Boy, that Abbas sure is brave -- with other people's lives

So Hamas is sweeping through Gaza City and rounding up or wiping out Fatah-affiliated clans and fighters. In a fit of humanitarianism, Israel admitted almost 200 of the fleeing Fatah fighters to save them from being massacred, sending some of their wounded to Israeli hospitals.

Now Israel wants to move along the able-bodied among these refugees. You'd think they'd be welcome in the West Bank, which is the only area that's secure for Fatah members.

You'd be wrong: Watchdog petitions court against return of Fatah refugees.

The Association for Civil Right in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice on Sunday to prevent the state from returning Fatah refugees to Gaza after they fled the territory on Saturday.

The petitioners stated that forcing the Fatah loyalists to return to the Strip could endanger their lives and called it a serious violation of human rights and of Israeli law.

The court ordered the state to respond to the petition by Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas refused to grant West Bank asylum to dozens of supporters who fled Hamas-ruled Gaza to Israel under fire, during fierce factional fighting.

Abbas stood his ground, with aides explaining that he felt his embattled Fatah group must maintain a presence in Gaza. The escape posed a dilemma for Abbas. After the Hamas takeover of Gaza last summer, he had agreed to resettle some 250 of his Gaza loyalists in the West Bank.

It's been a costly arrangement - the refugees each get $350 a month, in addition to government salaries, and Abbas's cash-strapped government covers rent for dozens of the most senior among them. The 2007 exodus also sent a message that Fatah is abandoning Gaza to Hamas.

Abbas wanted to send a different message this time, aides said.

"Fatah officials in Gaza should stay in their posts and should not leave Gaza to Hamas," Fahmi Zaghrir, a West Bank spokesman for Fatah, said Sunday. An exception would be made for those wanted by Hamas, added Nimr Hamad, an Abbas adviser.

However, there were concerns that the returnees could face mistreatment by Hamas.

Hamas confirmed it detained the first group of 32 who were sent back to Gaza on Sunday. The organization said it released all but five in that group.

Gee, it's sure brave of Abbas to insist that his Fatah members go back to the Gaza Strip unarmed to face up to Hamas. Wonder how many of them will decide that Hamas membership offers a better career path -- or even just a better chance of survival -- than sticking with the pathetically weak Fatah Party.

Palestinian civil war in the refugee camps of Lebanon

The Hamas-Fatah internicine war that divided the Palestinian government into a Gaza Hamas administration and a West Bank Fatah one is now playing itself out in the Palestinian refugee camps in other countries. Here is an example from Lebanon.

The clash erupted in the Miyeh Miyeh camp near the main southern coastal city of Sidon at about 1 am (2200 GMT Wednesday) and raged for about 90 minutes before calm was restored, a Palestinian source said.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah faction has been in open conflict with Hamas since the Islamist movement's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June.

The fighting broke out over a dispute between a Hamas militant and a Fatah rival over electricity supplies to a sector of the camp, the source said.

"It was an isolated incident that was rapidly brought under control," said Munir Maqdah, the Palestine Liberation Organisation's official in southern Lebanon.

"We don't want the events of Gaza to happen in the Lebanese camps."

Abu Mahmud, a Hamas official in Miyeh Miyeh, accused Fatah of "provocation" saying its supporters had ripped up posters of the late Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and his successor Abdel Aziz Rantissi, who were both assassinated by Israel.

The two injured men, who suffered bullet wounds, were identifed as a Fatah militant and a Lebanese who lives next to the camp.

After the events at the Nahr al-Bared camp, the Lebanese are in no mood to continue hosting Palestinian refugees if the camps are going to break out into open civil war.

Nationalized health care is politicized health care

Another reason why nationalized health care ain't such a great idea: Hamas arrests prominent doctors and Fatah sympathizers.

Hamas forces on Tuesday arrested two ousted officials of Gaza's largest hospital after they entered the building to talk to their former colleagues - the latest sign of Hamas' heavy-handed tactics against supporters of the rival Fatah movement.

Dr. Hazaa Abed, who was dismissed as director of Shifa Hospital last month, was detained along with Dr. Jomma al-Saqa, another ousted hospital official, colleagues and al-Saqa said.

"We were visiting Shifa to greet our colleagues for Ramadan," al-Saqa said in a telephone interview from a police station. "We were asked by the Hamas Executive Force to leave. When we asked why, they put us in a jeep and took us here. I don't know why."

Hamas officials were not immediately available for comment.

Hamas fired Abed and al-Saqa early last month. Both say the dismissals were because of their affiliation with Fatah.

Hamas seized control of Gaza in June after five days of battles against Fatah forces. Since then, Fatah officials say, Hamas has harassed, fired or detained many Fatah officials and installed Hamas sympathizers in key positions. A Hamas supporter was recently named the new director of Shifa.

Al-Saqa also was briefly arrested last month, leading Gaza doctors to launch a slowdown that crippled the coastal strip's medical system. Doctors suspended the slowdown on Monday out of respect for the current Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

While promising to bring law and order to Gaza, Hamas has shown little tolerance for dissent - violently breaking up protests by Fatah supporters in recent weeks.

For all of you who wish for a single-payer system in the USA, reflect on this: The "single payer" will be tempted to institute a political loyalty test for its employees -- you know, to weed out the ones that might disrupt efficient patient care.

The world's smallest oud 2: the woes of Hamas

Gosh, the Hamas people seem to be having a lot of problems.

