Israel Matzav

Shoot us, please shoot us!

It's no longer enough for the government of Ehud K. Olmert, Amir Comrade Peretz and Feigele Livni that they have left the residents of Sderot and its vicinity high and dry with no protection from 'Palestinian' Kassam rockets. This morning, with Israel's consent, cooperation and approval, 2000 AK-47 (Kalashnikov) rifles, 20,000 weapons magazines and more than 2,000,000 rounds of ammunition were transferred by Egypt to Israel through the same Kerem Shalom crossing where IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in June, and then from Israel to 'moderate' 'Palestinian President' Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's 'Fatah movement' (read "Force 17") through the Karni crossing.

While it is undoubtedly the case that while Ehud K. Olmert was kissing Abu Mazen's butt cheeks on Saturday night, Abu whispered in Ehud's ear that of course the weapons would only be used against Hamas, we all know that in the past that has not been the case, and that weapons supplied to Force 17 with Israel's approval have been used against Israelis.

Olmert continues to delude himself and the rest of the world that Fatah's goals in this struggle are any different than Hamas'. The goals are the same - it's only the methodology that differs. Fatah's charter still calls for "armed struggle" against the "Zionist entity," its logo (above) still shows the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as being 'Palestine:'

The Fatah Charter states that,“The Israeli existence in Palestine is a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base, and it is a natural ally to colonialism and international imperialism” (Article 8); calls for the “Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence” (Article 12), and says that “Armed struggle [i.e., terrorism] is a strategy and not a tactic” (Article 19).

Moerover, Abu Mazen himself is a Holocaust denier, and the 'Palestinian Authority' under his command has continued to brainwash children to commit suicide, while denying the Jewish (and Christian) connection to the land of Israel.

In comments that were widely reported in the media here, Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, the former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called the transfer of weapons to Fatah a 'bad mistake.'

"A lot of IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians will be killed with these weapons," Steinitz told Army Radio. "We haven't yet seen that Abbas is determined to contain terrorism, and there's a greater chance that these weapons will be used against [our] soldiers, and we'll have to combat terrorism."

But IDF Lt.-Gen. (res.) Yochanan Tzoref told Israel Radio that Israel's complicity in the transfer of weapons to Fatah showed that "the government was starting to think in more complex terms."

Tzoref explained that while Fatah might be at a disadvantage as far as its arsenal in its struggle with Hamas, the real challenge facing the organization was that it had lost the faith of the Palestinian public.

"Fatah has to undergo an internal process that will strengthen it, and allow it to compete with Hamas in the public's eyes," Tzoref said.

Hamas had the [Palestinian] public's support almost "instinctively," Tzoref continued, whereas the Fatah "old guard" was holding up necessary reforms.

Do you all understand that? We are arming Fatah and building them up in the hope that they will shoot at Hamas and not at us. And even in the best case scenario - that they shoot at Hamas for the time being - we are ignoring the fact that Fatah is no better than Hamas. It stands for the same goals as Hamas and only differs on tactics. And we all know that in the past, Abu Mazen has been totally unwilling to even lift a finger against his 'people' terrorism. Why don't we just ask them to shoot us already and put us out of our misery?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:10 AM