More Palestinian Authority libel

Deconstructing intelligence as a requirement for membership in the Palestinian Authority. Via PMW:

Israel's supernatural rats chase away Jerusalem's Arabs.

The Palestinian Authority has come up with yet another wild accusation about Israel. Two PA newspapers - one directly controlled by the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas - are accusing Israel of releasing rats with supernatural qualities to chase away the Arab residents of Jerusalem.

According to the PA papers, the Israeli-Jerusalem rat is:

1. Immune to rat poison;

2. Aggressive and larger than usual;

3. Unafraid of cats and able to scare them away;

4. Highly fertile -- female rat gives birth to 140 babies a year, four times the normal average;

5. Highly selective -- Jewish residents of Jerusalem apparently are not affected by these rats.

Israel's goal, the libelous PA articles accuse, is "to turn the residents' life into a living hell, forcing them to leave." Interestingly, the articles do not mention how the rats are trained to differentiate between Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem.

The following are the two stories:

"...one of the most amazing things that we've read during this month is that [Israeli] settlers have been bringing chests filled with rats and releasing them in the Old City's [Arab] neighborhoods; they breed and have become a major curse... the [Arab] residents' efforts to counter this infestation have failed, especially since cats run away from these rats because of their size and ferocity... All of the conventional efforts to kill them have not succeeded, because they seem to be immune to poison and they breed in the sewers. It is known that this female rat gives birth seven times a year, each time giving birth to 20 babies; which compels Jerusalem's [Arabs] today to face the dangers of settlement and the infestation of rats..." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas, July 18, 2008]

"Large numbers of [Israeli] settlers have been bringing huge cages full of rats and releasing them onto the streets and alleys of the Old City [Jerusalem]...in order to turn the [Arab] residents' life into a living hell, forcing then to leave..." [Al-Ayyam, July 17, 2008] Creating libels against Israel is a pivotal aspect of the Palestinian Authority's incitement to hatred against Israel and Jews.

PMW reported earlier this month that the PA media were accusing Israel of conducting Nazi-like experiments on Palestinan prisoners (LINK).

Jerusalem Viewpoints from JCPA

Received by email:

Greetings from Jerusalem,

We just published two new and very insightful Jerusalem Viewpoints that I think you'll find of interest:

"The Muslim Brotherhood: A Moderate Islamic Alternative to Al-Qaeda or a Partner in Global Jihad?" by Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi

"The Palestinian Authority and Jewish Holy Sites in the West Bank: Rachel's Tomb as a Test Case" by Nadav Shragai

Today in Jewish History - Cheshvan 12

If Palestinianism has any validity, so then does Zionism. Anti-Zionism is racism. Get it? Sponsored by Aish.com:

In 1975, the United Nations passed a resolution declaring that "Zionism is racism." Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, noted the irony of the vote coming (on the English calendar) exactly 37 years after Kristallnacht. The UN Secretary General at the time was Kurt Waldheim, later accused of war crimes while serving as a Nazi officer. The "Zionism is racism" canard is easily refuted by Israel's open and democratic character -- with Arabs serving in parliament, as well as Israelis of all skin colors. Upon the airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, William Safire noted: "For the first time in history, thousands of black people are being brought to a country -- not in chains but in dignity, not as slaves but as citizens." The UN General Assembly voted to repeal the resolution in 1991.

Cheshvan 12 is also the yahrtzeit of Yitzhak Rabin, prime minister of Israel, who was assassinated in 1995 after attending a rally promoting the Oslo peace process. Rabin served as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, and under his command the IDF achieved an overwhelming victory in the Six Day War. As prime minister, he played a leading role in the signing of the Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority. Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Shimon Peres and Yassir Arafat.

On the anti-Semitic laws and curriculum of the PA

Why the fabricated nation of "palestine" should never exist, why it hasn't ever existed, and why it will never exist. Via INN:

Imagine, if you would, that a nascent nation-state, somewhere in the world, was in formation, and that it had taken on these features:

* Its new constitution would not allow for any juridical status for Judaism. Jews would not even be allowed to live in the country.

* Selling land to a Jew would be a capital crime.

* The new school system would inculcate children to make war on the Jews.

* Those who murdered Jews would become the national heroes of the new country.

