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UPDATE - If you don't have time for a lot of commentary, here's the scoop:
Headlines all over the country this morning are claiming that Hamas has changed its position regarding Israel. I don't see that this is any way true. Here's what they're talking about: Convicted terrorists in Israeli prison, some Hamas and some Fatah, have "negotiated" a draft of some sort of proposal or statement. In that statement, the terrorists 1) refer to a future Palestinian state in all areas "occupied" [by Israel] in 1967 and (2) tell other terrorists that they should "focus resistance" -that is, kill the most Jews- in those areas. End of news.
The press is taking the fact that incarcerated Hamasniks have referred to Israel's 1967 borders - and are using those to explain to their fellow-terrorists "on the outside" where to "focus" future attacks - as a sign of "recognition" of Israel's sovereignty within those ("Auschwitz") borders.
It's bullsh*t. Hamas has not changed its position one iota.
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You wake up, you turn on the computer, you search Yahoo News for "israel" and the first big story of the day is, without a doubt:
Hamas Edges Toward Recognizing Israel
ABC News - 1 minute agoHamas Edges Toward Recognizing Israel
AP via Yahoo! News - 22 minutes agoHamas softens stance on Israel
MSNBC - 51 minutes agoIntiative Forces Palestinian Debate on Recognizing Israel New York Times - May 11 12:36 PM
Palestinian militants accept state beside Israel in proposal Boston Globe - 2 hours, 56 minutes ago
Militants agree to recognize Israel
Detroit News - May 12 1:13 AMJailed Palestinian leaders propose end to attacks in Israel AFP via Yahoo! News - May 11 9:11 AM
Those last two headlines are outright lies, but what about this "edging toward" recognition? Is there a shift in Hamas?
Let's look at the latest, the AP report via ABC. This is unbelievable BS. Hamas doesn't recognize Israel! There's nothing whatsoever in the article that supports their headline.
Reading all this doubletalk reminds me of how the Nobel Prize biography of Arafat -may he rot in hell- really had to stretch to make the Father of International Terrorism appear worthy of a Peace Prize:
In a speech at a special United Nations session held in Geneva, Switzerland, Arafat declared that the PLO renounced terrorism and supported "the right of all parties concerned in the Middle East conflict to live in peace and security, including the state of Palestine, Israel and other neighbours".and then:
"... Arafat's governing style tended to be more dictatorial than democratic."I assume that was written with a straight face, girded by great determination not to think about -much less mention- dead Jews. In this same vein, now we have the Drive by Media trying to whitewash Hamas (and Fatah) without resorting to outright lies ... if they can help it.
So what about this "recognition" of Israel?
JERUSALEM May 12, 2006 (AP)— Hamas edged toward recognition of Israel, a key international demand, in an agreement worked out by Hamas and Fatah leaders in an Israeli prison, mentioning a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza while refusing to renounce violence.Do you get it? This "agreement" mentions a "Palestinian state" ... so from that we are to assume an intrinsic recognition of the sovereignty of a neighboring Jewish state? I don't think so.
Now then:
Hamas leaders in Gaza and the West Bank have hinted they might abandon the group's call for the destruction of Israel, but Khaled Mashaal, the Syria-based leader of Hamas, has rejected any suggestion of moderation.About these "hints," who hinted? Which "Hamas leaders"? Were they in Israeli prison at the time? Accused of what? Convicted of what? Whose blood is on their hands? What exactly did they say when they "hinted"? When was that?
If they "hinted" that they "might" abandon their "call" (not their goal, just their call) for the destruction of a country, under what circumstances "might" they? Do such circumstances exist? etc. etc. You get the idea. And you probably didn't miss the way they're setting up Mashaal as some sort of radical extremist deviant compared to his more reasonable terrorist colleagues in Israeli prison.
Next?
