Border Crisis Deepens

Let's see how Condoleezza Rice handles this one.

Tens of Thousands Cross Downed Gaza Wall
Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile wall dividing the border town of Rafah.

The Gazans crossed on foot, in cars or riding donkey carts to buy supplies made scarce by an Israeli blockade of their impoverished territory. Police from the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, directed the traffic. Egyptian border guards took no action.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said Israel has no forces on the Gaza-Egypt border and, "therefore it is the responsibility of Egypt to ensure that the border operates properly, according to the signed agreements."

"We expect the Egyptians to solve the problem," Mekel said. "Obviously we are worried about the situation. It could potentially allow anybody to enter."

[...]

They have, dude. Our friend Carl in Jerusalem has the details, including some video.

Car Mysteriously Explodes; Three Hamas Goons Killed

This really redefines religion of pieces.

A few possibilities here. They accidentally detonated prematurely, the Israelis whacked them, or Fatah had a hand in it. Whatever the case, three terrorist subhumanoids are gone, and this may not entitle them to the 72 virgins.

Three Hamas men killed in Gaza car blast

GAZA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Three Hamas security force members were killed and one wounded when a car exploded outside a security headquarters building belonging to the Islamist group in Gaza City on Tuesday, a Hamas spokesman and medics said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion in the Hamas-run coastal enclave. An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was not aware of any involvement by Israel in the incident.

Palestinian medics said they received three bodies and said one person was seriously injured. Earlier, medics and witnesses said two Palestinians were killed in the blast.

The Hamas spokesmen said all four men belonged to the group's newly formed naval police force. Hamas's paramilitary Executive Force police is investigating the explosion.

Tensions between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction have been running high in Gaza since the Islamist group seized control of the enclave in June.

Israel regularly launches pinpointed attacks against militants in the Gaza Strip to try to curb cross-border rockets fired by Palestinian militants into nearby Israeli towns.

UPDATE: Haaretz says it's four dead.

This account from early September notes several similar occurrences.

The Perfidy Continues

This was originally posted by our friend, Carl in Jerusalem and provides further insight into our involvement in Israel. All text in bold is not part of Carl's original publication, but has been added for the purpose of highlighting US policy towards Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert has approved the construction of a new Arab town 20 kilometers south of Shchem (Nablus) and 35 kilometers north of Ramallah along Highway 505, the main east-west highway through Samaria. The town is to be located in 'Area B,' which is under Israeli security control and will house 30-40,000 hostile 'Palestinians' in its first phase and 70,000 within ten years. Olmert did not bring the plan to the cabinet for approval before committing to Secretary of State Rice last night that the town would be built. DEBKA is calling the plan a 'major strategic restructure' of Samaria:DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that the new town site will encompass the Palestinian villages of Qabalan, Oseria and Qudela and straddle Trans-Samaria Highway 505 opposite Tapuach junction. The US planners intend the new town to provide territorial contiguity between Nablus and Ramallah. At the same time, it will cut off Israeli villages in the Jordan Valley from the settlement blocs in Samaria.

The new Palestinian urban entity, which our sources reveal Olmert first learned about in his talks with President Bush on June 19, will be the first Arab town to go up in the region in 1,500 years, since the foundation of Ramleh. [I actually find that 1500 figure hard to believe. CiJ]

During his White House visit, Olmert learned that the Americans regard the Palestinian town as a primary project for consolidating Mahmoud Abbas’ government. It is designed to provide tens of thousands of jobs for West Bankers, whose unemployment rate has soared to 70 percent since the Palestinian uprising was launched against Israel in 2000.

American town planners and architects hired by the US government have prepared initial diagrams after secret visits to the site. During her current tour, Rice showed the plans to the Israeli prime minister, Abbas and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.

The problem still outstanding is financing. It was hoped that the Saudis would put up part of the initial investment for the foundations. When he brokered the Mecca accord for a Palestinian unity government earlier this year, the monarch pledged $250 million in aid to the Palestinians. However, this hope was dashed, when King Abdullah flatly refused to hear of aid to the Abbas regime in his talks with the US secretary in Jeddah Tuesday.

