The Hamas terrorist organization is working hand-in-hand with the Palestinian Authority’s leading Fatah faction to morph the current terror wave into a “tsunami” of terror against Israeli citizens.

Fatah is using its control over Palestinian Authority media, finances, international diplomacy and politics. Hamas is using the strategies of terror.

A cartoon posted Monday (Oct. 18) on the official Facebook page of the Fatah faction shows a Palestinian Arab child kicking a long-nosed, terrified Chassidic Jew off the grounds of the Temple Mount, the site holiest in Judaism.

In the background of the picture are the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock along with the words written in Arabic, “Leave our skies,” translated by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW palwatch.org) monitoring organization that keeps an eye on Palestinian Arab media.

A line from a poem by the PA poet Mahmoud Darwish, calling for all Jews to leave Israel, is posted with the cartoon: “Leave our country, our land, our sea, our wheat, our salt, our wounds. Everything.”

The cartoon is another addition to the long list of incitement disseminated by the Palestinian Authority’s leading faction, headed by Mahmoud Abbas – the world’s idea of the Palestinian Arab “partner for peace” towards to whom Israel should be directing her efforts.

Abbas himself said just last month:

The Al Aqsa [mosque] is ours … and they have no right to defile it with their filthy feet… We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem. (Sept. 16)

That statement alone was not only silly and superfluous but also was deliberately inflammatory and lent credibility to a base lie about Israel intending to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, which it never has. Nor does the present government intend to do so now.

A subsequent statement by Abbas’ adviser Ahmed al-Ruweidi was gauged to keep the fires burning just as attacks seemed to be slowing down. “[Palestinian] residents of Jerusalem will not move from their city” he said, as if Israelis intended to throw them out, adding “Their actions and policy will not scare us.”

He added:

We will remain in Jerusalem and protect it and its holy sites (as if Israel intended to destroy the holy city or its holy sites when in fact Israel has been the only guardian of the city in a thousand years to restore the city’s beauty and allow open access by all peoples to those sites), first among them the blessed Al Aqsa.” (To this day the site remains under the province of the Islamic Waqf Authority and the Jordanian government, with the full agreement and cooperation of the State of Israel — the precious “status quo.”)

Meanwhile Hamas has also urged Arabs in Judea and Samaria to carry out suicide bombings across the border in Israel, issuing a “call to arms” to terrorists in Hebron and Shechem as the first order of the day.

Senior Hamas terror official Mahmoud al-Zahar said Sunday the current wave of terror needs to be escalated from a popular terror war into an actual, armed terror war, according to the Hebrew-language Yediot Achronot newspaper.

Al-Zahar made an open call for the use of guns and explosives, ramping up both the intensity and the scope of the attacks planned ahead.

Terrorists in the Hebron area of Judea and those in the Shechem (Nablus) area of Samaria were the first to receive the new orders. Both are situated in areas that could potentially be used as launching sites for terror attacks on all four of Israel’s major cities: Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Tel Aviv, and Haifa.

According to the report, an official with the Palestinian Authority security force claimed a Hamas cell in Hebron with at least six members was recently captured, together with explosives and funds. The cell members reportedly said under interrogation that they wanted to die, a revelation that led investigators to believe the terrorists had been instructed to carry out suicide bombing attacks against Israel.

Egypt again has shut down the crossing at the city of Rafah, which straddles the border between Gaza and the northern Sinai, after having re-opened it four days for emergency cases.

Egyptian officials said they prevented nearly 150 Arabs from leaving Gaza for the Sinai on Friday. The crossing has been closed since last October, except for brief periods, as part of the al-Sisi regime’s campaign against Hamas.

Israel also has restricted passage, primarily to bar three Be’er Sheba area-based sisters of Hamas’ de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from attending their nephew’s wedding because Hamas continues to hold two Israelis as captives.

One of them is a Bedouin from the northern Negev city of Hura, and the second man is Avera Mengistu, who has a mental condition and crossed the security fence in Gaza last year.

Israel has not commented on the Bedouin, but he reportedly has had previous contact with Gaza Arabs and may be involved in crime.

A wave of arrests has rounded up 170 Hamas members in Judea and Samaria over the past several days.

However, the arrests were carried out by members of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority security force, according to a report by Ynet. The operation complements a recent similar effort by Israel’s Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency.)

The arrests were allegedly carried out in response to the ongoing terror attacks carried out against Israelis on the roads of Judea and Samaria. Two Israelis have died in the past two weeks in shootings in the Binyamin district of Samaria, both were young men.

According to a PA source who spoke with Ynet, there is evidence pointing to Hamas as having been behind most of the recent attacks, including the murders.

Hamas has been trying to overthrow the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority government in Judea and Samaria for years. The Israeli sting had foiled a very sophisticated operation to set up a shadow PA government by the Gaza-based terror group, complete with a full range of alternate ministries and department heads assigned.

