Israel Matzav

'Good terrorists' of Fatah threaten new intifadeh

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's 'good terrorists' from the Fatah movement are threatening a new intifadeh in the event that Israel fails to meet their demands at President Bush's November summit in Annapolis, Maryland. They are also threatening an intifadeh if the conference is canceled. It will be recalled that the previous intifadeh started seven years ago last week in the aftermath of the failure of the Camp David 'peace conference' between Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat.

Abu Mazen is scheduled to visit the Succa of Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert today to prepare for the summit (I hope the Succa has been put up already...).

This was the first time senior Fatah officials hinted at a possible wave of violence if the conference - expected to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, next month - did not meet the Palestinians' demands.

"If we don't prepare well for the conference so that it will result in something positive, the repercussions will be more dangerous than what happened after the failure of Camp David," said Azzam al-Ahmed, head of the Fatah parliamentary list. He is closely associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Palestinians might decide to stay away from the meeting, Ahmed warned. "If the [Israeli and Palestinian] negotiators don't reach an agreement before the conference, there will be no point in holding it," he said. "Let's bear in mind that invitations to the conference have not been issued yet."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice still hadn't answered many of the questions about the conference that were presented to her by the Palestinians, Ahmed said.

"In the beginning, we were surprised by [US President George W.] Bush's invitation," he added. "Then Rice came to the region and didn't provide us with clear answers about the conference."

He said the initial Palestinian reaction to the conference proposal had been exaggerated. "We rushed to welcome the call for the conference, although we did not know much about it," the Fatah official said.

...

Hafez Barghouti, editor of the Fatah-controlled Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda daily, said pent-up frustration among the Palestinians could be vented if the US-sponsored event failed.

"Those who want the conference to succeed know the conditions for success," he said. "But those who want this fall's conference to be followed by a fall of wrath know the size of the accumulated anger [among Palestinians]."

The PLO executive committee, which met here Tuesday, called for "serious and positive" preparations to ensure the success of the conference. It said the agenda must be based on the Arab League peace plan from 2002, Bush's two-state vision, the road map and all United Nations resolutions on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

At its meeting, which was headed by Abbas, the executive committee also called for increased coordination between the Palestinians and the Arab countries ahead of the conference.

"We call for a unified Arab-Palestinian role that will be effective in overcoming all obstacles," the committee said. "The major obstacle remains Israel's desire to undermine the conference's role to prevent it from serving as a launching pad for a just and comprehensive settlement."

Hopefully the IDF is still in place to prevent another intifadeh from resulting in another wave of Jewish deaths and injuries.

Could someone please remind me just why we are backing Fatah?

"We call for a unified Arab-Palestinian role that will be effective in overcoming all obstacles," the committee said. "The major obstacle remains Israel's desire to undermine the conference's role to prevent it from serving as a launching pad for a just and comprehensive settlement unwillingness to surrender."

At least I fixed that paragraph.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:47 AM