New York – Abu Ahmed, a senior Fatah member and leader in northern Gaza of its Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an organization listed on the US State Department terrorism list, has publicly admitted that Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas’ stated recognition of Israel’s right to exist is part of a “political calculation” aimed at ultimately destroying the Jewish state. Abu Ahmed said that the Fatah party, of which Mahmoud Abbas is leader, does not recognize Israel and that any final accord that doesn’t include flooding the Jewish state with millions of Palestinians will not be supported by the Fatah party and will lead to a Palestinian civil war. “The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Acco [Acre] … There is no change in our position. Abbas recognizes Israel because of pressure that the Zionists and the Americans are exercising on him. We understand this is part of his obligations and political calculations.”
Abu Ahmed also explained that Fatah itself has never even officially recognized Israel. “It is the PLO, which is a separate entity, that recognized Israel, and this was a step, a tactical step that had as its goal to bring the resistance and the revolution closer to the lands of Palestine … There is an opportunistic class at the head of the Fatah leadership that for personal and political interests says it accepts the existence of Israel. There is no change in our official position. Fatah as a movement never recognized Israel. It is the PLO who did so for the reasons I mentioned. ” Abu Ahmed also clarified that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is “one and the same” with the Fatah party, in striking contradiction to the position of the US State Department which, while considering it a terrorist organization, regards it “separate” from Abbas’ Fatah party (World Net Daily, October 4).
Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing inside Israel in the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed an American teenager and nine Israelis. The Brigades also has carried out scores of deadly shooting and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in recent months.
Fatah itself was co-founded by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, who served for 40 years as Arafat’s trusted deputy, masterminded the Munich massacre and wrote a PhD and later a book denying the Holocaust. As PA president, Abbas has refused to honor the signed Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan which requires him to fight, arrest, extradite and jail terrorists and confiscate their weaponry and end the incitement to hatred and murder in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps that feeds it. Abbas is a long-standing supporter of the so-called ‘right of return’ of Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants to Israel, a measure that would see Israel overwhelmed by hostile aliens and is therefore inimical to its existence.
In recent months, Abbas endorsed the so-called ‘Prisoners’ Plan,’ a document produced by jailed Palestinian terrorists that endorses continued terrorism against Israel, legitimizes the murder of Jews, does not accept Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, abrogates Palestinian obligations under the signed Oslo agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan, and insists on the ‘right of return.’ He has also attempted to form a unity government with Hamas, whose Charter calls for the destruction of Israel (Article 15) and the murder of Jews (Article 7). Last December, Abbas approved legislation mandating financial benefits to be paid to families of Palestinian shahids [i.e., dead terrorists].
Some statements by Mahmoud Abbas:
- Praised the Lebanese Islamist terrorist group, Hizballah, for its hostilities with Israel, saying that it is a source of pride and sets an example for what he termed the “Arab resistance” ( Jerusalem Post, August 6, 2006).
- Condemned Israel’s killing of four Palestinian terrorists in a military operation as a “barbarous slaughter” ( Voice of Palestine, May 30, 2006).
- Opposes terrorism only on tactical grounds, because “It harms the Palestinian interests.” ( New York Times , October 26, 2005) and for its timing, not because it a crime, “I say to them [the terrorists], this is not the time for this kind of attack” ( Washington Times, January 3, 2005).
- Refused to fight and dismantle Palestinian terrorist groups, saying that is a “red line” that must not be crossed ( Washington Times, January 3, 2005).
- Described wanted Palestinian terrorists “heroes fighting for freedom.” ( The Age [Melbourne], January 3, 2005) and stated, “Israel calls them murderers, we call them strugglers” (Jerusalem Post, December 25, 2004). He has also said of suicide bombers, “Allah loves the martyr” (Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2005)
Described Israel as the “Zionist enemy” ( CNN.com, January 7, 2005).
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The revealing admission by Fatah/Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade senior leader Abu Ahmed that Fatah does not actually accept Israel’s existence and that the terrorist Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is part and parcel of Fatah, should dispose once and for all of the fiction that Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah are moderates who accept Israel and with whom Israel and the world can negotiate. In fact, Abbas is an unreconstructed extremist, basically Yasser Arafat in a suit, and Fatah is simply the doyen of Palestinian terrorist movements which continues to murder Israelis up to this day. We therefore urge both the Israeli and US governments to sever all ties with this terrorist regime and to abandon the fiction that Abbas and Fatah are moderate, realistic negotiating partners. In line with this, we urge the Bush Administration to instruct the State Department that it will no longer accept the spurious distinction between a “moderate” Fatah and the terrorist Al-Aqsa martyrs Brigade.”