Palestinian Civil War Watch Continues

The Palestinians' defiant Hamas-led government sent a new militant force into the streets of Gaza on Wednesday, disregarding President Mahmoud Abbas' order banning the creation of the security body and raising the stakes in their deepening power struggle.

Hamas appeared to have been propelled into action by mysterious drive-by shootings that killed two of its militants in the Gaza Strip hours earlier. These and other recent cases of deadly infighting have threatened to plunge the Palestinian territories into bloody chaos.

Meanwhile, Israel reopened the main cargo crossing between Gaza and Israel, Gaza's economic lifeline, and two Palestinians militants were killed in an Israeli raid in the West Bank.

The Hamas-led government and Abbas have been locked in a power struggle since the Islamic militant group ousted Abbas' long-ruling Fatah party in January parliamentary elections.

Terrorists are looking to kill other terrorists and Hamas and Fatah are in a free-for-all cagematch to the death. Fatah doesn't want to give up its grip on the PA, and Hamas refused to let Fatah control the outcome. This is yet another sign that Hamas and Fatah are headed towards a civil war despite their protestations to the contrary.

Meanwhile, new details have emerged on how Yasir Arafat (still dead after dying in a French hospital) used foreign aid to buy weapons in the PA's conflict with the Israelis.

Former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat ordered millions of dollars, taken from international aid funds, tax money transferred by Israel and from Arab countries, to be used to purchase weapons and ammunition, it was revealed on Wednesday

These weapons were then provided to Palestinian terrorists from the Tanzim and al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades.

The information came from the interrogation of Fuad Shubaki, the Palestinian official who was arrested by the IDF two months ago in a raid on the Jericho prison where he was held together with the assassins of former tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi. Prior to his imprisonment, Shubaki served as the finance chief in the Palestinian security forces.

Have no doubt that other foreign aid was siphoned off to weapons procurement instead of for humanitarian aid programs. Hamas knows the drill, and they're not operating any differently than Fatah did.

Oh, and China's invited Hamas to attend a meeting along with 23 other Arab countries.

China said Wednesday it will host the foreign minister of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, and said that Beijing's interests in the Middle East range beyond oil to development issues and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar is among 23 ministers from Arab states and entities invited to Beijing late this month for a conclave on China-Arab relations, Zhai Jun of the Chinese foreign ministry said at a news conference.

The invitation to Zahar, considered a Hamas hard-liner, comes as frictions between Beijing and Washington are rising over another Middle East issue: oil.