They're miffed that neither Egypt nor Saudi Arabia want to talk to them.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Islamic Hamas movement's spokesman in Gaza, slammed on Saturday some Arab states for being prejudiced to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abu Zuhri made the criticisim in his comment on a Kuwaiti newspaper's report on Friday, which quoted a Hamas official, who spoke in condition of anonymity, as saying that two Arab countries, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, refused to receive Hamas leader Khaled Masha'al.

The daily said that Egypt and Saudi Arabia refused to receive Masha'al unless he apologizes to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and promise to end Hamas control of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas took control of all Gaza in mid June.

In a statement, Abu Zuhri denied the Kuwaiti daily report, saying "these reports are untrue. The Mujahed (holy fighter) Khaled Masha'al did not ask to visit those countries and he isn't interested to visit those countries because it represents the American views."

He, meanwhile, accused "those countries" of being prejudiced to President Abbas, saying "they are working on normalizing the Arab and Islamic worlds with the culture of the parted peace."

They think Fatah is trying to blow them up.

Hamas forces on Sunday said they discovered a bomb next the Palestinian parliament building in Gaza City and accused the rival Fatah movement of planting the device.

Islam Shahwan, spokesman for Hamas' paramilitary Executive Force, said the 33-pound bomb was defused after it was discovered at about 5 a.m.

"It's a dangerous escalation," he said. "We believe that some elements in Fatah, based in Ramallah, are behind this and other attacks," he said. No arrests were made.

It's making them want to just... kill... each other.

Two Palestinians were wounded in what appeared to be an internal Hamas gunfight in the Gazan town of in Deir el-Balah on Saturday night, Israel Radio reported. One of the wounded is a member of the group's special forces.

According to Fatah media outlets, one of the men is a confidant of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and the other is an associate of Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.

Zahar denied reports last week that he had threatened Haniyeh after he announced that he was ready to renew talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

That last thing, the killing each other? Yeah, good luck with that.

The Gang Who Couldn't Spy Straight, Part 2

The Hamas takeover of Gaza left the Central Intelligence Agency caught with its tender parts in a trap, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

When the Islamist group Hamas conquered the Gaza Strip in June it seized an intelligence-and-military infrastructure created with U.S. help by the security chiefs of the Palestinian territory's former ruler.

According to current and former Israeli intelligence officials, former U.S. intelligence personnel and Palestinian officials, Hamas has increased its inventory of arms since the takeover of Gaza and picked up technical expertise -- such as espionage techniques -- that could assist the group in its fight against Israel or Washington's Palestinian allies, the Fatah movement founded by Yasser Arafat.

Hamas leaders say they acquired thousands of paper files, computer records, videos, photographs and audio recordings containing valuable and potentially embarrassing intelligence information gathered by Fatah. For more than a decade, Fatah operated a vast intelligence network in Gaza established under the tutelage of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Hamas leaders are expected as early as tomorrow to go public with some of the documents and the secrets they hold.

Or, as the Journal article sums it up:

• The Find: Palestinian group Hamas seized rival Fatah's intelligence-and-military infrastructure, which was built with U.S. help.

• What's at Stake: Secrets, expertise and technology are now in the hands of a group the U.S. calls a terrorist organization.

• The Damage: Though the ultimate impact is difficult to determine, Hamas leaders say they will make some details public and share others with Arab governments.

I suspect that the CIA spends more time gathering blackmail evidence against U.S. politicians to protect against being held to account than it does gathering actual intelligence about America's enemies to protect our nation. I could be wrong about this....

"These Hamas people are murderers and bloodthirsty. They are using religion as an excuse to commit crimes even against their own people."

Gosh, who said that? Benjamin Netanyahu? Rudy Giuliani?

Nope. It was a Palestinian general.

"I knew that I was wanted by Hamas and that's why I decided to fight to the end. I knew that Hamas was going to kill me anyway and that I had nothing to lose. On Thursday night [June 14], hours before Hamas completed its coup, I managed to fire dozens of rocket-propelled grenades at them. I inflicted heavy damages on them. I taught them a lesson that they will never forget.

"But when I finally realized that Hamas's forces were advancing toward our security zone, I decided to leave the area. At around 2 a.m. on Friday morning I ran away toward the Egyptian security delegation's offices on the 10th floor of a tower near my base. I covered my face with a keffiyeh and threw my rifle away.

"Shortly after I entered the Egyptians' office, about 30 Hamas gunmen stormed the area and detained me. They did not care about the fact that this was an office belonging to the Egyptian security forces. They dragged me down to the street, where most buildings and houses were on fire.

"As we stood there, I asked the Hamas people: 'Why don't you execute me and dump my body in the flames?' Actually I begged them to execute me because I knew I was going to be tortured. Before they put me in a jeep, I saw the Hamas gunmen execute several people right in front of me. They were shooting all the detainees. I was sure that one of them was going to shoot me in the head. But they later blindfolded me and took me to a place where I was held for about 12 hours.

"In this place, there were a number of senior security commanders who had also been captured by Hamas. We were all told that we were going to be executed immediately after our interrogation. They asked us many questions and kept us locked in small rooms. We had no idea where we were being held. Some of us were beaten severely," the PA general said....

