Oops, Conciliation, What Conciliation? It's Monday!
Well several days have passed, since the Fatah and the Palestinian Authority decided to remove several terms from their constitution for the purpose of de-fanging the appearance of their avowed intent against their neighbour. It played well in the international press, after all, and in this way justified its purpose. And gave Israel assurances that it could bargain in good faith with a one-time adversary that sought to unseat it as a legal entity in the region and reclaim 'their legitimate' territory.As good-will gestures go, this was a rare display of amenability, auguring well for future bargaining. And Israel, never loath to do her part, agreed to release Fatah militants from prison, to halt in its efforts to ensnare others thus ensuring they would no longer lob rockets into Israel, and even to accommodate the free passage of Egypt-stranded Fatah members back into Gaza. And, oh yes, assist the United States in re-arming Fatah militias with a new cache of weapons. To be used against Islamist, terrorist Hamas, of course.
Until such time as Islamist, terrorist Hamas wrenches them from the unwilling and unheroic hands of Fatah. Which, judging from past incidents needn't be very long in coming. But that's the logic of the Middle East. And that's another story entirely. Arm your avowed enemy to promote peace, and to allow him to regroup for the purpose of launching further attacks, while the political wing makes nice and arranges diplomatic trysts that amount to piddling-poo.
Not nice to be a cynic, to be so untrusting. Where's good faith in all of this? Well, show me. Earn trust. Behave in a manner conducive to trust. Coming right up!
Back to reality. The glow lasted all of a week, almost. Was it even a week? Nah...! Before PA-affiliated terrorists, likely the same ones that snickered under their kafiyehs as they 'gave up' their weapons to Fatah authority and pledged to join as one for the betterment of the Palestinian people, to work toward peace, to surrender their bloodthirsty revenge-and-hatred jihadist mission.
Then came Monday, and attacks against several Israeli targets ensued, with the attackers using firearms, rocks, arson and bombs. Very convincing. To which the new, highly-thought-of and respected PA prime minster declared his support for "resistance" operations against Israel. There's that word again, the very one that was just several days earlier expunged from the constitution to loud acclaim.
We're still on Monday, night - this time where PA gunmen fired on IDF soldiers. Earlier, an act of sabotage when fire was set to vegetation close on a Jewish town. Two Arabs in the same area were arrested earlier, found to have a gun in their possession, during a search of their vehicle. Same afternoon, IDF soldiers close to Gaza discovered a bomb near the security fence, close by a Kibbutz. When the bomb was destroyed, Arab gunmen fired at the soldiers.
A pipe bomb discovered in an Arab-owned vehicle in Gush Etzion, the driver arrested. Two buses stoned Monday night near Hevron. An Israeli driver had stones hurled at his vehicle. But that's all right folks, since Prime Minister Salam Fayyad declared "Resistance is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people as an occupied people." It's a mantra, very same words pronounced in the past by moderate PA Mahmoud Abbas.
Human nature. Old habits die hard.
Lest Israel feel too put-upon, she can take some kind of grim reassurance from an increase (yet weary again) in internal violence among the various PA terror groups - also on Monday. A senior Fatah terrorist, it seems, was found murdered (on Monday) near the border with Egypt, his body bearing evidence of violence; he was first tortured, then beaten, then dispatched, a never-fail formula among traditionalist Arab 'insurgents'.
Sigh. Same old, same old.
Labels: Middle East, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, July 31, 2007
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