OUR FRIENDS, THE PALESTINIANS

IDF Stops Palestinian Gunmen Infiltrating from Gaza
The IDF shot two armed Palestinians trying to infiltrate the security fence into Israel from Gaza on [last] Tuesday night. (Jerusalem Post)

See also Palestinian Rocket Fire from Gaza Continues - Etgar Lefkovits
Palestinian gunmen fired two rockets from Gaza into Israel Tuesday that landed near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Palestinians have fired more than one thousand rockets at Israel since Israel withdrew from Gaza one year ago. (Jerusalem Post)

Palestinians Fire Rockets at Israel from Schoolyard (Palestinian Center for Human Rights)
[Last] Monday, four members of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, launched a missile at Israeli territory from inside the Agricultural Secondary School in Beit Hanoun in Gaza.

Palestinians being named after Hezbollah.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Nahed Ghurani worried that naming his new son Hezbollah might cause the boy problems when he grows up. But young Hezbollah Ghurani won’t be the only Palestinian in this predicament. In a spasm of celebration for Hezbollah’s monthlong battle against Israel, many parents in Gaza City have named their children after the Islamic militant group and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. In Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, six Palestinian women have named their babies Hassan, Nasrallah, or Hassan Nasrallah, according to maternity records from when fighting began July 12 to when a cease-fire took effect Monday. About half a dozen more named their babies Hezbollah, Beirut, or Promise — after the name of the military campaign Hezbollah staged against Israel, “The True Promise,” records showed. In Gaza, as in many parts of the Arab and Muslim world, Nasrallah has seen his popularity rise dramatically by holding his own against the region’s most powerful army.... “The next son — we’ll call him Ahmadinejad,” Ghurani said, in honor of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for the complete annihilation of Israel.

Two Hamas Terrorists Killed Making Bombs in West Bank "Work Accident" - Ali Waked
Two [Palestinian] Hamas members were killed and a third mortally wounded by an explosion Friday in Dir Abu Daif in the Jenin area of the northern West Bank. Palestinian sources say the blast apparently resulted from a "work accident," as one Hamas member accidentally set off an explosives belt he was wearing. (Ynet News)

Palestinian Kills Soldier at Jordan Valley Checkpoint - Yaakov Katz
St.-Sgt. Ro'i Farjun, 21, from Yehud was killed on Saturday after a Palestinian opened fire at the Bekaot checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. Troops returned fire, killing the gunman. Muhammad Ban-Yuda, 22, from Tamun near Jenin, arrived at the checkpoint in a car, drew a gun, and shot the soldier several times at short range. Fatah's military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. The IDF has noticed an increased effort by Palestinian terror cells in the West Bank to perpetrate attacks since the war in Lebanon began. (Jerusalem Post)

Abbas Drops Plans to Deploy Anti-Rocket Force - Khaled Abu Toameh
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was forced to call off plans to deploy several hundred PA security personnel in the northern Gaza Strip in an attempt to stop the firing of rockets at Israel, when several armed groups, including militias from his own Fatah movement, threatened to attack these forces, PA officials said Monday. One PA official said that while Hamas had accepted Abbas' proposal to halt rocket attacks, Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, and the Islamic Jihad rejected the cease-fire proposal.

According to the official, Abbas and the rest of the Fatah leadership have almost no control over the various Fatah militias operating in Gaza. "Fatah has at least seven or eight armed groups in the Gaza Strip and some of them are receiving financial aid from Hizballah, Syria, and Iran," he said. (Jerusalem Post)

Abbas Pays Salaries of Hamas Militia - Avi Issacharoff
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave 5,000 members of Hamas' special "operational force" salaries this week with money sent from the Arab League, Palestinian sources say. Most belong to Hamas' military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam, led by Yussef al-Zahar, the Palestinian foreign minister's brother. The force joined the Palestinian police force six weeks ago. Members of the force have led some of the clashes with the PA's preventive security forces in Gaza. So far, Abbas' office has paid NIS 1,500 to all officials for the months of March, April, and May, but salaries for June and July have not been paid. (Ha'aretz)

Palestinian War on America? (WSJ-BOTW)
The Associated Press brings some distressing news from Gaza:

A previously unknown Palestinian group released the first video Wednesday of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men, a Palestinian news agency reported.

In the video, Steve Centanni, 60, of the San Francisco area, and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, appeared to be in good health, seated on the floor in sweat suits against a black background. No armed men were shown. . . .

The news agency, Ramattan, reported that the Palestinian group, the Holy Jihad Brigades, had demanded in a statement that Muslim prisoners in U.S. jails be released within three days in exchange for Centanni and Wiig. . . .

"We are going to exchange the Muslim female and male prisoners in American jails in return for the prisoners that we have. We are going to give you 72 hours beginning midnight tonight to take your decision," Ramattan quoted the statement as saying.

If this is genuine--if, that is, Palestinian terrorists are taking American hostages and demanding the release of criminals in American prisons--it becomes harder to argue that the U.S. and Israel don't face a common enemy.