WarSclerotic

US Issues Weak ‘Condemnation’ of Teens’ Murders – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Upon the news of the murder of three Israeli teens, the US limited itself to a tepid ‘condemnation of violence.’

While France and Britain sharply condemned the murders of Israeli teen kidnap victims Eyal Yifrah (19), Naftali Frenkel (16), and Gilad Sha’ar (16), the US limited itself to a tepid “condemnation of violence” that appeared to apply equally to Israelis and Palestinians. In the statement, the White House said that it “condemned the violence that has taken the lives of innocent civilians.”

In its own statement, the State Department said that the murders were a “tragedy,” but called on “both sides to maintain patience and restraint.” The statement also urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to continue their security cooperation.

The US statements contrasted with statements by the leaders of France and Britain.

French President Francois Hollande in a statement “strongly condemned the cowardly murders” and offered his “sincere condolences to their families as well as to the Israeli authorities.

In a Twitter post Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron called the murders an “inexcusable act of terror. Britain will stand with Israel as it seeks to bring to justice those responsible,” he wrote.

Israeli leader: “Hamas will pay” for deaths of 3 teens – CBS News.

Last Updated Jun 30, 2014 2:10 PM EDT

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military found the bodies of three missing teenagers on Monday, just over two weeks after they were abducted in the West Bank, allegedly by Hamas militants. The grisly discovery culminated a feverish search that led to Israel’s largest ground operation in the Palestinian territory in nearly a decade and raised fears of renewed fighting with Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the militant group will pay a heavy price for the deaths of three teenagers.

“Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu said in a statement. He added the teenagers “were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by wild beasts.”

Netanyahu was meeting with his Security Cabinet to discuss a response.

Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, disappeared while hitchhiking home near the West Bank city of Hebron late at night on June 12 and were never heard from again. Despite the dangers, hitchhiking is common among Israelis traveling in and out of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Israeli military and the Shin Bet security agency announced late Monday that the bodies had been found. “The bodies are currently going through forensic identification. The families of the abducted teens have been notified,” the army said. The Shin Bet said the bodies had been buried in a field near the village of Halhul, just north of Hebron.

Binyamin Proper, who was among the civilian volunteers that found the bodies, told Channel 2 TV that a member of the search party “saw something suspicious on the ground, plants that looked out of place, moved them and moved some rocks and then found the bodies. We realized it was them and we called the army.”

Israel accused Hamas of being behind the abductions and launched a frantic manhunt throughout the West Bank, arresting nearly 400 Hamas operatives in the process. Last week, Israel identified two well-known Hamas operatives as the chief suspects.

“The two main terrorists involved are Marwan Kawasma and Amer Abu Aysha, two Hamas operatives from Hebron who became suspects immediately following the kidnapping,” the IDF said in a statement.

The two men remained on the run late Monday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the kidnappings, and his forces coordinated closely with Israel during the search for the teens. But Netanyahu has called on Abbas to dissolve a unity government recently formed with the backing of Hamas, saying it is impossible to be committed to peace while simultaneously sitting together with a group that kidnaps Israelis. Abbas has so far refused the calls, saying his new government is committed to his political program. Hamas is not part of his government, but has lent its backing from the outside.

The search for the teens captured the nation’s attention. The Israeli media delivered round-the-clock updates on the search, and the mothers of the three teens became high-profile figures as they campaigned for their sons’ return. Israelis held daily prayer vigils, including mass gatherings attended by tens of thousands of people at the Western Wall, the holiest prayer site in Judaism, and in a downtown square in Tel Aviv.

Late Monday, dozens of Israeli forces moved into the village of Halhul. There were no further details on the operation.

In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “We obviously condemn in the strongest possible terms violence that takes the lives of innocent civilians.”

Bodies of Israeli kidnapped teens found, government confirms, Fox News, June 30, 2014

ברוך דיין האמת

Blessed be the true judge…

נקום נקמת דם עבדיך השפוך

_____________________________________________________

Israel’s nearly month-long vigil for three teens kidnapped in the West Bank – including one with U.S. citizenship – ended grimly Monday, with the discovery of their bodies just north of Hebron.

