Jaw Jaw Instead of War War

Egypt has called on Jordan, Israel, and the PA to meet for a summit in Egypt. Egypt wants to retain its leadership role in the Middle East among Arab countries, where its main competitor among Sunni countries is Saudi Arabia. The last time that the Palestinians met to discuss matters, they claimed to reach an agreement on a unity government. Within hours that devolved into the civil war that resulted in Fatah being ousted from Gaza and Hamas firmly in charge there.

The diplomats are doing what they always do; they are talking. Expect the usual from this - demands that Israel make concessions for the sake of peace. No where do I expect concessions to be demanded of Fatah although they're not exactly in a position to give up much of anything.

Closing ranks against Hamas, Egypt's president invited Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders to a peace summit, officials said Thursday, the biggest show of support yet by moderate Arab states for beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The meeting will take place Monday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Abbas will call for a resumption of peace talks with Israel, arguing that only progress toward Palestinian statehood can serve as a true buffer against Hamas, which took control of Gaza by force last week, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.

''The most important thing to realize is that time is of the essence,'' Erekat said. ''We need to deliver the end of occupation, a Palestinian state. If we don't have hope, Hamas will export despair to the people.''

As immediate steps, Abbas will ask Israel to remove West Bank checkpoints that disrupt daily life and trade, and to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds Israel froze after Hamas came to power last year.

In Washington this week, Olmert said he would propose to his Cabinet on Sunday that it unlock frozen funds, thought he did not say how much money he thought Israel should free. Israel is holding about $550 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Despite the talk about peace, however, the Hamas takeover has dealt a setback to statehood efforts, with the Islamic militants in charge of Gaza and Abbas in charge of the West Bank.

Actually, Fatah is also comprised of terrorists, but we've decided to play realpolitik and give those terrorists a chance to act as a buffer against the more extreme terrorists in Hamas.

I'm not a fan of it, and consider it pseudorealism considering that Fatah still considers the destruction of Israel to be its ultimate goal - hardly a moderate stance. Still, the possibility that dipomatic action might undermine and forestall a wider conflict is what diplomats are hoping for. The problem is that hope is a very poor way to strategize dipomacy. It's wishful thinking when the Palestinians refuse to make concessions that could actually lead to peace.

Egypt is supposedly the key to dealing with Hamas. Well, if Egypt could manage to shut down the arms smuggling into Gaza, that may be worth considering. The idea that Egypt should be asked to take over Gaza and administer the territory is a nonstarter - Egypt didn't want it when Israel and Egypt signed the peace treaty at Camp David in 1979, so there's no reason to think that has changed. Egypt knows it doesn't stand to benefit from that - and the Islamists in Gaza could further undermine Mubarak's position.

However, it does stand to benefit from increased patrols along the Philadelphi corridor.

For its part, Hamas continues to threaten Fatah for what it considers an illegal takeover of the PA.

In an interview here, Mr. Zahar, the former Palestinian foreign minister, said Hamas would not sit idle if its political rival, Fatah, dominant in the occupied West Bank and backed by the United States and Israel, continued to attack Hamas institutions and politicians.

“If they continue to dismantle the local elections in the West Bank and punish Hamas there, the United States and Israel will face another surprise there,” Mr. Zahar said. Asked how, he said, “The way we defend ourselves against Israel and this occupation.” Pressed if that meant attacks and suicide bombings, he smiled and replied: “You said that.” Then he added: “We are ending the reign of the spies and collaborators in Fatah.”

In recent days, Fatah gunmen have been attacking and burning Hamas institutions in the West Bank, and its forces have arrested a number of elected Hamas officials there as well. Mr. Zahar, a physician singled out in the past by Israeli forces who killed one of his sons and his son-in-law, spoke on a day when Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, the Palestinian president, said he would not negotiate with Hamas. In a televised speech, he said that “there is no dialogue with those murderous terrorists” and added: “Our main goal is to prevent sedition from spreading to the west Bank.”

Their main goal is to create an Islamic state of Palestine, comprised of the West Bank, Gaza, and what is presently Israel. Make no mistake about that.

And in a poll conducted of Palestinian views on the situation, most Palestinians would prefer new elections but Hamas would still come out ahead. Make of that what you will.

