The Palestinian Authority threatened on Tuesday to suspend negotiations with Israel in response to an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip that left 19 Palestinians - most of them Hamas gunmen - dead.
[Fatah may be a mortal enemy of Hamas, but it can't countenance Israel acting to keep Hamas from murdering Jews.
Abbas is never going to negotiate in good faith anyway — not that it matters, since he couldn't uphold an agreement anyway — so it doesn't really matter if he suspends the pointless, sham negotiations which themselves are in violation of the provisions of the roadmap.]
Abbas is never going to negotiate in good faith anyway — not that it matters, since he couldn't uphold an agreement anyway — so it doesn't really matter if he suspends the pointless, sham negotiations which themselves are in violation of the provisions of the roadmap.]
The PA also called for deploying international forces in the Gaza Strip "to defend Palestinian civilians against recurring Israeli acts of aggression." The call was issued by the PA government in Ramallah and the ruling Fatah faction.
[For the PA, Arab terrorists are "civilians." The real purpose of this plea is to try to get outsiders to protect terrorists so they can safely attack Israelis while taking away Israel's ability to protect itself.]
PA officials strongly condemned the IDF raid, dubbing it a "massacre."
[For the Palestinian Authority, any action which results in the deaths of Arab terrorists is a "massacre;" any attack which murders innocent Israeli civilians is a glorious act of resistance to the "Israeli aggressors."]
The officials expressed outrage at its timing, coming five days after US President George W. Bush's visit to Ramallah and his meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
[Has the Palestinian Authority ever not expressed outrage at the "timing" of anything Israel has ever done to save innocent lives?]
"The attack looks as if it was the outcome of Bush's talks with President Abbas," said a senior PA official. "Israel is strengthening Hamas and undermining the credibility of the Palestinian Authority."
Another official said Abbas had been enraged when he learned about the high number of casualties in the Gaza Strip. He quoted Abbas as saying that Israel was deliberately escalating the situation to scuttle efforts to achieve peace.
[It's one thing for Fatah and Hamas to massacre each other and their supporters; it's quite another for Israel to defend itself. Given the thousands of Kassams Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the other terrorist groups they subcontract with have launched at the people trying to live normal lives in Sederot, it's hard to see how Israel can escalate anything.]
Speaking to reporters in his Mukata presidential compound, Abbas said, "The Palestinians can't remain idle in the face of this massacre. Such crimes won't bring peace at all."
[If the Palestinian Authority even pretended to adhere to its most basic commitments under the Oslo Accords, or even the minimal subset in the Roadmap, Israel wouldn't have to defend its innocent civilians.]
Ahmed Qurei, head of the PA negotiating team, said the raid threatened to sabotage the peace process. "This massacre places obstacles and creates difficulties for the negotiators," he said. "We appeal to the Americans and the other Quartet members to assume their responsibilities and force Israel to stop its daily incursions and actions against the Palestinians."
[If the Palestinian Arabs weren't firing a half dozen or more Kassam missiles at civilian areas in Israel every day, Israel wouldn't have to take the defensive actions Qurei is so upset about.]
Sa'di al-Krunz, a member of the PA negotiating team, said Israel was determined to destroy the peace process in the aftermath of the Annapolis conference and Bush's recent tour. He, too, accused Israel of perpetrating "daily atrocities" against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
[If the Arabs would stop murdering Israelis, there might be a peace process.]
Hamas leaders in Gaza claimed the IDF operation was directly linked to Bush's visit. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Zahar also accused the PA leadership in Ramallah of "colluding" with Israel and the US.
[It obviously had nothing to do with the daily barrages of Kassams launched from Gaza, or the murder of Andres Muscara Chavez while he was working in a potato field on Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha, shot by a Hamas sniper from within the Gaza Strip.]
Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, called on its followers to carry out suicide bombings in Israel in retaliation for the killing of its members.
[So, what else is new? Have they ever stopped trying to carry out suicide bombings?]
The group also resumed rocket attacks on Israel after a long period of refraining from such attacks. (Islamic Jihad and other smaller groups have claimed responsibility for recent rocket attacks.)
[It must have been at least a day or two since they'd launched Kassams themselves rather than using their subcontractors.]
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