The democratically-elected government of the Palestinian terrortories[sic] is declaring its intention to murder large numbers of Israelis and, indeed, to start an “offensive war” with Israel (like they’re not already doing that).
Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’ military wing, has said that the movement will strike in the heart of Israel in the near future, a senior Hamas member said Tuesday.
The man, Sheikh Ahmed Hamdan from the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, said that he recently met with Deif in his hiding place, and heard from him that Hamas will soon replace its defensive fighting policy with an offensive one.
According to Hamdan, “The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, plans to begin its attack against the Israeli occupation in the coming weeks, and will not settle for the defensive policy.”
Now, this could be a variation on the “opening the gates of hell” rhetoric that we hear every time the IDF take out a Hamas terrorist, but it’s important to note that these are Hamasniks openly threatening to murder Israeli civilians. Funny how the world media never manages to pick up on these stories, but if an IDF missile strike hits a bunch of terrorists, the news media pick it up in a heartbeat.
Something tells me, though, that it’s not just talk. There are too many reports of Hamas action going on right now. They’re threatening to take over the West Bank by next year. (And won’t that be a wonderful gift if Israel leaves the West Bank and Hamas moves in? It’ll be just like Gaza, only closer to more Israeli population centers.) They’ve smuggled 112 tons of explosives since the disengagement, most of it since Hamas took over. And even the so-called “moderates” (yeah, right) are threatening war if the Annapolis talks don’t lead to a significant step forward.
“If the summit fails – frustration will win out over everything else and it will have a negative affect on the region. I cannot predict exactly what will happen, but it may lead to more wars.
“I warn now against failure there, which will open the door for extremists and extremism – and that door will be very difficult to close,” said Qureia at a conference held by Meretz activists.
And what exactly is the situation now, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas pretending that he’s cracking down on terror in the West Bank? They’re still attacking Israelis regularly. And Abbas still refuses to crack down on terror.
I hold out no hope whatsoever for this farce of a “peace” conference. The Palestinians are doing what they always do: Demanding land from Israel while promising absolutely nothing in return, and threatening war if their demands aren’t met. Same song, same tune, slightly different players. If President Bush and Condi Rice think they are going to leave a Palestinian state as their legacy, I think they’d better look for another legacy. As Omri often points out, since the world never makes the Palestinians own up to any of their own responsibilities, there’s no reason to think they’re going to start now.
I swear, we can just recycle our posts of previous years. I guarantee you you can search through my archives and find a post you could swap this with, event for event. I can’t believe I haven’t burned out on this crap yet.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 10/31/2007 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
There is nothing evil that Hamas will not do if it can. However the security fence and the active counter terror measures that the security services perform every night have hampered greatly their abilities. If bloodthirsty threats and rhetoric were weapons then the Hamas, IJ crowd could conquer the world. This is all assuming however that the important Olmerde government would sit quietly and allow them to attack but with Barak in Defense instead of the hapless Peretz there, that will not happen. I also suspect that Israel has passed the word back to Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Zafar that any resumption of suicide bombings would lead to their immediate assassinations.