Round One: Hamas Wins
By Brigitte Gabriel is founder and President of American Congress for truth FrontPageMagazine.com | March 3, 2006
Victim hood works. The Palestinian PM designate, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader of the new government in Ramallah, some would call it Hamastan, is spewing “taqiyyah,” religiously condoned lying by Muslims to “trick” western unbelievers. He says that the PA would recognize Israel if it gave up all of Samaria, Judea and east Jerusalem and let 3.5 million plus Palestinian refugee “victims” get their rights of return “honored.” Israel promptly rejected these destructive conditions and his lying proposition.
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), those wonderful folks who want to replace our Constitution with Shari’a law, was interviewed on PBS’s “Religion & Ethics” by host Bob Abernethy.
Asked if the new Hamas led government should have EU and US “humanitarian” aid cut off because Hamas is a terrorist organization, Hooper suggested our government and the EU, which forks over $500 million annually, should to go through NGOs like UNWRA. In fact the EU just announced that it was advancing 120 million Euros to the interim PA government. This might stave off what James Wolfensohn, Aussie American Supremo for the tattered Quarter “roadmap” said was a “looming financial collapse,” given Israel’s unwillingness to remit custom tax collections to the new Hamas-led government. Should we listen to Hooper?
Of the 120 million Euros in EU stop gap humanitarian aid, 64 million goes to support UNWRA.
UNWRA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, runs 59 refugee camps in the disputed Palestinian territories in places like Jenin and Gaza and in adjacent Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It feeds, houses and educates, in squalor, over 3.5 million unabsorbed Palestinian “refugee victims” in what amounts to the third generation whose forbearers ran away because Arab government’s told them to in 1948 at the start of the Arab invasion of the new State of Israel.
To these victims of Arab parlance, the US government voluntarily gives UNWRA over $130 million annually as a contribution to a budget of over $350-400 million used to support their wretched refugee camps. The Arab Red Crescent kicks in $35 million and Egypt doesn’t send one thin dime of aid to its Palestinian brothers and sisters living in these 56 year-old eyesores.
What’s the problem with all this? It’s Pallyhooey. Palestinian Hollywood-style victimization.
French Director Pierre Rehov made a documentary in 2004, “Hostages of Hatred” in which he graphically shows that the UNWRA camps employed Hamas and Fatah militants and terrorists. It shows weapons used in the second Intifada being transported in UNWRA ambulances. He also shows Fatah fat cats living high on the hog in fancy red roofed villas. Rehov goes back half a century documenting the Arab press lambasting the Arab Muslim ummah for not absorbing the first generation of Palestinian refugees after the 1949 Armistice agreement with the fledgling state of Israel. He even interviews U.S. representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) who called for an investigation of the UNWRA travesty and misuse of US humanitarian aid to support terrorist cadres and incitement to hate passing as education in these UNWRA camp schools.
But have things changed since Rehov launched his film.
Not one iota.
And what will another $130 million get us? Israeli investigative reporter, David Bedein wrote about Hamas infiltration in UNWRA refugee camps in an Israel Resource News Agency report entitled: “The Hamas/UNWRA Connection.”
“… Hamas convened a conference in a school in the Jabalya refugee camp, in which the school’s administration, teachers and hundreds of students participated…Saheil Alhinadi, representing the UNRWA Teachers Association, praised UNRWA pupils who carried out suicide attacks against Israel. That Alhinadi was speaking for the teachers should not be surprising since Hamas-affiliated officials dominate in the teachers’ union of UNRWA in Gaza, and control its executive committee.”
PM designate Ismail Haniyeh, the Gazan Hamas leader, has another surprise in store for the Palestinian Legislative Council. He is planning on creating a mini-Taliban state with women in hijabs and forcing Dhimmitude on the dwindling Christian population by introducing Jizya poll taxes and Sharia law. Bethlehem and other Christian villages will become ghost towns if this program is implemented.
But the new Hamas government designate has been getting some diplomatic favor. This week, a Hamas delegation led by exiled party political leader Khaled Meshaal was invited to Moscow by Russian President Putin and held discussions with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov asked the Hamas delegation to drop their 1988 Charter that calls for the destruction of Israel and asked that the new government disavow terrorism and recognize the Jewish state.