Internecine fighting between the two factions – alleged partners in the Palestinian Authority “unity government” – is not new.

Hamas de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh cannot safely enter Judea and Samaria. Nor can PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas safely enter Gaza. Nevertheless, the two separately governed areas allegedly comprise what the United Nations refers to as the “state of Palestine” and has empowered as a non-member observer state in its General Assembly.

Arab-American radio host Diane Rehm falsely accused Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of being a dual Israeli-American citizen and later apologized.

Sanders expressed irritation at the accusation, which he immediately denied on air, but the echoes of anti-Semitism remain in the air.

Rehm hosts her show on WAMU, affiliated with the NPR network. Sanders, who has visited Israel, is Jewish but mostly in name. The JewishPress.com pointed out here in April, he has no use for organized religion and cites Pope Francis as his guide.

Thank God he is not an Israeli.

But Rehm, an award-winning journalist, thought otherwise, based on nothing more than a Facebook post by Vittorio Arrigoni, who was an Italian activist and worked with the fiercely anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

He held a Gaza passport given to him by Hamas’s de facto prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and acted as human shield for Gaza “fishermen,” some of whom fish for fish and some of whom shoot to kill Jews.

His Facebook posted of American leaders with Israeli-American citizenship falsely included Sanders. She did not quote Arrigoni for other posts, such as:

Zionism is an abominable, racist and colonial movement. Like all colonial and apartheid systems, it’s in the interest of all that it be swept away. My hope is to see it replaced, without any bloodshed, with a democratic, secular and lay state – for example on the borders of historic Palestine – and where Palestinians and Israelis could live under equal rights of citizenship without ethnic and religious discrimination.

He once described four Hamas tunnel terrorists as “martyrs.”

Gaza Salafists thanked him for his anti-Zionism by kidnapping and killing him in 2011.

Rehm was born in the United States. Her father, a Christian, immigrated to the United States from Anatolia. She has said that her family members were “Arabs,” and she raised her children as Christian Arabs.

Her question to Sanders, based on a Facebook post, cannot be ignored as anything but a reflection of an anti-Zionist agenda.

She said to Sanders on her show Wednesday:

Senator, you have dual citizenship with Israel.

Sanders immediately responded:

Well, no I do not have dual citizenship with Israel. I’m an American. I don’t know where that question came from. I am an American citizen, and I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions. No, I’m an American citizen, period.

Rehm:

 I understand from a list we have gotten that you were on that list.

Sanders:

 No.

Rehm:

Forgive me if that is—

Sanders:

That’s some of the nonsense that goes on in the internet. But that is absolutely not true.

Rehm:

Interesting. Are there members of Congress who do have dual citizenship or is that part of the fable?

Sanders said he does not know and went back to express his having been insulted by Rehm:

You know, my dad came to this country from Poland at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket. He loved this country. I am, you know, I got offended a little bit by that comment, and I know it’s been on the internet. I am obviously an American citizen and I do not have any dual citizenship.

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) stated after Rehm’s goof:

 It is appalling that in today’s age, a longtime Jewish elected official would face implications that he splits his loyalty between the United States and Israel for no reason other than his religion.

This anti-Semitic canard of dual loyalty has persisted for decades, particularly about American Jews in public service.

Rehm later issued an apology in a statement:

On today’s show I made a mistake. Rather than asking Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact. He corrected me, saying he did not know where the question came from. I apologized immediately.

Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

A major story is currently being reported in all Israeli newspapers. It is about a father of 13 children whose daughter was just treated by Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. This daughter was born in Israel and has lived here her entire life. While the hospital refused to report the treatment the girl received, it did confirm that she was in fact a patient for a week and that she received, “the same professional care as any other patient in Ichilov hospital”. Why is this a story in all the newspapers? In truth, it’s not a story about the girl, it’s much more about her father… but I’m not done yet…

This same man knows Ichilov Hospital very well. Less than a year ago, in November 2013, he checked his granddaughter into that same hospital. As a matter of fact, he simply loves Israeli hospitals and the terrific care his family receives! In June 2013 his mother-in-law spent time in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and was treated with that same “professional care” that they are so proud of.

So who is this man who has sent his daughter, granddaughter and mother-in-law to Israeli hospitals for medical treatment? His name is Ismail Haniyeh and he is the head of Hamas. Actually, let me phrase that differently so you understand exactly who he is. He is not a man; he is a beast. His goal, dream and desire is to see Israeli streets pouring with Jewish blood. He is the mastermind behind the kidnappings and murders of the three beautiful boys we all prayed and cried for;  He is the one who kidnapped Gilad Shalit and held him prisoner for five years; He is the one who started the war this summer that killed 67 of my brothers (and yours too!) and sent millions screaming in panic; He is the mass murderer behind the suicide bombings that have killed close to 2,000 Jews and have injured – both physically and psychologically – over 50,000 others. In other words, he is the closest thing to Adolph Hitler and is the person responsible for more Jewish pain and suffering in the world today than anybody else.

