views essay Culture Clash New report: West Bank Palestinian leaders fortify terror. P the Fatah Central Committee, which alestinian aggression through works with Palestinian Authority incitement and terror — not President Mahmoud Abbas. via issues involving borders, “These are the people who will settlements, refugees, holy sites, water be determining the policy rights or Jerusalem — is likely of Mahmoud Abbas’ party” the unconquerable obstacle to and thus “the policy of the solving the Israeli-Palestinian Palestinian Authority in conflict. the coming years,” Marcus This drumbeat of hate is asserted. “Will they lead the wrought by anti-Israel govern- Palestinian people toward ment indoctrination played peace or continued animosity out in Palestinian classrooms, and terror?” mosques, news outlets, sports Not surprisingly, evidence tournaments and music videos. Robert Sklar points to the latter. That Undeniably, Israel lacks a legiti- Contributing Editor raises red flags in imagining mate negotiating partner. peace prospects under current The Palestinian Authority, Palestinian leadership. which governs Palestinian-controlled The terror wave of 2015-2016 “was areas of the West Bank, and its lead fac- not a series of spontaneous lone-wolf tion, Fatah, leave a lot to be desired as attacks by isolated Palestinians, but agents of peace. rather was the Palestinians’ response to The blunt reality is that Fatah and the leadership’s call for violence,” PMW many of its leaders have openly sup- concluded in its report. ported terror as a methodology — both during the terror wave of 2015-2016 and into 2017. So reports Palestinian CHILLING DISCOVERY Media Watch (PMW). The Israel-based The special report, relates Marcus, communications watchdog commands documents “how the Fatah Movement respect in the West for monitoring responded to individual Palestinians Palestinian pronouncements of terror murdering Israeli civilians in stabbings, against the Jewish state. shootings and car-ramming attacks during the terror wave from September TAINTED LEADERS 2015 to mid-2016.” It was a gruesome On March 16, PMW founder and direc- stretch that saw 40 people murdered tor Itamar Marcus presented “Fatah — 36 Israelis, one Palestinian, two Votes for Terror” to the U.S. House Americans and one Eritrean, according Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the to PMW. Hundreds were wounded. Middle East. The special report spot- PMW found the Fatah Movement lighted those elected last December to as well as prominent Fatah Central Committee members “actively support- ed the terror carried out by individual Palestinians and publicly encouraged more attacks.” Consider these haunting findings: “Some supported the terror by partici- pating in or sponsoring activities honor- ing murderers of civilians. Others justi- fied the murders of Israelis as accept- able defense of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which they claimed was ‘in danger.’ Still others claimed those Palestinian terrorists who were killed while attack- ing Israelis were innocents murdered in cold blood and for no reason by the Israeli police, who ‘fabricated’ the attacks.” PMW found that no Fatah leaders at any time denounced even one terror attack or murder during the 2015-2016 terror wave “because they insisted, and continue to insist, the term terror can never be applied to any Palestinian attack or murder of Israelis.” military arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Palestinian people’s lead negotiator and global represen- tative, recently marked 52 years as a movement. Even President Abbas has repeatedly justified terrorist murders, saying after 14 Israelis had already been killed and dozens injured in the 2015-2016 wave: “We want peaceful, popular uprising, and that’s what this is. That’s what this is.” He said that on official PA TV on Nov. 16, 2015. That’s a stunning worldview of peaceful uprising. This is the Palestinian leader much of the world, including the U.S., considers moderate enough to negotiate with. The JN hasn’t budged in its support of a two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. But we’re resigned to that way forward never gaining trac- tion until Palestinian leaders and the culture they represent realign toward a desire for real peace. NO LET UP The PMW report contains examples of how Fatah continues to brazenly incite and glorify terror with no regard for, or perhaps in defiance of, international consequences. One post cited from Fatah’s official Facebook page on Feb. 7, 2017, under- scores this horrific wish: “We march; we are not afraid of the fire and we do not fear death. With blood, we will redeem the homeland and saturate its ground. The anniversary is approaching.” Fatah, which began as the principal FANTASY TIME In a March 16 interview with the Qatar newspaper Al Watan, President Abbas said he hopes U.S. President Donald Trump finds resolution to “the Palestinian issue after 70 years of occupation” — a solution “based on two states, a Palestinian state that will live in security and peace alongside the State of Israel.” That’s well put, but illusory. Four days earlier, Abbas declared that Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank continued on page 8 Contributing Writers: Ruthan Brodsky, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher / Executive Editor ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. 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