Asked if he had any plans to return to the Gaza Strip, the general, who has been serving in the PLO security forces for more than three decades, said: "If I go back, Hamas will kill me immediately. I'm wanted by them. My wife and children are still there and Hamas has burned my house. I don't know what's going to happen now, but I'm not optimistic. These Hamas people are murderers and bloodthirsty. They are using religion as an excuse to commit crimes even against their own people."

There you have it, from someone who knows first-hand.

What does a dog do with a car if he catches it?

In the vein of "be careful what you wish for, you might get it," here's the result of a new poll of residents of the Gaza strip.

The poll of Gaza residents shows a backlash. Hamas got only 23 percent support, down from 29 percent in the previous survey last month, while Fatah climbed from 31 percent to 43 percent.

The poll, the first major survey since the Hamas takeover, also showed that 66 percent of Hamas supporters said they would vote Fatah if it undertook reforms.

The poll, released by Near East Consulting, interviewed 450 residents of the Gaza Strip. It quoted a margin of error of 3.05 percentage points.

Fatah showed weakness in its armed confrontation with Hamas. Why, then, have the residents of Gaza lost respect for the latter in favor of the former?

"I was surprised," said Jamil Rabah, head of Near East Consulting.

Rabah said price hikes and food shortages along with a perception that Hamas was becoming increasingly authoritarian, contributed to its fall in support.

Trust in the Gaza-based deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas stood at 37 percent, compared to 63 percent for Abbas. Prime Minister Sallam Fayad got higher trust marks than Haniyeh, 62-38 percent.

"A lot of people answering this question said we like Haniyeh more, but we want people who can really deliver," Rabah said. "People are becoming more realistic."

One hopes that realism might extend at some point to the recognition that driving the Jews out of Israel proper and into the sea ain't never gonna happen -- and that finding a way to co-exist with Israel without terror is the only way forward for Gazans in the long term.

Palestinian journalist seeks asylum in Norway

The situation of journalists in Gaza and the West Bank goes beyond the captivity of the BBC's Alan Johnston. Even reporters for Arab media are subject to coercion, assault and worse. One has now fled to Norway.

A prominent Palestinian journalist from the Gaza Strip has sought political asylum in Norway, Palestinian journalists said Saturday.

Seif al-Din Shahin, the correspondent for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel network, left the Gaza Strip together with his family, they said, noting that he had received many death threats over the past few months.

Shahin's request has yet to be approved by the Norwegian government. Several other Palestinian journalists are also reported to have fled the Gaza Strip out of fear for their lives.

Earlier this year, masked gunmen set fire to the offices of Al-Arabiya in Gaza City, causing heavy damage to furniture and equipment. Although no group claimed responsibility, Palestinian journalists blamed members of Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

The group was also responsible for beating Shahin in two separate incidents in 2001 and 2004. The second assault followed Shahin's live broadcast of a rally held on Fatah's anniversary. The report angered Fatah leaders who had instructed Shahin and other journalists to report that tens of thousands had participated.

In 2003 he was arrested by the Palestinian Authority security forces because of his reporting. Al-Arabiya's offices in Ramallah have also been attacked by Fatah gunmen on a number of occasions.

But Fatah is also on the warpath against the other Arabic network, Al-Jazeera.

Muhammad Dahlan, the former Fatah security commander in the Gaza Strip, is said to be spearheading calls for banning Al-Jazeera. Last week he told Palestinian journalists that Al-Jazeera had been doing everything to drive a wedge and encourage schism among Palestinians. "This station has become an organ for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood," he said.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top PLO official closely associated with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, accused Al-Jazeera of endorsing Hamas and its terrorists. "Al-Jazeera is a partner in the crimes that are being perpetrated by the terrorists of Hamas's armed wing against our people," he said.

Muhammad Hourani, a senior Fatah operative in the Gaza Strip, said Al-Jazeera was no longer an independent and objective source for news. "They are a party to the conflict [between Hamas and Fatah]," he said. He said that Al-Jazeera had refused to cover atrocities committed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip over the past few weeks and was providing a platform for Fatah's enemies.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to the folks in Fatah that they might not look as bad on TV if they (a) hadn't collapsed militarily in Gaza in the face of Hamas pressure and (b) hadn't lost the faith and trust of the Palestinian rank-and-file through corruption and high-handedness.

A key requirement for a functioning democracy is a free press that can shine a light on government malfeasance, corruption and incompetence. Doesn't sound like that's in the cards for the Palestinian Authority anytime in the foreseeable future.

Does releasing terrorists make them nicer people?

No better time to consider the wisdom "look before you leap" than this:

SPECULATION is growing that Israel may stage a dramatic U-turn and release the imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti as part of a move to stabilise the West Bank.

Barghouti, 48, is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for killing five people and belonging to a militant organisation, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Fluent in Hebrew and English, and viewed by many Israelis as a pragmatist who favours negotiations with the Jewish state, he has enormous popularity in the Palestinian street. Many international experts see him as the best hope for peace in the area.

Barghouti would be the odds-on favorite to become the next President of the Palestinian Authority.

Polls carried out last week by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research revealed that if new presidential elections were held today and the only two candidates were Abbas and deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, 40% would not participate. Among those who would take part, 49% would vote for Abbas and 42% for Haniyeh.

But if the competition was between Barghouti and Haniyeh, non-participation would drop to 31% and among those who would participate, 59% said they would vote for Barghouti and 35% for Haniyeh. In the Gaza Strip, Barghouti would win against Haniyeh by 55% to 41%.