What happened in the wake of the Moscow meetings was an announcement: no dice. Hamas would not disavow its murderous Charter obligations and recognize Israel.
Hamas deputy political leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Reuters in an interview that recognizing Israel would negate all Palestinian rights.
“It means a negation of the Palestinian people and their rights and their property, of Jerusalem and the holy sites, as well as negation of their right of return. Therefore the recognition of Israel is not on the agenda,” Abu Marzouk said.
“We believe that Israel has no right to exist,” he added later in remarks to an Arab audience. “Hamas will never take such a step.”
Looks like Hamas was given some legitimacy by the Moscow trip, even though it achieved nothing of substance except appeasement of a terrorist group by a major world power, Russia. Lots of useful photo ops for Hamas.
Another accidental photo op was an exchange caught on C-SPAN involving Iowa Representative Jim Leach during a House hearing on U.S. relations with the new Hamas-led Palestinian government. Rep Leach was urging officials from the State Department to establish formal lines of communication with Hamas. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs C. David Welch brought him up short and reminded him that Hamas is on the government’s terrorist list and, therefore, it was illegal for U.S. officials to hold talks with them. Some solons never do their homework, do they?
Feisty Florida House representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R) chair of the Middle East and Central Asia Subcommittee of the International Relations Committee doesn’t buy any of Haniyeh’s “taqiyyeh.” Ros-Lehtinen and Tom Lantos (D), Ranking Democrat on the Committee, joined by Representatives Eric Cantor, Steve Chabot and Gary Ackerman, have introduced H.R. 4681, the “Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006” to prevent any aid from being filtered through NGOs to any Hamas-led government. The leigislation has lots of bi-partisan co-sponsors in the House. And, of course, radical left wing groups like Jewish Voice for Peace oppose the legislation.
If the new Hamas PM, CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper and those bleeding hearts in our own State Department and their brethren in the EU get their way, Hamas could win round one in this scramble to shore up this Islamofascist government.
Let’s support Congressman Ros-Lehtinen, Lantos and dozens more by getting HR 4681 enacted, so that the US doesn’t get sucker punched again by Palestinian “victim hood.”
Jerry Gordon, ACT’s Middle East Affairs analyst contributed to this article.
WELCOME TO HAMASTAN
BY: FERN SIDMAN
Speaking to an audience last night in Holon, Avi Dichter, who is number 5 on the Kadima list of Knesset candidates, outlined Kadima’s plans to evacuate and demolish most of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and to relocate their residents in those that remain.
The new Kadima plan would leave Israel with four or five isolated pockets of Israeli presence; a narrow finger 20 kilometers long from Rosh HaAyin to Ariel in the Shomron; parts of the Jordan Valley; and strips to the north, east and south of Jerusalem. The rest of Judea and Samaria would fall under the control of Hamas.
The communities that are to remain, According to the plan Olmert wishes to implement if he wins the elections, have long been mentioned as the “settlement blocs” of Ariel, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion. Karnei Shomron-Kedumim and the Jordan Valley have occasionally, also been included in what might remain Israeli territory.
Likud Knesset faction head MK Gideon Saar said the new Kadima plan is a “prize for Hamas.” “The areas to be evacuated by Israel will immediately become new Hamas bases for attack against Israel and its citizens,” Saar said.
Among the communities to be razed under Ehud Olmert’s plan would be the following:
In the Binyamin Regional Council, north of Jerusalem: Shilo, Eli, Shvut Rachel, N’vei Tzuf, Psagot, Maaleh Michmas, and Maaleh Levonah.
In the eastern Gush Etzion: Tekoa, Nokdim (El-David). Maaleh Amos and Meitzad. In Samaria Council and northern Samaria: Kedumim, Itamar, Yitzhar, Elon Moreh, Har Bracha, Avnei Cheifetz, Mevo Dotan, Hermesh and Tapuach.
In southern Judea: Adora, Pnei Hever, Maon, Susia, Otniel, Negohot, and Mitzpeh Shalem.
