Conflict Blotter

Cam Simpson and Neil King Jr. have a worthwhile read in the Wall Street Journal (subscription) about the intelligence and arms trove Hamas seized in Gaza. Hamas claims to have found documents exposing a broad Fatah spy-ring working against Arab countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, on behalf of the US. It was […]

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Ellen Knickermeyer writes in today’s WaPo that Egyptian security forces have uncovered 75 percent fewer smuggling tunnels into Gaza since Hamas’ takeover there. Egypt border guards used to find four tunnels a week into Gaza, but since Hamas took charge they have uncovered just four, the Egyptian colonel told the Post.
Palestinian border guards, identified by […]

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No comment needed on this one:
Sudan’s defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, has accused “24 Jewish organizations” of “fueling the conflict in Darfur” last week in an interview with a Saudi newspaper.
A journalist from Saudi Arabia’s Okaz newspaper asked Hussein: “Some people are talking about the penetration of Jewish organizations in Darfur and that there […]

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Palestinian PM Salam Fayad presented his new governing program yesterday at a cabinet meeting in Ramallah, which notably made no mention of armed resistance for the first time in the history of Palestinian governing programs. Both the Fatah charter and Abbas’ December 2004 platform mentioned armed struggle as a legitimate.
In response, the Popular Resistance Committees […]

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Max Blumenthal, who blogs over at the Huffington Post, has posted a tremendous 10 minute video about his day at and subsequent expulsion from the Christians United for Israel summit. It is an unpleasant political exercise that sees Israelis and Jews, like Joe Lieberman and Dore Gold, both of whom attended the summit, willingly ally […]

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Hamas PM Ismail Haniya’s claim in Thursday’s Guardian that the UK and Hamas have strengthened their ties seems credible . After all, the British government reversed its policy of boycotting Hamas when Alan Johnston was kidnapped and since then Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad has been to the UK twice, as has Haniya advisor Ahmed Yussuf. […]

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This issue generated a lot of debate in this blog’s comment section and it looks like it’s finally going to be sorted out. The Palestinians who have been stranded on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border are going to be allowed back into Gaza. This seems about par for the course with these sort […]

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Courtesy of Checkpoint Jerusalem’s Dion Nissenbaum, here’s this picture of a banner Hamas has hung in Gaza City.

Hamas has launched a definite charm offensive. Ismail Haniya’s office has invited correspondents on a first of its kind tour of the Gaza Strip this Monday. Here’s the email invitation:
Dear Madams/Sirs,
More than a month ago, the Palestinians reclaimed […]

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There is a great reader comment thread on Al Jazeera sparked by the posting of a bunch of what look like personal photographs showing Mohammad Dahlan laughing gayly with Israeli army officers and politicians.

Another reader fired back with pictures of his own, including this one showing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad kissing an orthodox Jew […]

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I guess Hamas hasn’t quite fully restored law and order yet:
Who stole the shoes of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh while he was attending Friday prayers in Gaza City? This is the question that Hamas’s security apparatus has been trying to answer since last Friday.
The shoes were stolen after Haniyeh and his entourage arrived at […]

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