Why a Palestinian State Will Become a Source of Instability

 Khaled Abu Toameh

December 1, 2014 at 5:00 am

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4917/palestinian-state-instability

This is precisely what Egypt and the Arab counties want: to turn the Gaza Strip into an Israeli, and not an Arab, problem.

There is good reason to believe that the Arabs are not going to change their attitudes toward the Palestinians once a Palestinian state is established. The future Palestinian state will have to continue relying on Israeli and Western aid in order to survive.

And if Israel and the West do not come to their assistance, the Palestinians will find themselves begging at the doorsteps of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State. Then, the Palestinian state will be anything but a source of stability in the Middle East.

The Palestinians know very well that if and when they have a state of their own, they will never be able to rely on their Arab brethren.

The Arab countries have a long record of turning their backs on the Palestinians, not only with regard to financial aid promises, but even when it comes to basic needs such as medical treatment.

But what will happen after the creation of a Palestinian state? Palestinians say they do not have high expectations that the Arab countries will help them build their state.

Today, it is much easier for Palestinians to receive medical treatment in Israel, Turkey and Germany than in most of the Arab countries.

The tragic case of Razan al-Halkawi, an 11-year-old girl from the Gaza Strip, serves as another reminder of the Arab "betrayal" of the Palestinians.

Al-Halkawi, who has been ill for the past few months, died this week after Egyptian authorities refused to allow her to enter their country for medical treatment.

She and hundreds of Palestinian patients have been unable to leave the Gaza Strip due to the continued closure of the Rafah border crossing. The Egyptian authorities closed the terminal about a month ago after a terror attack in Sinai that claimed the lives of 30 soldiers.

One day after the girl from the Gaza Strip passed away, the Egyptians finally reopened the border crossing for only two days to allow stranded Palestinians on the Egyptian side to return home. Thousands of Palestinians have been waiting for the past four months for the Egyptians to reopen the terminal so that they could enter the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to reporters upon their return to the Gaza Strip, some of the Palestinians voiced outrage over their mistreatment at the hands of the Egyptians.

"The rockets that were falling on us were easier for us than the treatment of the Egyptians," one woman said.

Another woman, Hind Shaheen, said she left the Gaza Strip several months ago to receive medical treatment for cancer. She had been forced to wait for the past 40 days at the Egyptians side of the border before returning home. During this time, she was deprived of the medical treatment she needs for her cancer.

Shaheen said that the stranded Palestinians were left by the Egyptians without food, money or water.

"The situation there is very serious," she added, referring to the Egyptian aide of the border. "People were more afraid there than they were during the last war in the Gaza Strip. The Egyptians want the Palestinians to die."

Others said they were subjected to strict restrictions, including night curfews. "The Egyptians treated each one of us as if we were terrorists," said an elderly man who was among the lucky ones allowed to cross the border back into the Gaza Strip.

But for the little girl from the Gaza Strip who passed way this week, the partial reopening of the Rafah border crossing came too late.

Her relatives say that tensions between Hamas and Fatah also denied her the chance to receive medical treatment in an Israeli hospital. They claim that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah turned down a request from Hamas to intervene with Israeli authorities to issue a permit for al-Halkawi to be admitted to an Israeli hospital.

Many other cancer patients from the Gaza Strip are likely to meet the same fate as the little girl due to Egypt's continued closure of the Rafah border crossing and ongoing tensions between Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas. They are also victims of long-term emotional detachment and apathy of the Arabs toward their Palestinian brethren.

While the Egyptians continue to seal off their border with the Gaza Strip, Israel has become the only hope for the 1.7 million Palestinians living there.

In the period between November 18 and 23, some 2,966 crossed the Erez border crossing with Israel in both directions, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories.

In addition, some 1,490 trucks carrying thousands of tons of goods entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom terminal along the border with Israel during the same period. The goods consisted of food, construction materials, input for agriculture and medicine products.

How many Arab trucks loaded with goods entered the Gaza Strip over the past month? None.

This is precisely what Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries want: to turn the Gaza Strip into an Israeli, and not Arab, problem.

There is good reason to believe that the Arabs are not going to change their attitude toward the Palestinians once a Palestinian state is established. The future Palestinian state will have to continue relying on Israeli and Western aid in order to survive.

And if Israel and the West do not come to their assistance, the Palestinians will find themselves begging at the doorsteps of Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic State. Then, the future Palestinian state will be anything but a source of stability in the Middle East.

The Myth of an Israeli Siege on Gaza

There is no Israeli "siege" on the Gaza Strip. First of all, Gaza shares borders not only with Israel, but with Egypt as well. There is a 13 kilometer (8 mile) frontier between Gaza and Egypt. That country, and not Israel, controls the Rafah crossing into Gaza which has been used primarily by people travelling to and from Egypt, and from there to the rest of the world.

Most importantly, for the past four years all goods are allowed to enter Gaza from Israel, except for weapons and a short list of dual-use items which can be exploited by terrorists. The ban on weapons and the restrictions on dual-use items stem from the fact that since 2007, Gaza has been ruled by a terrorist organization, namely Hamas, whose declared aim is the destruction of Israel. They are in place solely to protect Israel's citizens from Hamas' ongoing terrorist attacks.

Not only do food, medicine, fuel and aid enter freely at all times, but in peacetime, commodities and consumer goods of every type are transferred daily from Israel to Gaza through the land crossing. The types and amounts of consumer goods are determined by Palestinian merchants and depend primarily on market forces in Gaza. For the more affluent, Gaza offers a variety of consumer opportunities, from a modestly-sized mall to upscale restaurants. Even during the latest hostilities in Gaza, an international journalist reported on shopping at one of Gaza's supermarkets, which offered "all kinds of goods." 

Given the free entry of almost all goods, it is impossible to legitimately claim that the Gaza Strip is under siege. For example, in the first five months of 2014, over 18,000 trucks carrying nearly 228,000 tons of supplies entered Gaza. Included in the deliveries were construction materials: since January, over 4,680 trucks carrying 181,000 tons of cement, wood, gravel, iron and other building supplies passed through the Kerem Shalom land crossing into Gaza.

In addition to facilitating the transfer of goods, humanitarian aid and fuels, Israel also supplies the Gaza Strip with 10 million cubic meters (2.6 billion US gallons) of water annually and more than half of its electricity.

