Daniel in Brookline

The withheld tax funds will be transferred to the Palestinians in installments, through a mechanism that will ensure none of the funds reach terror organizations, or any groups associated with terror, including Hamas.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also remarked on the issue of the withheld tax funds during a visit to Luxembourg earlier in the week. Livni said that Israel would release the funds to the Palestinian Authority, if the emergency government acknowledged Israel's right to exist.

The near-perfect public order that reigned in Gaza this week can be
attributed, at least in part, to the fear Hamas struck into residents'
hearts last week, during the Strip's civil war. Testimony collected from the
days of fighting indicates that Hamas imposed a methodical system of terror
and scare tactics intended to deter, shock and frighten Fatah operatives and
Gaza residents in general.

It began on a Monday 11 days ago, when a Fatah man was tossed off a
multi-story building in the Strip; it subsequently came to light that Hamas
operatives managed to shoot him in the legs before throwing him to his
death. Although this method was used on only one other Fatah operative, it
had the desired effect and became the talk of the town. A number of Fatah
leaders, who knew that their names appeared on Hamas hit lists, decided to
make their exit, with some heading to Ramallah and others crossing into
Egypt.

"It's very easy to criticize the senior officials who disappeared," says a
Gazan journalist. "But you have to remember that they wanted to stay alive.
People had already tried to assassinate them in the past and they knew that
Hamas wanted their heads. Someone like that wants to survive."

Hamas was not using a random hit list. Every Hamas patrol carried with it a
laptop containing a list of Fatah operatives in Gaza, and an identity number
and a star appeared next to each name. A red star meant the operative was to
be executed and a blue one meant he was to be shot in the legs - a special,
cruel tactic developed by Hamas, in which the shot is fired from the back of
the knee so that the kneecap is shattered when the bullet exits the other
side. A black star signaled arrest, and no star meant that the Fatah member
was to be beaten and released. Hamas patrols took the list with them to
hospitals, where they searched for wounded Fatah officials, some of whom
they beat up and some of whom they abducted.

Aside from assassinating Fatah officials, Hamas also killed innocent
Palestinians, with the intention of deterring the large clans from
confronting the organization. Thus it was that 10 days ago, after an
hours-long gun battle that ended with Hamas overpowering the Bakr clan from
the Shati refugee camp - known as a large, well-armed and dangerous family
that supports Fatah - the Hamas military wing removed all the family members
from their compound and lined them up against a wall. Militants selected a
14-year-old girl, two women aged 19 and 75, and two elderly men, and shot
them to death in cold blood to send a message to all the armed clans of
Gaza.

"Palestinians today need to be left without a shred of a doubt" as to what other Arabs think of them, a widely read opinion commentator for the Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat, Mamoun Fandy, thundered on Monday. "We need to tell them the only thing they have proven over 50 years is that they are adolescents who cannot and should not be trusted to run institutions of state or any other important matters."

While it could be argued that the overwhelming public outrage in Saudi Arabia reflects resentment over the collapse of the much-vaunted reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah -- which was personally brokered by King Abdullah earlier this year in Mecca -- the anger expressed across the Muslim Arab world reflects deep embarrassment at the discredit Hamas has brought, in the name of Islam, through its savagery against Fatah.

For its part, the Egyptian press has become unhinged, spewing vile denunciations of what is universally known as "the cause" -- support for the Palestinian Arabs -- and describing it as dead. Egypt's government pulled its embassy out of Gaza on Tuesday.

Kuwaitis, who have harbored contempt for Palestinian Arabs ever since they allied themselves with Saddam Hussein's occupation in 1990-91, also dropped all restraint. "Palestinians are neither a modernized nor a civilized people," Ahmad Al Bughdadi wrote Monday in Al Siyassah, an influential Kuwaiti daily. "They are not statesmen. If what happened in Gaza is what they do without a state, what then shall they do when they get one?"

If there could be an editorial coup de grace, it surely was delivered by no less than Abdelbari Atwan, undoubtedly the Palestinian Arabs most influential and respected journalist and a familiar face on both Western and Arab television.

Writing in the London-based Al Quds International, his painfully felt commentary, "Yes, We Have Lost the World's Respect," argued that "the cause" may have lost its legitimacy: "Many, myself among them, find it difficult to speak of Israeli crimes against our people in view of what we have now done," Mr. Atwan wrote. "I never thought the day would come when we would see Palestinians throwing other Palestinians from the tops of buildings to their death, Palestinians attacking other Palestinians to tear their bodies with knives, Palestinians stripping others naked to drag them through the streets."

