Posted on 12/30/2005 7:51:17 AM PST by Nachum
Anarchy in the Palestinian Authority (PA) spread to the Rafiah border crossing, which was closed Friday morning after European Union (EU) observers fled 100 armed PA policemen who formed a blockade.
The gunmen who stormed the compound belong to the unstable ruling Fatah party of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas. One of their members was killed in a clash Thursday between terrorists.
After the compound was stormed, the EU's observers stationed at the crossing quickly fled the scene in panic while the gunmen prevented vehicles from reaching the crossing. The observers are responsible for monitoring the crossing and enforcing the agreement between Israel and the PA on live camera transmissions of border activity.
The armed men refused to heed demands by PA officials to leave the compound, and the EU workers left out of fear for their lives. "Our monitors are now in the Kerem Shalom military base [in Israel]. When the situation is clear, and these people leave, we will go back to our work," said EU spokesman Julio De La Guardia. He said the PA police advised the observers to leave the crossing.
As part of the deal brokered recently by American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel is barred from stationing live observers at the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Israel has accused the PA of often trying to exploit its control of the border to allow known terrorists to enter into Gaza and smuggle weapons.
During the funeral for the slain policeman, relatives fired at a police station close to the house of Abbas, where the PA chairman's guards returned fire. Abbas was not in the house, but eyewitnesses said some people panicked during the shooting and tried to scale a wall.
The incident was one of several on Thursday which pointed to widespread anarchy.
PA police still are looking for a British human rights activist and her parents who were kidnapped by terrorists in Gaza. Kate Burton, 25, was showing per parents around Rafiah when they were taken hostage by a gang armed with automatic rifles. She has been working as a volunteer for the past year, according to relatives.
Arab human rights groups demanded that the PA stop the kidnappings, which have become rampant. Two teachers were abducted last week by the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine but were released several hours later.
"The lack of action by the Authority against those who stood behind previous kidnappings encouraged others to carry out crimes of that kind," the Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights stated.
To the Israeli side, no less! Why didn't they seek refuge with their Pali "friends"?
>>"Our monitors are now in the Kerem Shalom military base [in Israel].<<
I don't see why the Israelis should be responsible for protecting them. The EU is hardly pro-Israel. Let them cower among the Palestinians where they belong.
French?.........
The Debka take on it:
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=1543
"Armed Palestinians commandeer the Rafah crossing Friday
shutting down the Gaza-Egypt border terminal
indefinitely. The European monitors fled to the
Israeli border facility at Kerem Shalom
December 30, 2005, 10:24 AM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile reported Sunday, Dec. 25, on the threat by
Jemal Abu Sema Dana, head of the Palestinian Resistance
Committees chief and Fatah al-Aqsa Brigades, to seize
the Rafah terminal and “cleanse” it of foreign monitors.
This latest incident signals the final breakdown of agreed
measures for securing the Palestinian-Egyptian border
built into the international understandings that
permitted Israeli troops to withdraw from Gaza. None of
these measures are now working, regardless of Israeli
government claims to the contrary, especially by defense
minister Shaul Mofaz and security coordinator Amos Gilead.
Palestinians sources are covering up the seizure by
terrorists of the only Palestinian exit point by
depicting it as a police blockade in protest against
the killing of a fellow officer Thursday."
lol, i love it!
What would you have done??
It´s you claming the Palis were Europe´s friends. Europe, and especially Germany and Britain, have been close allies to Israel since its founding.
When danger reared its ugly head / He bravely turned his tail and fled. / Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about / And gallantly he chickened out. / Bravely taking to his feet / He beat a very brave retreat, / He is packing it in and packing it up / And sneaking away and buggering up / And chickening out and pissing off home, / Yes, bravely he is throwing in the sponge...
The EU Observers were obviously not the target of these armed gunmen, else the EU guys woulda been TU..........
This story is funny and ironic on so many levels it makes me giddy.
What I would not have done is undertaken a commitment that I had no intention of fulfilling.
I really do admire you, Michael, because you so often find yourself in a position of having to defend Germany's and the EU's indefensible behavior. I don't envy you.
What would I have done? I wouldn't have been there in the first place.
Predictable aren't they?
The EU observers are there because of the treaty between the Palis and Israel. They shall ensure that the Palis do the controls at the checkpoint properly. The observers can only request a repeat of controls. So why do you criticize the presence of these observers? It´s not their fault that the Palis can´t provide security.
My statement stands. It is irresponsible to undertake a commitment you cannot fulfill. The "observers" should have refused to be window dressing.
Me thinks you haven´t understood what their committment is. Their job is to observe the border controls by the Palestinian authority. If these controls aren´t sufficient, the observers (border patrol members from several EU countries) request the repeat of the insufficient control. They have no duty to ensure the peace between Palestine and Israel or to keep the Rafah checkpoint quiet and safe.
Huh?
The dogs are beginning to fight among themselves.
Time for a reality check. Europeans hate Israel and love Palestinians. They're just like the rabid left-wingers in this country.
You don't have a clue do you?
Active British officers commanded some of the Arab armies that invaded Israel in 1948. The British Foreign Office is more Arabist then the Arabs themselves. Blair pushed Bush to force the suicidal "Road Map" on Israel.
German friendship- both towards Israel and the United States- in the fight against Islamic terror can be evidenced by its decades long open door release policy of caught terrorists.
