Home » Levitt Letter » Levitt Letter Extra News

Israel Today

A Palestinian woman tried to sneak into Israel with explosives strapped to her body. The dramatic incident was caught by Israeli security cameras at the Erez border crossing in the Gaza Strip. The 21-year-old woman, Wafa al-Biss, aroused the suspicion of soldiers, who demanded that she take off her traditional black robe.

Then, they discovered a 10-kilo (22-pound) bomb sown into her underwear.

That gesture meant little to the bitter young woman, who told interrogators that she intended to blow herself up in a “noisy, crowded place” and kill as many people as possible. Al-Biss said she was recruited by the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah movement. It’s another sign that Abbas is unable to control terrorist groups that supposedly are committed to a cease-fire with Israel.

But he may also be unwilling to control them. Israel’s Shin Bet security service (the Israeli equivalent of the FBI) received a tip that the bombing was in the works and gave detailed information about the plot to Abbas. The Palestinian Authority (PA) did nothing. And yet, PA officials complain bitterly in every foreign media interview about Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks.

Army spokeswoman Major Sharon Feingold was outraged that the Palestinians took advantage of an Israeli humanitarian gesture. “These terror organizations are not only the enemies of the Israelis, but also of the Palestinian people themselves, who suffer as a result of this abuse of the young, the sick, the wounded,” she said.

Feingold noted that since the beginning of the Palestinian terror war in September 2000, there have been eight female bombers, along with an additional 59 women who intended to carry out suicide attacks.

This woman bomber showed no remorse when she was interviewed by Israeli TV reporters from jail. She had large brown eyes and curly dark hair pulled back in a short ponytail, and her neck and hands were covered with big scars from severe burns. “Don’t think that because of how I look I wanted to carry out an attack,” she said. “Since I was a little girl I wanted to carry out an attack.”

When asked about harming the very people who helped her, she lashed out: “They’re getting paid for it aren’t they? The Israelis are killing Palestinian children in Gaza every day aren’t they?”

One reporter responded that Israel is getting out of Gaza. “You are still in settlements in the West Bank,” she replied, “and you’re still in Khan Yunis [in Gaza], aren’t you?” Al-Biss said she is following the teachings of Islam. “My dream was to be a martyr,” she said. “I believe in death.”

www.washingtontimes.com

QAYYARAH, Iraq — Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders.

But he’s the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache — and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith’s recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers.

Officially, he’s Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols, he’s known as the American sheik.

Sheiks, or village elders, are known as the real power in rural Iraq. And the 5-foot-6-inch Floridian’s ascension to the esteemed position came through dry humor and the military’s need to clamp down on rocket attacks.

Late last year, a full-blown battle between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces had erupted, and U.S. commanders assigned a unit to stop rocket and mortar attacks that regularly hit their base. Sgt. Horn, who had been trained to operate radars for a field artillery unit, was thrust into a job that largely hinged on coaxing locals into divulging information about insurgents.

Sgt. Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Sgt. Horn’s first Humvee patrols.

Sgt. Horn says he was intrigued, and started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk with people about their life and security problems.

Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area. He boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.

“They saw that we were interested in them, instead of just taking care of the bases,” Sgt. Horn said.

Sheik Ahmed, Sgt. Horn’s mentor and known for his dry sense of humor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Sgt. Horn be named a sheik. The sheiks approved by voice vote, Sgt. Horn said.

Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Sgt. Horn’s spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.

But what may have started as a joke among crusty village elders has sprouted into something serious enough for 100 to 200 village leaders to meet with Sgt. Horn each month to discuss security issues.

And Sgt. Horn doesn’t take his responsibilities lightly. He lately has been prodding the Iraqi Education Ministry to pay local teachers, and he closely follows a water-pipeline project that he hopes will ensure the steady flow of clean water to his villages.

“Ninety percent of the people in my area are shepherds or simple townspeople,” said Sgt. Horn. “They simply want to find a decent job to make enough money to provide food and a stable place for their people to live.”

To Sgt. Horn’s commanders, his success justifies his unorthodox approach: No rockets have hit their base in the past half year.

“He has developed a great relationship with local leaders,” said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, who commands the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. “They love him. They’re not going to let anyone shoot at Sheik Horn.”

He has even won occasional exemption from the military dress code — villagers provide a changing room where he can change from desert camouflage to robes upon arrival.

