Editor's Letter

Palestinian Intent Exposed

A

s President Obama struggles to bring Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators together, the Palestinian
Authority and its governing Fatah party threaten
to renew their armed struggle with the Jewish state. P.A. and
Fatah leaders have gone so far as to float the possibility of a
third intifada, which translates to an uprising against infidels,
but which I call terrorism against Jews.
This dark development is detailed
by the Washington-based Middle East
Media Research Institute. That respect-
ed, independent, nonprofit agency
tracks Middle East developments and
trends through the region's news media.
In a compelling Nov. 20 bulletin,
MEMRI reflects on the success that
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas had in
winning support when the Sixth Fatah
General Congress convened Aug. 4 in
Bethlehem.
The bulletin goes on to chronicle the
political blows that Abbas has suffered since then. Setbacks
include Hamas' bid to smear him after he didn't respond
quickly enough to the U.N. Human Rights Council's Goldstone
Report on the Israel-Gaza war last winter; the report's tenor
blames Israel far more for the conflict. Abbas' knees also
buckled when Hamas didn't sign a Palestinian reconciliation
pact in Cairo and when America didn't back his demand for a
settlement freeze as a precondition for rekindling negotiations
with Israel. Lost in the shuffle are fundamental matters like
Palestinian sovereignty, settlement limits, borders, security
Jerusalem and refugees.
MEMRI speculates that these blows caused Abbas to
announce he wouldn't seek to be re-elected
in 2010. It's hard to believe this surface-level
ideological moderate would cave in to political
maneuvering. More plausible is MEMRI's sug-
gestion that Abbas made the announcement to
pressure America and Israel into warming up
to his bargaining demands.

Evidence Of Danger

Trail Of Opportunity

The Sixth Fatah General Congress didn't discount re-engage-
ment in an "armed struggle as MEMRI reminds.
That's music to the ears of Marwan Al-Barghouthi, the best-
known Fatah Central Committee member who, I fear, would
win easily if Abbas steps down. Al-Barghouthi is serving five
life sentences for masterminding a series of terror attacks on
Israel. But he still managed to chime in for Al Hayat Al Jadida,
the P.A.'s official daily newspaper: "I have always called for
creatively combining negotiations with resistance and political,
diplomatic and popular activism."
The newspaper's editor, Hafez Al-Barghouthi, has editorial-
ized for a fully sovereign Palestinian state within the June 4,
1967, borders. Anything less, he declared, and "we will turn
ourselves into paragons of sacrifice."
That phrase has the ring of "martyrdom for Allah" —
expressly, terror against Jews.
If a new round of so-called "popular resistance" fails, the
P.A. promises a third intifada more intense than the previous
uprisings.
Palestinian leadership remains depraved and failed, but it's
no longer deceptive. Its Zionist hatred has moved to the front
burner. We know Palestinian schoolbooks, television and maps
defiantly teach kids to imagine a world without Israel and, in
turn, Jews. Don't expect Israel to compromise with a political
wing rooted in the politics of terror.
Know that Israel and the West are in no position to dismiss
the corrosive rhetoric flowing from Ramallah. Suicide bomb-
ings are not a thing of the past. To think that is to invite them.
Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein put
it well: "The evidence over the years of Fatah/P.A. perfidy, of
[their] continuing support for terrorism and the incitement to
hatred and murder that feeds it, has been abun-
dant. But these latest declarations must meet
with a speedy condemnation from all respon-
sible governments."
Notably, America remains the largest
single state donor to the Palestinian Authority.
This summer, we gave $200 million to the
Palestinian government to help ease a growing
budget deficit in the wake of its nine-year war
on Israel. We provided $562 million in total aid
last year, including $150 million in direct budget support. Most
disconcerting was the $148 million given to the U.N. Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; UNRWA
is misguided at best and anti-Semitic at worst toward Israel.
Peace is not a Fatah goal. Statehood is, by whatever means.
And Palestine would include the Land of Israel with pre-1948
borders — not the internationally preferred two-state solution
with a Jewish state and a Palestinian state side by side, living in
peace. Under a "one-state solution:' Jews would be banished or
be the minority people.
World Jewry cannot let down its guard.

DESIGNER

CLOTHING COLLECTIONS

ACCESSORIES

Peace is not
a Fatah goal.
Statehood is, by
whatever means.

In the wake of the shifting political sands
in the P.A.-governed West Bank, MEMRI has documented
press espousals by Fatah leadership that armed struggle, a
euphemism for terrorist attack, remains an option. If that's
not a bargaining disincentive, I don't know what is. It seems
whenever Fatah loses political influence, it flirts with violence
— which is arch-rival llamas' strategy.
Fatah leaders are quoted as saying Israel has rejected
negotiation for 18 years, instead continuing as the occupying
aggressor committed to settlement expansion. Against this
backdrop, the Fatah Central Committee believes it has the
right to embrace popular resistance against Israel's settle-
ments, fence and "occupation!'
Within that political cauldron, Fatah has yet to recognize
Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state with secure, safe borders
— certainly a baseline to restart peace talks.
At a Nov. 16 rally marking the fifth anniversary of Palestine
Liberation Organization founder Yasser Arafat's death, Abbas
vowed to continue Arafat's "long and exhausting struggle." He
characterized PLO firepower as "political guns" extolling "a
noble goal."
Telling words indeed!

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community. Go to Israel News.

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Is the Palestinian Authority believable?

Should America send funds to the P.A.?

a. ILI

December 10 a 2009

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