From AP on July 8: Shaken G-8 Leaders Agree on Aid, Climate.
[British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the G-8 summit host,] said the Palestinian aid package would total $3 billion "in the years to come." The British leader said the assistance was designed "so that two states, Israel and Palestine, two peoples and two religions can live side by side in peace."
The Palestinian Authority, which has refused to disarm Palestinian terrorist groups, and the Palestinian people, some of whom have been supporting the terrorist group Hamas in local elections, have now been rewarded. And after months of relative calm in Israel, FoxNews reports today: Bomber Kills 3 in Israeli Mall Blast.
A teenage Palestinian bomber killed three Israelis and wounded at least 30 others in front of a crowded shopping mall in this seaside city, the first such attack in nearly five months and a blow to a truce that has revived peace hopes. ...Among the wounded was a 6-year-old girl who was badly burned, Israel TV reported. Two women were killed instantly, and a third died several hours later of her wounds, according to Israel Radio.
Israel blamed the militant Islamic Jihad, which has continued its attacks against Israelis despite a truce declared in February, and police linked the explosion to a failed car bomb attack a few minutes earlier in the West Bank.
Charles Johnson has recently posted articles that give a some insight into the culture over which the G-8- and U.S.-funded Palestinian Authority is presiding: Gaza mosque welcomes London attacks and Senior Hamas official: We have lost faith in Abbas. From the latter article:
A senior Hamas official yesterday threatened both open confrontation with the Palestinian Authority and continued attacks on Israel from Gaza after the disengagement, saying that Hamas had "lost faith" in Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).In an interview with a local Gaza news agency, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said Hamas was not willing "to serve as a fig leaf" for PA control of Gaza following the disengagement, would not give up its weapons and was liable to continue bombarding Israel with mortars and rockets from Gaza after the disengagement "in order to liberate the West Bank and Jerusalem."
That's how Hamas behaves without the official mask of government. How do they behave as elected officials?: Hamas council bans music festival.
A Hamas-led town council in the West Bank has banned outdoor music and dance performances planned as part of a summertime Palestinian festival.A Qalqilya council spokesman said it was partly to avoid damaging the grass. But he also said the council had been elected to protect the conservative values of the city, which included not approving of men and women mixing.
In May the militant Hamas won the West Bank town's elections, ousting the mainstream Fatah party.
Keep in mind that even the Fatah party, lead by P.A. President Abu Mazan, has its own armed wing.
Yet here's what President Bush said about supporting Palestinian terrorists in a February 2003 speech justifying the war in Iraq.
Success in Iraq could also begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace, and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic Palestinian state. The passing of Saddam Hussein's regime will deprive terrorist networks of a wealthy patron that pays for terrorist training, and offers rewards to families of suicide bombers. And other regimes will be given a clear warning that support for terror will not be tolerated.Without this outside support for terrorism, Palestinians who are working for reform and long for democracy will be in a better position to choose new leaders. True leaders who strive for peace; true leaders who faithfully serve the people. A Palestinian state must be a reformed and peaceful state that abandons forever the use of terror.
President Bush was right about deposing Saddam; it stopped one form of financial support for Palestinian terrorist groups. Yet despite the fact that both Saddam and Arafat are gone, the new Palestinian leaders are still harboring terrorists, and a terrorist group is gaining political power. If "support for terror will not be tolerated," how can Bush reconcile that with the G-8's "wealthy patron" support for the PA? He can't, which is shameful.
In today's Washtington Times, Frank J. Gaffney Jr. elaborates on the dangers of supporting "Gazastan": State-icide track. (Via TIA Daily)
Suddenly, [because of the London attacks] the world is seized with the danger of ignoring the Islamofascists in our midst. Lengthy Page One articles in Sunday's New York Times and The Washington Post describe how British authorities allowed this virulent ideology-masquerading-as-a-religion to get established and metastasize into a veritable "Londonistan" in the years preceding last week's murderous attacks on the host community. ....The one place we apparently are indifferent to the rising power of the Islamists is in the would-be state of "Palestine." There, establishment of an Islamofascist Gazastan is not just being tolerated by the West. It is enabled by the Israeli government, the G-8 major industrial nations and the Bush administration. ... They envision a democratic Palestinian state co-existing peaceably side-by-side with Israel.
Unfortunately, this prospect is no likelier at the moment than was that of an Islamofascist Londonistan living side-by-side in peace with its non-Islamist neighbors. If anything, it is less likely since the West's behavior can only be seen as a reward for Palestinian terror. ...
Creation of a new Palestinian safe haven for terrorist recruitment, training and planning also will endanger Americans and their interests in Iraq, Europe, Asia and here at home. The fact such terrorists will benefit from the counterterrorist training, funding and arms we are giving the Palestinian Authority will only exacerbate this threat.
UPDATE I -- July 13: Jewish Current Issues noted on July 8 that President Bush has again waived the sanctions against the PLO/PA: Annals of Appeasement 2005. Powerline commented: "Is this any way to run a war?" (Hat tip Barry Nimat)
UPDATE II -- July 14: This cartoon appears in today's Investor's Business Daily.
Posted by Forkum at July 12, 2005 06:55 PM
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