A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will do.

‘Obama committed to ejecting Jews from Judea-Samaria,’ says Abbas

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday told reporters in Cairo that he is convinced that US President Barack Obama is firmly committed to finally ejecting the Jews from Judea and Samaria.

Abbas spoke to the press after briefing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his visit to the White House late last week, during which Obama apparently agreed with his guest that existing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria must not even be allowed to experience “natural growth.”

(Via Fausta) While I am willing to believe that there may have been either a breakdown in communications somewhere - or that yet another Palestinian leader is willfully never missing a chance to miss a chance - there needs to be some clarification on this issue. Israel is not going to even freeze settlements in the West Bank, let alone dismantle them.  Meanwhile, the Palestinians apparently expect that the settlements will be removed, because that’s what the USA has decided to do.  The two positions cannot be reconciled.  This really does need to be addressed: if the President goes to Cairo without everybody involved already knowing precisely where his administration stands on this issue, the President’s Cairo speech will fail.  And by ‘fail’ I mean ’start up another round of violence.’

Which will not be the President’s intent, but that won’t matter.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Late Saturday evening, a car containing 100kg (220 lbs) of explosive compound was deposited in the outer parking lot of Lev Hamifratz mall in Haifa, Israel. The car was parked in a crowded section of the parking lot next to structural pilings holding up a portion of the mall, and the explosives were mixed with ball bearings to ensure maximum human and structural damage from the blast.

Further, “Had the car bomb exploded, the majority of the cars in the parking lot would have gone up in flames,” a police source told the Israeli press after the attack was prevented. “The gas in them could have exploded. This would have been a major terrorist attack.”

Fortunately, the terrorists hoping to cause massive carnage with this attack failed to wire and detonate their explosives properly. When the first portion of the bomb fizzled, a shopper who heard a minor explosion notified security, which found the vehicle and called in Sappers to disarm the explosive.

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