PA Leaders Advocated Kidnapping Policy

While the mainstream news media portray the abduction of Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit as an act of independent "militants," there is ample documentation of the plans of PA leaders to abduct soldiers to win the release of Palestinian prisoners. Here is more, from the "moderate" Abbas' Fatah. Of course, it was Fatah who recently abducted a Jewish student, but then released him when it became clear that he was an American. This occured the day after George Bush invented the "Zarqawi effect."

Of course, it doesn't take a right-winger to recognize the enormous incentive that was created when the Israeli government traded 436 terrorists for one drug dealer.

Of course, with the public outcry against the now successful attacks that are now regularly emanating from Gaza (precisely as IRIS warned they would happen), Israel's leadership is very likely to repriese the hackneyed "speak loudly and carry a small stick" policy which I described last year:

Here's how the charade works: Israelis want to be defended from attacks but politicians are frightened of international reaction so they pretend to retaliate (Israel Vows 'Crushing' Response to Attacks) without actually attacking anything the enemy cares about. They believe they can fool people by having them see news footage of explosions at enemy targets. Anyone who thinks that Hamas is troubled by the destruction of empty buildings should review the history of the last few weeks.

The problem is that this public relations strategy backfires: there is little domestic gain and only international loss. Israelis are familiar enough with the pattern to not be fooled into believing it. The Palestinian "big lie" machine then goes into action to present fabricated victims and wildly exaggerated casualty reports to buttress their victimhood image (cf. Jenin). The international press, which is complicit in Palestinian propaganda, is all too eager to present the Israeli and Palestinian misinformation as "savage revenge attacks" to an audience that justifiably has very little knowledge of the far-off conflict. This headline is a striking example: Israel Mounts New Strikes, Hamas Ends Attacks.

Consider the sentence highlighted in bold in the above paragraph in light of the latest Palestinian big lie, reflexively disseminated by the mainstream news media.

Currently there is news of a ground assault/incursion into Gaza, but note that so far it appears to be largely symbolic, with only a small number of structures destroyed. There have been no casualties reported, but there is word of the familiar Israeli tactic of creating annoyingly loud sounds. This is not war on the terrorist enemy; this is an attempt at a law enforcement operation. Israel has destroyed infrastructure elements that it and the international community has financed and will pay for in the future. Of course, it is theoretically possible that Israel will finally hit back "really, really hard," but all signs point to a continuation of Groundhog Days courtesy of Israel's left-wing regime. Is this an exaggeration? Despite Palestinian written renunciations of terror in every signed agreement since Oslo, we have the following request yet again...Israel to EU: Palestinians Should Renounce Terrorism Before Receiving Aid.