There are downsides. In his small trailer on base, Sgt. Horn that keeps antibiotics to take after unhygienic village meals.

“I still refuse to kiss him,” joked Col. Becker, referring to the cheek-kissing greetings exchanged among sheiks.

Sgt. Horn acknowledges that some villagers are offended at seeing a foreign soldier in clothing usually reserved for elders, but he says this has diminished over time.

The sheiks told Sgt. Horn they will give him an official document deeming him a sheik before he goes home in about two months. He plans to frame it.

And the robe? “Maybe I’ll put it in the closet and wear it on occasion,” Sgt. Horn said.

Ben Shapiro
www.townhall.com

I’m a city boy, born and bred. I’ve lived in Los Angeles and Cambridge, Mass. Even though my parents are native Midwesterners (Chicago), the closest I’ve ever come to country living is vacationing in Wisconsin. So when I was invited by the people at Supertalk 930 WKY in Oklahoma City to guest host on one of their afternoon radio programs, I was very excited.

Many coastal city dwellers like to look down on religious red staters. It’s no surprise that Hollywood paints inhabitants of the Midwest and the South as backward, often inbred, straight out of “Deliverance.” Anyone with a twang is labeled a hick by those on the coasts. Looking down on country dwellers gives lots of city folk a sense of superiority, secure in their knowledge that they are more tolerant, broad minded and intelligent than the yokels in the boonies. After all, out in Los Angeles and Cambridge there are strong gun laws, high taxes and atheistic churches. What could be more enlightened?

Well, after spending a few days in Oklahoma City, it’s even clearer to me that the coastal elitists have everything upside down. Here are just a few of the lessons I learned from folks who live in the heartland:

Looking people in the eye isn’t a crime. It’s amazing, but when you’ve lived in big cities all your life, you are conditioned not to look strangers in the eye. You’re taught to be afraid of strangers. If you walk down the aisle in a supermarket, and you happen to catch someone’s eye, God forbid, you’re supposed to look away to prevent awkwardness. If you don’t, they might think you’re rude, simple or perverted. Saying hello is never permitted, but if you do say hello, make sure to be subdued about it. After all, it’s not like these people are your friends . The basic assumption underlying the city attitude is this: People are natural enemies. Strangers are scary. Don’t interact.

In Oklahoma City, the opposite is true. You look people in the eye, you smile, you say hello. Maybe you even ask how they’re doing. Looking away is considered rude and furtive. People aren’t natural enemies, in the country view. In the city, such friendly effrontery is considered bold beyond belief.

God still has authority. Quoting the Bible in the country isn’t a sign of intellectual weakness; it’s an appeal to the authority of true morality. Coastal liberals love to label the religious as simple-minded bigots led astray by a few Bible-thumping hucksters — just ask Howard Dean, who stated during his presidential campaign that red staters were misdirected into voting based on “God, guns and gays.” Red staters aren’t misdirected — they happen to believe in Judeo-Christian notions of right and wrong. While “morality” remains a dirty word in the big coastal cities, it’s part of the regular lexicon in the country. Yes, people sin in the country, but at least they recognize that they’re sinning. In the city, by contrast, people create alternative religions (see secular liberalism) to excuse their misbehavior.

There’s plenty of time. In the city, everyone’s in a rush. We walk fast, we drive fast, we talk fast. We are efficient, tireless and rushed. No matter how hard we work, there never seems to be enough time. Every minute must be packed with activity. In the country, people seem to realize that life is made up of millions of minutes and that driving yourself crazy isn’t worthwhile in the long run. Yes, working hard is vital — you won’t find harder workers anywhere in the United States than in places like Oklahoma City. But family and leisure can be just as important and renewing as work.

People in the country aren’t ignoramuses; they aren’t hicks; they aren’t boobs. Speaking with a drawl doesn’t connote sloth; fearing God isn’t a vice; morality and kindness aren’t mutually exclusive. Slandering those in “flyover country” is a hobby of many in the city, but it takes that same “flyover country” mindset to keep America prosperous, vibrant and strong.

By Barry Rubin
www.FrontPageMagazine.com

For several years I have watched the revival of antisemitism with growing dismay. Then along comes Steve Erlanger’s article in the New York Times, regarded by itself and many of its readers—especially Jewish ones—as the world’s greatest newspaper. He writes about an Israeli archaeologist who has uncovered the ruins of an important two-thousand-year-old building which, she asserts, was part of King David’s palace.

