Free Republic

'A people without walls is a people without any choice." So writes Aristotle in The Politics. In modern parlance, we might say that a nation that does not adequately defend or define its borders subjects its citizens not only to military risk but to political danger. A country that cannot maintain its deterrent capability vis-a-vis its hostile neighbors rapidly loses strategic maneuverability, becomes enervated and finds itself increasingly helpless. Israel, as recent events have once again made lamentably plain, risks becoming such a country. Fifteen Israelis were wounded Wednesday - four seriously - by a Grad-model rocket that hit a...

Hamas faces unprecedented crisis, as Israel, Egypt prepare for flare-up Alex Fishman 4/16/08 Egypt asked Israel to put its forces along the Gaza Strip border on alert, while at the same time the Egyptian army is on special deployment on the Philadelphi Route and south of it. Officials in Israel and Egypt estimate that Gaza is on the brink of eruption that may be violently manifested on the Strip’s border with the two countries. Israeli security officials estimate that Hamas’ Gaza regime has reached a dead-end and is facing an unprecedented crisis not seen since it took over the Strip....

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- An aide to Israel's public security minister was wounded by a Palestinian gunman on Friday as he toured an observation point overlooking the Gaza Strip with a group of Canadian tourists. Dozens of other people were at the site at the time, Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter said, but no one else was hurt. The deputy director of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Dr. Emile Hay, said Dichter's bureau chief, Matti Gil, was in stable condition with gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen and pelvis. Several militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack, including the military wing of...

Two Palestinian terrorists were killed by the IDF late Saturday evening, Palestinian sources claimed. Rescue workers reported three explosions near the town of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip. They said the two gunmen. Reportedly they were trying to plant an explosive device near the security barrier. Military officials said the Palestinian report was being looked into. On Friday, IDF troops shot and killed two Palestinian gunmen during clashes in the Gaza Strip, and a Kassam rocket slammed into a kibbutz kindergarten moments after the children had left the playground. A Hamas man was killed and another was wounded during...

SDEROT, Israel (AP) -- Touring a war-battered town, Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he understands Israel's tough response to Palestinian rocket fire, adding that there is no point in negotiating with the Gaza Strip's Islamic Hamas regime. The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting also praised the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, saying he is committed to reaching a peace deal with Israel — though McCain is not meeting Palestinians this time. McCain's visit to Israel is part of a weeklong trip through the Middle East and Europe. After a day of meetings with Israeli leaders, he visited Sderot, the southern Israeli border...

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The U.N. Human Rights Council has condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza and called on Palestinians to stop rocket fire into Israel. The resolution passed Thursday said Israeli incursions into the Palestinian territory inflicted collective punishment on the civilian population. Israel launched the offensive last week in response to Palestinian militants barraging southern Israel with rockets.

Published: 03.06.08, 15:29 / Israel News Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided Thursday to cancel his US visit, scheduled for next week, due to the escalating situation in southern Israel. Barak was to meet with Vice President Dick Cheney and US secretary of Defense Robert Gates. (Roni Sofer)

Several thousand Arabs led by Arab nationalist Knesset members participated in a procession through the Israeli city of Umm el-Fahm near Megiddo Tuesday evening. The demonstration was held in protest of Israeli military operations in Gaza and involved incidents of rock throwing at Israeli cars.The crowd chanted "Israel, the mother of terror" and held a sign that read "Stop the Zionazi" in English. Additional slogans were "Rest, O martyr, we will complete the task," "Warm blessings to the rock children," as well as the standard "With blood and spirit, we will redeem Palestine." The participants held Syrian and PLO...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Palestinians say they know when an Israeli drone is in the air: Cell phones stop working, TV reception falters and they can hear a distant buzzing. They also know what's likely to come next — a devastating explosion on the ground. Palestinians say Israel's pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza, which has killed nearly 120 people since last week. "Our experience is that the drone missile is successful in hitting its targets, and it's deadly," said Dr. Mahmoud Assali, a Palestinian physician who works in the emergency...

The London-based human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned Israel's attacks on Gaza, claiming they are "being carried out with reckless disregard for civilian life." "Israeli military attacks over the past few days have killed more than 75 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 10 children, and other unarmed civilian bystanders not involved in the confrontations" Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said Sunday. "Israel has a legal obligation to protect the civilian population of Gaza. Such attacks are disproportionate and go beyond lawful measures which Israeli forces may take in response to rocket attacks...

