Israel has taken away the perks of being a palestinian legislator.
Israel has canceled the VIP travel privileges of Palestinian Legislative Council members, barring them from enjoying unrestricted travel between the West Bank and Gaza, security officials said Tuesday. The members had their VIP-2 status removed, out of concern that the new Palestinian government will turn the Palestinian Authority into a terrorist organization.
While PA ministers continue to enjoy VIP-1 status, once a Hamas led government is established it will only be a matter of time before they will also be stripped of their privileges, the officials said.
Good.
No doubt the “pragmatists” in Hamas will react in due time. Like this one:
Abu Marzook also hinted at some possible flexibility in his party’s position. “We are facing changes and every movement will make changes according to the reality,” he said. “But there are three principles we will not compromise on: government according to the laws of the sharia (Islamic law), our right to live in Palestine, and our right to resist the occupation.”
Oh, wait. He says that talking with Israel is a waste of time.
The Hamas leader went on to say that the organization will hold negotiations with Israel the minute Israel ‘recognizes the rights of the Palestinian people and withdraws from occupied territories,†adding that negotiations with Israel under current circumstances were a “waste of time.”
Amazing how people can see flexibility where there truly is none. The above are from two different stories.
So, about that moderation: Still not seeing any.
Yes, they will negotiate as soon as Israel leaves occupied territory. That is, every Jew abandons any settlement starting with (and to the west of) the seacoast of Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Ashdod. They would probably be willing to compromise by letting the Jews set up settlements in International Waters.
Of course there is a dispute among them whether the border is three miles or two hundred miles to the east of the coast line. There are also those who say that the settlements would violate the UN law regarding taking ownership of the sea bottom (which is where they would allow the settlements to be built).
Wait a minute: Israel is acting “out of concern that the new Palestinian government will turn the Palestinian Authority into a terrorist organization?”
As opposed to what it was before: an organization that plans, funds, encourages and carries out attacks on Israeli civilians; manufactures and imports arms to use against Israelis; undermines Israel’s economy with counterfeiting and theft; incites its citizens with anti-Jewish schoolbooks, lesson plans, false stories in the governmental controlled TV and newspapers and sermons in government controlled mosques; hands over Israelis in its custody to angry mobs to be torn limb from limb; executes people who warn Israel of impending terror attacks; embezzles aid from the rest of the world and diverts it to bribes, personal luxury and the funding of murderous attacks (often carried out by its own security personnel) on civilians; glorifies suicide bombers as martyrs; shows a middle east devoid of Israel on all of its official maps; plays “catch and release” on the few occasions that it actually locks up a few mass murdering terrorists; intimidates Western journalists with threats of torture and death — and that’s just a partial list.
It’s one thing to worry that the PA under Hamas will be even worse than under Fatah. But talking about
“turn[ing] the Palestinian Authority into a terrorist organization” is like talking about turning a lemon into a small, yellow sour citrus fruit commonly found in produce departments and often used to make a summer time soft drink or for seasoning tea.