More cash smuggling and terrorism from the beast

One thing about the Palestinians...they are never boring. Kind of like watching a train wreck in progress.




To start with, another Hamas apparatchnik, Information Minister Yousef Rezqah was stopped at the Gaza border with $2 million stuffed in his luggage. Rezqah was caught when he was returning to Gaza via Rafah from the Arab information ministers conference held in the Egyptian capital Cairo earlier this week.

According to the wire services, 'Rezqah and the money were finally allowed to enter Gaza after coordinating with the offices of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya.' Translation? The two crime families had a sitdown and worked out a `settlement', just like what happened with the $20M Mahmoud al-Zahar brought in yesterday.

While Hamas largely controls the streets in Gaza, Abbas' men in Force 17 control the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

The money seems to mostly be from the Arab League, the Saudis and Iran, which have been waiting for a chance to transfer the money to the Hamas-led cabinet since the Arab banks refuse to handle the transfers for fear of U.S. sanctions.

The Palestinians also fired off some more missiles today into Israel, in spite of Hamas prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh offering a temporary ceasefire in exchange for Israel's ending military activity in Gaza. I'm sure that a member of the Israeli cabinet threatening to target Haniyeh and the other Hamas leaders if the misiles didn't stop had nothing to do with it.

Actually, it is probably more like Hamas just wanting a breather to settle Abbas and Fatah once and for all.

In any event one Israeli was seriously injured by a Qassam missile fired from Gaza into Ahkelon’s industrial zone. Three more hit Sderot and a fifth one hit Kibbutz Ibim just north of Sderot.

Sderot, in Israel's Negev is in an extremely angry mood since Hamas vowed to turn Sderot into a ghost town. Saturday and Sunday, an unprecedented 100 missiles were fired in two days at Sderot and its environs. The schools have been shut for 5 days and protestors are carrying out a hunger strike outside defense minister Peretz's home there. Almost the entire town is threatening to leave en masse if the government doesn't take forceful action against the Palestinians.

Of course, the missiles are all being fired at Sderot and Ashkelon from what used to be the Jewish communities in Gaza. Prosperous farming communities like Neve Dekalim and Gush Katif, where irrigation systems and greenhouses were turned over intact to the Palestinians have now become terrorist bases and missile lauching sites.

Maybe Israeli PM Olmert and his cronys should think about that before they `disengage' from any more Israeli land `for peace'.


In other news, the Palestinians may have a new tactic...kidnapping Israelis for ransom-or worse- off the streets.

Three armed Palestinians from Jenin drove across the border and snatched two Israeli girls waiting for their ride at the Rahelim junction east of Ariel in Judea (the West Bank). One girl fought off the kidnappers, got free and sounded the alarm. An Israeli officer on the scene gave chase in his car, which led to the second girl being thrown out of the Palestinian's vehicle, which then sped off in an attempt to make it back across the border. Fortunately, the Palestinian's car was quickly intercepted by Israeli security forces outside Shiloh, and I'm sure the Shin Bet will want to have a little talk with them and find out a few things about them and their jihad pals before tossing them in a nice, secluded cell.

The second girl escaped with a few bruises. She was extremely lucky.

I include this little tidbit for anyone silly enough to wonder why the Israelis need `racist' checkpoints, or that `illegal apartheid' wall, or who has any illusions about the type of human beings the `prisoners' are that the Palestinians want freed so badly.

When you're dealing with wild animals in a civilized environment, good zookeepers and sturdy cages are an essential.