Not that releasing Barghouti would be the magic key to peace.

Still, Israeli security sources say Barghouti's release would need to be well timed and could most likely occur if Palestinian elections were to be held. Professor Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Centre for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, said the problem for the Israelis in freeing Barghouti was that such a move could badly backfire and be depicted on the Palestinian streets "as an Israeli-American conspiracy".

"Certainly, elections would provide such a hook, but his release could boomerang badly for the Israelis," he said. "Keep in mind that while he is an intelligent street-fighter and shows much promise as a leader, Barghouti is still an unknown quantity."

Here's an idea: let Barghouti stand for election to the PA presidency from his jail cell, and then grant him a conditional release if and only if (a) he runs on a platform of real peace with Israel, disbanding the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and other terrorist organizations, and (b) wins. If he then takes office and follows through on his peace commitments, let him stay free -- but if he tolerates continuing terrorism, recapture him.

Hey, it might be worth a shot.

Jimmy Carter: evil incarnate

Back in 1979, Jimmy Carter was the most dangerous man in the West:

We just don't get it. The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called "dim-witted cowboy," has created the entire mess.

The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini.

Carter viewed Khomeini as more of a religious holy man in a grassroots revolution than a founding father of modern terrorism. Carter's ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, said "Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint." Carter's Iranian ambassador, William Sullivan, said, "Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure." Carter adviser James Bill proclaimed in a Newsweek interview on February 12, 1979 that Khomeini was not a mad mujahid, but a man of "impeccable integrity and honesty."

The shah was terrified of Carter. He told his personal confidant, "Who knows what sort of calamity he [Carter] may unleash on the world?"

Let's look at the results of Carter's misguided liberal policies: the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Carter's response was to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics); the birth of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization; the Iran-Iraq War, which cost the lives of millions dead and wounded; and yes, the present war on terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Today he's just as evil and misguided, but thankfully less able to perpetrate his crimes upon the world.

During his speech to Ireland's eighth annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election in which Hamas won 42 percent of the popular vote and a majority of parliamentary seats.

Carter said that election was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.

Far from encouraging Hamas's move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the US and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, has sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.

"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.

"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.

Carter said the United States and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" - but Hamas this month routed Fatah because of its "superior skills and discipline."

"Superior skills and discipline." That's exactly what "qualified" the Nazi war machine to rule over Europe.

Hey, at least they weren't sent to Gitmo to be tortured

Although I bet they would have volunteered.

Hamas fighters overran two of the rival Fatah movement's most important security command centers in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen into the street and shot them to death execution-style.

After the rout at the security headquarters, some of the Hamas fighters knelt outside, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah gunmen out of the building, some shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.

A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed as their wives and children watched.

"They are executing them one by one," Amjad, who lives in a building overlooking the Preventive Security complex, said by telephone. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."

The killers ignored appeals from residents to spare the men's lives, said Amjad, who declined to give his full name, fearing reprisal.

Fatah calls on its leader Abbas to resign

Is this pose de rigeur for all presidents being forced to resign?

Apparently the Fatah movement is discovering that looking debonair with a cigarette in one hand is not a sufficient indicator of leadership skill: Fatah officials call for Mahmoud Abbas to resign.

Fatah officials and activists in the West Bank on Wednesday called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resign, holding him responsible for the fact that Hamas was now in control of most parts of the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas talked by phone Wednesday night for the first time since the latest cycle of violence broke out. A source close to Abbas said the two agreed to issue a joint call for a cease-fire.

The calls for Abbas's resignation came as Hamas militiamen scored more victories in their battle to take control over the Gaza Strip. More than 30 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday's fighting, which also spread to some parts of the West Bank.

Fatah officials here confirmed that Hamas had seized large amounts of weapons and military equipment belonging to Abbas's security forces in the Gaza Strip. Some of the weapons were supplied to the PA in recent weeks by Egypt and Jordan as part of a US security plan to boost Fatah-controlled forces.

Hamas said it had seized thousands of M-16 and Kalashnikov rifles and pistols, communication equipment, armored vehicles, trucks, binoculars, military outfits, tents, sleeping bags, hand grenades, mortars and documents.

Hamas militiamen were seen driving some of the confiscated vehicles that have been decorated with Hamas flags and signs.

Pictures of the weapons were posted on a number of Hamas-linked Web sites. "Most of the weapons came from Egypt and Jordan over the past few years," a senior Fatah official told The Jerusalem Post. "They did not come directly from the US, although the Americans had initiated the supply of weapons and ammunition."

Hamas representative Sami Abu Zuhri announced that his movement was now in control of 90 percent of the PA security installations and bases in the Gaza Strip. "We are not fighting against the entire Fatah party, but certain murderous elements who have been collaborating with Israel and the Americans," he said.

At a stormy meeting of Fatah leaders here, Abbas came under severe criticism for failing to issue clear orders to the PA security forces and Fatah militias in the Gaza Strip to launch counterattacks on Hamas.

Furious Fatah leaders demanded that Abbas declare a state of emergency and call early elections. They also expressed dismay with the way Abbas was handling the current crisis.

"Hamas is slaughtering our sons in the Gaza Strip and the only thing our president is doing is appealing for a cease-fire," said one Fatah leader. "We have at least 40,000 police officers and militiamen in the Gaza Strip. What's preventing them from launching a massive attack on Hamas? Does the president want to see the Gaza Strip fall into the hands of Hamas?"