Gaza Strip (AP) -- A bloody spike in Israel-Hamas fighting put the Israeli city of Ashkelon and its 110,000 residents at the center of an intensifying militant rocket barrage Thursday — and Israel's defense minister warned he would invade Gaza, if necessary, to halt the attacks. Israel sent a not-so-veiled warning to Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, killing 20 Palestinians in almost a dozen airstrikes, including a missile attack on a guard post outside Haniyeh's home. Hamas leaders have been in hiding in recent weeks, though Israel has so far only targeted militants, not Hamas politicians. The dead Thursday...

TEL AVIV — New population data have some Palestinians contemplating an unorthodox formula for Middle East peace — a single democratic nation of Arabs and Jews, in which Palestinians would be the majority. "If Israel wants to call it Israel from Jordan to the Mediterranean, I accept it. So we'll be equal to them," said Saeb Erekat, a negotiator who has been at the center of negotiations to set up a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "And with the majority, I will change the name of the Knesset to Parliament and the name of Israel to...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The eight-month closure of Gaza has created "grim and miserable" conditions that deprive Palestinians of their basic dignity, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief said Friday. Later Friday, a powerful blast went off in the house of a senior Islamic Jihad activist, killing him and five others, medics and an Islamic Jihad spokesman said. Islamic Jihad said an Israeli airstrike targeted the house, but Israel denied it. John Holmes, undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, visited Gaza during the day and urged that the territory's borders be reopened to relieve the suffering. Israel and Egypt severely restricted access...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- An explosion Friday in the house of an Islamic Jihad activist killed at least one person and wounded 30, Hamas police and medics said. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said the house was hit in an Israeli airstrike. Hamas security officials said the cause of the explosion was not clear. The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The blast happened at the central Gaza home of Ayman Atallah Fayed

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Leaders of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement have gone into hiding, fearing Israeli assassination attempts in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel, officials said Monday. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the military to prepare to invade Gaza, and told Israeli lawmakers that under certain circumstances, Israel would "even take down Hamas." Barak spoke at a closed parliamentary meeting whose discussions routinely are leaked to the media. It was the first time a senior Israeli official hinted so strongly that Israel was prepared to overthrow Hamas if the Palestinians didn't...

Pali-Arab Hate Watch Pali-parasites get 7.6 billion in aid. For what? For this? Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas continues to portray the United States as the merciless enemy of the Palestinians. A cartoon in the PA official daily last week shows Gaza drowning in blood, while the US is cruelly stamping on the outstretched Arab arm trying to help Gaza.(Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan-19-2008) *This demonization of the USA is a continuation of PA policy for many years. See the PMW web site for more cartoon examples. Palistan Reality: The dude with a case of cigs talking on a cell phone....

Likud MK Yuval Shteinitz, who chaired the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Sharon government, says that with the breakdown of the border between Gaza and Egypt, Israel's lone option remains the same: "We must take over Gaza." Speaking with Arutz-7 today, Shteinitz said, "If Hamas worked to break open the border with Egypt, this means it is not in Israel's interest.  For one thing, our pressure tactic against the Gazan terrorists - that is, the siege that we imposed - is no longer effective, as they can just go to Egypt to buy whatever they need.  In...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The Gaza border crisis caused another sharp flap Thursday in Egyptian-Israeli relations, with Egypt angrily accusing Israel of trying to dump all responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip in its lap. It was not clear if the proposal for Israel to relinquish all control over Gaza, expressed privately by several Israeli officials and publicly by one, was serious or just an effort to test international reaction to the idea. But Egyptian officials were fuming. "This is a wrong assumption," Hossam Zaki, the official spokesman for Egypt's Foreign Ministry, said of Israeli hints that it was thinking...

GAZA CITY — Hamas has for the first time reported firing surface-to-air missiles at Israeli aircraft. Hamas said its new army launched SAMs toward Israeli attack helicopters that operated over the Gaza Strip. The Islamic regime, in the first such announcement, said the air defense systems were employed on Dec. 20 during an Israeli military operation in the central Gaza Strip. "Our fighters opened intense fire from more than one weapon at 11:30 a.m., and forced the surprised IAF helicopters to withdraw," a Hamas statement said. Hamas distributed leaflets throughout the Gaza Strip that reported the use of SAMs. The...

A high-voltage power line fell over Tuesday during the Gaza funeral for two terrorists killed by the IDF Monday. The line was severed by shooting in the air. One person was killed and eight injured by the live wires.

