Palestinian Authority to Pay Salaries to Terror Prisoners in Israeli Jails

Can't make this sh*t up.

This is just lovely, not only do the American taxpayers subsidize Hamas terrorists on a daily basis through aid, but some of the aid the money will now be spent to pay terrorist prisoners in Israel, a "wage".

FROM UNDHIMMI.COM:


Palestinian Authority to Pay Salaries to Terror Prisoners in Israeli Jails*

May 21st, 2011 | Author: Un:dhimmi

*Well, they’ll just be handing it over, in reality. You’ll  be paying for it:

The Palestinian Authority passed a law last month granting all PA residents and Israeli Arabs imprisoned by Israel for terror crimes a monthly salary, Palestinian Media Watch reports.

According to PMW, the PA has defined by law which residents and Israeli Arabs would be deemed “prisoners” as:

    “Anyone imprisoned in the occupation’s [Israel's] prisons as a result of his participation in the struggle against the occupation.”

In other words, all PA residents in Israeli prisons for terror crimes are officially added to the PA payroll. According to the definition in the PA law, PA car thieves in Israeli prisons will not receive a salary, but Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers will.

The PA also gives a salary to Israeli Arabs convicted of terror crimes against Israel – the country of which they are citizens. PA benefits to Israeli Arab terrorists, in fact, are greater than the ones extended to PA resident terrorists.

Additionally, those serving more than 20-year sentences will receive a greater PA salary than prisoners serving shorter sentences, the new PA law establishes. Salaries are to be paid from the day of arrest until release.

More than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently serving time in Israeli prisons for terror-related offenses, PMW says.

Among those now eligible are Abdullah Barghouti, serving 67 life sentences; Hassan Salameh, serving 38 life sentences; and Jamal Abu Al-Hijja, serving nine life sentences, all of whom are imprisoned for planning suicide bombings – three terrorists PMW recently reported as being called “heroic” by the official PA daily.

Who’s Paying?
PMW noted the new PA law stipulates that payment of salaries “will be implemented… on the basis of available sources of funding.” When the PA is short of cash for salaries, the salaries to the prisoners will be cut.

The PA has reported that the US, the EU, France, Britain, Ireland, Norway, Japan, India and the World Bank have all given money to the PA for its general budget in 2010-2011.

Such direct funding could be part of the “available sources” for terrorist salaries, or could free money elsewhere in the PA budget that could be used for these salaries, PMW says.

The list provided by PMW is not exhaustive as it relies solely on reports in the official PA daily. The PA receives financial aid from many other donors as well.

Recently, the EU announced the transfer of 45 million euros to the PA for salaries: “Some EUR 45 million of the funds from today’s decision will go towards salaries and pensions of vital workers, mainly doctors, nurses and teachers.”

In November 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the transfer of an additional grant to the PA’s general budget: “After the transfer of the $150 million, the sum which the American administration will have transferred as direct budgetary aid to the PA for 2010 totals $225 million.”

Although the EU, US and other donors are not intentionally funding salaries for terrorists, PMW says, their funding of other PA salaries and the budget makes money available in the general budget to pay terrorist salaries.

This Palestinian Authority law was enacted before the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. It was published in the official PA Registry on April 13, 2011.

Founded in 1996, Palestinian Media Watch is an Israeli research institute that studies Palestinian society from a broad range of perspectives by monitoring and analyzing the Palestinian Authority through its media and schoolbooks.

So let’s get this straight. Barack Obama is currently pressurising Israel to accept utterly indefensible borders that would completely surround the Jewish state with a new ‘state’ of Palestine – whose ‘citizens’ almost daily fire rockets, mortars at Israel, make suicide attacks on border checkpoints and sends savages to slaughter Israeli citizens in their beds.

This new state would from that start – as it does now – seek as a central plank of its constitution the destruction of Israel ‘from the river to the sea’ (i.e. all of Israel). And of course, this new state would be almost entirely funded by the European, American and other Western taxpayers – as it is now (even though it is surrounded by some unimginably wealthy fellow Arab states, they tend to be somewhat more generous with words than with their wallets).

In the meantime, the duplicitous (they say one thing in English and another in Arabic) heirs to this future state are spending YOUR taxpayer $£¥€ to pay SALARIES to murderers and bombers.

We have three questions for you:

a). how do you feel about that?

b) could you, in all honesty have made this story up – even if you tried?

c) Did you VOTE for that?

If you answered ‘no’ to c), write to your representative and show them this article.

Weathering the coming storm

Caroline Glick's latest offering puts the international kangaroo courts threat into perspective.  The real enemy are the direct threats by Iran, Turkey, Syria, Hamas and Hizbullah to break the sea blockade.

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Weathering the coming storm
By Caroline B. Glick

"International" kangaroo courts are in the offing. But that's the very least of Israel's problems

Israel is endangered today as it has never been before. The Turkish-Hamas flotilla two weeks ago precipitated a number of dangerous developments. Rather than attend to all of them, Israel's leadership is devoting itself almost exclusively to contending with the least dangerous among them while ignoring the emerging threats with the potential to lead us to great calamities.