Another top Fatah official called on Abbas to step down. "The president must resign," he said. "Unless he takes real measures to halt the Hamas offensive, President Abbas will face a revolt by Fatah."

Talk about unclear on the concept. The weapons now in the hands of Hamas were transferred to the Palestinian Authority's security services (which report to Fatah) precisely so that they could be used to quell any military uprising by Hamas. It's unclear what Abbas has in mind, other than personal survival.

One interesting aspect is that Abbas's handpicked chief of security, Mohammed Dahlan, has been out of the fighting completely:

For many years, Israeli and international media referred to Dahlan as the "strongman" of the Gaza Strip. Some even went so far as to argue that Dahlan was so popular among the Palestinians in Gaza he could take on Hamas whenever he wanted.

But Dahlan's status has been severely undermined over the past few months, largely because many of his Fatah allies and colleagues have either been killed or wounded or driven out of the Gaza Strip.

Last month, one of Dahlan's key allies, Gen. Rashid Abu Shabak, resigned as commander of the PA security forces in the Gaza Strip after Hamas militiamen stormed his villa and executed six of his bodyguards. Abu Shabak and his family have since moved to the West Bank. Another key Dahlan ally, Samir Masharawi, has also disappeared from the Gaza Strip and is believed to be hiding in Ramallah.

Abu Shabak was Dahlan's deputy for nearly a decade when the latter served as head of the much-feared Preventative Security Service. Hamas recently accused Abu Shabak of thwarting its plan to impose security and order in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders claimed that Abu Shabak was working under the direct instructions of Dahlan, who did not want to see Hamas succeed in its efforts to end the anarchy and lawlessness on the Palestinian street.

Some Americans, Israelis and Europeans have long regarded the "charismatic" and "pragmatic" Dahlan as the most suitable successor to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Former US President Bill Clinton is said to have been one of his great admirers since the two met at the White House after the signing of the Oslo Accords more than a decade ago.

Abbas's decision earlier this year to promote Dahlan to the post of PA National Security adviser was seen by many Palestinians as part of a US-backed effort to strengthen Dahlan ahead of a potential confrontation with Hamas.

But Dahlan has since spent most of his time abroad. His aides say he lately underwent surgery on his ankles in a German hospital. Other reports have suggested that he is suffering from severe epilepsy and is on intensive medication.

Dahlan has been in Cairo for the past month amid rumors that he has no intention to return to Gaza in the foreseeable future. Now that Hamas has killed many of his cohorts and friends and is threatening to eliminate him the moment he enters the Strip, Dahlan, who was one of the prominent symbols of the Oslo process, may have to seek refuge in the West Bank or one of the neighboring Arab countries.

So the "strongman" went weak in the knees -- or, more literally, weak in the ankles -- and now is in Egypt, recuperating from his surgery. Still, one might have expected him to take command of his forces by telephone, but apparently either he couldn't be bothered, or his orders were for his buddies in the leadership of the security services to save their own skins by fleeing to Egypt.

I'm here to help you kill Jews -- but first...

The old joke about the oxymoron, "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help," applies many-fold to the situation in Lebanon and Gaza. In January 2006, the Palestinians elected Hamas based on its reputation for cleanliness (from corruption), efficiency (in providing social services), and militancy (in resistance to Israel). By throwing out the corrupt Fatah regime, it was thought, the new Hamas government would be able to demonstrate that it knew how to run a country and put it on a solid footing for the struggle with the Zionist entity.

About six months later, a wanted terrorist named Shaker Youssef al-Absi showed up in Lebanon and offered to the Fatah leadership in the Palestinian refugee camps his services and those of his 60 or so followers to fight the Israelis, who at the time Fatah feared might attack the refugee camps to pressure the Palestinians in Gaza to release kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit. The Fatah leaders welcomed al-Absi, not asking, if Syria viewed him as a dangerous terrorist, why he wasn't in a Syrian prison or extradited to Jordan to stand trial for murdering a U.S. diplomat. And soon al-Absi's cadres multiplied -- and started to worry their hosts.

Al-Absi, who is wanted in Jordan for involvement in a 2004 assassination of a U.S. diplomat there, spread out increasing numbers of recruits to several Palestinian camps - about 120 in Beirut's Bourj el-Barajneh, 60 in Beddawi in the north and 150 in Nahr el-Bared.

Abu Mohammed and another Fatah Uprising official, Mahmoud Doulla, told The Associated Press that their leaders were so impressed with al-Absi's selfless dedication to the Palestinian cause that, at first, they ignored warning signs of other trouble.

"We weren't of the same ideology," explained Abu Mohammed. "They followed a more puritan kind of Islam, you can say fanatic Islam. ... They were ready to kill disbelievers."

Abu Mohammed and Doulla said they were concerned when they noticed al-Absi and his men were hostile toward allies of Fatah Uprising, such as the Syrian government, Lebanon's Shiites and the militant Shiite group Hezbollah.

When Fatah Uprising officials in Lebanon alerted their superiors in Damascus that al-Absi's men "were behaving strangely," they were swiftly dismissed and told the group was in Lebanon for the "struggle" and to fight the "Zionist enemy," said Abu Mohammed.

Al-Absi's forces grew quickly. At the Shatilla camp, what started as 20 militants reached 100 during last summer's Hezbollah war with Israel, Abu Mohammed said.

