our national sovereignty on Tisha b'Av, the people of Zion were fussing over the coffin of Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, expressing their adoration for he who repeatedly called for the expulsion of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel and Judea: "Go away and taken the bones of your dead with you!". A Judenrein land with Judenrein graveyards. Ahmadinejad turned poet. A sort of "Nakba" to be visited on the Jews in Hebrew.
In order to remove all doubt: I could have agreed to the Israelis celebrating the poet of the enemy if he had raised the Palestinian flag and called the young men of his country to fight for their sovereignty, culture and even separatism. I could have even accepted his pan-Arabism. But Darwish supported the expulsion of an entire nation. Had he been a Jew and written the same words in Hebrew, he would have been branded a war criminal, a racist and a fascist.
Dr. Rafi Kishon reminded me the other day that the Ministry of Education tried to include some of Darwish's poetry in our textbooks, even before they even considered recommending a single line written by his own father, Ephraim Kishon. This evil spirit found a way to express itself as well.
It is part of our collapsing method of education for values. Ehud Olmert has national feelings, yet his government manages to remove 100 Jewish and Zionist definitions from the civic education curriculum. It readily allows any teacher to choose what to teach. Some teach about "Hear, oh Israel" and about the doctrines of David Ben-Gurion and Ze'ev Jabotinsky, while others teach about the "Nakba" and Darwish.
Democracy on liquidation sale. About a fortnight ago, at the end of Tamuz, Limor Livnat met with Ehud Olmert and Ze'ev Boim because the PM's office rejected the publication of a brochure on Jabotinski's death anniversary on the grounds that it quoted fragments from some of his articles, such as "The Iron Wall". She showed them what was deemed unsuitable for publication by the committee for preserving Jabotinsky's legacy which is subordinated to the PMO (which took Olmert by surprise), but nothing was done to remedy this idiotic blunder.
Still, the government would not allow Darwish to be buried in the Galilee. He will be laid to rest in Ramallah. But the sights and sounds [of the funeral] will not be forgotten too soon. Yesterday Israel went back 100 years in time, to the days of dancing "Oh, how beautiful you are, my beloved" before the landlord in Eastern Europe.

And last but not least, a few points made by Menachem Ben in his article Not Edible, published on August 15, 2008, in the culture supplement of Ma'ariv:

Darwish is lying when he accuses the Israelis of stealing his ancestral orchards and fields. There is no soul searching, no admission of guilt. No mention of the bloodthirsty gangs that started all the wars, beginning with 1948. Such a shame that no Israeli poet should stand up and speak out against this despicable propaganda.

Perhpas, Menachem, but thank heavens for journalists and bloggers.

Out of Our Minds

During my daily rounds of the blogosphere, I found this story that really got my pulse going:

New Book May Further the Rift Between Israeli Arabs And Jews
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - An Israeli Arab organization distributed at Arab schools throughout northern Israel on Wednesday 20,000 copies of a booklet aimed at promoting Arab unity around the popular idea that the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 was a catastrophe, or what is widely referred to in Arabic as the "nakba."

The booklet contains stories written by 150 Arab children in Israel, the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories, Syria and Lebanon that are harshly critical of and even hostile toward Israel.

It was produced by the Ibn Khaldun Association in northern Israel, whose director Asad Ghanem told Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper that he hoped the booklet would "reaffirm Palestinian consciousness, and maintain and reinforce it among future generations" of Israeli Arabs. Ghanem is also head of the political science department at Israel's Haifa University.

In remarks to Cybercast News Service, Israeli Arab affairs expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a research associate with the Begin-Sadat Center, stressed his view that Ghanem and other Israeli Arabs like him do not view the booklet as a threat to Israel.

"They see this book as designed to strengthen national awareness and to promote a connection between Palestinians who are Israeli and those living in other Arab countries in order to consolidate the Palestinian spirit," said Kedar.

That national awareness and struggle is more commonly known as the "Palestinian cause," which today is largely taken to mean the effort to establish a sovereign Palestinian Arab state in the Gaza Strip and the areas known collectively around the world as the "West Bank," but which many Israelis refer to by their biblical names of Judea and Samaria.

The problem for most Israelis is that the Palestinian cause as formulated by late PLO founder Yasser Arafat does not stop with Judea and Samaria. Even after signing the so-called "Oslo Accords" with Israel, Arafat repeatedly told Arab media that the PLO's "phased plan" remained in effect, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria would be only the first step toward the destruction of Israel.

