Those were the words of the Palestinian Authority's Minister for Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, when he honored a Palestinian woman by awarding her "the Shield of Resoluteness and Giving."

She received this honor because she is the mother of four sons who are serving a total of 18 life sentences in Israeli prisons. They all killed Israeli civilians in terror attacks.

The Minister also "praised the Abu Hamid family as a model of willpower and of the struggle for the independence of Palestine" when he visited the family with a ministry delegation, human rights organizations and released prisoners, the official PA daily newspaper reported.

The four sons are serving life sentences for the following crimes:

Nasser Abu Hamid - 7 life sentences + 50 years - commander in Fatah's military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Ramallah. Convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders.

Nasr Abu Hamid - 5 life sentences - Member of terror faction of Fatah, Tanzim, and convicted of involvement in two terror attacks and arms dealing.

Sharif Abu Hamid- 4 life sentences - a member in one of the brothers' units carrying out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. Accompanied a suicide bomber to his attack in March 2002.

Muhammad Abu Hamid - 2 life sentences + 30 years - involvement in terror attacks.

In May, a ship full of civilians -- but not full of humanitarian aid -- sailed from Turkey to join the Free Gaza flotilla. Having warned the Mavi Marmara that it would not be allowed to breach the blockade, Israeli commandos raided the ship. In the clash, nine Turks were killed. I've lived in Istanbul for five years and I've spoken to hundreds of Turks about these events. A Turkish documentary filmmaker and I have filmed some of these conversations. Something will immediately strike the viewer: the Turkish people have no idea what happened. This is because the most basic facts about and surrounding these events have not been reported in Turkey.

In billing the flotilla as a humanitarian mission, the IHH -- the expedition's Islamist sponsor -- exploited the Turks' Achilles heel: their generosity. Turks think of themselves as charitable and compassionate, as indeed they are. They genuinely believe, because this is what has been reported here, that the Palestinians are starving. They know almost nothing about the reasons for the blockade. They believe that the ship was on a humanitarian mission and nothing but a humanitarian mission. They are bewildered that anyone would have interfered with such a noble-minded endeavour. They do not know that there were no humanitarian supplies on the Mavi Marmara. They do not know the most rudimentary facts about Hamas. As one man said: "These are elected people. It's not like they took over by force, via a coup."

Almost no one in Turkey understands any language but Turkish. If this obviously thoughtful man was unaware that indeed, Hamas took over precisely by force, via a coup, it is because he had no way to know. The men and women to whom we spoke were astonished when we told them that Israeli officials had invited the ship to disembark at Ashdod and deliver the aid overland. But they were not disbelieving -- and importantly, when we told them this, it changed their view. Many spontaneously said that they knew they could not trust what they heard in the news, that the situation confused them and that something about the story just didn't sound right...

Shots were reportedly fired at a vehicle traveling in the area between the settlement Kochav Yaakov and Rimonim Junction in the West Bank on Wednesday night.

Judea and Samaria Police officers who arrived on the scene found an Israeli vehicle with bullet marks. "The vehicle descended down a nearby slope," police said. The officers who arrived in the area found one person seriously injured and another person slightly injured.

Magen David Adom rushed the two Israelis to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem; a man aged around 30 in moderate to serious condition suffering from a gunshot wound to the knee, and a woman aged around 30 who was injured in the resulting accident. Both are conscious and stable, paramedics said...

A Fatah official told the London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi that movement officials, including Nabil Sha'th and Mahmoud Al-'Alul, recently discussed, with the Popular Resistance Committees and with international activists, escalating the popular resistance during the negotiations, with public activities against the fence and against the settlements, and with mass protest marches.

Al-'Alul said that Fatah's support for the popular resistance is part of its strategy, and does not depend on the negotiations portfolio.

The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations...

...The Palestinian Authority also condemned the attacks, which occurred just before its president, Mahmoud Abbas, met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A Palestinian spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the attack by Hamas, the authority's rival, underlined "the need to proceed quickly toward a just and lasting peace agreement," which he said would "put an end to these acts."...

...Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, said in a statement, "We condemn this operation, which contradicts Palestinian interests and the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to garner international support for the national rights of our people."...

Four young civilians: human beings, fathers, mothers, one of whom was also pregnant, collectively the parents of seven children, were brutally gunned down by armed, masked terrorists. Their murders were openly celebrated in the streets by their attackers and by thousands of their supporters.