"... the document included key Palestinian demands Israel has always rejected ..."No recognition there; keep looking. Ah yes, Paragraph #7 gives some "who" --
The draft agreement was negotiated over the past month by militants held in Hadarim Prison next to the seaside Israeli city of Netanya, including Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Abbas' Fatah Party, and Abdel Khaled Natche, the top Hamas militant held by Israel.Why in the world are these poormilitants in jail? Well, let's see. Barghouti is serving five consecutive life terms + 40 years for the murder of a Greek monk in Maale Adumim in 2001 and two attacks in 2002, one on a gas station in Givat Zeev and one on a restaurant in Tel Aviv. Oh yeah, and a car bomb attack in Jerusalem. Get this bit, from the Jewish Virtual Library:
Prior to the verdict's announcement, security was beefed up in the courtroom as Barghouti's supporters from the European parliament were expected to show up for the ruling. After leaving the courthouse, Arab Knesset member Mohammed Barakesh (Hadash/Communist Party) said, "Barghouti will be released, and those who imprisoned him will eventually have to hold negotiations with him because he is the leader of the Palestinian people."We'll see about that; I wouldn't put it past Olmert to negotiate with an imprisoned murderer but perhaps I underestimate his spine. Anyway, I digress.
Who, then, is Abdel Khaled Natche? The BBC tells us that Israeli troops blew up his house; no reason is mentioned other than his being an "alleged Palestinian terrorism suspect." CBS, in another report about Israel's house demolitions, identifies Natche as "the leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the town of Hebron." Now we're getting somewhere.
Googling [Natche + Hebron], we find that the mayor of Hebron is one Mustafa Natche, probably a relative, but that doesn't tell us why Abdel is in prison. The Boston Globe tells us that the Natche family owns a century-old Ibrahim al Khalil glassworks firm in Hebron, so we can assume that Abdel should have stuck to glass-blowing, but didn't. And let's see, we're now on the third page of Google results and we find an Irish Examiner report from 1998 that mentions a "Hamas activist, Jamal Natche" arrested in Hebron by Palestinian "intelligence agents" for involvement in an Iranian plot to kill Arafat. No Abdel, though.
I even Googled ["abdel khaled natche" + Israel] and got only five hits about his house being demolished (for no apparent reason). Last try: search the Counterterrorism Blog for "natche" -- no results.
After also searching for both "Abdel Natche" and "Khaled Natche" I give up. Whoever he is, he's a nobody, which is why the AP is making so much ado over his "agreement" with murderer Marwan Barghouti.
Thus we have a report headlined "Hamas Edges Toward Recognizing Israel," where the Hamas part of the Hamas-Fatah "agreement" in which this recognition is said to exist, is a terrorist nobody in Israeli prison. Okay, that does it for the "Who" of it.
Just as an aside, notice that this report variously calls whatever-it-is an "agreement," a "document," a "draft agreement," "the draft" and a "proposal."
Back to ABC. Not until Paragraph #8 do we find anything that even remotely relates to the headline.
The proposal calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state "in all the lands occupied in 1967," a reference to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The document does not include explicit recognition of Israel, but even the implied recognition would mark a major breakthrough for Hamas.There it is, folks. The AP is asserting to the world that Hamas is moving toward recognition of the sovereignty of the state of Israel, based on an old demand, incessantly repeated, for control of territory "in all the lands occupied in 1967" -- and that, in some draft/proposal/agreement/document negotiated between a well-known convicted and imprisoned Fatah terrorist murderer and a little known Hamasnik, likewise in prison.
Paragraph #12:
The draft agreement does not renounce violence, saying Palestinians should "focus their resistance on the lands occupied in 1967."Talk about doubletalk, just look at that sentence. "The draft agreement does not renounce violence." No, in fact it does quite the opposite, calling for the murder of Jews... in some places more than others. (What else could "focus their resistance" possibly mean?)
I have to say this is the most amazing non-news under the most seemingly-newsworthy headline I have ever witnessed. This so-called draft/proposal/agreement/document does not represent any identifiable change whatsoever in the Hamas goal of the total annhiliation of Israel, and in fact is nothing more than a bulletin to terrorists about where -in which areas of the land of Israel- they should "focus" their killing of Jews.
The last two paragraphs contain what may be the only news in the whole mess:
"The prison negotiations were ... aimed at ending rising tension between Hamas and Fatah.... Hamas and Fatah are to hold crucial talks in two weeks to try to settle their differences..."
Time for a coffee break. Trying to wrench some news out of the "news" is exhausting.
Afterthought: ILK (Israel Lobby Konspirators) tell me the Drive by Media wrested out from under ILK control -just momentarily, I am assured- in order to put this out on behalf of Eurabian interests. The EU was looking for a temporary smoke screen behind which to hide their increasing (and utterly despicable and dhimmi-witted ) acceptance of Hamas.
Posted by: Cynic | Friday, 12 May 2006 at 03:27 PM