Israel: The Enemy Within

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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.

 

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