Ease on down the road

Soccer Dad
15 June '10

In a report about three Israeli policemen who were attacked, one of whom was killed, Isabel Kershner writes:

The Israeli military, which maintains overall control in the West Bank, has been easing movement for Palestinians in line with improving security and a readiness to help the local economy grow. Roadblocks have been removed as newly trained Palestinian security forces loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, began to assume a more active role.

Noting an easing of restrictions, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem stated in its annual report, released Monday, that there were 44 staffed checkpoints inside the West Bank in February, compared with 64 in 2008.

I'm not sure if she's implying a cause and effect. But Treppenwitz does more than imply it:

It seems that ever time the Israeli government removes check-points, or in any way makes an effort to ease the conditions of the Palestinians, the thank you we get in return is terror.

(Read full post)

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The “Peace Partners” Who Never Were

Joe Kaufman
Frontpagemag.com
24 February '10

On February 14th, all of the major Palestinian terrorist factions met at the offices of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for peace talks. But this was not about peace with the Israelis. No, this was a meeting to reconcile differences, in order to direct all energies in a violent manner against Israel. While the West has been obsessed with locating a “peace partner” for the Jewish state, none would be found here.

The Palestinian people, for the most part, can be divided into two camps: one, a religious terrorist camp and two, a secular/nationalist terrorist camp. Members of Palestinian society usually side with one or the other, whether it’s through politics, community affairs or violence. There is little grey area, in this respect.

The religious terrorist camp is made up of organizations which spawned from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, a group created in the 1920s that merged fundamentalist Islam with an extremist political agenda. Palestinian organizations that fit into this category include Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). PIJ, while deriving its existence from the Brotherhood, however, was established in 1979 with a greater attachment to the more violent methods of the Iranian Revolution of the same year.

The secular terrorist camp consists of groups that fall under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The two main groups that make up the PLO are the Palestinian National Liberation Movement or Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Unlike Fatah, though, which uses some Islamic imagery, the PFLP operates solely as a Marxist-Leninist organization.
All four of these organizations, in addition to nine others, held a joint meeting this month at the PFLP headquarters. The meeting came at the foot of an Egyptian initiative for reconciliation between the parties and what was being termed a “restoration of national unity.”

But according to the PFLP, this was less about restoring unity among the Palestinian groups and more about fighting Israel as a unified force.
As stated by PFLP leader Rabah Muhana, following the meeting, “An atmosphere of placing national interest ahead of factional interest had prevailed. All of the factions agreed on the urgent need to end division in order to confront the occupation.”

(Read full story)
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