Barring a "catastrophic development," reports Middle East Newsline, George W. Bush has decided not to attack Iran. An administration source explains that Washington deems Iran's cooperation "needed for a withdrawal [of US forces] from Iraq."

If correct, this implies that the Jewish state stands alone against a regime that threatens to "wipe Israel off the map" and is building the nuclear weapons to do so. Israeli leaders are hinting that their patience is running out; Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz just warned that "diplomatic efforts should bear results by the end of 2007."

Can the Israel Defense Forces in fact disrupt Iran's nuclear program?

Armed members from the rival Hamas and Fatah factions have been battling in Gaza for control of key security posts.

Five Palestinians were killed in an explosion in a tunnel under a security headquarters in Khan Younis.

The fighting has spilled over into the West Bank with a gun battle breaking out in the northern town of Nablus.

At least 17 people have been reported killed in fighting on Wednesday with more than 60 people confirmed to have died in the last week.

Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah, called the violence in Gaza "madness" and called on all parties to stop.

"Without a ceasefire and stopping of the fighting I think the situation will collapse in Gaza," he warned from Ramallah in the West Bank.

Supporters of Mr Abbas blamed Hamas militants for the blast in the southern city of Khan Younis that destroyed much of a building used by the Fatah-linked Preventive Security force.

Heavy gunfire broke out after the explosion and witnesses said several people were trapped in the rubble.

Two workers from the UN relief agency were among those who died on Wednesday. One man was apparently killed in crossfire in Khan Younis, the UNRWA said; the other died from wounds sustained on Tuesday.

The UN said it would temporarily scale back its operations in Gaza.

Frightened civilians have been forced to stay in their homes in the densely populated seaside territory.

Children have been kept indoors for safety, although important school exams were meant to take place this week.

Several hundred civilian protesters briefly turned out in Gaza City to call for a ceasefire, but they scattered when confronted by masked Hamas gunmen firing their weapons.

One protester was killed and there are reports 14 others were injured by the gunfire.

Earlier today, Hamas issued Fatah forces in Gaza with an ultimatum to surrender their weapons within hours. [...]

A statement issued by the armed wing of Hamas today called on members of the Palestinian security services and other Fatah loyalists to "voluntarily hand over weapons" by 7pm local time (1700 BST). "Those who refuse will be considered wanted," it said.

The AFP news agency said seven people died in the fighting, while a boy was gunned down in crossfire elsewhere in the city.

Terrified civilians spent another day sheltering in their homes, and UN officials said it had been impossible to distribute supplies to the one-third of Gaza residents relying on international food aid. [...]

The violence has become increasingly brutal, with reports of fighting around hospitals and people being shot in the streets or thrown from rooftops.

Human Rights Watch today accused both sides of committing war crimes. "These attacks by both Hamas and Fatah constitute brutal assaults on the most fundamental humanitarian principles," Sarah Leah Whitson, of the US-based organisation, said.

"The murder of civilians not engaged in hostilities and the wilful killing of captives are war crimes, pure and simple."

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has warned of serious "regional consequences" if Hamas becomes more radicalised, but stressed that his country would not get drawn into the violence.

Jamal Abu Jadian, a top Fatah commander, fled his home in the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday evening dressed as a woman to avoid dozens of Hamas militiamen who had attacked it. He and several members of his family and bodyguards were lightly wounded.

But when Abu Jadian arrived at a hospital a few hundred meters away from his house, he was discovered by a group of Hamas gunmen, who took turns shooting him in the head with automatic rifles.

"They literally blew his head off with more than 40 bullets," said a doctor at Kamal Udwan Hospital.

Abu Jadian, a close ally of Fatah warlord Muhammad Dahlan and a sworn enemy of Hamas, was the third top Fatah commander to be killed by Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip in the past few weeks. The other two were Muhammad Ghraib, a senior commander of the Fatah-dominated Preventative Security Service, and Baha Abu Jarad, a leading member of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing.

All three were killed after dozens of Hamas militiamen surrounded their homes for hours, firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive charges.