You would think that the world would recoil in horror--or that those who report the news, world-wide, would do so. Think again. These four precious souls were Israeli "settlers" and, as such, have already been so demonized that they are now seen as having provoked their bloody, pitiless deaths.

First, they came for the settlers. Then, they came for the secular Israeli pro-peace demonstrators in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv. And then they came for....you and me...

Eight words. That's all the compassion, for the 4 murdered Israelis and their families, that Israeli NGO, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), felt they could muster, in a 92 word press release, before pivoting to their major concern - the possibility that Israelis may take reprisals. RHR also warns darkly of the possibility that such sinister settlers may even uproot Palestinian trees (Oh, the horror!)...

...Terrorism does not exist because there is no peace process. Terrorism exists because there IS a peace process, or a possibility of one. Hamas murdered five Jews because it wanted to make a point to all the parties that it could not be ignored. At other times it is Fatah that has done the same thing. Israel's willingness to negotiate stimulates terrorism like nothing else, because it creates a tangible reward. Without the peace process, terrorism would fade away on its own. As it had become a fading problem, before Clinton and Rabin plucked Arafat out of obscurity and gave him a country to play with. Paradoxically as long as the peace process holds out the possibility of victory for the terrorists, there can be and will be no peace.

Murderous terror attack on eve of peace talks: Four Israelis killed in West Bank shooting attack Tuesday evening; pregnant woman apparently among victims, officials say. Security forces nationwide ordered to go on high alert

Lethal terror attack on eve of peace talks : Four Israelis were murdered Tuesday evening after the vehicle they were traveling in was ambushed by terrorists in the Hebron region.

At least some of the victims, who are all residents of Beit Hagai, are members of the same family. Ambulance service officials said the victims include two men aged about 25 and 40, as well as two women of roughly the same ages, one of them pregnant.

According to initial reports, an Israeli vehicle traveling in the area came under fire directed at it from a passing vehicle at the Bani Naim junction on Highway 60, between Hebron and Kiryat Arba.

More than one terrorist apparently took part in the attack, with Channel Two reporting the attackers apparently confirmed the death of the Israeli victims by shooting them at close range, before fleeing the scene.

"The vehicle was sprayed with dozens of bullets," a paramedic at the scene told Channel 2. "There were numerous shell casings around. We found four bodies and there was no chance whatsoever to help them; all we could do was to pronounce the death of these four Jews."

Paramedic Guy Gonen told Ynet: "The victims were hit by numerous shots from short range. It looked like a well-planned ambush."...

...Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Ynet the attack was not meant to foil direct peace talks, and said the negotiations had failed even before starting.

"This is a natural response by the Palestinian resistance to the enemy's crimes, and is proof that despite the resistance's persecution by the security services and despite Israel's crimes, the Palestinians are capable of responding to these crimes."

"This is proof that the Palestinian resistance is living, breathing, and kicking," he said...

...Meanwhile, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) told Ynet Tuesday's shooting attack was a message to the Palestinian negotiating team ahead of the resumption of direct talks with Israel.

"They should not have embarked on this move without the support of the Palestinian people," PRC Spokesman Abu Mujahid said. "Our people still espouse the resistance and do not believe in the fictitious talks scheduled to commence tomorrow. "

"This is proof that the Palestinians and Palestinian groups reject the negotiations doctrine and only espouse resistance, which continues anywhere, anytime," he said.

...Note that Moriah writes in the comments that one of the couples who was murdered had seven children. Hashem yerachem (may God have mercy upon them)...

...Hamas military wing spokesman Abu Obeida told The Associated Press late Tuesday that Hamas carried out the attack...

...The four were two couples - one aged 25 and the other 40. One of the women was pregnant. According to eyewitness reports, the terrorists succeeded in hitting the passengers in their initial fire but then approached the car and shot them occupants at close range.

"When we arrived on the scene, all four doors of the car were open and four bodies were strewn on the road," Magen David Adom paramedic Guy Ronen told The Jerusalem Post. "We saw that the vital organs had been struck by a very large number of bullets, and that there was no chance of saving their lives," he added.

"It was a very difficult scene. We had learned to forget scenes like this in recent years," Ronen said.

A ZAKA volunteer who arrived on the scene recognized his wife's body. "We saw him crying at the scene and didn't understand what was happening at first. It wasn't the first disaster he saw," his colleague, Isaac Berenstein, told the Post. Then he shouted, "that's my wife!' That's my wife!'" The volunteer was immediately removed from the scene by his colleagues and taken to his home in Bet Hagai...

