Soccer Dad

Dollars (and respect) for Dahlan

Last week, even before The New York Times reported it Meryl Yourish noted that the "embargo" that had caused so much reported hardship for the Palestinians hadn't really been much of a boycott at all.

Meryl noted that the AP reported that last year the PA actually received $200 million more than it had in 2005. So much for the boycott of Hamas.

But if the Palestinians were so impoverished where did all the money go? Well Shiloh Musings has photographic evidence of one place where it was going: to mansions being built north of Jerusalem. Do I know for certain? No. But it's happened before, as the late Michael Kelly wrote in Investing in Yasser Arafat

Everyone had behaved perfectly fine; no one had so much as mentioned the inconvenient London Sunday Times story the day before, which said that the Palestinian Authority had swiped $20 million in British aid intended to build housing for the poor of Gaza, using the money instead to build luxury flats for Arafat's military and bureaucratic elite. After a day of pleasantries, representatives of 43 nations had pledged $3 billion in new aid to the Palestinian Authority, including an extra $400 million from the U.S. president. Arafat saw that it was good. "I am satisfied with the reality of this conference," he pronounced.

One of the people who benefited from this largesse (as well as from a successful monopoly) was Mohammed Dahlan, the one time head of Gaza's "preventive security" forces.

I had long expected that Dahlan, a corrupt thug - though able to project a suave appearance that fooled gullible journalists - would succeed Yasser Arafat. Still even in Hamas controlled Gaza he survives.

But Dahlan, one time an ally of Hamas who shielded fugitive terrorist Mohammed Deif from Israel - maybe preventive security means that he prevents security from being realized - is now a moderate.

Israel Matzav provides an example of Mr. Dahlan's moderation.

TWO KILLED IN ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK Miri Amitai, 36, a mother of four, and Gabi Biton, 34, a father of six, are the two Israelis who were killed in the terrorist attack this morning near the Magen Junction in Gaza. Close to 7:30 AM a large bomb, comprised of a 122-mm mortar shell, was detonated on the road as a school bus passed on its way from Kfar Darom to N'vei Dekalim. Eleven were wounded, including two in serious condition. Three terrorists detonated the explosive from a distance of 200 meters. Although the bus was bulletproof, it was not fortified against bombs. The road on which the attack took place had been reopened to Palestinian traffic only a short while before.

Three siblings of the Cohen family from Kfar Darom are hospitalized in Soroka in Be'er Sheva; a fourth one missed the bus and remained at home. Their mother was unable to get to the hospital because the roads are closed. Government minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, a relative of the family, visited them today. The names and ages of the three children: Orit (bat Nogah), almost 12; Tehillah, 8.5; and Yisrael, 7. They are suffering from severe injuries to their limbs, and doctors are struggling to prevent the need for amputations [Note - All three children needed some sort of amputation in the end. One lost both legs. Hashem yerachem.... CiJ].

Funny thing is that 5 years ago an Israeli politician scoffed

Many are placing their new hopes on Gaza preventive security service boss Mohammed Dahlan. Mr. Dahlan, a rising star on the Palestinian stage, is being presented as the man who can unify all of Arafat's security forces and bring order to the PA. Word has it that he just returned from a trip to Washington where he got high marks from the National Security Council. (Mr. Dahlan denies ever going.) Either way, Mr. Dahlan is the man who has presided over an ever-fortified terrorist network. Gaza, the home to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, became a base for some of the most heinous terrorist attacks unleashed against Israel.

On his watch, Mr. Dahlan permitted Gaza to become a safe haven for the hundreds of fugitive terrorists fleeing Israeli forces. Among those being sheltered is his childhood friend Mohammed Dief, a leading Hamas mastermind with the blood of scores of Israelis on his hands. In the meantime, Mr. Dahlan's district became the primary launching grounds for the hundreds of Kessem missiles fired at Israel.

Mr. Dahlan's involvement in terrorism has not been confined to mere nonfeasance but, rather, gross malfeasance as well. Mr. Dahlan, along with his assistant Rashid Abu-Shabak, are the primary suspects in the terror attack on an Israeli school bus in Kfar Darom in November 2000. The bombing of the bus left half a dozen children maimed, and seriously injured an American citizen, Rachel Asaroff. In response to this brutal terror attack on Jewish school children, then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak dispatched Israeli planes to strafe Mr. Dahlan's Gaza headquarters.
. . .
Criminals such as Mr. Dahlan and Arafat can never be reformed; they must be eradicated by force.

Never is quite a long time, but apparently 5 years is longer and now the fellow that then mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert advocated killing for his sponsorship of terror is considered a moderate these days and "an old favorite" of Olmert's.

And of course six years ago the President said, "Either you are with us or you're against us." A terror group that targets the West, is against us. But when the President considers the premise (against all evidence) that a Palestinian state is the pre-requisite for peace in the Middle East, he (and his administration) will necessary find someone they deem a moderate; even if the designation is a relative one, not an absolute one.

So for now the money and respect will accrue to Mohammed Dahlan. Who said that terrorism doesn't pay?