Hamas targeted them because it believed they were heads of a Fatah group that has been targeting Hamas officials and activists over the past year. This group, Hamas officials claim, is headed by Dahlan and other senior Fatah leaders who, with the help of the US and Israel, are part of a "plot" to remove Hamas from power.

A Hamas gunman stands guard on a rooftop in Gaza City

Whatever decision Abbas and his Fatah lieutenants take, it will be hard to change the new reality that has been created on the ground, especially in the Gaza Strip. As of today, the Palestinians can boast that they have two entities - one in the Gaza Strip run by Muslim fundamentalists and another one in the West Bank under the control of secular Fatah leaders.

"The two-state solution has finally worked," a Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip commented sarcastically. "Today, all our enemies have good reason to celebrate."

Palestinian security forces allied with Fatah arrested three dozen Hamas activists in the West Bank on Thursday, as the Islamic group neared a military takeover of Gaza. [. . .]

Arrests of Hamas activists were reported in the West Bank towns of Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, Ramallah and Bethlehem.

In Bethlehem, security forces wore ski masks, to avoid being identified, as they seized Hamas activists in their homes and businesses, witnesses said.

In Nablus, masked security agents and Fatah gunmen rode together in cars, searching for Hamas members, and broke into several homes of Hamas activists. In one area, a brief firefight erupted.

Also Thursday, Fatah gunmen seized a Hamas preacher from a West Bank village and shot him in the legs, security officials said. Later, Fatah activists kidnapped three more Hamas activists from a building in downtown Ramallah. [. . .]

In Nablus, dozens of gunmen set fire to the third-floor office of several Hamas members of parliament and threw furniture into the street.

Things are happening at a bloodcurdling pace, and it is very hard sometimes to keep track of all the terrorist vs terrorist goings on. Thus as a special service for Israellycool readers, I have summarized today's events in an easy-to-follow manner. No thanks needed, I'm a giver.

Hamas:

Demanded that Fatah terrorists abandon their positions, threatening to attack those who remained in their posts

Launched afternoon attacks against Fatah-allied terrorists

Captured several positions from Fatah

Surrounded a compound, in which approximately 500 Fatah terrorists were holed up, and fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the building

Ransacked the Gaza home of former palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath of Fatah, and shot one of his bodyguards in the leg.

Deployed fighters in Khan Younis and erected roadblocks in order to inspect cars.

Seized a hospital in Khan Yunis, the third medical center to come under Hamas control in two days

Threatened to attack the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service in Gaza City, which is loyal to Fatah

Attacked the home of a senior Fatah security official with mortars and grenades, killing 3 women and a child

Accused Fatah of being "Zionist collaborators"

Called for the execution of the Fatah's military and political leaders

Described the fighting as a civil war

Threatened to step things up a notch

Fatah:

Accused Hamas of staging a coup (ya' think?)

Threatened to withdraw from the National Unity Government (ya' think?)

Believe Hamas is trying to achieve a decisive victory in the Gaza Strip "within hours" (here's hoping this thing is drawn out for a longer time)

Were up until the last few hours still awaiting orders from Mahmoud Abbas to fight back

Announced it would kill Hamas officials unless Hamas ceased its attacks

Abducted the deputy cabinet minister from Hamas in Ramallah

Attacked the home of palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh with a rocket-propelled grenade (Haniyeh and his family were unhurt)

Kidnapped a member of the Hamas military wing (a cousin of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the arch terrorist we killed 3 years ago) and executed him in the street.

Stormed the house of a Hamashole and burned it to the ground.

Called for the execution of the Hamas' military and political leaders

Started playing Fatah songs on Hamas TV (a possible sign that they have taken control of the broadcast)

Described the fighting as a civil war

Declared a State of Alert

Hamas or Fatah (not sure yet):

Launched at least 4 shells at the Technological Science College

The UN:

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Human Rights Organizations:

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Gunmen Fire At Two Palestinian Authority Officials

June 11, 2007 9:16 a.m. EST

Linda Young - AHN News Writer

Gaza City, Gaza Strip (AHN) - Gunmen on Monday fired on the home of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and the office of the Sports and Culture Minister Bassem Naim, both of the Hamas political party. The attack on Haniyeh came early on Monday morning and the attack on Naim was Monday afternoon, local time.

