Question. How Many Times Has The Red Cross Visited Israeli Prisoners in Gaza? - by Sheri Oz

...If you want to identify with suffering prisoners, I ask you to consider raising awareness regarding our three unfortunates who inadvertently found themselves inside Hamas’ Gaza. If you are going to cry, cry for Mengistu, Al-Syed and Anima and their families. They could go on a hunger strike to protest their prison conditions and nobody would know — not even the IRC.

Sheri Oz..
Israel Diaries..
10 May '17..

Tell me, Mr Barghouti – how do your prison conditions compare with those of Gilad Shalit who was abducted and held by Hamas in Gaza for five years? How do they compare with the conditions Hamas offers to current Israeli prisoners: Abera Mengistu, Israeli of Ethiopian origin being held in Gaza since September 2014, Hisham al-Syed, Israeli Bedouin held since April 2015, and Juma Ibrahim Abu Anima, Israeli Bedouin who has been held since July last year?

The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has agreed to let the International Red Cross visit you today (Thursday) in lieu of the pre-scheduled meeting with your lawyer that was cancelled since you called on security prisoners to join you in a hunger strike and you were consequently put into solitary. The reports note that you have not seen anyone from the Red Cross since before the hunger strike. That means that you HAVE seen Red Cross staff before that – and we have no idea how many times these visits have taken place but apparently the IRC visits security prisoners in Israel on a regular basis.

Out of curiousity, I wanted to know how many times the IRC has visited with Abera Mengistu so I called Uri Perednik, Parliamentary Aide to MK Avraham Neguise (pronounced Negosa), who serves as chair of the Caucus for the Return of Avraham (Abera) Mengistu. Perednik told me that the IRC has visited Mengistu a total of zero times. Furthermore, while the Israeli government and Hamas insist that Mengistu is alive, there have been no signs of life presented in fact, according to Perednik.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

A transformed Barghouti? What they want is another Arafat. - by Jonathan Tobin

...Barghouti’s credentials rest solely on the fact that he is responsible for the deaths of Jewish men, women and children during the intifada. The political culture of the Palestinians—which is reinforced by a media and an education system promoting hatred of Jews and glorifying terrorism—is what makes Barghouti look good to the Arab street, not the hope he will rise above a record of wanton slaughter.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
21 April '17..

Palestinian internal politics and liberal hostility to Israel came together at The New York Times this month.

The newspaper provoked a firestorm of criticism through its decision to publish an article on the eve of Passover authored by Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned mastermind of a second intifada terror campaign, without mentioning that he is currently serving five life terms for the murder of civilians. But a more important discussion got lost amid the outrage about media bias. The question to be asked about this episode is not whether terrorism is significant enough to be worthy of mention, but why Barghouti is a likely candidate to succeed Mahmoud Abbas as head of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Barghouti is currently leading a hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners in Israel jails. But the real motive for this gesture is promoting Barghouti’s desire to replace the 81-year-old Abbas. Given that Israel has as little interest in releasing Barghouti as Abbas does in having a new election—the current PA leader is serving the 12th year of the four-year presidential term to which he was elected—it’s not clear how he’ll pull off that trick. But the real issue here is the reason for Barghouti’s popularity among supporters of the peace process is very different from the reason for his high standing among Palestinians.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Barghouti? A Convicted Murderer, Nothing More. - by Jamal Barakat

...My brother should have been the last one to lose his life to this senseless violence. It is my hope that nobody else in the world should share this terrible lifetime of bereavement from losing a family member to terrorism.

Jamal Barakat..
Opinion/JPost..
22 April '17..
Link: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Barghouti-is-a-convicted-murderer-Nothing-more-488655

When terrorism explodes in your face, we are all the same – we run. Amid the screams of panic and pain, through the smoke and with bullets hunting us down, we flee for our lives. It is an inspiring phenomenon that the first responders are running past us the other way – directly into the gunfire, explosions and flames. America saw it on 9/11, but the unhappy truth is that in Israel we see it all the time.

My younger brother, Salim, was one such first responder – a dedicated police officer who loved his job, loved serving his country and fellow citizens, and who in 2002 ran straight into danger when he heard a Palestinian terrorist throwing grenades and shooting up the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv.

With two innocent civilians on the ground dying or already dead and over a dozen others wounded, Salim charged the terrorist and shot him before he could kill more innocent people. But as Salim moved in to see if the terrorist was wearing a suicide explosive belt, the wounded terrorist suddenly thrust a knife into my brother, killing him.

