Palestinian mortar targets Israeli kindergarten

Palestinian mortar targets Israeli kindergarten  Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired a mortar shell at an elementary school compound in southern Israel on Wednesday morning, damaging the kindergarten building. The attack came just 30 minutes before the students arrived for school. Officials said that had the attack happened just a little later, Israel would today be mourning a major tragedy. School officials decided to go ahead with classes, but had all of the students study in the few buildings that are fully reinforced against Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks. Students were not permitted to go outside for recess.

Palestinians say unwilling to compromise for peace  Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas clarified for his people on Monday that he intends to make not even one concession or compromise in direct peace negotiations with Israel, and that for a final status peace to be achieved, Israel will have to fully meet all Arab demands and abandon its own conditions. First and foremost, Abbas told Palestinian newspapers that if the Jewish building freeze in Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank") is not extended indefinitely, the negotiations will come to an immediate halt. But Abbas also said he would walk out of the talks if he is pressured at all to alter the Palestinians' more hardline positions. "If they demand concessions on the rights of the refugees or the 1967 borders, I will quit. I can’t allow myself to make even one concession," Abbas told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam. Abbas was referring to the Palestinian demand that Israel solve the purported "Palestinian refugee" issue by opening its border to millions of new Arab citizens. Abbas has long championed that demand, despite the fact that it would mean the demographic destruction of the Jewish state. Even Israel's most liberal politicians reject the so-called "right of return." The Palestinian leader's position on the issue was two-faced, as he then turned around and insisted that an independent Palestinian state created by the current peace process must not have a single Jew living in it. "We clarified that [the Palestinian Authority] would not agree to continued Israeli presence, military or civil, within a future Palestinian state," Abbas said. In speaking of the 1967 borders, Abbas made it clear that he will not allow Israel to maintain control over a united Jerusalem as part of any peace deal. Up until 1967, the eastern half of Jerusalem was illegally occupied by Jordan. The Palestinians now claim it as their rightful capital. Abbas reiterated his position in an interview with Jerusalem-based Arabic newspaper Al-Quds when he rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's talk of a historic compromise between the two sides in order to reach a durable peace agreement. Abbas also addressed Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as "the Jewish state." "We're not talking about a Jewish state and we won't talk about one," Abbas said. "For us, there is the state of Israel and we won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state."

Palestinians set their sights on all of Jerusalem  The Palestinian Authority on Sunday again reiterated to its own people in Arabic that the ultimate goal in regards to Jerusalem is to wrest control of the entire city from Israel. And once again, the international media ignored the nefarious agenda that the Palestinians themselves admit they have. The WAFA news agency, an official mouthpiece of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO wrote that the Palestinian government was outraged this week when the World Jewish Congress kicked off its annual gathering in Jerusalem. "The action...is a blatant defiance of international resolutions, which considers all Israeli actions in Jerusalem as 'invalid and illegal', and which emphasizes that Jerusalem is part and parcel of the occupied territory," read the Palestinian statement. The Palestinians called the World Jewish Congress meeting an act of "Israeli aggression against the holy city" and "a provocation to the feelings of Arab and Islamic nations." The thing is that the World Jewish Congress is being held at the David Citadel Hotel on the western side of Jerusalem, which up until now has not been disputed as sovereign Israeli territory. It was also telling that the Palestinian statement did not use the phrase "East Jerusalem" when referring to Palestinian rights to the city, but rather the entirety of Jerusalem. International media and world leader regularly ignore what the Palestinians and other Arabs say in Arabic as it presents an inconvenience to their own "peace" efforts. However, as Israelis often point out, those words in Arabic are laying the foundation for continued conflict even if a peace deal is signed.

Two Israeli officers hurt in shooting attack  Palestinian terrorist gunmen opened fire on an Israeli Border Police vehicle on Monday lightly wounding two officers. The Israelis were conducting a routine patrol along the "Green Line" separating Israel proper from the so-called "West Bank" when the passengers of a passing Palestinian vehicle opened fire. The terrorists managed to flee the scene and find safety in nearby Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. Shooting attacks against both Israeli security officials and civilians have drastically increased since the start of renewed peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority last week. Most attribute the attacks to efforts by rogue Palestinian elements like Hamas to torpedo the peace talks. But many Israelis also note that if the Palestinian Authority is either unable or unwilling to control its own people, then it cannot be a viable peace partner.

Israel's water shortage to intensify due to dry winter  Forecasts by American and European meteorologists suggest that Israel and the rest of the Middle East will experience its driest winter in more than six years. That is cause for great concern in Israel, considering that the past six years have not exactly been abundant in terms of rainfall. In fact, Israel is in the midst of an ongoing six-year drought. Water Authority (Mekorot) officials told those attending the Water Corporations Conference near Tel Aviv on Sunday that it was "almost a miracle" that Israel was able to maintain continuous water supply to its citizens over the past several years. If the coming winter is as dry as meteorologists predict, Israel may become like its Arab neighbors, where locals regularly go through periods when water is only supplied to their homes during certain hours of the day. The one hope Israel has for the coming winter is that the current forecasts only deal with the first half of the season. If rainfall picks up from January 2011 through the end of the winter, Israel is likely to again just barely meets its citizens' water needs. In the meantime, the Water Authority is preparing to again launch a campaign of public awareness and maybe reinstate the drought levy, which reduced water consumption in 2009 by 15 percent by charging Israelis an additional $5 USD for every cubic meter of water used over a certain limit.