Israel Matzav

Misreading Abu Mazen

In today's New York Times, Jerusalem correspondent Steven Erlanger has an analysis that once again seeks to perpetuate the myth that Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen is a 'moderate,' and that his Fatah movement's ultimate goal is different from Hamas'. Erlanger accuses Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of giving Hamas a veto over the 'peace process,' by refusing to meet with Abu Mazen until kidnapped IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit is released, and is critical of misguided western attempts to prop Abu Mazen up, which are probably too little too late.

This morning, the radio here quoted a statement by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that IF there are new elections and IF the new elections are democratic and IF a terrorist organization (Olmert was undoubtedly referring to Hamas) wins, then the 'Palestinians' will have to bear the consequences. Well guess what: in January of THIS YEAR there was an election and it was a democratic election (so certified by none other than Dhimmi Carter) and a terrorist organization won. So where are the consequences?

Erlanger is correct that efforts to prop up Abu Mazen are a waste of time. But he's mistaken that the problem is that Abu Mazen lacks the power to enforce what the world thinks is Abu Mazen's will. Abu Mazen may have more weapons per capita than any army in the world. What Erlanger - and the United States and Tony Blair and Ehud Olmert - don't understand is that Abu Mazen has no desire to rein in the terrorists. For Abu Mazen, first and foremost is preventing the current 'Palestinian' Civil War from getting worse.

Hamas and Fatah don't disagree on their ultimate goal - a 'Palestinian' state reichlet from the (Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea - they disagree on the method. Hamas wants to destroy Israel now, while Fatah is willing to be more patient and diplomatically correct and to destroy Israel in phases. Fatah has not changed since the Khartoum Conference of 1973 whose final communique called for Israel's phased destruction. Yet the world cannot or does not want to see that.

There are two proofs that Fatah is no better than Hamas. First, there has been no indication that Fatah is willing to compromise on the putative 'right of return,' which is what the 'Palestinians' refer to as their 'right' to flood whatever rump state of Israel remains after an 'agreement' with 'refugees' and their offspring who fled during the 1948 and 1967 Wars - at the behest of the Arab states who said that they were going to drive Israel into the Sea. Until the 'refugee' issue is taken off the table, there is no hope of reaching any kind of solution, no matter how much land Israel gives the 'Palestinians.' And there is no indication that the 'refugees' are going anywhere. If anything, the world is pandering to them more than ever in the past sixty years.

Second, Fatah still controls the 'Palestinian Authority's' official media. That media continues to incite the 'Palestinians' to commit terror attacks against Israel, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Recently, there has been a focus on encouraging women to commit terror attacks:

TV programming and newspapers, controlled by both Hamas and Fatah, enthusiastically cheer these terrorists and their murders, while endorsing and encouraging women to follow in their terrorist footsteps:

"In Beit Hanun we gave the [world] the Palestinian women's revolution... the Palestinian woman was not satisfied with what she gave, she gave her son and her husband and her brothers – she was not satisfied with that… but she wanted to be on the front lines, next to the man." [PA TV, November 14, 2006]

PA broadcast this interview with a man on the street:

“Our children, our women, our men – they are all potential Martyrs... I say to the entire world – the Jews are weaker than you imagine. Even our women are stronger than the Zionists." [PA TV, November 10, 2006]

The Hamas daily used the following headline to introduce one story:

"The Female Shahida (Martyr) 'Um Tha’ir' said to her sisters: 'Go forward, go forward, as today is my wedding and the Shahada my desire!'" [Al-Risalah, November 13, 2006]

The reference to her wedding is based on the Islamic teaching that the male Muslim Martyr, the Shahid – is rewarded with 72 dark-eyed maidens, and a repeated PA teaching that the female Martyrs will greet and marry a male Martyr.

While it may be argued that Um Tha'ir actually belonged to Hamas, there is no mistaking the affiliations of past women terrorists also glorified by Fatah-controlled 'Palestinian' Television:

”In the streets of Beit Hanun, a side of the beautiful look of the Palestinian woman was displayed. It is the look of resistance [terror]. Since beauty has power, as proven in the past by Dalal [Al-Mughrabi] and her sisters, when they set the precedent for the Beit Hanun women of the present.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 4, 2006]

Dalal al-Mughrabi
The more brazen and successful the attack, the more it is promoted as heroic and exemplary. Dalal al-Mughrabi, mentioned above, holds a special place of honor in Palestinian society. She participated in a 1978 terror attack that killed 36, which remains one of the most murderous in Israel's history.

There are a number of girls’ schools named for Mughrabi, and numerous TV programs and quizzes for children have glorified her since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. This recent article glorified her participation in the bus hijacking and admiringly credits her with the killings:

"… a hostage operation on the Palestinian shore. She [Dalal al-Mughrabi] managed to get to the main road, leading to Tel-Aviv, she took over an Israeli bus and its passengers, who were soldiers and held them hostage… a real war took place, during which Dalal blew up the bus with all the passengers inside. They were all killed." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 7, 2006]

Facts are often distorted to increase the heroism. In this case, the 36 killed on the hijacked bus were not soldiers, but families on a vacation outing. Note also that the official PA daily still defines Israel's Northern coast as "Palestine."

And then there's Wafa Idris, the first woman suicide bomber, who also acted on behalf of Fatah (and by the way, was transported to Jerusalem in a 'Palestinian' Red Crescent ambulance):

Wafa Idris
Wafa Idris, the first woman suicide terrorist, has a unique place among the women's honor roll. Suicide terror was seen as something that young women dreamed of but never attempted, until Wafa Idris broke the taboo in 2002 and became the first woman suicide terrorist. She paved the way for others in this “magnificent convoy”:

“The Shahada dreams of young women kept coming into the mind of many of them, until Wafa Idris trained this magnificent convoy during the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2002. After that, Darin Abu Ishah followed in her footsteps in 2002. This is how the young women competed amongst themselves and in the skies of Palestine their luster shined: Ayyat Al-Akhras, Andalib Taqatiqah, Hibah Daraghimah, Hinadi Jaradat, Reem Al-Riyashi…” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 7, 2006]

It's time for the world to wake up. There is no 'Palestinian' leadership that is willing to live in peace with Israel. There are very few 'Palestinians' who are willing to live in peace with Israel (and most of those who might have ultimately been willing to live in peace with Israel have fled to the West). Abu Mazen isn't weak so much as he is unwilling to act - unwilling to take on the 'fanatics' among his people, because he agrees with them. He shares their goals and dreams. The sooner the West wakes up to this reality, the sooner the real war on terror can begin in earnest.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:21 AM