Shalit deal doesn't go through

Captive to remain in Hamas' hands for now
March 18, 2009

In the last week support has swelled for releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners with blood on their hands in exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit's parents and hundreds of supporters swarm around the tent erected by the prime minister's house in a show of support every day. It's been an emotional week for the nation.

Negotiations failed, however, and it looks like it will fall to the next administration to do anything about it. Here's a glimpse of what might in my article that first appeared here:

The next Israeli government is expected to resume targeted assassinations of Hamas terrorist leaders and cut off family visits to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in an effort to pressure Hamas to allow visits to kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and ease up on its demands for an exchange, sources close to the prime minister designate say.

These hardline tactics are likely elements of future attempts to free Shalit since negotiations will now most likely fall to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, officials said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the nation in a televised news conference to explain why Israel and Hamas failed to reach an agreement in Cairo.

“The government of Israel, so long as I stand at its head, will not agree to the dictates [of Hamas] as they were presented,” Olmert said. “Israel agreed to generous and far-reaching compromises. I approved these compromises, which meant releasing dozens of prisoners, some of them murderers.”

But in the end, the deal fell through over 100 prisoners in what could be Olmert’s last chance to leave office with a positive legacy after a stormy three years in office wracked with corruption scandals and two wars. Olmert’s special envoy Ofer Dekel and Israel Security Agency Chief Yuval Diskin blamed Hamas for its “unwillingness” to be flexible and for toughening its stance in recent days. The Israeli cabinet today voted to release to the public Hamas’ prisoner list.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Reuters on Tuesday he hoped Israel would resume talks soon.

“If the Israeli government sticks to its negative position, it will not be possible to clinch a deal, at least at the present time,” he said. “If Israel wants to reach a deal, it should come with a serious offer.”

Yoni Ben-Menachem, chief editor of Israel Radio, said the gap between what Hamas was asking and what Israel was willing to cede was too large to overcome, including 100 disputed prisoners accused of direct involvement in deadly terror attacks against Israelis.

“Hamas did not change its initial demand to release the hard-core terrorists, 450 prisoners,” he said at a media briefing in Jerusalem. “They have been very persistent about this demand for three years now.”

Ben-Menachem said that military aides close to Netanyahu believe the next prime minister will renew targeted killings of Hamas, update Israel’s security policy and “make new rules.”

“It’s a new government, it’s a different ball game. If you apply the right pressure ... they will change their position,” he said referring to Hamas. “With the right pressure and incentive ... you can do it.”

Another bargaining chip Israel has, Ben-Menachem pointed out, is the $5 billion in foreign aid promised to rebuild Gaza: “Hamas will want to start rebuilding Gaza. But to get equipment there, the passages must be opened. The passages cannot be opened without Shalit.”

Joshua Teitelbaum, a senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center, agreed that Israel would likely adopt a tougher stance against Hamas under Netanyahu’s administration.

“Definitely there will be a bit of a harder line,” he told Newsmax. “They will resume targeted killings and generally turn up the pressure.”

Shalit was abducted on June 25, 2006 in cross-border raid near the Gaza border. Volunteers at a tent erected outside the prime minister’s residence have marked the 996 days since the kidnapping.

Shalit’s father, Noam, told reporters after Olmert’s speech that the government failed and begged leaders to do everything in its power to return his son.

“We’ve been dealing with these hopes, expectations and disappointments for 1,000 days,” he said. “What's important now is actions, and not hopes and expectations.”

In the last week, a groundswell of public support in favor of exchanging prisoners for Shalit peaked in Israel with 69 percent supporting handing over hundreds of prisoner for a single soldier’s life, according to a poll by the Dahaf Institute.

Hamas has prevented Israeli and international officials from visiting Shalit, but intelligence reports indicate that the soldier, now 22 years old, is still alive, in Gaza and is reportedly being held with explosives strapped to him.

Several Palestinians families in Gaza and the West Bank were disappointed when Israel and Hamas failed to agree on a swap. A few Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails were so confident they would be released, they had started to pack on Monday. Ben-Menachem expects Palestinians to apply some pressure to the Hamas government to get their family members in Israel prisons back, but not as forcefully as in Israel.

”We’re talking about a dictatorship in Gaza,” he said.

Report: British support of Palestinians funds hate textbooks

March 17, 2009

Here is how British taxpayer money is being spent: According to a study due out tomorrow, 100 million pounds of British taxpayer money has been spent promoting terrorism and encouraging young Palestinians to hate the West and to become suicide bombers.

The report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance alleges that British money given to the Palestinian Authority has been used to print textbooks that teach children “death is not bitter in the mouth of the believers" and that the Iraqi insurgency is a "brave resistance" against Britain and the U.S.