Over time, it became clear that al-Absi wasn't going to fight Israel until he took on the Fatah leadership first.

Al-Absi's relationship with Fatah Uprising showed its first public sign of cracks last Nov. 23, when Palestinian and Lebanese security forces raided an apartment occupied by his gunmen in the Beddawi camp in northern Lebanon.

In the ensuing battles, a Palestinian security man was killed and two of al-Absi's militants were wounded and handed over to Lebanese security by the camp's Palestinian security. Al-Absi was angered that Fatah Uprising did not protect the men or protest their handover to Lebanese authorities.

On Dec. 5, Fatah Uprising leader Saeed Moussa ordered al-Absi and his fighters to leave his group's bases in the Shatilla and Bourj el-Barajneh camps. Al-Absi withdrew to the Beddawi camp.

In a new ultimatum three days later, Abu Moussa gave al-Absi 24 hours to leave Beddawi.

"Where am I going to take 400 men in 24 hours? Throw them in the sea?" Abu Mohammed quoted al-Absi as telling a Fatah Uprising official. Other Palestinians confirmed the remark.

The following day, al-Absi seized Fatah Uprising positions and weapons in Nahr el-Bared, where he had regrouped his fighters - and he announced the creation of Fatah Islam.

Now Fatah al-Islam has called down the wrath of the Lebanese Army on the Palestinians, with thousands fleeing the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp and thousands more trapped there in the crossfire. The Islamic fundamentalists of Fatah al-Islam are clearly willing to defer the battle against the Zionist enemy until they remake the Palestinian refugee camps -- and possibly all of Lebanon -- in their Salafist image.

At the same time, Hamas in Gaza has been willing to launch Qassam rockets at Israeli civilians and stage sporadic attempts to kidnap more IDF soldiers. But they've also been willing to direct attacks at Fatah members in Gaza, on an escalating scale. It's rapidly reaching a point where the leadership of Fatah can no longer surf along above the turmoil: the attacks are aiming higher and higher in their eschelons.

After sundown Monday, gunmen, apparently from Hamas, laid siege to the house of Jamal Abu al-Jediyan, the senior Fatah official in northern Gaza. They then dragged him outside and killed him, security officials said. Medics said he was hit by 45 bullets.

Al-Jediyan was a top aide to Gaza Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan and al-Jediyan's brother was also killed, apparently in the same shootout.

Fatah spokesman Maher Mikdad harshly denounced the killing and pledged revenge.

"What is this, if not a war," he said.

Fatah called on its members to target all Hamas political and military leaders.

"What is this, if not a war?" What, indeed? How about a purge?

The Oslo Accords demonstrated that Fatah could not be trusted to maintain purity of ideology and purpose against Israel. Even though they never implemented their obligations toward peace, and perhaps only undertook those obligations to mask their intention to build a base for destroying Israel at a future date, still the fact remains that they did undertake those obligations. For the true believers of Hamas and of the Salafist movement, this indicated that Fatah was a more immediate danger to the struggle against Zionism than Israel itself. Only a Palestinian society purged of such wobbly pragmatists could find the unity and strength to take on Israel.

Thus the Palestinian communities in Gaza and in the refugee camps of Lebanon needed to be purged, to be brought under the complete control of orthodox and unwavering Islamists. Any accommodation with Fatah was tactical, a brand of taqqiya toward unbelievers in the West to attempt to free up frozen finances and toward unbelievers in Fatah to attempt to co-opt them.

The Palestinians must choose one path or another before there is any point in pursuing talks with Israel. If the Palestinians choose Hamas and Fatah al-Islam, then talks with Israel will be pointless in the first place; if they reject Hamas and Fatah al-Islam, there may be a chance for peace.

"Hey, boss -- you gotta get these people off our backs"

Interesting, if true:

Hamas is willing to stop firing Kassam rockets at Israel if Israel stops targeting members of Hamas's armed wing, Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal told Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani on Friday.

A Palestinian source told Israel Radio that Mashaal made his proposal to Thani in a phone conversation. The Qatari leader then contacted Olmert and informed him of what Mashaal had said.

As of midnight Friday, there was no Israeli confirmation of the proposal, and no official response.

Only two days ago, Mashaal was blustering that the Qassam attacks would never stop. Apparently he got the call that unless he was willing to call off the Qassams, Israel might arrange that he would no longer have any members of his armed wing -- at least, none willing to poke their heads out of their hidey-holes long enough to launch any more rockets.

Of course, the offer is inadequate. Hamas has to guarantee that no faction or armed group in Gaza will fire any Qassam rockets at Israel. It would be interesting to see whether the Israelis could then get a counter-offer from Fatah to stop all factions from firing Qassams.

Then whichever of the two -- Hamas or Fatah -- that succeeds in fulfilling its commitment can become the de facto Palestinian representative in future peace negotiations. Unwillingness (as has been the case with Hamas) or inability (as has been the case with Fatah) to enforce a total cessation of attacks on Israel is certainly proof that a party cannot negotiate a meaningful peace agreement

They can't be that hard to recognize

The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Prof. John Dugard, issued the following statement on May 29, 2007:

Peace and respect for human rights cannot be brought to the region unless the international community intervenes to persuade, and if necessary, to compel both Israelis and Palestinians to seriously address the issues that stand in the way of an independent Palestinian state. The Quartet is the body chosen by the Security Council of the United Nations for this task. It cannot achieve anything unless it approaches both parties in a fair and even-handed manner. This requires it to treat both parties equally and to accord equal recognition and standing to both parties. The full recognition of the Palestinian Government of National Unity is therefore an indispensable requirement to further peace. This means the recognition of both Hamas and non-Hamas members of the Palestinian Government of National Unity. In order to prevent another season of violence and to protect human rights in the region, the Quartet must intervene immediately in a fair and even-handed manner.