While Israel faces a serious threat from terrorists in Gaza, it still allows the supervised movement of people into Israel. In the first five months of 2014, approximately 60,000 individuals entered Israel from the Gaza Strip. Many of these were patients and their escorts who received medical treatment in Israel and elsewhere, while large numbers of Gazan businessmen and merchants also visited Israel.  

In light of all these facts, not only is it obvious that there is no siege on Gaza, but it is also not reasonable to say that as a whole the Gaza Strip is under an Israeli blockade.

Anti-Israeli activists often cite the maritime blockade as proof of a general blockade on Gaza itself, but that is deliberately misleading.

In modern times, Gaza has relied almost exclusively on land crossings for the import of goods: it has never had the type of port capable of handling shipping containers (and only had a functioning airport for approximately three years). 

The maritime blockade is legal under international law. In 2011, a special panel convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon examined the maritime blockade. The UN Panel found both the naval blockade and its enforcement, including in international waters, to be legal. This panel of experts emphasized that all assistance to Gaza should be transferred only through the designated land crossings.

The panel also found that Israel had legitimate security concerns regarding violence by Hamas and that weapons trafficking to Gaza permitted Israel to enforce a naval blockade. Repeated attempts to smuggle dangerous weapons via the sea - including powerful long-range rockets from Iran - attest to the fact that the maritime blockade is an essential security measure.

Indeed, the dangers posed by Hamas are well-documented. It is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, including by the European Union, Australia, Japan, Egypt and the US.

The economic plight of the Gaza Strip does not stem from a mythical siege, but from its rule by a recognized terrorist organization dedicated not to the welfare of its people, but to violence and destruction. When Israel left Gaza in 2005, its aspiration was that the Gaza Strip would become a prosperous and peaceful territory. These hopes, and concrete plans for developing Gaza, were dashed by the incessant cross-border terrorist and rocket attacks, particularly after Hamas seized control in 2007.

Furthermore, Gaza's existing resources are systematically abused by Hamas for its own nefarious goals. Enormous amounts of money are used for procuring and producing weapons, training and funding terrorists, building terror infrastructures and for the enrichment of Hamas' leaders. Almost unimaginable quantities of cement were diverted from the construction of housing, schools and hospitals to building an underground city of terror tunnels and bunkers for Hamas members.

Hamas would like the world to believe that it launched its rockets at Israeli cities and towns in an attempt to "end the siege." It would like the international community to think it is acting in the interests of residents of Gaza. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

If Hamas cared about the welfare of the civilians in Gaza, it would not have started the current hostilities with its rocket barrages. It would have agreed to the Egyptian-proposed ceasefire already on 15 July (before the ground operation began), saving many lives on both sides. It would have respected the numerous humanitarian ceasefires Israel initiated for the benefit of the residents of Gaza. Most tellingly, it wouldn't have launched frequent rocket and mortar attacks on the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the main entry point into Gaza for goods and humanitarian aid.     

What Hamas truly cares about is advancing its agenda to destroy Israel. This terrorist organization seeks to end any control or supervision over what enters and exits Gaza so that it can freely import offensive weapons, including long-range rockets, explosives, military technologies, terrorist trainers, funds and supplies for its terrorist infrastructures. None of these things will help the residents of Gaza; rather, they will only serve to ignite future conflict. 

WHERE IS THE MEDIA? AND THE FLOTILLAS?EGYPT CRACKS DOWN ON GAZA.

Remember when Gaza was an “open air prison,” as the Huffington Post called it? Remember when the tunnels, smuggling terrorists and weaponry in and out of the Strip, were “a legitimate trade and passenger route, one that is necessary for survival,” according to The New York Times?

That was when Israel was trucking in tons of goods and the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was open.

Well, Israel is still trucking food, medicine, clothing, construction materials and other supplies into Gaza. Last week, September 8-14, Israel sent 1,428 trucks carrying 38,545 tons of goods into the Palestinian enclave. So what’s changed? Egypt is cracking down on Gaza, that’s what.

Then how come you don’t hear much about the suffering of Gaza residents? Because it can’t be blamed on Israel.

IRIN, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, describes itself as an editorially independent, non-profit project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On September 17, IRIN reported:

Residents and officials in Gaza say the repeated closures of the border crossing into Egypt, a key lifeline for Palestinians in the occupied territories, is destroying livelihoods, harming health and lowering basic living conditions.

The border crossing at Rafah has now been closed for seven consecutive days - the second sustained closure in the past few weeks - following instability in the Sinai region on the Egyptian side of the border.

A reopening is promised tomorrow, Wednesday, but the closures, reduced operating hours and the crackdown on smuggling tunnels are squeezing the country’s most important supply line.

The closures, along with the large-scale destruction of smuggling tunnels that were a major supply route into Gaza, are leading to shortages and higher prices for basic goods.

CHA estimates that fewer than 10 tunnels are operational, down from 50 in previous weeks and 300 before June [when demonstrations erupted in Egypt, culminating in the removal of President Mohamed Morsi].

So, Egypt –which is not trucking supplies into Gaza– closes the Rafah crossing and shuts down the smuggling tunnels that are “necessary for survival”. Naturally you’ve read about this in The New York Times and the Huffington Post. No?

Ahram Online, the Egyptian news Web site, reported on statements by Ahmed Ali, spokesman for the Egyptian Armed Forces:

According to Ali, the army has arrested around 309 militants and confiscated a number of munitions, including mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

He added that some of the confiscated hand grenades bear the stamp of Al-Qassam brigades –the militant wing of Gaza’s Islamist ruling party Hamas.

“Hamas is also responsible for securing the borders,” said Ali, who added that houses placed on the border with the Gaza strip are a threat to national security.

Ali stated that while no buffer zone has been declared between Sinai and Gaza yet, the army is securing a distance of between 500 meters and 1 kilometer at the border.

Gaza exports terrorism and terrorists to Egypt and Egypt cracks down. Egypt destroys smuggling tunnels, closes the crossing, and secures territory on the border. Naturally, human rights activists around the world are planning large-scale demonstrations and setting off on their protest ships. No?

The Arab press, Jewish and Israeli media have covered this story. To their credit, there has been some reporting on this subject by United Press International but it has not been picked up by most of the popular press which has given it precious little attention.

When Israel tries to protect its citizens from thousands of rockets, missiles and terrorist attacks from Gaza, there’s a hue and cry, outrage and indignation. When Egypt responds to terrorism in the Sinai… Where are the protests? Where are the flotillas? And for heaven’s sake, where’s the coverage?

