Trying To Salvage Peace Process Means Heading Off Palestinian Calls For Statehood at UN

President Barack Obama and Israel are facing a September deadline. They have to convince the Palestinians that declaring statehood at the United Nations in September would be a train wreck of the worst kind. Yet, the Palestinians are increasingly likely to make that declaration and throw what's left of the "peace process" under the bus. That assessment comes from former Middle East envoy George Mitchell:

"The United Nations does not have the authority to recognize states," Mitchell said. Recognition of a state, especially if passed by an overwhelming margin at the UN, would be "very harmful for Israel, for the United States, and not good for the peace process."

The United States has consistently expressed the opinion that bringing the issue of a Palestinian state to the UN is harmful to the peace process with Israel. Despite this, several countries, have already granted recognition to an independent Palestinian state of their own accord.

In a recent meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, saying "We do not think that unilateral steps are helpful."

The way the Middle East conflict is going to end, Mitchell said is "by an agreement in which the United States plays an active and substantive role but an agreement that will be owned by, be the property of, and be the result of negotiation by Israelis and Palestinians."

The envoy also spoke about the recent reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, saying "obviously we hope that Abbas and the Fatah Party will win the election, not Hamas."

Mitchell should know better than most that the Palestinians will more than likely vote along the same lines as the last elections held - Hamas wins Gaza and parts of the West Bank, while Fatah wins elsewhere. Hamas would likely repeat its totals, and again throw the "peace process" into turmoil since Hamas refuses to accept Israel's very existence, which is a necessary condition for any talks between Israel and the Palestinians to be worth more than the paper they're printed upon.

While it's worth noting that other countries are backing the US on seeing that the peace process continue via direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, no one should hold any parties just yet - Hamas and Fatah continue to reject Israel's existence and any talk of a 2-state solution can't occur until such time when Hamas and Fatah - the elected representatives of the Palestinian people, accept Israel's right to exist.

It seems that every other day Hamas or Fatah spokeshacks declare their intentions to seek liberation of all Palestine and seek Israel's demise. They aren't hiding their intentions, but the diplomats continue working under the illusion that there is a framework for peace to be found.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gets in on the act too, complaining that peace will not come from speeches and polls. That's rather rich considering that he botched not one but two wars with terror groups - the Hizbullah War and the Operation Cast Lead. Instead of fighting both to defeat Hizbullah and Hamas when they lobbed thousands of rockets, mortars, and missiles at Israel, he took half measures and limited Israel's military efforts to dislodge the terrorists from their refuges. Failing to disrupt the terror networks gave the terror groups renewed hope that they could defeat Israel in the long run.

It's worth noting that Prime Minister Netenyahu essentially agreed with President Obama's calls for peace and painful concessions, but only after the Palestinians accept Israel's right to exist. There are no such statements forthcoming from the Palestinians, who hold on to the belief that they can wait out Israel and plot Israel's demise all while forcing Israel into making still more concessions without any reciprocation.

Then, there's the issue of what exactly would happen if the Palestinians declared independence in September? Well, it would mean the end of the peace process as it currently exists, and would then position the territories of Gaza and West Bank into a different category under international law. Gaza would be sovereign territory - and if terrorists launched attacks from Gaza into Israel, it would be a clear act of war to which Israel could respond with force. The situation in the West Bank is more complicated considering that it is carved up into areas of responsibility - A, B, and C zones that give Palestinians and Israelis different levels of control and authority. Jerusalem has been annexed by Israel, but the Palestinians refuse to accept that - or Israel's borders, so it would set the stage for yet another war.

There's no word on whether Palestinian leaders would keep their fellow Palestinians bottled up in refugee camps as they've done throughout Gaza and the West Bank, but that's what they've done to date and there's no reason to believe that they'd end the refugee camps until Israel ceases to exist. That's the ultimate goal under Palestinian demands for a right of return.

US Indicates Misguided Need To Stop Israeli Housing Construction For Sake of Peace Process

The continuing inanity of focusing solely on the construction of Israeli housing again shows the power of images. Building houses is a powerful image and one that Palestinians claim thwarts any attempt at a peace process.

A Palestinian source said Saturday that the US's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, promised to provide Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with guarantees that Israel would rescind its plan to construct new housing units in east Jerusalem.

The official told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi that Mitchell made the promise because Abbas refused to accept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology for declaring the approval of 1,600 new units during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the region.

Abbas demanded guarantees after Mitchell pressed him to accept the apology as a withdrawal of the construction plan.

According to the source, Mitchell vowed that Israel would halt settlement construction during indirect negotiations with the Palestinians.

He said the special envoy was likely to present the guarantee during his visit to the region next week, in which he is also expected to announce the launching of indirect negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah.

At the same time Secretary of State Clinton is busy saying that Israeli moves to announcing the construction of housing was insulting.

