Western claims that Abu Mazen was a peace partner for Israel have turned out to be a delusion, in the wake of the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement. When it comes to Israel, Fatah and Hamas see eye-to-eye. Israel presently has no peace partner.
The official peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians have officially collapsed, as Israel refuses to negotiate peace with terrorists that refuse to recognize her right to exist. The Palestinian Authority led by PA Chairman Abu Mazen not only has violated the Oslo Agreements by unilaterally signing onto international treaties, but has officially reconciled with Hamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction that has indiscriminately fired qassam rockets at Israeli civilian population centers and who waged a campaign of suicide bombings during the Second Intifada.
In retrospect, it was probably impossible to expect that a Palestinian leader who insisted on releasing murderers with Jewish blood on their hands as a prerequisite for peace negotiations would ever sign any peace agreement with Israel. A Palestinian leader that is truly interested in peace would want to negotiate because he wants a better future for his own people and won’t need any prerequisites to sit down at the negotiating table.
A Palestinian leader that seeks peace with Israel will denounce terrorism, not routinely praise it within his media
and educational system. A Palestinian leader that seeks peace will view establishing a peace-loving country as more important than releasing terrorists. The truth of the matter is that contrary to the perception in the west, there is not much difference between Fatah and Hamas. Both terror groups value destroying Israel and releasing terrorists more than establishing a country of their own.
The only difference between Fatah and Hamas is that Fatah is secular, while Hamas is religious. Aside from that, Fatah pretended to western audiences after Abu Mazen came to power that they have given up on the armed struggle, after waging a series of suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada. However, in Arabic, they claimed otherwise. Hamas, to the contrary, was honest. What they state in English is exactly what they state in Arabic and it is a very violent message.
As official Palestinian Authority television stated in 2009, “there is no disagreement between us [Fatah and Hamas]: About belief? None! About policy? None! About resistance? None! So what do you [Hamas] disagree about? Why are you not signing the [reconciliation] agreement?” Palestinian Media Watch stresses that both Fatah and Hamas deny Israel’s right to exist, glorify terrorism, incite hatred against Jews, and the only reason there was not a reconciliation agreement until now was due to an internal political competition between the two groups, not essential differences in their attitude towards Israel.
According to Ma’an News Agency, last March, “the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (Fatah’s military wing) in Palestine said they will adhere to the option of armed resistance until the liberation of all of Palestine. In a statement received by [independent Palestinian news agency] Ma’an, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades stated that the [period of] calm has ended. They called on President Mahmoud Abbas to stand firm and reject the Kerry plan, [and said that] ‘the Palestinian people with all its groups and factions stand behind you against any [form of] political extortion by the Western powers.”
A few days ago, Fatah’s Facebook page posted the following threat to Israelis: “We swear to you that we will turn the beloved [Gaza] Strip into a graveyard for your soldiers, and we will turn Tel Aviv into a ball of fire.” Just yesterday, Al Hayat Al Jadida reported that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah stated in the wake of the reconciliation agreement: “The kidnapping of Israeli soldiers is part of the agenda of the Palestinian resistance and of the Hamas movement, and will continue as long as there are Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons.” With peace partners such as these, achieving a Palestinian-Israeli peace is mission impossible.
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