* Their designated head of state earned his Ph.D. on the thesis that six million Jews were not really murdered during World War II, and that the Zionists were actually allies of the Nazis.

The reaction to such a news item would be an outcry from Jewish groups that monitor and react to anti-Semitism as a matter of policy. Yet, we have seen no outcry from these groups in the case of the proposed Palestinian state, even though it possesses all six characteristics listed above.

Others have expressed their deep concern about the anti-Semitism of the nascent Palestinian entity. Four years ago, this reporter covered a briefing for a visiting United States congressional delegation provided by the Vatican representative to Israel. Archbishop Pietro Sambi warned US lawmakers that the new Palestinian Authority's approved state constitution, funded by USAID, provided no juridical status for any religion other than Islam in the emerging Palestinian Arab entity.

The Papal Nuncio also warned that the Palestinian Authority (PA) had adopted Shariah law. Islamic nations that have adopted Shariah have mandated the absolute supremacy of Muslims over non-Muslims as matter of law.

Archbishop Sambi provided our news agency with the PA constitution, with the hope that Jewish groups that monitor anti-Semitism would object to the US-funded Palestinian state constitution. It never happened.

Archbishop Sambi initiated a study of the new PA textbooks, which the Vatican determined to be anti-Semitic in nature. And so, at the recommendation of Archbishop Sambi, the Italian government pulled its money out of the Palestinian Ministry of Education's textbook project.

This past May, Dr. Arnon Groiss, a researcher at the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, made a presentation for European diplomats in Brussels showing how PA textbooks, instead of educating for peace with Israel, promote the violent struggle for liberation against Israel.

From these textbooks, Groiss showed that the PA curriculum teaches the following fundamentals:

* Jews are foreigners and have no rights in Palestine.

* The Jews have a dubious, and even murderous, character.

* Israel is an illegitimate usurper that occupied Palestine in 1948 and 1967.

* Israel is the source of all kinds of evil done to the Palestinians.

* Peace with Israel based on reconciliation is not to be sought. A violent struggle for liberation is encouraged instead.

* The exact area to be liberated is never restricted to the West Bank and Gaza alone.
* Jihad and martyrdom are glorified, and terrorist activities against Israel are implicitly encouraged.

* The West is imperialist, aspires to world hegemony, directs a cultural attack against Islam and supports Israel.

The list of accusations against Israel appearing in the new Palestinian Authority schoolbooks includes more than 25 items, including the following:

* Israel contributes to Palestinian social ills and family violence.

* Israel causes the increase of drug abuse cases in Palestinian society.

* Israel pollutes the Palestinian environment.

* Israel usurps Muslim and Christian holy places.

* Israel strives to obliterate the Palestinian national identity and heritage.

This reporter asked spokespeople of the Israeli Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Defense Minister if they would ask a new Palestinian state to cancel its anti-Semitic curriculum. The spokespeople for the Israeli government provided a clear answer: "This is not on the agenda."

The spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked for the question in writing three weeks ago, confirmed that it was received, and will not respond.

Ask a new Palestinian state to cancel its anti-Semitic curriculum.

Questions were then posed to Jewish organizations who monitor anti-Semitism - the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, B'nai Brith, the Anti-Defamation League, the Religious Action Center of the UAHC, the World Jewish Congress, the Institute for Public Affairs of the OU, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Each group was asked if they would request that the American and Israeli governments condition aid to the Palestinian Authority on the nullification of the anti-Semitic constitution and curriculum of the Palestinian Authority.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Director of the Wiesenthal Center, wrote: "You have raised an issue that was supposedly addressed during the Oslo process and unfortunately no Israeli government or US administration held the Palestinian leadership accountable. The current questions you raised are important enough that we will urge that the Global Forum on Antisemitism take it up...."

Archbishop Sambi, now the Papal Nuncio in Washington, who has not been afraid to take a clear stand on the issue of official Palestinian anti-Semitism, should be asked to join that forum.

As for the other groups, they should break their silence on this critical issue.

Savages

An IDF officer was rescued Monday afternoon by Palestinian Authority police officers after he mistakenly entered Jenin.

It's a shame when Jews can't enter their own Jenin, thought to be the site of the Israelite village of En-gannim (עין גנים), mentioned in the Jewish Bible.