It's all so much nonsense when anyone with a functioning neuron would note that Israel has evacuated housing and communities twice in the name of peace - in Sinai as part of the 1979 Camp David Accords, and then unilaterally in 2005 when Israel left Gaza.

Has no one in the diplomatic corps ever bought or sold real property? Apparently not from the way that the diplomats are howling over Israel's plans to build more housing, even as it would mean new and improved infrastructure should those communities be deemed for transfer to the Palestinians as part of a final status negotiation.

Housing isn't the impediment to peace; terrorist groups that are the representatives of the Palestinian people are. Hamas and Fatah have no interest in ending their war against Israel. Neither group is willing to change their founding charters to eliminate their calls to annihilate Israel. Neither is willing to stop the incitement to violence that is a regular occurrence in mosques on Fridays (and which directly leads to violent encounters such as those outside the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem the past several Fridays).

Secretary of State Clinton and other US officials keep talking about confidence building measures and how Israel needs to take actions such as stopping construction projects for housing without noting that there are no measures being demanded of the Palestinians.

Where are the calls for the release of Gilad Shalit from the clutches of Hamas in Gaza? Where are the calls to demand that incitement to violence in mosques be put to an end (even though those calls to incitement were to be ended under Oslo 17 years ago)?

Once again, the US and the rest of the world is content to pressure Israel to stop actions that they think provokes Palestinians to violence, all while ignoring that the Palestinians are provoked merely by Israel's existence. That's the anathema to Palestinians and they aren't going to stop their violence and jihad until Israel ceases to exist - peace process or not.

Obama Administration Continues Middle East Missteps

The Obama Administration continues to act as though Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East, and not the regimes that wish for its destruction, including the Palestinian Authority which is comprised of Hamas and Fatah. Terrorists have continued firing rockets and mortars into Israel in the past several days, a serious uptick in the attacks since the beginning of the year. Several mortars were fired at Israel but fell short and landed in Gaza. Israel has returned fire on the terrorists launching the mortars and rockets in recent days.

All the while, the Palestinian Authority continues to indoctrinate and incite others to violence against Israel, despite that being a clear violation of the Oslo Accords. That gets glossed over, but Israel's housing construction is the obstacle? Housing can be transferred between parties, and yet the Obama Administration's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, issued a threat to freeze loan guarantees if Israel fails to advance peace process. That's in reference to the non-issue of building homes in the West Bank. The Palestinians call these settlements, when they are nothing more than communities and homes. It isn't as though Israel hasn't forcibly resettled Israelis living in Sinai or Gaza as part of a planned peace deal (Sinai as part of Camp David) or to attempt to move the peace process forward by unilaterally acting to ethnically cleanse all Israelis from lands formerly occupied by Israel (Gaza's disengagement under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon)

At the same time, Hizbullah continues building up its arms supplies in Lebanon for a renewed push in its ongoing war against Israel's existence. Hizbullah, which originally sought to liberate parts of Lebanon from Israeli control following Israel's war with the PLO in Lebanon, now seeks nothing less than Israel's destruction.

So, when reports indicate that another war with Hamas is inevitable, I just shake my head because the war never ended. Hamas will not stop until either it is destroyed or Israel is destroyed. Yet, this is supposed to be a partner in peace?

Repeating "Two-State Solution" Will Not Make It Happen

This isn't like chanting the name of Beetlejuice three times and he will magically appear. US Envoy George Mitchell has gone to the Middle East and once again reiterated the US position that there should be a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israel peace process.

"The US policy favors a two-state solution, which would have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish state of Israel," Mitchell said after meeting with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem.

Mitchell said that the two had a "good, full and candid discussion covering both the history of the peace process, going back to the 1990s, and continuing to the present, and also looking into the future on what can be done to achieve our common objectives."

Never mind that there is no peace process since the Palestinians still do not accept Israel's existence, except as using the maps to delineate targeting data for their rockets and terror attacks. Hamas seeks Israel's destruction and has not waivered one iota from that goal. Hamas attacks Fatah for collaborating with Israel because Fatah isn't nearly as violent as Hamas is in furthering its goals, but make no mistake about Fatah's intentions either.

Fatah is just as committed to Israel's destruction as Hamas is. They're just more coy about their goals.

Throw in the Hizbullah and al Qaeda and Iranians and Syrians who are all supporting the terror campaign against Israel and you will not have peace between Israel and the Palestinians since all are supporting the jihad against Israel using the Palestinians as pawns.

Palestinians and Israelis have no common objectives - Hamas seeks Israel's destruction and Israel just wants to be left alone from the Palestinians; the Gaza disengagement shows the folly of failing to address this salient fact. Allowing Hamas and the terrorists to turn Gaza into a terror-factory after Israel withdrew its military forces and removed all Jews from Gaza should have been the foundation for creating a viable and vibrant Palestinian economy. Instead, Hamas and Fatah started a civil war over control and Hamas engaged in incessant terror attacks against Israel from the very communities, farms, and greenhouses that Israel had abandoned and/or turned over to the Palestinians so as to build their economy.

