...ZOT in boots!
Posted on 01/11/2005 1:53:07 PM PST by anotherview
Jan. 11, 2005 8:46 | Updated Jan. 11, 2005 11:45
Gazan asks Abbas to stop Kassams
By MATTHEW GUTMAN
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip
Sana al-Hibel hailed Mahmud Abbas's victory in the Palestinan Authority chairmanship election on Monday morning, then quickly got down to brass tacks: "We elected him and now he needs to end the firing of Kassam rockets," said the diminutive mother of five.
It is one thing to utter such words in the privacy of one's own home, but it is quite another to do so in the presence of the men firing the rockets.
For the past four years, Hamas terrorists have used the fields north of Beit Lahiya as a launching pad for the hundreds of mortar shells and Kassam rockets they lobbed into nearby Israeli settlements and the city of Sderot. In response, IDF tanks routinely thrash through this largely agrarian town of 40,000 people, leveling much in their path, and leaving mothers like Hibel to pick up the pieces.
After exercising her right to vote for the first time in her 30 years, Hibel was not to be intimidated by the grim-faced "mujahideen" who had sauntered over to eyeball the strangers in town. As if to spite them, Hibel continued: "I voted for Abu Mazen [Abbas] only because of his declaration that firing Kassams was stupid; I voted for him because he promised that the screaming of the children would stop." Then she proudly displayed the ink stain on her thumb to prove that she had voted.
Though unimpressed, the "mujahideen" - two young Hamas activists with straggly beards and greasy sweatshirts who, after four years of fighting, are already considered seasoned fighters - patiently waited until Hibel finished.
Then 22-year-old Fadal fired off a tirade that the boys who had gathered around the circle of interlocutors had likely heard countless times before. With a final flourish Fadal spat, "Abu Mazen sells the blood of the martyrs."
He and his sidekick, 19-year-old Bilal, were convinced that "there will be a civil war if Abu Mazen thinks of arresting the mujahideen or taking away our guns."
They also believed that "the Zionists and the Americans rigged the elections" in Abbas's favor.
In the first few months of his administration, Abbas's greatest challenge will be balancing the needs of women like Hibel without having to fight gunmen like Fadal, who are increasingly comfortable discussing the possibility of civil war.
It was the "ordinary people" - the teachers, farmers, homemakers and construction workers - who voted Abbas into office, said Dr. Salah Abdel Shaffi, a Gaza-based analyst, and now they expect him to affect change.
"For most Palestinians the last four years was like watching a movie" - that is, they watched passively as events unfolded around them, he said. By militarizing the intifada, groups like Hamas stripped everyone without a gun of power, he continued. Consequently, Abdel Shaffi reasoned, "military action was the work of a small elite; everybody else became an observer."
And so for people like Hibel, he observed, voting signified their first active step toward alleviating their misery.
According to Hibel, the Kassam rockets and the Israeli reprisals have ruined her town. "Look at this boy," she cried, scooping up her three-year-old son Muhammad, who was sucking on the edge of her scarf. "By God," she swore, "this boy can tell you whether a Kassam, or a mortar, or a tank fires, just by the sounds."
As if she hadn't made her point clear enough, Hibel jabbed a finger toward the crushed home at end of her block where five members of the al-Ghaben family were killed in an IDF raid last Tuesday. "We don't want to end up like that," she explained.
Hibel's husband had for years worked in Israel as a farm hand. Now, with the closure of the Erez checkpoint that for years served as the major exit point of Palestinians to Israel, he toils in the strawberry fields north of Beit Lahiya.
Hibel blames Hamas and the IDF equally.
But when asked if Hamas tries to fire rockets from her husband's patch, Hibel's eyes flitted toward to the militants. "No," she said, "but they fire from all the fields around there."
I see we have a new Palestinian apologist. I get it. It's all the fault of us evil Jews/Israelis.
Tell me, why should I let people who want to kill me into my country? Explain to me why I should "cooperate" with this. Explain to me why 11 villion dollars stolen by Arafat from his people isn't to blame for the poverty of the Palestinians but Israel and the Jews are?
I see a ZOT on the horizion, or is it a Viking Kitty?
Palestinian apologist ping.
...ZOT in boots!
Arafat and the PA have received billions of dollars which they have misapprpriated for their own ends..either into their own bank accounts or building large luxury homes for themselves. They have allowed their people to live in poverty and squalor and deflected criticism by demonizing the Israelis.
Israel is now building a wall to keep terrorists out. If the "Palestinians" want to work in Israel, probably a good place to start would be stop blowing up women and children on buses.
Your "reasoning" is both dishonest and selective.
We? Would the "we" include the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (no friend of the Jews)that told his people to leave so that the Arab armies could push the Jews into the sea?
"Study your history."
I would suggest that you follow your own suggestion. Again, your argument is dishonest at best.
I have studied my histroy. You seem to have only studied Arab propoganda.
For example, did you know that during the entire nearly four centuries of Ottoman Rule that Jews were a majority of plurality of the population of Jerusalem? For most of that time we were a significant majority.
Did you know that in 1854 that 8,000 of Jerusalem's 15,500 inhabitants were Jews? There was also a very large Christian minority.
Did you know that Jews only moved outside the old city walls starting in 1860? Considering the above how is the Old City part of "Arab East Jerusalem"? Answer: because the Jordanians drove out the Jews in 1948-49. So, why isn't it "Jewish East Jerusalem?" Oh wait, it is.
Arafat a friend of Israel? You mean like Osama bin Laden is a friend of America right? Typical Arab and Arabist doubletalk.
At least it is a clean slate. And he is not Arafat.
Maybe it will become obvious to the world and the U.N. that some factions don't want peace with Israel and they will be willing to wage civil war to prove it.
Unfortunately, those factions hold the rest of the Palestinians hostage and therefore peace will never be achieved.
You probably know I disagree with anyone who thinks Arafat "legitimized the Palestinian cause," But so far this guy hasn't done any more than you or I. He has politely told us what he thinks. The idea that everyone who doesn't agree with the predominant FR view should be banned sounds very left to me.
ML/NJ
Arafat was an opportunist and a terrorist. He actively supported attacks on Israel even after he signed the Oslo Accord and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a miscarriage of justice of epic proportions. He was caught with his hand in the cookie jar more than once, both funding and facilitating terrorism, and stealing money from his own people.
For years enormous sums of money were sent to the PA only to be stolen...and with nothing spent on his own people. The result is that there is no infrastructure in the Palestinian areas. Arafat feathered his own nest and left his people in squalor. The demonization of Israel simply gave the Palestinians (and others) someone to blame.
No I don't. And BTW, you mean "Arabs," not "Palestinians" since prior to 1948 Palestinians referred to Jews. Why do Arabs hate Israel? Certainly you don't mean all Arabs, since the ones living inside Israel don't seem to hate it. (Could that be because their living standard is so much higher than their brethren in the neighboring countries?) And why is this hate legitimate? The Jews have done nothing but bring prosperity to the Arabs in their midst, unless the Arabs shot at them. Why is your hate legitimate?
ML/NJ
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