Despite the threat inherent in the Palestinian cause and the "nakba" narrative that fuels it, Kedar said he remains convinced most Israeli Arabs and Jews want to "live together instead of fight each other." Unfortunately, Ghanem's booklet is poised to widen the rift between the two communities by further antagonizing the more hardened elements in Israeli society, whose reaction will be used by Islamists to further radicalize Israeli Arab youth.

This book "will definitely pour more oil on the fire against the Arabs within certain Israeli circles, which will in turn pour even more oil on the fire created by extremist elements on the Arab side," said Kedar.The publication of Ghanem's booklet comes at a time of already markedly increased tension between Israeli Arabs and Jews, a phenomenon that was highlighted last month as Israeli Jews and a slew of visiting foreign dignitaries celebrated Israel's 60th Independence Day while most of the nation's Arabs spoke out against the state or were cowed into silence by extremists.

Israeli media commentators have asserted that national ethnic divisions can be at least partially blamed on an Israeli government establishment that has beholden itself to the principles of political correctness and now refuses to be seen as interfering with its Arab minority by countering negative trends in that community.

Jerusalem Post columnist Carolyn Glick wrote earlier this year that "the natural pull of Israeli Arabs is toward the Palestinians," and that Israel has to make a concerted effort to win the hearts and minds of its Arab citizens, or risk facing an internal explosion in addition to numerous regional threats.

So the Israeli establishment wants to stick to politically correctness and allow free circulation of this piece of inflammatory propaganda (150 stories) rather than interfere (provoke riots) with our ever so hostile and treacherous Arab minority. But the same Israeli establishment does allow the Arab minority to interfere with the Israeli majority in a blatant attempt to shut us up. Said Israeli establishment has just given in to the extortion of a Yaffo-based terrorist sympathiser going by the name of Ibrahim Abu-Shindi, who regularly appears on Israeli TV in order to bash the State of Israel while pretending to work for peace. The man is even the director of an Arab-Jewish Community Center. Well, if it's peace he wants, I'll accept nothing less than the publication of the "bone of contention" poem written by one ten-year-old Israeli boy from Ness Ziona. Please also note that the State of Israel can only afford to publish 500 copies of the poetry contest booklet, while an Israeli Arab organization has the funds to come up with 20,000 copies of their revised "Arabian Nights". Good grief! Fortunately, I am not bound by any multi-crappy-culti PC nonsense. So here's the offending poem:

Ahmed's bunker has surprises galore: Grenades, rifles
are hung on the wall. Ahmed is planning another bomb!
What a bunker Ahmed has, who causes daily harm.
Ahmed knows how to make a bomb. Ahmed is Ahmed, that's
who he is, so don't forget to be careful of him.
We get blasted while they have a blast!
Ahmed and his friends could be wealthy and sunny, if only
they wouldn't buy rockets with all their money.


Anyway, in an extraordinary instance of poetic justice, a mishap seems to have befallen one of Ahmed's bunkers and it is no longer operational. Nor are the houses around it habitable.

I am pleased to see that the saga of Ahmad's bunker, the innocent little poem, has made it to several blogs:
B'nai Elim
Double Tapper
Esser Agaroth
Freerepublic
Infidel Blogger's Alliance
Muqata

Shira bat Sarah

Stop Raping Israel

Stronger than Death

The Amboy Times

Woman Honor Thyself

Brotherly Love

A few instances of brotherly love along the breached border between Gaza and Egypt. They don't call it the Philadelphi route for nothing.

People help a wounded Palestinian during clashes with Egyptian forces at the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip February 4, 2008. Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces exchanged fire at Gaza's border with Egypt on Monday and a Palestinian civilian was killed in the fighting, medical workers said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)

Live ammo was fired as clashes erupted between Palestinians streaming into Egypt and Egyptian forces trying to keep some order. No France 2 crew e.g. Charles Enderlin's cameraman was available for a possible al-Dura shooting incident. Oh, I forget, no IDF troops present either. However, death and injury ensued. Oh, what the heck, BBC is as good a source as any on this one, especially as they report the use of electric batons. I wonder what they would have written if the IDF were to use electric batons - what are they anyway? Some sort of tazers?

