Another video as forensic proof that the Free Gaza flotilla’s passengers were intent on killing Jews in a premeditated fashion.  Via WND:

In footage captured on the Gaza flotilla just before its departure this week, one activist described how he had attempted in previous ship convoys to become a martyr and that “with the help of Allah” he would succeed on the flotilla.

“When I went on the first convoy, I wanted to be a Shahid (martyr),” stated the passenger in a pre-departure interview with Press TV.

See an excerpt of the interview:

He was referring to several previous attempts by smaller flotillas to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

Continued the passenger: “I wasn’t that lucky. Second time, I wanted to be a Shahid. Didn’t work. Third time lucky, with the help of Allah, I will be a Shahid.”

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces commented on the interview.

“While the Gaza flotilla passengers had presented themselves as peace activists who would not act violently towards Israeli forces, this provides further evidence to the contrary,” said the spokesman.

Activists on a six-ship flotilla that was headed to the Gaza Strip shouted anti-Jewish battle cries and spoke of using “resistance” against Israel, with one participant stating she saw only two possible outcomes for the boat occupants – “either martyrdom or reaching Gaza.”

The main flotilla ship was the MV Rachel Corrie, the namesake of a far-left activist from the International Solidarity Movement who died in 2003 while serving as a human shield to protect a terrorist.

An Al Jazeera news report one day before the raid translated by Palestinian Media Watch documented men on the flotilla chanting, “[Remember] Khaibar, Khaibar, oh Jews! The army of Muhammad will return!”

The chant is often used at rallies for Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Khaibar is the name of the last Jewish village defeated by Islam’s prophet Muhammad in AD 628. The battle marked the end of the Jewish presence in Arabia.

Al-Jazeera also interviewed a woman on the flotilla who said the participants’ goal was “one of two happy endings: either martyrdom or reaching Gaza.”

WND reported the commander of the six-ship pro-Palestinian flotilla announced beforehand participants were planning to use “resistance” and declared the ship’s activists wanted to die as “martyrs” more than they wanted to reach the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas television.

Israel maintains a naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza, fearing if it allows ships to reach the territory, Hamas can obtain weaponry to be used against Israelis.

Israel and the international community numerous times have stopped ships loaded with weapons destined for Gaza.

Despite claims by activists, Israel does not block humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel allows a large number of trucks daily to enter Gaza with food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. Israel transfers monthly into Gaza tens of millions of dollars worth of Israeli shekels to ensure the flow of cash in the territory. Israel imposed a blockade on certain supplies it fears could be used by Hamas to build a military infrastructure.

©2002 IDF Spokesman Weapons seized on the Karine A (Jan 4)

A ship carrying weapons intended for the Palestinian Authority was captured in the Red Sea by Israel’s Navy and Air Force. The boat’s cargo included 50 tons of advanced weaponry including Katyusha rockets, rifles, mortar shells, mines and a variety of anti-tank missiles. Senior figures in the Palestinian Authority were involved in the smuggling.

Communicated by the IDF Spokesman:

On January 3rd, the Israeli Navy seized control over the Karine A ship that was sailing in international waters on its way to the Suez Canal.

The shipment included both 122 mm. and 107 mm. Katyusha rockets, which have ranges of 20 and 8 kilometers respectively. It also contained 80 mm. and 120 mm. mortar shells, various types of anti-tank missiles, anti-tank mines, sniper rifles, Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition. From Gaza, the 122 mm. Katyushas could have threatened Ashkelon and other coastal cities; while from the West Bank, Ben-Gurion International Airport and several major Israeli cities would have been within their range. The shipment also included rubber boats and diving equipment, which would have facilitated seaborne attacks from Gaza against coastal cities.

Preliminary investigation of the crew members has revealed so far that the commanding officer of the ship is Colonel Omar Akawi. The ship was purchased by the Palestinian Authority, loaded with weapons by the Iranians and the Hizbullah, manned by Palestinian Authority personnel, with the aim of transfering the weapons it carried to the Palestinian Naval Police near the Gaza beaches.