Mitchell Arrives For "Listening" Tour As Hamas Continues Violence

So, George Mitchell is in the region to try and kick start the peace process that died when Hamas engaged in the rocket war following Israel's disengagement from Gaza, leaving Gaza in full Palestinian control.

After 10 days of relative calm following the cease-fires that halted the Gaza war, violence flared on Tuesday after the Israeli soldier died and Israeli troops mounted incursions into Gaza that killed one Palestinian and wounded another. The violence represented the first serious confrontations between Hamas and Israel since they declared separate cease-fires on Jan. 18.

The violence underlined the urgency of Mr. Mitchell’s mission. He planned meetings on Wednesday with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and also scheduled discussions with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Note that the Times claims that there was relative calm during the past 10 days until yesterday's attacks by Hamas on Israeli troops. That's patently false. Hamas continued to breach the hudna, firing rockets and mortars on Israel throughout.

Hamas continues firing on Israel.


Hamas continues to demand that Israel open border crossings into Gaza, but why should any nation allow the terrorists access to the very materials needed to build weapons.

Hamas is speaking volumes when it says that it will never agree to a long term ceasefire agreement with Israel and that it ultimately seeks Israel's destruction.

Mitchell says it's critical that the ceasefire be extended. Critical for who? Israel loses because Hamas uses any pause to regroup and rearm, and Hamas has repeatedly stated that as its goal during any lull in fighting. Hamas considers every lull a hudna, not a ceasefire. All such lulls do is extend the fighting still longer and provides Hamas with the opportunity to procure still deadlier weapons for their war with Israel.

So, why does anyone still think that Israel must make peace with this terrorist group? Hamas doesn't care about the average Palestinian; they're cannon fodder for propaganda purposes. The dead are props to Hamas. Children are body armor for Hamas.

Diplomats are doing what they have always done; trying to make themselves seem important, and President Obama is falling into the same trap that so many other Presidents have done - lending prestige to a process in its current iteration that has no solution unless one side capitulates or is destroyed.

The smuggling of weapons and equipment into Gaza continues, and the Egyptians are not doing all they can to thwart such attempts. There are even reports that there are shipping containers full of weapons for Hamas awaiting movement into Gaza from Sinai.

Israel hit at the smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi corridor yet again. Given that they're so easy for the journalists to spot, Israel shouldn't have a problem going after them either. The problem is that the thugs operating those tunnels can simply rebuild them, which means that to deter further smuggling operations one either has to retake the corridor, do something to the corridor that makes it impossible to tunnel from Gaza into Egypt (build a moat, sink steel piles, or kill those smugglers involved.

The IAF says that only three tunnels were hit in today's airstrikes.

The Muqata has more details on that and other Hamas terror activities today.

The Muqata also reveals details of the Hannibal Protocol, which Israeli forces use to thwart kidnapping of soldiers should they be separated from other Israeli forces. The policy has been tightened since the Gilad Shalit kidnapping, but there's always room for improvement.

Human rights groups are looking to find fault with how Israel handled detainees during Operation Cast Lead. They aren't complaining about Hamas murdering those they believe are collaborators, but instead that Israel held suspected terrorists bound for days on end.

The usual suspects continue to urge the United Nations to investigate Israel's actions in Operation Cast Lead, all while ignoring who started the latest round of the conflict and Hamas' repeated war crimes. Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas says that they'll have proof of Israel's war crimes.

It's so typical and so infuriatingly frustrating that there are so many people who think that the UN has a solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict. The UN is a big part of the reason that the conflict has dragged on; UN condones terrorism against Israel, undermines Israel's ability to go after the terrorists who strike at Israelis, allows terrorists to operate freely in the UNRWA refugee camps, looks the other way as terrorists infiltrate UNRWA operations, and reflexively blame Israel for attacks on UNRWA and UN facilities even as Hamas fired from in and around same.

UPDATE:
UNRWA knowingly pays terrorists and engages in one-sided rhetoric designed to undermine Israel's security.

UPDATE:
Israel is going to have to revoke Hamas' Gaza privileges sooner or later; Hamas fired yet another rocket at Israel today. Watch the press call it "tenuous ceasefire holds" or other such blathering, rather than yet another tangible piece of evidence that Hamas cares nothing for ceasefires and hopes to carry on with its war with Israel by any means necessary.

They're looking to see what level of violence Israel is willing to accept - how many kassams can fall on Sderot or Ashkelon before Israel strikes back. The diplomats already have provided their answer - as many as Hamas wants before Israel strikes back. It's Israel's response that demands cessation, not Hamas attacks.