Ehm, I am German, and if you informed yourself you´d find out that the US, Germany and the UK are the biggest arms sellers to Israel (and often with special conditions). These countries have never voted for a UN resolution against Israel (while the US mostly votes "no", the UK and Germany abstain).
The so called "open door policy" for terrorists is the German understanding of justice. Murder is worth 15-18 years of imprisonment. Sad, but that´s not a slap against Israel or the US. It´s "normal" by German standards.
Is that Friendship? Or cowardice?
By your definition Israel is lucky to have such good European friends who occasionally abstain.
Isn't that what these Europeans did at the Gaza border. They abstained just as fast as their feet could carry them.
Sure. What about the staged subterfuge of the Lufthansa hijacking which gave the Germans the excuse to release -within days- the killers of the Israeli Olympic athletes.
That's the problem. What is "normal" by German and European standards, decent Americans and Israelis find repulsive.
"to the Israeli side"
I'm sure, this way, they might be able to "observe" the Israelis shooting at the palis and make an unBIASED report about how the Israelis fired upon the palis without being provoked.
Don´t know what you´re talking about (doubt, that I was born then). Can you please post a link to that story?
I have explained what the EU observers job is in Rafah.
They´re doing it on request of both sides.
And the UK and Germany don´t abstain "occasionally" but regulary. This ísn´t cowardice. It´s more like "we have some concerns about Israel´s behaviour, but don´t want to insult them and show some understanding for their special situation".
I know, America often believes it´s Israel´s only friend. But it ain´t true. There´s no question about Israel´s eternal right to exist in Europe, and especially Britain and Germany have been supported it throughout the last decades (Patriot defense systems to Israel, subsidied submarines, etc.) - due to the history of both countries (occupation respectively holocaust).
Been heavily armed, with on call air support.
But you know that the observers are there to observe? Their task is NOT to provide security. They shall control the work of the Palestinian checkpoint officers.
No, it's the fault of their countries for agreeing to station defenseless observors at the crossing, and for depending on the notoriously undependable PA to protect them. It was naive and stupid, or given the antipathy for Israel and Jews in general, perhaps very calculating.
Sounds like you are agreeing that they are pretty much useless.
They´re not useless. It´s just that Israel doesn´t trust the PA, so they wanted the EU observers. It´s all about trust. Understood?
It is a known fact today that this hijacking was arranged in advance with the German Government to give the Germans cover to release these terrorists. This is one reason Israel was then forced to hunt down the terrorists, the subject of Spielberg's movie.
I would suggest if interested you do further research on your own.
Maybe if you knew more- about so much where you are misinformed- your posts would not manifest such ignorance.
I was speaking of being armed for self defense and to be able to continue their job. The job is done at the "Request", as you put it of both the Israelis and the PA. However the purpose is ultimately to provide security to Israel by seeing to it, indirectly, that a bunch of terrorists and weapons are not moved into Gaza. If they are not there, because the PA, or a subgroup of them, chases them away, they can't do their job.
>>"Our monitors are now in the Kerem Shalom military base [in Israel].<<
I don't see why the Israelis should be responsible for protecting them. The EU is hardly pro-Israel. Let them cower among the Palestinians where they belong.
........................
Israel should push from back across the border where they belong or arrest them for illegally entering their country. The Europeans have no good will for Israel and should be treated like wise.
If they can't stay if the PA, or a faction thereof, force them away, then they can't do their job, and are useless.
The fault lies with the governments that forced the arrangement, I'm sure the Israelies would have preferred armed observers, similar to the the Multinational Force in Sinai which maintains the peace between the Israelis and Egyptians. The fault does not lie with the individual observers.
I didn´t doubt your info, I just didn´t know before that in the aftermath of the Olympics-tragedy the arrested terrorists were set free. An ashaming chapter of Germanys post-war history. As a consequence, we founded a special command (GSG-9), which later successfully liberated the passengers of a hijacked Lufthansa plane. Several mistakes were made so that this could happen: there was no police in the Olympic village, German authorities have miscalculated the number of terrorist and thus hadn´t enough sharpshooters to kill them all in a second, the German authorities refused the offered help from the Israelis and afterwards, the German government gave in to the request of the hijackers. Gladly, Israel was successful in killing the bastards.
I didn´t know the massacre took place in Fürstenfeldbruck. I have been jogging around the former airbase two years ago. The buildings were still there.
Still, or better because of that, Germany is a friend of Israel - and you won´t hear other words from Israelis, Germans or German Jews.
Let´s blame the Palestinians. They probably intended to have some "demonstrations" from time to time to let their special friends pass the checkpoint without problems.
LOL!
There has to be an audio of this somewhere....
I've tried to find a sound file and have come up empty so far. The minstrel in the movie was the song's composer, Neil Innes, and some of his stuff is posted here and there on mp3s. I'll keep looking.
Well, really, it sorta is their fault -- they're representatives of the EU, which made a very high-handed moral argument in favor of Palestinian statehood (oh, those oppressive Israelis!), only to be met with the anarchy that most of us FReepers predicted long beforehand.
The EU is intimately connected to the anarchy described here.
When the pants-wetting began, you'll notice which direction they ran to. Whadduhsupprise
You need to do some homework. Britain was hostile to Israel's founding. The best ally Israel had in Europe was the Czechs who passed them Soviet arms, which generally are credited with securing Israel's survival.
You really don't get it. It is the Pali's themselves who decide what security is needed. Who else do you think is causing all the trouble??
HA!!
Yea, the bravery of being out of range.
Smart.
...those EU *observers*.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.