I'm surprised Olmert (apparently) hasn't pledged Israeli money to pay for it yet.

But the key to this story is that it means that the Jewish towns in the Jordan Valley are going to be cut off from the rest of the country except if they go south to Jericho or north to Beit She'an.

In the meantime, Olmert won't allow so much as a new caravan in the Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria. He and his corrupt, Jew-hating government have to go, quickly, before they can do more permanent damage.

Carl in Jerusalem

Also at Israel Matzav

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So Much for the Fatah 'Moderates'

Such a swell idea it was to open the floodgates of cash for Fatah.

IDF exposes bomb lab in Nablus

A number of IDF troops were wounded during an operation in Nablus Thursday which exposed a large explosives laboratory.

Three prepared explosive devices, each weighing roughly five kilograms, were found in the laboratory, along with numerous weapons, magazines and materials used to manufacture bombs.

Israeli army forces entered Nablus Wednesday to operate against terrorist infrastructure and locate illegal weapons caches. The large-scale operation was launched after intelligence information indicated that terrorists in the city were planning a number of attacks in Israeli territory.

Wednesday afternoon soldiers discovered another weapons cache containing a pipe bomb, a Kalashnikov rifle, a hand gun and two grenades. At another location in Nablus troops found an M-16 rifle and a telescopic sight. The weapons were confiscated and the grenades were detonated in controlled explosions.

Thus far eight Fatah-affiliated suspects have been arrested in the frame of the operation.

It won't be long until we hear of hungry children who somehow aren't being fed with the free billions flowing into the West Bank. The idiots will wonder where the money went.

Religion of Peace

Here's video of BBC reporter Alan Johnston outfitted with a suicide belt.



Also at LGF, Hot Air.

Where it's not: People's Revolutionary Republic of Koslamistan, PuffHo, MyDD . . . .

WARNING: Genius At Work

Admissions and graduation standards for journalism school must be pitifully low -- if existent at all. Duncan Hooper of the UK's Telegraph newspaper provides this keen perspective on current events.

Israel has been hit by rockets fired from Lebanon for the first time since it sent troops across the border to flush out Hizbollah guerillas last summer.

The two Katyusha rockets hit a car and a factory in the northern town of Kiryat Shemona this afternoon but there were no reported casualties.

Hizbollah, which fired almost 4,000 rockets during the 34-day conflict last year, immediately denied responsibility for the attack, raising the prospect that Palestinian groups, in the midst of a bitter internal power struggle, may have been involved.

True Pulitzer Prize material.

Palestinian Ski Team

Fatah militants carry out raids on Hamas offices after factional fighting spreads to the West Bank

From left: Ahmed, Mahmoud, Ahmed, Mohammed, Mohammed, Mohammed (in white) and Mohammed.

(Telegraph photo)

Reality Bites

Gaza Diary
We couldn't leave our home. You don't know who is your enemy.

Mowaffaq Alami, 35, lives in an apartment in Gaza City with his wife Suha, his son Ismail, two, and his 16-month-old daughter Maya. He has a degree in sociology and psychology from Bethlehem University and runs the Gaza office of One Voice, an initiative that works to support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Read it all.

Peacekeepers Will Not Succeed

Undoubtedly, the UN and their intrepid partners, the State Department, will ultimately ignore this observation.

Belgium, which currently holds the presidency of the U.N. Security Council, said Friday that a peacekeeping force for the Gaza strip would stand no chance of success under the current circumstances.

''At this stage, there is not even the beginning of the conditions under which a possible peacekeeping force could operate,'' said Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht ''At this point, a proposal would stand no chance.''

Jean-Pierre Kerry was begging 'foreign leaders' to listen to his mindless pontificating and was unavailable for comment.

Oh, Now It's a Civil War

A Hamas fighter speaks on the phone as he sits inside the personal meeting hall of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after they captured his headquarters in Gaza June 15, 2007. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

So Hamas has run roughshod on Fatah, leaving a bloody trail and posing for Reuters photographers. Now, finally, they've come around to calling it a civil war.

GAZA (Reuters) - Western powers rallied behind Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday after Hamas Islamists routed his forces in the Gaza Strip and began imposing a new order in the enclave after days of bloody civil war.