Syria claims that it is willing to talk peace. Would they consider giving up the possibility of regaining the Golan? Or is that the deal breaker for them? Land for peace has shown itself to have limits - just look at what the Palestinians have done with Gaza when Israel withdrew and South Lebanon when Israel withdrew in 2000 - it turned in to Hizbullahland from which that terrorist group could start a ruinous war. Syria wants the Golan back, and anything less would not be acceptable to them. Count on it. This latest move by Syria is an attempt to put the pressure back on Israel, instead of on Syria, which repeatedly used the Heights to fire into Israel when it was in control from 1948 through 1967, and again during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Then, there's the not insignificant matter of who is actually holding Alan Johnston and what is being done to secure his release. There's a report that a member of the group claiming to hold Johnston was killed but note the language being used to describe the group; they're talking about a clan holding him, not the terrorist group Army of Islam which has claimed responsibility. Masked gunmen reportedly shot a member of the Dughmush clan, which could mean Hamas was behind the attack. Hamas has said that it would use force against those holding Johnston if he was not released, and Hamas' brand of diplomacy is to shoot first and make demands later.

The bottom story of the day from the UN is that Secretary General Ban has denounced the UN Human Rights Council decision to single out Israel's human rights stance.

UPDATE:
Well, this report clearly indicates that the Army of Islam and the Dughmush clan are one in the same. Via LGF:



I guess the Army of Islam decided to consult with the media critics to give 'em an extreme name makeover to make it more palatable to the West. Saying that you're the Army of Islam might be... inflammatory and undermine the Islamists jihad by being so damned overt in their calling.

Calling themselves a clan is so much more ... tribal.

Whatever they call themselves, they're still holding Johnston and deserve to be hunted down.

UPDATE:
We're also approach the one-year anniversary of the date on which Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas in a raid that killed two other Israeli soldiers. Gilad is still being held somewhere in Gaza.

Hamas, meanwhile, has said that the PA should be comprised of technocrats instead of Fatah and Hamas thugs. Interesting idea, but hardly unoriginal. I believe that that idea has been floated by others around the Internet. It would benefit Hamas since it would get around some of the problems of having Hamas on the West's blacklist (no economic aid), but Hamas would still be part of the government. Technocrats sound better than kleptocrats or thugocrats, but the Palestinians have shown themselves to be lacking in competent leaders.

Hamas sees this trial balloon as a way of getting back into the money and to reassert power in both Gaza and the West Bank, instead of largely being confined to the hellhole of Gaza.

UPDATE:
Israel has agreed to meet for this summit, and it would appear that the US might be trying to apply the screws to Egypt to get them to do more to secure the Hamastan/Egypt border, to the tune of withholding $200 million in foreign aid.

Oh, and where are the usual suspects in Israel who are quick to condemn Israel for defending itself and kill terrorists, but are silent when the terrorists of Fatah and Hamas are busy killing each other. Hypocrites.

The Israeli Left and Arab Knesset members are enlightened and humane people. They are quick to cry out in the face of any injustice. In the course of the ongoing, Sisyphean and bloody war against Islamic terrorists raging in our region, there were cases where Palestinians used as cover by murderers have been hurt by mistake. Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On and Ahmed Tibi were quick to storm the nearest microphones in order to condemn the act, resorted to harsh, impassioned criticism of IDF commanders and fighters, and threatened to submit High Court petitions and turn to local and international human rights groups.

A blatant example of this is the nutty establishment of a commission of inquiry to look into the targeted killing of a top Hamas terrorist, the "saintly" Salah Shahada.

As it turns out now, their conscience is selective, just like their memory. More than 300 people have been recently killed in Gaza and Lebanon. In Gaza we witnessed a massacre, executions, cold-blooded daytime murders on the street, lynching against a backdrop of cheering masses, and horrendous acts of abuse one cannot find in any horror film.

However, it appears that the blood of these victims is not as red, and the reason is that those who are killing them, slitting their throats and abusing them are their Muslim brothers. Heaven forbid we criticize the barbaric butchers. It is easier to criticize those who fail to offer assistance than it is to slam Hamas, which is committing the crimes. As usual, we are being condemned, for not treating gunshot victims.

I would highly recommend the map feature at the Guardian (via Conflict Blotter). It's an interactive map that lets you see who controls what in the West Bank and various aspects of Israel's means of self defense - aka the security fence. It's the Guardian, so it's couched in terms of occupation and a pro-Palestinian bent, but the key detail is when you click on the links for Palestinian controlled and administered territory. It highlights a key detail that is often missing in news reports. Israel has relinquished control over large areas of the West Bank to Palestinian civil administrative control. Palestinians have been governing Palestinians - not very well I might add since Oslo in 1993. And that's part of the problem. The PA is a bunch of kleptocrats, so the Palestinians haven't been able to do much with what they have.

