Palestinian Activist Celebrates Ramadan, Kills Four Israelis

Maybe he was frustrated by the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque. After all, our moral superiors have told us such an affront to the delicate sensibilities of Muslims is fueling extremism. It's apparently driven someone crazy enough to go on a murder spree during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The Israeli military says a Palestinian gunman has killed four Israelis in an attack in the West Bank.

The shooting comes just a day ahead of a White House summit relaunching Mideast peace talks.

Police say the gunman opened fire at a vehicle near Hebron — a volatile city that has experienced heavy violence in the past.

There has been no claim of responsibility. But Israeli authorities are concerned that militants might try to sabotage the U.S.-led peace efforts with violence.

Israel to Blame for West Bank Prison Overcrowding

Pretty amusing April Fool's gag from Reuters, although they give it away with the headline alone.

Prison shortage mars Palestinian security campaign .

I'm doubled over in laughter at the comical notion of a Palestinian security campaign. These Reuters folks are quite the comedians. Next thing you know we'll see a story saying the Palestinians want peace with Israel.

Oh wait, this isn't a joke?

When a Palestinian law and order campaign started in the occupied West Bank late last year, Western advisers quickly realised they had a problem: Palestinian forces had no place to put all of their prisoners.

Many of the Palestinian Authority's prisons, some dating back to the Ottoman era, were destroyed by Israel after a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 and peace talks broke down.

The few prisons left and the dysfunctional judicial system, plagued by backlogs long before statehood talks were relaunched in November alongside the security crackdown, can't cope with the influx, Palestinian officials and their Western advisers say.

Of course it's not a joke. They blame the Israelis for allegedly destroying the prisons.

So, for all the billions the West pour into this hellhole, they're unable to accomodate more 509 inmates total?

At Ramallah's civil penitentiary, a facility meant to hold no more than 180 inmates, there are 240 prisoners, according to the Palestinian attorney general.

In the town of Jericho, near the Dead Sea, 51 detainees cook, pray and wait in sweltering concrete cells so small they barely have room to stand up and stretch. The facility is meant to hold 40 people.

"You sit here and you rot," said Yousef Judeh, a 34-year-old father of five accused of collaborating with Israel. His case still pending, he has been languishing here for two years.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's law and order campaign has improved security in some areas and showcased his government's pledge to comply with a stalled "road map" peace plan, a condition set by Israel for Palestinian statehood.

But Western officials say the campaign has also revealed the weakness of the underlying penal system. "There may be order, but there is no law," one of the advisers said.

With the capacity of the civil prisons totalling just 509 inmates for all of the West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians, Attorney General Ahmed al-Moghani said he has little choice but to release some of those arrested for lesser offences, from theft to prostitution.

"Sometimes we take decisions that are irresponsible. But this is reality," Moghani said.

Of course, it always comes back to Israel. Like if Israel were never there these people would be prospering.

Israel, which has yet to meet its own obligations under the road map, has long asserted that a so-called "revolving door" policy, whereby some militants are rounded up but subsequently freed, stands as a barrier to any statehood agreement.

Fayyad and many Western officials blame Israel for undermining the security campaign by refusing to halt raids in Nablus and other cities after Palestinian forces deployed.

Read the rest of this pathetic sob story.

One thing's for sure, when it comes to Reuters and their Middle East reportage, it seems everry day is April Fool's Day.

Shocker: Palis 'Outraged' Over West Bank Settlements

Does a day ever go by where these people aren't outraged by something?

When your entire existence is based on victimhood, seething, whining and mayhem, it gets a bit predictable.

I suppose they expected the Israelis to just sit back and meekly accept the mass murder of their citizens while these people danced in the streets.

Well, keep whining.

Palestinians have reacted with outrage today after Israel announced plans to build hundreds of new homes in the occupied West Bank - just days after a Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish school associated with the settler movement.

Israeli officials said they revived a plan to build a total of 750 homes in Givat Ze'ev, a settlement near Jerusalem.

The move is yet another blow to U.S.-brokered peace talks, Palestinians said. The talks were nearly knocked off track entirely last week when a Palestinian man opened fire in a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem, killing eight students and wounding dozens of others before being gunned down himself.

Housing Ministry officials said 200 partially-constructed units would now be completed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert authorised building another 330 new homes in the area, his spokesman, Mark Regev, said.

Let's just forget this deluded fantasy that there will ever be peace. Until the maniacs lay down their arms, stop trying to murder Israelis on a daily basis, and accept what has generously been offered to them, they can forget about any so-called peace.

Why Don't I Believe Him?

Another lying sack of Palestinian fecal matter pretends to be cracking down on the terror goons and Reuters laps it up as fact.

The top Palestinian security official said on Saturday his government was dismantling militant groups, including those connected to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

"There is no al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades any more," Interior Minister Abdel-Razak al-Yahya told Voice of Palestine radio, referring to the group linked to Fatah.

Just in the nick of time.

Yahya vowed to exert broader security control a day after Palestinian militants killed two off-duty Israeli soldiers who were hiking near the West Bank city of Hebron. Two militants were also killed in the gun battle.

Israel arrested at least five Palestinians in the Hebron area following the shooting, the army said.

If only we threw a few more billion at them sooner, the crackdown would have spared the lives of the Israeli soldiers.

Even the Al-Aqsa thugs aren't buying this BS.

A unit of al-Aqsa issued a statement in the Gaza Strip accusing Yahya of being a "collaborator" who follows "American and Zionist masters".

A splinter group of al-Aqsa in Gaza -- along with the Islamic Jihad militant group -- claimed responsibility for Friday's shooting attack near Hebron.

Such are the travails on the road to peace.

Insanely Biased AFP Dispatch of the Day

An Israeli soldier tackles a Palestinian protester dressed as Santa Claus or Father Christmas during at a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the village of Umm Salamunah near the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem. Israeli guards beat five demonstrators during the protest on Friday, organisers said.
(AFP/Musa al-Shaer)

They don't even make an attempt at being objective in this non-bylined story.

It'd be interesting to know who put this agitprop together.

A Palestinian "protester" dons a Santa outfit, instigates some trouble with Israeli troops and this is the resulting headline:

'Father Christmas' beaten in West Bank demo: organisers

It's all downhill from there.

Israeli guards beat five demonstrators, including one dressed as Father Christmas, during a protest on Friday against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, organisers said.

About 50 Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists attended the rally in the village of Um Salomona, near Bethlehem, the Biblical birthplace of Jesus that is preparing to celebrate Christmas.

Israeli border guards armed with truncheons briefly detained one activist and beat another five during the rally, the organisers told AFP, adding that one was wearing a Santa Claus costume.

No mention who these organisers are, what group they belong to, or whether they have any track record of pulling such transparent stunts to gain attention.

See, see, the Israelis are beating up Santa!

And AFP willingly plays along.

An Israeli army spokesman said there had been disorder at the protest and that several demonstrators who were briefly detained were subsequently released.

Israel says the massive barrier of electric fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls built across the West Bank is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating the country and attacking Jewish settlements on Arab land.

Yes, and it's been quite effective. Why tear down something that's working?

The Palestinians say the project is aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state.

Good grief.

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.