Palestinian TV shows and newspapers also call for terrorism and urge Palestinians to pick up weapons. For example, one TV presenter on the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation called Ayat al-Akhras, 18, the youngest Palestinian female suicide bomber, is a hero.

The Daily Mail quotes Timothy Kirkhope, leader of the Conservative delegation in the European Parliament, who said that no more aid money should be sent to the Palestinian territories unless monitored: "Money has been misspent in the area before and used to buy weapons. This time they may not be using it on bullets and guns, but they are using it to turn the minds of young people towards militancy.”

The report mocks claims that textbooks encouraging terrorism stopped being used in classrooms after the Annapolis conference of November 2007, in which both Palestinians and Israelis pledged to reach a peaceful two-state solution.

The following are examples from media or textbooks:

"Palestine is our dream. Brothers, Oh Fatah's loyal masses the land is thirsty [for martyr blood] […] Jaffa, Haifa and Acre are calling. Ramallah.. Nablus and Gaza: "When will we meet and break the chains? To Jerusalem march millions of Martyrs" - Ahmed Dughmus, 8 January 2008

“It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders [all of Israel], but in our current political program, we [PA] say we want a state on the 1967 borders […] We [Palestinians] were created on this land in order to liberate it, to live on it, to continue as people of Ribat [Religious war]. We are on the land of Ribat and must remain [on it] until Resurrection.” - Najat Abu Bakr, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, 26 February 2008

“There are diseases like smallpox, that can be eradicated, but the disease that was inflicted on the Palestinian people and the Arab nation in general, that's the Jewish disease, the Zionist disease, which is a cancerous disease, that started with occupying and taking over lands in 1904 […] Those (Jews), from 1904 to 1947, reached 605,000. That’s the cancer that spreads over the lands.” - Adnan Ayash, History Professor, 5 June 2008

Saudi gang-rape victim gets punished for committing 'adultery'

March 16, 2009

Another dispatch from the religion of peace: A Saudi judge sentenced a pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery even though she isn't married, the Daily Mail reported.

The judge ordered that the woman be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes, but the lashes could wait until after she delivered the baby, he ruled.

Where's all the women's rights groups to speak up for this woman whose testimony in Islamic court counts as one-fourth that of a man?

The woman, 23, became pregnant from the rape. She was reportedly assaulted after accepting a ride from a man. It is illegal in Saudi Arabia for a woman to be with a man unless he is a relative.

The man took her to a house where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night. The judge ruled that she she had committed adultery despite not being married.
She later discovered she was pregnant and tried to get an abortion.

The Saudi Gazette reported that she eventually 'confessed' to having 'forced intercourse' with her attackers.

Women have very few rights in Saudi Arabia. They are not allowed to drive and are banned from going out in public in the company of men other than male relatives.

Terror attack in Jordan Valley leaves two cops dead

March 16, 2009

In the last two weeks, two terror attacks have created an eerie reflection in Israel. After each attack, every Israeli wonders if this will be the one to set off the next intifada (uprising). Two weeks ago, a bulldozer driver went after a police car in Jerusalem. he was shot dead before he did any damage.

The story ended differently Sunday night. Last night two Israeli policemen were shot and killed in the West Bank, the first Israeli deaths in that area in nearly a year, on a road that both Israelis and Palestinians frequent Highway 90 is used by Israelis as well as Palestinians to cut through to the Sea of Galilee in the North and the Dead Sea in the South.

The police officers were shot a close range in the valley between Jericho and Jordan.

Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the two officers were on patrol near the Jewish town of Massua. The small Jewish community is in an agricultural area of the Jordan Valley, north of Jericho and near the Jordanian border.

Police are searching for the killers. The last Israeli deaths in the West Bank occurred on April 25 last year, when two security guards at an industrial park near the city of Tulkarm were shot dead.

More dismal thoughts on the new admin’s Israel tack

Obama has, in essence, turned on Israel
March 16 2009

In a New York Post editorial, John Bolton, the former U.N. Ambassador, notes how the Obama administration’s pressure on Israel to find a solution to the Israeli-Arab dispute is another sign of America’s slow abandonment of the Jewish state.

Bolton explains why:

Almost invariably, Israel is the loser -- because Israel is the party most dependent on the United States, most subject to U.S. pressure and most susceptible to the inevitable chorus of received wisdom from Western diplomats, media and the intelligentsia demanding concessions. When pressure must be applied to make compromises, it's always easier to pressure the more reasonable side.

How will diplomatic pressure work to change Hamas or Hezbollah, where even military force has so far failed? If anything, one can predict coming pressure on Israel to acknowledge the legitimacy of these two terrorist groups, and to negotiate with them as equals. ...