Despite his mandate effectively being reduced to the West Bank, Abbas named a new prime minister after firing the Hamas-led government and declaring a state of emergency.

The United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- the Quartet of Middle East mediators -- gave a "clear message of support" to Abbas.

Why do we continue to waste our time?

And in This Corner...

Palestinian militants from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, speak during a news conference in the West Bank city of Hebron, June 15, 2007. In the West Bank, Fatah militants torched Hamas offices and warned of more reprisals if comrades were harmed in Gaza. REUTERS/Nayef Hashlamoun (WEST BANK)

Now is it just me, or does Reuters have some really good access?

A Hamas fighter looks at a mirror inside the personal bathroom of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' headquarters after they captured the premises in Gaza June 15, 2007. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

UPDATE: Just a Grunt has an interesting observation.

The disturbing part is those dangerous clowns are holding M16A2 rifles. Standard issue of the US. It used to be the bad guys only had AK47's which made target identification a whole lot easier. Guess they put some of that UN, EU and American Humanatarian to good use. Are you looking State Department or is your head still so far up your fourth point of contact that no light is shining?

Hamas Granting Amnesty to Fatah Honchos

This will likely have the left cooing over how they've matured and show signs of becoming moderates. No doubt it's all for show, but let's play along.

JERUSALEM, June 15 -- Victorious Hamas gunmen rounded up senior military leaders of the Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip early Friday, then announced a general amnesty in a sign the Islamic movement is seeking to reconcile with its secular rivals after five days of fierce fighting.

As world leaders planned to confer on the fast-moving events, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas moved to restructure the crumbling Palestinian government, naming independent lawmaker Salam Fayyad as prime minister a day after dismissing Hamas' leader from the post.

The amnesty announcement defused worries that Hamas, which completed its swift military seizure of Gaza hours earlier, would begin dispensing victor's justice in the strip. In announcing the arrest of the commanders of the vanquished Fatah-controlled security services, Hamas officials called them "collaborators," a label indicating they work on behalf of Israel and can often mean a death sentence in the Palestinian territories.

Who will be the first Democrat to suggest we have dialogue with these monsters?

WaPo Blames Bush for Hamastan

You had to figure this was coming, and one can only assume the Washington Post has joined Harry Reid in getting their talking points from the nutroots bloggers.

Takeover by Hamas Illustrates Failure of Bush's Mideast Vision

Five years ago this month, President Bush stood in the Rose Garden and laid out a vision for the Middle East that included Israel and a state called Palestine living together in peace. "I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror," the president declared.

The takeover this week of the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group dedicated to the elimination of Israel demonstrates how much that vision has failed to materialize, in part because of actions taken by the administration. The United States championed Israel's departure from the Gaza Strip as a first step toward peace and then pressed both Israelis and Palestinians to schedule legislative elections, which Hamas unexpectedly won. Now Hamas is the unchallenged power in Gaza.

After his reelection in 2004, Bush said he would use his "political capital" to help create a Palestinian state by the end of his second term. In his final 18 months as president, he faces the prospect of a shattered Palestinian Authority, a radical Islamic state on Israel's border and increasingly dwindling options to turn the tide against Hamas and create a functioning Palestinian state.

Sure, the United States urged Israel to depart Gaza, but at the same time, who didn't? It's not as if that was an idea unique to this administration.

Now was Bush to blame for the Paleostinians electing Hamas?

Is Bush to blame for the civil war that has now led to the creation of Hamastan?

The sun came up today. Should I credit Bush or blame him for the lack of darkness?

Pali Civil War Claims Two UN Workers

Surely the media will find a way to blame this on Israel.

Two Palestinian employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were shot dead in the Gaza Strip and the agency said on Wednesday it was suspending most of its operations due to the internal fighting.

UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness said one of the employees was shot in the abdomen on Tuesday and died on Wednesday. The other employee was shot in the head on Wednesday.

Gunness said they are the first UN employees killed in Gaza since internal fighting erupted between Hamas Islamists and President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction last year.

Gunness said they appeared to have been caught in the crossfire and not targeted because of their work for the UN Agency, which provides services to Palestinian refugees.

