In occupied Palestine Israel differentiates between Christian and Muslim Palestinians, between Fatah and Hamas, between West Bank and Gaza Strip, and between citizens of one town and the other. Since the establishment of their terrorist state on usurped Palestinian land Israelis keep regurgitating their phobic mantra “Arabs want to wipe Israel off the map” in order to draw international sympathy, and to cover up their war crimes throughout the Arab
by Eran Shayson for The Jerusalem Post A month after its takeover of Gaza, it seems Hamas has begun to translate its military achievements into political dividends, while Fatah is wallowing in the mud and becoming even less relevant. Although Hamas’s victory in Gaza was decisive, leaving the movement with no serious rivals in the area, the victory also held the potential to work against it. First, following the collapse
Ynet news reports that, according to Marwan Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, her husband might be released from jail as part of a deal that would include the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. If true, this is interesting as it was reported that Shalit was captured by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military wing of the Palestinian governing party Hamas), the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic
Commentary by Tony Karon: Hamas represents the moderate current in Islamism that advocates for democracy and electoral politics. The alternative — which the West is effectively chosing – is violent nihilism First, it’s worth noting that the whole idea that Palestinian “moderates” are being bolstered in order that they will make peace with Israel is just a PR line, or a rather sick joke. The Israelis have left no doubt
The Ma’an news agency reports that clashes erupted in Gaza City on Sunday night between the Army of Islam, with the powerful Dughmosh clan, and the Hamas movement. Army of Islam said that Hamas and the Executive Force injured the group’s leader, Khattab Maqdisi, before abducting him. In retaliation, Army of Islam kidnapped ten Hamas members. “A group affiliated to Khattab opened fire at members of the Executive Force before
A Comment by Tony Sayegh Hamas has displayed both political and military decisiveness in finally putting an end to the Palestinian Contras’ plans of spreading “creative destruction” in Gaza in a manner similar to Iraq and to ultimately destroy Hamas politically and militarily. As I said before Hamas had to act and it did. The swiftness of the Hamas response and its ability to rout the Dahlan Contras in just
B’Tselem statement: On 25 June 2006, a band of eight armed Palestinians crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, and attacked an army post and tank. During the ensuing battle, two members of the band – Muhammad Farwaneh and Hamed a-Rantisi – and two Israeli soldiers – Hanan Barak and Pavel Slutzker – were killed. The soldier Gilad Shalit, who was in the tank at
I have recently posted a video which, according to the Western Imperial media, shows Fatah people being tortured by Hamas. In reality, of course, what the video shows is Hamas people being tortured by Fatah thugs. A Palestinian refugee in Austria, Kawther Salam, whose excellent website I highly reccommend, has now provided a translation of the atrocities shown on this video: The first scene shows a pointed metal stick pushed
Here is what Olmert announced at the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting: “As a gesture of goodwill towards the Palestinians, I will bring before the Israeli cabinet a proposal to free 250 Fatah prisoners who do not have blood on their hands.” Again, besides the recurring and bizzare Israeli obsession about “blood” (more on that in a previous post), what is really important here is that Olmert will not release Barghouti. Considering
by Khaled Abu Toameh, for THE JERUSALEM POSTPalestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is expected to demand the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails during Monday’s summit in Sharm e-Sheikh, PA officials said. The officials also said Abbas would call for supplying the Fatah-controlled security forces with more weapons to thwart attempts by Hamas to try to take over the West Bank. “We want thousands of rifles, hundreds
GAZA, June 24 – Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government rejected a summit planned for Egypt with Israeli and Arab leaders, saying only “resistance” would produce results for his people. He called any hopes generated by the summit a “mirage” and “illusions.” Haniyeh accused Abbas, the Western-Israel backed Fatah leader, of violating Palestinian law by dismissing his government and then appointing an emergency administration in the occupied West
Press Release: Palestinian Information Center GAZA, (PIC)– The Hamas Movement on Tuesday renewed invitation to Fatah faction to initiate joint dialogue to solve pending problems before it is too late. MP Khalil Al-Hayya, one of the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, told a press conference in Ramattan news agency that what happened in the Strip was not pre-planned but rather was in response to crimes committed by the mutiny
There is no better source of information about Palestine than the excellent blog of the Palestinian Pundit. His recent posts outline a systematic plan for the invasion of the Gaza sector, the repression of its main democratically elected political party, Hamas, and the total destruction of that party throughout Palestine (at least that’s the plan, whether it will work is a different issue). First, the Empire is sending a poodle
Contributed by Ahmad A Must See Video which, in an Orwellian way, is presented by Western Media as Hamas torturing Palestinians. But when you see the people being tortured, they are wearing shirts of Hamas’ “Executive Force.” So, it is totally the opposite! Black propaganda at its worst. Any one who speaks Arabic can tell that the torturers are Dahlan’s thugs. After beating the Hamas people viciously, they force them
Statement of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories: This last week, intense fighting erupted between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip. According to various estimates, approximately 160 people, including many children and civilians who were not participating in the fighting, were killed in the course of these clashes. This wave of violence ended with a victory for Hamas, who took control of all
Interview with Palestinian [National] Authority Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyah by Patrick de Saint-Paul in Gaza. Some people accuse Hamas of having carried out a coup d’etat in the Gaza Strip. How do you reply to that? I reply to them with a question: a coup d’etat against whom? Against ourselves? We embody legitimacy. We are the legitimate government, resulting from a democratically elected parliament. Why take control of Gaza by
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER DUBLIN, Ireland — Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas’ new government in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the
I don’t put much faith in this article in the Sunday Times, nonetheless, here it is: Israel plans attack on Gaza ISRAEL’s new defence minister Ehud Barak is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there. According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas’s military capability in days. The raid would be
A commentary by Khaled Abu Toameh for the Jerusalem Post Why did the Gaza Strip fall so easily and quickly into the hands of Hamas? How come Fatah, which has more than 40,000 armed men there, was defeated despite the millions of dollars and the large amounts of weapons that it received over the past year and a half? These are only some of the questions that decision-makers in Washington
Will the Israelis invade Gaza? Knowing how utterly stupid Olmert and Peretz have proved to be, everthing is possible. But from a military point of view invading Gaza achieves nothing: you get some Israelis killed, you get lots of Palestinians killed, and then you withdraw and you leave Hamas even stronger than it was before. Besides, after the whopping the IDF took in South Lebanon I presume that the troops