Civilian deaths are always tragic. Israel must stop using civilian settlers as human shields for the land it is stealing

...The Islamist Hamas organisation praised the attack and hundreds of its supporters took to the streets of the Gaza Strip to celebrate...

[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: "Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware." From time to time a clamoring is voiced, to hold an International Conference in search for a solution to the problem...the Islamic Resistance Movement...does not believe that those conferences are capable of responding to demands, or of restoring rights or doing justice to the oppressed. Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the nonbelievers as arbitrators in the lands of Islam...There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and International Conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility.

On September 30, 2000, The New York Times, Associated Press and other major media outlets published a photo of a young man -- bloodied and battered -- crouching beneath a club-wielding Israeli policeman. The caption identified him as a Palestinian victim of Israeli brutality -- with the clear implication that the Israeli soldier was the one who beat him.

That young man was, in fact, Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago, who was beaten within inches of his life before being rescued by the Israeli border policeman in the photo.

The resulting outrage generated by the gross distortion of the photo "launched" HonestReporting...

...Now, ten years later, we caught up with Tuvia in an exclusive interview...

Saucy star Dita Von Teese on Monday began suing her former landlord, claiming he subjected her to a "Mel Gibson-like anti-Semitic" attack, entertainment news website TMZ reported.

The burlesque artist, who is American-born of Armenian heritage, accused Lallubhai Patel of launching vicious tirades after she said she was moving out and tried to get back her $5,000 deposit.

In a lawsuit in the LA County Superior Court and cited by Courthouse News Service, Von Teese said Patel "repeatedly went on Mel Gibson-like Anti-Semitic tangents, personally attacking [Von Teese's] Jewish managers and business partners" who approached him for the money.

The suit is referring to embattled Hollywood star Gibson's alleged anti-Semitism -- which infamously came to light when he busted by police for drunk driving in 2006. He later apologized.

She also alleges Patel wrote to her, warning her to be "aware of Jews. In your business no one can do anything without them. Just a reminder to be cautious" and "Jews they have shucks [sic] the whole world and still more to come."

Von Teese, who splits her time between Paris and Hollywood, moved out over a dispute about accounting of repairs to the property.

She is seeking unspecified damages for civil rights violations.

You know how the Ground Zero Mosque Islamists claims that the purpose of the massive structure is to promote tolerance and interfaith dialogue.

Well, that was the initial fiction. But that's been dropped because the aggression and rigidity are, well, obviously so not tolerant, so hostile and Islamist, that now, Mr. Feisal Abdul Rauf--"I don't believe in religious dialogue"--and his supporters tediously repeat the lie that this is about, ahem, religious freedom.

Well, religious freedom is not a problem in America.

The real problem is, gee, what a shock, in the Muslim world.

The Mount of Olives, an ancient--from biblical times Jews have buried their dead here--and a holy cemetery in Jerusalem, is being used by Muslims as a garbage dump.

Jewish graves have been desecrated and destroyed. Muslims regularly lead their donkeys across the gravestones.

Muslim children play soccer among the dead.

Of course, this is nothing new:

Jewish burials were halted in 1948, and massive vandalism took place from 1948-1967. During the nineteen years of Jordanian rule, 40,000 of the 50,000 graves were desecrated. King Hussein permitted the construction of the Intercontinental Hotel at the summit of the Mount of Olives together with a road that cut through the cemetery which destroyed hundreds of Jewish graves, some from the First Temple Period. After the Six-Day War, restoration work began, and the cemetery was re-opened for burials.

For decades, Arab and Islamic leaders and governments have been inciting their people against Israel. That is the main reason why these governments and leaders would never be able to persuade their people to make peace with Israel.

In this regard, the Palestinian Authority has not been different from the Arab and Islamic dictatorships.

For the past 15 years, the Palestinian Authority has been involved in the dissemination of anti-Israel messages through the rhetoric of its leaders and spokesman, media and mosques.

Yasser Arafat unleashed a wave of incitement against Israel in the Palestinian-controlled media. His message to the Palestinians, immediately after the beginning of the peace process began in 1993, was that Israel was not serious about peace and only wanted to continue "stealing Arab land."

Arafat also kept promising that if the Palestinians don't get 100% of their demands, they would not hesitate to resort to an armed struggle. He pledged "millions of martyrs" who would march on Jerusalem to liberate the city.

Moreover, Arafat told the Palestinians that no Arab or Muslim leader had the right to make real concessions to Israel, especially not on issues related to Jerusalem and the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees.