A Palestinian security man loyal to Hamas arrests a Palestinian near the closed Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip February 3, 2008. Egyptian forces began closing the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, stemming the flow of Palestinians across a frontier blown open 11 days ago by Hamas Islamists in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (Gaza)

So this is how it's done, at gun point. IDF, you watching?

A Palestinian woman stands among Egyptian riot police as she tries to cross into Egypt through the destroyed section of the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt January 25, 2008. Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA)

Dogs? Do I see dogs? But only the Zionists, being worse than the Nazis, use dogs. No there must be some photoshop here. Has the UN stopped whatever they were doing to call on a Security council condemnation of the use of excessive force against the "helpless" Palestinians? Is Jimmy Carter scribbling away on a new book? At least chapter? Is Norman Finkelstein done with his Hezbullah-sponsored tomb tour in Lebanon? Could he spare for the plight of the Palestinians? Oh, silly me, I forget, Palestinians can go eff themselves if the IDF is not involved.

Egyptian forces in riot gear throw stones during clashes with Palestinians trying to cross into Egypt through the destroyed section of the border wall between Gaza and Egypt January 25, 2008. Egypt began closing its breached border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, using barbed wire and water cannons to keep Palestinians from crossing into Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade. REUTERS/Nasser Nuri (EGYPT)

Oh, but this is sweet. What was that Tony Blair said about the need to develop a "clever strategy" in order to solve the problem? Well, it was the Egyptians that found that clever strategy: threw the stones right back at the Palestinians. Israel should draw the conclusions.

Bleez come back, Israil!

Fatah and Hamas are shooting it out in Gaza and the toll is terrible (nearly 50 this week), more than Israel inflicts over, say, several months. The MSM is still grossly biased, so Novosty proudly informs us that the Russian foreign ministry condemns the Israeli air strikes in Gaza. The Russian foreign ministry is foreign, or perhaps alienated enough to barely mention the daily Qassam rocket salvos launched from Gaza into Israel, wounding several people and causing heavy destruction in Sderot during the past few days (24 Qassams launched on Tuesday May 15, 2007 critically injuring mother critically and son moderately; 16 rockets landed on Wednesday, May 16, 2007, seriously injuring a 70-year-old woman plus 18 others. On Tuesday, May 17, 2007, 24 rockets hit Israel and wounded 30 people. Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Palestinian terrorists have fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel.)

Why even today, when the Russians kindly issued their condemnation a Qassam landed in a school and destroyed a classroom where several students were taking matriculation exams. Luckily the warning siren went off and the children managed to reach the safety room.

As I am posting, Qassams hit a synagogue in Sderot. No word of condemnation or at least concern for the innocent Palestinian civilians caught in the Fatah-Hamas crossfire or executed by each of the belligerent factions. My guess is that the Russian either couldn't care less , or are delighted that there are fewer Muslims in the world, given their "silk glove" war waged against Muslim terror in Chechnya.

However, the Palios are at it in earnest: these are victims of the civil war raging in Gaza. I am posting these photos as evidence of internal Gazan violence. I hope the dishonest Gazan reporters will not republish them as victims of Israeli attacks.

A wounded Palestinian boy is rushed to a hospital following factional clashes at Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip. An alleged plot by Hamas militants to assassinate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was revealed on Thursday as deadly factional fighting resumed in Gaza and Israeli air strikes targeted the violence-wracked territory.(AFP/Said Khatib)

A wounded Palestinian man is wheeled on a stretcher after being injured by a mortar shell during clashes between rival Fatah and Hamas fighters as he arrives at hospital in Gaza City, Thursday, May 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Local residents fearing lethal reprisals talked on condition of anonymity to the Israeli press: "Hamas gunmen stop passing cars, commandeer them and shoot the drivers and passengers in the legs, even in the knees. As a consequence people are afraid to venture out of their homes. Hamas and Fatah gunmen attack each other's high ranking officials' residences or offices. People are dying in the streets like flies. Hamasniks believe that killing Fatah men is "halal" and will earn them a place in paradise. The dog Abu-Mazen is unable to take proper measures to stop the fighting. People are praying for "Israil" to reoccupy Gaza. The Palestinians do not have the right to live. "
I swear I heard these words several times on Israeli media. But I wouldn't count on IDF retaking Gaza. We just want to stop the rockets.
Then Khalil Hia, a Hamas official spoke to the press and condemned Fatah violence: "Gunmen chased people out of their homes and shot them in cold blood. A girl was forced to remove her hijab (now that may call for an honor killing) and was then shot BETWEEN THE LEGS (more honor killings required). Although she was bleeding she was released after several hours. Men were forced to strip and were then locked in basements."