Since October 2000, Adel Mughrabi, a major buyer in the Palestinian weapons purchasing system (with the assistance of the Palestinian Naval Police Commander Juma’a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem), has been in contact with the Iranians and Hizbullah regarding a vast weapons smuggling operation for the use of the Palestinian Authority. This operation included the testing and purchase of ships, forming a sailing crew and appointing a commander for the team, as well as making arrangements as to how the weapons would be stored, loaded onto the vessels, and its journey until delivery to the Palestinian Authority.

Preliminary investigation of the team members arrested revealed that the Karine A ship was purchased by Adel Mughrabi in Lebanon, sailed to Sudan where it was loaded with regular cargo. The crew was then switched with the team members and in November 2001 sailed to Hodeida port in Yemen.

In December 2001 the ship sailed according to detailed instructions from Adel Mughrabi to the beaches of Iran near Qeshm Island. There a ferry approached it, most likely arriving from Iran, from which the weapons stored in 80 large wooden crates were transferred and loaded onto the ship. These weapons were stored in special waterproof containers produced only in Iran, which are floatable and are set with a special configurable system that determines how deep they are submerged, were prepared by Hizbullah personnel for smuggling to the Palestinian Authority. Included in the ferry team which transferred the weapons crates to the ship was also a Lebanese trainer, a Hizbullah operative who trained a diver from the ship’s crew in configuring the floatation devices in Lebanon. The trainer was present for yet another refreshing training session prior to the sailing.

After completing the loading process of the weapons onto the ship, the ship had to divert to Hodeida port in Yemen due to technical problems. After crossing the canal, the ship was supposed to meet with three smaller ships that were purchased in advance and to unload the weapons onto them. According to the plan, the smaller ships were to leave the weapons near El Arish in Gaza, where the weapons were to be taken by the commander of the Palestinian Naval Police Juma’a Ghali and his executive Fathi Ghazem.

Weapons Seized on the Karine-A Ship
Statement by IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz regarding interception of ship Karine A – Jan 4, 2002
Reaction of FM Peres to seizing of the Karine A – Jan 4, 2002
Address by PM Sharon following the seizing of the ship Karine A – Jan 6, 2002
DM Ben-Eliezer: PA invests in terrorism, not welfare of Palestinian people – Jan 6, 2002
DM Ben-Eliezer to Solana and Moratinos: Karine A managed and funded by Palestinian Authority in cooperation with Iran – Jan 7, 2002

Seized Weapons Ship Linked to Palestinian Authority -
U.S. State Department, Jan 10, 2002
U.S. Seeks Explanation from Arafat about Arms Smuggling – U.S. State Department, Jan 11, 2002

Prison interview with Palestinian ship captain smuggling 50 tons of weapons (Fox News) – Jan 7, 2002
Selected Photos

The deaths of those aboard the “Free Gaza” Mavi Marmara lay entirely in the bloody hands of the American lynch mob known as “Free Gaza”, who counts as among its affiliated activists the former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, both friends of Barack Hussein Obama, as well as Jodie Evans, the leader of Code Pink: Women for Peace.  Via Discover the Networks:

Free Gaza
405 Vista Heights Road
El Cerrito, CA
94530
Phone: 510-232-2500
URL: www.freegaza.org

• Coalition of groups and individuals seeking to “break the siege of Gaza”
• Seeks to draw attention to Israel’s alleged transgressions chiefly by publicizing the blockade that it imposed on the Gaza Strip after the January 2006 election of Hamas as the Palestinians’ ruling party
• Demands that “Israel must withdraw its military presence from all territories occupied since June 5, 1967″

Founded in 2008, Free Gaza (FG) is a coalition of groups and individuals seeking to “break the siege of Gaza”; “raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip”; and “pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation.”

Among FG’s more notable group members are the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions. FG’s individual activists hail from numerous countries and represent various religious backgrounds.