Since the Navy's lethal takeover of the Mavi Marmara, Israel has been stood before an international diplomatic firing squad led by the UN and Europe and supported by the Obama administration. Firmly backed by European and largely unopposed by Washington, the UN is moving swiftly towards setting up a new Goldstone-style anti-Israel kangaroo court. That canned tribunal will rule that Israel has no right to defend itself and attempt to force Israel to end its lawful naval blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Fearing this outcome, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bowed to US President Barack Obama's demand that Israel set up an Israeli inquest of the Mavi Marmara takeover and permit foreigners to oversee its proceedings. Netanyahu also agreed to scale-back Israel's blockade significantly, and allow international bodies to have a role in its far more lax enforcement. Netanyahu has made these concessions with the full knowledge that they will strengthen Hamas in the hopes that they would weaken the international onslaught against Israel.

Unfortunately, it took no time at all to see that his hopes were misplaced. Even before Netanyahu announced these concessions, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon already announced that they make no difference to him or to his friends in Washington and Brussels. They will move ahead with their plans to appoint a new kangaroo court charged with asserting that Israel has no right to defend itself.

As bad as all of this is, in truth, it is unimportant relative to the other consequences of the flotilla incident. The impact of the diplomatic campaign now being waged against Israel will be felt in the medium and long term. In the immediate term, Israel is facing two threats that dwarf what it faces from the UN.
READ IT ALL:

Gaza Flotilla Choir Presents We Con the World

Gazan man says Hamas beat him for alleged affairs

Hamas continues to become more religiously radical and violent as they move closer to the fanaticism of the Taliban and al Qaeda.
FROM SILIVE.COM:

Gazan man says Hamas beat him for alleged affairs
5/12/2010, 2:11 p.m. EDT
DIAA HADID
The Associated Press        

(AP) — JERUSALEM - A Gaza art gallery owner said Wednesday that Hamas police repeatedly beat and abused him over allegations that he had had sexual relations with women who are not his wife, which is forbidden by Islamic law.

Gaza human rights activists say the rare admission by Jamal Abu Qumsan, who is unmarried, is the clearest evidence yet of a quiet but persistent Hamas morals crackdown in Gaza, as part of an attempt to implement strict Islamic law.

"They kept asking me as they beat me: 'who are the girls you sleep with?' I told them I'm not sleeping with anybody," Abu Qumsan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He said police interrogators beat him across his back, legs and buttocks in hours-long interrogations over three days last week. To back up his claims, Abu Qumsan e-mailed reporters a photo of his bruises.

Abu Qumsan, 43, said he was also accused of hosting exhibitions in his art cafe and gallery without government permits.

Hamas officials were not available for comment.

Human rights activists say that since the Islamic militant group seized power Gaza three years ago, Hamas security officials have interrogated, beaten and detained other residents for belonging to rival Palestinian groups. Hamas officials have often harassed men and women to publicly abide by Hamas' stern Islamic moral code, activists say.

However, this is the first time a Gaza resident has said publicly that he was interrogated over his sex life. Activists say other residents have been questioned in a similar manner, but they were too frightened to come forward.

"If I stay silent, I think they'll take somebody else tomorrow, and then a second person, and then a third, and it will go on and on," Abu Qumsan said.

Hamas Claims Fatah Tied to Dubai Hit

It really doesn't make much difference who killed this rat, but it's amusing that the Arabs are pointing fingers at each other.  Muslim animosity to other Muslims is one of the West's greatest assets.  Muslim hatred of other Muslims keeps them from a unified front and dissipated what energy they have.

FROM NEWSMAX.COM:

Hamas Claims Fatah Tied to Dubai Hit

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Hamas claimed Friday that two ex-officers from the rival Fatah organization were involved in the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai, and Fatah shot back by insinuating Hamas members were the ones who collaborated with the killers.

The slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury Dubai hotel room last month has widely been blamed on Israel's Mossad spy agency but it also has sparked bitter recriminations among the rival Palestinian factions, which have long competed for influence in the Palestinian territories.

Dubai police unveiled 11 suspects — 10 men and one woman — who apparently traveled to Dubai on European passports with real names and authentic data, but possibly altered photos.

Dubai also said police had two Palestinians in custody for alleged involvement in the murder of al-Mabhouh, whose body was found on Jan. 20. The two were arrested in Jordan shortly after the killing, then sent back to Dubai.

A Hamas Web site, the Palestine Information Center, said those two men were former Fatah security officers and current employees of a senior Fatah official, who was not identified. Dubai authorities have not identified the two Palestinians and would not comment Friday.

Hamas stopped short of accusing Fatah of collaborating with the Mossad, however. Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas' leadership in Damascus, told The Associated Press on Friday that Hamas is "not accusing any party" other than Israel, though he said the agents might have used "small collaborators for logistic issues."

The Hamas Web site identifies the two men as Anwar Shheibar and Ahmad Hassanain. It says they served in Fatah's security services in Gaza, fled the territory in 2006, and currently work for a construction company owned by a high-ranking Fatah official, Mohammed Dahlan.

Dahlan denied any connection to the men or to the killing, telling the Kuwait-based paper Gulf News in an interview published Friday that Hamas was "following mirages created by Israel."

A Fatah spokesman also denied the charge. "Hamas is trying by these accusations to cover up the security flaws in the first lines of its leadership," said Adnan Damiri, a spokesman for Palestinian security forces in the Fatah-ruled West Bank. "Hamas is the only one to know the movement of Al-Mabhouh, and from there the information went to the Israelis."

Officials of the Fatah-affiliated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the two men are former members of Fatah who later joined Hamas security forces in Gaza. They said the men were sent to Dubai on Hamas business last month but had no further details. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been given permission to comment publicly.

Israel has refused to comment on accusations it was behind the killing, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying Wednesday that "Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies."

