Several hoaxes that the PA has perpetrated have been exposed of late, some more significant than others but all worthy of mention. Collectively, these hoaxes speak load and clear about the duplicitous nature of the PA leadership:
Just a week ago, Fatah-controlled General Intelligence contacted The Jerusalem Post (or, more specifically, Khaled Abu Toameh) and offered an exclusive video of Hamas barbarity. It showed, they claimed, the Hamas honor killing in Gaza of a 16 year old girl. Contact information for two Gaza "eye witnesses" was provided and they verified that they had seen the lynching of the girl.
This went up on the Post website last Saturday night, but was caught by eagle-eyed readers and never made it to the Sunday paper. Seems the honor killing did happen, but in Iraq last April; the video apparently shows members of the Yazidis sect killing young member of their community for romancing with a Sunni Muslim boy. Fatah merely made use of the footage to show that Hamas is evil and they are the good guys. The "eyewitnesses," who turned out to be Fatah militia, have now disappeared.
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Then, as well, the Israeli government has finally come out officially with regard to the al-Dura hoax.
Government Press Office Head Danny Seaman has now called the matter a "blood libel" against Israel: "This is an explicit blood libel against the state. And just as blood libels in the old days have led to pogroms, this one has also caused damage and dozens of dead." Evidence showed that the IDF soldiers couldn’t have killed the boy. Says Seaman, the events as claimed, "contradict the laws of physics;" the boy could not have been shot from where the IDF soldiers were located. The footage — which was shot by a Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma, for France 2 TV — was staged.
Note: it is not entirely clear to me at this point if the boy is dead, killed by Palestinian bullets. And yes, they are capable of this. Or if he was never really killed at all, which seems to be the case. Footage of the moment of his actually death is missing.
The Israel Law Center is planning to petition the High Court to have the press credentials for France 2 journalists here cancelled.
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Then there yet another hoax, described by Caroline Glick. When in the US recently, Abbas gave an interview to Lally Weymouth of The Washington Post about the fact that Israel can trust the PA, which is working to stop terrorism. Said Abbas: "Last night, [our security forces] seized two rockets. We handed [them] over to the Israelis. We are very worried about these deeds and I think we can put an end to all this. Our security apparatus is ready to stop all kinds of violence." This was to serve as evidence of the PA’s preparedness to take over Judea and Samaria.
Except that it was a fabrication. Seems the "rockets" that the PA seized were some pipes that children were playing with. And the IDF noted this fact before the Post article ran. But it ran anyway. Weymouth didn’t emulate the journalistic integrity of Abu Toameh.
And so the point here is not just that the PA fabricates, but that the western media often play along, helping to generate a false picture of Fatah as "a terror-fighting, Israel-protecting, peace-seeking, credible, moderate actor."
Her entire piece is worth reading:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1191257205856&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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Syrian President Assad recently stated that what Israel hit when entering Syrian airspace was an abandoned facility. The Israeli censor has now lifted some restrictions, allowing journalists to write more directly about what happened.
Word is that Russian technicians are now in Syria helping to upgrade their defenses, as Israel, using stealth technology, was able to slip through the anti-missile shield that had already been provided to Syria by Russia. What Israel achieved was undoubtedly a huge shock and a blow to Syrian national honor.
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This past week 86 "security prisoners" were released by Israel, first 56 to Judea and Samaria and then another 30 to Gaza.
What made news was the letter sent to government officials by Chief of Staff Ashkenazi expressing the belief that releasing prisoners to Gaza was unethical when Shalit was still in captivity.
It should be noted, by the way, that these prisoners "without blood on their hands" included some who had done things such as plant bombs along roadways, hoping, but not managing, to kill Jews. It’s shameful that they were let go, not to mention folly from a security perspective.
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Israeli politicians on the far left are decrying Olmert’s insistence on watering down the joint document with Abbas, saying that he should pull out of the conference because he’s not strong enough (their interpretation of "strong") to make anything happen. One more indication that, indeed, nothing is going to happen.
There is talk from the US, by the way, of postponing the conference a bit to give Olmert and Abbas more opportunity to come to an agreement.
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https://41k.82b.myftpupload.com/current-postings/2007/10/5/october-5-2007-hoaxes.html