Setting sail for Egypt? Don’t hold your breath.

Comments

(1) There is little western coverage because the situation is nuanced and the west prefers the good vs. evil narrative. Whereas with the present situation between Gaza and Egypt it is hard to assign which is which: both bad, both good.

(2) Why no Flotilla's to Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia etc where thousands of civilians have been murdered in the last few months by Muslims killing Muslims. Why, cause they cant blame the JOOOOOOOOOOS

"Fiendish" Israelis at it Again!!

Egyptian police have arrested a duck that they fear was sent by Israel as a spy, Egypt’s Al-Ahram news agency reports.

The bird was spotted by a fisherman in the Nile River, in the Qena region, as it swam with other birds. The fisherman noticed that the bird had a device attached to its feathers, which he feared could be used to gather information.

A security official told Al-Ahram that experts are examining the device to see if it could have been used to gather intelligence.

The Cairo-based paper El-Fagr expressed concern that the bird may have been sent by Israel, “which previously spied on Saudi Arabia, Turkey and neighboring countries using trained birds of prey.”

Turkish authorities announced in May 2012 that they had found a bird used by Israel for espionage purposes. In December, officials in Darfur also announced that they had found an Israeli “spy eagle.”

Israeli officials confirmed that the eagle bore a tracking device, but explained that it was for the simple purpose of tracking the bird itself, as part of a study to ensure the safety of the rare species.

Other bizarre animal-related accusations have included an Egyptian official’s complaint that the Mossad released attack sharks into Egyptian waters, and Palestinian Authority claims regarding attack boars and anti-Arab rats. 

Confused about the Middle East?

Mr Al-Sabah, and thank you for clearing up the confusion.

http://now.msn.com/a-short-guide-to-the-middle-east-letter-to-the-editor-published-in-the-financial-times

Sir, 
Iran is backing Assad. Gulf states are against Assad!


Assad is against Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood and Obama are against General Sisi.


But Gulf states are pro Sisi! Which means they are against Muslim Brotherhood!


Iran is pro Hamas, but Hamas is backing Muslim Brotherhood!


Obama is backing Muslim Brotherhood, yet Hamas is against the US!


Gulf states are pro US. But Turkey is with Gulf states against Assad; yet Turkey is pro Muslim Brotherhood against General Sisi. And General Sisi is being backed by the Gulf states!


Welcome to the Middle East and have a nice day.

Do You Understand our Neighborhood?

One of our readers Stuart L. Fischman, DMD provided this article which poses a question most Israelis have on their lips:-

Thomas Friedman writing in “ New York Times” stated:


“...there is an unspoken question in the mind of virtually every Israeli that you need to answer correctly: ‘Do you understand what neighborhood I’m living in?’ If Israelis smell that you don’t, their ears will close to you. It is one reason the Europeans in general, and the European Left in particular, have so little influence here”.


“The central political divide in Israel today is over the follow-up to this core question: If you appreciate that Israel lives in a neighborhood where there is no mercy for the weak, how should we expect Israel to act?”


Every time Israel tries to give up land for peace it ends up being attacked by Palestinian missiles and criticized by the international community. This happened following the withdrawal from Gaza, when Hamas made targets of civilians throughout Israel. It happened when Israel left the “buffer” in South Lebanon and Hezbollah, armed by Iran, aimed rockets at schools and hospitals in the north.


The neighborhood is certainly not hospitable and is predictably unstable. A look at the map reveals what our neighbors are like. Lebanon has not had an elected government since the assassination of Hariri and the southern border is fully re-supplied with Iranian missiles, under the “watchful eye” of the UN observers “enforcing” Security Council resolution 1701. Recall that Israel was encouraged to negotiate a withdrawal from the Golan Heights with the “moderate” Assad government of Syria. Jordan is ruled by a Hashemite monarchy, but has a Palestinian population majority, and is economically weak. King Abdullah II is not the clone of his father, King Hussein. Egypt is currently ruled by a new Pharaoh who has reluctantly accepted the peace treaty with Israel. The porous Sinai border is now being protected by a security barrier to deter smuggling of weapons, drugs and illegal immigrants into Israel. Gaza—I’ll let the “Pillars of

Defense” operations speak to that!


Prime Minister Netanyahu told members of the foreign media that when the Hamas leaders openly called for Israel’s destruction the only thing he heard was a deafening silence.


“Where was the outrage?” he asked.

“Where were the UN resolutions? Where was President Abbas?

“Why weren’t the Palestinians summoned to European and other capitals to explain why the PA president not only refused to condemn this but declared his intention to unite with Hamas?

“We cannot accept that when Jews build homes in their ancient capital of Jerusalem the

international community has no problem finding its voice, but when Palestinian leaders openly call for the destruction of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, the world is silent.”


The West doesn’t understand what is going on here—what this neighborhood is like. President Obama and the European Union, having failed to see that the Arab Spring could turn into a bitter winter, are now in the strange position of apparently supporting a dictatorial Egyptian regime led by the Muslim Brotherhood, at the expense of the opposition which is seeking democracy and religious freedom. Opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei stated, “Adoption of a divisive draft constitution that violates universal values and freedoms is a sure way to institutionalize instability and turmoil”.


And the West is in a quandary over Syria, wanting to rid it of mass-murderer Bashar Assad, while trying not to hear the calls for jihad being yelled by many of his opponents – “calls so bloodcurdling you don’t need to be fluent in Arabic to understand them”, as Liat Collins observed in the Jerusalem Post.


The emergence of the Syrian National Coalition and the associated Joint Military Council means that the West and its allies are now backing a Muslim Brotherhood dominated coalition as the replacement for the Assad regime. The leader of this coalition is Ahmed Mouaz al-Khatib who is closely associated with the Damascus branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has a long history of anti-Semitic, anti-Western and anti-Shi’a remarks (he praised Saddam Hussein, for example, for “terrifying the Jews” and wrote an article asking if Facebook was an “American-Israeli intelligence website”). The Brotherhood is by far the best-organized single body within the coalition.


Could things have been different? As with Egypt, perhaps, if the West had perceived the risks and opportunities clearly at the start. This might have triggered a vigorous policy of support for non- Islamist opposition and fighting elements, which were there. The result is that the force now facing the retreating Assad regime is split between differing brands of Sunni Arab Islamism – some aligned with the West, some directly opposing it, but all holding fast to fundamentally anti- Western ideologies.