One minute – there’s actually more to this story that makes it even worse. Ismail Haniyeh – yimach sh’mo – states over and over again that Israel does not exist. He refuses to recognize Israel and is sworn to its destruction. To him, there simply is no Israel – just a few Jews temporarily dancing around Jerusalem and Haifa. There is no country and certainly no legitimacy and this is what gives him the international right – supported by many members of the UN – to work day and night towards ethnically cleansing that area of all Jews. The rockets, the missiles, the bombs, the stabbings and the kidnappings are all acceptable since Israel does not exist in the first place!

Here are 2 quotes from Haniyeh:

Dec 14, 2010 – A speech given at the 23rd anniversary of the founding of Hamas; “Palestine is from the sea to the river, from Rosh HaNikra to Rafah. The siege will not change our belief, wars don’t cause people to give up resistance and resistance leaders. We will not recognize! We will not recognize! We will not recognize Israel!”

Feb 12, 2012 – A speech given in Iran while standing next to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; “The gun is our only response to the Zionist regime. In time we have come to understand that we can obtain our goals only through fighting and armed resistance and no compromise should be made with the enemy.”

Oh, the magnificent irony.

While bone-headed academics around the world bloviate about boycotting Israeli institutions because of Israel’s brutal treatment of the Palestinian Arabs, the daughter of the head of Hamas – the Palestinian Arab faction most publicly opposed to the existence of Israel and dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish State – is given high-quality medical treatment in an Israeli hospital.

Oh, and what could that possibly mean for all those who claim Israel is an “Apartheid State”?

Representatives from Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv confirmed on Sunday evening, Oct. 19, that it treated one of Ismail Haniyeh’s daughters.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Haniyeh’s daughter was admitted to Ichilov Hospital for several days. The hospital representatives pointed out that the Hamas leader’s daughter was one of over 1000 Gazans whom just that one hospital treats every year.

The representatives declined to provide personal details regarding the specific treatment or even the name of Haniyeh’s daughter who was treated.

Over the past year, Haniyeh’s mother-in-law and granddaughter have reportedly also been treated in Israeli hospitals.

A Palestinian Arab polling organization found that the popularity of the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas rose amongst Palestinian Arabs following this summer’s war against Israel.

For those who were hoping that mounting deaths and destruction of their own people will have a moderating effect on the Arabs who live in the Middle East, start barking up a different tree. In fact, a recent poll shows that the vast majority of Arabs in the region (72 percent) actually prefer to have the PA run the territory for which they are responsible the way Hamas runs it in Gaza.

Rockets and violence over diplomacy and passivity is the Palestinian Arab ruling style of choice, as reflected in this latest poll.

During the 50-day summer of 2014 war, more than 2000 of their own people died and many apartment buildings and some entire neighborhoods were destroyed at least largely because the Hamas fighters shot from residential neighborhoods. Nonetheless, such death and destruction actually led to a dramatic increase in popularity for Hamas’s leadership and mode of governance.

In fact, fewer than five percent of Palestinian Arabs believed that Israel “won” the war. In contrast, nearly four out of five respondents believe Hamas was the winner in this summer’s war between Gaza and Israel.

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research learned through its poll that if elections were to be held now, well more than half of all Palestinian Arabs (61 percent) would vote for Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to lead their people, while only 32 percent would vote for Mahmoud Abbas, the current acting leader of the Palestinian Authority.

While a 61 percent approval rating sounds high, it is even more impressive – if that’s the right word – considering that it is a 20 percentage point surge since June, that is, before this summer’s war. And before the war, those who favored Abbas was 20 percentage points higher. The percentage of Arabs who live in what they call the “West Bank” who would vote for Hamas’s Haniyeh comes in at 66 percent, which is even higher than his standing in Gaza (53 percent).

In fact, this summer’s Gaza war increased Haniyeh’s popularity so much that if he ran against the perennially popular Fatah member Marwan Barghouti, Haniyeh would best Barghouti 49 percent to 45 percent. And, if there were a three-way political race, Abbas would draw down support from Barghouti, so that Haniyeh would prevail decisively with 48% of the vote. Barghouti would receive only 29 percent of the vote, and Abbas only 19% in a three-way vote.

If ever there were an example of perception dictating reality, the vast disparity in the raw numbers of dead on each side did nothing to dissuade the Palestinian Arabs from believing the Hamas war machine was effective in fighting Israel’s Defense Force (94 percent).

Hamas was viewed favorably both in terms of its offense against Israel, but also on defense. Nearly four-fifths of all Palestinian Arabs were satisfied with Hamas’s defense of Gazan civilians during the war (78 percent).

Perhaps the one poll result that will surprise nobody is that nearly nine out of ten Arabs in the region were satisfied with the Gazan leadership’s media and communication performance.

The poll was taken following the cessation of hostilities, and included 1,270 Palestinian Arabs from throughout the territories in which they live.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus