Palestinians: "Their Charters Call for Dismantling the Jewish State"

Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation" is anti-Semitism.

For over 46 years, Turkey has knocked on Europe's door requesting membership in the European Union. The Europeans, however, have been in no rush to invite a Muslim country into their midst, even if it is the most westernized and most democratic Muslim country in the Middle East.

To add to it, Turkey is already a strategic partner in NATO and nearly 3 million of its citizens are peaceful and productive immigrants/guest workers in Europe.

Joining the EU, however, demands of Turkey far-reaching political and social reform "on the ground" and "10 to 15 years of negotiations" while the Turks prove democratic changes are "irreversible."

On the other end, U.S. [and the Quartet] yardsticks for the Palestinian Arabs, a hostile society demanding statehood, amount to praise for fabricated non-existent reforms and call to abandon the required incremental progress as clearly stated in the "goal-driven Roadmap."

The end to violence and democratic reform, that Palestinians have yet to begin, is tolerable by the U.S. administration -- all in order to forge the way for the establishment of a Palestinian state within two years, one which will endanger the very survival of a free and democratic Israel and the rest of the free world.

Comparison of the goals and the ramifications of each:

The Turks' goal is membership in the European Union - a political alliance that the Europeans have already stated will have an iron-clad reversibility clause for Turkey if it fails to live up to its commitments.

The Palestinians' goal is sovereignty as a State - status for which there is no reversibility mechanism if 'Palestine' turns into a rogue state - the kind of polity the U.S. is currently grappling with in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Yemen and elsewhere.

Logically, the yardsticks of judging readiness and maturity should be at least equal, if not more stringent for the Palestinian Arabs, a society that consciously and purposely sacrifices its own youth for political gain and tactical advantage, with a leadership that champions the murder of Jews and suicide bombers.

Freedom House, a non-sectarian organization founded by Eleanor Roosevelt to monitor civil rights around the world, appraised the Palestinian Authority with the lowest possible rating in its 2009 survey - deeming it "Not [a] Free" society.

At that level political rights and civil liberties are absent or virtually nonexistent, and people experience severely restricted rights of expression and association - all as a result of the extremely oppressive nature of the regime.

These "realities on the ground" are totally ignored by the EU and the U.S. in their effort to advance immediate Palestinian statehood.

Requiring Israel to cede parts of its land in favour of the Palestinians' empty promises, while their Charters call for the dismantling of the Jewish State, is "applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation."

Hudson New York

Hamas Escalates Attacks on IDF, Threatens 'Fire and Iron'

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Gaza terrorists continued to escalate attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers Wednesday afternoon.

The IDF neutralized several roadside bombs but did not respond to three shooting attacks on civilians carrying out maintenance work at the Gaza separation fence and at soldiers patrolling the areas.

The IDF denied a stream of allegations that Israeli forces made incursions into northern Gaza, reported by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, which has close ties with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.

The same news organization claimed Thursday that IDF bulldozers and armored helicopters destroyed farmland near Beit Hanoun. Military spokesmen said no bulldozers entered the area.

Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades military wing of Hamas, warned Israel that "if it carries out a new war on the Gaza Strip, the responses won't by words; it will be by fire and iron. The only language the Israeli enemy understands is the language of force. The daily incursions carried out by the Zionist enemy is [sic] part of a programmed aggression. They fear anything [that] moves near the borders, even trees, foliage or sands.”

Wednesday's attacks followed a an increasing number of mortar and gunfire attacks on Israel.

Eight days ago, Hamas took responsibility for firing three mortar shells within a 24-hour period, one of the most intense assaults on Israel in months.

The IDF retaliated by bombing a tunnel, designed to help terrorists infiltrate into the western Negev. Arab terrorists responded the following day with a rocket attack on a Negev farm, causing no injuries or damage.

In Judea and Samaria, Jewish motorists have been subjected to daily terrorist attacks with firebombs and rocks, but the Israeli mainstream media has ignored most of the incidents despite damage to several vehicles. The army, under orders from Defense Minister Ehud Barak, has drastically reduced the number of roadblocks, checkpoints and patrols on highways.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has maintained that the PA has honored American Roadmap obligations that it halt violence and incitement.

Keeping up an image that there is peace and quiet throughout Judea and Samaria strengthens the PA’s position in its demands, backed by U.S. President Barack Obama, that Israel stop all building for Jews in the areas where it wants to create a new Arab state.

Source: INN

What Palestinians Want

Amir Taheri | April 21

As Palestinians wonder about what they could do next, they would do well to remember that their starting point is a double failure shaped over the past decade.

The first of the two failures is that of Al Fatah, which has dominated Palestinian politics since the 1960s and exercised control over the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the Oslo accords.

At some point in its history, Al Fatah may well have devoted its energies to a grand, though so far futile, struggle to create a Palestinian state. Since 1991, however, Al Fatah has been principally interested in one goal: its own survival and the prosperity of the elite that sustains it. With the late Yasser Arafat showing the way, Al Fatah has kicked its former national aspirations into tall grass. Each time its narrow interests clashed with the broader interest of the national struggle, Al Fatah clung firmly to the former and jettisoned the latter.

Al Fatah, and beyond it the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which it controls, have danced to every tune of the day in the same way western teen-agers go for pop "tubes" of the season.

The Oslo accords were designed to drown the fish, that is to say bury the national aspirations of the Palestinians under tons of paper. The PLO adopted them with excessive zeal.

Then we had the so-called Road Map, presented by President George W Bush, a kind of political bikini, revealing everything except the essential. Again, the PLO, and Al Fatah, bought into it without a flutter.

Finally, we had the "two states" formula, also presented by Bush. The PLO adopted this as a slogan but did all it could to prevent any step towards achieving it.

Arafat's departure from the scene did not change the essentials.

Amir Taheri's new book, "The Persian Night", is published by Encounter Books, New York and London. More....

Source: Hudson New York