In Free Gaza’s reading of history:

• Israel’s creation in 1948 was a “catastrophe” for the Arab world, causing “the overwhelming majority of Palestinians” to be “forcibly evicted from their ancestral homeland”;
• Israel continues, “[i]n contravention of International law, human rights, and basic principles of morality … to deny these refugees and their descendants their right to return home”;
• the very existence of a Jewish state is the result of a grave ”historic injustice”;
• the “illegal appropriation of Palestinian land, home and heritage is at the heart of the Middle East conflict”;
• Israel is guilty of “land theft” and an “ongoing ethnic cleansing that has squeezed Palestinians in the West Bank into ghettos and bantustans surrounded by 27-foot walls, sniper towers, and military guards”; and
• Gaza is essentially an “open-air prison” with an “impoverished and overcrowded population.”

Among FG’s foremost demands are the following:

• “Israel must withdraw its military presence from all territories occupied since June 5, 1967 and revoke all legislation, regulations, directives and practices that apply differently to different populations living in those territories.”
• “Israel must demolish all barriers built to restrict passage in all territories occupied by Israel since June 5, 1967.”
• “[A]ll Palestinian refugees and exiles and their heirs [must be permitted] to return to their homes in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories; to recover their properties, and to receive compensation for damage, dispossession and unlawful use of such property.”

FG seeks to draw attention to Israel’s alleged human-rights transgressions chiefly by publicizing the blockade that it imposed on the Gaza Strip after the January 2006 election of Hamas as the Palestinians’ ruling party. On August 23, 2008, two FG boats — one of them a 66-foot yacht named The Dignity – sailed from Cyprus to Gaza, where they docked and symbolically “broke” the Israeli “siege” when their passengers disembarked. The Israeli navy, seeking not to ignite international disapproval by intercepting the boats, made no attempt to stop them. The passengers, who were greeted by crowds of thousands in Gaza, claimed to be the first people to freely enter Gaza in 41 years (since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war).

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh welcomed the FG visitors, meeting with most of the entourage and granting its prime organizer, Jeff Halper, honorary Palestinian citizenship, complete with passport. Afterwards, Halper acknowledged: “This trip [which cost $300,000] wasn’t humanitarian; it was political.”

Another noteworthy participant in FG’s maiden voyage was Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Booth characterized Gaza as a “concentration camp” and a “humanitarian crisis on the scale of Darfur.”

Two months later The Dignity made its second trip from Cyprus to Gaza, this time carrying 26 FG activists and some medical supplies. The yacht arrived at a Gaza port on October 29, 2008 – again with no resistance from the Israeli navy.

One of those aboard the vessel was Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian Authority presidential candidate who told reporters: ”We will not leave Gaza, we will not abandon Gaza and it is approved today that the Palestinian resistance groups are mightier than the Israeli occupation and those who support it.” His cousin, Marwan Barghouti, was the founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Another participant in FG’s October 2008 voyage was Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who used the occasion to call for the United Nations to expel Israel from Gaza. (On a separate occasion, Maguire took part in a stone-throwing protest against Israeli police near the Security Fence in the village of Bilin.)

FG made another voyage to Gaza in November 2008, when its members accused Israel of conducting “chemical warfare on Palestinian fishermen.” One of the participants was Clare Short, the former UK Secretary of State for International Development. Short warned that Israeli aggression might eventually cause the “end of the human race”; she called for a boycott of Israel as long as its “apartheid wall” continued to stand; she affirmed that “the Palestinian people are entitled to resist occupation”; and she declared that “U.S. backing for Israeli policies of expansion … and oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of bitter division and violence in the world.”

On December 29, 2008, The Dignity, bound for Gaza, was loaded with 3.5 tons of Cypriot-donated medical supplies and 16 radical activists, including former Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney. At the time, a major Israeli military offensive was taking place in Gaza, in retaliation for Hamas’ relentless rocket attacks against southern Israeli cities. (In a press conference held in the Cypriot port of Larnaca just before departing, the FG group referred to Israel’s military operation as a “blitzkrieg.”) Because of the tense situation, on this occasion the Israelis diverted The Dignity before it could arrive in Gaza.