Maybe she is right; maybe not. Archaeologists are not certain; more evidence and study is no doubt necessary. That is how science works. We are then informed, accurately, that archaeologists are debating whether David’s kingdom was a great power or merely a tiny chiefdom. While not all her colleagues agree with her conclusion about the building, all those quoted respected the importance of the find.

But under the new post-rational ideology, the author tries at the very start to discredit the archaeologist in advance. Despite the fact that she is a respected scholar, the framework for the article is set by a claim that she is working for an institution partly funded by a “conservative” businessman who supposedly wants to prove a Jewish connection with Jerusalem for political purposes.

In other words, there is something supposedly shady about the whole enterprise, an assertion merely based on the fact that one of the donors also gives money to a conservative Israeli think tank. Thus, there is no such thing as professional ethics or a search for truth but merely hirelings for some cause making propaganda. Such things do happen but some real evidence is supposed to be required for such charges.

This kind of reasoning is often employed nowadays by people who should know better. The scientific method which puts the emphasis on examining evidence is thrown out the window in exchange for the crude radical concept of “who benefits.” This, incidentally, is the foundation of the conspiracy theories that bedevil the Arab and Muslim worlds.

It is also the crudest form of Marxism, arguing that consensual reality is only a construct created by ruling classes to remain in power, merely one narrative among many. Out of such thinking comes a paragraph in the article that should live in infamy as a prime exemplification of this kind of intellectual malpractice. Let me quote it in full:

“The [archaeological] find will also be used in the broad political battle over Jerusalem—whether the Jews have their origins here and thus have some special hold on the place, or whether, as many Palestinians have said, including the late Yasir Arafat, the idea of a Jewish origin in Jerusalem is a myth used to justify conquest and occupation.”

Do the Jews have any connection with Jerusalem and the land of Israel? Well, according to the Times, it is just a matter of political debate now, in which the views of Palestinian propagandists have equal weight. While the statements or findings of Western, democratic, or moderate sources are subjected to the highest degree of cynicism and challenge, those of radicals are treated with the utmost respect.

Let us ponder the awesome implications of this paragraph. Whether or not Jerusalem should be partitioned as part of a political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is a valid subject for discussion. It should be noted that in 2000 Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered such a deal at Camp David and it was extended further in the Clinton plan. Nevertheless, the Jewish connection with Jerusalem cannot be in doubt, attested to not only in Jewish writings but also in Christian and Muslim writings.

Whether or not King David’s palace is found will have no effect on the contemporary political debate. We already know and take for granted this historical connection, which is accepted by every real archaeologist who has dealt with that subject. One might reject giving up (east) Jerusalem because of its overwhelmingly central historic and religious importance to the Jewish people for 3000 years—or favor it as a necessity based on what is needed to attain peace, international attitudes, and the large Palestinian population in the eastern part of the city.

Yet now Erlanger gives equal credence to the “expertise” of Arafat who, let’s face it was no archaeologist but the most important terrorist of modern times and a proven serial liar. {Having written a biography of Arafat I am well aware that even the statement that Arafat was a terrorist is highly controversial among the West’s cultural ruling class.} After all, Arafat also claimed that Israel carried out most of the terrorist attacks on itself, poisoned Palestinians with gas, water, and chewing gum, and aimed to rule the entire Middle East. Why should he only be given credence on the Jerusalem issue?

In contrast, when Arafat tried that nonsense about Jerusalem at the Camp David summit, President Bill Clinton rightly called him on it, saying, “I’m not a Jew, I’m a Christian. It’s well known this is where the Temple is.”

On the basis of this latest article, though, one can imagine a parallel Times article from an equivalent controversy of the previous century: “The claim by a Jewish writer, financed by those trying to prove this case, that his people have accurately recounted their history will become part of the debate over whether, as many Germans have said, including cabinet minister Joseph Goebbels, this story is a myth used to justify conquest and occupation.”

That example was not meant as a joke or exaggeration. Such things are the precise historical equivalent of the kind of ideology far too often prevalent nowadays. For the assumption behind the post-Marxist, pre-Enlightenment ideology is that truth is merely a question of (political) faith. Fascism, as the Soviet foreign minister said in 1939 is a matter of taste. Or as a British reporter sneered last month at his country’s ambassador who was demanding the UN act strongly against terrorism, but isn’t one man’s terrorist another man’s freedom fighter?

