So nothing in the so-called “Middle East Peace Process” has really changed since Ariel Sharon, via what I believe would be more aptly named the “Roadmap To Hell,” gave Gaza to the Palestinians. Now they’ve got their new firebase and a staging point for attacks against Israel, and once they’ve gotten their seaport built, at the expense of U.S. and other nations’ taxpayers, they’ll have the perfect set-up for importing still more terrorists, such as al-Qaeda types.

The White House meeting between President George W. Bush and Palestinian Authority whip Mahmoud Abbas seems to have been a rather stagnant affair, nothing new to report, as it were, no problems resolved. They should’ve had their talk by telephone — Abbas could’ve used a $5.00 phone card and saved all the money he spent travelling to the U.S. Again, our tax dollars at work.

Mohammed Dahlan’s back from the hospital in Belgrade, and addressed his fellow Palestinians in Gaza.

Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan on Saturday praised his Fatah movement’s armed struggle against Israel, but called on gunmen to set aside their weapons and move toward democracy.

Right, and

Without the armed resistance, the Palestinians would not have made progress in their struggle, Dahlan told the crowd, in an apparent reference to Israel’s withdrawal last month from the Gaza Strip. However, he said, it was time for Fatah to control their arms, end the chaos in Gaza and focus on winning a January parliamentary vote.

“We are the pioneers in the Fatah movement and we should put an end to the division. We should be united. It’s time for democracy,” Dahlan said.

On the one hand, Dahlan praises the success of Palestinian terrorism against the Israelis — sure, he calls it armed resistance, but if blowing up soft targets like women and children is “armed resistance,” I wonder what he would call actually getting up on ones hind legs and going toe-to-toe with armed soldiers.

In the same breath as his praise for the murder of innocents and the destruction of property, he urges his terrorist brethren to lay down their arms and pursue democracy.

Until when? Until you’ve convinced the world of your sincerity, Mohammed, and foreign sources of funding have begun a deluge of largesse into your coffers to finance more mayhem when you believe the Israelis have let their guard down? Then you can praise your fellow terrorists some more when they’ve driven Sharon out of the West Bank, as well?

The Palestinians have proven that no matter who’s in charge, nothing changes. They renege on every condition they ever agree to in peace proceedings, which from their perspective is just fine as it’s okay for “the faithful” to lie to infidels, who don’t count.

Israel has been the side forced to make all the concessions in every peace attempt, the Palestinians have been asked only to disband and disarm their terrorist organizations. Israel has kept its end of every deal, the Palestinians have done nothing but accept these concessions, absorb money from numerous countries and then continue to terrorize.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz laid down the law, warning Abbas that if the PA doesn’t hold up their only end of the bargain and deal with the terrorist groups, diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will come to an end.

“We demand that the Palestinian Authority move from the talking phase and actively work against the terror organizations,” Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said following Sunday’s terror attacks in the West Bank.

Abass’ meek approach allowed this attack. He is not doing what is necessary. It seems that the terror organizations are trying to send him a message, that he should stop working against them,” a diplomatic source told Ynet.

This entire diplomatic spectacle is just that. Even as the Israelis have given up Gaza and pursue peace talks, the terrorism continues.

More here.

The Israelis waxed a young bomber, expect some kind of violent response from the Palestinians, who become really angry when the Israelis kill one of these monsters in self defense. According to the Arab script, the Jews are supposed to cooperate and die.

A long time ago, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said that “there will be peace in the Middle East when the Palestinians come to love their children more than they hate the Jews.” Well…

Woman carrying baby hides hand grenade
Earlier on Saturday, IDF troops arrested five wanted Palestinian militants during an arrest sweep in a village near the West Bank town of Nablus. The forces discovered in one militant?s home a suitcase containing 10 kg of explosives.

Lt. Col. Arik Chen said his troops finally searched Jawabra after they became suspicious of the way she was carrying the baby. The soldiers found she was holding the grenade just under the baby’s backside, he told The Associated Press.

“To see a woman using her baby to hide a grenade is not typical,” Chen said.

Right, sure, anything you say. I’m reminded of an incident awhile back in which a teenage Palestinian girl snuck out of the house, took a walk down an Israeli street and blew herself up in a suicide vest.
The father’s reaction was not concern over the loss of his daughter nor for the victims of the bombing.
It was anger that his daughter had left the house without his permission nor with one of her brothers as an escort, and the admonition that had his daughter survived, he would have beaten her to death.

It would appear that nothing’s changed in the violent landscape that is Israel, except that the Palestinians now own Gaza.