Other notable individuals who joined McKinney on the interrupted boat ride included:

• Sami al-Hajj, an Al Jazeera reporter and a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay. A four-page U.S. government statement accused al-Hajj of having delivered money — some $473,000 — to Al-Haramain, a Saudi “charity” with ties to al Qaeda. Al-Haramain then funneled the money to Chechen jihadists. Moreover, Al-Hajj’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, admitted that his client had met with Osama bin Laden‘s “Deputy in Sudan,” al-Qaeda founder Mamdouh Mahmoud Salim, who was implicated in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tazania and later was sentenced to 32 years in prison for stabbing a Manhattan prison guard in the eye.
• Renee Bowyer: In an article she penned for Alex Cockburn‘s CounterPunch website, this Australian writer justified the kidnappings of two Israeli soldiers on grounds that they were acts ”directed specifically against a … military regime which has caused so much bloodshed in Gaza and … in the West Bank as well.”
• Caoimhe Butterly: This daughter of a UN economist says she was raised in a culture of liberation theology. She opposed sanctions against the Taliban after 9/11, and in April 2002 she was one of a group of foreign activists who showed solidarity with Yasser Arafat in the latter’s besieged compound. She also spent a year trying to disrupt Israeli counter-terrorism activities, and she worked with Zapatista anarchists in Mexico.
• Darlene Wallach: A Jewish member of the International Solidarity Movement, Wallach once said: “I don’t see how Israel is any different to [sic] Nazism during World War II … There is nothing that the Palestinians do that in any regard I can condemn. I cannot condemn suicide bombings.”

Other high-profile participants in past FG expeditions to Gaza include:

• Huwaida Arraf, founder of the International Solidarity Movement
• Yvonne Ridley, the British journalist and onetime captive of the Taliban, who converted to Islam in 2003 and stood for election in the UK as a member of George Galloway‘s RESPECT Party

FG also counts among its affiliated activists the former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn as well as Jodie Evans, the leader of Code Pink: Women for Peace.

Much of this profile is adapted from the article, “To Gaza, With Love,” published by FrontPageMag.com on December 30, 2008.

Go on, Corporate America. Keep on outsourcing your Customer Service and Info Technology departments to Muslim mass murderers in Pakistan. What difference does it make to you anyway.  It’s the cost and the bottom dollar that matters most of all, not the fact that your decisions to outsource to India and Pakistan and Manila significantly contribute to the disintegration of the American economy and to the funding of Muslim terrorism. Via AP:

Several reports Thursday state the Pakistani Taliban may have played a strong role in the Times Square bombing attempt, helping to inspire and train Muslim terrorist Faisal Shahzad in the months before the Times Square scare. The group was the first to claim responsibility for the attempt and at the time authorities discounted that claim. Now, officials are apparently rethinking their stance.

Via PMW:

by  Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

“The Jews poisoned him [Arafat] and I hate them very much.
Allah will repay them what they deserve.”
[Video of Palestinian girl shown at Arafat memorial,
PATV (Fatah), Nov. 10, 2009]

A televised memorial ceremony for Yasser Arafat included a video clip of Palestinian children delivering messages in honor of Arafat. It is noteworthy that even though this clip was prerecorded and edited, the organizers of the PA’s official ceremony chose to include hate speech and libels that demonized Jews and glorified violence and Martyrdom.

Several of the chosen messages featured children repeating the ongoing Palestinian Authority libel that Arafat was poisoned by Jews. None of the children spoke about peace; in fact, the opposite was the case. One boy praised Arafat because he was a “fighter” who “did things through [violent] struggle,” and who “did not make peace.” The Martyrdom (Shahada) ideal was also selected as a message for the ceremony, with one boy quoting Arafat: “They want me dead, they want me prisoner but I say: Martyr, Martyr, Martyr!”

This children’s section in the special memorial indicates the PA’s success in transmitting to the next generation of Palestinian children hate libels that demonize Jews. Including these hate messages in the ceremony also shows that the PA approves of, and wants to publicize, the values of hatred, violence and Martyrdom that the children have adopted.

To view the children’s hate speech included in the Arafat memorial, click here.