Hamas and Fatah have been trading accusations over the affair for days, but Friday's allegations were the first time names were used. Each side has made attempts to tone down the rhetoric — perhaps to avoid destroying prospects for reconciliation between the rivals who control separate territories on opposite sides of Israel.

The Western-backed Fatah and the Islamic militant Hamas fought a bloody civil war in 2007 that left Hamas in charge of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank. Palestinians hope to establish a state in both areas.

Building Peace Without Obama’s Interference

A look at the other Palestine.  The Palestine of fine hotels and booming economic development that you'll never hear about in the MSM.  The West Bank and Gaza are not the run down hovels depicted in the popular press.  If it were not for the fanatical and implacable desire of the Palestinian leadership to see the utter destruction of Israel, there might be some hope the common man in the street of Gaza and the West Bank could reach an accommodation with Israel.  But until both Hamas and Fatah revise their charters to remove the requirements to destroy Israel, there can be no lasting peace.  The Onus is on the Muslim population of the region to allow a peaceful settlement.

FROM NATIONALREVIEW.COM:

Building Peace Without Obama’s Interference
A promising, independent Palestine is quietly being developed, with Israeli assistance.

By Tom Gross

It is difficult to turn on a TV or radio or pick up a newspaper these days without finding some pundit or other deploring the dismal prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace or the dreadful living conditions of the Palestinians. Even supposedly neutral news reporters regularly repeat this sad tale. “Very little is changing for the Palestinian people on the ground,” I heard BBC World Service Cairo correspondent Christian Fraser tell listeners three times in a 45-minute period the other evening. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth. I had spent that day in the West Bank’s largest city, Nablus. The city is bursting with energy, life, and signs of prosperity, in a way I have not previously seen in many years of covering the region.

As I sat in the plush office of Ahmad Aweidah, the suave, British-educated banker who heads the Palestinian Securities Exchange, he told me that the Nablus stock market was the second-best-performing in the world so far in 2009, after Shanghai. (Aweidah’s office looks directly across from the palatial residence of Palestinian billionaire Munib al-Masri, the wealthiest man in the West Bank.)

Later I met Bashir al-Shakah, director of Nablus’s gleaming new cinema, where four of the latest Hollywood hits were playing that day. Most movies were sold out, he noted, proudly adding that the venue had already hosted a film festival since it opened in June. 

Wandering around downtown Nablus, the shops and restaurants I saw were full. There were plenty of expensive cars on the streets. Indeed I counted considerably more BMWs and Mercedes than I’ve seen, for example, in downtown Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.

And perhaps most important of all, we had driven from Jerusalem to Nablus without going through any Israeli checkpoints. The government of Benjamin Netanyahu has removed them all since the Israeli security services (with the encouragement and support of Pres. George W. Bush) were allowed, over recent years, to crush the intifada, restore security to the West Bank, and set up the conditions for the economic boom that is now occurring. (There was one border post on the return leg of the journey, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but the young female guard just waved me and the two Palestinians I was traveling with through.)

The shops and restaurants were also full when I visited Hebron recently, and I was surprised to see villas comparable in size to those on the Cote d’Azur or Bel Air had sprung up on the hills around the city. Life is even better in Ramallah, where it is difficult to get a table in a good restaurant. New apartment buildings, banks, brokerage firms, luxury car dealerships, and health clubs are to be seen. In Qalqilya, another West Bank city that was previously a hotbed of terrorists and bomb-makers, the first-ever strawberry crop is being harvested in time to cash in on the lucrative Christmas markets in Europe. Local Palestinian farmers have been trained by Israeli agriculture experts and Israel supplied them with irrigation equipment and pesticides.

A new Palestinian city, Ruwabi, is to be built soon north of Ramallah. Two weeks ago, the Jewish National Fund, an Israeli charity, helped plant 3,000 tree seedlings for a forested area the Palestinian planners say they would like to develop on the edge of the new city. Israeli experts are also helping the Palestinians plan public parks and other civic amenities.


Outsiders are beginning to take note of the turnaround, too. The official PLO Wafa news agency reported last week that the third quarter of 2009 witnessed near record tourism in the Palestinian Authority, with 135,939 overnight hotel stays in 89 hotels that are now open. Almost half the guests come from the U.S or Europe.

Palestinian economic growth so far this year — a year dominated by economic crisis elsewhere — has been an impressive 7 percent according to the IMF, though Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayad, himself a former World Bank and IMF employee, says it is in fact 11 percent, partly helped along by strong economic performances in neighboring Israel.

In Gaza too, the shops and markets are crammed with food and goods — see, for example, the photos   http://www.paltoday.com/arabic/News-64161.html
from last Friday’s Palestine Today newspaper about the Eid celebrations in Gaza. These are not the pictures you are ever likely to see on the BBC or in Le Monde or the New York Times. No, Gaza is not like a “concentration camp,” nor is the “humanitarian crisis in Gaza is on the scale of Darfur,” as British journalist Lauren Booth (who is also Tony Blair’s sister-in-law) has said.
READ IT ALL:

Hamas teaches kids to kill Jews

FROM PALESTINIANMEDIAWATCH.ORG:

Hamas teaches kids to kill Jews

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Sept. 23, 2009

The two hosts of a Hamas children's TV program use three different words for “slaughter” to describe how to rid Israel of Jews. The bear puppet Nassur explains that all Jews must be “erased from our land,” and the young host Saraa then specifies, "They'll be slaughtered."

Later in the conversation Nassur adds, "We want to slaughter them, Saraa, so they will be expelled from our land.” He repeats, “…We’ll have to [do it] by slaughter."