It is always appropriate close on an optimistic note. Israel is a strong country. We are a true democracy with a strong economy. Our life expectancy for both Jews and Moslems is among the highest in the world. There is much to be proud of.

And Now It Begins: Attack From Egypt Signals Muslim Brotherhood-Hamas Jihad Against Israel

By Barry Rubin - June 18th, 2012


http://www.gloria-center.org/2012/06/and-now-it-begins-attack-from-egypt-signals-muslim-brotherhood-hamas-jihad-against-israel/

A well-organized, well-equipped group of terrorists has attacked Israel from Egyptian territory Monday morning, possibly the second such Egyptian-assisted assault in a week.


An armed squad of two men—said to be Hamas, though this is not confirmed—crossed the border after travelling 30 miles from the Gaza Strip through Egyptian territory. They wore flak jackets, camouflaged uniforms, and carried a large amounts of explosives. Members of their support team remained on the Egyptian side of the border. The two men hid by Israel’s highway 12, near an area called White River Lake. When two vehicles came by, carrying workers finishing up a security fence to guard against just such attacks, they set off a bomb that had been placed on the roadway and fired a rocket-propelled grenade. Both missed but bullets from a Kalashnikov hit one of the vehicles which flipped over. One Israeli, an ethnic Arab labor contractor, was killed, two or three terrorists have been shot dead.


Within minutes, Israeli soldiers arrived and fired on the terrorists. Their bullets blew up a suicide vest being worn by one of them, killing two of the attackers.


This event follows a report in Haaretz newspaper, attributed to Israeli security officials, that the Muslim Brotherhood had asked Hamas to attack Israel. According to the story, an Egyptian Bedouin unit was given the job of firing a rocket, which landed in open ground in southern Israel. This story was not picked up by other Israeli newspapers, suggesting either that it was wrong or that it had been a security leak which the army had then stopped.


So far this year, 280 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. This has prompted no international concern or action. The new fence along the Egypt-Israel border is mostly complete but due to difficult terrain the last portion will only be finished late this year.


At any rate, we are now at the beginning of Egypt’s involvement, directly or indirectly, in a new wave of terrorist assault on Israel. If the Muslim Brotherhood takes over Egypt, a likelihood made less probable perhaps by the military’s dissolution of parliament, this offensive will enjoy official support. Even if the army remains in control, the Brotherhood and Salafists will use their considerable assets to back this new insurgency war.


The ultimate scenario would be if Hamas decided to renew a large-scale offensive against Israel from the Gaza Strip using rockets, mortars, and attempted cross-border attacks. Egyptian Islamists would send volunteers and money. The Egyptian army would not be scrupulous in stopping the smuggling of weapons, terrorists, and money across the border. As Egyptian fighters are killed in the Gaza Strip the hysteria in Egypt would escalate.


In such a scenario, the army would also allow Hamas to have military bases and headquarters on Egyptian territory, where Israel could not attack them. Indeed, this is already happening. And the Egypt-Israel border would not be protected from cross-border attacks.


A most serious scenario would be if Egypt itself was dragged (under an army regime) or went willingly (under a Brotherhood one) to war with Israel.


As for the presidential election, the Brotherhood candidate, Muhammad al-Mursi, is enjoying a small lead and is claiming victory but the counting continues. He has openly declared his support for Hamas and priority on battling Israel on some level. Those campaigning for him, in his presence, have said that the Brotherhood is seeking a Sharia state in Egypt and a caliphate over the whole Middle East whose capital will be in a conquered Jerusalem. The Salafists–a coalition of many hardline Islamist groups–gave the Brotherhood candidate full support. A close and contested outcome–secular candidate Ahmad Shafiq is already charging that there has been massive fraud–would create more instability and violence.


Where is the U.S. government in all of this? It’s insisting that the Egyptian military turn power over to a civilian government which, until last week, would have been a Brotherhood government. Washington is merely a distant observer, and one continuing to insist on Muslim Brotherhood moderation despite that group’s extremist history and actions.


In short, despite verbal declarations, the Obama Administration is not on Israel’s side in this developing crisis. Ironically, the president’s main boast is that his government is supplying Israel with lots of weapons. The problem is that these weapons are made necessary precisely because of the regionally disastrous security situation the administration has helped to create.

From Israeli Soldier on Egyptian border

I am 25 years old, was born in Brooklyn NY, and raised in Efrat Israel. Though very busy, I don’t view my life as unusual. Most of the time, I am just another Israeli citizen. During the day I work as a paramedic in Magen David Adom, Israel’s national EMS service. At night, I’m in my first year of law school. I got married this October and am starting a new chapter of life together with my wonderful wife Shulamit.

15-20 days out of every year, I’m called up to the Israeli army to do my reserve duty. I serve as a paramedic in an IDF paratrooper unit. My squad is made up of others like me; people living normal lives who step up to serve whenever responsibility calls. The oldest in my squad is 58, a father of four girls and grandfather of two; there are two bankers, one engineer, a holistic healer, and my 24 year old commander who is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Most of the year we are just normal people living our lives, but for 15-20 days each year we are soldiers on the front lines preparing for a war that we hope we never have to fight.

This year, our reserve unit was stationed on the border between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip in an area called “Kerem Shalom.” Above and beyond the “typical” things for which we train – war, terrorism, border infiltration, etc., – this year we were confronted by a new challenge. Several years ago, a trend started of African refugees crossing the Egyptian border from Sinai into Israel to seek asylum from the atrocities in Darfur.

What started out as a small number of men, women and children fleeing from the machetes of the Janjaweed and violent fundamentalists to seek a better life elsewhere, turned into an organized industry of human trafficking. In return for huge sums of money, sometimes entire life savings paid to Bedouin “guides,” these refugees are promised to be transported from Sudan, Eritrea, and other African countries through Egypt and the Sinai desert, into the safe haven of Israel.
We increasingly hear horror stories of the atrocities these refugees suffer on their way to freedom. They are subject to, and victims of extortion, rape, murder, and even organ theft, their bodies left to rot in the desert. Then, if lucky, after surviving this gruesome experience whose prize is freedom, when only a barbed wire fence separates them from Israel and their goal, they must go through the final death run and try to evade the bullets of the Egyptian soldiers stationed along the border. Egypt’s soldiers are ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross the border OUT of Egypt and into Israel. It’s an almost nightly event.