Perhaps that explains why Arafat was unable to sign any deal at the Camp David summit in 2000. After all, he himself had been telling the Palestinians that anyone who makes concessions to Israel is a "traitor." Through his media and rhetoric, Arafat delegitimized and demonized Israel to a point where he was unable later on to make a deal with the Israeli government...

Holliston, MA ...Today, Marty Lamb, Republican candidate for Congress in Massachusetts Third District, has filed another police report about vandalism that took place at his home late Saturday night at his home in Holliston.

This time vandals threw broken glass, old books, suit cases, and broken lamps on to the candidate's family lawn along with stealing their campaign signs.

"I am concerned about the escalation of vandalism at my home where I live with my wife and two daughters. It is one thing to have a political disagreement, but going to a candidate's home is just plain wrong," said Lamb.

During a campaign candidates often see lots of theft of signs. It is unusual to have people throwing glass and dumping garbage on a candidate's lawn...

Op-ed: Obama may mortgage America's future, but we won't let him do the same to Israel

This past week, the cat was out of the bag and the American president's infinite arrogance came bursting forth. Unlike his European colleagues, whose statements made sure to minimize their involvement to "ending the occupation of 1967," President Obama (via a State Department spokesman) revealed his intention to bring an "end to the conflict."

Does Obama really know how to "end the conflict?" We got the answer two days later, when a document published in the media revealed the US Administration's intention to secure a final-status agreement within a year, while implementing it within 10 years. In other words, Obama wishes to win all the glory while mortgaging the future (our future, not his.)

After all, this is Obama's specialty. The president "saved" the US economy by printing more than $3 trillion, most of which were poured into the American economy via the acquisition of inflated mortgage-backed securities. He's leaving the bill for his successors.

Americans may be willing to clean after Obama and believe that he saved them from collapse (they will find the fractures and skeletons in a few years,) but the State of Israel cannot take such chances. We live in the present and not in promises for a rosy future; hence, the US president would do well to show a little modesty: Learn about the roots of the conflict, understand why there is no solution for it at this time, and most importantly, premise any proposal for an interim agreement on realities on the ground.

If Obama wishes to use the "implementation in 10 years" card to shove a "deal" premised on the types of dreams he's selling to his own people down our throats, we have news for him: We're not your highness' suckers. If you wish to propose something that would be implemented in 10 years, you're invited to come back for a visit nine years from now. Any attempt to look even just one year into the future is dangerous in our neighborhood...[More.]

Official Palestinian Authority TV continues to teach children that all of Israel is "occupied Palestine." A repeating message on the children's show The Best Home, currently broadcast three times a week during the month of Ramadan, is that all Israeli cities are "occupied" Palestinian cities.

The PA TV host refers to cities in Israel alternately as "1948 occupied cities," "occupied cities" or "occupied territories." The Israeli cities described as Palestinian cities include Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramle and Acre.

The following are examples from three of the TV programs in which the PA TV host refers to Israeli cities as "occupied Palestinian cities."

PA TV host to girl: "You live in Jerusalem. Do you visit the 1948 occupied cities (Israeli cities)?"
Girl: "I've been to Hebron."
TV host: "No, Hebron is a city [in the Palestinian Authority] that we all can enter. The occupied cities - such as Lod, Ramle, Haifa, Jaffa, Acre (all Israeli cities) - have you visited them?"
Girl: "I've been to Haifa and Jaffa."
TV host: "Tell us, are they beautiful?"
Girl: "Yes..."
TV host: "We hope all children of Palestine will be able to go to the occupied territories, which we don't know and have never been able to see. Personally, I have never been there."
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 25, 2010]

PA TV host to children in studio:

"No doubt you've all been waiting to know lots of things about Ramadan in those days, in some of the occupied areas, in the occupied territories. Today we'll find out lots about Jaffa in those days of Ramadan."
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 22, 2010]

PA TV host to children in studio:

"Don't you want to see Ramadan from those days in an occupied Palestinian city, to which we hope to return?"
The children are told a story of Ramadan in Ramle.
[PA TV (Fatah), Aug. 24, 2010]

PA TV is controlled by Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office.

See more examples on PMW's website of how the PA presents Israel as "occupied Palestine."

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer demanded Friday that a reference to the state's controversial immigration law be removed from a State Department report to the United Nations' human rights commissioner.

The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is "downright offensive" that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years.

"The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to 'review' by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional," Brewer wrote...