The man who organized that attack was Marwan Barghouti.

Hunger Strike, Con Artists and Smokescreens - by Bassam Tawil

Stripped of its Western trappings, Barghouti's "hunger strike" is actually a struggle between Abbas and yet another Fatah pretender to the throne.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
20 April '17..

Palestinians have an old habit of settling internal scores by diverting their grievances and violence towards Israel. This practice is clear to those who have been monitoring developments in the Palestinian arena for the past decades. It is an integral part of the Palestinian strategy to undermine, isolate, delegitimize and destroy Israel.

Those less familiar with Palestinian culture and tactics, however, have difficulty understanding the Palestinian mindset. Officials in Washington, London, Paris and other Western capitals rarely meet the ordinary Palestinian, the "man on the street" who represents the authentic voice of the Palestinians.

Instead, these officials meet Palestinian politicians and academics from Ramallah -- the "experts" who are actually accomplished con artists. Such Palestinians grasp the Western mindset very well, and use their understanding to twist Western officials any which way they want.

The Western reaction to the hunger strike declared on April 17 by Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails is a case in point.

(Continue to Full Post)

Bassam Tawil, an Arab Muslim, is based in the Middle East.

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Surprise? The NY Times Calls a Convicted Terrorist a “Parliamentarian”

...Didn’t Times readers have the right to know any of this? They did, and the by-line the Times allowed Mr. Barghouti is a shameful abdication of responsibility to readers.

Elliott Abrams..
Pressure Points..
17 April '17..
Link: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2017/04/17/the-new-york-times-calls-a-convicted-terrorist-a-parliamentarian/

Today the New York Times ran an op-ed by Marwan Barghouti, and described him as “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian.”

Period.

In his op-ed, Barghouti states that he was first arrested at age 15, then again at age 18, and he alleges physical abuse by Israeli interrogators.

But nowhere does the Times tell readers what he was convicted of doing. Here is an account of the proceedings from the Washington Post in 2004:

Barghouti was found guilty of ordering attacks that killed a Greek Orthodox monk in the West Bank in 2001, an Israeli at the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev in 2002 and three people at the Seafood Market restaurant in Tel Aviv in 2002. He was also convicted of one count each of attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organization….

A Remorseless Killer and the Myth of the Palestinian Mandela - by Dexter Van Zile

...It is time to stop using the image of Nelson Mandela as a club to beat Israel and start using it as a yardstick to measure Palestinian efforts for peace.

Dexter Van Zile..
The Tower..
April-May '17..

Someday, Mahmoud Abbas, who is in his early 80s, is going to end his term as president of the Palestinian Authority, whether through exile, retirement, or death. Afterwards, of course, there will be a struggle to replace him.

One possible successor is Marwan Barghouti, a PA official who is currently serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison for his involvement in the murder of five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

In November 2014, Barghouti called for an uprising against Israel, which, if heeded, will likely kill many Israelis and Palestinians. Nevertheless, Barghouti is regularly described as a “Palestinian Nelson Mandela.” Mandela, of course, spent many years in prison before earning the trust of his adversaries and eventually becoming president of South Africa. As president, Mandela achieved some measure of reconciliation between blacks and whites and, as a result, has been enshrined as a kind of secular saint, much like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. John Carlin, author of Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, which was made into a moving film in 2009, described Mandela as “the anti-Hitler.”

(Continue to Full Article)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Something you rarely read about Marwan Barghouti the killer - by Arnold Roth

Barghouti, the terrorist thug, is not an orchestrator. He's not (just) a jailed terrorist. He's a convicted murderer. From experience, it's exceedingly rare for him to be called that in news reports.

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
04 April '17..

Times of Israel has a report today ["Jailed Fatah terrorist organizing hunger strikes, protests"] by Avi Issacharoff, its high-profile Middle East analyst, that focuses on the latest manouveurings by Marwan Barghouti to stay in the public spotlight.

We added this to the comments section at the foot of the article:

News sites ought to be very careful about how they describe convicted felons who have a political role to play. How they're labeled in the news has a strong impact on how they're viewed. Almost no one goes back and does their own research. They rely on the "experts".

Marwan Barghouti and his Fatah handlers must be pleased by the headline of this story. They are probably also happy for him to be described as "jailed for life by Israel for orchestrating a string of murders during the Second Intifada..." as he is in this report.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Surprise? Palestinian PM calls to give Nobel Peace Prize to a terrorist leader - by Elder of Ziyon

...While lots of Palestinians and others say he deserves the Nobel, as far as I can tell none of them actually can cite anything that he has actually done for peace.

