Gunmen attack PA election HQ over next year's vote

[Behind the Aegis]

Masked gunmen opposed to next January’s parliamentary elections on Monday stormed the offices of the Palestinian Authority’s Central Elections Committee in Rafah and demanded the cancellation of the vote.

Armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and hand grenades, the attackers, who identified themselves as members of a previously-unknown group called Islamic Army, ordered the employees to close the offices immediately.

“They threatened us with their guns,” said one of the employees. “There were eight of them. The gunmen fled shortly before PA policemen arrived at the scene.” The attackers left behind a flier signed by the Islamic Army in which they claimed that the elections were being exploited by “collaborators” to ignite a civil war among the Palestinians. They also warned that the group would severely punish anyone who helps Israel in driving a wedge between the Palestinians.

Sources in Rafah said the gunmen were apparently affiliated with Hamas. Israel, the US and the European Union have all expressed opposition to Hamas’s participation in the elections, slated for January 25.

more: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131955261021&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[Englander]

1. Who were these guys?

If they were masked, & using the name of a previously unheard of
group, then how does the JPost *know* they're affiliated with Hamas?
Did they call in to the JPost offices for an exclusive interview?
Think; an unidentified, previously unknown 'faction' appears & disrupts
the PA elections, & claims allegiance to Hamas. ~Qui Bono?~

[eyl]

3. look at the posted excerpt again

Sources in Rafah said the gunmen were apparently affiliated with Hamas

[Englander]

4. Those 'sources' are completely anonymous -

not 'Palestinian', or 'Fatah', or 'Hamas' sources, but just 'sources',
no name, nothing.

[eyl]

5. Which doesn't differ much

from many other news articles (and if they're described as "sources in Rafah", they can be assumed to be Palestinian onlise specified otherwise).

[Englander]

7. They can also be assumed to be fictitious -

The Haaretz/Reuters story doesn't mention anything about an
'apparent affiliation with Hamas';

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/645304.html

[eyl]

8. That's always a possibility

as it is whenever a newspaper cites an unnamed source.

[barb162]

12. Yeah, but they left their calling card, the flyer, from Islamic Army

"The appearance of the faction, calling itself the Islamic Army, was an indicator of the rise of more puritanical forces in the already conservative territory from which Israel withdrew in September after 38 years of occupation."


I like the part below where elections are a plot, A DAMNED PLOT, These juys are so totally looney-tunes.



"In a leaflet dropped at the scene, the gunmen called January parliamentary elections a U.S. and Israeli plot to hurt Palestinians and cause strife among Muslims in the name of democracy, freedom and women's rights."

[Andromeda]

2. The Palestinians who really want peace...

should stand against these kinds of bully tactics. I can't believe that the Palestinian people want this. They have a chance to vote for their best interests in the coming election and I would like to believe that's what they really want.

[julianer]

6. Israel's strategy is to

try and provoke a civil war in Palestine. Thus Hamas is demonised, just like Arafat was.

This group is just as likely to be funded by the CIA or MOSSAD as Hamas. The Palestinians are not enjoying democracy - they are still occupied in the West Bank and surrounded and penned in Gaza. The Israelis have been harassing the Gazans in various ways since the 'withdrawal', and the land grab goes on unabated on the West Bank.

The elections will solve nothing - but they offer a marvellous opportunity for Israel to try and force splits and conflicts.

[Coastie for Truth]

9. Are you sure it's Israel's strategy?

Could it be US strategy? UK Strategy? Saudi strategy? (Yes, Saudi strategy). Or even the strategy of the "mineral interests" (Oil multi-nationals)?

You say "This group is just as likely to be funded by the CIA or MOSSAD as Hamas.". I say say that this group is just as likely to be funded by MI-6 or the KGB or British Petroleum, or Shell, or ExxonMobil, or TexacoChevron, or PhillipsConoco, or Halliburton, or Bechtel, or Carlyle. And the gunmen could be locals indirectly hired by Blackwater or Pinketron, or even "Bond, James Bond, 007."

I am not altogether facetious when I blame "British MI6" and "Bond, James Bond, 007" for these events. Borrowing a page from my paranoid Eastern European ancestors --

I have always bought into a William Engdahl ("A Century Of War : Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order") and Sykes-Picot Agreement model -- i.e., keep the "small states" small, relatively weak (relative to the US, UK, France, Russia) and battling with each other. This keeps their collective attentions diverted from the real exploitation of their mineral wealth by their own autocratic rulers and by the US, British, and Dutch "interests."

From a classical Marxist analysis, the power elites (bourgeois) divert the attention of the proletariat from their exploitation by the bourgeois - e.g., by blaming an outside enemy (classically Orwellian) or by hijacking religion into the service of the bourgeois, an "opium of the people" to sanctify the exploitation, wars, laws and class divisions of the elites. See, e.g., What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank.

The data fits the Marxist Model, the Orwellian model, and Thomas Frank's model.

And to a point, this instability serves US, British, Saudi, and Big Oil interests. It is a simple, non-convoluted "fits the data" and explains the impact of PNAC and the NeoCons (Hint - Israel is tertiary to the PNAC/NeoCon boys - OIL is primary and secondary). If one reads the drivel of PNAC (not the blog - but the actual stuff) - it is all about control of the oil spigot. A "Greater Israel" is so far down on their list of priorities as to be a "throw away."

So, when I see the masses in the street (and on some web sites), psyched up to blame "Mossad" and "The Zionists" and "The Israelis" - I think "Probably more likely the CIA, MI6, the KGB, or Big Oil."