Haniyeh lives in the Shati refugee camp, which is located next to Gaza City. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Haniyeh's wife, children and grandchildren were home at the time of the attack, but there was no word on whether he was inside the home or nearby at the time of the attack.

The gunfire came from a nearby high-rise building and lasted about 15 minutes, according to AP reports.

Naim, who was inside the building during the attack but was not harmed, is a close associate of Haniyeh. His sister and a ministry official identified only as Ahmed blamed factions within Fatah for the attack.

"It was the Fatah gangs. There was no justification. We were at work, and the ministry came under fire," Ahmed told the Hamas-affiliated Aqsa Radio, according to Jerusalem Post reports.

After the shootings, both Fatah and Hamas leaders called for an end to the violence, citing the need of thousands of high school students for calm to study for their matriculation exams.

"This is shameful for our people," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said. He spoke during a trip to a school in the West Bank, according to Jerusalem Post reports. "I call on everyone to stop this immediately, not only because of the examinations, but also for our people to live a normal life."

'Palestinians are on verge of civil war'
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday that his people were on the verge of civil war and said the infighting was worse than living under Israeli military rule.

. . .

Abbas focused on the bloody factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas. The two parties have been governing in an uneasy coalition since March, after a year of Hamas-only rule, but another round of deadly gun battles erupted in May.

"Regarding our internal situation, what concerns us all is the chaos, and more specifically, being on the verge of civil war," Abbas said.

He said he has spent hundreds of negotiating hours trying to halt the bloodshed, "realizing that what is equal to or even worse than occupation is internal fighting."

For example, Majed Azzam wrote in the Hamas-affiliated weekly Al Risala in Gaza that Palestinians “should have the courage to acknowledge the truth,” that the only thing that “prevents the chaos and turmoil in Gaza from spreading to the West Bank is the presence of the Israeli occupation.”

Another Palestinian writer, Bassem al-Nabris, a poet from Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, wrote in the Arabic electronic newspaper Elaph that if there was a referendum in the Gaza Strip on the question of whether people would like the Israeli occupation to return, “half the population would vote ‘yes.’ But in practice,” he continued, “I believe that the number of those in favor is at least 70 percent, if not more.”

"If the occupation returns," Mr. Nabris added, "at least there will be no civil war, and the occupier will have a moral and legal obligation to provide the occupied people with employment and food, which they now lack."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday that Washington is taking steps to address Mexican concerns the U.S. is not doing enough to stop illegal weapons from being smuggled across the border and into the hands of brutal drug gangs. . . . "The firepower we are seeing here has to do with a lack of control on the (U.S.) side of the border," Patricio Patino, Mexico's top anti-drug intelligence official, said last month.

People don't realize, or remember, how close Israel was to being wiped off the map 40 years ago. On the one hand, it may not seem audacious that Israel acted in the nick of time to save itself. On the other, Israel used almost its entire air force in its successful gambit to wipe out Egypt's air force on the ground. If the attack had failed, Israel would have been extremely vulnerable to the forces already massed on the border.

It is also forgotten that all this happened when Gaza belonged to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan. There were no "Israeli settlements" or "occupation," yet the Arab states were poised to drive the Jews into the sea, as they put it. It is this Arab desire to destroy Israel, not Israeli intransigence, that remains the obstacle to both peace and to the creation of a Palestinian state (whether or not they are the same thing).

Great events have a way not only of reshaping the outlook for the future but also our understanding of the past, usually in the service of clarity. "Why England Slept" was an apt question to ask of Britain in the mid-1930s, but it made sense only after Sept. 1, 1939. By contrast, the Six Day War laid a thick fog over what came before. Today, the pre-1967 period is remembered (not least by many Israelis) as a time when the country's conscience was clear and respectable world opinion admired "plucky little Israel." Yet these were the same years when Israel lived within what Abba Eban, its dovish foreign minister, called "Auschwitz borders," with only nine miles separating the westernmost part of the West Bank from the Mediterranean Sea.

It is also often said today that the Six Day War humiliated the Arabs and propelled the region into future rounds of fighting. Yet President Aref of Iraq had prefaced his call to destroy Israel by describing the war as the Arabs' chance "to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948." It is said that the war inaugurated the era of modern terrorism, as the Arab world switched from a strategy of conventional confrontation with Israel to one of "unconventional" attacks. Yet hundreds of Israelis had already been killed in fedayeen raids in Israel's first 19 years of existence.

