Lately a new wind of pragmatism is blowing from Gaza. In a CBS interview Ismail Haniyeh, PM designate of the future Hamas government is “hopeful that a peace agreement can be reached” and noted that “Palestinians are not bloodthirsty and they wish to stop the bloodshed”.

As promising as that might sound I suggest we curb our enthusiasm take Haniyeh’s willingness to make peace as nothing more than words.

Haniyeh is a long standing member of Hamas, an organization committed to the violent destruction of Israel. This is reflected in their charter, their emblem, their public statements and their thousands of victims none of which ever caused Haniyeh to display any discomfort. Is anybody expected to ignore that?

We have seen Palestinian leaders display themselves as pragmatic before.

Arafat and the PLO, through the entire peace process, spoke of peace in English and of war in Arabic. While making sure to condemn every suicide bombing when giving interviews about compromise and peace to western networks, Arafat repeatedly called for Jihad in Arabic. He used the state controlled media to incite his public, commit messages of war and terror, glorify suicide bombers and rule out any claim Israel has over it’s land. From honestreporting:

“Arafat had told an Arab audience in Stockholm in 1996, ‘We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion… We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.’ Likewise, Arafat explained to a South African crowd in 1994 that the Oslo agreement was merely a tactical ruse in the larger battle to destroy the Jewish state ― a modern version of the Muslim prophet Mohammed’s trickery against the ancient tribe of Quraysh. Arafat’s colleague Faisal al-Husseini was even more explicit, describing the Oslo process as a ‘Trojan Horse’ designed to promote the strategic goal of ‘Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea’ ― that is, a Palestine in place of Israel”

In fact, this should not have come as much of a surprise. In 1974 the PNC (Palestinian National Council) passed the “Phased Plan” resolution. The plan’s basics were to establish an independent Palestinian territory from which further attacks could be launched. The ultimate goal (paragraph 8 of the resolution) was to provoke an all out war with Arab nations that would result in the eradication of the Jewish state.

Arafat, speaking shortly after signing the Oslo Accords said the agreement: “…will be a basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the Palestine National Council resolution issued in 1974″

Today Hamas is following a similar tactic. Haniyeh, the pragmatic face of Hamas, talks of peace in English, while Mashal and other Hamas leaders, in Arabic, talk of humiliating Israel before it dies and liberating Jerusalem, Jaffo, Haifa and all of Palestine. Ironically, this can be viewed as the ultimate pragmatic apprach. A practical way of defeating Israel.

Western and Israeli leaders couldn’t resist Arafat’s public statements for peace and decided to brush away all warnings, even give him the Nobel Prize for peace, in hope that government would convert the PLO. The results were 7 years in which Arafat would build a terror state that, when put to use in September 2000, caused Israel thousands of deaths, economic decline and international isolation. Israel has learned the lesson the hard way. Has the world?

MEMRI: This was said on a Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal’s TV channel.

While the UN just passed another resolution on Palestinian refugees, Jewish refugees have been buried in the sands of time. With the founding of Israel Jews across the Muslim world came under attack and had their living conditions made unbearable.

Since Israel’s founding over a million Jews fled to Israel. This ethnical cleansing of Jewish communities existing in those countries for thousands of years has been largely forgotten.

The point of no return is a blog dealing with this issue.

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This is an excellent interview with 3 ex terrorists talking about Islam, incitement to hate, the west’s misconception of the Arab world and Muslim communities in the west.

The interview is 16 minutes long but well worth the watch. Click here to download.

The Daily Clue - Showing you the Arab World day by day

Syria, 1982.

Hafez Assad, the dictator of Syria had outlawed all political parties except his own (the Baath Party) and opposition began to surface from the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood had the goal of overthrowing the Syrian government. This of course didn’t sit well with Assad, who went on to do what many an Arab dictator has done when facing similar problems.

The city of Hama had been more persistent with it’s criticisms of Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood had a relatively strong foothold there, according to Syrian government sources at the time, 200 armed men.

Assad wanted to set an example.

Starting February 2nd the town was put under siege and suffered severe military attacks (according to some sources including chemical weapons) resulting in anywhere from 20,000 - 40,000 civilian deaths, depending on the source. This of course included women, children and the elderly. Assad wanted to set an example and so he did. Today, his son still reigns Syria.

Read more about the Hama Massacre here and here.

While randomly strolling through some blogs I came across the “Angry Arab News Service”, which employs a typical technique in creating anti-Israeli propaganda, taking news out of context to the extreme without supplying sources. In this post the blog claims:

“Israel’s justice ministry is deciding whether to prosecute a hospital that held a newborn [Arab] baby for two months as a “guarantee” until a bill was paid.”

To which comments on Israel’s unfair laws towards Arabs of course follow.

The post is referring to this bit of news. In fact, the hospital in consideration of prosecution is an Arab hospital in east Jerusalem, and the decision to hold the baby was made by the manager of the hospital, also an Arab, in an attempt to secure payment against Israeli law. The Israeli ministry of Justice forced the Arab manager to release the baby.

It looks like the “Angry Arab News Service” feels it needs to completely disregard the facts in an attempt to twist Israel into the bad guy spot. Kind of makes you feel good, no?

In a clear answer to anyone advancing the “governmenment creates pragmatism” argument Khaled Mahal said: “Power is not our ultimate goal… if it becomes one, let power go to hell. It will not hold us back from our targets which we hold dear”

And what are those targets?

“Talks with Israel would be a waste of time”

“We and the Zionists have a date with destiny. If they want a fight… …we are for it to the end”

I think this is a good time to have a look at the PFLP, the terrorist group Saadat and other terrorists captured in Jericho belong to.

What would Saadat have done if set free?

I have already published this photo of the PFLP website threatening to kill Israeli leaders and carry out further attacks. But these and other threats of terrorism are merely the means to and end. What is that end? This is at best explained by looking at the PFLP terrorist wing’s emblem:

Machine guns and a map of (all of) Israel
As reflected in their charter, the PFLP opposes any agreements with Israel and even rejected the “Phased Plan” adopted by the PLO in 1974. They rejected the Oslo agreements and, as seen on their emblem, consider all of Israel to be palestine leaving no room for a jewish state.

Saadat had masterminded the killing of an Israeli minister, proving his commitmend to these goals. Would your country have let him go free?

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs put out this Press release concerning the Jericho jail raid. I suggest you read it.

Essentially Israel’s actions were dictated by the the US and UK’s decision to withdraw their personell. Jack Straw, the UK’s forgeign minister said: “The UK and the US have repeatedly raised our concerns over the security of our monitors with the Palestinian Authority and urged them to meet their obligations under the Ramallah agreement. Unfortunately, there has been no improvement. The Palestinian Authority has consistently failed to meet its obligations.”

Since Abbas and the Hamas government had declared they were willing to set the murderers free Israel had no choice but to act and arrest the murderers of an Israeli minister.

Yesterday I wrote about Arab societies choosing their heroes to be murderers, and not politicians or entertainers. It looks like their entertainers are not much better.

Today MEMRI has released a video of an Egyptian singer singing about Denmark. The video contains images of violent protests and flag burning while he sings: “The flames will burn your faces in hell”. He goes on to sing of the Avian Flu. WATCH THE VIDEO.