But like everything else Islam has hijacked, Islam has also hijacked Jenin.

The officer, a major serving in the army's Central Command, was on his way to the Mevo Dotan settlement in the northern West Bank but accidentally drove into Jenin, located seven miles northeast of the settlement.

Local Palestinian residents who noticed the officer driving into the city hurled rocks at his car, forced him out and began beating him.

A Palestinian policeman spotted the angry mob and called for backup. The security officers struggled to reach the battered officer and several shots were apparently fired before they managed to extract him from the crowd moments before his vehicle was set aflame.

Shortly after the incident the Islamic Jihad angrily accused the PA Preventive Security forces of thwarting an attempt by the organization to kidnap the officer in the heart of Jenin.

It's horrific that an Arab from the disputed territories can safely walk into Jewish towns, whereas a Jew almost definitely would be hurt, maimed or killed doing the same in an Arab town.

This inversion of balance and absolute disrespect for the value of a Jewish life must be addressed by Muslim society and culture.

What is the Palestinian Authority (PA) ?

What is the Palestinian Authority (PA)?

--Semi-autonomous Palestinian governing institution created by the Oslo peace process’s Declaration of Principles in 1993

--Rules Gaza and the West Bank, much as the PLO did in the 1970s

As the United States prepares to send approximately $86 million in financial aid to bolster Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah militias in the West Bank against possible threats from Hamas, it has been learned that in recent years two PA officials who were Fatah members stole tens of millions of U.S. dollars that also had been earmarked to help Fatah ward off Hamas. One of those officials, Mahmoud Dahlan, smuggled $27 million and invested much of it in construction projects in Dubai. His associate Rashid Abu Shabak, former chief of the Palestinian Security Services, smuggled another $25 million. Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad's office reports that of some $60 million in U.S. aid that was deposited in a bank account for Fatah’s exclusive benefit, only $7 million was not stolen. Dahlan and Shabak both fled the Gaza Strip prior to Hamas’ takeover of the region and all its U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds in June.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), alternately known as the Palestinian National Authority, was created by the Oslo peace process's Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangement, signed on September 13, 1993 by the Government of Israel and by the "Palestinian Delegation" that included representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Since then, the PA has acted as a semi-autonomous institution nominally governing approximately 99 percent of Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority has an observer status in the United Nations. It operates a "police force" with up to 45,000 members (three times the number permitted by the Declaration of Principles and subsequent agreements), many of whom carry automatic weapons and use armored cars as if they were a militia or an army. The PA operates at least 14 different security services, including secret police such as the Preventive Security Service, and controls intimidating street gangs entrusted with the duty of enforcing its edicts by means of fear.

The PA's chief executive from its inception until his death in 2004 was Yasser Arafat, who also retained his title as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO. Arafat was elected "President" (or more precisely ra'is, Arabic for "head") of the Palestinian Authority on January 20, 1996, garnering 88.1 percent of the votes. According to PalestineFacts.org, “The date of the elections was more than 18 months later than planned, a delay used by … Arafat to consolidate his grip on the Palestinian populace and silence opposition. Any independent news sources were intimidated into silence, and opposing political organizations quietly disappeared. Arafat manipulated the election with rules to forbid anyone from running against him without his express approval, as reported by the UN election observer team."

Arafat controlled all PA media by way of the 1995 Palestinian Press Law, which made it a crime for any newspaper to publish articles that "may cause harm to national unity." In practice, this vague phrase meant that both newspaper print runs and entire publishing companies could be expropriated if they reported anything that displeased Arafat and the PA.

Economically, the Palestine Commercial Services Company is the economic arm of the Palestinian Authority. It owns stakes in many companies and it operates monopolies in industries where the PA prohibits competitors, including the production of cement, commercial sand, flour, oil, and cigarettes. PA operatives are also reportedly involved in a wide range of money-making criminal activities, from extortion and shakedowns of businesses to the counterfeiting of money and merchandise.

The Palestinian Authority collects a five percent "Palestine Liberation Fund Tax" on the incomes of all Palestinians worldwide, which reportedly brings in about $50 million each year.