For those who finally get across the border, the first people they encounter are Israeli soldiers, people like me and those in my unit, who are tasked with a primary mission of defending the lives of the Israeli people. On one side of the border soldiers shoot to kill. On the other side, they know they will be treated with more respect than in any of the countries they crossed to get to this point.

The region where it all happens is highly sensitive and risky from a security point of view, an area stricken with terror at every turn. It’s just a few miles south of the place where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. And yet the Israeli soldiers who are confronted with these refugees do it not with rifles aimed at them, but with a helping hand and an open heart. The refugees are taken to a nearby IDF base, given clean clothes, a hot drink, food and medical attention. They are finally safe.
Even though I live Israel and am aware through media reports of the events that take place on the Egyptian border, I never understood the intensity and complexity of the scenario until I experienced it myself.

In the course of the past few nights, I have witnessed much. At 9:00 PM last night, the first reports came in of gunfire heard from the Egyptian border. Minutes later, IDF scouts spotted small groups of people trying to get across the fence. In the period of about one hour, we picked up 13 men – cold, barefoot, dehydrated – some wearing nothing except underpants. Their bodies were covered with lacerations and other wounds. We gathered them in a room, gave them blankets, tea and treated their wounds. I don’t speak a word of their language, but the look on their faces said it all and reminded me once again why I am so proud to be a Jew and an Israeli. Sadly, it was later determined that the gunshots we heard were deadly, killing three others fleeing for their lives.

During the 350 days a year when I am not on active duty, when I am just another man trying to get by, the people tasked with doing this amazing job, this amazing deed, the people witnessing these events, are mostly young Israeli soldiers just out of high school, serving their compulsory time in the IDF, some only 18 years old.
The refugees flooding into Israel are a heavy burden on our small country. More than 100,000 refugees have fled this way, and hundreds more cross the border every month. The social, economic, and humanitarian issues created by this influx of refugees are immense. There are serious security consequences for Israel as well. This influx of African refugees poses a crisis for Israel. Israel has yet to come up with the solutions required to deal with this crisis effectively, balancing its’ sensitive social, economic, and security issues, at the same time striving to care for the refugees.

I don’t have the answers to these complex problems which desperately need to be resolved. I’m not writing these words with the intention of taking a political position or a tactical stand on the issue.

I am writing to tell you and the entire world what’s really happening down here on the Egyptian/Israeli border. And to tell you that despite all the serious problems created by this national crisis, these refugees have no reason to fear us. Because they know, as the entire world needs to know, that Israel has not shut its eyes to their suffering and pain. Israel has not looked the other way. The State of Israel has put politics aside to take the ethical and humane path as it has so often done before, in every instance of human suffering and natural disasters around the globe. We Jews know only too well about suffering and pain. The Jewish people have been there. We have been the refugees and the persecuted so many times, over thousands of years, all over the world.

Today, when African refugees flood our borders in search of freedom and better lives, and some for fear of their lives, it is particularly noteworthy how Israel deals with them, despite the enormous strain it puts on our country on so many levels. Our young and thriving Jewish people and country, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, do not turn their backs on humanity. Though I already knew that, this week I once again experienced it firsthand. I am overwhelmed with emotion and immensely proud to be a member of this nation.

With love of Israel,

From an Egyptian correspondent

It is encouraging that the Egyptian army has said that it will honour the peace treaty with Israel (my words – “in the foreseeable future”) but who really knows what the future will bring. One of my correspondents received a letter from an Egyptian writer which says:-

“Below is my column from today on Egypt. Since I do not have an opportunity to write in public more than one column per week, I am limited to what I can say. I am extremely distressed by the crew in Washington, and in most European capitals. Media is so corrupted by left-leaning thinking that there is not much of an analysis to be expected in the media that is now competing with facebook, twitters, etc. The dumbing down of thinking is itself a huge problem the West is facing now as it tries pathetically to undertstand/explain politics and history of other cultures when it no longer has faith in its own civilizational values. I despair, and so I follow Samuel Pepys who confined himself to his diaries while London burned and I am trying to devote my time to reading and writing of my own (that of course I might not be able to publish, and even if published few will read).

I am more convinced now, as I wasn't when Paul Kennedy wrote about the rise and fall of great powers, that the West has gone over the tipping point in its terminal decline. That intelligent people, or people who claim to be intelligent, (I have in mind the talking heads in the U.S. media such as Chris Matthews or Fareed Zakaria) cannot make the difference between the sham of the Muslim Brotherhood talking about freedom and democracy and the generic thirst in man to be free. These are the people who have like the Bourbons learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

They are glibly about to put the Lenins of our time into trains heading for Moscows of our time, they find nothing odd that they are pushing for the Muslim Brotherhood to be taken into governing when everything needs to be done to keep the Muslim Brotherhood out even as one carefully negotiate the long historic transition of Arab societies from tribal autocracy and military dictatorships to representative rule and constitutionally limited government. I read you when I can, and I wish that you and others like you were closer to the main media control in the West, or in government.

Take care, and God bless.”

An Egyptian's scientist's journey from wariness to warmth

By Avigayil Kadesh – for full report see http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperience/Egyptian_scientist_journey-Jan_2011.htm

When Dr. Ahmed Moustafa announced his intention to conduct medical research in Israel during the summer of 2008, his family feared for his life and his friends feared for his sanity.

But the Cairo University graduate, who has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Louisiana, was eager to accept an invitation from Jerusalem's Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine and Al-Quds University to enhance his study of Parkinson's disease.

"Some of my friends in Egypt advised me not to embark on such an 'unethical' trip," Moustafa recently wrote on the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East website. "For many in Egypt, setting foot in Israel is unthinkable. But the Palestinian professors whom I consulted did not voice such criticism; they encouraged me to visit Israel. My friends in the United States did not make such criticisms either, and I realized that many Americans and Europeans who visit Israel hold different views on Israeli politics, yet they discuss their opinions openly with Israelis."

Wariness due to ignorance

Now 33, Moustafa is doing post-doctoral work at Rutgers University in New Jersey – he explains that widespread wariness regarding Israel is not due to educational indoctrination in Egypt, but rather the result of unflattering newspaper reports and cartoons as well as a lack of exposure to anything Israeli.

"I’ve read recently that they tried to show an Israeli movie in Egypt, but it was not allowed," he relates. "If people could see the 'other side' of Israel, its books and movies and science, I think that might make a difference. Now I talk to everyone about my time in Israel," including those friends back home who had discouraged him from going.