Three different Arabic expressions are used to describe the “slaughter” of the Jews: “Manhurin naher,” “Nidbah-hom” and “Shaht.”

The following is the transcript from the children’s program Tomorrow's Pioneers:

Nassur: “There won't be any Jews or Zionists, if Allah wills. They'll be erased.”
Saraa: “They'll be slaughtered.” (Manhurin naher)
Nassur: “And just like we will visit the Qaaba [in Mecca]... everyone will visit Jerusalem.”

[Seven-year old Palestinian child on phone tells how his father, a member of the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades, “died as a Shahid (Martyr).”]

Nassur to child on phone: “What do you want to do to the Jews who shot your father?”

Child on phone: “I want to kill them.”

Saraa: “We don't want to do anything to them, just expel them from our land.”

Nassur: “We want to slaughter (Nidbah-hom) them, so they will be expelled from our land, right?”

Saraa: “Yes. That's right. We will expel them from our land using all means.”

Nassur: “And if they don't want [to go] peacefully, by words or talking, we’ll have to [do it] by slaughter.”

(Shaht) [Al-Aqsa (Hamas) TV, Sept. 22, 2009]

MIDEAST:GAZA, SUICIDE BOMBERS BACK BUT KILLING PALESTINIANS

No surprises here. Muslims just can't stick together long enough to become an truly effective global power. Fortunately for the West, Muslims hate each other almost as much as they hate non-Muslims. As a matter of fact about 80% of all Muslim killings are against other Muslims.

This is another case of having several rats (Muslims) in a barrel fighting it out to see who will survive to become the king rat.

FROM ANSAMED.INFO:

MIDEAST:GAZA, SUICIDE BOMBERS BACK BUT KILLING PALESTINIANS
(by Giorgio Raccah).

(ANSAmed) - GAZA, AUGUST 17 - Suicide bombers have made a reappearance, but this time Palestinians are the ones to pay the price. Sources in Gaza have reported that during the bloody clashes which broke out on Friday in Rafah (in the southern part of the Gaza Strip) between Hamas militants and fighters from the ultra-radical Salafite group Jund Ansar Allah ('God's Warriors'), allied with Al-Qaeda, the latter group made use of two suicide bombers. In the battle - the worst since Hamas took control of Gaza from its rival, Fatah, two years ago - and the subsequent hunting down of the Islamic extremists, 22 were killed - including five civilians and six Hamas militants - and over 120 injured. According to ANSA sources, during the battle it was allegedly a suicide bomber who blew himself up before being able to strike against Hamas (Abu Abdallah al-Suri, a pro-Al-Qaeda militant who had escaped from Syria to Gaza) to kill the Jund Ansar Allah leader Abdelatif Mussa, a doctor-turned- Islamic preacher. Hamas sources instead say that Mussa chose to blow himself up along with some of his followers in his own home instead of giving himself up. The second suicide bomber was reportedly a Palestinian named Abdallah Awadallah, who was attempting to kill Hamas members but did not succeed. Before the clashes began, Mussa gave rise to Hamas's fury in a Rafah mosque by proclaiming the establishment of an Islamic emirate and accusing Hamas of weakness in the application of Islamic laws, as well as acting in the manner of a secular government. Hamas reacted ruthlessly to what it saw as a challenge to its authority in the Gaza Strip. Militants surrounded the mosque where Abdelatif and his followers were, about a hundred of whom were armed, and ordered that they give themselves up. Instead, a battle broke out which continued for hours with much use of heavy weaponry, including machine guns and rockets. Rafah inhabitants spoke of a "day of horror". The Palestinian organisation for human rights in Gaza Al-Dameer has requested a thorough inquiry and accused Hamas of using excessive force. Taher An-Nunu, spokesman in the de facto government of Hamas, said that Jund Ansar Allah was responsible for a series of attacks using explosives on internet cafes, restaurants, hairdressers and Western meeting places. Hamas, which prevented the press from closely following the battle and conducting interviews in hospitals, said that it would not tolerate the presence of rival Islamic groups and that it would use harsh measures to prevent any such groups constituting themselves. According to Hamas, Jund Ansar Allah was also supported by other Arab regimes and elements connected with the secret services of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas. In Ramallah, the latter denied any such involvement.(ANSAmed)

Gaza: Hamas imposes 'Koran levy'

Hamas again demonstrates their thuggery and the West continues to finance one of the most fanatical and depraved Islamic terror groups.

FROM YNETNEWS.COM:

Gaza: Hamas imposes 'Koran levy'
Salaries of public officials in Strip to be cut in effort to reinforce Koran study centers
Ali Waked
07.02.09, 22:11 /

Special Hamas tax: The Hamas government in Gaza has recently decided to cut the salaries of Palestinian Authority employees in the Strip in order to finance Koran studies.

In an effort to reinforce Koran study centers across Gaza, Hamas has decided to deduct one percent of the salaries of public officials in the Strip and earmark the funds to the Koran schools.

Notably, Korean study centers in the Strip are considered a major Hamas power source used to elicit support for the organization.

Dr. Taleb Abu Sha'r, the Minister for Religious Affairs in the Hamas government, said the decision aims to encourage Koran studies and religious devotion.

"The decision proves that the government attaches great importance to those who teach and study the Koran, and it expresses a desire to assist them," he said.

The new "Koran levy" is not the only unusual tax introduced by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Every few months, the Hamas government enforces a deduction in the salaries of each public official in order to pay unemployment allowances in the Strip.