Elder of Ziyon..
08 February '17..

Rami Hamdallah, the PA prime minister, gave a speech yesterday at the world premiere of a film about Marwan Barghouti.

Barghouti is in Israeli prison for his role in five terrorist murders. He is also considered one of the leaders of the deadly second intifada, which killed over 1100 Israelis. He was the head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group.

Hamdallah said that the PA supports efforts to award this terrorist the Nobel Peace Prize.

He said, "We have announced previously our support for activist Marwan Barghouti to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and reiterate our support for all the efforts that people are expending to achieve this. "

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Europe, Terror Attacks and the Irresistible “Charm” of Marwan Barghouti - by P. David Hornik

...What happened in Brussels last March 22—32 killed in three terror bombings—makes Belgium the second hardest hit. Yet, strangely, Belgium too had what might be called the Barghouti reflex. On May 18, two months after the Brussels bombings, “leading Belgian Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum” announced that they were nominating Barghouti for a Nobel Peace Prize.

P. David Hornik..
Frontpagemag.com..
01 August '16..
Link: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263699/europeans-hit-terror-exalt-palestinian-master-p-david-hornik

Last Tuesday terrorists broke into a French church, murdered an 85-year-old priest, and severely wounded another person. On Friday it was reported that several French municipalities had initiated the granting of honorary citizenship to jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti.

Arrested by Israel in 2002, in 2004 Barghouti was sentenced to five terms of life imprisonment on five counts of murder. Leader at the time of the Tanzim militia, he is seen as the mastermind of the most vicious sustained terror assault in history—the Second Intifada (2000-2005), which, in a country one-tenth the size of France, killed over a thousand people in five years.

As the Israeli ambassador to France, Aliza Bin-Noun, wrote in an open letter on Thursday: “Barghouti is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people. At a time when Western countries should unite against the threat of terrorism, the French support for Barghouti in fact legitimizes his actions.”

Barghouti’s popularity in France, however, is of long standing. From 2007 to 2010, a dozen French municipalities made him an honorary citizen. In 2013 another municipality, Bezons, gave him that distinction along with Majid al-Rimawi, who took part in the murder of an Israeli cabinet minister in 2001.

And in December 2014 the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers conferred the honor on Barghouti, three months after another Parisian suburb, Valenton, had done the same.

In all or most of these cases, the municipalities paying homage to the Palestinian terrorists were Communist-led. In recent years the French Communist Party’s fortunes have declined, and today it holds only a small minority of legislative seats and runs only a small minority of municipalities.

So far the reports on last week’s new round of moves to honor Barghouti don’t say whether the municipalities in question are Communist-led ones. But even if Barghouti’s fan club in France is not that large, he is a cause célèbre elsewhere in Europe as well.

Late in 2013, it was the Italian city of Palermo that made Barghouti one of its citizens. Meanwhile, in the current wave of Islamic terror in Europe, France has been the hardest hit. What happened in Brussels last March 22—32 killed in three terror bombings—makes Belgium the second hardest hit.

Yet, strangely, Belgium too had what might be called the Barghouti reflex.

Tutu, Barghouti, terror, peace and prizes - by Arnold Roth

...Without him and the many others like him, the devastation and misery of the Pal-Arabs could have ended decades ago. It hasn't ended, as we all know. And as Tutu's campaigning for a prize to be given to Barghouti demonstrates, his ill-informed hand-wringing and irrational urge to forgive remains unaffected by any knowledge he might have acquired - but clearly has not - in the intervening years.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
Bishop Desmond Tutu
[Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
25 July '16..

A Pakistani website today published an op ed lauding Marwan Barghouti, providing us (we're guessing this was not their intention) with an opportunity to share our feelings concerning the man and those who seek to aggrandize him.

The article is entitled simply "Marwan Barghouti". We had not heard of the author before; his name is Abbas Hasan and his self-description is sparse: "an engineer and a cricket fan who works in the Middle East".

Here's our comment.