He recalls being on his guard when he first arrived, a bit taken aback by the sight of Israeli soldiers on the streets. But after a short while he realized there was nothing to fear and much to be learned about Israel and its Jewish and Arab citizens.

Surprised by Arabic street signs

"The Arabic street signs everywhere surprised me," he relates. "I thought Arabic would be something they’d stay away from, but every sign has Hebrew, Arabic and English. And I met many Jewish people of Arab origin there. I did not know about that before."

Believing strongly that Arab countries need more scientific interaction with the outside world, including Israel, Moustafa has been trying to encourage Arab colleagues to join the ranks of world-class scientists and graduate students from Italy, the United States, Germany, Canada, Japan and many other countries who learn, visit and lecture at Israeli universities and attend scientific conferences in Israel.

Not there yet

"It is sad that neighboring countries do not participate in these activities," he says. "There is no doubt that Israeli science institutions and Israeli researchers would welcome having Arab researchers visit and collaborate with them. It is an overall win-win game for both sides, if not more beneficial for Arab researchers."

If there is one overall message he'd like to get out to his fellow Arab scientists, it is this: "Separate politics from science and give Israel a try. See for yourself."

Just What is the Mossad Capable Of?

Newspapers reported last month that a shark that killed and maimed tourists on its Red Sea port may have been intentionally released by Israeli agents in order to sabotage the Egypt's tourist industry.

Now a vulture that strayed into Saudi Arabian territory has now been “arrested” on suspicion of being a Mossad spy.

The bird was found in a rural area of the country wearing a transmitter and a leg bracelet bearing the words "Tel Aviv University", according to the reports.

Although these tags indicate that the bird was part of a long-term research project into migration patterns, residents and local reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper that the matter seemed to be a "Zionist plot."

And as usual, the accusations spread through the Arab media like wildfire claiming that the "Zionists" had trained these birds for espionage.

As Melanie Phillips, the British journalist has said and written recently, “what is striking is the extent to which a patently false and in many cases demonstrably absurd account has been absorbed uncritically and assumed to be true.”

Problem in Gaza is more a Shortage of Work than a Shortage of Food

Reporter Steffen Jensen from Denmark and has just placed his report June 1st, after a visit to Gaza. We don't get too many independant reports of what is going on in the Gaza strip and many interviews are often monitored by Hamas. Nevertheless this makes interesting reading

Judging from the media, the situation in Gaza is desperate, everything is about to collapse, and the community is on the brink or at the level of a third world country.

Israel’s closure of the border to the Gaza Strip has continued for three years, ever since the Palestinian coalition government collapsed, and Hamas, during the subsequent civil war, sent Fatah packing. The Palestinian society's immediate downfall has been prophesied numerous times in the media. People have nothing to eat, we sometimes know. The UN must from time to time to stop food distribution, either because their stocks are running low, or because they cannot get diesel for their trucks, and therefore cannot carry food in. And so on.

Yesterday I drove into the Gaza Strip. I don't do this as often as before, when it involved a quick entry by car in the morning and a quick exit by late afternoon. Now it is such a slow procedure, that when I finally get down here, I end up staying for almost a week. The Israelis often also close the Gaza Strip to all foreign journalists, so that no one can get in or out (once in) for several days or weeks. That’s why there can be a long period between my visits.

This time, I had expected to see real suffering, because with all the fuss in recent days about bringing tons of humanitarian relief in - so much that people actually sacrificed their lives for it - there certainly had to really be a deep, desperate situation in the Gaza Strip. No food. Long lines in front of UN food stocks. Hungry children with food bowls.

But this was not the picture that greeted me.

When I drove through Gaza city yesterday morning, I was immediately surprised that there are almost as many traffic jams as there always have been. Isn’t there a shortage of fuel? Apparently not. No one is saving it. Gasoline is not even rationed.

Many shops were closed yesterday; Hamas has declared a general strike in protest against Israel's brutal and deadly attack on the Turkish flotilla with pro-Palestinian activists on board. It was thus difficult to estimate how many products were on the shelves. Therefore I went over to the Shati refugee camp, also known as Beach Camp. Here is one of Gaza's many vegetable markets that sell much more than just fruits and vegetables.

I will not say whether in better times there was a larger product range than yesterday, but there was certainly no shortage of vegetables, fruits or any other ordinary, basic foods. Tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, watermelons, potatoes - mountains of these items in the many stalls.

I must admit I was a little surprised. Because when I call down here to my Palestinian friends, they tell me about all the problems and deficiencies, so I expected that the crisis would be little more obvious.

And the first woman we interviewed in the market confirms this strange, contradictory, negative mindset:


"We have nothing," she said. We need everything! Food, drinks ... everything! "

It didn’t disturb her in the least that she stood between the mountains of vegetables, fruit, eggs, poultry and fish, while she spun this doomsday scenario.
Another woman, Ifka Abu Nahal, who originally comes from a rural district, is more in contact with reality. She says that the crucial problem is the overconsumption of water, which is leading to the sinking of the groundwater table. This means that the saltwater of the Mediterranean is forced in, thus polluting the groundwater, which is already too saline. This makes it unpleasant to drink, and will eventually destroy the agricultural soil.

She also says that the poor economy is the greatest problem.

“There is a great deal of unemployment. There’s no work to be got in the Gaza Strip. This means that many people do not have on income, but are instead forced to live on handouts from their relatives. So they can’t afford to buy the goods that are actually available. They can stand there and look at the meat, but are not able to buy it, “she explains.

One thing that will really surprise many people is that only the vegetables here are grown in the Gaza Strip. With the exception of watermelons, all the fruit comes from nowhere else but from . . . Israel! Yousuf al-Assad Yazgy owns a fruit and vegetable outlet here in the market. All his fruit is imported from Israel.
"Not all fruit and all vegetables come from Israel. Ours do. They come from Israel. But in the Gaza Strip there is not very much fruit cultivated - mostly tomatoes, potatoes and vegetables. So here with me are the vegetables and watermelons from Gaza. All the fruit comes across the border from Israel," he explains, but also says that there can be long periods when the border is closed, during which, therefore, fruit does not come in.

Another supply route is the smuggling tunnels down in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, under the border to Egypt. A very large part of the goods in the retail establishments here in Gaza come from Egypt and are smuggled in.