Middle East mirage

Read this item from Tony Blankley, he puts forth some revealing numbers showing the great divide between the Western and Arab perceptions of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Middle East mirage
By Tony Blankley
Upon hearing of the death of a Turkish ambassador, the serpentine French diplomat Talleyrand was reputed to have responded, "I wonder what he meant by that." With that level of skepticism in mind, all shrewd diplomats and observers of diplomacy look beneath the surface language and actions of diplomacy to the underlying realities that will shape negotiations, because, as professor Angelo Codevilla explains, effective diplomacy is, at its core, a "verbal representation of a persuasive reality. Indubitable reality itself convinces — sometimes even without verbal expression, or through nonverbal expression."

As we enter this new round of U.S.-Israeli-Arab negotiations, one needs to keep firmly in mind the political realities that will either undergird or undermine the talks.

In the lead-up to the current round of meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, the constantly repeated background theme has been that now is the vital moment to actually bring into being an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. As I discussed in this space last week, President Obama is being put under extraordinary pressure — both by Arab leaders and commentators and by his own White House staff — to be personally responsible for the success or failure of these talks.

And in turn, Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming under even greater pressure to comply with the United States' proposed path to a "peace accord," the foundation of which is a two-state solution, that is to say, two sovereign nations side by side: Israel and a Palestinian state.

The Arab states never have been more united in preparing the diplomatic groundwork for these talks. In advance of this week's Washington talks, the Arab states have let it be known that they will "reward" Israel with "confidence-building measures" — as Nader Dahabi, Jordan's prime minister, said last weekend at a World Economic Forum in Jordan — should Israel cooperate in the negotiations. But the premise of Arab cooperation includes adherence to the key provisions of the Saudi-sponsored plan: giving Palestinian refugees the right to return to Israel and having the Israeli borders return to how they were before the 1967 war.
READ IT ALL:

'Haniyeh hid in hospital during Gaza op'

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, cowardly dog

Big, bad Hamas "Prime Minister" Ismail Hayiyeh hid in a hospital, among patients and staff during the last Israeli assault on Hamas terrorists. What a coward, but typical of Islamic leadership to hide behind women, children and the sick. Hiding behind women and children is a typical Muslim tactic.

Again I say, what a coward.

FROM JPOST.COM:

'Haniyeh hid in hospital during Gaza op'

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh operated a command and control center inside Shifa Hospital in downtown Gaza City throughout Operation Cast Lead in January, the IDF revealed on Wednesday.

IDF probes opened following the offensive discovered that Haniyeh and other senior Hamas commanders took over a ward of the hospital, the Gaza Strip's largest, and set up a command center for the duration of the campaign.
Hamas believed that Israel would not target the hospital due to the high risk of collateral damage.

Guards were posted at the entrance to the ward and field commanders took advantage of the humanitarian corridor and cessation of action that the IDF instituted every day for several hours, to enter the hospital and meet with senior Hamas officials to receive instructions.

Senior Hamas commanders also set up a command center in a Red Crescent Society clinic in Khan Yunis and used it as a detention center.

An IDF investigation, conducted by Col. Erez Katz, focused on the targeting of health facilities, vehicles and medical teams. The probe discovered that out of seven medical personnel claimed to have been killed by the IDF, five were Hamas operatives, including a nephew of the Hamas health minister. Two were civilians.
Palestinians carry a wounded man into Shifa Hospital in Gaza City during Operation Cast Lead.

The probe also uncovered a number of cases during which Hamas used ambulances to transport operatives. Testimony by a Gazan medical worker and obtained by the IDF revealed how Hamas forced the Red Crescent to hand over medic and nurse uniforms for its operatives.
READ IT ALL:

Gaza Boat Expoldesm Near Israel Navy Ship

A little reported arena in the war by Hamas on Israel is the Israeli blockade of Gaza from the sea. This is the latest attempt by Hamas to use remotely piloted boats as floating bombs to attack Israeli ships and facilities. This attempt failed due to Israeli vigilance and pre-emptive action.

Gaza Boat Explodes Near Israel Navy Vessel
Posted by David Eshel

FROM AVIATIONWEEK.COM:

A booby-trapped fishing boat exploded on Monday near an Israel Navy vessel off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian vessel was laden with explosives, but was unmanned. Israel TV showed the Coastal Patrol Craft, accompanied by two Morena armed rigid-hulled inflatable boats, which apparently had been involved in the chase.

The naval patrol followed the boat for about an hour and spotted no people on board. When the suspected boat came within 600 meters of the patrol craft, it was fired on, at which point the explosion occurred. There were no casualties on any of the Israeli boats during the action.

IDF sources estimated that the booby-trapped boat may have been activated by remote control from the shore and meant to explode near an Israeli Navy vessel or a coastal community.
READ IT ALL:

Appeasing child killers

A must read by Caroline Glick exploring the root causes of the continual Muslim attacks against Israel, the continual attack against Israeli children and Obama's misguided efforts to impose a "two state" solution on Israel.

FORM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Appeasing child killers
By Caroline B. Glick

We were not supposed to see Shlomo Nativ's name in the newspapers. At least, we weren't supposed to know who he was for several years. He was just a 13-year-old boy. He was loved by his family and friends. He had brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents. His life was not our business. And, to a certain extent, now that it is over, it still shouldn't concern us.

What should concern us is his death. Nativ was murdered last Thursday at the hands of a Palestinian ax murderer just a few meters from his home in Bat Ayin. And his death should interest us for what it teaches us, first of all about the nature of the Middle East and Israel's place in it.

