oints of view >> Send letters to: Ietters@thejewishnews.com Essay Editorial Abbas' Antics Are Act Of Treachery ISIS Strengthening Terrorist Coalition I n a deceptive scheme to blur the Devious Maneuver Palestinian Authority practice of pay- Abbas ordered the Ministry of Prisoners' ing salaries to terrorists imprisoned Affairs, under the P.A. government, changed in Israel, the salaries will still be paid, but to the Supreme National Authority of by a renamed agency under a different Prisoners' Affairs, under the PLO. In so Palestinian umbrella. doing, he created a new channel to make Clearly, President payments to families of imprisoned ter- Mahmoud Abbas hopes his rorists. Abbas thinks that because the PLO ploy provides political and doesn't receive E.U. and U.S. funding, inter- legal cover to keep interna- national donors to the P.A. won't question tional donor dollars flow- the new arrangement. But since June, Israel- ing into the cash-strapped based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has P.A. kept the world clued in to the charade. We hope donor coun- Given Abbas, who is also PLO chairman, 0 Mahmoud tries sustain the pressure retains control of the prisoner payouts, noth- Abbas on this smoke-and-mirrors ing has changed under the new Authority. strategy, which shifts The same "services:' meaning payouts and payouts to the jurisdiction of the Palestine other benefits to imprisoned terrorists, will Liberation Organization (PLO). continue. Even the head of the International donors are impor- Authority, Issa Karake, is former tant to the payouts; last year, the head of the old Authority oversee- P.A. paid out more than $100 ing prisoners' salaries, according million. The United States and to PMW. the European Union (E.U.) have International donors should condemned paying terrorists rebuke Abbas' chicanery by with P.A. funds. threatening to end P.A. support The P.A. has long glorified ter- unless there's unadulterated rorist acts against Israelis, believ- evidence that no representation Robert Sklar ing they bring honor for Allah in of Palestinian leadership pays Contri buting the struggle to resist what Abbas salaries to imprisoned terrorists. Ed i for conveniently calls "the colonial, The U.S. Congress is consider- racist, Israeli occupation:' The ing proposals 1) to slash support P.A. views imprisoned terrorists as "martyrs:' for the P.A. until President Barack Obama not murderers. can certify the P.A. no longer incites hatred In his Sept. 26 address to the United toward Israel or the U.S. and shows a com- Nations General Assembly, Abbas ridiculed mitment toward real peace or 2) to deduct Israel for what he called "genocidal crimes" the same amount the P.A. pays to terrorists against the Gaza Strip in this summer's from Obama's P.A. funding request. Israeli-Hamas war, the third in five years. "It is inconceivable he said, "that some Truth Resonates are unable to characterize this situation in Minister Karake said in a radio interview real terms and that they suffice with simply publicized by PMW that the Palestinians would never abandon its "freedom fighter" declaring their support for Israel's right to self-defense without regard for the fate of the prisoners. He called the effort a "matter of freedom" — "a matter of a national libera- thousands of victims of our people, ignoring tion movement" a simple fact that we remind them of today: "If we abandon this issue he said, "we that the life of a Palestinian is as precious as abandon the identity of the national struggle, the life of any other human being:' which is represented by and embodied by That's an odd claim given llamas the prisoners in the occupation prisons, who freely hides its weapons amid civilians to fought this occupation and resisted it for the deter Israeli airstrikes and openly praises liberty of their land:' Palestinian suicide bombers as resistance fighters worthy of martyrdom. In fiscal year 2013, the U.S. gave $440 mil- Israeli aggression, Abbas said, is the cause lion to the P.A. About 4,500 Palestinians are of rising extremism in the world and "why imprisoned in Israel; most have a terrorism- the culture of peace is losing ground and why related conviction. The prisoners receive the efforts to achieve it are collapsing:' $500 to $3,500 monthly, depending on the It didn't make it into Abbas' speech that toll exacted by their "freedom fighting" act. Hamas is sworn by charter to destroy Israel That's better pay than Israel's younger teach- or that the P.A. president's party, Fatah, ers and social workers. boasts a terrorist wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs U.S. taxpayers must be protected from Brigades — or that Israel is threatened by funding such outrage. Let your Washington Islamist terror-mongers on multiple fronts. lawmakers know how you feel. ❑ 34 October 16 • 2014 S peaking before the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spotlighted the threat posed by Islamic State, which controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria. Islamic State's sights have turned to more land grabs in hopes of creating an Islamic caliphate. Netanyahu sagely reminded his audience just how dangerous Islamic State is, not just in Iraq and Syria, but also to surrounding Middle East lands and, most trou- blingly, to the West, the origination for more than 1,000 Islamic State converts to Islamism – a political radical haven for Islamists (not to be confused with peaceful followers of Islam, the religion). Netanyahu quoted Islamic State's self-declared caliph, 1P°. ■ Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, as saying this summer: "A day Benjamin will soon come when the Muslim will walk everywhere Netanyahu as a martyr. The Muslims will cause the world to hear and understand the meaning of terrorism and destroy the idol of democ- racy." Islamic State cut its spurs under Al Qaida, once the chief archi- tect of world terror. Now, as Netanyahu pointed out, heavily armed Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is helping inspire Islamist groups in Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Iraq, Al Qaida branches in Yemen, Libya, the Philippines and India, and, of course, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Said Netanyahu Sept. 29 at the U.N.: "Some are radical Sunnis; some are radical Shiites; some want to restore a pre-medieval caliphate from the seventh century. Others want to trigger the apocalyptic return of an imam from the ninth century. They operate in different lands; they target different victims; and they even kill each other in their battle for supremacy. But they share a fanatic ideology. They all seek to create ever-expanding enclaves of militant Islam where there is no freedom and no tolerance, where women are treated as chattel, Christians are deci- mated and minorities are subjugated, sometimes given the stark choice – convert or die. For them, anyone can be considered an infidel, includ- ing fellow Muslims." A Master Force In response to the notion it's mad to think a single entity would plot to overtake the world, Netanyahu recalled Nazi Germany's belief in a mas- ter race. Militant Islamists, he said, believe in a master faith with the top question being who among them would be master of this master faith. Netanyahu then turned his attention to where such a master could arise: Iran. The Persian state not only has an Islamist pedigree rooted in past leader Ayatollah Khomeini and today's ruling clerics, but also has the power (the Revolutionary Guards Corps) and the potential (nuclear arms ambitions). Iran cloaked its pursuit of the global mission of Islamic Revolution imagined by Khomeini in a reconciler-with-the-West wannabe approach. Iran's real intent is to get Western sanctions lifted, improve its capacity to enrich uranium and ultimately develop a nuclear bomb. Driven By Hatred We know how dangerous Iran would be with a nuclear bomb. A diplomatic push led by U.S. President Barack Obama staunched much of Syria's chemical weapons capability, but what if ISIS somehow locked on to any of the residue and replenished it? As for Hamas, make no mistake: Iran and its strategic partner, Syria, have supplied the Palestinian terrorist group with conventional arms to coax Israel into war. Hamas wants to build an Islamic state that not only encompasses the Palestinian territo- ries and east Jerusalem, but also all of the State of Israel. ISIS, Iran, Hamas and other Islamist factions boast varying capability levels, but all seek dominance over infidels – any disbelievers. A Western plan to confront Islamism must be multilayered and sophis- ticated if it's going to target the divergent levels of this growing terror- ist alliance of hate – each component seemingly regenerative and thus frustratingly hard to stymie. ❑