“In view of increased threats to our staff, UNRWA has no choice but to scale back its operations in Gaza with immediate effect,” Gunness said. He said the agency was temporarily suspending all but emergency medical and food programs.

Carnage in Gaza; Media Refuses to Call it Civil War

Maybe when nobody is left standing will they admit the obvious.

Bloody day in Gaza raises civil war fears

GAZA, June 12 (Reuters) - In what looked ever more like civil war, the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas battled supporters of the Islamist prime minister across Gaza on Tuesday, the bloodiest day of factional fighting in months.

At least 27 people were killed and 70 wounded, hospital officials said, taking to 47 the number of dead in the coastal enclave since Saturday. Early on Tuesday, the Gaza homes of both Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were fired on.

The largest force loyal to Abbas, who is favoured by Western powers, was ordered onto the streets to defeat what his secular Fatah group called a "bloody coup" by Hamas Islamists after Hamas gunmen stormed Fatah bases in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas later appeared to have control of one major Fatah base in the north and casualty data suggested it had the upper hand more widely. Fatah leaders threatened to quit a three-month-old unity government with Hamas if there was no immediate truce.

The European Union said there was an imminent risk of civil war if fighting went on, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged support for Abbas's efforts "to restore law and order".

Haniyeh and Abbas both called for restraint and talks but, as each side accused the other of siding with their Israeli adversaries, there was little sign of fighters paying heed.

The head of an Egyptian delegation in Gaza that saw its latest truce shot down on Monday, urged civilians to rally on Wednesday morning to show support for a new ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an arch-foe of Hamas, said for the first time that "serious consideration" must be given to posting international peacekeepers in Gaza, from which Israel withdrew troops and Jewish settlers two years ago.

"If the Gaza Strip ultimately falls to Hamas, this will be of great regional significance," he said, but added Israel could not enter Gaza to fight Hamas to help Abbas's "pragmatists".

Breathtakingly disingenuous.

The Jerusalem Post is a bit clearer in its assessment.

Gaza on verge of becoming Hamastan

Hamas: We Own Northern Gaza

Palestinian boys inspect the burnt house of senior Fatah leader Jamal Abu al-Jedian after fighting between Hamas and Fatah militants in the northern Gaza Strip June 12, 2007. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

The Palestinian civil war continues unabated, as the terror gang Hamas now boasts ownership of northern Gaza.

Hamas launched a full-scale attack Tuesday afternoon against Fatah security bases and positions in Gaza, and succeeded in taking over a number of them, Israel Radio reported.

Hamas-affiliated television said that the organization overtook the entire northern section of the Gaza Strip, the report stated.

Israel Radio also reported that a top Fatah military official sent a message to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stating that security forces were holding their ground, but calling on the Fatah leader to order an end to the current policy of restraint, allowing troops to return fire.

Wait though, they're still waiting to decide the fate of the oddly-named unity government. Stop snickering.

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas gunmen stormed a Fatah security headquarters in Gaza City on Tuesday, moving Palestinians closer to civil war, minutes after a deadline from the Islamist group to its rival to quit key strongholds expired.

President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction said its Central Committee would meet at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) to decide whether to remain in the unity government it formed with Hamas in March in a bid to stop internal violence and ease Western sanctions.

In an ultimatum verging on a declaration of war, Hamas's armed wing had given Fatah until 1100 GMT to evacuate the military intelligence, presidential guard, national security and preventive security headquarters in Gaza City.

Palestinian Ceasefire Update

Fresh Gaza violence leaves seven dead

Seven Palestinians were killed in Gaza today during fighting between rival armed factions, including a gun battle inside a hospital, which left three dead and several more injured.

Although Egyptian mediators have arranged several brief ceasefires between gunmen from the Islamist movement Hamas, which won elections last year, and its rival, Fatah, there still appears to be no agreement between the groups to halt the battles.

MENSA member?

Shooting broke out in Beit Hanoun, a town in the north of Gaza, with the killing of a Fatah bodyguard and a Hamas fighter. The gun battles then continued when armed men stormed into the Beit Hanoun hospital, which was being guarded by Hamas gunmen. Three people in the hospital were killed - a father and two sons. One was apparently shot from close range. At least 19 others were injured.