Under the 1994 Paris Agreement, Israel agreed to transfer to the Palestinian Authority the tax receipts it collected on imported gasoline in PA territory, an amount in excess of $400 million and, under the Oslo agreement, other sales taxes worth about $250 million per year. Israel also transferred to the PA the pension funds accumulated by Palestinians who worked for the Israeli Civil Administration. For Gaza employees alone, this amounted to $160 million, $140 million of which was promptly spent by Arafat for other purposes.

Moreover, during Arafat's tenure the PA received up to $1 billion each year in aid donations from the United States, Europe and Arab states. Total annual foreign aid to the PA rivaled, and may have exceeded, the level of funding the United States provides to Israel. Accounting for what happened to this money, as well as to other Palestinian Authority revenues, is difficult. "I refused and I will never accept!" said Yasser Arafat of oversight conditions proposed for aid by the International Monetary Fund in July 1994. "I completely refuse any controls by anybody on Palestinian Autonomy, except the Palestinians themselves. We didn't finish military occupation to get economic occupation."

According to financial investigator Rachel Ehrenfeld, "Jawad Ghussein, until 1996 the Secretary General of the Palestinian National fund, told the Ha'aretz newspaper in August 2002 that Arafat 'took aid money and contributions [approximately $8 million each month] that were earmarked for the Palestinian people to his own account.'" Ghussein had added up $540 million that he knew had been diverted into Arafat's personal bank account.

A United Nations report suggests that Arafat also diverted a large proportion of the aid money received by the PA to his various militias. In Spring 2000, Israeli troops seized documents in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters showing Arafat's approval for a $20,000 payment to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, many of whose members also received paychecks from the PA as official employees of its security services. Further evidence of PA malfeasance came to light in February 2004, when it was reported that the European Union's anti-fraud OLAF office was studying documents indicating that Arafat and the PA had diverted tens of millions of dollars in EU funds to terrorist organizations. Marwan Barghouti, leader of Arafat's Fatah/Tanzim militia in the West Bank, reportedly continued to receive his $2,500-per-month salary from the Palestinian Authority even after he was arrested and indicted for the murder of 26 Israelis.

Since 1994, when almost all Palestinians living in Israel came under the autonomous and independent control of the PA, the economies of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been crippled by the Authority’s despotic rule. By 2003, the West Bank’s GDP had shrunk to about one-tenth of what it had been in 1992 -- a result of the PA's misappropriation of more than $5.2 billion into the personal accounts of Arafat and his lieutenants and militias. The Second Intifada, which began in September 2000, also contributed to the sharp deterioration in Palestinians' living standards. The poverty rate nearly tripled, from 20 percent in 1999 to 55 percent in 2003. Once-prosperous commercial towns became economic basket cases.

As early as 2001, the Government of Israel had designated the PA as an "Entity Supporting Terrorism." In 2004, Papal Nuncio Msgr. Pietro Sambi described the Palestinian Authority Constitution as the "framework for a totalitarian Islamic terror state." In April of that year, Arafat told the German magazine Focus that he was prepared to share power with the terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a new leadership structure that would operate in parallel with the Palestinian Authority. Arafat had released many members of both groups from PA jails.

After Arafat’s death, he was succeeded as the leader of both the PA and Fatah by Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen.

In a January 2006 election, Hamas became the dominant force in the PA by winning 76 of the 132 parliamentary seats, giving that party the right to form the next Cabinet under President Abbas. On March 29, 2006, Hamas formally took the reins of Palestinian government. The new 24-member Hamas Cabinet included 14 ministers who had previously served time in Israeli prisons.

Source: DiscoverTheNetworks

Report on newest Palestinian Schoolbooks

At the end of 2006, the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Higher Education introduced new 12th grade schoolbooks, written by the Center for Developing the Palestinian Curricula. The center is comprised of Palestinian educators appointed by the Fatah governments of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, and directed by Dr. Naim Abu Al-Humos, former PA Minister of Higher Education, appointed in 2002. The center is backed by foreign funding, with special thanks to Belgium noted in the new schoolbooks. Before the year 2000, the schoolbooks used in the Palestinian Authority were primarily Jordanian and Egyptian books, republished by the PA.