A female Hamas activist, considered one of the two most senior women to sit in an Israeli jail, was released from prison on Monday after serving a 28 month sentence. Upon reaching Beit Hanoun, she called upon Hamas not to free Gilad Shalit Ali Waked Published: 12.17.07, 21:12 / Israel News Hamas activist Samar Sbaih didn't even wait one day after her release from an Israeli prison before issuing a call to her fellow Hamas members to abduct more Israeli soldiers. Speaking at a press conference in Beit Hanoun to celebrate her release on Monday after 28 months of imprisonment,...

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli tanks and bulldozers backed by attack aircraft moved into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing five militants in the widest operation in the territory since Islamic Hamas forces wrested control in June. Another died in an airstrike in northern Gaza. The violence took place on the eve of the first formal peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians since early 2001. The Israeli military described it as a routine operation "against the terror infrastructure" in Gaza. Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to sabotage the peace talks. In Tuesday's operation, tanks and...

Israel readies for Gaza invasion The army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip, now controlled by Hamas, and is waiting only for gov't approval, the military said. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel in the meantime would continue with its policy of airstrikes and brief ground incursions to halt Palestinian rocket attacks. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has repeatedly said the time for a ground invasion of Gaza is drawing closer, if not yet imminent.

IAF planes struck a Kassam rocket cell in northern Gaza Wednesday evening, moments after it had succeeded in launching two rockets into Israeli territory. Two of the three operatives were killed, the IDF said. Both rockets struck open areas in the western Negev. Nobody was wounded in the attack, and no damage was reported. Earlier in the day, two Kassams struck the Negev, also hitting open areas and causing neither damage nor injury. On Tuesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that he planned to approve a list of civilian sanctions against the Gaza Strip in a security meeting he would...

(IsraelNN.com) The chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice last week - and told her that Prime Minister Olmert agrees, finally, to turn eastern Jerusalem into the capital of a future state of Palestine. So reports the PA newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadeeda, quoting an unnamed "senior Palestinian source." Abbas reportedly told Rice that Olmert had agreed to the demand in an Olmert-Abbas meeting a couple of days before. Another Olmert-Abbas meeting is planned for next week, the paper reports. Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman reports on another PA media article. The...

(IsraelNN.com) Eleven of Israel’s most prominent leftist authors and members of the intellectual elite have published a call to negotiate with the Islamist Hamas terror group. The statement, which was dispatched to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and published in Haaretz, calls upon Olmert to “make every possible effort” to reach a diplomatic agreement with Mahmoud Abbas and to open up negotiations with Hamas for a ceasefire. "We believe an opportunity to promote the peace process ahead of the international conference in November has been created,” the statement says. “We urge the prime minister to make the greatest effort to reach...

A day after the cabinet defined the Gaza Strip as "hostile territory," The Jerusalem Post learned Thursday that the IDF is working on a proposal that calls for a "complete disengagement" from the Gaza Strip - involving the closure of all border crossings with Israel and the transfer of all responsibility over the Palestinian territory to Egypt. The proposal, defense officials said, was recently raised by Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky during a series of meetings within the defense establishment. While Israel removed its military positions and settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it has maintained...

Israel has rejected an offer by Hamas to renew a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Friday. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's office reportedly contacted a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem through a third party before the cabinet decided on Wednesday to declare Gaza a "hostile territory." After the cabinet decision, the source responded to Hamas's proposal, saying Israel would not hold talks with the group at this time. On Thursday, Haniyeh met with representatives of the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza and asked them to abide by any cease-fire agreement Hamas would strike...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car in a Gaza refugee camp Thursday, injuring two members of the violent Islamic Jihad group, according to the military and a spokesman for the militants. The car was struck while driving in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli army said it identified hitting a group of militants on its way to fire rockets at Israel. Islamic Jihad said two of its activists were slightly injured in the strike. Palestinian hospital officials earlier said they were treating a man who had been seriously wounded. The car was...

Palestinians report Israeli troops disguised as members of Hamas' security force kidnapped Muhawesh al-Kadi, senior member of group's military wing in Rafah. Sources say man involved in abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers crossed into southern Gaza to strike at Palestinian militants Thursday, a day after Israel's defense minister said a broad operation inside the territory was inevitable. Three militants were killed and 12 people were wounded in the fiercest clash. Israel's Security Cabinet on Wednesday rejected calls for a large-scale Gaza invasion. But the government is under mounting public pressure to stop the crude Palestinian rockets that fall daily in southern Israel — including a projectile that struck the yard of a nursery school earlier this week. No one...

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- Israeli leaders ruled out a large-scale military response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip but threatened on Wednesday to cut off electricity or other vital supplies to the impoverished area if militants keep up attacks. Pictures of panicked Israeli children and parents running for cover as the school year began in the battered town of Sderot have dominated news in Israel this week. The government has been forced to address growing anger and frustration over the inability of the high-tech military to counter the crude Palestinian weapons. Israeli media quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as...