Why would America subject a close ally to this dynamic, playing with the security of an unvarying supporter in world affairs? For America, Israel's intelligence-sharing, military cooperation and significant bilateral economic ties, among many others, are important national-security assets that should not lightly be put at risk.

The only understandable answer is that the Obama administration believes that Israel is as much or more of a problem as it is an ally, at least until Israel's disagreements with its neighbors are resolved. Instead of seeing Israel as a national-security asset, the administration likely sees a relationship complicating its broader policy of diplomatic 'outreach.'

Defining 'moderate' in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

March 15, 2009

Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, is considered a moderate in the Palestinian world by the West. His column in Friday's Atlanta Journal and Constitution defines 'moderate' for us as he asks for America's help:

The administration can help level the playing field by taking three steps. First, insist Israel immediately stop all settlement activity. Second, reject Israel’s embrace of apartheid. One set of laws for Jewish settlers and another for Palestinians is unacceptable. Third, accept our democratic choice.

The democratic choice mentioned here is the election of Hamas:

Despite the Obama administration’s reluctance to deal with the government Palestinians elected, a breath of fresh air is clearly blowing through Washington. And just in time....

Barghouthi also argues that American principles and interests should make them pro-Palestinian. He doesn't mention any requirements from the Palestinians, for example recognizing Israel's right to exist and cessation of terror.

I am convinced that an evenhanded mediator such as former Sen. George Mitchell will soon find that we are not the recalcitrant party. He will uphold American principles and serve American interests if he has the courage to say so. And let us hope that more American officials go see for themselves the harm Israel is causing Palestinians — and long-term Israeli interests — with American tax dollars.

Chas Freeman controversy sheds light on DC Israel climate

March 15, 2009

By now most everyone knows the former Ambassador Charles "Chas" Freeman has withdrawn his appointment to be the Obama admin's top intelligence analyst. If you heard anything about his controversial nomination and favorable views toward Saudi Arabia and the Tianemen Square massacre, it was no thanks to the mainstream media. Instead conservative and Jewish bloggers are credited with -- or blamed for -- his bowing out. Freeman himself lashed out at the "pro-Israel lobby" in DC for wrecking his nomination.

Mainstream media reported on Freeman's angry withdrawal, but very little of the controversy itself. Caroline Glick, a conservative columnist for The Jerusalem Post, writes about why the entire episode, from his apointment to withdrawal, is disturbing to American intelligence and to Israel.

Glick notes that the main controversy "revolved around his financial and political ties to potential and actual US adversaries" and not his views on Israel, which were prediminantly negative.

Whatever the reason for his resignation, it is a good thing that Freeman was forced to resign. It is a very good thing that the man writing the US's National Intelligence Estimates and briefing the president on intelligence matters is not a hired gun for the Saudi and Chinese governments who believes that Jewish Americans have no right to participate in public debate about US foreign policy. But while his appointment was foiled, the fact that a man like Freeman was even considered for the post tells us two deeply disturbing things about the climate in Washington these days.

First and foremost, Freeman's appointment gives us disconcerting information about how the Obama administration intends to relate to intelligence. Freeman was appointed by Adm. Dennis Blair, President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence. Blair stood by Freeman's appointment even after information became known about his financial ties to foreign governments and his extreme views on Israel and American Jews were exposed. Blair repeatedly extolled Freeman for his willingness to stake out unpopular positions.

Blair ... defended Freeman ...(and) the Islamic Republic. He claimed that just because Iran is enriching uranium, there is no reason to believe that the mullahs are interested in building a bomb. That is, America's top intelligence officer is willing to take Iran's word on everything.

On the other hand, he isn't willing to take Israel's word on anything. Although he acknowledged that his nonchalant assessment of Iran was based on the same information as Israel's dire assessment of Iran, Blair scoffed at Israel's views, claiming that they are colored by the Jewish state's fears. In his words, "The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things from their point of view." ...

THE SECOND disturbing development exposed by Freeman's appointment is the emergence of a very committed and powerful anti-Israel lobby in Washington. In the past, while anti-Israel politicians, policy-makers and opinion-shapers were accepted in Washington, they would not have felt comfortable brandishing their anti-Israel positions as a qualifying credential for high position. Freeman's appointment shows that this is no longer the case. ...

From September 11, to Russia's invasion of Georgia, from Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003, it is clear that in recent years, the US intelligence community has regularly substituted wishful thinking for true analysis. Freeman's appointment and the emergence of the anti-Israel lobby as a major force in Washington policy circles show that turning the US away from Israel has become a key component of that wishful thinking.

But, as they say in the world of intelligence, forewarned is forearmed.

Read it all here.