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President George W. Bush’s most recent reminder that the U.S. needs to fight the worldwide terrorism of the Islamists, ignored a major target and victim of this terrorism – Israel. In a February 9 speech at the National Guard Memorial Building, in Washington DC, the President noted many of the countries that have been the victims of Islamist terrorist attacks. As he had done repeatedly several times before, he mentioned: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Spain and England.  Conspicuously absent from the list is Israel. Yet, Israel was the first target of the Islamist terrorism, decades before this war...

Here in Gaza, we are holding our breath, waiting to see what the unprecedented victory of Hamas in our legislative elections will mean for us. The territory is quiet. Even the militants have taken a break from launching rockets or occupying government buildings. Ironically, the subdued atmosphere is a clear sign of the violent turmoil inside each and every Palestinian. But this unease is not focused on what attacks or retaliations might occur between Hamas and its avowed enemy, Israel. Instead, what I hear my neighbors and colleagues discussing is: How will Hamas govern without the support of international donors?...

In Britt Hume's News show, Mr. Hume reported that former President Jimmy Carter is asking the U.S. Administration to "give Hammas a chance" because he is sure that the militant group "will renounce terrorism" (and become peaceful) once it forms a government. Furthermore, Jimmy Carter demands that we do not cut economic aid to the Hamas regime because the Palestinians will suffer for it.

Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections last week is widely seen as discrediting President Bush's desire to spread democracy. Actually, the electoral triumph of this pro-terrorist, anti-Western movement offers more evidence for the failure of the cynical approach that the United States pursued before Bush came into office — a pseudo-realistic policy of using supposedly benign dictators to repress Islamic extremists. That, after all, was the rationale behind the Oslo process: Israel and the U.S. would support Yasser Arafat in the hope that he would deliver peace and crack down on the crazies. Fat chance. Instead, his Fatah party gave...

Two top Egyptian officials called on Hamas to recognize Israel, disarm and honor past peace deals Wednesday, the latest sign Arab governments are pushing the militant group to moderate after its surprise election victory. Separately, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has told Egyptian officials he would hold off on asking Hamas to form the next Palestinian government until Hamas renounces violence.The Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, cited Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as saying that Abbas had made the decision after a meeting...

U.S. State Department to investigate failure to foresee Hamas victory By DPA The United States is examining why it was caught off guard by Hamas' victory in Palestinian legislative elections last week, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged earlier this week that she was surprised by Hamas's defeat of the Fatah party, which had dominated Palestinian politics for years. "She's asked her staff to look into that. Why is it that we didn't see this coming?" US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The United States designates Hamas, formally known as the Islamic...

“I vow by the One who raised the seven layers to Heaven (i.e. Allah) and who has beheaded tyrants that the leader of America has been thoroughly humiliated. Our heroes have defended this place. They have entered legend. Killing the infidels is our religion, slaughtering them is our religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute.”

Since Hamas's landslide victory, a debate has ensued over whether Israel ought to continue to remit taxes it has been collecting on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, even though the PA will now be controlled by a terrorist organization openly committed to Israel's destruction. For just the payment scheduled for this month, some NIS 200 million has been collected, and for now the government seems to have decided not to transfer the funds to the PA. Unmentioned in our public discourse, however, are the vast funds owed by the PA to Israel. This situation antedates all recent upheavals. No sooner...

Jimmy Carter goes gaga in Gaza By Doug Powers Posted: January 30, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern It's often been said that Jimmy Carter is a much better ex-president than he was president. If that was the case, it's no longer true - and that's hard to do. Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and current special ambassador to Everywhere, has spent the better part of a few decades practicing conflict resolution on the world. Jimmy has attempted to mediate settlements from the Israeli-Palestinian fight to the Jessica Simpson-Nick Lachey marriage, and traveled to all unmopped corners of...

Now Fatah Demands a State from the Jordan to the Mediterranean 16:16 Jan 31, '06 / 2 Shevat 5766 By Scott Shiloh The military wing of the Fatah party, the Al-Aksa Brigades, in a post-election effort to outflank the Hamas, says it will step up its terror offensive against Israel. The group will attempt to drum up public support for more violence against Israel by emphasizing the need to “liberate all of historic Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” As political leaders in Israel and around the world lament the fall of the Fatah and the rise...

