March 21, 2007:
European nations are willing
to deal with non-Hamas members of the new Palestinian government. This would
enable European money to resume paying civil servants in the Palestinian
government. Nearly half of these government employees are in the many different
security forces. Most Palestinian terrorist organizations are staffed with
members of the Palestinian security forces. The Palestinian play this down, and
deny it at every opportunity, and the Europeans go along with it. But Hamas is
too enthusiastic about terrorism and the destruction of Israel. At least Fatah
keeps their "destroy Israel" script in Arabic, and makes nice in all
other languages. Hamas is in your face with the "Death to the Jews"
in every language. They will not lie in order to make it easier for the
Europeans to give them money. For example, new textbooks for Palestinian high
school students show maps of the region without any reference to Israel, and
insist that Israel must be destroyed. Whatever Palestinians are saying to
foreign diplomats, they are delivering a very different message to their own
teenagers.
March 20, 2007: In northern Lebanon, fighting
in a Palestinian refugee camp in the north left one dead and several wounded.
By treaty, Lebanese police cannot enter Palestinian refugee camps, but the
Palestinians are supposed to keep the peace. In this case, the Lebanese are
demanding arrests of members of an al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group, Fatah
al-Islam, that is believed for a terrorist bombing in a Christian neighborhood.
The Lebanese believe Fatah al-Islam is also taking orders from Syria.
March 1 9, 2007: One result of the Hizbollah
war last year is a change in training for Israeli reservists. Now there are
more infantry drills, and preparation for a return to Lebanon. Israeli civil
defense organizations are holding drills and training exercises in preparation
for more Hizbollah rocket attacks, including the possibility of chemical
warheads on some of those rockets.
March 17, 2007: There is a growing problem
with loyalty of Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the population. A
recent opinion survey of the Israeli Arabs revealed some scary attitudes.
For example, 48 percent of Israeli Arabs believed the Hizbollah rocket attacks
on northern Israel last year were justified, even though Israeli Arabs suffered
a disproportionate number of the Israeli casualties (because most Israeli Arabs
live in the north). Moreover, half saw the Hizbollah kidnapping of two Israeli
soldiers as justified, and 89 percent considered the Israeli attack on Lebanon
a war crime (44 percent believed the Hizbollah rocket attack was a war
crime.) A third of Arab high school and college graduates don't believe that
six million Jews were killed during World War II (compared to 28 percent of all
Israeli Arabs.) Israeli Arabs also have fears, like the possibility of mass
expulsions from Israel (60 percent), or transfer of their communities to a new
Palestinian state (62 percent). In fact, 68 percent would prefer to live in
Israel, if there were a peace deal, and a Palestinian state were established.
Meanwhile, 63 percent of Israel Jews avoid entering Arab towns of
neighborhoods, and 68 percent fear civil unrest among Israeli Arabs.
March 15, 2007: Israel refused to deal with
the new Palestinian government, because it still maintains the Hamas goal of
destroying Israel.