The search for Eyal Yifrach, 19; Gilad Shaar, 16 and Naftali Frenkel, 16, who holds U.S. citizenship, who were snatched while hitchhiking, ended even as Israeli forces were conducting raids in the West Bank, where Hamas operates.

The abductions outraged the Jewish state as well as the international community, and several vigils and rallies were held around the U.S. during the intensive hunt. Hundreds of Palestinians took part in the search, dubbed “Brother’s Keeper.”

The three youths disappeared as they were heading home from a West Bank religious school. Israeli officials said at the time officials that one of the teens called a police emergency line around 10:25 p.m. and said, “We’ve been kidnapped.” They were not heard from again.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the kidnapping, and pledged help in the search but denied there was evidence linking Hamas to the crime. Hamas, which governs the Palestinian territories jointly with the PA, praised the kidnapping without claiming responsibility.

Netanyahu was expected to speak on the discovery Monday, but previously left little doubt as to who he blamed.

“Hamas terrorists carried out Thursday’s kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers,” Netanyahu said earlier this month. “We know that for a fact. Hamas denials do not change this fact.”

Bodies of Three Missing Israeli Teens Found Near Hebron, Source Says, ABC News, Alexander Marquardt

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his office is expected to make a statement soon about the discovery of the bodies, a source said.

The bodies of three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped in the West Bank earlier this month have been found north of the city of Hebron, a source confirmed to ABC News today.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group accused by Israel of taking the boys, has denied kidnapping the teens, though senior Israeli and Palestinian officials agree that the abductors were likely tied to — or part of — Hamas but operating without orders from the organization’s leadership.

One of the teens, 16-year-old Naftali Frenkel, had dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship and his family is from Brooklyn, N.Y. The two others were Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach.

Watch: This Is the Intersection Where 3 Hitchhiking Teens Were Abducted

Watch: Inside Army Search for Missing Israeli Teens in West Bank

Israeli forces have conducted raids in the West Bank in the search for the teens and their kidnappers since they were abducted on June 12. Since the search started, more than 240 Palestinians have been arrested in the operation dubbed “Brother’s Keeper,” the army said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his office is expected to make a statement soon about the discovery of the bodies, a source said.

The Islamic Tactic of Terror and Lure, Front Page Magazine, Nonie Darwish, June 30, 2014

(Iran appears to be doing a great job with the lure tactic. If When Iran gets (or gets to keep) nukes, the other part of the game will likely take prominence. — DM)

It must be noted that Arabic Aljazeerah discusses Islam in a totally different light from English Aljazeerah, which is designed to lure Westerners to the idea that Islam is peaceful while defending terror as freedom fighting.

This doctrine is a summation of what the Quran is all about, terror and lure, and promotes such extremely but powerful and raw cultural attributes of Muslim society; shame and pride. Such a doctrine has also evolved from Mohammed’s character when he failed to peacefully evangelize through persuasion and “lure” and therefore had to flip tactics, going straight to pure terror. Thus his famous saying “I have been victorious through terror.”

The lesson America needs to learn and get united under is that we, the West, right now are under assault by the good old Islamic doctrine of Terror and Lure; two sides of the polar opposite and deceptive face of Islam.

If the West continues to believe that Islam is a religion of peace, then unfortunately for the West they will suffer irrevocable consequences.

There is more bad news for moderate Muslims who deny any connection between Islam and terror and who insist on convincing the West that no one should interpret Quranic commandments to kill, behead, torture, terrorize, humiliate, belittle and never befriend the non-believer, as violent.