The mainstream media in Europe and the US and even here maintain that Nativ's death tells us little we didn't already "know" if we are right-thinking people. By this view of things, the cold-blooded terrorist murder of civilians - even of children - is to be expected when the victims in question are Israeli Jews who live beyond the 1949 armistice lines. It isn't nice. It isn't pleasant to say. But as far as the right-thinking people of the Western media are concerned, Israeli Jews like Nativ, who live in Gush Etzion in Judea, are simply asking to be murdered.
Today, the media's view is shared by both European governments and the Obama administration. For years now the Europeans have accepted the legally unsupportable Arab claim that all Jewish presence in areas beyond the 1949 armistice lines is illegal. Since 1993, supported by the Israeli Left, the US government has gradually moved toward adopting this view. And today this view stands at the center of President Barack Obama's emerging policy toward Israel and the Palestinians.
READ IT ALL:

Hamas couldn't fire smuggled Stingers against Israelis due to embedded ID system

This is really disturbing because it means US high tech weapons have been stolen and found their way to Islamic terrorists. While Hamas could not use these Stingers due to built in security measures, those safeguards may be overcome in time.

The question now is where did they come from and how can the thefts be stopped? This indicates an extremely serious breach of security.

FROM THE WORLDTRIBUNE.COM:

Hamas couldn't fire smuggled Stingers against Israelis due to embedded ID system
GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime acquired U.S.-origin air defense systems but was unable to use them in combat.

Hamas sources said the Islamic military has acquired the Stinger man-portable air defense system. The sources said the Stingers were acquired from smugglers in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in 2008 and deployed in the 22-day war against Israel in January 2009.
"We were disappointed by them, and they were found to have been useless," a Hamas source said.

The source said Hamas smuggled four Stinger systems in 2008. The source said the Hamas military deployed the Stingers against Israel Air Force AH-64 Apache attack helicopters during strike missions in the northern Gaza Strip.

Feel the love.A Palestinian woman, right, tries to prevent an Israeli soldier from replacing razor wire during a demonstration against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Maasarah, near Bethlehem, Friday, March 27, 2009. Israel says the barrier is necessary for security while Palestinians call it a land grab. AP Photo

FROM MILITARYPHOTOS.NET:

Terrorist Arsenal of 50,000 Rockets Aimed at Israel

The enemies of Israel continue to stockpile missiles and weapons as the US and EU pressure Israel to make "peace" with the Arabs. Israel obviously has her back to the sea and is surrounded on three sides by murderous Islamists planning the final attack on Israel.

If Israel is attacked by a full court press of Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, with direct and indirect aid from Iran, Egypt and Jordan, it's only remedy would be to take out Iran by whatever means necessary while dealing fighting a ground invasion on three sides.

FROM ISRAELINATIONALNEWS.COM:

Terrorist Arsenal of 50,000 Rockets Aimed at Israel

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahuif IsraelNN.com)

Hamas and Hizbullah terrorists have amassed an arsenal of 50,000 rockets aimed at Israel, United Press International (UPI) has reported. Israel still has no defense against the threat, and the government’s highly touted Iron Dome short-range missile defense system is far from being in operation and may not even be practical.
“Even if Iron Dome works perfectly, it is never going to have the firepower in interceptors to credibly intercept most, let alone all,” of the rockets, according to the UPI report.

Hizbullah has amassed far more rockets than it possessed before the Second Lebanon War in 2006, despite Israel’s agreeing to a ceasefire on the condition that United Nations Interim Forces (UNIFIL) would prevent arms smuggling into Lebanon.

In the south, Hamas continues to smuggle weapons into Gaza despite a similar ceasefire ageement, supposedly conditioned on a cessation of arms smuggling, that the Olmert administration announced when concluding Operation Cast Lead in mid-January.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised two years ago that the Iron Dome short-range missile defense system, along with other systems, would protect Israel from 90 percent of missile attacks, although mortar shells would continue to explode in Israel without interception.

Barak announced in October 2007 that the Iron Dome was near completion and would be in place by 2010. He also has stated that its deployment is a precondition for handing over part of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority.

Last year, officials admitted that the Iron Dome system would not be effective against Kassam rockets fired from less than two miles, meaning that it had no solution for tens of thousands of residents in the Gaza Belt communities, including Sderot.

State Comptroller and Ombudsman Micha Lindenstrauss’s recent report of his investigation of the timetable of the Iron Dome system “documented endless delays, indecision, go-it-alone chaotic planning and sheer bureaucratic incompetence,” in the words of UPI reporter Martin Sieff.

First Terror Attack of 2009 Rattles Nerves in Jerusalem

Individual jihad strikes again. Another Muslim driven to murder by following Mohammed's edict to convert, conquer or kill non-Muslims. This illustrates one of the problems of having one and a half million Muslim citizens of Israel.

FROM NEWSMAX.COM:

First Terror Attack of 2009 Rattles Nerves in Jerusalem
Thursday, March 5, 2009 9:57 AM

By: Nicole Jansezian

In the first incident of its kind this year, a bulldozer driver sped down a busy Jerusalem street on Thursday afternoon near the city’s largest mall and rammed a police car, sending it sailing into the air and flipping over twice with two officers inside.

The incident comes the day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in the country speaking with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders about preconditions for a peace agreement.

The bulldozer driver, who had an open Koran in the vehicle according to police, was shot by police officer who had just arrived at the scene. He later died in the hospital. The two officers were slightly wounded, according to a police spokesman.