Que bono? Turmoil kills Israeli and Palestinian proletariat. But it diverts attention away from the failings of the House of Saud, and the exploitation by the outside mineral interests.

[Colorado Blue]

10. AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH.

What about Hamas appeals to the progressive spirit?

What about Black September in Jordan or the Lebanese Civil War or Arafat's many deeds of terror, requires demonization?

A major problem in this conflict is simply this: support from LIBERALS for violent, uncompromising militias is helping fuel this violence.

Some of these groups are Islamist and would gladly see the disappearance of OUR liberal, progressive culture - let alone Israel - and others, like PLO, were supported by the Soviet Union - again, hardly a bastion of human rights and free, liberal thought. Left wing apologists, far from the conflict and not really involved in it, have given some imprimateur of respectibility to acts which are horrible, which are completely illiberal, and for which there is no excuse. The murder of innocent civilians is not something which liberal, progressive people should defend - ever.

Support for the Palestinian people, if it is sincere, will strengthen peaceful, democratic and truly progressive movements. It will NOT attempt to apologize for violent criminals who are murdering other Palestinians as well as Israelis.

[julianer]

13. You misunderstand my position

Certainly I support any violence that the Palestinians may wish to use in resisting occupation because that is their legal right.

I condemn Israel's violence because it is in illegal occupation of Palestine, in defiance of international law.

If you think that the racist state of Israel represents some sort of 'liberal, progressive' culture then I am not surprised at your characterisation of the (legal) Palestinian resistance.

Israel is an apartheid state and the Palestinians are an occupied people.

It would be a different matter if Palestinian violence were to continue against Israel <i>after</i> Israel has obeyed the law. I would be against that.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[Coastie for Truth]

18. The sign of a true liberal - resppect for law, open mind.

Like the folk lore of courts martials == "Bring the guilty SOB in and hang him."

On a progressive web site no less.

[julianer]

19. I don't understand your point

Please elucidate, if you can.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[julianer]

20. No, I oppose the occupation

All I am stating is the position under international law. If your country is occupied and your populations uprooted you have the legal right to self-defence and to fight against the occupiers.

If you, like me, find the violence in Palestine to be objectionable, you should try to end the occupation - the sole source of all the violence.

Conversely, you could ask yourself whether you support the shooting of children and peace activists, or the deliberate terrorism of sonic booms overs populated areas. I don't.

Poles had a right to resist the German occupation, as did the French. Of course the Nazis called these people 'terrorists'.

[pelsar]

22. its not just the occupation

according to your theory, pre67 there was no problem......

[julianer]

25. Well the ethnic cleansing

started in the late 1940's and continues to this day.

ps - it is not 'my theory'. It is the law.

[Andromeda]

15. Further left than Liberals, I'd say...

The far left is just as radical and extremist as the far right-wing. They fuel violence with their words and their deeds. There is no logic to this because they doggedly adhere to the idea that Israel=bad and Palestine=good.

This is not a liberal philosophy but something much more destructive.

There is no in-between to the far left-wing. Their rigid indoctrination is just part of a bigger problem we have in the world.

They side with the Islamic fanatics because in their distorted world-view these extremists are freedom fighters who are trying to liberate the Palestinians. In essence, what they are really doing is hurting the Palestinian cause and preventing the people from having a better life.

I truly believe the Palestinian people want peace but alone they stand no chance. Hamas and the other terrorist groups have a stranglehold on them and until that changes nothing will get better.

[julianer]

21. You have rather badly misunderstood it seems

I am not speaking from a 'far left' position, but the position of the international community as expressed in many UN resolutions.

Part of the problem about Palestine is that the right has succeeded in framing the debate as a conflict between two equally bad parties. This ignores the simple fact that one country is occupying another after ethnically cleansing the original population.

This is against international law.

So please stop propagating and giving comfort to illegality with your sillyness about dogmatics and such like. You should be happy that the left, the 'far left' and the whole bulk of the international community supports the rule of law.

[pelsar]

23. what intl law are you refering to....

the one about a country having the right to defend itself?

[julianer]

24. Check the United Nations Charter

and the many UN resolutions on this issue.

It is obvious that every nation/people/tribe have the rights both to self-determination and self-defence.

Both are denied to Palestine by Israel.

[Colorado Blue]

11. More info from the REAL WORLD:

In all the years Jordanian authorities have been chasing terrorists, they said, they had never before had a case involving a woman. But investigators learned of her involvement shortly after the hotel attacks, when the owner of a house in Amman phoned the authorities to say that he had rented an apartment to three men and a woman several days before the blasts - but that they had not returned Wednesday.

The security official said that soon after the attacks, many people called in with possible leads, and it took time to sort through all the information. But the official said agents quickly found that the apartment had been a safe house, rented by the four bombers. And so, the official said, investigators knew a woman was involved even before Mr. Zarqawi announced that two men and a married couple were responsible. Investigators were not immediately sure, however, if she was dead or alive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/international/middleeast/15jordan.html?th&emc=th

Al-Zarqawi also didn't know that the woman had survived the attack. It is customary for the terrorist groups to publish such information about the bombers. It verifies their claim of responsibility, which is important to them to get "credit" for the attack. So assuming that they all had detonated and been killed, he announced the involvement of the woman (great for women's equality in the Muslim world). In their eyes, it was not "stupid" at all.

Her attire is traditional and not out of place in a wedding in the Muslim world