Hamas would not rest until Israel was ousted from Palestine, said Ahmed al-Jabari, leader of the Izz a-din al-Qassam Brigades, adding that Israel had two options - to leave Palestinian territories or face death. He said that Hamas resistance would continue as long as Zionists remained in Palestine.Continue reading ‘New Message from Hamas To Israelis: Leave Or Die’
Archive for the 'Hamas' Category
I’m asking because, in his report to the scrupulously neutral and balanced UN Human Rights Council in September 2009, Judge Richard Goldstone and his fellow commissioners said: “Statements by Israeli political and military leaders prior to and during the military operations in Gaza indicate that the Israeli military conception of what was necessary in a war with Hamas viewed disproportionate destruction and creating the maximum disruption in the lives of many people as a legitimate means to achieve not only military but also political goals.”
Continue reading ‘Goldstone, Goldstone, Wherefore Are Thou, Goldstone?’
“World By Storm” is the pseudonym of one of the principal writers at The Cedar Lounge Revolution, an excellent Irish politics blog. In this entry he distracts himself from Ireland’s catastrophic economic situation by considering the Northern Ireland analogy. Unlike most people so tempted, he can’t be accused of ignorance of Irish politics and history.
When waged with appropriate means to achieve realistic ends, the answer is, “It’s a really effective means of imposing your will on the enemy”. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar. He classifies those who continue to fire rockets at Israel as rebels and continues:
1. Imagine you came across an interview with Pope Benedict XVI in which one of the questions put to him concerned claims that he was a Roman Catholic and practiced the rituals of that church. What would you make of that?
Anyone who still believes that a single state between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River can be brought about without exterminating and expelling the vast majority of Jews living in the territory should watch this sordid little fantasy about the “liberation” of Tel Aviv, courtesy of the genocidaires of Hamas.
Read more on Ynet.
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Hamas announces a ceasefire and calls for dialogue and negotiation to resolve the conflict with state of Israel. The government of Israel responds like this:
I regret having to return soon to the wretched Northern Ireland analogy but the persistence with which people appeal to it is really amazing. They seem to be unable to accept Hamas on its own terms and driven by a desire to wish it into being something that it is not.
Continue reading ‘The Northern Ireland Analogy And Irrational Yearnings’
Indeed, it is probable that Hamas’ future will be largely determined in the West Bank, rather than in Gaza. Its role as a spoiler cannot be underestimated, but Hamas’ long-term fortunes depend on an irrevocable failure of the national strategy of negotiations and of the PA state- and institution-building program. If either or both of these policies succeed, Hamas’ single-minded promotion of the strategy (though certainly not always the practice) of violent resistance and insistence on the non-recognition of Israel - even in the context of Palestinian independence - will become increasingly hollow and unappealing. If the PLO and PA strategies unequivocally fail, however, there is little to prevent Hamas from inheriting practically uncontested the leadership of the Palestinian movement and transforming it from a nationalist to an Islamist one.
Hussein Ibish’s reading of the stakes involved in the battle between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, here.
Michelle Sieff has an interesting piece here in which she argues against what she sees as a partial application of human rights law to Israel’s responses to Hamas. Her main point is that the goals being pursued by an organization have to be considered when assessing what sort of response to it is justifiable and warns of the consequences if this is not done:
Instant universal condemnation of Israel, with no criticism of Hamas, after the flotilla clash with Israel’s navy, has not helped those who truly seek peace. Rather, the world has further emboldened Hamas in its rejectionist stance. “May 31 was and will be a turning point,” Haniyeh declared. “It marks the beginning of the delegitimization of the Zionist project in our country.” The Hamas leader, for sure, was not speaking only of Gaza.
A flavor of my op-ed for Fox News, which you can read in full here.
Watch this report from Richard Landes on PJTV. (You can’t embed their material so click on the link.)
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost authority over Gaza three years ago this month in the very bloody Hamas coup, is suddenly asserting responsibility for the 1.5 million Palestinians living there. His nemesis, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, already was way ahead in feeling the world love as European governments, in the wake of the May 31 flotilla clash, joined with the ranks of traditional Hamas backers in the Arab and Islamic worlds in calling for lifting the blockade of Gaza. President Obama, meeting with Abbas, put icing on the Hamas cake by calling the situation in Gaza “unsustainable.”
Here’s the account of the commander of the naval commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara:
“We knew there would be resistance, but not at such a strong level,” said Captain R., who led one of the teams and was wounded in the mission. “Every [activist] that approached us wanted to kill us.”
Captain R. was the second commando to be dropped from a military helicopter onto the Turkish-flagged ship. During the mission, a large mob of the activists hurled him from the upper to lower deck of the ship.
From the Rambam Hospital in Haifa, Captain R. said that every commando who entered the ship was met by a number of activists who charged at the soldiers and attacked them. At least 75 percent of the activists took part in what the soldiers later described as a “lynch.”
“I was the second to be lowered in by rope,” said Captain R. “My comrade who had already been dropped in was surrounded by a bunch of people. It started off as a one-on-one fight, but then more and more people started jumping us. I had to fight against quite a few terrorists who were armed with knives and batons.”
The captain said that he was first forced to cock his gun and shoot once when one of the activists came toward him with a knife.
“At that point, another twenty people starting coming at me from every direction,” said Captain R. “They jumped at me and hurled me to the deck below the bridge. Then I felt a stabbing in my stomach - it was a knife. I pulled it our and somehow managed to get to the lower level. There, was another mob of people.”
Israel Navy: “Mavi Marmara, you are approaching an area of hostilities which is under a naval blockade. The Gaza area coastal region and Gaza harbor are closed to all maritime traffic. The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip and invites you to enter the Ashdod port. Delivery of supplies in accordance with the authorities’ regulations will be through the formal land crossings and under your observation, after which you can return to your home ports on the vessels on which you have arrived.”
Response: “Negative, negative.”
Of course the response was negative - because the international supporters of Hamas gathered on the Mavi Marmara were hellbent on assaulting/lynching/kidnapping IDF personnel.