Don’t the purveyors of such ideas understand how this type of thinking has always been responsible for the worst type of prejudice, racism, and anti-rationalism throughout history? What we have here is the return of medievalism in its worst guise. One can almost hear in many reports today the equivalents for what the BBC would have sounded like in the eleventh century: “The body of a young boy has been discovered in Lincoln, England, apparently murdered by local Jews to make Passover matzo. Film at eleven.”

Even the true life story of Hugh of Lincoln—which led to massacres of Jews at the time—is not far-fetched when one recalls recent such lies that justified bloodshed of the same sort: a widely reported but non-existent massacre in Jenin; continuing claims of ritual murder to make matzo in the Saudi press; and the case of a young Palestinian turned into a global martyr after the world media falsely reported he was killed by Israeli bullets.

How then can one be surprised that many Europeans, much less Arabs and Muslims, believe the September 11, 2001 attacks were carried out by American or Israeli intelligence and similar nonsense? In the same vein, many British writers responded to the London terrorist attacks by attacking their own country. Suicide blamers act as apologists for suicide bombers.

Here, for example, are some of the things I learned about the Middle East in just 24 hours of listening to National Public Radio:

• A discussion of terrorism: in 1972, “extremists” attacked the Israeli Olympic team in Munich according to an “expert” and the segment’s host, who took almost excruciating care to avoid mentioning that these were PLO terrorists in an operation directed by that organization’s top leadership.
• Daniel Pipes and Bernard Lewis are “barbaric” people claiming all Muslims are terrorists, according to a Muslim-American “liberal reformer.” whose words were not challenged by the interviewer. This is despite the fact that both have repeatedly acclaimed moderate Islam and the latter is the main champion of the argument that Islam is in no way intrinsically anti-democratic.
• Terrorism is only a typical tactic used by Europeans and Asians faced with occupation armies, according to an “expert” on comparative culture. I don’t seem to remember even the much-provoked French or Italian resistance deliberately murdering German children and exulting at their successes in doing so. As I recall, it was the Nazis who were the terrorists. That’s why they are so reviled, remember?

What we have here goes beyond merely passionate political debate or different points of view. It is a profoundly anti-intellectual, anti-rational, and anti-liberal mode of thought alongside an abandonment of professional standards. Every such instance should be challenged.

Bin Laden Spotted at CNN
by Jeremy Robb
www.jerhad.com.

New York — Osama bin Laden, long thought to be hiding in Pakistan or Afghanistan, is now thought to have been hiding out in the newsroom at CNN. The savvy news veteran has apparently been a senior editor at CNN for over two years, but slipped away before FBI agents could apprehend him. The FBI is keeping an eye on other known al Qaeda cells, like The New York Times, CBS and NPR to see if bin Laden surfaces there.

“He was actually hoping to end the war on terrorism by producing anti-American and anti-military news stories,” said one FBI agent. “Unfortunately for him, no one noticed a difference in the programming at CNN after he joined. He was only discovered when he was reprimanded for producing a news story that called Iraqi terrorists ‘insurgents’ instead of ‘freedom fighters’. He snapped and cut off his supervisor’s head. We’re hot on his trail and trying track him down. He was going by the name Mohammed Mohammed.”

“I can’t believe Mohammed Mohammed was really bin Laden,” said one of Osama’s former co-workers at CNN. “He was such a great guy. We always talked about how much Bush sucks and how we wish Israel would get nuked and how we secretly hated people in the military. Honestly, I miss my friend and co-worker. He made some very valuable contributions to our news coverage.”

Jacob Gershman, The New York Sun

The United Nations bankrolled the production of thousands of banners, bumper stickers, mugs, and T-shirts bearing the slogan “Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem,” which have been widely distributed to Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip, according to a U.N. official.

The U.N. support of the Palestinian Authority’s propaganda operation in the midst of the Israeli evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip has provoked outrage from Israeli and Jewish leaders, who are blaming Turtle Bay for propagating an inflammatory message that they say encourages Palestinian Arab violence.

“The intifada worked. That’s contextually what this message is saying,” the director of U.N. affairs for the Washington-based Jewish organization B’nai Brith, Amy Goldstein, said.

The Arabic slogan, which refers to disputed territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, has become ubiquitous in Gaza, where Israeli soldiers are evacuating 21 settlements. It’s served as the central message of a Palestinian Arab effort to spin the withdrawal as a victory.

