Nadene Goldfoot
The players are the same as the past 4 years; Obama, Netanyahu and Mashaal. Nothing has changed. Khaled Meshal, age 56, has been the leader of Hamas since 1996. He had vowed in December that he would continue violence against Israel. So right now we're just in a lull.
After a year of secrecy and internal elections, which is definitely not the way of the Democratic process, the Islamic militant terrorist group, Hamas, re-elected longtime leader Khaled Mashaal. This was confirmed by 2 Hamas officials recently, but not through an announcement from Hamas officially. They're just so secretive about this. A vote had continued on late Monday night. The voting was spread over several countries including Egypt. Mashaal had moved from Damascus to Qatar, now their primary funder. Qatar is also the same country backing Arabic studies at Lincoln High School in Portland, which is only one of several throughout the United States where they are promoting Arabic. There are many outposts of American universities such as Carnegie Mellon in Qatar as well. Hillary Clinton has visited there.
Also continuing in the works is Ismail Haniyeh, around age 50, as Mashaal's deputy, also known as the Prime Minister. He has been a leading contender. "Haniyeh has always favored violence over diplomacy, and said the Hamas' wins in the municipal elections in 2005 were proof that the majority of Palestinians support terrorism against Israel. He has expressed his wish to form a national unity government with former ruling party Fatah of Judea-Samaria in order to more effectively run the new government. Being in this position now, he changed his words to speak of "resistance." His resistance has been in the form of mortars, missiles and rockets, evidently.
Turkey, who Netanyahu was finally forced to give the apology to following Obama's visit for his navy's following orders of searching all incoming ships for weapons headed for Gaza, gave $300 million dollars to Hamas. They also have been supporters of terrorism against Israel. Obviously that's why they made the big bru-hah over their ship, the Mari Marmara on May 31, 2010 when they resisted the search by Israeli sailors. They made a big deal so that they could point their finger and criticize Israel when it should have been the other way around. Their goal of embarrassing Israel caused them to lose some lives on that ship in the act of the Israelis saving theirs. There were 6 ships at the same time that Israel had to check out, and they didn't resist. No problems came about with them.
Resource: http://defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/hamas-leadership-selection-an-initial-assessment/
Oregonian newspaper 4/2/13, page A6, Hamas leader Mashaal wins re-election
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Haniyeh.html
The players are the same as the past 4 years; Obama, Netanyahu and Mashaal. Nothing has changed. Khaled Meshal, age 56, has been the leader of Hamas since 1996. He had vowed in December that he would continue violence against Israel. So right now we're just in a lull.
After a year of secrecy and internal elections, which is definitely not the way of the Democratic process, the Islamic militant terrorist group, Hamas, re-elected longtime leader Khaled Mashaal. This was confirmed by 2 Hamas officials recently, but not through an announcement from Hamas officially. They're just so secretive about this. A vote had continued on late Monday night. The voting was spread over several countries including Egypt. Mashaal had moved from Damascus to Qatar, now their primary funder. Qatar is also the same country backing Arabic studies at Lincoln High School in Portland, which is only one of several throughout the United States where they are promoting Arabic. There are many outposts of American universities such as Carnegie Mellon in Qatar as well. Hillary Clinton has visited there.
Also continuing in the works is Ismail Haniyeh, around age 50, as Mashaal's deputy, also known as the Prime Minister. He has been a leading contender. "Haniyeh has always favored violence over diplomacy, and said the Hamas' wins in the municipal elections in 2005 were proof that the majority of Palestinians support terrorism against Israel. He has expressed his wish to form a national unity government with former ruling party Fatah of Judea-Samaria in order to more effectively run the new government. Being in this position now, he changed his words to speak of "resistance." His resistance has been in the form of mortars, missiles and rockets, evidently.
Turkey, who Netanyahu was finally forced to give the apology to following Obama's visit for his navy's following orders of searching all incoming ships for weapons headed for Gaza, gave $300 million dollars to Hamas. They also have been supporters of terrorism against Israel. Obviously that's why they made the big bru-hah over their ship, the Mari Marmara on May 31, 2010 when they resisted the search by Israeli sailors. They made a big deal so that they could point their finger and criticize Israel when it should have been the other way around. Their goal of embarrassing Israel caused them to lose some lives on that ship in the act of the Israelis saving theirs. There were 6 ships at the same time that Israel had to check out, and they didn't resist. No problems came about with them.
Resource: http://defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/hamas-leadership-selection-an-initial-assessment/
Oregonian newspaper 4/2/13, page A6, Hamas leader Mashaal wins re-election
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Haniyeh.html
Daniel Pipes points out in his blog that "Erdoğan is extending his time in the spotlight by demanding that Israel pay $1 million to each of the nine casualties' families, ten times the amount Israel has offered. He isn't yet dropping his case against the Israeli generals involved in the raid, nor is he fully restoring diplomatic ties with Israel. And he's announced that he will visit the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip in what is a thinly-concealed victory lap."
ReplyDeleteGil Ronen points out in Arutz Sheva that "Deputy Foreign Minister Ze'ev Elkin confirmed Tuesday morning that the apology to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident is connected to the concern that Iran might obtain a nuclear weapon.
ReplyDeleteMK Elkin told Voice of Israel public radio that restoration of the ties with Ankara is one of the subjects at the top of the government's current agenda.
Elkin said that in the course of the coming fortnight, the two sides will discuss compensation for the families of the Turkish citizens killed aboard the Marmara, and other matters. He estimated that it will not be possible to return to the warm relations Israel and Turkey had in the past, but explained that this was not because of the Marmara incident. Rather, he said, it was because of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan's "geopolitical ambitions."
However, Elkin added, making amends with Turkey serves the Israeli interest because of the crisis in Syria, because of the Iranian nuclear issue, and because of the importance of cooperation between Israel and NATO."