In Gaza City, gunmen fired on the offices of Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister and a Hamas leader, as he was holding a cabinet meeting. No one was hurt, but the cabinet meeting was cancelled. Most of the cabinet members present were from Hamas, although one was from Fatah.

In a separate incident, the home of the sports minister, a Hamas figure and close ally of Mr Haniyeh, was fired on but no one was injured. Later there were also shots exchanged at Gaza City's main hospital, Shifa.

The factional fighting, which Palestinian analysts say is fuelled mostly by a struggle for power, has now claimed around 620 lives since Hamas came to power early last year. The violence has left many senior Palestinian figures warning of civil war in Gaza.

I know, let's give 'em a state!

Civil War Continues in Gaza

The Palestinian civil war continues, and things really heated up today.

Masked gunmen from rival Palestinian factions streamed onto the streets to fight their most intense battles in weeks on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, with the weekend toll rising to six dead and 59 wounded.

Among the victims was a pro-Hamas Islamic cleric pulled from his home and shot several times in the street after a guard from the rival Fatah movement was shot and thrown to his death from a high building in Gaza City, officials said.

Witnesses said masked gunmen from both Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah set up roadblocks and barriers to stop cars and check identification papers, and abducted rival supporters from vehicles and houses.

Main roads were paralysed by the fighting. Shops and businesses closed early.

The latest round of fighting, the worst since an Egyptian-brokered truce was declared in mid-May, began on Saturday night in the town of Rafah, where hundreds of rival gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops.

Hamas and Fatah pounded each other with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns in Rafah, said witnesses who took shelter indoors as the rivals fought block by block.

Three men from Fatah and two from Hamas were killed in all, including the cleric of a main mosque in Gaza City, and a member of President Mahmoud Abbas's elite Force 17, hospital officials said.

A sixth man was brought to a Gaza City hospital on Sunday night with his hands and legs tied and a gunshot wound to the head, the officials said. Relatives identified this victim to Reuters as a relative of a senior Hamas executive force officer.

No wonder they're all depressed.

Will We Ever Learn?

We pour money into the Palestinian rathole and this is what we get. Terrorists using our own weapons to kill Israelis.

Arrested militant doubled as officer in Abbas' US-backed security detail

A long-wanted terrorist chief captured this week by Israeli forces was trained by the US, served in a senior capacity on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' US-backed security detail, and was a ranking member of a team that received and distributed American arms shipments the past two years, the WND has learned.

Khaled Shawish, an officer in Abbas' Force 17 presidential guards, was arrested Sunday by undercover Israeli police forces following scores of shooting attacks Shawish is suspected of carrying out.

Shawish doubled as the Ramallah chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group. He previously boasted of involvement in a West Bank shooting attack in December 2000 that killed Israeli ultranationalist leader Benjamin Kahane and Kahane's wife, Talya.

The Brigades, the declared "military wing" of Abbas' Fatah party, took credit along with the Islamic Jihad terror group for every suicide bombing in Israel the past two years and for multiple deadly shootings and rocket attacks.

After the Kahane murder, Shawish was extended refuge by Arafat to live in the late PLO leader's Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata.

Israelis Pummel Gaza

Palestinians inspect a destroyed compound used by Hamas's Executive Force after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Israeli aircraft have again pounded targets in the Gaza Strip, as the main armed factions mulled a truce call from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to end "futile" rocket barrages.(AFP/Said Khatib)

It doesn't look as if Hamas will stop lobbing rockets toward Israel, so the Israelis will justifiably continue to pummel Gaza.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli aircraft again pounded targets in the
Gaza Strip on Saturday, as the main armed factions discussed a truce call from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to end "futile" rocket barrages.

But Hamas put the onus on Israel for any hope of an end to the rocket fire, demanding that it stop shooting first.

And amid the question of presenting a common front toward Israel, a senior Palestinian security chief resigned, underscoring continuing tensions between Abbas's Fatah and Hamas.

At least five Palestinians were killed and eight wounded in four air raids mid-morning on buildings used by the paramilitary Executive Force loyal to senior Palestinian coalition partner Hamas, medical sources said.