A special representative of the United Nations Development Program in the Gaza Strip, Timothy Rothermel, told Fox News that his office provided financial support for the production of materials that make up the Palestinian Authority’s propaganda campaign, timed to coincide with the Gaza pullout. The Palestinian Authority’s withdrawal committee developed and produced the posters and other items using U.N. money, Mr. Rothermel said.

In addition to the slogan “Today Gaza and Tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem,” many of the materials displayed the logo of the United Nations Development Program, which operates in 166 countries and spends about half a billion dollars a year.

Asked by a Fox News correspondent about one of the banners bearing the words implying an impending Palestinian Arab takeover of the disputed areas, Mr. Rothermel, said, “That particular poster was prepared by the disengagement office with financial support from the United Nations Development Program.”

UNDP officials at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, however, denied that money from the program went directly to the propaganda campaign.

A UNDP spokesman, William Orme, said his office gave money to the Palestinian Withdrawal Committee to “help the Palestinian Authority communicate to the populace about the withdrawal and its economic and social impact.”

The money was funneled to the committee through a subagency called Program of Assistance to the Palestinian People. U.N. officials were not told about the propaganda campaign or about the slogan, he said.

The director of international affairs for the American Jewish Congress and a New York Sun op-ed columnist, David Twersky, criticized the UNDP for failing to better track their funds.

“How come they don’t know what’s happening to their money?” he said. “Where’s the audit? Where’s the transparency? How could responsible U.N. officials living off of tax dollars have the chutzpah to say I don’t know what they’re spending their money on?”

New York-based U.N. officials learned of the slogan, Mr. Twesky said, when they received a letter of complaint on Monday from the American Jewish Congress. The letter, signed by the chairman of the American Jewish Congress, Jack Rose, said the United Nations “has no business paying the costs of this propaganda.” The letter was addressed to the development program’s new administrator, Kemal Dervis.

Mr. Orme, who said his office was investigating the details of the letter, refused to say whether the United Nations stands behind the slogan printed on the propaganda materials.

He said: “We are emphatically neutral… We do not lend ourselves to political messaging in favor of any particular faction or ideology.”

Mr. Rothermel, in the Fox News interview, argued that the slogan, which predicts an Israeli disengagement from the West Bank and, presumably, East Jerusalem, is a message that is “consistent with the relevant U.N. resolutions and Security Council resolutions about the status of Palestine.”

A former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dore Gold, said the funding of the propaganda campaign is “simply outrageous.”

“The West Bank is disputed territory under U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. The U.N. has no business getting involved in sloganeering to call on the Palestinians to also take tomorrow the West Bank and East Jerusalem,” Mr. Gold told Fox News.

The Palestinian Authority’s top leaders have echoed the slogan in recent public comments. “The process of national struggle will continue until we reach Jerusalem and celebrate there and in the West Bank,” its prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, said. according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

By Matt Barnwell and Amy Iggulden
www.telegraph.co.uk

Organized religion is in near-terminal decline in Britain because parents have only a 50-50 chance of passing on belief to their offspring, a study claimed yesterday.

By contrast, parents without faith are successful in producing a new generation of non-believers, it said.

The report identified institutional religion as having a “half-life” of one generation, as children are only half as likely as their parents to say that it is important in their lives.

The generational decline is too advanced to reverse, the report suggested, as the proportion of people who believe in God is declining faster than church attendance.

Dr David Voas, who oversaw the study at the University of Manchester, said religion would reach “fairly low levels” before very long.

“The dip in religious belief is not temporary or accidental, it is a generational phenomenon — the decline has continued year on year,” he said. “The fact that children are only half as likely to believe as their parents indicates that, as a society, we are at an advanced stage of secularisation.”

The findings appear to contradict the commonly accepted theory that people “believe without belonging” — the idea that religious belief is robust even though churchgoing is in longer-term decline.

According to the survey, which was based on 14 years of data from 10,500 households, the importance of belief in God fell by 5.3 per cent to 32.5 per cent between 1991 and 1999.

This compared with a fall of 3.5 per cent in the proportion of people who attended church services over the same period and a 2.9 per cent decrease in the proportion who said they were affiliated to a particular religion.

The Church of England reacted with disbelief at the suggestion that faith was declining, and said that parental influence was not the only factor in preserving inter-generational belief.

“There is an assumption that people ‘catch’ religion from their parents, but many people come to faith through the grandparents, schools, and their friends,” said Steve Jenkins, a spokesman.