Rice Admits U.S. Underestimated Hamas Strength By STEVEN R. WEISMAN LONDON, Jan. 29 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Sunday that the United States had failed to understand the depth of hostility among Palestinians toward their longtime leaders. The hostility led to an election victory by the militant group Hamas that has reduced to tatters crucial assumptions underlying American policies and hopes in the Middle East. "I've asked why nobody saw it coming," Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. "It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse." ....... Indeed, Hamas's victory has set...

A year ago this time, it appeared as if freedom, at long last, was working its miracles in the stubborn sands of the Arab world. The Purple Thumb Revolution was sweeping through Iraq; Palestinians had given Mahmoud Abbas a resounding democratic mandate; and the Cedar Revolution was primed to push Syria’s puppets out of Lebanon. With a mix of worry and wonder, Fouad Ajami played Middle East meteorologist and concluded, “Now, the Arabs, grasping for a new world, and the Americans, who have helped usher in this unprecedented moment, together ride this storm wave of freedom.” Last week, the storm...

When asked by the media for his thoughts on the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former President Jimmy Carter replied that while they have a terrorist past, at least they're not corrupt. One of the complaints by many in the Middle East was the corruption within the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. Arafat himself squirreled away millions of dollars from aid packages that were intended to help the Palestinian people. However, Carter's comment appears to dismiss the years of death and destruction perpetrated by Hamas on the Jewish State. And now the fundamental-Islamic group Hamas triumphed...

"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." -- Plato Please world, spare me the shocking reactions and earthshaking headline stuff. I don't think the average Israeli man or woman in the street was very surprised, nor was your average international diplomat. Surely, President George Bush and members of the US and Israeli governments should wipe that astonished look off of their faces. After all, for more than a decade, Israeli prime ministers, US presidents, and members of the National Security Council, the US Department of State,...

Now that Hamas has apparently won the Palestinian elections, the West is hoist with its own petard. On the one hand, Hamas is a terrorist group that unabashedly targets Israeli civilians and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. On the other hand, it just won what observers deem to have been a reasonably fair election, and so enjoys the legitimacy that comes from the ballot box. Every foreign ministry now confronts a dilemma: Nudge it to moderation or give up on it as irredeemably extremist? Meet with Hamas members or avoid them? Continue to donate to the Palestinian...

When asked by the media for his thoughts on the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former President Jimmy Carter replied that while they have a terrorist past, at least they're not corrupt. One of the complaints by many in the Middle East was the corruption within the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. Arafat himself squirreled away millions of dollars from aid packages that were intended to help the Palestinian people. However, Carter's comment appears to dismiss the years of death and destruction perpetrated by Hamas on the Jewish State. One of the first statements made by...

The Palestinian people have delivered a resounding vote against peace —calling, in their election, for a continuation of the savage and sanguinary war against Israel. This sharp reversal in the peace process should not go without a vigorous response from Washington.

The Bush administration's promotion of democracy forms the core of US foreign policy. It was the pillar of President George W. Bush's second inaugural address a year ago and, officials say, will be reiterated in his State of the Union address tomorrow night. But having assisted Hamas - listed as a terrorist group by the US - to power through elections Washington insisted should take place, the Bush administration is now in a dilemma in the "war on terror". Does it cut off institutional aid to the Palestinians and thus choke the democratic evolution? And, more broadly, does the US...

Hamas' conservative brand of Islam stirs worry among Palestinians By Dion Nissenbaum Knight Ridder Newspapers JIFNA, West Bank - For more than 40 years, Michel Tabash has made a living selling whiskey, beer, vodka and wine at his small family restaurant nestled in this Christian town between olive groves and a Palestinian refugee camp. The restaurant has survived war, Israeli occupation and the economy-draining Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which forced the family to shutter its doors for nearly four years. Now, 18 months after reopening, Tabash is worried that he may be forced out of business again - this time...

Hamas, Like Fatah, Wants All of 'Palestine' By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com International Editor January 27, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - A Hamas leader said late Thursday that the terrorist group's victory in the Palestinian legislative elections would "complete the liberation of other parts of Palestine." Ismail Haniyeh, addressing a victory press conference, did not elaborate, but his pledge echoes the covenant adopted by Hamas at its founding in 1988. "The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim," reads article 15 of the Hamas Charter. "In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it...