It's helpful to see acolytes of Barghouti highlighting, as this piece does, the emphatically *anti-peace* stance of the convicted and imprisoned murderer. Our attention was drawn to this article because of our tracking the efforts of Bishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace laureate himself, in shilling for Barghouti to get the same prize. In his public statements, Mr Tutu repeatedly speaks of Barghouti as an agent for peace. But as this fine article makes clear, Barghouti totally rejects peace in the Arab vs Israel wars as this quote makes clear:-

“The role and mission of the Palestinian authority should be reassessed so that its main mission must be in supporting and assisting a comprehensive resistance, which necessitates the immediate termination of security coordination and cooperation with Israel as this only reinforces occupation and is a tremendous detriment to the Palestinian people. We must stop betting on the illusion of peace negotiations”.

It's a valuable service to the cause of peace (in which most Israelis, us among them, believe passionately) that Abbas Hasan has done. Sincere thanks to him.

In case you missed our recent commentary on the odious and fundamentally dishonest efforts by Bishop Desmond Tutu to have the murderer Barghouti awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, it's posted at "09-Jun-16: The convicted killer, the churchman, the prize".

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

The convicted killer, the churchman, the prize - by Arnold Roth

...Of all the many distortions, inaccuracies and open lies connected with that coverage, none is as galling as the way this vicious, violent man is routinely - and dishonestly - called a "political prisoner", and sometimes a "detainee". There is no justification to call him anything other than convicted murderer and terrorist.

The 2004 Barghouti trial in Tel Aviv District Court was public, 
transparent, and definitive: the accused was convicted on multiple 
charges of murder and sentenced to five terms of life
imprisonment [Image Source]

Arnold/Frimet Roth..
This Ongoing War..
09 June '16..

Twelve years ago, the career of an ambitious Palestinian Arab gang leader, a member of Arafat's inner circle, was convicted in Tel Aviv District Court in relation to the deaths of five innocent people.

On additional charges of attempted murder, membership of a terror organization and conspiracy to commit a crime, he was also convicted. He was acquitted on technical grounds in relation to 33 additional counts of murder. Our impression (we sat through part of the trial) was that the prosecution could have pressed those extra charges but was satisfied that he would be imprisoned for a long-enough term on those charges where the technical factors did not come into play.

At the time of the conviction, in May 2004, it was reported ["Barghouti Convicted in Deaths of Five People", Haaretz, May 20, 2004] that the prosecution sought a sentence of one life term for each murdered victim:

The court said in its verdict that "the defendant most of the time did not have direct contact with the field operatives who carried out the attacks. That connection was maintained through associates close to the defendant. Barghouti was responsible for providing the field units with money and arms via these associates..." The judges said Barghouti's orders for terror attacks were sometimes "based on instructions" from Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. "Arafat would never give explicit instructions for attacks but he let it be known when the timing was right," the judges said. "He made sure his subordinates understood very well when he was interested in a cease-fire and when he was interested in terror attacks against Israel," the verdict said.

Barghouti was one of those Arafat subordinates.

(Read Full Post. Please Share)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work as well as a big vote to follow our good friend Kay Wilson on Twitter.

.

Meanwhile, As a Terrorist Plots New Mayhem - by Jonathan Tobin

...Barghouti is a veteran terrorist and if there are to be mass demonstrations aimed at isolating Jewish communities or disrupting Israeli life, it’s likely that they will be accompanied by direct terrorist action as well. Just as important, it will probably follow the pattern of the initial second intifada protests, in which youths were sent to directly confront Israeli forces with armed killers behind them up in order to create massacres that would besmirch Israel’s name around the world. Barghouti and his Hamas and Islamic Jihad confederates are well aware that any confrontation with Israel will result in the Jewish state being accused of using “disproportionate force” to defend itself by those, like Bernie Sanders, who will also claim to be its supporters.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
12 April '16..

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas turned 81 earlier this year and often hints at retirement. But despite the speculation about his future and his occasional threats to resign, Abbas keeps plugging along at the head of the Palestinian kleptocracy. Now in the 12th year of the four-year term as president of the PA to which he was elected in 2005, the successor to Yasir Arafat is intent on holding on to the reins of power in Ramallah. But that isn’t deterring the man who is thought to be his most likely successor from planning ahead. As the Times of Israel reported, Marwan Barghouti, who, like Abbas, was a top aide to Arafat, has struck a deal with Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their implicit backing for his candidacy for the PA presidency and for a plan of action against Israel. The plan involves mass demonstrations that, though allegedly non-violent, will besiege Jewish settlements and force Israel back to the 1967 lines without benefit of negotiations or a peace deal.

Unfortunately for Barghouti, there are a few obstacles to the implementation of this plan and to the realization of his ambitions.