As I was watching an Arabic Aljazeerah TV show, which did not have a date, called “Sharia and Hayaa,” meaning Islamic law and life, the topic was “Dawaa Baina Al Tarhib Wal Targhib,” Arabic for “Preaching between Terror and Lure.” The word “dawaa” means preaching or spreading Islam. “Tarhib” is derived from the word “irhab” or terror, and “tarhib” means to instill terror. Incidentally, the Quran encourages Muslims to “instill terror through the hearts of unbelievers.” The word “targhib” means luring or making something attractive. I am sure Islamic apologists will dispute the interpretation since they never admit that the word “kill” in the Quran means “kill” anyway.

“Tarhib Wal TarghibI” is an Islamic doctrine that the West and many Muslims are unfamiliar with but that demonstrates yet another clear connection between Islam and terror. This doctrine promotes the use of two extreme tools to bring people and nations to submit to Islam. Such polar opposite and extreme techniques penetrate Islamic society from top to bottom; they are encouraged in child rearing, in the relationship between men and women, leaders and citizens, mosque preachers and the congregation, Arab media and the public, and even between Islamic nations and the West — the nations they wish to conquer or lure to Islam.

A Quranic verse (The Rock 49-50) was mentioned at the beginning of the show stating that Allah said: “tell my worshippers that I am the beneficent the merciful and my torture [Athab] is a painful one”; two opposite extreme descriptions of Allah, or more accurately Mohammed himself, that became the foundation of the contradictory doctrine of Islam.

It must be noted that Arabic Aljazeerah discusses Islam in a totally different light from English Aljazeerah, which is designed to lure Westerners to the idea that Islam is peaceful while defending terror as freedom fighting.

This doctrine is a summation of what the Quran is all about, terror and lure, and promotes such extremely but powerful and raw cultural attributes of Muslim society; shame and pride. Such a doctrine has also evolved from Mohammed’s character when he failed to peacefully evangelize through persuasion and “lure” and therefore had to flip tactics, going straight to pure terror. Thus his famous saying “I have been victorious through terror.”

The show’s questions were more interesting than the answers. The host, Othman Othman, was trying to bring the guest, Islamic Dawah “preaching” expert Dr. Salman Alawda, to state that Islam equally balances the two extreme tools of terror and peaceful teaching. These were some of his questions: Many say terror and bullying are necessary. How do we achieve balance regarding the names of Allah between punishment and forgiveness? Why is it that the agony side often prevails over the mercy side? Are hardship and pain required for their own sake when it comes to Islamic legislation? Why does the discussion of the torment of the grave, death and the afterlife turn into a terrifying discussion? Why are Salafis more inclined to use fear/terror factor regarding global advocacy? Some ask, shouldn’t we [Muslims] be judged as imperfect humans anyway?

The host, while exalting Islam, the Quran and Mohammed, was desperately trying to get a glimmer of hope with his questions to bring out any trace of joy and hope for Muslims who want to enjoy life right here on Earth, but are not getting such a message from Islamic teachings. Unfortunately the guest provided very little hope when he skillfully spinned that Islam does have a balance. But what failed the guest was the fact that values of joy, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and making the world a better place, do not exist in the Quran. The guest could not give the host the good news, when he asserted that seeking pleasure and happiness on earth is equal to death. The guest’s discussion of the good life for Muslims was narrowed down to the after life in the Islamic jannah, heaven. Thus the Islamic promise of virgins and carnal pleasure became the infamous lure Islam uses on the jihadis, pushing them into waging Allah’s war of terror on his enemies: the unbelievers.

The lesson America needs to learn and get united under is that we, the West, right now are under assault by the good old Islamic doctrine of Terror and Lure; two sides of the polar opposite and deceptive face of Islam.

If the West continues to believe that Islam is a religion of peace, then unfortunately for the West they will suffer irrevocable consequences.

If We Want to Beat Al Qaeda, We Have to Stop Arming It, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, June 30, 2014

The Arab Spring destabilized the region while money, weapons and recruits poured into Libya and Syria. Obama’s regime change war in Libya led not only to the takeover of entire Libyan cities by Al Qaeda, culminating in the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, but to an Al Qaeda affiliate seizing much of neighboring Mali. Libyan terror training camps also led to an attack on the Amenas gas plant in Algeria.

