I have to admit that this isn’t a headline I never expected to see, for a number of reasons. It’s also a headline that will NEVER make its way into the mainstream media, nor will the issue ever be mentioned by Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.

The woman quoted here should know how Israelis behave—when her son was in his heyday as the top Palestinian bomb-maker, her house was searched more than a dozen times, so she has a basis for comparison…

‘IDF troops more polite than PA police’

By Khaled Abu Toameh

IDF soldiers who raid the homes of Palestinians are more polite than the Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank, [said] the mother of a top Hamas terrorist who was killed by Israel said over the weekend.

The mother was speaking shortly after security forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas stormed her family’s house in the village of Rafat in the West Bank.

Her son, Yihye Ayyash, nicknamed The Engineer, was responsible for a spate of suicide bombings in the 1990s that killed more than 100 Israelis and wounded hundreds others.

The mother said that about 30 Palestinian security officers participated in the raid early Friday.

“They behaved in a shameful way,” she said. “When the Jews come, they ask for permission and cry out before they enter a house.” She said that Abbas’s security forces acted in a “barbaric” manner and did not take into account that women and children were sleeping inside the house.

The Palestinian policemen did not even knock on the door, she added. “They raided the house and started searching for weapons,” she said. “They left behind a lot of damage. Even a copy of the Koran was not spared.”

The raid on Ayyash’s home came amid increased tensions between Hamas and Fatah in the West Bank. PA policemen killed four Hamas gunmen in Kalkilya in two separate incidents last week. Four policemen were also killed in the clashes.

Over the weekend, Abbas’s forces arrested another six Hamas supporters in different parts of the West Bank, sources close to the Islamic movement said.

The sources said that the arrests bring to approximately 700 the number of Hamas-affiliated detainees who are currently being held in PA prisons in the West Bank.

The PA security forces have also banned the families of the four Hamas men who were killed in Kalkilya from mourning them in public, the sources said. They added that PA policemen prevented mourners from heading to the dead men’s homes to offer their condolences to the families.

The wives of the owners of the houses where the Hamas men were hiding remain in custody.

Amal al-Basha, whose husband Abdel Nasser was killed in the first clash between the Hamas gunmen and PA policemen, is accused of hurling a hand grenade at the security forces, killing three policemen. She was seriously injured in the raid.

The second woman is the wife of Abdel Fattah Shraim. She and her husband are being interrogated on suspicion of providing shelter to the two Hamas terrorists who were shot and killed by PA policemen when they were discovered hiding in the family’s basement.

Meanwhile, Hamas published photos and names of PA policemen and security commanders who allegedly took part in the elimination of the four Hamas men in Kalkilya.

Hamas called on its supporters in the West Bank to kill the policemen and their officers because of their role in the killings and for being “collaborators” with Israel and the US.

Hamas’s list included Husam Sheikh Hamed, a senior officer with the PA’s Preventive Security Service, who is said to have personally led the attacks on the two Hamas cells.

Why don’t we ever see outcries about Palestinian abuse of Palestinians? The so-called “Human Rights” organizations explain that it’s because these are “internal affairs” that their mandate doesn’t cover… so how do they explain the “human rights abuse” reports filed on the behavior of Israeli police when dealing with demonstrations by Israelis (whether Israeli Arabs or Israeli Jews)? Aren’t those also “internal affairs”?

Could it be that these human rights groups are biased?

In the meantime, it looks like Hamas is making up a “hit list” of PA personnel. What else could be expected from a bunch of thugs? Maybe the Palestinians should get their own act together before they talk about making peace with Israel.

Is it realistic to demand that Israel make peace with the Palestinians before the Palestinians can make peace among themselves? How can any peace agreement made with only one faction of the Palestinians be guaranteed (or even considered legitimate)?

Mahmoud Abbas’ term of office expired in January 2009. As a result, he has no legitimacy as a negotiating partner with anyone. The interim presidential appointee, Abdel Aziz Duwaik, belongs to Hamas, which refuses to negotiate anything more than a time-limited truce with Israel.

Why doesn’t President Obama talk about that instead of talking about the sacrifices Israel has to make? Barack Obama is supposed to be an intelligent man (unlike George Bush). How can he demand that Israel conduct peace negotiations with the Palestinians when there is no Palestinian who can, or will, negotiate for peace with Israel?

Abbas can’t, Hamas won’t… who’s left to negotiate with?