The first may not impede Barghouti’s potential election campaign, but it will nevertheless make it difficult for him to actually lead the PA. It’s the fact that he’s currently in an Israeli prison serving five terms of life imprisonment and a 40-year term for attempted murder in connection with his activity as the leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Fatah Party’s answer to Hamas terrorist groups during the second intifada. Barghouti was judged responsible for organizing terrorist attacks that resulted in the murder of five Israelis. Those were just the cases for which conclusive evidence of his personal involvement could be produced. In fact, as the man who implemented Arafat’s plan for a terrorist war of attrition in answer to Israeli peace offers, he should be considered to have played a hand in virtually all of the thousands of deaths of both Jews and Arabs during that conflict.

But the notion of a convicted murderer running for president doesn’t horrify Palestinians. To the contrary, in the upside down political dynamic of Palestinian society, having shed so much Jewish blood gives Barghouti credibility. Hence, he has been regarded not merely as a martyr (the “Palestinian Mandela”) but the natural successor to Abbas, whose willingness to cooperate at times with Israeli security while also refusing to make peace undermines his popularity.

There’s no sign that Abbas has any intention of leaving office on his feet. Nor will he allow a new election, since he knows he would be beaten by a more radical Fatah leader like Barghouti or by Hamas if one were held. That makes Barghouti’s plans purely theoretical for the moment. But should Abbas die (something that might be the result of age or the constant threats against his life that both Israeli and PA security forces work virtually non-stop to avert) or resign for some reason, there’s no doubt that Barghouti would be an overwhelming favorite to be the next president of the PA. Indeed, it’s not clear that a reformist candidate like Salam Fayyad — whose unsuccessful efforts to institute good government in the West Bank was universally panned by Palestinians even as it was applauded by Americans — would even bother trying to oppose Barghouti.

But while Barghouti’s plans are only possible scenarios for what may happen, those who care about Israel, the Palestinians and the unlikely hopes for peace shouldn’t ignore them. Should Barghouti be put in a position to implement his ideas, the result would likely be a new terror war that would make the current “stabbing intifada” that appears to be abating in the last month, look like a picnic.

The Palestinian Authority "Who's Next?" Question

...The real path to peace would be a transformation of Palestinian society that didn’t elevate whichever candidate killed the most innocent men, women, and children. And such a society needs a government that doesn’t promote violence and hate; a government that provides services instead of no-show jobs; a government that empowers its own people rather than subjugates and steals from them; a government that allows real political competition so the people have a choice instead of a mirage of democracy or accountability.

Seth Mandel..
Commentary Magazine..
23 May '14..

The Tower magazine calls attention to the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion’s latest survey, which finds that Marwan Barghouti would be the popular pick if presidential elections were to be held for the Palestinian leadership. Barghouti, a founder of an Arafat-era paramilitary wing of Fatah, is currently serving life sentences in Israeli prison for his role in several murders, though he is believed to be behind even more terrorist attacks than those for which he was convicted.

Two things about Barghouti have remained constant over his career: he is soaked in the blood of innocents, and he is exceedingly popular among Palestinians. The two are, obviously, not unrelated. Such a result is of course troubling, but it should be noted that, according to the poll, the Palestinians are merely choosing one terrorist over other terrorists. The problem goes much deeper: the pipeline for Palestinian leadership remains greased with blood.

An understandable reaction to the poll will be: So what. Mahmoud Abbas is now in the tenth year of his four-year term, so immediate succession doesn’t seem to be a pressing issue right now, and Barghouti is in prison anyway.

But there are a few differences this time around. First, the Hamas-Fatah unity deal means it’s more likely that there will actually be elections in the near future. Second, Salam Fayyad’s exit means there isn’t at least a competing pipeline to leadership. Had Fayyad stayed on, he probably couldn’t win an election himself, but he might have staffed the bureaucracy with future contenders who were also reformers, and he might have effected some sort of change in the governing culture. Third, it is not out of the question that Israel would release Barghouti in some sort of prisoner exchange if the Israeli government thinks he’d be a preferable successor than the others in the race.

It’s interesting to note just how similar these stories have been throughout the post-intifada years. Contemplating the Abbas-Barghouti rivalry in the debate over succeeding Yasser Arafat, the New York Times noted in late 2004:

While it is not certain that Israel would release Barghouti if he won the election, the fact remains that whatever the outcome, he will present the Palestinians and Israelis with very difficult options. If he wins but is not set free, the Israelis and the Bush administration would be seen as depriving the Palestinians of democratic choice — something they have advocated as part of enabling Palestinians to create a democratic and responsible political system.