The following is the transcript of excerpts of the children’s messages:

Ceremony host: “Blessings to Yasser Arafat, and here are messages from the children of Palestine.”
Boy: “I was very, very sad when Arafat died as a Shahid (Martyr), because he was a good man and he was a fighter. He did things through struggle, he participated in the struggle and did not make peace and so on. He wanted to fight.”
Boy 2: “Yasser Arafat was a very, very important president. He stood up to all the enemies and was not afraid of anyone. And anyone who approached – he managed to stop him. All the Jews and the Israelis and the people who are against us, were afraid of him. When he died, he died of poisoning.”
Girl wearing pendant in the shape of Israel: “I say that he died from poisoning by the Jews. That’s what I say.”
Boy 3: “Arafat used to say: “They want me dead, they want me prisoner, but I say to them: Martyr! Martyr! Martyr!”
Girl 2: “He [Arafat] was our former president. He was under siege in Ramallah, and when he was under siege we were very upset. The Jews poisoned him and I hate them very much. Allah will repay them what they deserve.”
Boy 4: “He [Arafat] died from poisoning by the Jews. Well, I don’t know what he died from, but I know it was by the Jews.”
Boy 5: “They destroyed his whole house and he was left in one room and in the end the Jews poisoned him and blamed someone else.”

[PATV (Fatah), Nov. 10, 2009]

To see PMW’s recent bulletin on the repeated PA libel that Israel was responsible for Arafat’s death, click here.

The official memorial ceremony for Yasser Arafat was held at the Ramallah Cultural Palace on Nov. 10, 2009, the fifth anniversary of his death, and broadcast live on PATV. Speakers included Salaam Fayyad (PA Prime Minister) and Nasser Al-Qidwa (Chairman of Board of Directors, Institute for Commemoration of Arafat, and former PA Foreign Minister).
Several senior PA, Fatah and PLO personnel attended, including Al-Tayeb Abd-Al-Rahim (Secretary General of the PA Presidency), Tayseer Al-Tamimi (PA Chief Justice of religious court and Chairman of Supreme Council of Islamic Law), and Fatah Central Committee members Muhammad Dahlan, Sultan Abu-Einin and Nabil Shaath.

The UN is an Islamist cesspool.  Get the UN out of the US.  Via FoxNews:

The UN agency that administers a school in Gaza – where Hamas operatives firing mortars at Israelis led to the deaths of civilians by Israeli return fire last week – has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.

There is evidence that students educated in UNRWA schools are much more likely to become homicide bombers, said Jonathan Halevi, a former Israel Defense Forces intelligence officer who specializes in Palestinian terrorist organizations. Halevi has spent several years building an extensive database for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs of terrorist attacks by Hamas and other Islamic extremist groups. Halevi estimated that over 60% of homicide bombers were educated in UNRWA schools.

Via Guardian-UK:

The Persian Gulf remains a major source of funding for al-Qaeda and its affiliates, with millions of dollars being sent from the region to terrorist groups.

Recipients of this largesse include the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), suspected of perpetrating the recent attack in India.

LeT operatives and supporters are particularly active in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. LeT’s finance chief, Haji Muhammad Ashraf, has traveled to the Gulf to raise funds for LeT. In 2003, he helped LeT leaders in Saudi Arabia increase fundraising there.

Similarly, the Saudi-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation was designated as a terrorist-supporting entity in part because its office in Pakistan supported LeT.

Although it is imperative and of the utmost importance to identify and pursue muslim terror cells and destroy them, the decompartmentalization of them into tiny minority sub-groups dilutes the magnitude and horror of Islamic global imperialism and its monumental and catastrophic threat against the civilized world. h/t Daily Alert. Via JPost:

Suspicions in the devastating Mumbai terror attacks are centering on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani-based jihadi terror organization whose objectives include destroying India and Israel, and establishing an Islamic caliphate.

On Sunday, Indian Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said the only gunman captured by police admitted the group was behind the attacks and had intended to hit even more targets.

Lashkar-e-Taiba – or Army of the Pure or Righteous – is the armed wing of a Pakistani-based religious organization founded in 1989. The organization is banned in India and Pakistan.

