From The Jerusalem Post: Rice: Palestinian struggle echoes battle for US independence
Rice emphasized US support to the Palestinian people, by increasing the American foreign aid to the Palestinians to $468 million, and by putting in place an international mechanism which will allow transfer of financial assistance to the Palestinians without going through the Hamas government. ...The secretary of state also stressed the importance of backing moderate leaders in the Arab world, such as Mahmoud Abbas in Palestine ...
Here's the full text of Rice's speech. Excerpt:
[W]e fully support President Abbas, and the growing number of his fellow citizens, who are urging Hamas to put the interests of the Palestinian people ahead of their own rejectionist agenda. ...I know the commitment of the Palestinian people to a better future. I know firsthand the commitment of President Abbas and moderate Palestinians to that future.
Let's look at President Abbas's "commitment." In 2005, Abbas refused to disarm the armed wing of his own Fatah party, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (photos), much less Hamas. Today both terrorist groups are fighting for dominance of Palestinian people. Worse still, not only is the U.S. sending aid to the Palestinians (which indirectly supports Hamas by freeing up their resources for waging terror), but we are directly arming the "moderate" Abbas. As Caroline Glick recently reported:
... Rice has officially sanctioned a policy put together by US Army Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton to expand by up to 70 percent Abbas's presidential guard and personal army, Force 17. The administration wishes to raise some $20 million to fund the training and arming and expansion of Abbas's army from 3,500 to 6,000 soldiers. This move comes after the US transferred 3,000 rifles and 1 million bullets to Force 17 in June. Yet Force 17 is a terrorist army led by terrorists.Right after he received the weapons shipment, Abbas appointed Mahmoud Damra commander of the force. Damra, who like many of the Force 17 officers and soldiers, doubles as a Fatah terrorist, was wanted by Israel due to his direct involvement in the terrorist murder of at least 15 Israelis. One of his deputies claimed that the US rifles were immediately used to attack a bus carrying Israeli school girls in Judea.
Apparently the US hopes these arms will only be used against Hamas, but World Net Daily reports:
Weapons and financial aid the U.S. is considering giving to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Force 17 security detail to bolster it against Hamas might be used instead to attack Jews and "fight Israeli occupation," a senior Force 17 officer told WND in an exclusive interview.The militant, Abu Yousuf, hinted any new weapons provided by the U.S. to his group could be shared with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror organization, the declared "military wing" of Abbas' Fatah party. Abu Yousuf, like several Force 17 members, is also a member of the Brigades.
"There is no chance that we will use force and violence against our brothers in Hamas unless they will endanger [Abbas]. There is a chance that Israel will attack the Palestinian territories, and in this case, these weapons and others provided [by the U.S. to Force 17] will be directed towards the (Israeli) occupation," Abu Yousuf said.
Meanwhile, from Ynet News: Al-Aqsa: Israeli attack will unite Fatah, Hamas. So the infighting is only because they aren't both fighting Israel at the moment.
What about Abbas and Israel's right to exist? Wouldn't that be an obvious prerequisite for Bush and Rice's "two-state solution"? Palestinian Media Watch recently reported that Abbas will not require Palestinian terror groups to recognize Israel.
"Hamas is not required, Hamas is not required to recognize Israel... It is not required of Hamas, nor of Fatah, nor of the Popular Front to recognize Israel."
Abbas expects only a pragmatic recognition of specific Israeli officials, not Israel itself:
"How can this government, or these ministers, not recognize their [Israeli] counterparts, and then solve [Palestinian] people's problems?... How can he make an agreement with him if he does not recognize him?"
There's no reason to believe that Abbas is "moderate." Yet Rice and Bush continue to blindly insist that we must support him and the Palestinian people, Bush being the one who said after 9/11: "From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." So much for that.
Underlying Bush and Rice's campaign for a Palestinian state is notion that the Palestinian people desire our support regardless of the actions of the Palestinians themselves. As Rice said in her speech:
President Bush reiterated his deep conviction that the Palestinian people deserve a better life – a life that is rooted in liberty and democracy, uncompromised by violence and terrorism, unburdened by corruption and misrule, and forever free of the daily humiliation of occupation.
Charles Johnson had some appropriately harsh criticism for this notice:
A question for Condoleezza Rice: on what basis do Palestinians "deserve" a better life, and why is it our responsibility to give it to them? They voted en masse for a radical Islamic terrorist group with an open policy of genocide. They have turned their back on every offer of statehood, chosen a path of violence and murder, and built a death cult society that instills hatred in children from their first moments of life.And they danced in joy on September 11.
This is nothing but pandering to the victimhood propaganda of an enemy of America, and once again Condi Rice has succeeded in making my stomach turn.
For more on Palestiain's "death cult society," see Johnson's compilation of photos on the military indoctrination of Palestinian children and other examples at Palestinian Media Watch.
A "life that is rooted in liberty" will not grow in such a culture until the life and liberty themselves are respected by the culture.
Related: A Moderate Fatah: Wishing Does Not Make It So by Arlene Kushner.
Posted by Forkum at October 15, 2006 04:58 PM
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