Between 2000 and 2005, responding to widespread international criticism of the old textbooks, the PA Ministry of Education issued new textbooks for Grades 1 through 11. This report by Palestinian MediaWatch reviews the following new schoolbooks for Grade 12, recently introduced into PA schools:

Physical Geography and Human Geography
History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century
Contemporary Problems
Islamic Education
Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism
Arabic Language and the Science of Language
Mathematics
Scientific Culture

PMW has found that the new 12th grade Palestinian schoolbooks make no attempt to educate for peace and coexistence with Israel. Indeed, the opposite is true: The teachings repeatedly reject Israel’s right to exist, present the conflict as a religious battle for Islam, teach Israel’s founding as imperialism, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East, both verbally and visually, in which Israel does not exist at all.

Click here to read the full report, from PMW.

Oh and congratulations, Belgium, on your significant contribution towards promoting Jewicide.

New Palestinian PM Wants to Work with Israel

Can he be trusted? Or will Muslim madmen eventually silence him by cutting his throat? From New Palestinian PM Wants to Work with Israel:

The new Palestinian government is seeking "intensive and active cooperation" with Israel, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Thursday. "We have to have some sense of what has happened over the past...seven, eight years. Simple, basic question: Are we better off now than we were then? Then, the situation was not great, but guess what it is like today? It's catastrophic." He said the recent division among Palestinians has "destroyed" the vision of a Palestinian state. "This is complete chaos," he said. "Anyone resisting, however which way they want, whenever they want, from wherever they want, is that resistance? That has destroyed our national project completely."

From Fayyad Warns Islamic Preachers:

New Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad delivered a stern warning Thursday to some 800 Muslim clergy, including Hamas supporters: He won't tolerate calls for violence delivered from mosque pulpits and plans to collect militants' weapons. "We will collect weapons and replace them with pens and books," he told the crowd. "We won't allow them (mosques) to be turned into places of incitement and intimidation," he added. "It's the responsibility of men of religion to...present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed."

PA Children Learn That Death is Preferable to Life

Via INN. In a bulletin released on Tuesday, Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook of the Palestinian Media Watch organization, report on a Palestinian Authority journalist who wrote about the "death culture" in Gaza. Contrary to the implication of the PA journalist's article, however, the PMW analysts point out that the yearning for death is not limited to Hamas and has been inculcated primarily by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah organization. Click here to read the full story.

Aid to PA Nearly Tripled in '06, Despite International Boycott

From Aid to PA Nearly Tripled in '06, Despite International Boycott:

Donations to the Palestinian Authority almost tripled last year as a result of the international boycott of the Hamas government, according to a report published this month by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Aid in 2006 totaled $900 million, up from $349 million a year earlier. The biggest contributor to the PA last year was the Arab League, which gave $448 million. The EU gave $219 million and the World Bank gave $42 million. In addition, the PA obtained an estimated $180 million by smuggling in cash from abroad.

Hamas Lied About Taking ‘Jihad Micky’ Off PA TV

From Israel National News:

According to a report by Palestinian Media Watch, Hamas Palestinian Authority Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti lied about removing a Micky Mouse preaching global Jihad from PA TV.

The Micky Mouse look-alike, named Farfur, regularly appeared on PA’s Al-Aksa TV station until last week, when Arutz-7 published a Palestinian Media Watch report on the Islamist mouse, reprinted around the globe and drawing condemnations from politicians as well as members of Walt Disney’s family.

PA Minister of Information Mustafa Barghouti issued a public statement that the show would be taken off the Hamas TV network until it could be reviewed. His commitment was reported worldwide, but Farfur appeared Friday on his regularly scheduled “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” program, preaching global domination of Islam.

Farfur was joined by a young girl names Saraa, as well as Hazim, an adult “who delivered most of the show’s messages about Islamic supremacy,” according to PMW.

Hazim told the viewers of the children’s television show that Islam will spread all over the world, “including Spain,” and that the spread of Islam is for the world’s benefit. He said the “massacres in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine will be replaced by love and justice under Islamic rule.”

“It appears from today’s broadcast that the Hamas or PA officials who oversaw today’s show were concerned only with neutralizing the dialogue spoken by the Mickey Mouse character, Farfur, and not with moderating the show’s content,” PMW’s Itamar Marcus and Barbra Crook said. “It is as if they decided that the show’s messages, which also promote hatred of Israel and the US, are completely acceptable – as long as the more inflammatory comments are not coming from the knockoff of Disney’s beloved mouse.”

