Israel Matzav

Fatah appeals to Israel to help rid 'West Bank' of Hamas

Fatah has appealed to Israel to help it rid the 'West Bank' of Hamas terrorists by halting security measures against Fatah terrorists:

The appeal was delivered to the government via US and European officials who met with several Fatah leaders here in the past few days, the officials told The Jerusalem Post.

The officials did not say whether Israel had accepted the request. However, sources close to Fatah pointed out that many of their gunmen had already begun operating against Hamas figures and institutions in rural areas under Israeli security control.

...

"Israel must help us get rid of Hamas in the West Bank," said a top Fatah official. "Israel must stop chasing our men so that we can succeed in our mission."

This is a bad idea. First, there is no assurance that the Fatah terrorists will only go after the Hamas terrorists and not - either now or later - after Israelis. This is the same good terrorist/bad terrorist distinction we have seen before. There's no basis for it.

Second, it's only going to drive the 'Palestinian street' back to Hamas. As the author of the article, Khaled Abu Toameh, pointed out on Friday:

US-backed efforts to undermine the Hamas-led government over the past 16 months have failed, largely because most Palestinians clearly do not regard Fatah as a better alternative to Hamas. In the aftermath of its defeat in the 2006 election, Fatah failed to draw the conclusions and get rid of all the icons of corruption among its top brass. Moreover, Fatah did not engage in any kind of internal reforms, and representatives of the young generation remained marginalized.

...

BY OPENLY embracing Abbas and Fatah, Washington has caused them grave damage. The weapons and funds that were supposed to boost Fatah ahead of a confrontation with Hamas have only increased Hamas's popularity on the streets of the Gaza Strip. The public support for Fatah made Abbas and Muhammed Dahlan look, in the eyes of many Palestinians, like Antoine Lahad, the former commander of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army. And when a Palestinian sees that the Americans are trying to bring down his democratically-elected government, his sympathies go straight to the government and not to those allegedly involved in the conspiracy.

Do you now mean to tell me that an Israeli-backed effort to undermine the Hamas-backed 'government' is going to be more effective than an American one? That's absurd!

Fatah invented terrorism. To pretend that they are any less terrorists than Hamas is ridiculous. I hope the Israeli government will finally find the courage to just say no!

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:23 PM