[mal]

RE: PAYING TERRORISTS' FAMILIES [Andy McCarthy]
Jonah, this is beyond stunning.

There is no question that this is murder-for-hire. Under our federal murder-for-hire statute (18 USC 1959, called “violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity”), such a murder includes one committed “for the receipt of, or as consideration for a promise or agreement to pay, anything of value[.] …” For a killing to be a murder-for-hire, there is no requirement that the thing of value even be money, much less that it be paid directly to the person who carries out the murder. (Federal law requires the “thing of value” to be provided by a racketeering organization because the feds can’t prosecute murder unless they have some federal jurisdictional hook, like racketeering, drugs, or victims who are federal employees. State murder-for-hire statutes contain no such limitations.)

And Abbas is supposed to be the "good guy" we prefer to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad? Great.

For the millionth time I ask – as we preside, day-by-day, over the creation of a terrorist state on Israel’s doorstep – what ever happened to the Bush Doctrine? What ever happened to "You're with us or you're with the terrorists"? Why are we subsidizing the Palestinian Authority?

[humint]

ARTICLE: …Since 1993, Israelis have shown themselves, in the words of the philosopher Yoram Hazony, “an exhausted people, confused and without direction,” willing and even eager to be duped by their enemies. All they need are some overtures, however unconvincing, that they will be freed from war, and they barely can restrain themselves from making concessions to mortal enemies.

This is a great paragraph... It is one of the best articulations I’ve read about the “stress-strain relationship” between “terrorism and democracy”. Democracies are systems based on rational compromise. Terrorism is diametrically opposed to rational compromise. So it is no wonder that democracies project the desire to compromise with uncompromising terrorists. The sad fact is that democracies represent the will to surrender more efficiently than they represent the will to win. What is certain; the fight for a rational world has gone global and it must be won, decisively. Democracies must do what is necessary so that my children and theirs are not doomed to a dark age, a world in fear of thugs and thieves and without freedom. Thank you for posting this…

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

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[Wiseghy]

In a way, I'm glad that this is all coming out now. The international terrorist network and its skilled use of NGOs and world body sympathizers would be unbelievable if it were not so sadly true.