Free Republic

The anti-Semitic "tradition" of blaming Jews for the world's problems mostly took a temporary back seat in light of the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas. Major newspaper editorials condemned Hamas, but their condemnation was hedged by calls for "restraint" on "both sides" and "proportionality" in Israel's response to the attacks. There is little or no mention of Hamas' directive to ignore Israel's warning to leave homes in areas where the rockets have been placed among civilians. The Hamas strategy is to parade the bodies of the dead before TV cameras to demonstrate Israel's "cruelty"...

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's agreement to remain as PA prime minister defied the unprecedented opposition to his new PA government by both Hamas and the Fatah movement. While Fayyad's stellar reputation in the West as a reformer-statesman continues to inspire confidence among U.S. security officials and Western donor nations, his position is far more difficult in the fragile Palestinian political reality. While the Fatah Central Committee tolerated the previous PA government due to its offensive against Hamas subversion in the West Bank, Fatah's overall opposition to the current cabinet reflects fundamental divisions between its "young guard" and the...

KRAUTHAMMER: BANISH ARAFAT NOW! The suicide bombing that killed 26 Israelis at a Passover Seder, the worst slaughter of the 18-month-old intifada, has entered the lexicon of the Arab-Israeli conflict as the Passover Massacre. It is more than that. It was the beginning of the Passover Pogrom: seven days of Passover, seven suicide bombings, dozens of innocent Jews murdered, hundreds maimed. This is Kristallnacht transposed to Israel. Like Kristallnacht, the Passover Pogrom takes the murder of Jews to a new level of fury and national purpose, in this case Palestinian national purpose: making "death to the Jews" not just a...