In such an event, Barghouti would become as much a symbol of Palestinian democracy and resistance as Arafat was the embodiment of the Palestinian nationalist movement.

If he loses the election, he will nevertheless have split the vote to the extent of depriving Abbas of a clear mandate to marginalize his radical Islamic opponents, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and to negotiate with the Israelis and Americans for a lasting settlement from a position of popular strength. And there is the additional possibility that a third candidate, like Barghouti’s cousin Mustafa, a human-rights activist, could emerge as the marginal winner.

Palestinians have always found Abbas somewhat underwhelming, and Barghouti has always presented this complicated challenge to Israeli political strategy. But the Israelis must also ponder whether their preference for Barghouti is worth releasing an arch-terrorist. Their dealings with Arafat may have convinced them that just because a Palestinian leader has the credibility to lead doesn’t mean he will. Yitzhak Rabin famously dismissed concerns about how Arafat would get his people in line as long as he actually did. In the end, Arafat was a coward, and Israelis have to wonder if Barghouti is as well.

Save the Peace Process? Certainly Not Barghouti

...According to Palestinian sources, Abbas's biggest concern is that Dahlan may have been trying to forge an alliance with Barghouti to topple him. Those who believe that Barghouti would be more flexible in the peace process are living in an illusion. Barghouti's position regarding the peace process with Israel is no different than that of Abbas, and possibly even less flexible.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
11 April '14..

Why is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas now demanding the release of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti as a pre-condition for agreeing to the extension of the peace talks with Israel?

A senior Palestinian official in Ramallah claimed that Barghouti's release would make it easier for Abbas to agree to the extension of the peace talks after the April 29 deadline set by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Does Abbas want Barghouti released from prison out of concern for the peace process or because he is afraid of Mohammed Dahlan, another top Fatah operative who is waging a campaign to undermine the Palestinian Authority leader?

Some Palestinians believe that Abbas's demand to release Barghouti is linked to the Palestinian Authority leader's sharp dispute with Mohammed Dahlan.

According to Palestinian sources, Abbas's biggest concern is that Dahlan may have been trying to forge an alliance with Barghouti to topple him.

Abbas seems afraid that Dahlan, with the help of some Arab countries, is engaged in a scheme to remove him from power. Abbas has therefore taken a series of retaliatory measures against Dahlan, including expulsion from the Fatah Central Committee.

A Palestinian official admitted in an interview with the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat that Abbas was seeking the release of Barghouti so that he could help Abbas confront Dahlan's efforts to undermine the Palestinian Authority leader.

Abbas is apparently hoping that Barghouti will stand next to him once he succeeds in persuading the Americans and Israelis to release him in order to "salvage the peace process."

Abbas first made the demand for the release of Barghouti during his last meeting in Washington with President Barack Obama.

Barghouti, 54, was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces in April 2002 for his role in a series of terrorist attacks against Israelis. He was later sentenced to five life terms in prison.

The U.S. Administration, according to senior Palestinian officials, has promised to raise the issue of Barghouti with the Israeli government. "The Americans haven't rejected the idea that Barghouti's release would boost Abbas's chances of moving forward with the peace talks," the official said.

Some reports have even suggested that senior U.S. government officials have been holding "daily phone calls" with Barghouti in his prison cell to check whether he has plans to run in a future Palestinian presidential election. The Americans apparently believe that Barghouti, unlike Abbas, would rush to make far-reaching concessions that would pave the way for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

This assumption is baseless given Barghouti's public statements over the past few years. Those who believe that Barghouti would be more flexible than Abbas regarding the peace process are living in an illusion. In fact, Barghouti's position regarding the peace process with Israel is no different than that of Abbas, and possibly even less flexible.

Promotes Arch-terrorist as Peacemaker. Any Guesses?

...And no cameos, of course, of Israeli victims of Barghouti’s terrorist forays. That would go counter to Rudoren’s agenda.

Leo Rennert..
American Thinker..
09 April '14..

Marwan Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for premeditated murder in attacks that killed five people, plus a few other crimes. The original prosecution charges accused him of perpetrating 37 attacks, running terrorist organizations, and recruiting and training terrorists. The fact that he’s also the most popular Palestinian leader tells worlds about the Palestinians’ unreadiness for a credible peace agreement. Barghouti was a terrorist kingpin during the second intifada and unapologetically calls for a third intifada. He’s definitely not a Gandhi-type figure with peaceful instincts.