It is said that the Palestinian movement was born from Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Yet the Palestine Liberation Organization was already in its third year of operations when the war began. It is said that Israel enjoyed international legitimacy so long as it lived behind recognized frontiers. Yet those frontiers were no less provisional before 1967 than they were after. Only after the Six Day War did the Green Line come to be seen as the "real" border.

Fog also surrounds memories of the immediate aftermath of the war. To read some recent accounts, a more sagacious Israel could have followed up its historic victory with peace overtures that would have spared everyone the bloody entanglements of its occupation of the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Or, failing that, it could have resisted the lure of building settlements in the territories in order not to complicate a land-for-peace transaction.

In fact, the Israeli cabinet agreed on June 19 to offer the Sinai to Egypt and the Golan to Syria in exchange for peace deals. In Khartoum that September, the Arab League declared "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it." As for Jewish settlements, hardly any were built for years after the war: In 1972, for instance, only about 800 settlers had moved to the West Bank.

Watching the pundits discuss our historic meeting with Iran, you would have mostly heard despair at the notion that we have no leverage in these talks, and so therefor why would Iran give on anything? Why would they stop waging war against us in iraq if they have nothing to fear? To all the experts in the media, the whole thing seemed like some grand puzzlement. Was it just an attempt to appease the administration’s domestic critics who have been chiding it for not engaging in diplomacy ( a vaguery if there ever was one ) with the world’s top terrorist? No one you heard from could really quite grasp what was going on.

For some reason, no one told you that just 5 days before Monday’s talks, an entire floating army, with nearly 20,000 men, comprising the world’s largest naval strike force, led by the USS Nimitz and the USS Stennis, and also comprising the largest U.S. Naval armada in the Persian Gulf since 2003, came floating up unannounced through the Straight of Hormuz, and rested right on Iran’s back doorstep, guns pointed at them. The demonstration of leverage was clear. And it also came on the exact date of the expiration of the 60 day grace period the U.N. had granted Iran.

And it came just a few weeks after Vice President Dick Cheney had swept through the region and delivered a very clear and pointed message to the Saudi King Abdullah and others: George Bush has unequivocally decided to attack Iran’s nuclear, military and economic infrastructure if they do not abandon their drive for military nuclear capability. Plain and simple. Iran heard the message as well, and although a lack of leverage may seem clear to America’s retired military tv talking heads, it is not so clear to the government in Tehran.

The message to both Iran and Syria is that if the talks in Baghdad fail, the military option is ready to go.

The message we sent to Iran in Baghdad was significant only to people who don’t know better, like the media and dumb politicians. [. . .] Bush has made it quietly clear to them that we are going to strike.

Forget Condi’s for-the-press face today. For many months now, while no one has been able to really see and understand, we have been waging a war of finality against Iran and her ambitions. While everyone in the media, and on the media’s receiving end, have been wringing their hands in anguish at our seeming impotence and inaction, the VP has been functioning as a nearly one man army/terrorist wreaking havoc through the halls of power in Tehran. Why do you think he has been taking all those trips through the region? To discuss the latest trends in couscous recipes? He has been shoring up relationships, building strategy, and waging the necessary war against Iran. Why is he about to visit all of Iran’s northern neighbors? Why has Iran been taking Americans captive in a feverish panic? Coincidence? Why is the architect of Iran’s nuclear program, Vladimir Putin, about to head to a private summit with Bush? Why all the posturing about a missile shield? It’s all about Iran, and Putin is working to get all he can as the price for his blessing.

No one is asleep at the wheel. Except the media and the Democrats.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy now under construction in Baghdad appeared online in a major breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project that will be America's largest diplomatic mission abroad.

Computer-generated projections of the nearly completed heavily fortified compound were posted to the Web site of Berger Devine Yaeger Inc., an American architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive facility in the Iraqi capital.

The post was removed by the company from its Web site Thursday shortly after being contacted about it by the State Department.

"We work very hard to ensure the safety and security of our employees overseas," said Gozalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman. "This kind of information out in the public domain detracts from that effort."

Some U.S. officials acknowledged that damage may have been done by the postings and used expletives to describe their personal reactions, but downplayed the overall risk posed.

"People are eventually going to figure out where all these places are, but you don't have to draw them a map," said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the embassy project.