The Arab Spring destabilized the region while money, weapons and recruits poured into Libya and Syria. Obama’s regime change war in Libya led not only to the takeover of entire Libyan cities by Al Qaeda, culminating in the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, but to an Al Qaeda affiliate seizing much of neighboring Mali. Libyan terror training camps also led to an attack on the Amenas gas plant in Algeria.

Obama’s call for $500 million to arm and train Syrian Jihadist fighters couldn’t have possibly come at a more inappropriate time as Al Qaeda in Iraq menaces both countries.

It wasn’t the Iraq War that made the Al Qaeda affiliate so dangerous. In 2008 it specialized in suicide bombings. It wasn’t marching on Baghdad with an army behind it.

The Arab Spring destabilized the region while money, weapons and recruits poured into Libya and Syria. Obama’s regime change war in Libya led not only to the takeover of entire Libyan cities by Al Qaeda, culminating in the murder of four Americans in Benghazi, but to an Al Qaeda affiliate seizing much of neighboring Mali. Libyan terror training camps also led to an attack on the Amenas gas plant in Algeria.

Three Americans were killed in that attack bringing the US death toll from Obama’s Libyan War up to seven.

But that was last year. This year it’s the Syrian Civil War that turned its local Al Qaeda affiliates into breakout Jihadi stars seizing entire cities and terrorizing the region.

Obama’s solution is to direct money intended for counterterrorism partnerships to terrorists in Syria.

This may be one of the worst ideas that he has ever come up with. Attempts to control the flow of weapons likely played a role in the Benghazi attacks. NATO forces enforcing an arms embargo on Libya had been told to ignore Qatari weapons shipments that were meant for “moderates”.

Instead they went to Al Qaeda.

Obama and Kerry, not to mention Graham and McCain, believe that weapons can be directed to “moderate” Syrian groups and that by arming the “good” terrorists, we’ll stop the “bad” terrorists.

But there are no “good” terrorists. Promises of delivering weapons only to “pre-vetted” groups are worth as much as Obama’s assurances that Al Qaeda was on the run and that ISIS is only a jayvee team.

Kerry met with Ahmad al-Jarba, the President of the Syrian National Coalition. Al-Jarba said that $500 million wouldn’t be enough and demanded more weapons. Meanwhile Al-Jarba was feuding with Ahmad Tohme, the Prime Minister of the SNC’s fictional government. Tohme had attempted to disband the Supreme Military Council over corruption charges while firing the head of the Free Syrian Army.

None of this really matters because the SNC is a puppet regime with many puppet masters and no puppets. The Syrian front men for the Saudis, Qataris, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey and other factions are constantly firing each other. Their Free Syrian Army is a label stamped on a bunch of Islamist militias, many of whom openly support Al Qaeda.

Four out of five of the FSA’s front commanders had demanded to work with Al Qaeda last year. Parts of the FSA joined the Islamic Front and seized the FSA’s weapons warehouses taking anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons. The FSA fighters fled. Earlier ISIS had seized USAID items intended for the FSA.

After these embarrassments Obama was forced to temporarily suspend aid to the Free Syrian Army.

A senior Al Qaeda terrorist who answered to Ayman Al-Zawahiri was a leading figure in the Islamic Front through Ahrar al Sham, which operated alongside the FSA, until he was killed in an attack by ISIS. Ahrar al Sham had a powerful role in the Supreme Military Council through Deputy Chief of Staff Abdel-basset Tawil.

The FSA, to the extent that it exists, consists of bearded Salafist fighters and commanders in the field and “moderate” leaders in suits in Qatar and Turkey who usually never set foot in Syria. They obtain weapons and money from the West for Jihadists who are much less camera friendly.

Groups such as Liwa al Ummah choose to affiliate with the FSA even while they continue fighting alongside the Al Nusra Front. Experts label some Syrian Jihadist groups as moderate and others as extremist, but the “moderates” and “extremists” fly the black flag of Jihad and fight for an Islamic state.