This Is the Hamas I Expected; Hamas Attacks Again

So, do you still think Hamas is trustworthy to honor agreements? Former President Carter still thinks so (reported prior to today's events). He couldn't be more hopelessly wrong. He's been proven wrong yet again.

A roadside bomb blew up near an Israeli patrol, and an Israeli soldier was killed and several others wounded.

Following the incident, the IDF fired at several targets inside Gaza and IDF soldiers briefly crossed the border in search of the attackers.

IAF helicopters hovered in the air firing machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said. An IAF jet set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning.

Palestinians reported that several people were wounded when IDF tank shells hit residential buildings in the Strip.

It was not clear if the bomb had been planted after the cease-fire took hold, or whether it was an older device.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader, said Israel was to blame for continuing to fire into Gaza. Al-Masri said his group had not agreed to a full cease-fire but only to a "lull" in fighting.

"The Zionists are responsible for any aggression," he said.

Note that part in bold. Hamas doesn't agree to ceasefires, only hudnas. Hamas doesn't deny that they engaged in the attack, and that they blame Israel for continuing to retaliate against Gaza. They're in effect saying that the timeout that Israel has provided will be used for one purpose; to rearm and regroup for the next attack.

The New York Times reports that a Palestinian farmer and Israeli soldier were killed. Really? Who set the bomb? A farmer? Who was engaging in sniper fire against the Israelis? Farmers?

The attack was coordinated with sniper fire according to Palestinian witnesses.

Palestinian sources reported that exchanges of fire erupted in the area, including sniper fire.

Eyewitnesses said two or three gunmen were seen moving towards the border fence in the early morning hours.

Heavy gunfire was audible along the border in central Gaza and Israeli helicopters hovered in the air, firing bursts from their machine guns, the witnesses said. Two loud explosions were reportedly heard in Gaza City.

Hamas has again scattered and hidden out to avoid airstrikes. Expect the uniforms to be put back in the closet while the terrorists roam the streets waiting for word on when to resume their full scale attacks on Israel.

There are also reports of mortar or rocket fire against Israel.

Israel is also engaging in strikes against Southern Gaza.

The Muqata reports that all Israeli communities within 40km of Gaza have had their rocket/mortar warning systems reconnected. Why are they ever disconnected?

The Muqata also notes that Israel's denials that rocket attacks have occurred appears to be a political decision, and one that undermines Israeli national security. The death of an Israeli soldier and the wounding of three others can't be easily ignored. Today's attack was a coordinated strike against Israel, and as I have repeatedly warned that Israel's failure to continue Operation Cast Lead to attack Hamas targets and eliminate Hamas leadership will come back to haunt Israel as the attacks resume.

Meanwhile, word has come out that a possible reason that Hizbullah didn't open a second front in the war against Israel was that Israel threatened Syria directly that any attacks by Hizbullah would result in Israel going after the regime in Damascus. That's as good an explanation as to why Hizbullah showed restraint despite claims that they, along with other Islamists, would come to the aid of Hamas. When you threaten the regimes that back the terrorists with mortal harm, that provides a moment of clarity.

Egypt says that it wants a permanent truce in place by February. Fat chance of that happening. Today's events continue to overtake the diplomatic efforts, which repeatedly paper over the facts - namely Hamas and their unwavering intent to destroy Israel and seek a one-state solution. US envoy George Mitchell isn't going to have any better success than any of his predecessors, but it makes President Obama look like he's doing something to bring about peace and impressions count more than facts, at least according to the media and the diplomats. Terrorists don't particularly care.

There is only one thing to trust when it comes to Hamas and the other Islamic terrorist groups - that they will fight the jihad and slaughter as many people as possible in their quest. Everything else is window dressing and misdirection to lull people in to a false sense of security.

UPDATE:
Via Charles at LGF comes word that Hamas executed a former human rights worker from the Israeli group B’Tselem. The excuse? He was a "collaborator."

A Palestinian human rights activist and journalist who used to work for the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has been executed by Hamas on charges of “collaboration” with Israel, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said over the weekend.

They identified the man as Haidar Ghanem, 46, of Rafah.

They pointed out that Ghanem, who was a field researcher for B’Tselem, had been sentenced to death by a Palestinian Authority court in 2002 after being found guilty of passing on information to Israel that later resulted in the elimination of Fatah gunmen.

Ghanem, according to the Palestinians, was among dozens of suspected “collaborators” who were executed by Hamas during Operation Cast Lead.

Hamas has been busy murdering people they believe to be collaborators during and following Operation Cast Lead because Israeli intel was that good; so many of their caches and terror minions were hit by Israeli raids. This is a message sent to those who might support Fatah or want to see Hamas ousted from Gaza; anyone who opposes Hamas will face execution should they be caught. It's incentive not to act against Hamas.