Al-Dura and Ghalia; Intifada II and III

There is another similarity between the fake al-Dura video and the possibly somewhat staged Ghalia video.

Remember, the second intifada was supposedly sparked by two events - the visit by Prime Minister Sharon to the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000, and the fake al-Dura shooting on September 30th. But in reality it was planned in July 2000, after the failure of Camp David. Sharon's visit was cleared ahead of time with the PLO, and al-Dura was fake from the start.

So in 2000, the PLO planned the war and cynically used the media and lies to inflame Arab passions to make the war have a more popular basis. In fact, they started attacking Jewish civilians and soldiers in earnest on September 13 in violation of Oslo.

Now we fast forward to this weekend. While the Ghalia family really were killed, unlike al-Dura, the piece of information that is most relevant to the timing of this episode can be seen in this article by Ze'ev Schiff:

An analysis of the situation leads to the conclusion that the decision to launch the offensive was made by Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based political leader of Hamas, and the Gaza-based heads of the organization's military wing. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, also of Hamas, was informed of the decision and did not object to it.

The first decision to break the hudna came earlier this month. One contributing factor was the Hamas argument that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' call for a referendum over the Prisoners' Document must be neutralized.

What did Khaled Meshal say recently? Among other things:

Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah should close ranks against Israel rather than fighting each other, according to Hamas leader Khaled Meshal. Speaking at the end of a two-day conference in Qatar, Meshal, who is based in Damascus, said Hamas and Fatah should jointly focus on "liberating Palestine, not recognizing Israel and adopting the path of Jihad and resistance."

The timing of this breaking the "hudna" seems awfully similar to the timing of the outbreak of the September 2000 "intifada" - use an external, televised event as an excuse to start killing as many Jews as you can.