Pre-vetting the groups means nothing because names like the Free Syrian Army or the Supreme Military Council are only fronts for outside interests. Even the names of the individual militias are often meaningless because new groups and new umbrella groups are constantly being created and dissolved.  Fighters and commanders move from one group to another taking their weapons with them.

Keeping track of the various pseudonyms used by the commanders is already a full time job. It is often impossible to tell whether two Jihadist commanders with the same pseudonym are even the same person. Figuring out the relationship between various groups means depending on intelligence from those groups and various activists on the ground who all have their own alliances and agendas.

No meaningful vetting is possible under these circumstances and supplying weapons to “pre-vetted” groups is as good as supplying them to Al Qaeda. Supplying weapons to pre-vetted groups only  means that it will take longer for those weapons to reach Al Qaeda through barter, alliance or capture.

And even if the weapons don’t end up with Al Qaeda, they will go to Salafist groups that share its goals. The difference is that those have not yet officially declared war on us. That same false sense of security led to the murder of four Americans in Benghazi.

We should not be arming any Islamic militias. We certainly should not be arming Salafi Jihadis who wave the black flag of Jihad. That would be more foolish than anything that Carter did in Afghanistan.

And even if we could control who the weapons went to and even if the Free Syrian Army were moderate, prolonging the Syrian Civil War only makes Al Qaeda more dangerous. Some have said that the best scenario is for both the Sunni and Shiite sides to go on bleeding. But the Syrians and Iraqis are not Americans. They have a much higher birth rate and a much lower regard for individual life.

A prolonged conflict will not break them. It will however train them.

Iran and Iraq bounced back from a much more devastating war to become serious threats.  Conflicts in the region are training grounds that make enemies more dangerous, not less. The longer the fighting goes on, the more fighters will be recruited and the more competent commanders will emerge.  And no matter how the fighting ends, many of those fighters and commanders will go on to other wars.

Afghanistan produced many of the Al Qaeda fighters and commanders who became a threat to the United States. The Arab Spring wars are producing a new generation of fighters. Their expertise will lead to multiple terror attacks and wars around the world. There is already concern about Muslim settlers in America, Europe, Canada and Australia who have gone to fight in Syria returning to the West.

The longer the conflict goes on, the more of them there will be. Prolonging the fighting by aiding the Sunnis is a mistake that ultimately helps Al Qaeda, not to mention Hezbollah, become more dangerous.

The myth of a moderate alternative to Al Qaeda that we can create with weapons shipments is an appealing fiction. The FSA couldn’t stand up to the Islamic Front. It certainly can’t stand up to ISIS. And there is no need for it to do so. The opposition fighters all want the same thing. They only disagree on who will have the upper hand. That is why Al Nusra fought against ISIS before kissing and making up.

The forces of the Sunni opposition have much more in common ideologically and culturally with each other than they do with us. Their common goal is a Sunni Islamic state built by the Jihad.

We can’t win by supporting them. We can only lose.

EU, U.S., Funding Incentives to Kill Jews, Gatestone Institute, Guy Millière, June 20, 2014

Children living in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, funded by Europe and the U.S., are encouraged to kill Jews and destroy Israel.

There can be no peace so long as financial incentives to kill Jews and destroy Israel continue to be dangled in front of Palestinian populations. It is this aggression, and not humanitarian relief, that much of the well-intended international funding — with no conditions whatsoever attached — is used for.

The only conclusion one can draw is the EU and the U.S. are actually on the side of terrorism.

So long as the EU and the U.S continue to fund entities which openly promote acts of terror, they should be held criminally liable as accessories to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Rival factions of Fatah and Hamas formed a new Palestinian “unity government” on June 12. The Israeli government expressed deep concern. Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, stressed that the alliance could lead to a resurgence of terrorist acts. The European Union and current U.S. administration decided, nevertheless, to legitimize the new government.

No Western leader highlighted that Hamas had not renounced its explicitly genocidal goals, and that Hamas leaders have never renounced the use of violence.