But that’s not the way the New York Times describes him in an article at the top of the foreign-news section in the April 8 edition (“Prisoner In Israel Is Linked To Talks – Popular Palestinian Serving Life Terms”, by Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren, page A4)

Rudoren suggests that releasing Barghouti could be the key to revive moribund negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. To buttress her argument, she digs up Palestinians who view Barghouti as the Palestinian parallel to Jonathan Pollard, the convicted U.S. spy for Israel who’s serving a life term. A perfect trade, it would seem. – Barghouti for Pollard. Never mind that the former is a serial murderer – a charge not affixed to the latter. What it comes down to, according to Palestinian fans of Barghouti that Rudoren is eager to quote, is simply: “Why not? Pollard is very important to Israel and Barghouti is important to us.”

But it happens that this quid pro quo is more the product of a feverish Rudoren imagination than the key to revival of peace negotiations. Still, Rudoren and the Times are determined to go the extra mile to humanize Barghouti.

Consequently, Times readers are told that Barghouti “has a roommate and a television with 10 channels. He can read any newspaper published in Israel but cannot have a computer.” If the Times had its way, this nice Palestinian fellow would not be so deprived.

Release Barghouti? Immoral and Counter-Productive But Very Beilinesqe

...In his book "Touching Peace" Beilin explains that the Yom Kippur War shattered his faith in Israel’s leaders. But with the passing of time and with the tragic outcome of his political theories, Beilin has come to incarnate, and even to surpass, the hubris and dogmatism of leaders he rightfully criticized as a youngster.

Dr. Emmanuel Navon..
i24 News..
26 March '14..

Israel's controversial scheduled release of convicted Palestinian murderers has become more controversial, still, because of the demand by Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to release Marwan Barghouti. During the negotiations about Gilead Shalit’s release, Prime Minister Netanyahu firmly rejected the demand to release Barghouti. Former Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin, by contrast, called for Barghouti’s release in October 2011, and again this week in his i24news column.

By Yossi Beilin’s own admission, Barghouti is no Dalai Lama, no Gandhi, and indeed no Nelson Mandela. Beilin does not go into details of his understatement. Barghouti was the leader of the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, which carried out thousands of deadly attacks (including suicide bombings) against Israeli civilians. These deadly attacks included the murder of a Greek Orthodox monk on June 12, 2001; the murder of six Israelis during a bar-mitzvah celebration on January 7, 2002; the murder of three Israelis in a shooting spree at a Tel Aviv restaurant on March 5, 2002. Barghouti was also directly responsible for operating the terrorist cell of Raed Karmi in Tulkarem, which carried out many deadly terrorist attacks.

Three days before Yossi Beilin published his above op-ed, Alan Bauer, the victim of a terrorist attack masterminded by Barghouti, sent the following letter to President Obama: “Tomorrow will mark 12 years since our oldest son, then seven years old, and I were wounded in a suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem. Yehonathan had the head of a screw pass fully through his right brain, while I had two screws pass through my left arm. The role of Marwan Barghouti in this attack was revealed in indictments against the heads of the Fatah terror cell behind the attack … We cannot re-wind the clock and make the injuries and suffering disappear; the one thing we can do is to pursue justice and to do everything in our power to prevent terrorists from striking again.”

Beilin advocates Barghouti’s release because he believes that Barghouti is one of the rare Palestinian leaders who can “sell his people on a peace agreement with Israel.” Beilin does not even bother to address the moral issue of pardoning a murder for the sake of reaching a hypothetical peace agreement. Neither does he provide any evidence that Barghouti would be able and willing to “sell his people on a peace agreement with Israel.”

Associated Press' allegedly objective journalism

...We completely understand why the PA do the revolting things they do, according to their own values. But as one of the world's most influential sources of news reporting, what's AP's excuse?

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
21 March '14..

While politicians from the EU parliament in Brussels are here tonight to tell us the murderers of our family members must walk free because this "is central to the peace process", one of the world's major sources of syndicated news reports implies the killers are not killers at all.

An Associated Press article, "Jailed militant key to Mideast talk", published on Wednesday, is the latest in a series that paint Marwan Barghouti as a Mandela-like man of peace who, if only he were sprung from jail, would take his natural place in the pantheon of Palestinian Arab statespersons and blaze a path to wherever it is they believe the Palestinian Arabs are heading. (CIFWatch documented similar media efforts in an excellent analysis last year.)