And while this is happening, the intifada of Kassam rockets continues near the Gaza border.
One of five Kassam rockets landed near Kibbutz Carmiya, where dozens of expelled families from Gush Katif have been relocated. Another Kassam rocket caused damage to what is called “strategic installation” south of Ashkelon. Two people were hurt in the attack on the installation and were treated for shock. National infrastructures in Ashkelon include the following:
The Rotenberg Power Plant in southern Ashkelon is Israel’s second largest electric station, and supplies about a quarter of the country’s electricity. The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline company (EAPC) in Ashkelon operates three oil pipelines linking Ashkelon, Ashdod and Haifa.. The Ashkelon seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant, the largest destination plant of its kind in the world, is set to ultimately provide an annual 100 million cubic meters of water, or some 15 percent of the country’s domestic consumer demand.
And if we weren’t already concerned about national security, it has been reported by the PA news agency Duniya Alwatan that a senior official in the Hamas military, known by his nom de guerre, Abu Huzaifa, told the news agency that since the disengagement from Gaza, the Hamas has set up military bases in every city in Gaza. The bases have been training a new cadre of highly motivated fighters for the Jihad, or holy war against non-Muslims and the Jewish state in particular. More specifically, Abu Huzaifa said PA soliders are taught a number of techniques including firing rifles, shooting Kassam rockets, crawling under fences, and climbing up and down buildings. The instructors are Hamas terrorists who received training abroad.
According to Al Qaeda’s number two man, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a statement aired by Al-Jazeera, he urged the ruling Hamas terror group to continue terror attacks on Israelis. “Your only alternative is to pursue the armed struggle until the liberation of Palestine and the bilding of an Islamic state,” al-Zawahiri told Al-Jazeera. He also exhorted, ” Nothing wil do you good, buttoting arms and taking revenge against your enemies, the Americans and the Jews… The crusaders and the Jews do not understand but the language of killing and blood.” Al-Zawahiri is believed to have masterminded the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks against America, as well as the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa.
Former Israeli UN Ambassador Dore Gold wrote an op ed piece Sunday outlining some of the extensive links that have been found linking Hamas and Al-Qaeda:
* In 2003, an Israeli ground unit in Gaza, seeking Hamas suspects, went into a school established by the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Written materials that Israeli soldiers collected revealed the writings of a famous Saudi Wahabi religious authority, Sheikh Sulaiman al-Ulwan. His ideological entry into the world of Hamas immediately raised eyebrows. After all, his name was featured in a famous Osama bin Laden video clip from December 2001, when the al Qaeda leader entertained his entourage on camera by re-enacting with his hands the hijacked aircraft slamming into the World Trade Center on September 11th. In that video, one Saudi messenger entered the scene at the end, telling bin Laden that he brought with him a “beautiful fatwa” from al-Ulwan, who had justified the mass murder of Americans. Now his ideas have penetrated the Palestinians as well. And his Islamic religious ruling justifying suicide bombing attacks appeared on the Hamas Web site along with those of other al-Qaeda clerics.
* Bin Laden sent emissaries to Hamas in September 2000 and January 2001
* Israel arrested three Hamas terrorists in 2003 after they had returned from an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda chief Abu Zubaydah entered the world of terrorism through Hamas. And according to a 2004 FBI affidavit, Al Qaeda recruited Hamas members to conduct surveillance against potential targets in the United States.
* In 2003 and 2004, Israeli forces found Hamas posters that were distributed in West Bank cities that extolled the war being waged by Islamic militants in the Balkans, Chechnya and Kashmir. At the top was the portrait of Hamas leader Yassin alongside the portraits of bin Laden and Chechen militant leaders like Shamil Besayev, who took credit for the bloody attack on a Russian school in Beslan.
Gold also writes about Hamas and Al-Qaeda’s common source of recruits and grassroots support of the Muslim Brotherhood present in every country in the Arab world.
And with all these facts glaring us in the face, the Olmert government still insists on carving up more of Israel, destroying more Jewish settlements, forcibly evicting more Jews from their homes, and demolishing more communities. Giving up more land and expelling more Jews is not going bring peace nor will it assist it setting up new boundaries that will maintain a Jewish majority. Just ask those folks who were evicted from Gush Katif and Amona.