...The report -- part of what the UN Human Rights Council calls its "Universal Periodic Review," in which countries grade their own human rights records -- is both ludicrous and offensive. Let's take them in order.

The report reads like a term paper by a very earnest and very politically correct college freshman. After a few perfunctory words of praise for America in the introduction, the rest of the document is a catalogue of terrible liberal sins that are being washed away by wonderful liberal solutions, including (but not restricted to) ObamaCare; the recently passed financial reform law; suing Arizona for its law aimed to curb illegal immigration; the first White House Adviser on Violence Against Women; the "formation of the 9/11 Backlash Taskforce"; an internal review of the Justice Department's 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies; a commitment to "protecting the rights of incarcerated persons ... including the right to practice their religion"; and of course -- who could ever forget? -- President Obama's hosting "a historic summit with nearly 400 tribal leaders to develop a policy agenda for Native Americans where he emphasized his commitment to regular and meaningful consultation with tribal officials regarding federal policy decisions that have tribal implications."...

...t is yet more evidence that when the president and his administration scan the world for human rights violations, they are irresistibly drawn back to the grave injustices they believe have been and are being perpetrated by America.

It is an unprecedented and alarming thing to witness -- an administration that is not only unwilling to defend the United States but seems to take great joy and satisfaction in undermining her.

The conflict in Northern Ireland had been intractable for decades. Unionists backed by the British government saw any political compromise with Irish nationalists as a danger, one that would lead to a united Ireland in which a Catholic majority would dominate minority Protestant unionists.

...As for violence, Hamas has inflicted a fraction of the harm on Israeli civilians that Israel inflicts on Palestinian civilians. If violence disqualifies Hamas, surely much greater violence should disqualify the Israelis?...

To the editor:

This represents a new low in NYT editorials.

I'm nearly speechless.

Hamas is not only brutal to Israelis, it's a violent, repressive organization that terrorizes Palestinians, steals from the UN and is sworn to destroy not only Israel but Jews...

Hamas is a shibboleth. If you want to know whether an ostensible Muslim "moderate" is really moderate, ask him if Hamas is a terrorist organization.

It is really not a hard question, even if Feisal Rauf can't -- or won't -- answer it. Rauf, the would-be imam of the controversial Ground Zero mosque, is also a stud in the State Department's stable of ready-to-travel-on-your-dime "moderates." That same State Department has branded Hamas a terrorist organization, and we can't even get it to say that about the Taliban, the guys we're fighting in the overseas contingency operation formerly known as the War on Terror.

During a WABC radio interview, Aaron Klein three times pressed Rauf to admit that Hamas is a terrorist organization. Rauf bobbed and weaved in classic Islamist style. "I'm not a politician," he replied, as if only politicians trouble themselves over whether terrorists are terrorists. "I try to avoid the issues. The issue of terrorism is a very complex question." Avoid the issues? You don't say!

But it is not a complex question, no more complex than "Does Derek Jeter play for the Yankees?" It is a straightforward question that Islamists complicate with clever casuistry, carefully designed to ring all the right chimes for our opinion elites and their media pitchmen...

Mosques in Italy will not receive a share of income tax revenue the Italian government allocates to religious faiths each year. Hindu and Buddhist temples, Greek Orthodox churches and Jehovah's Witnesses will be eligible for the funds, according to a bill approved by the Italian cabinet in May and still must be approved by parliament.

Until now, the government had earmarked 8 percent of income tax revenue for Italy's established churches. The great majority of these funds go to the Catholic Church, although if they wish, individual tax payers may elect to give the money to charities and cultural projects instead.

The head of COREIS, one of Italy's largest Muslim groups, Yahya Pallavicini, said he was bitter that Islam had been denied the revenue from Italian income tax.

"Work should be begun on legally recognising those moderate Muslims who have for years shown themselves to be reliable interlocutors who are free of and fundamentalist ideology," he said.

Islam is not an established religion in Italy and there is only one official mosque in the country, Rome's Grand Mosque (photo). Politicians from the ruling coalition cite radical imams, polygamy and failure to uphold women's rights by Muslims immigrants as obstacles to recognising Islam as an official religion in Italy.

Until now, only the Catholic Church, Judaism and other established churches including Lutherans, Evangelists, Waldensians and 7th-day Adventists have received the income tax revenue from the Itallain government.

There are between one million and 1.5 million Muslims in Italy and 130 mosques linked the Muslim umbrella organisation UCOII across the country.