Netanyahu’s prediction proved accurate: rocket fire resumed from Gaza.

On June 11th, rockets were fired at one of the main roads in southern Israel. The next day, June 12, three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the Hebron area. The kidnappers are apparently members of Hamas, even though Hamas has so far denied this.[1]

As usual, much of the Western mainstream media immediately blamed the victims. Moreover, although only one of the teens lived in the West Bank, all three were referred to as “settlers”.

The European Union reacted five days later, on June 17, only after the Israeli government had voiced its angerat such a long silence.

The U.S. State Department reacted faster, denouncing the abductions on June 15.

On June 18, however, the State Department spokesperson, Jen Psaki, urged “all parties” to “show restraint,” drawing a parallel between actions of terrorists and the efforts of the Israeli government to find the three boys. That one of them is a U.S. citizen did not seem a major concern either to them or to the administration — as it also does not with either Pastor Saeed Abedini, currently in jail in Iran for being a Christian, or with retired U.S. Marine Andrew Tahmooressi, currently in jail during a sham prosecution in Mexico, which is supposed to be an ally. When a reporter asked Psaki for the name of the American teen who had been kidnapped, she was unable to answer.

On June 26, the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] revealed the identity of the two main suspects in the kidnapping; both men are Hamas members.

At first, Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas tepidly apologized, but when that proved politically unpopular with his constituents, he pinned responsibility on Israel, said he did not think Hamas was guilty, andaccused Israel of killing “Palestinian teenagers in cold blood”. In other words, playing both sides.

A few hours after the kidnapping, Abbas’s Fatah faction ran the now-famous gloating cartoon depicting the teenagers as three rats branded with the Star of David. Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the cartoon.

A pro-kidnapping, three-fingered salute called “the three Shalits” — referring to the previously kidnapped Israeli, Gilad Shalit, who eventually, after five years of captivity, was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners — has gained popularity as a rallying symbol among Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the salute.

Al Hayat al-Jadida, the PA’s official newspaper, also published a cartoon that glorified the kidnapping at the same time as it spoofed the FIFA World Cup logo. It shows three hands holding three helpless Jews with their hands up in surrender. The FIFA World Cup logo says “Brazil” under it: the spoof says “Khalil,” the Arabic name for Hebron. Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned Al Hayat al Jadida.

A few days ago, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that a third intifada against Israel has begun. Mahmoud Abbas has also not condemned the statement of Ismail Haniyeh.

Anti-Israeli hatred permeates the Palestinian Arab population of the West Bank; Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah bear full responsibility.

The PA, on its totally government-controlled TV, on a daily basis glorifies suicide bombers and portrays them as role models for others to “follow in their path.” Children living in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, and funded by the Europe and the U.S., are encouraged to kill Jews and destroy Israel.

The PA also pays generous monthly salaries to convicted terrorists jailed in Israel.

A few months ago, Mahmoud Abbas welcomed murderers released from Israeli prisons as heroes.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sends televised greetings of “honor and esteem” to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, proceeding to specifically name several convicted murderers. (Image source: Palestinian Media Watch)

Although the rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has led to bloody episodes of civil war, when it comes to Israel, they share the same goal.

Many commentators think that the purpose behind the unity government was to allow Hamas to receive international funding, as well as absolution, and to take control of the supposedly united Palestinian Authority before Palestinian elections in 2015. In exchange, Mahmoud Abbas could tell the world he represents all Palestinians, and try to acquire more funding as well as unilateral recognition of a borderless Palestinian state — without needing to negotiate with Israel. Then presumably he could retire.

Although the scenario did not go as planned, the goal of displacing Israel remains the same.

Those who hoped that the kidnapping of three Israeli teens might push European leaders and members of the U.S. administration to think twice and modify their positions about granting funds to Hamas through the PA, can now see they were wrong.

The European Union and the U.S. government have been financing the Palestinian Authority for years, thus providing heavy financial incentives to kill Jews and destroy Israel. They did not, however, stop financing the Palestinian Authority on June 12, and there is no indication that they will stop.

