Israel Matzav

How Arafat spawned Hamas

There was an important comment in yesterday's Washington Times by Joel Mowbray that I urge you all to read. Mowbray's starting point is the video war between Hamas and Fatah in which each tries to portray itself as the defender of Islam. Mowbray shows how Fatah was turned from a secular party into a religious one by Yasser Arafat and that, as I noted yesterday, both Fatah and Hamas are now Islamic parties for whom there is no reconciliation possible with Israel. But what's most significant about Mowbray's narrative is that he illustrates how Arafat did it. I hadn't paid much attention to Umm Nidal, but Mowbray seems to have a valid point about her.

Hat Tip: Power Line

While competing videos represent just a recent snapshot of the bitter struggle between Hamas and Fatah for Palestinian hearts and minds, it is indicative of the increasingly Islamic tenor of the culture that each group is attempting to stake out the Islamic high ground.

Though some are quick to blame Hamas for this state of affairs, it is Fatah, at the original direction of famed secularist Yasser Arafat, who is most responsible for Islamicizing Palestinian society.

...

Upon taking the reins of Palestinian society following the 1993 Oslo accords, Mr. Arafat implemented an aggressive platform of Islamic indoctrination, beefing up Islamic education in the schools and giving new prominence on television and elsewhere to fire-breathing imams, including many who called for Islam to topple the West.

Tapping into the ascending worldwide Islamist political movement, Mr. Arafat used his newfound power to create a new generation of terrorists superior to the old-school Palestine Liberation Organization thugs in one key respect: These post-Oslo brainwashed Palestinian kids were not only not afraid of death, but they actually wanted to die.

Yet Mr. Arafat couldn't merely indoctrinate the children. Sane parents would never allow their children to blow themselves up, so Mr. Arafat carefully cultivated a cult of martyrdom that permeated Palestinian society. Much attention in the West has been paid to the hero worship of successful suicide bombers, but almost as important was the glorification of their parents.

Of particular symbolic significance has been Mariam Farahat, better known as Umm Nidal, or "Mother of the Struggle," [I refer to her as The Mother from Hell. CiJ] who bursts with pride that three of her six children died as Islamic terrorists. Though embraced and praised over the years by Fatah, she is now a Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature.

The Islamization spawned by Fatah has now taken on a life of its own.

What this ought to teach Israel and our friends (especially the US, which is currently trying to intervene actively again) is that trying to deal with Fatah is an exercise in futility that accomplishes nothing other than getting more Jewish Israelis murdered. Dealing with Fatah is no different than dealing with Hamas; both are Islamist parties. Disputes between nations over borders are generally settled without wars. Disputes between religions over whose God is the real God and over a people's 'right to exist' are by definition existential and leave no room for compromise. That this situation was essentially created by our 'peace partner' in the post-Oslo period ought to teach another lesson: that tolerating 'Palestinian' violations of agreements is the wrong way to go. The sooner Israel and its friends wake up to these realities, the safer we will all be.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:37 AM