A selection of PMW’s translation of Friday’s dialogue:

Hazim (Adult): Islam will spread to all parts of the earth from one end to the other and justice and good and kindness will spread. Did history witness a time period better than that when Islam ruled?...

Saraa: You beloved kids will be the ones who shall restore the glory and the culture of the [Islamic] Nation.

Hazim (Adult): Every day do you remember Andalus (Spain)? This dear Andalus will return one day.

Hazim (Adult): Do you remember Baghdad?... Baghdad which cries out in pain in these times… we shall return … we the Muslims shall return as we used to be…

Farfur: "1000 blessings of Islam, blessings of the resident of Garden [of Eden]…"

Hazim (Adult): "The honor of Islam will return through knowledge."

Girl call in: chants song:

"Oh Jerusalem we are coming,
Oh Jerusalem it is the time of death.
Oh Jerusalem we will never surrender to the enemy
And we will never be humiliated.
It is beloved Palestine that taught us what to be."

Girl call in: "I want to be a preacher to spread Islam in the world…"
Hazim (Adult): "We will spread Islam because people don't realize it is the religion of love and good and peace."

Du'aa calls in: "I am the Palestinian child...

Hazim (Adult): "There is also the Iraq child if you saw him who is being murdered… and on the news yesterday we saw the fetus who was killed… and what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan and Palestine and a while ago in Lebanon – the situation is very very bad.... But a day will come and Islam will rule the world and there will be justice love and peace and all people will love each other….

[Group talks about massacres in Iraq Palestine and Lebanon]

Hazim (Adult): "When Islam will rule love and justice will prevail for sure."…

Hazim (Adult): Ask history and ask the Jews did they ever live in a time period better then the one they live under Islam. And ask the Christians how their security was assured in the churches and monasteries.

[Farfur is disciplined for copying in school]

Farfur: [Crying loudly explains]: "Because the Jews destroyed my home. When my home was destroyed I couldn’t find my notebook.

What detestable mendacity.

Terrorists Released in Prisoner Exchanges Revert to Terror

Surprised? From Terrorists Released in Prisoner Exchanges Revert to Terror:

From previous prisoner-exchanges, we saw that 20-25 percent of released terrorists return to terrorist activity. Another 30 percent are involved after their release in organizational aspects of terror: recruitment, direction, and indoctrination of terrorists.

In the exchange being discussed, we will see higher percentages of released prisoners who return to terror activity because they are affiliated with organizations that have dedicated themselves to continued struggle against Israel until its eventual annihilation, unlike at the time of the Oslo Accords when thousands of prisoners were released with the intent that they would bring about support for the Oslo process.

In the document that came to be known as the Palestinian prisoners' document, there were some positive indications with regard to the right of return and to limiting the armed struggle. But that document no longer exists, because the document of national conciliation (the Mecca accord) - the only one spoken of now by the Palestinian public - has been stripped of all the elements that showed any moderation towards Israel.

The Minister of Information in the Palestinian government, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, announced that the government is in no way associated with the list of prisoners to be released submitted to Israel and did not put it together. He paints a picture whereby it is the splinter factions who have assembled the list and it is they who are negotiating with Israel. So what is the PA government doing? It is not even a partner; it is a disinterested bystander. That is the current chaotic status in the territories.

Palestinian peace activists, which constitute a very small group, will see the prisoner release as an act of reconciliation, but the vast majority of the Palestinian public - supporters of Hamas, Jihad, the Popular Front, and the Democratic Front, as well as all of those who are released - will indisputably see it as a sign of Israeli weakness.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shalom Harari, formerly Palestinian Affairs Adviser to the Ministry of Defense, is a research fellow at the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

EU Says No to Aiding Palestinian Unity Government

From Deutche Welle-Germany:

Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad has failed to convince the EU to agree to resume aid to the PA. EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner repeated Wednesday in Brussels the international demands that the Palestinian government renounce violence, formally recognize Israel's right to exist, and abide by former agreements. She said until that happened, the EU would only deal with what it considered to be Western-friendly members of the new Palestinian unity government. In 2006, the EU redirected its funding for the Palestinians through a special mechanism to help the neediest people while bypassing the government to avoid contact with Hamas - which it considers a terrorist organization. Ferrero-Waldner said this temporary mechanism would continue, but offered Fayyad technical assistance for his ministry.