I couldn't agree more. And to help the Quartet recognize Hamas for what it is and what it intends, here's a helpful hint from its supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal:

Khaled Mashal, the influential political leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, insists attacks on Israel will continue despite overwhelming Israeli retaliation that has cost scores of lives in the Gaza Strip in the past two weeks.

Speaking in Damascus yesterday he asserted it was the right of the Palestinians to resist "Zionist aggression" regardless of whether their actions were effective.

The continuing siege of the Palestinians would lead to an explosion that would affect the entire Middle East, he predicted.

"Under occupation people don't ask whether their means are effective in hurting the enemy," he told the Guardian in a rare interview at his heavily guarded offices, plastered with images of Jerusalem and "martyrs" killed by the Israelis.

"The occupiers always have the means to hurt the people they control. The Palestinians have only modest means, so they defend themselves however they can."

Good luck with that "persuasion and compulsion" thing, Prof. Dugard:

Problems have been compounded by the siege imposed on the Palestinian Authority by the US and EU after Hamas won democratic elections in 2005, Mr Mashal said.

"The siege is collective punishment, and a crime. And the crime is even worse after the Mecca agreement because Palestinians had expected the siege would be lifted.

"Now the international community is trying to undermine Hamas. That will lead to an explosion that will be in the face of the Israeli occupation. The damage will affect the stability of the entire region."

Mr Mashal rejected demands by the Quartet (the US, the EU, the UN and Russia) that Hamas accept three conditions - recognition of Israel, an end to violence and acceptance of previous peace agreements with Israel. These terms had been accepted by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader and president of the Palestinian Authority, but that had not forced Israel to withdraw.

It was the Palestinians who needed recognition, not Israel, he said. It was a "pretext" to demand the amendment of the Hamas Charter, which says: "Israel will ... remain until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." The charter calls the whole of Palestine an Islamic trust which cannot be given away to non-Muslims.

"What caused Sharon to leave Gaza, Barak to leave Lebanon in 2000? And look what's going on in Iraq where the greatest power in the world is facing confusion because of Iraqi resistance. Time is on the side of the Palestinian people. We are right, and our cause is just, despite the appeasement of Israel by most powerful members of the international community."

On the other hand, compare the statements of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who doesn't live under Syrian protection in Damascus but rather under Israeli pressure in Gaza:

In another development, Abbas met in Gaza City on Wednesday with Ismail Haniyeh and discussed with him the possibility of declaring a unilateral truce with Israel. The two also discussed ways of defusing tensions between Fatah and Hamas and preventing the collapse of the Hamas-led unity government.

This was Haniyeh's first appearance in public after reports that Israel was planning to liquidate Hamas leaders in response to the continued rocket attacks on Israel. Earlier this week Haniyeh stayed away from the weekly meeting of his cabinet out of fear for his life. A previous meeting between Abbas and Haniyeh was held at an undisclosed location and journalists were not invited for "security reasons."

Also Wednesday, Haniyeh met with members of the Egyptian security delegation who are based in the Gaza Strip. They discussed the proposed truce with Israel and the situation inside the Gaza Strip.

Haniyeh said after the meeting that his government was close to announcing a series of security measures to impose law and order in the Gaza Strip. He added that the measures include the appointment of new security commanders in the Gaza Strip.

Asked about the possibility of halting the Kassam rocket attacks, Haniyeh said: "We support a simultaneous, mutual and comprehensive cease-fire to protect the interests of the Palestinian people. The ball is now in the Israeli court."

By the way, it's pretty clear that Hamas recognizes Fatah, too:

The Hamas official, Said Siyam, also blamed "outside forces" of arming Fatah units, including the influential Presidential Guard, and of training its members to fight Hamas. He did not elaborate.

"They want to strengthen the presidential guard and the militias at the expense of Hamas ... They want to obliterate Hamas," said Siyam, a former Hamas interior minister.

Well, they say it takes one to know one.

A confederacy of cowards

These two deserve each other

'Haniyeh is scared of being assassinated by Israel.' What about the resistance, Mr. Prime Minister?

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has limited his public appearances because he fears being targeted for assassination by Israel, his spokesman said Tuesday.

"He is frightened by the Israeli forces," Ghazi Hamad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He's scared of being assassinated ... so he is taking precautions."

Haniyeh has kept a low profile in recent weeks since Israel resumed a campaign of airstrikes against Palestinian rocket squads and other Hamas targets in Gaza.

Over the weekend an IAF missile landed close to Haniyeh's home. Israel denied he was a target.

But Hamad, on a visit to Britain before heading to Cairo to take part in talks between Hamas and its moderate rival Fatah, said the Hamas leadership felt unsafe after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's comments on Sunday that "no one is immune."

"We don't trust Israel," he said.

Hamad said Hamas was open to agreeing a "comprehensive" cease-fire with Israel if it stops military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

"If Israel accepted a comprehensive cease-fire, people will stop firing rockets," he said.

