"Muslim Extremists Attack Gaza Elementary School," from the Associated Press:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Muslim extremists in long white robes attacked a children's festival at a U.N.-run elementary school with guns and homemade bombs Sunday, killing a politician's bodyguard in plain view of terrified youngsters — just the latest incident of lawlessness engulfing the Gaza Strip.
The new Palestinian unity government, formed two months ago, appeared powerless to end growing clan fighting, kidnappings and attacks by shadowy extremist groups on foreigners, music shops and Internet cafes.
Hours after Sunday's attack, which also left seven people wounded, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were meeting in another attempt to put together a security plan.
Interior Minister Hani Kawasmeh, the author of the plan, has threatened to resign because security commanders refuse to cooperate with him, mainly because of rivalries between coalition partners Hamas and Fatah.
In Palestinian-Israeli violence on Sunday, two Israelis were seriously wounded. A security guard for a tanker truck was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank, and the other was hurt by a rocket fired from Gaza. The rocket exploded near a gas station next to the town of Sderot, a frequent target of rockets from Gaza.
[...]
New statistics, meanwhile, illustrated the sharp increase in internal violence in Gaza.
In the first three months of this year, 147 Gazans, including 10 children, were killed by fellow Palestinians, according to the Palestinian human rights group Al-Mezan. By comparison, 57 people died in factional fighting in all of 2004, followed by 101 in 2005 and 252 last year.
If the upward spiral isn't stopped, Gaza could become ungovernable, warned Ibrahim Ibrach, a political scientist at Gaza's al-Azhar University. "The collapse of the Palestinian Authority ... is at stake," he said.
Sunday's attack on the U.N. school in the southern Gaza refugee camp of Rafah began with a protest by Muslim extremists in long robes, who said a sports festival the school was hosting was un-Islamic. The U.N. "is turning schools into nightclubs," read one sign held up by the protesters.
At one point, the group tried to enter the school. Palestinian security fired in the air to keep them away. In the ensuing chaos, at least one bomb was thrown into the school, and a gun battle followed.
MA senior Fatah official, Majed Abu Shamaleh, was leaving the school when his bodyguard was killed. Seven people were wounded, most by bomb fragments. Some children hid under their chairs during the fighting.
The top U.N. official in Gaza, John Ging, was in the school at the time of the attack. He was not hurt. The protesters accused him of leading a movement to weaken people's Islamic faith.
[...]
Abu Shamaleh said the shooting appeared to be carried out by the same extremists who have been behind a string of bombings of Internet cafes and pool halls in Gaza.
Police said they arrested two of the gunmen and were interrogating them. Later, the extremists tried to approach the police station where the two suspects were being held, to release the men. Police and gunmen from militant factions surrounded the station to prevent the extremists from entering, witnesses said.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled prime minister's office, said the shooting showed the importance of Hamas and Fatah reaching a security deal.
"This is our first priority ... nobody has the right to use guns to deal with their problems," Hamad said.
Really?
If we use the "democrat model" since there appears to be a civil war within the Gaza strip, all US aid and its workers, ie UN should leave Gaza right now!
"Gaza will become ungovernable"
I think it is already there thanks to Hamas and Fatah. I am just sorry that Israel must live next to neighbors such as these.
Karl
Zena,
I would say you are correct, but these are poor oppressed Palestinians, not Iraqis. Or said perhaps better and more sarcastically, it's the Jews fault in Palestine, but the Americans/Brits fault in Iraq. If have no idea what that means, but it's the only way I can even remotely try to rationalize it.
Karl
Israel should seal the border and let them kill one another until there is no one left. The US must end all aid (aka jizya)to this little sliver of hell.
Apparently, the only "sport" allowed is shooting & bombing...and the targets are "infidels".
So much for solving "problems"...since they don't consider attacking anything non-mOslem to be a "problem" at all, and outside the scope of their vocabulary.
Karl
Posted by: schwaben
l dont have any idea what you just said above. if the Palestinians want to asign blame, they just need to look in the mirror. when l say have all American aid and aid workers leave Gaza, l meant to say seal the borders of the Gaza, and let them implode, ie self destruct. these "Paliestinians" go around trying to kill all Jews, and now their evil is coming back onto them.
Zena,
I agree with sealing the borders and letting them fight it our, but I don't see anyone letting that happen. The Israelis would then be blamed, not the Palestinians, as the Israelis are the only ones would could seal the borders. I don't see America or Britain sending troops to help do this.
It doesn't matter that Israel is almost daily attacked by rockets and accordingiy has every right to militarily retaliate. I personnaly believe the Israel has shown a great aversion to causing civilian casualties and a great love for human life in their military operations, unlike those of the Palestinians.
