Obama finally gets off golf course, urges Israel not to retaliate, forgets how to say 'Hamas' and

President Hussein Obama has left the golf course long enough to urge Israel not to retaliate against the 'Palestinians' for the murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Naftali Frenkel '– who held Israeli and American citizenship.' (I wonder whether Jen Psaki gave him the name). This is from the first link.

US President Barack Obama expressed his condolences Monday evening to the three bereaved families: "On behalf of the American people I extend my deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer, and Naftali Frenkel – who held Israeli and American citizenship. As a father, I cannot imagine the indescribable pain that the parents of these teenage boys are experiencing."

He added: "The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless act of terror against innocent youth. I also urge all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation. As the Israeli people deal with this tragedy, they have the full support and friendship of the United States."

Who committed 'this senseless act of terror' Mr. President? Why aren't you condemning Hamas for committing it? Why aren't you condemning the 'Palestinian Authority' for celebrating it, thereby encouraging the next such act? Why did your State Department earlier today commend Abu Bluff for his 'help'? Why don't you even apologize for the fact that the two prime suspects were both released from Israeli prisons as part of the terrorists for Gilad trade?

Oh wait a minute. That last question ought to be put to Mr. Netanyahu. But you should answer the rest of them Mr. President.

Here’s some background on how Israel,was involved in the creation of Hamas, starting with an approved “precursor organization” to Hamas. Hamas would not be there now of Israel had acted differently. ALSO, the election of Hamas for the government of Gaza caught both Israel and the USA by complete surprise. It was “all over” before they could do a thing about it!

Here’s that article, from the Wall Street Journal ...

How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas

Surveying the wreckage of a neighbor’s bungalow hit by a Palestinian rocket, retired Israeli official Avner Cohen traces the missile’s trajectory back to an “enormous, stupid mistake” made 30 years ago.

“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with “Yassins,” primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric.

Israel’s experience echoes that of the U.S., which, during the Cold War, looked to Islamists as a useful ally against communism. Anti-Soviet forces backed by America after Moscow’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan later mutated into al Qaeda.

At stake is the future of what used to be the British Mandate of Palestine, the biblical lands now comprising Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Since 1948, when the state of Israel was established, Israelis and Palestinians have each asserted claims over the same territory.

The Palestinian cause was for decades led by the PLO, which Israel regarded as a terrorist outfit and sought to crush until the 1990s, when the PLO dropped its vow to destroy the Jewish state. The PLO’s Palestinian rival, Hamas, led by Islamist militants, refused to recognize Israel and vowed to continue “resistance.” Hamas now controls Gaza, a crowded, impoverished sliver of land on the Mediterranean from which Israel pulled out troops and settlers in 2005.

When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and ‘80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.

See more at ...
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123275572295011847

Another one ...

How Israel Helped Create Hamas
In the 1970s, Israel Saw Hamas’ Founders as Allies
http://middleeast.about.com/od/israelandpalestine/a/me090126.htm

It isn’t the kind of history Israelis like to talk about, or admit, but it’s also undeniable: Hamas is at least partly an intentional creation of Israel that dates back to the 1970s.

Back then the secular Palestine Liberation Organization was waging a terror campaign against Israel, which it vowed to destroy. There was no contact between Israel and the PLO, at least not officially. But Israel looked for Palestinians who didn’t align themselves with the PLO. It found them, in Gaza, in an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood—deeply pious Palestinians who were opposed to the PLO’s secular outlook, and who had adopted the Brotherhood’s motto: “Islam is the solution. The Koran is our constitution.”

Waltzing with Hamas

The Palestinian group that would begin calling itself Hamas in 1987 was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a half-blind cleric partially paralyzed by a childhood sports accident. In the 1970s, Yassin’s interest was to turn Palestinians toward the Koran and to find their way through it, rather than through the PLO. Israel saw an opportunity to battle the PLO from within its own Palestinian ranks by openly supporting Yassin and his followers.

Israel’s assumption that Yassin could be a viable alternative to Yasser Arafat was the same sort of miscalculation the United States committed in Iran in the 1970s, when the CIA cultivated radical Islamist groups there should the regime of the Shah of Iran falter or fall. In 1979, the regime did fall. The CIA had misread the forces of political Islam in Iran. It had also misread its reach: Political Islam wasn’t a fad. It was the future.

Read the rest at the link ...

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.