On the way out of the Shati camp we stop at a small grocery store. Not any fancy, expensive business. Just a small, humble local store. The proprietor Sun Mohammed Abu Nada says they would not be able to do business if it were not for contraband goods from Egypt.

He takes us on a brief tour of the shelves and shows everything that comes from Egypt. It turns out to be much more than half of the goods: 75-80 per cent, I would estimate. Several other products - including long-life UHT milk - come from Israel, but are also smuggled through tunnels from Egypt.

This detour via the Sinai desert and the smugglers’ tunnels naturally does not make the goods any cheaper, a fact which does not escape the notice of Muhammed Abu Nada.

The products are more expensive, he says. Many people cannot afford to buy them, or only to buy certain things sometimes. But all the while even such a small, poor-looking grocery store on the outskirts of a refugee camp still has so many relatively expensive smuggled goods on the shelves, it shows, nevertheless, that at least many of the customers must be able to afford to buy them. Otherwise, the merchant of course could not even afford to invest in unsold inventory.

I have not written this story to maintain that there are no problems in the Gaza Strip, because that would be untrue. There are problems. Many problems indeed. But it is not lack of food that primarily concerns people down here. The biggest problem is the lack of jobs and a sustainable domestic economy.

There is a shortage of construction materials, cement, and everything in the construction and public works area. However, this shortage has given rise to a whole new industry. Poor Palestinians dig through the many lots and ruins of houses and factory buildings destroyed in the war. Here they find all sorts of things that can be reused. Even many of the stones and much of the concrete can be used.

But there is a shortage of real work and actual Palestinian development, which their brothers on the West Bank are currently experiencing with help from the West, and which could do much to improve the situation in the Gaza Strip. And this economic development must come from within. There will never again be a situation where almost 150,000 workers from the Gaza Strip can travel into Israel every day, and bring money back to help the local economy (something that Israel was actually once criticized for). That was stopped by the wave of terrorism and suicide bombers in the 1990s and the beginning of the decade after 2000.

But in order to start this kind of economic development with the help of the West, Israeli cooperation is needed. And that means that the Hamas government must soften its total and inflexible rejection of negotiations with Israel, not to mention recognition of that country’s right to exist. There is a perception, even though there is still a very long way to go, that among certain circles in Hamas, there are tendencies to show greater flexibility.

In order to cultivate this tendency among the Islamists, it is probably also necessary for us in the West to soften our total rejection of the idea of having contacts with Hamas. Even though our own Danish diplomats in the region, like other EU diplomats, do not want to have contacts with Hamas, a dialog is necessary.

If no calming of the situation whatsoever starts, there is a risk that the even more militant and fanatic jihadist groups, which already are growing in the Gaza Strip, will begin to pressure Hamas from the side, and force that organization to eliminate any possibilities for political compromises, and instead protect its Islamist credentials.

Update 8:00 p.m. (Gaza time)

The Israeli army announced here this evening, that it has loaded the emergency assistance to Gaza from the six Turkish activist ships onto 20 trucks, in order to drive it into the Gaza Strip. The cargo consists, among other things, of “various types of medicine (past their expiration date), clothing, carpets, hospital equipment and toys.”

Apparently, the Israelis have not been willing to accept that building and construction materials, including cement which was also on board, be sent along.

However, the Israelis can save themselves the trouble. Hamas has announced that they will not accept any emergency assistance from the ships, and have blocked Israel’s attempt to deliver the emergency help.

NGOs Attack Israel Yet Again

Once again, the financially powerful NGO's have decided to attack Israel with absolutely no reference to the actions of Hamas, an organisation that resolutely advocates the elimination of the State of Israel in its words, its culture and deeds. Israel as a victim of this strategy continues to be portrayed as the ogre.

NGOs – including Amnesty-UK, Trocaire (Ireland), Finn Church Aid, Diakonia (Sweden), Oxfam, Oxfam-NOVIB (Holland), Cordaid (Holland), Christian Aid (UK) – have issued a report “Failing Gaza: No rebuilding, no recovery, no more excuses,” to coincide with the one year anniversary of the Gaza conflict. As in numerous earlier publications on this topic, this report reflects the primacy of advocacy and the biased agendas of organizations claiming to promote “humanitarian aid”. Thus reports NGO Monitor www.ngo-monitor.org

1) The central thesis of the report -- “primary responsibility lies with Israel” to end the blockade -- repeats the unsupported legal claim that Gaza remains occupied, as well as the false allegation of “collective punishment.” As legal scholars note, Gaza cannot be considered occupied, and economic sanctions are not illegal. These tendentious claims were apparently made in order to condemn Israel and create fictitious obligations.

2) Similarly, these groups blame Israel for ongoing conflict, minimizing the clear responsibility of Hamas for mass terror, and for blatant incitement to violence.

3) The list of “high priority reconstruction materials” on page 7 fails to acknowledge the ongoing threats from Hamas, and the use of such materials for manufacturing weapons directed at Israeli. This “humanitarian” report also ignores the diversion of aid by Hamas officials and makes no reference to the fact that Egypt treats Gaza in the same way.

4) The bias and political goals of these NGO's are reflected in calls for sanctions against Israel alone: “The EU should confirm publicly that the upgrading of relations with Israel is put on hold, pending tangible progress in Israel’s respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, which should include its actions with regard to the blockade of Gaza.”

5) As in the past, this report is also totally silent regarding the continued captivity of Gilad Shalit, clearly in violation of his rights under international law.

NGO Monitor President Prof. Gerald Steinberg commented: “These NGOs are continuing to exploit moral, legal and humanitarian principles in order to promote political warfare against Israel. Many of the claims in this report are not supported by credible evidence, and reflect the double standards that are all too common. Through this systematic bias regarding Israel, these organizations have lost respectability, and the European governments that fund such attacks share responsibility for this abuse.”

Really a Cease Fire?

There is much talk of a possible “cease fire” between Hamas and Israel, however the Western understanding of a cease fire is far from the Arabic understanding.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/hudna_050508e.htm defines the a cease fire as “Tahadiya” which is a modern, secular term adopted by the Palestinians meaning a “lull in the fighting” and used exclusively in relation to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It has no religious Islamic validity and in practical terms means an agreement between two rival sides, sometimes with the intervention of a third party, not necessarily as part of negotiations or a written agreement (such as a gentlemen's agreement, or an understanding).