Both factions are hiding in mosques and shooting at each other from (and therefore also into) their holy places. The media is still concentrating on the Hamas military command building destroyed by the IAF. And rightly so, that is where the aid money is going in lieu of buying food and medicine for the populace. Oh, dear! I can't blame the local journalists: they too have become victims of the civil war, a few are reported dead. They are afraid to go out and cover what is going on in the streets of Gaza (funny how they were always there heroically documenting Israeli aggression). It appears that journalists have been taking sides in the conflict, after all they are locals and allegiance is still very tribal in Gaza. Meaning that they can be liquidated by the rival factions.
So some had to spend the night in the TV building, while others were taking cover in adjoining buildings.

I must confess it was quite thrilling to see the Al-Jazeera correspondent in Gaza ducking under the table when something exploded close to the studio in the middle of her live report. I remember Katyushas landing dangerously close to Israeli and foreign journalists during the second Lebanon war, one nearly killed Israeli channel 1 reporter. No harm done when terrorist sympathizers get a taste of the same medicine.

Now let's take a look at the humble abode (à la Saddam Hussein or Ceausecu) of pro-Fatah security chief Rashid Abu Shbak in Gaza City where a Hamas raid killed five people. So this is how top brass lives in poverty-stricken Gaza. Once again, this is where the aid money goes. (Abu-Mazen himself lives in a 1.5 million dollar mansion. Haniyeh skimmed some 2 USD million or more from the 20 million in cash he received from Saudi Arabia).
This is where Mohammad al-Dalo (Hamas) used to live with his family before his encounter with Fatah death squads.
This is the entrance to another house in Gaza.

Before this round of violence we only saw the squalid neighborhoods of Gaza, because that served the busy anti-Israeli propaganda machine. Now the rotten corruption of the ruling clans is exposed.