He said that the study had not released “proper evidence”.

“There is nothing to back up the claims, and our recent statistics show that congregations are actually increasing, as is the number of ordinations.” Last year 564 people were selected to become new clergy, the highest figure in six years. And congregations in 2003 had increased in size by 1 per cent.

But the National Secular Society, which has 3,000 paid-up members, welcomed the survey results.

“We find [belief] embarrassing as a country and it is time we accepted that,” said Terry Sanderson, the vice president. “People may say they believe in Christianity but if you question them even slightly it becomes clear that they cannot accept the central tenets of its faith — they don’t believe in its supernatural explanations.”

The study, which used figures from the British Household Panel and British Social Attitudes surveys, found that parents had the greatest influence on children’s beliefs, and that although a child with only one religious parent was half as likely to inherit their faith as a child with two religious parents, the decline could be slowed by the fact that religious parents tended to have more children.

The study also found generational decline evident throughout the Islamic and Jewish faiths, but from a much higher starting point.

www.chinaview.cn

GAZA, Aug. 13 (Xinhuanet) — A senior Palestinian official said on Saturday that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejects paying direct or indirect compensations to Jewish settlers to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip.

Mazen Sonokrot, Palestinian economic minister, said that there were serious attempts of James Wolfensohn, former World Bank president and special envoy of the Middle East Quartet Committee,to keep the settlers properties for the Palestinians.

There is no objection from the Palestinian side on this issue but the PNA would not compensate the settlers for their properties.He said in a statement.

Earlier a deal worth 14 million US dollars was signed to transfer the greenhouses owned by Israeli farmers in Gush Katif settlement bloc in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority.

The American Economic Cooperation Foundation coordinated private foreign donations to fund the greenhouses transfer with most of the money coming from American donors.

Sonokrot added that the deal is an internal issue between the Americans and the settlers with no PNA relation to it.

The heads of Hamas on Saturday claimed victory for Israel’s impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and vowed to continue their armed campaign.

The founders and top political leaders of the militant group made a rare public appearance together. They directly challenged the Palestinian Authority by rejecting President Mahmoud Abbas’s calls to disarm ahead of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements.

Tensions between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have heated up, with each side claiming victory for Israel’s pullout days before the process begins.

Hamas’s top brass sent a message that they have the right to possess weapons and to claim responsibility for pushing Israel out of Gaza.

“The occupation retreat from Gaza Strip and the north of the West Bank is as a result of resistance and our people’s sacrifice,” said senior Hamas figure Ismail Haniyye, as he and his fellow leaders positioned themselves in front of the group’s logo and a green Islamic flag.

“And it is evidence that resistance is able to achieve our national goals.”

The declaration comes one day after the Palestinian Authority held its first official celebration of Israel’s withdrawal.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians crowded Gaza City’s small harbor, waving flags and hearing promises from Abbas that the West Bank and Jerusalem will be next.

“From here, from this place, our nation and our masses are walking toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” Abbas told the crowd Friday.

Tensions between the PA and Hamas became apparent when Cabinet minister Mohammed Dahlan said the red, black, green and white Palestinian flag must be the official banner at all celebrations.

He did not refer to Hamas directly, but the group has said it plans its own military-style celebrations, and is sewing thousands of its own green banners.

Inside the Jewish settlements, people were marking their last Sabbath before Israel officially begins its withdrawal next week.

On Sunday at midnight, their presence in the region becomes illegal. And starting Monday, Israeli troops will go from door to door, telling settlers they must leave.

After a two-day grace period, forcible removal is set to begin early Wednesday.

Hundreds of the 8,500 Gaza settlers have already left. They packed their belongings into trucks and have moved into temporary homes in trailer parks in Israel.

Israeli army officials expect that more than 50 percent of all settlers will have left by late Tuesday.

But many settlers have chosen to stay, and they’re joined by thousands of supporters, including activists who have set up tent camps and say they’ll resist removal.

The Bakshis, a family of nine, have refused to pack their belongings and acknowledge that they have to leave.

About 30 guests camped out on Roni Bakshis’ lawn as preparations were made at his home for the ritual Sabbath evening meal on Friday.

“It’s not the last Sabbath. There will be many more Sabbaths,” said Bakshi, who lives in the area’s largest settlement, Neve Dekalim.

