If Europe Is So Eager To Support Peace Groups In Israel, Why Does It Support Incitement In The West Bank?

Who knew that with the current economic crisis, Europe had so much money to burn!? Besides funding left wing organizations in Israel--and fighting off efforts demanding transparency--Europe is also funding the Palestinian territories, in a big way. A op-ed in the Wall Street Journal finds that Europe has been Funding Palestinian Incitement:

In 2007, the European Union provided €420 million to the Palestinian territories, while member states also provided extensive bilateral aid: Germany provided €55 million, France €67 million, and the United Kingdom put in £63.6 million (about €76 million). Many countries have increased their donations since then, with the EU and U.S. pledging the lion's share of $7.7 billion for the period of 2008-2010, with a focus on reconstruction after last year's Gaza conflict.

But while Europe is funding groups in Israel that it thinks is pushing a peace agenda, Europe is not quite as particular about the money it gives to the Arabs.

While we're talking about the West Bank settlements, whose members number close to 300,000--let's not forget what happened to the settlers in Gaza after the Disengagement. P David Hornik hasn't:

In the 2005 disengagement Israel removed about 10,000 “settlers” from Gaza and northern Samaria, with promises (sincere at the time) that the Israeli government would ensure that their lives—their homes, livelihoods—were quickly rebuilt elsewhere in Israel.

Cruise Missiles to Hezbollah--From Russia, With Love

Arutz Sheva reported yesterday about the latest weapons that Russia is providing Syria:

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Thursday in Washington that Russia would honor a 2007 contract to supply Syria with P-800 Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles, Russian news agencies reported Friday. The RIA-Novosti agency reports that the missiles (known as P-800 Oniks in Russia) have a range of 300 kilometers, carry a 200-kilogram warhead and feature a unique ability to cruise several meters above the surface, making it difficult to detect and intercept them.

Hezbollah Denies It Created Hit List Playing Cards

Yesterday, YnetNews reported:

Hezbollah has prepared a deck of playing cards serving as a hit list of senior Israeli officials it holds responsible for the February 2008 assassination of senior member of the organization, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai Al-Aam has publicized a hit list of senior Israeli officials. At the top of the list, constituting the "ace card" is Mossad Director Meir Dagan.

Today, Hezbollah is denying the story:

Obama Wants To Restore Military Aid To Lebanon

I blogged yesterday about a report from Naharnet quoting a Kuwaiti paper that chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Howard Berman had agreed to lift a ban to supply the Lebanese army with weapons and equipment estimated at $100 million--aid that was frozen following the Lebanese ambush of the IDF during the prearranged trimming of trees on the Lebanese-Israel border.

Now Haaretz is reporting that though the matter has not reached the point of removing the ban, things are moving in that direction:

Hamas: Hey, Who Fired Those Rockets At Israel? Not Us!

I just noticed this on Rotter--it's in Hebrew, so here is the Google Translation(with some editing):

There was no decision by the resistance groups to resume rocket fire

A Spokesman for the organization of the military wing, the Popular Resistance Committees, Abu Yousuf, said in an interview he gave to Palestinian Koedssante that there was no joint decision of the resistance groups in Gaza (with Hamas) to resume rocket fire at Israel and accused those who carried out such an operation operation with giving legitimacy to Israel to attack Gaza and bring bloodshed. Hamas after Operation Cast Lead was working energetically against Palestinian rocket attacks and ordered the Palestinian organizations to stop the rocket fire from Gaza in order not to inflame the area with the conflict with Israel.

It should be noted that whoever is responsible for most of the rocket fire are organizations that are opposed to Hamas and are affiliated with al Qaeda.

In any case, just how does Hamas gracefully back out of this without looking like they're wimping out in the face of Israel's military response? Maybe because there is no denial of being behind the highway terrorist attacks that killed 4 Israelis and an unborn child.

And if Israel had retaliated immediately after those attacks, would Hamas have denied responsibility for those too? Maybe Israel should take note.

Technorati Tag: Hamas.

Does Anyone Seriously Think That Hamas Is Afraid These Talks Are Going To Succeed?

The common wisdom on how to explain the renewed terrorist attacks coming out of Gaza is that Hamas is afraid that the current peace talks are going to succeed and is doing whatever it can to disrupt them by forcing Israel to retaliate, thus putting pressure on Abbas to pull out.

If Hamas really thinks that the talks could prove successful, they are clearly in the minority.

Evelyn Gordon has a more realistic explanation why Hamas steps up the rocket attacks during peace negotiations--but to grasp the reason, you have to understand that Hamas is a terrorist group:

Is Obama Going To Make Abbas Lose Face Again?

In the past, after all, the PA negotiated with Israel even as the bulldozers were working in the West Bank and as entirely new neighborhoods like Har Homa were being built in Jerusalem.
Khaled Abu Toameh

At a time when there is speculation that the Mideast peace talks are about to fail because of the settlement issue, Toameh reported yesterday that in fact Abbas has agreed to accept a 'modified' freeze of the settlements and not the complete freeze that he has been publicly insisting on:

Is Israel Being Set Up To Take The Fall (Again)?

Atmospherics: radio interference caused by pulses of electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere as the result of lightning and other events (both natural and man-made)
Wiktionary

The Washington Post notes that Clinton wraps up Israeli, Palestinian talks - for now:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday wrapped up three days of intense Middle East diplomacy that produced good atmospherics but no sign that an impasse over Israeli settlement construction has been resolved.

"We all know that there is no alternative to peace other than negotiating peace, so we have no alternative but to continue peace efforts," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said before meeting with the chief U.S. diplomat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Why We Shouldn't Appease Islamists With The Constitution

In The Beheader's Veto, David French responds to Justice Stephen Breyer's suggestion that burning the Koran is similar to yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater and thus not a First Amendment right--noting the costly sacrifice involved:

Bill Clinton had Yassir Arafat in the White House more than any other foreign leader, and radicals bombed the World Trade Center, bombed our embassies, attacked the USS Cole, and hatched the 9/11 plot.