The Palestinian Butcher at Work

By Nadav Ha'etzni
Ma'ariv (Saturday supplement) 02.02,2007,

Even if one took a magnifying glass to the international media reports one would fail to find any mention of the horrors going right here and, before our very eyes. Leading Israeli journalists travel to Africa to document the atrocities of genocide and child abuse. Drama unfolds when a Palestinian girl is accidentally killed by IDF fire (cool it, Nadav, she may have been killed by a stone thrown by Palestinian demonstrators) but nobody bothers to report the bloodcurdling carnage taking place right here and now, in Gaza and the West Bank.
In order to fill in the gaps, this is what has been going on in Gaza during the past few weeks: Palestinians gunmen wake up sleeping Palestinian children when there are no armed rivals or rescuers around, and kill them in their beds. Or riddle schoolchildren with bullets as they make their way to or from school. They also strip the rival faction women of their clothes and march them naked through the streets. They stop ambulances and slaughter the sick and the wounded if they belong to the rival faction. In the Shifa Hospital they disconnect the medical equipment necessary to treat injured opponents. Fierce gunfighting is raging in the hallways. A Hamas clinic was blown up by Fatah. Last week, armed Fatah men broke into a Jebalya mosque and started spraying everyone with bullets. As a result, 14 worshippers were wounded. Several of them died of their wounds. Unlike the shooting of Moslem worshippers several years ago in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron by a Jewish settler, the Gaza mosque bloodbath passed largely unnoticed. Why should anyone bother? Arabs killing one another are not newsworthy.
Fatah gunmen accompanied by journalists are patrolling Shchem, in search for Hamas loyalists. While queuing up at the bank, they found Fayed al-Akbar, a Hamas local council member , attacked and abducted him while the cameras were running. In a nearby village, they shot an Al-Najah University woman lecturer in the legs, because of her open support for Hamas. In Hebron they shoot at each other every night. Murder, abduction and torture have become the daily routine in Samaria.
When some horror eventually makes the headlines, it is usually associated with Hamas. The media were quick to report the destruction of a holiday village owned by Dahlan – the Americans' darling. Dahlan himself, tucked away in an armored vehicle convoy, is touring Gaza and pouring millions of US aid into the slaughter. The Fatah pogrom perpetrators seem to have the upper hand.
The fighting seems to be conducted by mercenaries on the payroll of murder contractors. Some of them, such as the Durmush clan, reported to have "bought" IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit and to be currently holding him, jump ship to serve the highest bidder. This modest blog has already mentioned that they occasionally snatch foreign journalists. Lately, some of them seem to be carrying out executions for Fatah, having deserted Hamas ranks for a fistful of US dollars.
So why isn't the media reporting any of these? Where are Channel Two's Arab reporters? Where are the self-righteous correspondents from Ha'aretz? Where's the CNN and its competitors? Where is the UN? Where are Yossi Beilin and Uri Avneri? (I might also ask where are the vociferous Arab MK's: Ahmad Tibi, Bishara, Barakeh and the rest of the fifth column ? or should I say filth column?) By the way, has Be'Tselem buried its head in the sand? A long time ago Itzhak Rabin argued that the Palestinians would annihilate terrorism without the assistance of our Supreme Court and Be'Tselem. Instead, terror is on the rise, but guess what, Be'Tselem (Israeli Human Rights Watch) is unavailable at the moment (most likely in search of some Israeli settlers abusing a Palestinian olive tree).
This slaughter spree is being financed by several nations. One side receives direct aid from Bush and Olmert, while its enemy is being backed by Iran and Syria. Only this week the US administration has poured US $ 86 million into the pockets of Fatah murderers. We have also contributed US $ 100 million to keep Abu-Mazen's Fatah squads butchering children and wounded Hamas gunmen, and acquiring more weapons and ammo, as if they did not have enough already. The arsenal on both sides is quite remarkable, and not only in post-disengagement Gaza, where any arms dealer can sell almost anything. In the West Bank, five minutes away from Kfar-Saba and Jerusalem, arms are being amassed in unprecedented quantities. About 2,000 Hamas terrorists have marched through the streets of Qalqilyiah, in full combat gear and armed to the teeth. Last week the good ole Fatah boys rallied in Ramallah to celebrate Fatah' 42nd anniversary with and unprecedented display of weapons.
Now the Egyptians have come up with the grand idea of a creating a Palestinian army. Soon we will be contributing a tank regiment and an air force wing to stregthen Abu-Mazen's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Why, the reader may ask, do we support Abu-Mazen little pogromists? Why, because they are on "our side". Even though this week they succeeded in blowing up three innocent Jews in Eilat
(suicide bomber caught on surveillance camera here), they remain our mythological peace partner. Yet two weeks ago Abu-Mazen urged the Palestinian warring factions to bury their feud and resume killing Israelis . But why discard a wonderful concept just because reality slaps you in the face? The Palestianian butchers go on unabated, except that for a change, they are slaughtering one another. And the world remains silent.

Like I said, unless one is a victim of IDF (or US troops) "violence", one is not a legitimate victim.
As I was posting this, I heard a Gaza resident giving the next account on TV: People don't go outdoors for fear of getting caught in the crossfire. Roadblocks have been set up everywhere, some by Fatah, some by Hamas. They stop traffic and shoot at random. His neighbor's son was shot while riding his bicycle. The whole situation has gone out of control.
Zvika Yehezkieli, the charismatic Channel 10 Arab desk editor, reported that hell has broken loose in Gaza. Everybody is settling old scores (Mafia style blood vendettas). The death squads are acting on their own, i.e. they are not taking orders from their bosses anymore.
Yes, let them have their state, a persistent vegetative state...

Justice served raw, a la Jenin

The wheels of justice are turning in West Bank Jenin, you know, of the staged funeral fame, more appropriate for a Banana split or Bloopers show.

Except this is for real. I saved the pics with their original captions (as news agencies have been known to furtively pull embarassing photos without warning or explanations). Needless to say that the pictures themselves are no longer available, thus no links provided.

Such scenes are not uncommon in the West Bank. A mere suspicion or accusation is enough to get any man lynched – a few years back a Palestinian man suspected of collaborating with the Israeli authorities was chased around the town of Bethlehem, shot at every now and then (not to kill, just to maim) and when dead, at long last, his body was dragged about in the streets only to be hung and disemboweled in the main town square, local variation of the long-abandoned English practice of hanging, drawing and quartering (not to mention the two Israeli reserve soldiers, and here, here, here, torn to pieces by a rabid crowd inside the Ramallah police station).