We personally sat through the murder trial of Marwan Barghouti back in 2004. The hearing was in Tel Aviv, in the Magistrates Court complex that rarely gets the kind of lavish media attention in evidence that week. Aljazeera's TV crew were there along with reporters from all over. A motley assemblage of lawyers from Israel, the PA and overseas were too, intent on defending the 'great' man from the lowly offenses of which he was charged. Some of the most entertaining moments on the trial's first day involved one of those would-be advocates, an unusually boorish individual intent on making a splash, being physically picked up by the security people and thrown out the door of the court room and onto the floor of the adjacent lobby.

Two main factors (among many) persuaded us to be there. One: Marwan Barghouti had personally given post-massacre shelter and money to members of the Hamas gang that planned and carried out the bombing of the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem in which our teenage daughter was murdered three years earlier. He was, in legal terms, an accessory after the fact to the terrorism.

And one of the five victims for whose murder Barghouti was charged was a very Jewish-looking, traditionally bearded man, driving his car in 2001 along one of Judea's intercity desert roads and shot dead from a distance by Barghouti's sharp-shooters and a volley of 13 bullets. Only this was no Jew. He was in fact a young, bearded Greek Orthodox monk, Tsibouktsakis Germanus, also known as Father Herman, from the ancient monastery at Wadi Kelt. Shot dead while looking Jewish.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out! 
.

Dear AP - Barghouti’s Crimes are “Alleged”?

...Israel isn’t a police state or a banana republic where criminals do not receive a fair trial. That Barghouti was acquitted for 33 other murders due to lack of evidence is further proof that Israel does not convict without due process. So why then does the AP still refer to Barghouti’s “alleged” crimes?

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting Backspin..
20 March '14..

Israel prides itself on the strength of its judicial system and the rule of law, which is certainly comparable to those of other Western democracies such as the U.S. or UK.

Palestinian terror leader Marwan Barghouti was convicted in a civilian trial in an Israeli courtroom in 2004. But how does the Associated Press describe him?

According to several top officials, the Palestinians are seeking the freedom of Marwan Barghouti, who is serving multiple life sentences for his alleged role in killings of Israelis, as part of any plan to extend negotiations with Israel beyond an April deadline.

The term “alleged” is commonly used, including by the media, to describe something yet to be proved. In the case of a criminal legal case, it would describe someone who has yet to be convicted.

"Palestinian Arabs want a leadership with Jewish blood on its hands"

Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, 34, 
one of the victims of Marwan 
Barghouti's "political" campaign.
The bearded young Greek Orthodox priest, 
one of two monks who lived in, 
and maintained, the ancient St. George 
Monastery perched on the edge of Wadi Kelt,
 was mistaken for a Jewish driver by Barghouti's
Jew-phobic gunmen, and paid with his life.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
03 July '12..


Writing from inside the world controlled by the Palestinian Authority, the journalist Hisham Jarallah has some views about where his society is headed. The extracts from his essay below ["The Future Leaders of Palestinians: Terrorists"] were originally published several days ago by the Gatestone Institute.

The future leaders of the Palestinians are currently sitting in Israeli prisons. They include dispatchers of suicide bombers, heads of terror cells, ordinary terrorists and political leaders of various terror groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He refers to an opinion poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research that points to a rise in the popularity of Hamas over Fatah, and in particular (something that has been noted in the past) that the convicted and imprisoned murderer Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader, would win a presidential election if it were held today.

IMRA - [With context]Transcripts of Shin Bet interrogations of Marwan Barghouti

Dr. Aaron Lerner..
IMRA..
20 April '12..




[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Here is the context of this documentation of the deliberate and calculated use of terror by the very Palestinian actors who were the "dream team" that Israelis, Americans and other proponents of Oslo endorsed, promoted and vouched for time and again:

The context:
"...the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence"Letter From Yasser Arafat To Prime Minister Rabin: September 9, 1993

That's right.

Arafat forfeited the "right" to use violence on behalf of the Palestinians.

PM Rabin insisted on this as a prerequisite for Oslo.

That such a basic truth was so quickly forgotten serves as a warning against future "land for piece of paper" deals.

The same people who so terribly erred in their judgment of Arafat, Barghuoti, etc. continue to make policy recommendations that flow from their continued profoundly flawed take on reality. ]

==================