Rival factions of Fatah and Hamas formed a new Palestinian "unity government" on June 12. The Israeli government expressed deep concern. Israel's Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stressed that the alliance could lead to a resurgence of terrorist acts. The European Union and current U.S. administration decided, nevertheless, to legitimize the new government.
No Western leader highlighted that Hamas had not renounced its explicitly genocidal goals, and that Hamas leaders have never renounced the use of violence.
Netanyahu's prediction proved accurate: rocket fire resumed from Gaza.
On June 11th, rockets were fired at one of the main roads in southern Israel. The next day, June 12, three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the Hebron area. The kidnappers are apparently members of Hamas, even though Hamas has so far denied this.[1]
As usual, much of the Western mainstream media immediately blamed the victims. Moreover, although only one of the teens lived in the West Bank, all three were referred to as "settlers".
The European Union reacted five days later, on June 17, only after the Israeli government had voiced its anger at such a long silence.
The U.S. State Department reacted faster, denouncing the abductions on June 15.
On June 18, however, the State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki, urged "all parties" to "show restraint," drawing a parallel between actions of terrorists and the efforts of the Israeli government to find the three boys. That one of them is a U.S. citizen did not seem a major concern either to them or to the administration -- as it also does not with either Pastor Saeed Abedini, currently in jail in Iran for being a Christian, or with retired U.S. Marine Andrew Tahmooressi, currently in jail during a sham prosecution in Mexico, which is supposed to be an ally. When a reporter asked Psaki for the name of the American teen who had been kidnapped, she was unable to answer.
On June 26, the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] revealed the identity of the two main suspects in the kidnapping; both men are Hamas members.
At first, Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas tepidly apologized, but when that proved politically unpopular with his constituents, he pinned responsibility on Israel, said he did not think Hamas was guilty, and accused Israel of killing "Palestinian teenagers in cold blood". In other words, playing both sides.
A few hours after the kidnapping, Abbas's Fatah faction ran the now-famous gloating cartoon depicting the teenagers as three rats branded with the Star of David. Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the cartoon.
A pro-kidnapping, three-fingered salute called "the three Shalits" -- referring to the previously kidnapped Israeli, Gilad Shalit, who eventually, after five years of captivity, was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners -- has gained popularity as a rallying symbol among Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the salute.
Al Hayat al-Jadida, the PA's official newspaper, also published a cartoon that glorified the kidnapping at the same time as it spoofed the FIFA World Cup logo. It shows three hands holding three helpless Jews with their hands up in surrender. The FIFA World Cup logo says "Brazil" under it: the spoof says "Khalil," the Arabic name for Hebron. Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned Al Hayat al Jadida.
A few days ago, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that a third intifada against Israel has begun. Mahmoud Abbas has also not condemned the statement of Ismail Haniyeh.
Anti-Israeli hatred permeates the Palestinian Arab population of the West Bank; Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah bear full responsibility.
The PA, on its totally government-controlled TV, on a daily basis glorifies suicide bombers and portrays them as role models for others to "follow in their path." Children living in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and funded by the Europe and the U.S., are encouraged to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
The PA also pays generous monthly salaries to convicted terrorists jailed in Israel.
A few months ago, Mahmoud Abbas welcomed murderers released from Israeli prisons as heroes.
 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sends televised greetings of "honor and esteem" to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, proceeding to specifically name several convicted murderers. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch) |
Although the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has led to bloody episodes of civil war, when it comes to Israel, they share the same goal.
Many commentators think that the purpose behind the unity government was to allow Hamas to receive international funding, as well as absolution, and to take control of the supposedly united Palestinian Authority before Palestinian elections in 2015. In exchange, Mahmoud Abbas could tell the world he represents all Palestinians, and try to acquire more funding as well as unilateral recognition of a borderless Palestinian state -- without needing to negotiate with Israel. Then presumably he could retire.
Although the scenario did not go as planned, the goal of displacing Israel remains the same.
Those who hoped that the kidnapping of three Israeli teens might push European leaders and members of the U.S. administration to think twice and modify their positions about granting funds to Hamas through the PA, can now see they were wrong.