Where is Mr. Annan? Where is the international community? Does suspicion of collaboration with Israel warrant such reprisals? With the elderly mother of a terrorist abusing the already mutilated body of the victim?

Palestinian gunmen, who identified themselves as members of the Islamic Jihad group, shoot a man in a public square in the West Bank town of Jenin Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. The man, who was executed in front of hundreds of people, was accused by the gunmen of giving information to Israeli authorities, helping them to kill two militants last week in a targeted attack, said witnesses and Islamic Jihad members. The victim was identified as Bassem Malah, 22, who worked in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)
Palestinian gunmen, who identified themselves as members of the Islamic Jihad group, hold their weapons after shooting and killing a man, lying dead on the ground, in a public square in the West Bank town of Jenin Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. The man, who was executed in front of hundreds of people, was accused by the gunmen of giving information to Israeli authorities, helping them to kill two militants last week in a targeted attack, said witnesses and Islamic Jihad members. The victim was identified as Bassem Malah, 22, who worked in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

As others take pictures with their mobile phones, a man kicks the lifeless body of an alleged 'collaborator' after he was shot and killed by Palestinian gunmen, who identified themselves as members of the Islamic Jihad group, in a public square in the West Bank town of Jenin Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. The man, who was executed in front of hundreds of people, was accused by the gunmen of giving information to Israeli authorities, helping them to kill two militants last week in a targeted attack, said witnesses and Islamic Jihad members. The victim was identified as Bassem Malah, 22, who worked in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas) ATTENTION EDITORS VISUALS OF DEATH AND INJURY An armed Palestinian militant and a crowd stand near the body of a man killed in the West Bank town of Jenin August 13, 2006. The man was shot by Palestinian militants because they say he collaborated with Israeli forces. REUTERS/Stringer (WEST BANK)Palestinians, some taking pictures with their mobile phones, gather around the body of an alleged "collaborator" after gunmen, who identified themselves as members of the Islamic Jihad group, shot him and killed him in a public square in the West Bank town of Jenin Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. The man, who was executed in front of hundreds of people, was accused by the gunmen of giving information to Israeli authorities, helping them to kill two militants last week in a targeted attack, said witnesses and Islamic Jihad members. The victim was identified as Bassem Malah, 22, who worked in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas) A woman, mother of a militant killed by the Israeli army in 2002, steps on the body of an alleged 'collaborator' after Palestinian gunmen, who identified themselves as members of the Islamic Jihad group, shot him and killed him in a public square in the West Bank town of Jenin Sunday Aug. 13, 2006. The man, who was executed in front of hundreds of people, was accused by the gunmen of giving information to Israeli authorities, helping them to kill two militants last week in a targeted attack, said witnesses and Islamic Jihad members. The victim was identified as Bassem Malah, 22, who worked in the Israeli Arab town of Umm al Fahm. (AP Photo/ Mohammed Ballas)ATTENTION EDITORS VISUALS OF DEATH AND INJURY An armed Palestinian militant and onlookers stand near the body of a man killed in the West Bank town of Jenin August 13, 2006. The man was shot by Palestinian militants because they say he collaborated with Israeli forces. REUTERS/Stringer (WEST BANK)

CAPTION CLARIFICATION - THE ARMED MILITANTS ARE AMONG A CROWD OF BYSTANDERS. ATTENTION EDITORS VISUALS OF DEATH AND INJURY. An armed Palestinian militant stands over the body of a man killed in the West Bank town of Jenin as a crowd watches August 13, 2006. The man was shot by Palestinian militants because they say he collaborated with Israeli forces. REUTERS/Stringer (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES)

All massacres (and here) reported in Jenin, are actually massacres of IDF soldiers who take every precaution not to hurt women and children used as human shields by the terrorists. Yet it is Israel who stands accused of war crimes. Eventually, truth will out.
This town is supposed to be under Israeli occupation - then how come there are so many armed men in broad daylight? The Palestinians are complaining of poverty and unemployment - then how come they have state of the art cell phones that can take digital pictures? Everybody (except the brutalized victim) seems to be in pretty good shape - well fed, good general condition, nice hair cuts - where's the distress, the poverty and the despair?
Also, please notice that young boys are allowed to watch. These people want an independent state - what kind of democracy will they embrace? What kind of justice? What values and principles? What kind of education will they provide for their children?