To justify continuing their funding the Palestinian Authority, the leaders of the EU and the U.S. — as if they do not see what Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas say and do — pretend to believe that Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas are “moderate”. There is no indication that anyone’s attitude will change. Hamas leaders speak only of war, and all their acts are acts of war. But the EU and the U.S. have given Hamas absolution, and even though Hamas and Fatah have not reversed there behavior, the EU and the U.S. do not seem to be reversing their decision.

“Moderate” Palestinian leaders speak of “peace” when they speak in English, but of war when they speak in Arabic. Their acts are almost always acts of war, or at the very least hostile, as is — ostentatiously — the United Nations.

Israel has no “peace partner” among the Palestinian leadership; no friends or reliable partners in the current U.S. administration, and only a few in the European Union.

The kidnappings, and especially the international response to them, only highlight that Israel must continue to hold Judea and Samaria, stop looking for support or sympathy, and begin treating acts of war as acts of war.

Wars end when there is a winner and a loser. The winner imposes terms on the loser. The loser knows that he has lost when he has no choice but to see that his cause is totally hopeless.

The EU and the current U.S. administration say they want “peace”. But they cannot ignore the fact that there can be no peace so long as financial incentives to kill Jews and destroy Israel continue to be dangled in front of Palestinian populations. The only conclusion one can draw is that the EU and the U.S. actually want war, and that they are on the side of Israel’s enemies and on the side of terrorism.

In a recent press statement, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, said that “terrorism begins when the seeds of hatred are sown in the hearts and minds of ordinary men and women.”

It is the European Union and the current U.S. administration who are sowing them in the hearts and minds of the Palestinian Arab people by funding organizations such as the Palestinian Authority and Hamas that call for and celebrate terrorist actions.

It is this American and European bankrolling of non-stop incitement — with no conditions whatsoever attached to the funding — that has led to the kidnapping and to the violence in general that the U.S. and the EU so piously profess not to want.

So long as the EU and the U.S. continue to fund entities such the PA and Hamas, which openly promote acts of terror, the leaders of the EU and the U.S. should be held accountable: criminally liable as accessories to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

If they choose to continue funding the citizens of the PA and Hamas for humanitarian reasons it should only be done with the proviso that they disarm militarily, and that all incitement to terrorism, and all payments to terrorists or their families must stop immediately and totally — before still another generation is poisoned by it.

Calls to kill Jews pour daily from the Palestinian media. It is this aggression — and not humanitarian relief — that much of the international funding is being used for.

Since the founding of the PLO in 1964, American and European financial incentives to kill Jews has led to thedeaths of over 3,000 Israeli Jews murdered by Palestinian terrorism, and more than 25,000 wounded.

Western leaders seem to think that the seeds of hatred sown in the hearts and minds of Palestinian Arabs remain within the Palestinian Arab population, and only hurt Israeli Jews.

It might be useful for them to see that the “Palestinian cause” fuels Islamic rage the world over, and that, for Israel, surrender is not an option. Further, as Winston Churchill observed, emboldening killers invariably leads to bloodbath.[2]

The victims of Islamist rage — as on 9/11 in the U.S., the 2005 London transit bombings in the UK, the 2004 Madrid train bombings and countless other attacks — come from all backgrounds.

Behind the anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli hatred that is the core of the “Palestinian cause”, the essence of Islamic rage: hatred for individual liberty and freedom, and a passion to destroy them.

Yesterday came the news that ISIS has declared a caliphate and is now openly operating in the Gaza strip. They that sow the wind in Israel could soon reap the whirlwind.

[1] On June 27, the Israeli embassy in New Zealand, released an analysis of three of Hamas’s kidnappers’ handbooks, often entitled, Kidnapper’s Handbook, which contain instructions on how to carry out kidnappings. These included speaking in Hebrew and replacing the car immediately.

[2] “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”

Israel Hayom | Obama versus the Middle East reality.

Prof. Abraham Ben-Zvi