Fatah protest in Gaza against Hamas turns violent Thousands of Palestinians loyal to President Abbas confront Hamas gunmen in biggest protest against Islamic group since it seized power in Gaza in June. Gunmen fire at protesters and reporters, witnesses said, but no injuries reported; three journalists detained News agencies YNET t Update: 08.24.07, 18:37 / Israel News www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3441496,00.html Hamas security men shot towards thousands of Palestinian protesters loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas who hurled rocks at them in the Gaza Strip on Friday in the biggest rally against the Islamist group since it seized control of the territory in June....

"Palestinians never used to do these things to one another." That was the first sentence of a New York Times Magazine story by the newspaper's Jerusalem Bureau Chief, Steven Erlanger. What are the things Palestinians are doing to one another today that they didn't do before? * putting bullets in the back of the heads of men on their knees; * shooting up hospitals; * killing patients; * knee-capping doctors; * executing clerics; * throwing handcuffed prisoners to their deaths from Gaza's highest apartment buildings; Is it naivete? Plain ignorance and incompetence? Deliberate disinformation? Partisanship with radical Islamists? Anti-Israeli zealotry?...

GAZA CITY -- As they gave up compound after compound to advancing Hamas forces, weary Fatah fighters loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas fell back toward the seaside presidential compound in Gaza to make their last stand. They set up .50-caliber machine guns and unloaded crates of ammunition, certain that it would be their last stand. "This is all there is for us," said a special forces officer who called himself Abu Hassan as he oversaw the stacking of ammunition. "We will not surrender. They will execute us." But there was no last stand. Instead, Fatah leaders fled the...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sided emphatically Tuesday with a weakened Mahmoud Abbas, hoping extra money and warm words would give the moderate leader primacy over the Islamic militant Hamas in the newly divided Palestinian territories. "He has spoken out for moderation," Bush said at an Oval Office strategy session with Olmert. "He is a voice that is a reasonable voice amongst the extremists in your neighborhood." "Like you, I want to strengthen the moderates," echoed Olmert, who promised "to make every possible effort to cooperate" with Abbas. It was not the first time...

After Israel's disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and the ensuing looting and burning of greenhouses and synagogues by triumphant Palestinians, I wrote a column titled "What A Palestinian State Would Look Like." My central thesis being that the long awaited Palestinian state, nurtured by the folly of the international community and the obsession of Western leftists, was in fact materializing before our eyes. And it was not a pretty sight. Now that Gaza is once again subsumed by chaos, looting, murder and mayhem and Fatah has retreated to the West Bank leaving Hamas in charge, I would once again make...

Opposition leader says PA crisis result of weak Israeli policies, calls on government to isolate Gaza. Asked about Barak as defense minister, he says, 'I'll be sleeping much better when I know the government's policy has changed' "I warned this would happen. Before the last elections and my warnings were ignored. I said then that Hamastan would rise into existence and it has done just that," opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told Ynet on Sunday as he follows the situation in the Palestinian Authority and particularly in Gaza. Netanyahu said he saw a direct link between Israel's disengagement from Gaza in...

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- Hamas' seizure of the Gaza Strip could be a hollow victory. With Israel in control of Gaza's borders and the international community likely to shun it in favor of the Fatah-controlled West Bank, Hamas will have a hard time providing for the impoverished strip's 1.4 million inhabitants. Its first moves — issuing an amnesty for rival Palestinian fighters and calling for the release of a kidnapped British journalist — signaled an awareness of the risks of isolation. However, Hamas' first day as the sole ruler of Gaza also saw crowds looting Fatah strongholds and militants sending...

GAZA CITY (AP) -- On its first day of full rule in Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas announced Friday that it is granting amnesty to senior Fatah leaders, signaling that it is seeking conciliation with the defeated forces of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas also said Palestinian security forces, now under its command, would take control of Gaza's crossing with Egypt, which was monitored by European observers until the last decisive battle for Gaza erupted earlier this week. Gazans awoke to a new reality Friday, fraught with uncertainty and fear that they'll become even poorer and more isolated. Streets...

The crackdown, ordered by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, is seen as an attempt to consolidate Fatah's grip on the West Bank after the Gaza Strip fell into the hands of Hamas. Unlike the Gaza Strip, Hamas does not have thousands of militiamen. The few Hamas military cells that operate in the West Bank are hardly felt. Most of Hamas's activities in the West Bank are restricted to political, information and charity work. But while Fatah has many armed groups and policemen in the West Bank, Hamas remains popular in several cities, villages and refugee camps. In the last municipal elections,...