“This year, we understand what the destruction of the Temples means, and this year it is greater because Jews are expelling Jews from their homes and jobs,” he told the Associated Press.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suggested in an interview published Friday that Israel could eventually relinquish more West Bank settlements.

Sharon said, however, that Israel would keep major West Bank settlement blocs. “Not everything will be there.

The issue will be raised during the final status talks with the Palestinians,” Sharon told the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.

Sharon said he is convinced the withdrawal from Gaza will benefit Israel in the long run. “I have no regrets,” he said. “Even if I had known the level of (settler) resistance, I would have done it.”

When Sharon decided more than a year ago to withdraw from Gaza — which Israel captured 38 years ago — he reasoned the move would make it easier for Israel to hold on to the major West Bank settlement blocs, where most of the 240,000 settlers live.

By Michelle Malkin
www.townhall.com

The grievance industry went into overdrive in June when burned Korans were reportedly discovered at a local mosque in southwest Virginia.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations issued an immediate press release on June 16 calling for “Americans of all faiths to obtain and read the Quran after burned copies of Islam’s revealed text were found” in a shopping bag at the front door of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg.

Repent, all ye infidels!

Incensed CAIR officials contacted the FBI and pressured authorities to treat the incident as possibly “bias-related.” CAIR-MD/VA Director of Civil Rights Shama Farooq lectured that “A redoubled commitment to freedom of thought and religious diversity is the best response to the burning of any sacred text” in order to “send the message that bigots do not represent our nation’s values.”

Not content to let CAIR get all the free publicity, other victim-card hustlers jumped aboard the burned Koran bandwagon.

Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, lambasted police: “If pages from the Bible were burned and put in a bag outside a church,” she huffed to the Associated Press, “I think the reaction of the police would be that it would be a hate crime.”

Actually, in this country, when you dunk a crucifix in urine, that’s “art,” and when you hang a framed copy of the Ten Commandments inside a courthouse, that’s a crime.

Al-Qatami invoked the Guantanamo Bay bogeyman and blamed the burnt Koran incident on insensitive, ignorant Americans. The case, she asserted, was caused by “a lack of zero tolerance for hate crimes and ‘a lack of information about Arabs and Islam as a whole.’” Al-Qatami also told the Roanoke Times: “Let’s face it, books don’t burn themselves and end up outside of a mosque. It’s a willful act.”

Muslims in Virginia also expressed their knee-jerk outrage: “It is a shame that people are so ignorant,” said Blacksburg mosque member Idris Adjerid. Ahmed Sidky, a Muslim graduate student at nearby Virginia Tech, told the Roanoke Times that the case “was certainly very symbolic.”

It certainly was a symbol — a symbol of the knee-jerk penchant among some civil rights groups and their enablers to cry racism, claim discrimination, and criticize U.S. law enforcement authorities for not doing enough to stop “hate crimes.”

It turns out, you see, that the burnt Koran was left at the mosque by… a Muslim student.

According to the AP, a Muslim Virginia Tech student took responsibility saying he dropped off the burned Koran and other singed materials at the mosque, hoping “it could be given a respectful disposal.” Police Lt. Bruce Bradberry reported that the student, who was not named, apparently contacted police last week, “saying he was going to be traveling abroad and didn’t know what to do with the Koran, which had been burned in a 2004 house fire. The student said he placed the book and other fire-damaged materials in a bag and left the bag at the Islamic Center with a note, which apparently blew away.”

Whoops.

The grievance-mongers’ continued failure to act responsibly and with due skepticism when these cases arise is expected. But the mainstream media’s failure to put its America-bashing instincts in check is intolerable. Instead of providing readers with information about many cases of so-called Muslim hate crimes that have turned out to be fraudulent since Sept. 11, The Washington Post quoted the usual suspects and editorialized in its June 17 report that “The Koran burning comes at a time of particular sensitivity. The U.S. military recently confirmed five cases of U.S. personnel mishandling the Muslim holy book at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, acknowledging that soldiers and interrogators kicked the Koran, got copies wet, stood on a copy during an interrogation and inadvertently got urine on another one.”

Over the Independence Day weekend, Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Colbert King added fuel to the fire, hysterically listing this now-debunked Koran-burning incident as evidence of rampant anti-Muslim bias in America.

Will Colbert King and the boys and girls crying wolf calm down and acknowledge the truth about the Muslim hate crime that wasn’t? I doubt it.