On the Muslim day of prayer, thousands of Palestinian Hamas supporters poured out of the mosques of Nablus filled with that lovin’ feelin’ … for Hamas master creepazoid Sheikh Ahmed Yassin:

NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - Some 2,500 sympathizers of the hardline Islamic group Hamas took to the street of this northern West Bank city in support of its spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, whom Israel has threatened to kill.

The crowd departed from Nablus’ Old City Al-Nasser Mosque and marched toward the center of town.

The marchers waived Hamas’ trademark green flag and chanted “We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for you Sheikh Yassin!” and “For every threat to Sheikh Yassin, Israel will pay a high price.”

RoPMA.

In the Jerusalem Post, Khaled Abu Toameh writes that the increasing popularity of the Hamas death cult may spell doom for the Arafish: Kiss of death? (Hat tip: zulubaby.)

Another Hamas official, who asked not to be named, said some of his colleagues expressed concern that Arafat, with the backing of the international community and the Palestinian public, would try to eliminate the Islamic movement and all Palestinian opposition factions.

“It was clear that the US, Israel, and the Europeans would give Arafat billions of dollars so that he could fight Hamas and look after Israel’s security,” said the official. “This was the main condition for allowing him and the PLO to come to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

But since then the relationship between Hamas and Arafat has been complex and tense. Over the past decade, Arafat’s policy has been to use Hamas and Islamic Jihad as an excuse for milking millions of dollars from the international community under the pretext of fighting terror. But despite the huge funds allocated to the PA security forces, Arafat prevented the complete destruction of Hamas, although there were times when he thought that the movement was planning to topple him.