The European Union and the U.S. government have been financing the Palestinian Authority for years, thus providing heavy financial incentives to kill Jews and destroy Israel. They did not, however, stop financing the Palestinian Authority on June 12, and there is no indication that they will stop.
To justify continuing their funding the Palestinian Authority, the leaders of the EU and the U.S. -- as if they do not see what Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas say and do -- pretend to believe that Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas are "moderate". There is no indication that anyone's attitude will change. Hamas leaders speak only of war, and all their acts are acts of war. But the EU and the U.S. have given Hamas absolution, and even though Hamas and Fatah have not reversed there behavior, the EU and the U.S. do not seem to be reversing their decision.
"Moderate" Palestinian leaders speak of "peace" when they speak in English, but of war when they speak in Arabic. Their acts are almost always acts of war, or at the very least hostile, as is -- ostentatiously -- the United Nations.
Israel has no "peace partner" among the Palestinian leadership; no friends or reliable partners in the current U.S. administration, and only a few in the European Union.
The kidnappings, and especially the international response to them, only highlight that Israel must continue to hold Judea and Samaria, stop looking for support or sympathy, and begin treating acts of war as acts of war.
Wars end when there is a winner and a loser. The winner imposes terms on the loser. The loser knows that he has lost when he has no choice but to see that his cause is totally hopeless.
The EU and the current U.S. administration say they want "peace". But they cannot ignore the fact that there can be no peace so long as financial incentives to kill Jews and destroy Israel continue to be dangled in front of Palestinian populations. The only conclusion one can draw is that the EU and the U.S. actually want war, and that they are on the side of Israel's enemies and on the side of terrorism.
In a recent press statement, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, said that "terrorism begins when the seeds of hatred are sown in the hearts and minds of ordinary men and women."
It is the European Union and the current U.S. administration who are sowing them in the hearts and minds of the Palestinian Arab people by funding organizations such as the Palestinian Authority and Hamas that call for and celebrate terrorist actions.
It is this American and European bankrolling of non-stop incitement -- with no conditions whatsoever attached to the funding -- that has led to the kidnapping and to the violence in general that the U.S. and the EU so piously profess not to want.
So long as the EU and the U.S. continue to fund entities such the PA and Hamas, which openly promote acts of terror, the leaders of the EU and the U.S. should be held accountable: criminally liable as accessories to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
If they choose to continue funding the citizens of the PA and Hamas for humanitarian reasons it should only be done with the proviso that they disarm militarily, and that all incitement to terrorism, and all payments to terrorists or their families must stop immediately and totally -- before still another generation is poisoned by it.
Calls to kill Jews pour daily from the Palestinian media. It is this aggression -- and not humanitarian relief -- that much of the international funding is being used for.
Since the founding of the PLO in 1964, American and European financial incentives to kill Jews has led to the deaths of over 3,000 Israeli Jews murdered by Palestinian terrorism, and more than 25,000 wounded.
Western leaders seem to think that the seeds of hatred sown in the hearts and minds of Palestinian Arabs remain within the Palestinian Arab population, and only hurt Israeli Jews.
It might be useful for them to see that the "Palestinian cause" fuels Islamic rage the world over, and that, for Israel, surrender is not an option. Further, as Winston Churchill observed, emboldening killers invariably leads to bloodbath.[2]
The victims of Islamist rage -- as on 9/11 in the U.S., the 2005 London transit bombings in the UK, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and countless other attacks -- come from all backgrounds.
Behind the anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli hatred that is the core of the "Palestinian cause", the essence of Islamic rage: hatred for individual liberty and freedom, and a passion to destroy them.
Yesterday came the news that ISIS has declared a caliphate and is now openly operating in the Gaza strip. They that sow the wind in Israel could soon reap the whirlwind.
[1] On June 27, the Israeli embassy in New Zealand, released an analysis of three of Hamas's kidnappers' handbooks, often entitled, Kidnapper's Handbook, which contain instructions on how to carry out kidnappings. These included speaking in Hebrew and replacing the car immediately.
[2] "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last."
Jerry