The Fall of Fatah

From The Fall of Fatah: Almost 40 years ago, the nationalist group Fatah took over the Palestinian movement, a reign that ended last week when Fatah accepted a junior partnership to Hamas in the Palestinian Authority. Fatah has accepted the partnership with its Islamist rival on terms which reflect much of Fatah's worldview but are very different from the moderate image the group wants to build in the West.

Even though there are Fatah members who prefer a compromise solution, they are in a minority and do not battle for the real acceptance of their views in that group. Fatah has never articulated among its own people - and does not articulate today - an alternative vision of peaceful coexistence.

Fatah's deliberate use of terrorism to mobilize Palestinians emotionally has always been a central strategy, and it has had a corrupting role in both moral and political terms.

Arafat's replacement, Mahmoud Abbas, has some moderate sentiments but is weak, ineffective, and an advocate of most of Fatah's traditional program. The actual head of Fatah is Farouk Kaddoumi, a man who rejected even the peace process of the 1990s. His popularity reflects the basic politics of Fatah.

The mistakes made under the decades-long leadership of Fatah are continuing, and even intensifying, in the new Hamas era. The result is that any possibility of peace is being pushed decades further away.

New Palestinian High School Textbooks Reject Existence of Israel, Peace

From New Palestinian High School Textbooks Reject Existence of Israel, Peace:

New textbooks for 12th-grade Palestinian students reject the existence of Israel and make no attempt to educate students about peace or coexistence, according to Palestinian Media Watch. The textbooks were written by the Center for Developing the Palestinian Curricula and introduced by the PA at the end of 2006. The textbooks define Israel's founding as a theft perpetrated by "Zionist gangs," describe Israel as "colonial imperialist" and "racist," present the conflict as a religious war, and leave "no latitude for students to have positive or even neutral attitudes toward Israel," wrote PMW's Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook in a February report. Maps of the region likewise teach children to visualize a world without Israel, as Israel does not exist on any map and its area is marked as 'Palestine.'

Just a reminder: PA Textbooks Incite Hatred, US Funds Terror-Center Schools

From IsraelNN.com:

Contrary to the "education for peace" that has been a fundamental demand and principle of the Oslo peace process, new 12th grade schoolbooks in the Palestinian Authority repeatedly reject Israel’s right to exist, present the Israel-PA conflict as a religious battle on behalf of Islam, and actively portray a picture of the Middle East in which Israel does not exist at all. So finds the Palestinian Media Watch organization.

The PMW report leads with this quote from a language-arts book:

“Palestine’s war ended with a catastrophe that is unprecedented in history,when the Zionist gangs stole Palestine and expelled its people from their cities, their villages, their lands and their houses, and established the State ofIsrael.” [Arabic Language, Analysis, Literature and Criticism, grade 12, p. 104 ]

In the same book, on the next page, Palestinian terror against Israel since Israel’s founding in 1948 is defined as: “resistance…acts of most glorious heroism.”

Similar findings have been made for years. In 2002, for example, the Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, after a comprehensive survey of 58 new Palestinian Authority textbooks and teachers' guides, found that they "do not [educate] to peace and reconciliation with Israel, but rather foster a multi-faceted rejection of its existence."

This, despite the long-running demands for "education to peace" on the part of the PA. Ariel Sharon said in 2001, for example, that Israel's expectations from the Palestinian Authority "lie in three spheres: preventive action against terrorism and the infrastructures of terrorism; cessation of incitement and education for peace; and economic cooperation."

Other excerpts from PA textbooks, according to the PMW report:

“Palestine” today is a special “state” with water access to both the Mediterranean and the Red Seas - a situation possible only if Israel does not exist. Similarly, the size of the “state” of “Palestine” is said to be more than 10,000 sq. km. - a realistic figure only if Israel does not exist, as Judea, Samaria and Gaza total only 6,220 sq. km. Maps of the region likewise teach children to visualize a world without Israel, as Israel does not appear on any map and its area is marked as “Palestine.” [Physical Geography and Human Geography, grade 12, p. 105-107]

A book teaching about language states, “Palestine will be liberated by its men, its women, its young ones and its elderly.” [Arabic Language and the Science of Language, grade 12, p. 44] The PMW report explains, "Since all of Israel and all its cities are taught to be an 'occupation' of 'Palestine,' and 'Palestine' in all the school books replaces all of Israel, the above] teaching can only mean that Israel’s destruction is inevitable.