Mr. Haniyeh bravely accepts that the civilians he governs will be killed in collateral damage when Israel retaliates against Qassam rocket fire (not to mention how bravely he allows the Qassam crews to target Israeli civilians). How is it possible that he shies away from unstinting resistance when his own life is in the balance? Did he not declare just last week that, "We will keep to the same path until we win one of two goals: victory or martyrdom"?

At the same time, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas behaves with equal cowardice.

Many Palestinians, among them Fatah officials, blame Abbas for what they describe as the disintegration of the PA. They say that his failure to display the qualities of a charismatic leader has turned the PA into a "joke" in the eyes of most of his constituents. They point out that Abbas's real problem is not the lack of money and soldiers, but his failure to make controversial decisions.

Abbas and his aides in Ramallah have lost much of their influence over the PA security forces, not to mention the scores of Fatah-controlled militias that are responsible, among other things, for the ongoing state of anarchy and lawlessness.

Under the current circumstances, the millions of dollars that the US is investing in training and arming Abbas's "Presidential Guard" are likely to go down the drain. A security force that can't arrest a car thief will never stand up against Hamas.

It's becoming increasingly clear that the Israelis and the Palestinians have no hope of a peaceful future together unless both Hamas and Fatah are scoured out of Gaza and the West Bank. Perhaps Fatah can be sent back to Tunisia and Hamas to Damascus, where they can each plot their eventual reconquest of Palestine and Israel over endless cups of tea and puffs on the hookah. That is, if they aren't sent instead to their respective eternal rewards.

Israelis not good at this apartheid/genocide stuff

Wow, no wonder Jimmy Carter is saying things he doesn't really mean. Here he has a book about the apartheid regime of Israel, and then the Palestinians go and start doing things to each other that the Israelis wouldn't even dream of doing.

In fact, I'm beginning to think that the Israelis don't really have their hearts in this "annihilate the Palestinians" stuff. Look at these eyewitness accounts by actual Gazan Palestinians:

"May God burn all of them," cursed Amar Hamada, 27, a young Fatah security service agent who was pulled out of a car by Hamas gunmen.

After whipping him with the butt of a Kalashnikov, they took him prisoner overnight, broke his arms with a hammer and fired multiple shots at his legs from point-blank range.

He is now being treated under special permit in Ashkelon's Barzalai Hospital, where patients too seriously injured for Gaza's Shifa Hospital can be transferred with Israeli security clearance.

Crying with pain, one of his arms is in a heavy plaster cast while the other is swathed in bandages. His legs, too, are bandaged from hip to toe and blood oozes from under the gauze.

Down the hall, Mohammed Bazat waits anxiously outside an operating theatre for news of his son. He was working for Mr Abbas's security chief, Rashid Abu Shbak, when the chief's home was attacked by Hamas fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenades. Five guards were killed in the raid.

"All of them will make a deal, God willing - Hamas and Fatah, and also Israel," said Mr Bazhat, whose wife and 10 other children wait in Gaza as he sits by his son's bed during the day and is escorted by Israeli security to a hotel at night.

"If they all continue to act the same way, there will never be peace," he said. "I am worried to return to Gaza - but I must. There is nowhere else to go, so we will stay there. There is no nation that will rescue us."

What the hell? Treating them in Israeli hospitals? Sounds like the Hamas folks are much better at oppressing Palestinians than the Israelis are.

And the Israelis might also take some lessons from the Lebanese Army on how to deal with Palestinian militants operating in dense urban areas. The Israelis were accused of a massacre in their 2002 battle against Palestinian militants in Jenin, but the Israelis actually sent soldiers and armor into the Jenin refugee camps to fight at close range -- more dangerous to Israeli forces but less dangerous to civilian non-combatants. No such concerns slow down the Lebanese Army in its operations against Fatah al-Islam in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon:

Some of the 11,000 refugees who escaped from Nahr al-Bared reported that the militants had threatened to shoot those who left, effectively using the camp’s civilians as a human shield to prevent an all-out assault.

But Elias Murr, the Lebanese defence minister, insisted that the militant group, which has been linked to al-Qa’eda, must surrender or face an army onslaught.

“We won’t negotiate with terrorists,” he said. This afternoon, a stream of ambulances which had been helping Nahr al-Bared’s under-resourced clinics and evacuating the most seriously injured withdrew.

“I have put more than 20 people in the back of the ambulance to evacuate them,” said Mazen Fakih, who described increasingly desperate scenes inside the camp.

“One of the women I brought out said that Fatah al-Islam had promised to shoot anyone who leaves.”

He said that “tens” of bodies from the first days of fighting between the militants and the army, which started at the weekend, still littered the streets and scrubland within the camp.


Last night the military standoff continued at the camp, about 60 miles north of capital Beirut. But doctors fear that if it descends into all-out fighting, as is widely expected, trapped civilians will bear the brunt of the violence.

The Lebanese army has already faced accusations of indiscriminately using tank shells and artillery in the first days of combat.

“Most injured civilians who have made it out have shrapnel wounds,” said Dr Abdel Aziz Bekai, at the nearby Safad hospital.

“Those wounds are from the Lebanese army bombs and artillery. “But many others have bullet wounds. They were hit by snipers. We don’t know which side the snipers were fighting for,” he said.

“Even the victims don’t know. They are just stuck in the middle.”

Maybe Jimmy Carter needs to have a word with the Israelis. Their refusal to live down to his characterization of their behavior is really making him look bad.