Comment by Fern Sidman
— March 5, 2006 @ 11:13 pm
How much Hamas has won and how much more it can win will soon become known as events quickly unfold.
In spite of Russia hosting consultations with Hamas, Russia has issued a statement that it supports Israel’s existence and is against Israel being forced to compromise its security needs.
That is at least something positive.
Hamas, in spite of its consultations with Russia has remained steadfast in its goals for the destruction of Israel and its use of terror and whatever other means it has at its disposal.
Neither the West nor Israel should have any reason to doubt that Hamas says what it means and means what it says.
The West as far as its words go appears to be fairly resolute in its stand against Hamas, even with many in the West wishfully thinking that somehow Hamas will “get religion” through the educational process of governance, both of its people and in its dealings in the international arena.
The quickest and surest way of crippling Hamas and those other Jew hating terrorist factions is by starving it of financing.
The West has quite rightly and boldly threatened to cut off funding to the Palestinians in that those monies could be diverted to Hamas and enable it to carry out its terrorist goals.
The West obviously understands that the most effective way to defeat terrorists is to starve them of funding.
There is concern in the West however that innocent Palestinians will suffer in the result and ways are being considered to fund Palestinians for humanitarian reasons without actually funding Hamas.
It can’t be done of course for any aid that could realistically be used for humanitarian reasons frees up monies for Hamas and other terrorists within the Palestinian areas to use for their terrorism.
Just how deserving are the Palestinians as a whole for humanitarian aid?
Polls before the January 25th, 2006 Palestinian election have always shown Palestinian solid support for the terrorist tactics of Fatah and the splinter terrorist organizations, including Hamas.
Polls conducted in the months leading up to the Palestinian election showed as much as 65% support for terrorism against Israel.
The election was the most significant poll and that swept Hamas into power.
When the majority of a society votes for a hating terrorist organization, it seems pretty clear that the so called innocent non combattants who voted such organization in, are not innocent.
The West however continues to maintain the self delusion that all Palestinians, but for their leaders are innocent and deserving of the world’s humanitarian assistance.
The West’s solution to gap between its stand against Hamas and to maintain its compassionate delusion as regards Palestinians at large appears to be that many Western nations are willing to fund Palestinians through through NGO’s so as to create a charade of implausible deniability that they are actually funding Hamas.
If the West cannot let go of the delusion that Hamas rules over millions of innocent Palestinians, Israel cannot afford that delusion.
To an extent, E. Olmert has dealt realistically with the Palestinians by withholding tax revenues from the Palestinian government coffers.
In other respects, Oldert and Kadima seem to be oblivious to the danger to Israel posed by Hamas and to the lessons learned from Sharon’s unilateral disengagement from Gaza.
As Israel heads into an election, Kadima has revealed it intends to pursue a policy of further unilateral withdrawls from Judea and Samaria.
Apart from the grave issue of giving Hamas a broader foothold and base to launch terrorist attacks against Israel, just what does Kadima propose to do about Jews displaced from their land in the withdrawl process. More Jews will be dispossesed of their homes in such a move that were torn from their lands in Gaza and yet those Gazan Jews still have not been restored to being whole by the Israeli government.
To many pro-Israel supporters outside of Israel, Olmert and Kadima seem to be pursuing a path that can only end badly for Israel.
Just what is it that Israelis want? Which if any party reflects the will of the majority of Israelis?
Hopefully in the lead up to the election in the next few weeks polls and Israeli media commentary will reveal the will of the majority of Israelis and that the parties running in the election will shape their policies to reflect that will.
One other hope of course is that the will of the Israeli people will be to yield nothing more to the Palestinians and the party that is ultimately elected expresses that will in no uncertain terms.
Comment by Bill Narvey
— March 6, 2006 @ 9:45 am
Video Explains it all - al-Taqiyya: Muslim dissimu…
Here is an excellent video encapsulation of the whole Danish Cartoon Affair and how it got blown all out of proportion: Taqiyya Video….
Trackback by Planck's Constant
— May 8, 2006 @ 10:59 pm