UPDATE:
Hamas is going to get a dose of what it's like to run Gaza, but the journalist writing this piece, still can't help but find ways to pin the blame on Israel.

Still, even Zahar must know that once the euphoria wears off, the Islamists are almost certainly due for a humbling lesson in real-world management. Maintaining order in a 25-mile strip of land choked with 1.4 million impoverished Palestinians is a daunting task for even the most disciplined and efficient of organizations. Governing will be all the more difficult while fighting periodic skirmishes with Israeli troops stationed just across the border. Earlier this week, Israeli and Palestinian soldiers exchanged gunfire at the busy Erez Crossing, and on Wednesday Israeli forces killed six more Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. American officials have pledged vigorous support for President Mahmoud Abbas's forces in the West Bank, and Hamas activists could face further arrests there, where Abbas’s Fatah faction remains relatively strong. Meanwhile, dozens of Gazans are still trying to flee the fighting; on Wednesday Israel allowed more than 50 residents to pass on a bus to Egypt, although others remained stranded at Erez.

The Erez Crossing is a creepy place, even in the best of times. The walls of the concrete tunnel that leads from Israel to Gaza are chewed with the charred pockmarks of past shooting attacks; brass M-16 casings litter the floor alongside the pulled pins of smoke grenades. At a series of locked gates along the way, the disembodied voices of Israeli soldiers bark confusing orders over loudspeakers, instructing you to open your bags, take everything out of your pockets, raise your arms. On past trips to Gaza, a Palestinian policeman has checked my passport on the far side, and then waved me in. But this time I was thrust into a scene of frenetic activity almost as soon as I stepped across the border. Dozens of Palestinian kids were hanging from the green steel rafters of the tunnel, swinging axes and hoisting blowtorches—stripping even the tunnel itself of any metal that could possibly sold for scrap.

The violence at Erez crossing earlier this week was due to Hamas firing on Fatah thugs who were trying to gain entry into Israel. Israeli troops fired to provide cover for the Fatah thugs, and have even provided some medical assistance.

Erez crossing is designed the way it is because of the ongoing and persistent threat of Palestinian suicide bombers attempting to gain access to Israel, and to deal with crowd control.

Everything of even remote value is being scavenged from Gaza, and the situation will get only worse as Hamas cements its hold on Gaza.

UPDATE:
Yet another reason not to consider Fatah a moderate - the Fatah torture chamber of horrors (via LGF). Expect Hamas to return the favor, which goes hand in hand with the honor/shame cycle of violence.

UPDATE:
Meanwhile, the Lebanese military claims to have finally crushed Fatah al Islam. That group's leaders are on the run, which means that they could try to regroup elsewhere - namely one of the other camps, but this is a positive step. 16 people were arrested for a bus bombing back in February.

Back in Israel, PM Olmert is considering releasing taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians to the PA. That's quite a tidy sum of money too, and could go a long way to building infrastructure, though it is most likely to be used for buying weapons and paying thugs.

Hamas is making itself right at home in Fatah's former bases.

Moving much closer to home, New Jersey is one step closer to requiring the state pension fund divest itself from those securities that invest in Iran.

UPDATE:
Bibi thinks that Jordan needs to be more involved in securing the West Bank. There is a certain amount of logic to that proposal, given that Palestinians from the West Bank were Jordanians before 1967, and Israel and Jordan have a peace deal. However, it's not in Jordan's interest to bring still more radical terrorists into their own sphere of influence since many do not consider Abdullah to be legitimate.

Israel also wants Saudi Arabia in on the peace efforts. Well, that's splitting the difference between the two regional Sunni powers - Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I don't see this doing anything one way or the other, except as to provide yet more money to any possible deal.

Israel is also allowing hundreds of tons of food to enter Gaza.

UPDATE:
Abbas is considering early elections. He obviously doesn't believe in the polls that would have Hamas winning.

UPDATE:
It would seem that Fatah al Islam's old neighbors don't want them to come back. Actually, it's not just Fatah al Islam, but the Palestinians in general who resided in the Nahr al-Bared camp and who had no problem with the terrorists operating from within the camp.