Thus it is less binding than a “hudna” , a truce, which is an Islamic term. For that reason Hamas preferred to use the term “tahadiya” both in relation to the current contacts with Egypt and to the Cairo Agreement of 2005. That is because a “tahadiya” does not commit Hamas to recognizing Israel and permits it to carry out military activities except for engaging in actual fighting .

Thus far it seems that what has been agreed according to ITIC is that :-

i) Hamas agreed to a six-month lull in the Gaza Strip, during which time Egypt would work to extend it to the West Bank .

ii) The lull had to be mutual and simultaneous , and include the “ lifting of the blockade ” and the opening of the crossings, including the Rafah Crossing. The crossings would be opened as the lull went into effect. Mahmoud al-Zahar said that an agreement had been reached [between Egypt and Hamas] regarding the principles and commitments involved in reopening the Rafah Crossing.

iii) The other Palestinian organizations had to agree to the lull within a “national agreement.” Omar Suleiman would invite their representatives to Egypt to discuss the issue.

iv) Once the other organizations had agreed, Omar Suleiman would initiate contacts with Israel to achieve its agreement to the lull and to set up a time table for its implementation. Israel and Egypt would immediately take steps to prepare public opinion for the lull and to provide the Gaza Strip with basic supplies, especially fuel.

v) Egypt will ask the president of the Palestinian Authority for his agreement to open the crossings. Mahmoud al-Zahar noted that Hamas was close to an agreement with the PA regarding how the Rafah Crossing would be administered.

vi) The release of Gilad Shalit would be delayed until after the lull went into effect. Mahmoud al-Zahar said that the main obstacle was Israel's refusal to release terrorists who had been sentenced to long terms.

We have seen the ineffectiveness of such agreements in the past. Even the agreement via the UN for the peacekeepers in Lebanon has become a joke. Hizbollah is reportedly twice as strong as it was before the war and the UNIFIL peackeepers have not stopped Hizbollah’s build up one iota.

So once again it looks as though we are being conned into a cease fire in order that Hamas can regroup to fight another day – AND IT WILL!!

Not the Holocaust story again!

Today is Holocaust Day and there is a feeling of melancholy that pervades the atmosphere. The sirens around the country sounded at 10:00 am and I was at that moment at a very busy junction near the local shopping mall.

The only things moving were the traffic lights, changing from green to amber and red. All the cars, buses and taxis were suspended in a time warp and people were standing to attention at the side of their cars.

Yes, this day still requires a remembrance of what actually happened, not what so many Arabs and anti Semites try to convince the world with their “version” of what happened.

My wife was born in Amsterdam, nine of her Uncles and Aunts perished in the Holocaust and it is still painful for her to watch the programmes on TV recalling the events of the darkest of periods of mans inhumanity to man. Her family was also holed up in an apartment under similar conditions to Anne Frank as were many of the Jewish community of Amsterdam.

If anyone is in any doubt then the web site http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/blholocaust.htm gives a very full account of what happened.

As the Arab propaganda machine churns out more and more distorted data, casting their doubts on what really happened, Palestinian Media Watch http://www.pmw.org.il/ report on a Hamas educational program that claims Jewish leaders planned the Holocaust to kill "disabled and handicapped" Jews to avoid having to care for them. As much of the world prepared to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hamas TV presented its latest sinister twist on Holocaust denial.

The Hamas TV educational program, broadcast last week, taught that the murder of Jews in the Holocaust was a Zionist plot with two goals:

1- To eliminate "disabled and handicapped" Jews by sending them to death camps, so they would not be a burden on the future state of Israel.
2- At the same time, the Holocaust served to make "the Jews seem persecuted" so they could "benefit from international sympathy."

In response to one of my e-mails, one of my contacts writes “why do you exclude Christians? They too are and were deeply affected by this atrocity. In fact many Christians gave their lives to stop the monster that was Hitler and his henchmen?

We are all in this together and as time passes we are all under the same attack from Radical Islam.” And he is right, we should not forget the role so many of them played in risking their lives to save Jews and, of course, many of them gave their lives as a consequence. Yad Vashem here in Israel fully acknowledges the role played by Christians. Let’s also not forget the number of gypsies also murdered by Hitler. See the newly launched YOU TUBE videos at www.youtube.com/user/YadVashem

CEASE FIRE with HAMAS

The BBC World service reported yesterday (Sunday) that Israel had attacked a village in GAZA after a cease fire had been agreed. Once again the BBC is presenting a story totally out of context. Yes, there are discussions between Hamas and the Egyptians but let’s be clear there is no agreement for a cease fire with Israel.

And let’s suppose there was such an agreement. Noam Bedein, the Director of the Regional News Service for Sderot & the Western Negev, writes “ How many people remember that there was, in fact, such a ‘ceasefire' with Hamas-controlled Gaza only one year ago? How many people remember what occurred during that 'ceasefire'? Well, the people in Sderot and the western Negev remember. Even if no one else does."

"Let us refresh out memories. From November 26, 2006, until May 15, 2007, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel went on for almost six months. One cannot ignore the statement made by Hamas five days before the ceasefire: "Hamas's military wing will stop the rocket fire when residents evacuate the city of Sderot." (from November 21, 2006)

During that 'ceasefire', Gazans launched 315 missiles targeted at Sderot and the western Negev, according to an IDF spokesman. There was not one IDF response to the rocket fire during that ceasefire period."

Also in that 'ceasefire' period, on February 27, 2007, there was an agreement, the Mecca Agreement, reached between the Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). The agreement took place three months after the ceasefire went into effect; after 160 missiles had been fired at Israel since the day the 'ceasefire' commenced. Mashaal promised, in Moscow, to stop the Kassam rocket attacks. Two days later, seven missiles were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel.

As reported by Calev Ben David http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1208870507031&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull in the Jerusalem Post today, in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Middle East expert Robert Satloff noted that Hamas "has no advocates of peace with Israel. The divide is between those who call for a tahdiya (a brief lull in the fighting) and those who favor a hudna (a longer-term armistice)."

Speaking over the weekend to Al-Jazeera, Damascus-based Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal made it clear which side of that debate he is on. In discussing his organization's proposed cease-fire with Israel, he admitted, "It is a tactic in conducting the struggle... It is normal for any resistance that operates in its people's interest... to sometimes escalate; other times retreat a bit... The battle is to be run this way, and Hamas is known for that."

So tahadiya it is.