During the 1990s, the group received instruction and funding from Pakistan’s intelligence agency in exchange for a pledge to target Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir and to train Muslim extremists on Indian soil, according to the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.

The group is suspected of being involved in the December 2001 attack on New Delhi’s Parliament and the 2006 Mumbai train bombings.

See also Pakistan-Based Group Accused in India Carnage Thriving Despite Ban:

Since 2002 when the government of Pakistan banned Lashkar-i-Taiba, the group has expanded its membership, its operational reach and its influence among radical Islamist networks seeking to spark a revolution in South Asia.

Inside Pakistan, Lashkar still operates training camps for militants and runs a large charitable and social-services organization that has been embraced by Pakistani officials.

Some of its fighters have traveled to Iraq and East Africa, and it has nurtured a mutually advantageous alliance with al-Qaeda.

One of the British suicide bombers in the July 7, 2005, London transit attacks spent time at a Lashkar-affiliated religious school in Pakistan.

See also Lashkar-e-Taiba “Backed by Saudi Money”

According to the respected journalist and diplomat Husain Haqqani, who is now Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Lashkar-e-Taiba is a jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion, “backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services.”

See also The Ideologies of South Asian Jihadi Groups for information on the origins of muslim jihadists and what compels them to kill others.

According to figures detailing Iran’s progress contained in a routine update on Wednesday from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has been conducting inspections of the country’s main nuclear plant at Natanz, the report concluded that as of early this month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium.

With this amassed WMD, Iran has enough material for 1 atom bomb.  Not only would it have to breach its international agreements and kick out the inspectors, but it would also have to further purify the fuel and put it into a warhead design — a technical advance that Western experts are unsure Iran has yet achieved.

The question is, when will Iran take those next steps it needs in order to satisfy its bloodlust and Jew-hating hunger and design the bomb intended to destroy Israel and the rest of the neighboring Arab Islamo-theocracies?

Dan Diker reminds us that when reading the following and similarly worded “articles” to ignore the author’s premature usage of the word “Palestine”.  This premature reference to “Palestine” places Palestinian claims to the disputed West Bank and Gaza Strip – over which Israel also has longstanding claims – on an equal diplomatic and legal footing with the claims of the State of Israel. In other words, it assigns a legal status to the Palestinian claims that, in point of fact, they do not have.

There is no “State of Palestine” at present and there was no Palestinian state controlling the West Bank and the Gaza Strip prior to 1967.

According to Alan Baker, Legal Advisor to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, use of the language “Palestine” contravenes the carefully crafted language in the Oslo Accords and UN Security Council Resolution 242.3.

Regardless of this typical Arabist talkspeak eking out of The Telegraph, we will agree that the EU is indeed funding Jewicide. Via The Telegraph:

# The EU is to increase its aid to the Palestinian Authority by €40 million, in order to pay the salaries of government employees. The EU’s generosity with our money – it has paid the Palestinian Authority €256 million so far this year – creates two problems. First, the PA in Gaza is run by Hamas, which is on the EU’s list of designated terrorist operations. Under Brussels rules, funding such an organization is a criminal offence. Euro-lawyers have sought to circumvent the letter of the law by funneling aid money through NGOs, but this is sheer sophistry.

# Second, it is becoming increasingly clear that overseas aid is arresting a political settlement in the region. Palestinians receive more assistance, per capita, than any other people on Earth, and live in one of its most violent spaces. The two facts are connected.

# The idea that aggression can be buried under a landslide of euros sounds reasonable, but it is based on a false premise, namely that political violence is caused by economic deprivation.

# Palestinians are a naturally enterprising people who, in other Arab states, often form the professional and administrative class. A capitalist Palestine, in which citizens looked to themselves rather than to the state, would be more stable. Its propertied classes would have a stake in civil order. Its businessmen would have an incentive to remain on cordial terms with their customers, including those in Israel.

# None of this will happen, however, as long as Palestinians remain trapped in the squalor of dependency.

The author is a Conservative Member of the European Parliament.