Published?March?2007 ? Vol. 6, No. 23??? 11 March 2007?Iran Is Building "Hamastan" in Gaza?Brig.-Gen. (res.) Shalom Harari There is a growing strategic alliance between Iran and the radical Palestinian forces in the territories. Hamas says it will build its society, economy, and army with the help of the Islamic world, mainly Iran, instead of the West. Iran is involved in supporting both the Islamic factions and Fatah, as well. Today, at least 40 percent of Fatah's different fighting groups are also paid by Hizbullah and Iran. Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh does not speak from the parliament. Rather, he makes his...

You mean there is a government there? Who knew. Bono to blame America.

Hamas, stepping up a rapidly expanding power struggle, Tuesday afternoon attacked installations of security forces allied to the rival Fatah movement across the Gaza Strip. The violence, which erupted Monday morning after days of simmering tensions, has claimed 17 lives so far. The Hamas forces captured several positions from Fatah, and threatened to step up the offensive. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah accused Hamas of staging a coup. Advertisement Fatah sources said they believe Hamas is trying to achieve a decisive victory in the Gaza Strip within hours. In the northern Gaza Strip, about 200 Hamas gunmen surrounded...

In several days of discussions in Jerusalem and Ramallah recently, I was struck by the nature of the debate I witnessed in both places. To my surprise, it wasn't about the stalemate in the peace process or the Arab peace initiative. It was about the conflict between Palestinian organizations in Gaza -- Hamas vs. Fatah -- and whether Gaza was in fact already lost to the Islamists. Both Israelis and Palestinians were wondering about the consequences of Gaza's becoming, in their word, "Hamastan."

Jun. 2, 2007 19:00 | Updated Jun. 2, 2007 19:52 Gaza: 'Immodest' women to be killed By KHALED ABU TOAMEH A radical Islamic group in the Gaza Strip issued over the weekend a death threat against Palestinian women working for the official Palestinian Authority television station, accusing them of dressing immodestly and behaving in a way that violates the teachings of Islam. The threat, the first of its kind against female employees of Palestine TV, was made by the Righteous Swords of Islam, a relatively new group that is believed to have links with al-Qaida. The group has claimed responsibility...

Air Force fires missile at top al-Quds Brigades member Fadi Abu Mustafa while he rides his motorcycle in southern Strip town of Khan Younis. Organization's spokesman says in response, 'Israelis should prepare for additional rockets and suicide bombings' Ali Waked Latest Update: 06.01.07, 21:19 / Israel News The IDF killed a senior Islamic Jihad member on Friday evening while he was riding his motorcycle in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The man killed in the airstrike was identified by Palestinians as Fadi Abu Mustafa. According to IDF officials, he was involved in planning terror attacks against Israeli...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday blamed Palestinian extremism for being primarily responsible for the suffering of Gaza Strip residents. "Gaza residents are the victims of extremism and leaders who are willing to shed their blood and deprive them of the right to live in peace and security," said Olmert, during a Knesset event honoring the local authorities. Olmert added that "Israel will not cease its operations against those launching Qassam rockets, and will not hesitate to strike those responsible for terrorism." "We have no intention of reaching any kind of settlement, neither with Hamas nor with Islamic Jihad," said...

(IsraelNN.com) Israeli missiles destroyed a Hamas weapons storage facility and an operations center of the Popular Resistance Committee in the hours before dawn Tuesday. The sorties followed a day in which 25 rockets were fired at the western Negev, particularly at the town of Sderot. A 32-year-old woman was killed, several other people were wounded and more than a dozen suffered shock in attacks throughout the day. Exploding rockets also ignited fires around the region, damaged numerous structures and again prevented children from going to school and enjoying end-of-year activities. Hamas Prime Minister Offers Ceasefire, Promises Annihilation The ruling Palestinian...

Fatwa By Unknown Sheikh Who Sanctifies Killing Hamas Members Triggers Harsh Reactions In an article posted May 16, 2007 by the Palestine Press Agency, a certain Sheikh Shaker Al-Hiran labels Hamas as Khawarij(1) and sanctifies killing its members. The article responded to the recent cycle of bloodshed between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip, placing the blame on Hamas and accusing Hamas of acting against a legitimate ruler. The Saudi daily Al-Watan published it on its front page on May 22, 2007. (2) In another article, posted May 18, 2007 on the Fatah website, Al-Hiran went even farther, comparing...