Israeli soldiers killed a wanted terrorist near Ramallah early Thursday, the same day Amnesty International, reported here,  grilled “trigger-happy” Israel for supposed “war crimes”  by allegedly using “excessive force” in killing 45 Palestinian Authority Arabs last year.

Dear Amnesty: Don’t forget February 27, 2014, in Berzeit, near Ramallah.

The suspect was called a “man” by the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency which reported he was “found dead” in a house after a stand-off with Israeli soldiers who allegedly killed him with an artillery shell. Israeli media said he died when a wall collapsed on him as an IDF bulldozer destroyed part of the house to flush out the suspect.

He was identified as Muatazz Washaha, 24, and the IDF said he was wanted for suspected terrorist activity.

Amnesty, please take note how the trigger-happy soldiers committed another “war crime.” Even Ma’an admitted that there was a “stand-off” in the house. The soldiers called for him to surrender, but instead he barricaded himself inside the building.

Soldiers had arrested two others suspects and waited and waited for Washaha to come out of the house, during which time approximately 150 of his peaceful neighbors rioted and threw rocks and whatever else they could get their hands on to throw at soldiers.

Washaha was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which has been responsible or some of the most monstrous terrorist attacks on Israelis.

The International Criminal Court defines war crimes as including “serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict and in conflicts ‘not of an international character’ listed in the Rome Statute, when they are committed as part of a plan or policy or on a large scale. These prohibited acts include: murder; mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; taking of hostages; intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population; intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historical monuments or hospitals; and conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities.”

Armed with that definition, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for several thousand war crimes; so, please, Amnesty International, who did you say commits war crimes?

Arab gas stations in Judea and Samaria have refused to fill tanks of Palestinian Authority security vehicles because of six months of unpaid bills, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency.

The accumulated bill for unpaid fuel now stands at nearly $16 million, according to an official of the union of gas station owners,

The union said the Palestinian Authority Finance Ministry has ignored a warning of two weeks ago that gas stations would stop pumping gas for security vehicles as of this past Saturday.

However, the regime in Ramallah continues to pay terrorists their monthly “salaries” for being arrested for terror and serving time in Israelis jails.

And the European Union, some of whose member countries are suffering bloated debts and near-bankrupt economies, continues to pay the Palestinian Authority, despites its priorities.

The shaggy dog story of attempted unity between the rival Hamas terrorist organization and its rival Fatah, headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, took another turn towards an agreement Monday with Hamas’s offer offering to free Fatah prisoners and allow the return of Fatah legislators to their homes.

Fatah staged a coup in 2007 when its terrorist militia overcame Fatah’s militia in bloody and deadly clashes in which Fatah forces, trained by the United States, suffered an embarrassing defeat.

The newest move towards unity could make trouble for  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry given Hamas’s declared goal of eliminating Israel, unlike Abbas’s undeclared goal of doing the same through a diplomatic war of attrition.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport around 3 p.m. Thursday, bringing with him the usual traffic headache for motorists who are kept away from the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway while  his cavalcade takes him for a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Kerry is scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority  chairman Mahmoud Abbas later in the evening and has brought in his suitcase a “framework” agreement.

No one really understand how this “framework” is different from “outlines” and previous roses by another name that state the same core issues between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and which both sides were supposed to have been talking about for about a decade.

This is the 10th time since last February that Kerry has travelled to Israel. He succeeded in resurrecting the “peace talks” after three years in which it was buried and now is trying to keep his diplomatic racecar speeding ahead  in neutral.

The only tangible results of his efforts have been the Palestinian Authority’s winning the freedom of 86 terrorists, with another 18 to be freed in the spring, and lots of  Israeli announcements but nothing beyond that for new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria and in areas of Jerusalem where the Obama administration considers Jews to be “illegitimate.”

Protesters are marching in the rain in Jerusalem Monday evening and will arrive at the Jerusalem home of one of 16 terrorists to be freed by Israel.

The demonstration is being called the “Umbrella Protest” because of the rain that began falling in Jerusalem Monday afternoon.

Authorities had refused to grant a permit for the demonstration, citing concerns for security, but the Supreme Court overruled them, concluding that fears of clashes with Arabs were not based on enough evidence to bar the demonstrators from the freedom to march. However, the judges said that only 15 families could demonstrate outside the Old City home of the terrorist, Ahmed Khalaf.