“We’re 100 percent sure it was an intended terror attack carried out by an Arab or a Palestinian from East Jerusalem based on what we found at the scene and the life-threatening situation it was,” Israel Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tells Newsmax.

The driver had no identification on him so police weren’t certain if he was a Jerusalem resident or a resident of the Palestinian territories with a work permit for Jerusalem. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Rosenfeld said police were investigating which nearby construction site he was working at the time.

The attack, the first this year in Jerusalem, underscored the fragile relations in the mixed Israeli capital where Arabs and Jews mingle on the job and socially. This was the fourth bulldozer attack in the last year.

Rosenfeld said police had no specific warning or information about an impending terror attack, but since the country’s security forces have gone on high alert now especially ahead of next week’s Purim holiday.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat arrived on the scene shortly after the attack. This is the first attack in the city since he was elected.
“The attack targeted us for no reason other than the fact that we live in Jerusalem. This was an attack carried out exclusively for the purpose of harming civilians,” he said.

Puzzled in Gaza

A Palestinian man holds bags of rice before their distribution to Palestinians at a United Nations food distribution center in Sha'ati refugee camp in Gaza City.
Photo: AP

Very interesting report of conditions in Gaza that debunks the Hamas propaganda of indiscriminate Israeli attacks and massive destruction. Most of the destruction of the Gaza infrastructure has been undertaken by Hamas, who cannot understand anything but their fanatical hatred of everything non-Muslim. An example is several square miles of greenhouses the Israelis built that were immediately torn down and sold as scrap by Hamas upon the Israeli withdrawal 3 years ago.

There is no reason whatsoever, save the barbaric dictatorial reign of Hamas that the people in Gaza could not thrive there like the Israelis did. With literally billions of dollars poured into the region, there should be a thriving economy and government.

FROM JPOST.COM:

Puzzled in Gaza
By YVONNE GREEN

I'm a poet, an English Jew and a frequent visitor to Israel. Deeply disturbed by the reports of wanton slaughter and destruction during Operation Cast Lead, I felt I had to see for myself. I flew to Tel Aviv and on Wednesday, January 28, using my press card to cross the Erez checkpoint, I walked across the border into Gaza where I was met by my guide, a Palestinian journalist. He asked if I wanted to meet with Hamas officials. I explained that I'd come to bear witness to the damage and civilian suffering, not to talk politics.

What I saw was that there had been precision attacks made on all of Hamas' infrastructure. Does UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticize the surgical destruction of the explosives cache in the Imad Akhel Mosque, of the National Forces compound, of the Shi Jaya police station, of the Ministry of Prisoners? The Gazans I met weren't mourning the police state. Neither were they radicalized. As Hamas blackshirts menaced the street corners, I witnessed how passersby ignored them.

THERE WERE empty beds at Shifa Hospital and a threatening atmosphere. Hamas is reduced to wielding its unchallengeable authority from extensive air raid shelters which, together with the hospital, were built by Israel 30 years ago. Terrorized Gazans used doublespeak when they told me most of the alleged 5,500 wounded were being treated in Egypt and Jordan. They want it known that the figure is a lie, and showed me that the wounded weren't in Gaza. No evidence exists of their presence in foreign hospitals, or of how they might have gotten there.

From the mansions of the Abu Ayida family at Jebala Rayes to Tallel Howa (Gaza City's densest residential area), Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.

Seeing Al-Fakhora made it impossible to understand how UN and press reports could ever have alleged that the UNWRA school had been hit by Israeli shells. The school, like most of Gaza, was visibly intact. I was shown where Hamas had been firing from nearby, and the Israeli missile's marks on the road outside the school were unmistakeable. When I met Mona al-Ashkor, one of the 40 people injured running toward Al-Fakhora - rather than inside it as widely and persistently reported - I was told that Israel had warned people not to take shelter in the school because Hamas was operating in the area, and that some people had ignored the warning because UNWRA previously told them that the school would be safe. Press reports that fatalities numbered 40 were denied.

I WAS TOLD stories at Samouni Street which contradicted each other, what I saw and later media accounts. Examples of these inconsistencies are that 24, 31, 34 or more members of the Fatah Samouni family had died. That all the deaths occurred when Israel bombed the safe building it had told 160 family members to shelter in; the safe building was pointed out to me but looked externally intact and washing was still hanging on a line on one of its balconies. That some left the safe building and were shot in another house. That one was shot when outside collecting firewood. That there was no resistance - but the top right hand window of the safe building (which appears in a BBC Panorama film Out of the Ruins" aired February 8) has a black mark above it - a sign I was shown all day of weaponry having been fired from inside. That victims were left bleeding for two or three days.

I saw large scoured craters and a buckled container which appeared to have been damaged by an internal impact (its external surfaces were undamaged). Media accounts of Samouni Street don't mention these possible indications of explosive caches (although the container is visible on media footage). The Samouni family's elder told me during a taped interview that he had a CD film of the killings. As far as I'm aware, no such film has been made public. He also told me that there are members of his family who have still not been found.

The media have manufactured and examined allegations that Israel committed a war crime against the Samounis without mentioning that the family are Fatah and that some of its members are still missing. They have not considered what might flow from those facts: that Hamas might have been active not only in the Samouni killings but in the exertion of force on the Samounis to accuse Israel.
THE GAZA I saw was societally intact. There were no homeless, walking wounded, hungry or underdressed people. The streets were busy, shops were hung with embroidered dresses and gigantic cooking pots, the markets were full of fresh meat and beautiful produce - the red radishes were bigger than grapefruits. Mothers accompanied by a 13-year-old boy told me they were bored of leaving home to sit on rubble all day to tell the press how they'd survived. Women graduates I met in Shijaya spoke of education as power as old men watched over them.

No one praised their government as they showed me the sites of tunnels where fighters had melted away. No one declared Hamas victorious for creating a forced civilian front line as they showed me the remains of booby trapped homes and schools.
From what I saw and was told in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead pinpointed a totalitarian regime's power bases and largely neutralized Hamas's plans to make Israel its tool for the sacrifice of civilian life.

Corroboration of my account may be found in tardy and piecemeal retractions of claims concerning the UNWRA school at Al-Fakhora; an isolated acknowledgment that Gaza is substantially intact by The New York Times; Internet media watch corrections; and the unresolved discrepancy between the alleged wounded and their unreported whereabouts.

Change has come

Caroline Glick's latest assessment of the Israeli-Hamas conflict. The Obama administration continues to undercut Israel's security while activity stuffing it's nose up Hamas' ass.

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Change has come
By Caroline B. Glick

Provoked by the Palestinians' escalating missile campaign, on Sunday evening the Ashkelon Parents Association voted not to send their children to school on Monday.

Ever since the outgoing Kadima government ended Operation Cast Lead in Gaza on January 20, the Palestinians have steadily stepped-up their missile war against Israel. Over the weekend the IDF acknowledged that six weeks later, daily Palestinian missile barrages against Israel have returned to pre-Operation Cast Lead levels. Moreover, the IDF warned that over the past six weeks, Hamas and its sister terror groups have rebuilt their missile arsenals both through imports of Iranian arms from Egypt and through local production lines. They have also brought in fairly advanced anti-aircraft missiles capable of shooting down IAF helicopters.

The proximate cause for the decision to close down schools was the weekend missile strike against a high school in Ashkelon. The direct hit caused massive damage both to the school and to surrounding apartments. IDF inspectors assessed that the Grad missile the Palestinians used in the attack had been locally upgraded. Its warhead was two and a half times bigger than usual.
As Ashkelon's children settled into their living rooms instead of their classrooms on Monday morning, a few hundred kilometers to the south representatives from 80 countries and international organizations convened in Sharm el-Sheikh to pledge billions of dollars in aid to Hamas-controlled Gaza. The US, represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pledged $900 million in assistance.

Also on Monday, The Jerusalem Post reported that the US is curtailing its military aid to Israel. Under new Pentagon guidelines, the Ministry of Defense must give a detailed accounting of how it uses every item it purchases with US aid money. As a consequence, the Defense Ministry issued new instructions to the IDF that from now Israel's purchases from the US will be limited to defensive armaments and systems aimed at preserving its "qualitative edge" against its enemies.

TO UNDERSTAND HOW it came to pass that six weeks after Operation Cast Lead, the US has joined the nations of the world in funding Hamas and is curtailing its military assistance to Israel, it is necessary to understand Israel's domestic politics. Specifically, since as Israel's leaders during Operation Cast Lead Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni are responsible for Israel's current predicament, it is necessary to understand their Kadima party's operating rationale.
READ IT ALL:

Terrorist Speaks My 8 Years in Hamas

A short history of a Palestinian child terrorist.
FROM ISRAELNATIONALNEWS.COM:

Terrorist Speaks My 8 Years in Hamas

by Maayana Miskinif (IsraelNN.com)
IDF soldiers managed to capture hundreds of terror suspects during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. One of them, 20-year-old Mohammed Amazi, was revealed to be one of Hamas' more senior fighters. Parts of Amazi's interrogation were published this week by the Hebrew-language Maariv.
Amazi told security forces that he was recruited by Hamas at age 12 as he left a mosque in his hometown of Jabalia. At first his participation in the group consisted only of daily Koran classes, he said. However, at age 13 he was officially sworn in to the terrorist group, and soon began actively supporting Hamas's armed forces as well.

At age 15, Amazi was an active member of one of Hamas's youth patrol groups. The groups patrolled Gaza in search of any evidence of impending IDF activities in the area.
"There were rumors that Israeli soldiers would invade Gaza, and we had to be ready to fight them at any price, to kill them,” he said.
At age 17, the young terrorist took a leave of absence from Hamas to study for his final high school exams. When he returned, he began military training, and was incorporated into a special suicide bombing unit trained to kill IDF soldiers.
Would-be suicide bombers underwent special training led by senior members of Hamas who had trained in Syria or Iran. The unit also helped Hamas prepare for the possibility of IDF operations in Gaza by hiding anti-tank bombs and testing explosives.

As Operation Cast Lead approached, members of Amazi's unit received uniforms similar in appearance to those worn by soldiers in the IDF's Givati brigades. Their plan was to confuse soldiers in order to draw close and carry out a kidnapping or suicide bombing.
Kidnapping a soldier was seen as “the most important thing, in order to stop the operation,” Amazi said.

Amazi and his companions ultimately failed in their mission. As he and a fellow Hamas terrorist fled from a Jabalia home after firing on soldiers, they came under fire, and Amazi was wounded while his companion was killed. Amazi took shelter in a local family's home and pretended to be a civilian engaged to the family's daughter, but was apprehended by soldiers despite the ruse.
Amazi admitted that he and other members of Hamas used civilian homes during the operation, even when the homeowners objected.
State prosecutors have filed an indictment against Amazi for murder, attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organization.