[The following, by Daniel Greenfield, is crossposted from Sultan Knish.]

Following in the footsteps of Chavez and Castro, Argentina and Brazil's regimes have declared that they recognize Abbas' Palestinian Authority "as a free and independent state within the borders defined in 1967". The Palestinian Authority is of course neither free nor independent. It's a dictatorship that refuses to hold free elections. Or any kind of elections at all. It has neither freedom of speech nor freedom of religion. Or any kind of freedom at all.

Nor is it independent. The Palestinian Authority is funded by the United States and the EU. It has no economy. The only notable employers are the Palestinian Authority itself (subsidized wholly by foreign donors), the UNRWA (subsidized wholly by foreign donors) and Israel. If Brazil and Argentina had declared that the Bronx was now a free and independent state, it would have more credibility, because the Bronx has more of a local economy and a higher standard of human rights, than Arafat's old Fatah gangsters do.

While everyone from the Obama Administration down to Thomas Friedman screams at Israel to give those senile terrorists their own state, they willfully refuse to see that Abbas, Fayad and the rest of the gang, can't even run the territory that they already have. Abbas whined last week, "I cannot be the president of a non-existent Authority as long as Israeli occupation of the West Bank continues."

But when Israel withdrew from Gaza, it turned over the territory to Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. Abbas and the PA couldn't control or police it. As a a result, Hamas took over Gaza. So while Abbas makes excuses about the "occupation", there are no Israelis in Gaza, yet he can't run it either. Despite American weapons and training, the PA's militias (their salaries paid for by American taxpayers) ran like rats from Hamas.

Israel had to launch emergency rescue operations to save Abbas' thugs, including one Jamal Abu Al-Rub, who wanted people to call him 'Hitler'. Jamal 'Hitler' was a murderer and a terrorist who won an election to the Palestinian parliament. But when Hamas marched in, 'Hitler' and all the little Hitlers cut and ran. Israel had to save many of Abbas' little Hitlers, who talked big when it came to killing Jews, but couldn't stand and fight.

Zakaria Zubeidi, Jenin chief of the Palestinian Authority's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, stated that the loss of Gaza was the result of incompetence and corruption, or worse a fallback strategy by Abbas to be able to evict Hamas from the PA's parliament. That means either Abbas and his people were so incompetent that they couldn't police a region that Israel fully withdrew from. Or that Abbas chose to toss away Gaza, to prevent Hamas from politically challenging him.

Now if Abbas and the Palestinian Authority couldn't hang on to Gaza-- will they be able to hang on to any other territory that Israel withdraws from? And before Abbas demands part of Jerusalem or any other territory, shouldn't he be required to take control of Gaza first?

If you've given control of a region, and you lose control of that region, isn't reestablishing control of it a prerequisite to demanding any more territory?

Under Palestinian Authority rule, Gaza experienced a sewage flood that killed almost a dozen people. The terrorists who couldn't run the sewage system of a single Bedouin village a few years ago, now insist that they're ready and able to run half of one of the world's greatest cities. And the diplomats nod along and the newspaper columnists insist that they get Jerusalem at once. Why wait? The sewage floods of tomorrow begin with the surrenders of today.

And what is the moral basis for their claim to half of Jerusalem? Because in 1948, the armies of seven Arab-Muslim nations invaded Israel to try and destroy it. The Arab Legion, overseen by British officers, succeeded in seizing East Jerusalem and driving out its Jewish population. Jordan annexed East Jerusalem. Great Britain recognized their act of ethnic cleansing. Now Israel is being condemned for undoing that ethnic cleansing with its 1967 liberation and reunification of Jerusalem. Jews who live in East Jerusalem are denounced as "settlers", while the Arabs who destroyed the Jewish Quarter and seized Jewish homes are treated as the rightful residents.

The kleptocracies of Brazil's Lula da Silva and Argentina's Cristina Fernandez have officially recognized a Palestinian state on those ethnically cleansed borders. Their support for Abbas' kleptocracy is not surprising. Between Lula da Silva's affection for Iran's monstrous dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Cristina Fernandez's indebtedness to Venezuelan left wing dictator Chavez, as well as the key role on foreign policy played by the very slimy Héctor Timerman, who was as comfortable supporting juntas, as he was working for Human Rights Watch-- this is a case of birds of a feather flocking together.

These decisions were not motivated by human rights, but by the growing shadow of Islam over Latin America.

Friendly ties between Israel and Latin-American countries were based on trade relationships and the formerly sizable Jewish population in some parts of Latin America. Since then political and economic chaos, particularly the left-wing and right-wing dictatorships, have managed to significantly reduce Latin America's Jewish population. Meanwhile the Arab and Muslim population of Latin America has kept on growing. Unlike Europe, Muslims aren't likely to take over through demographics alone, but they have taken over many commercial enterprises and come to play a very prominent role with politics, with numerous Arab presidents of Latin American countries. Trade with the Muslim world has eclipsed trade with Israel. And the latest wave of left-wing Latin American governments have taken Chavez's lead in forming close ties with Muslim dictatorships.

But as despicable as Lula de Silva and Fernandez may be, their behavior is not any fundamentally different than that of America and Europe. The Western support for a Palestinian state is not based on historical justice, because contrary to the nauseating dishwater poured out of every media outlet, there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. The name was used as a geographical designation by the Romans and the Greeks. It was never the name of a nation or an ethnic group. Nor does it affirm any cultural uniqueness, because again there is no such thing. The "Palestinian Arabs" are part of a regional network of families and tribes. Finally they are not ready for self-government. They have no economy or law and order. No civil rights and no justice system. Only a small corrupt clique of terrorists turned officials living off stolen American and EU money, who run everything and make all the rules.

So what then is the basis for this urgent incontinent need to create a Palestinian state? Because the Muslim world wants it. The Muslim world demands it. Not because it has any use for them. Kuwait ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs, with the approval of the Bush Administration after the Gulf War. Despite being mostly Palestinian itself, the Jordanian government is trying to get rid of as many as they can. But it's not about peace or the nationalism of a fictional people run by a terrorist organization that used to insist that Palestine is really Southern Syria, it's about conducting a war against Israel. A Palestinian state only has one purpose. The destruction of the region's one and only non-Muslim and non-Arab state.

Western governments don't think that way. Or at least not openly. But they are following the marching orders of kings, sheiks and princes that do. They may not play kissy face with Ahmadinejad the way Silvia de Lula does, but they play kissy face with the Saudi royal family, which is actually no better. After Saudi terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans, the United States government still insists on following Saudi orders to enforce its "peace process" on Israel. And Saudi shill Uncle Tom Friedman bellows in outraged fury at Israel for refusing to ban Jews from building homes in an area that is the Israeli equivalent of California, Texas and New Mexico.

Behind all the lies and anger, is the dark hand of Islam. The age old grip of Muslim bigotry and genocidal fury directed at an ancient minority that dared to proclaim its independence. The Muslim world is well on its way to destroying Lebanon's religious diversity. The entire Palestinian state project has nearly wiped out Israel's Christians. But its real target are the Jews. And from North to South America, and across the Atlantic, much of the world is all too eager to aid the genocidal aims of that policy. What the Muslim world could not gain through war, it intends to gain through the dirty hands of infidel politicians who will sell their civilization and their souls for the price of a greasy barrel of oil.