The PMW reports concludes:

"One of the most meaningful gauges of the ideology and aspirations of a people is the education of its youth. For this reason, the new Palestinian Authority schoolbooks, introduced in the end of 2006 by the PA Ministry of Higher Education apparatus, are a continuation of the tragic disappointment of the earlier books. Instead of seizing the opportunity to educate future generations to live with Israel in peace, the PA schoolbooks glorify terror and teach their children to hate Israel, vilify Israel’s existence and define the battle with Israel as an uncompromising religious war. Instead of working to minimize the current hate, the new PA curriculum is ingraining it into the next generation’s consciousness, and packaging the war against Israel as existential, mandatory and religious. The new PA schoolbooks are guaranteeing that the next generation will grow up seeing Israel as an illegitimate enemy to be hated, fought, and destroyed, rather than as a neighbor to negotiate with and to ultimately live beside in peace."

Funding University Terrorists

Another current PMW report cites Palestinian Authority newspaper articles discussing the activities of student chapters of Hamas and Islamic Jihad at Al Quds University and other PA schools assisted by USAID since 2005. As a result, Rep. Nita Lowey, (D-NY), the chairperson of the committee responsible for USAID funding, said, “It goes without saying that U.S. taxpayer dollars should absolutely never be used for advocating or honoring terrorist activity. Support for terrorists and terrorism in any shape or form is unacceptable.” So reports the Washington Times.

The Times reports that USAID (the U.S. Agency for International Development) has provided more than $140,000 in assistance to the Hamas-controlled Islamic University in Gaza - including scholarships to 49 of its students - though Congress changed the law in 2004 to restrict aid to entities or individuals “involved in or advocating terrorist activity.”

Palestinian Minister Admits Foreign Aid Millions Lost

Not only is the PA a murderous club where membership dues are paid with Jewish blood, it's also a corrupt den of thieving hyenas as well. From Palestinian Minister Admits Foreign Aid Millions Lost:

Salam Fayyad, 54, who is poised to start his second stint as PA Treasury chief in a new "unity" government, said that Palestinian finances have descended into such chaos that he has no idea where much of foreign donors' money has been spent in the 14 months since Hamas won elections. An estimated £362.5 million has flowed into Palestinian government coffers from abroad since the election that brought Hamas to power including £59.5 million from the EU. PA spending is out of control, salaries are being paid to workers who never turn up, and nobody can track where the money is going, according to Fayyad.

90 Percent of Palestinian Youth Deny Israel's Right to Exist

From 90 Percent of Palestinian Youth Deny Israel's Right to Exist:

A new poll released by Near East Consulting, a Palestinian research institute, asked Palestinians, "Does Israel have the right to exist?" Among young people ages 18-25, those who have been most influenced by PA education, between 84% and 93% denied Israel's right to exist. PA teachings denying Israel's right to exist are endemic throughout PA society and media, which would account for the high levels of denial of Israel's legitimacy throughout PA society.

Killer's Daughter Admits It Was Political

From Killer's Daughter Admits It Was Political:

Ali Abu Kamal's relatives say they are tired of lying about why the Palestinian opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing a tourist and injuring six other people before committing suicide. Kamal's daughter Linda said that her dad wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel, and revealed her mom's 1997 account that her husband had become suicidal after losing money in a business venture was a cover story crafted by the Palestinian Authority.

PA Security Forces Kill Palestinian in Ramallah

From PA Security Forces Kill Palestinian in Ramallah:

After a vehicle in Ramallah refused to stop as requested by Palestinian military intelligence forces on Thursday, they opened fire at the vehicle, missed, and accidentally killed a teenager standing nearby. In response, the boy's family members began attacking PA security officers and set fire to police vehicles. The rioters also vandalized several shops in the city. Several hours later, an agreement was reached with the family members, promising that the dead youth
would be declared a "shahid" (martyr) and his family members would be compensated by the PA.