One question: The Supreme Court always rules against appeals to stop the government from releasing terrorists, arguing that it does not interfere in matters of security.

So why could it overrule ”concerns of security” and allow the protesters to march but not interfere in the “security” consideration to free terrorists, which actually endangers the peace and safety of Israelis?

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected Thursday evening an appeal by victims of terror to stop the government from going ahead with its plan to free another 26 terrorists on Sunday.

The petitioners, whose parents and three of their brothers and sisters were murdered in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem in 2001, argued that the swap of 1,000 terrorists for the return of Gilad Shalit from captivity proved that many of those release from jail return to terrorism.

The court did not reject or accept the argument and ruled, as in previous cases of government releases of terrorists, that the issue involves security and is not in the jurisdiction of the court to interfere.

The Netanyahu government is going ahead with the third batch four releases of 104 terrorists for the stated reason of continuing talks with the Palestinian Authority, within the framework set down in July by  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Israel will trade 26 more terrorists for between 1,000 and 2,000 new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria, according to a government official quoted by Israeli television Wednesday.

There is a broad consensus in Israel against freeing more terrorists in the four-step release plan to release 104 terrorists and security prisoners during the nine months that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has scheduled for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to reach an agreement on a future PA state without endangering Israeli security.

Kerry has set the rules of the game, and Netanyahu knows that rejecting the release on Sunday of more terrorists, even though PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has not lived up to a promise to play by Kerry’s rules, would leave Israel checkmated in Abbas’ game to have international backing to skip talks and go to the United Nations for recognition. The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the release of the third batch of 104 terrorists.

Netanyahu’s ploy has been to announce new homes every time a batch of terrorists are freed. He did this in July and last month and is about to do so again, infuriating the Palestinian Authority and the European Union but not violating Kerry’s conditions.

Kerry has implied it was assumed that Israel would announce plans for new construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria, even though the United States calls Israelis in those areas “illegitimate.” President Barack Obama has called the settlements, including Palestinian Authority-claimed neighborhoods, in Jerusalem, “illegal.”

The Prime Minister can always climb down from a weak limb simply by announcing new homes but not going through with issuing tenders, particularly since the bureaucratic process for doing so could take months.

When Kerry dug up the remains of the “peace process” in July and forced Israel and Abbas to get back to the so-called negotiating table, he demanded that both sides not issue interim reports on the talks. Israel agreed to release terrorists only if there is progress in talks and if the Palestinian Authority does not resort to more violence.

Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday blamed Abbas and the Palestinian Authority for the escalation in terrorist attacks, saying they directly incite Arabs to attack Israelis.

Since July, Palestinian Authority terrorists have murdered at least four Israelis and have carried out numerous other terrorist attacks, not including rock-throwing and fire bombings.

In addition, Abbas and his negotiators have consistently complained that no progress is being made, and he has threatened more than once to end the talks and go to the United Nations.

Kerry has four months left to come back to Washington with a deal.

Former captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit wrote in an open letter that all Israelis should demand that the United States free jailed spy-for-Israel Jonathan Pollard.

Israeli officials have said that the revelation over the weekend that the United States spied on at least two sitting Israeli prime ministers opens the door for Israel to demand the release of Pollard, who has served 29 years of a life sentence in a U.S. prison.

“After Israel has released terrorists with blood on their hands as a gesture to the Palestinians, a return gesture is all that is being requested,” Shalit said in his open letter. “I believe, and I think that like myself all of the People of Israel believe that the Prime Minister’s request for such a simple gesture, the release of Jonathan Pollard, is owed to us by right, and is not a favor,” he wrote.

“Please, everyone, join me, in a clear demand to our friends, the Americans: we have already freed scores of murderous terrorists with blood on their hands at your request – now it is your turn to make a gesture to us! It may even save Pollard’s life,” he wrote.

Shalit appeared to be reacting to reports, including one by Israel’s Channel 2, that Israel is linking a Pollard release to the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and will ask that Pollard’s release be linked to Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners. The third group of prisoners is scheduled to take place at the end of the week. Channel 10 quoted White House officials as saying that freeing Pollard is not on up for discussion