Karl
The full AP article used word extremist seven times. Are they trying to pour something into our brains? Extremists my eye, these are true believers, mainstream if you will.
Give 'em a state!
I think that Islam fundamentally is such a spur to violence and a death cult that when Muslims are unable to kill Jews, Christians and other infidels they naturally tend to kill each other. Just look at the prime for warring median age of male Muslims in the mid-East. If the West can frustrate their Islamic will to kill infidels, it need only stand back and watch them annihilate each other.
There is obviously some al queda elements in Gaza and elsewhere in the palistinian areas that are causing these bombings etc. The folks there are only reaping what they have sowed.
They were offered 95% of the state with Arafat and they turned it down! They still have not done one thing to proove a damn thing! Attacks everyday! All the $ they have gotten they could of shown alot of progress. Instead they insist, Po' po' johnnys look what you did to me! Then they do it again and again. Tunnels constantly!
Planned kidnapps, strapping of bombs onto their own children! I don't think the U.N does anything.
They probably have their hands tied like Bush! Hog tied!
"Eyeless in Gaza."
How To Reinstall the 7th Century in 1.2 Billion Uneasy Lessons.
Step One: Chase out the inhabitants who will believe you want to improve the property.
Step Two: Destroy everything given to you by the former inhabitants.
Step Three: Start destroying your fellow religionists' property.
Step Four: Start destroying your fellow religionists.
Step Five: Demand money from foreigners.
Step Six: Begin to attack the neighboring country again.
Step Seven: Repeat Steps Three and Four and Five.
"If the West can frustrate their Islamic will to kill infidels, it need only stand back and watch them annihilate each other."
FM,
The trick is making sure we don't let them have the means to kill us in the process. Unfortunately, I think they already have it, thanks to many people in Western nations who thought the best way to make friends with the Muslim world was to appease its desire for arms.
It didn't hurt that these same people made money on every arms sale, every nuclear plant built, etc. We gave the Islamic world the tools with which to knock us off and we have allowed them into our homes (nations) to make the job easier.
They won't be content to annihilate one another. They'll take us down with them if we give them a chance. It's them or us.
"I think that Islam fundamentally is such a spur to violence and a death cult that when Muslims are unable to kill Jews, Christians and other infidels they naturally tend to kill each other. Just look at the prime for warring median age of male Muslims in the mid-East. If the West can frustrate their Islamic will to kill infidels, it need only stand back and watch them annihilate each other.
Posted by: FM [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 6, 2007 06:44 PM "
What you say makes perfect sense. Isn't that what people do when they whip up bulls behind the scenes so that when they then open the gates, the bulls explode in a frenzy of anger? Hate is a powerful energizing force. It whips people up into a frenzy, which demands release. Palestinian propoganda is constantly whipping Pali's into a frenzy of hate, including young children. Naturally, denied an external outlet, they explode internally.
Maybe a day will come when the term "Palestinian" will be used interchangeably with the phrase "spontaneous human combustion"?
Yeah - it was completely bizarre! She was found completely burned to a crisp in her recliner. But everything around her was still totally intact! Maybe she was a Palestinian??
From the article:
This reminds me of how, pre-9/11, the U.N. built a soccer stadium in Kabul Afghanistan, to give the youths there a healthy outlet for their energy. The Taliban took it over, banned sports, and used the stadium for wildly popular public executions (hangings, shootings, stonings). The naive idealism of the U.N. is no match for the grim barbarity that is Islam.
Demonstration Project.
All of it, right down to the unlamented Alan Johnston.
Let the 'peaceful,oppressed & secular' Palestinians blow up schools & U.N personnel.
Maybe all those misguided Leftist Westeners will realise why Israel has to clamp down on what is virtually a terrorist state in Gaza.
No wonder even their fellow Arabs don't want 'em as neighbours either.
... moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were meeting in another attempt to put together a security plan.
When two Moslem leaders go into a room to hammer out a security plan, I wanna be a fly on the wall in that meeting. Whaddya figure they talked about?
"Palestinian security fired in the air to keep them away."
....if they really want to keep the terrorists away...aim lower...
Not too long ago, a Palestinian spokesman claimed the mantle of the ancient Canaanites. Hence, I entertain the pious opinion that it might just be the case that what we are seeing in the implosion of Palestinian society is the cuse of Almighty God working itself out.
It sounds like the second dirt damn has given way.
They will wallow in filth of their own making for a second time.
Why do you call Fatah leader Abbas a "moderate"?