The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is pointing to new evidence showing that Palestinian Authority (PA) president and head of the Fatah party, Mahmoud Abbas, does not recognize Israel while duping the Bush Administration and the world by pretending to do so. Thus, while Abbas is reportedly calling upon Hamas to recognize Israel, Abbas has made it clear in a television interview in Arabic that not only is there no need for Hamas to recognize Israel, but that his own Fatah party doesn’t either.

Excerpt from Abbas’ interview:

• “Hamas is not required, Hamas is not required to recognize Israel… It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel, all right? The PLO, in 1993, recognized Israel … Every person has the right to say ‘I do not recognize,’ okay? It’s your right. It is the right of every organization. But the government which will be formed, and which will function opposite the Israelis on a daily basis … every hour and perhaps every second, there will be contact between Palestinian ministers and Israeli ministers … [Abbas then gives an example of 500 million dollars in taxes intended for the Palestinians, but put on hold by Israelis. The Palestinian finance minister has to come to an agreement with the Israeli finance minister regarding the transfer of that money.] So how can he make an agreement with him if he does not recognize him? So I do not demand of Hamas nor any other [organizations] to recognize Israel. But from the government that works with Israelis in day to day life, yes” (Al-Arabiya [Dubai] and PA TV , October 3, translation courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
  

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This revealing television interview with Mahmoud Abbas proves conclusively that Abbas, Fatah and the whole PA leadership with which Israel has been dealing for years on the basis that it truly recognizes Israel and is seeking peace has never in fact been committed to accepting Israel or making peace. The PA says it formally recognizes Israel, but Fatah has never done so, as a senior Fatah and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade leader, Abu Ahmed, recently disclosed ( World Net Daily, October 4). Do not forget also that Fatah Charter to this day calls for the destruction of Israel (Article 12) and the use of terrorism (Article 19).

“In Abbas’ PA, no official maps even display a country called Israel. In geography textbooks used in the Palestinian school system through grades 1 to 12, Israel does not appear in any of the maps of the region, only ‘Palestine.’ In these same textbooks, the total land mass of ‘Palestine’ simply incorporates all of Israel plus Judea, Samaria and Gaza. They also refer to Haifa , Jaffa, Tiberias and other cities as being Palestinian. On PA television, maps are regularly displayed between programs that display only ‘Palestine,’ but no country called Israel. The PA has actually constructed a huge stone monument in Bethlehem of ‘Palestine,’ which is simply the shape of Israel, Judea, Samaria and Gaza shown as one whole. Also, do not forget that PA leaders including Abbas demand insistently the implementation of the so-called ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants, which would flood Israel with sworn enemies and which is obviously incompatible with Israel’s continued existence.

“It is quite clear from Abbas’ explicit words in this television interview that recognition of Israel is understood by him and the PA to be purely a functional and temporarily pragmatic issue, so that the PA can deal with and extract concessions from Israel while giving nothing in return, as has been the case from the beginning of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Bear in mind that the PA has never fulfilled its commitments under successive signed agreements and the 2003 Roadmap peace plan 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. The ZOA calls upon the Bush Administration to recognize the cynical duplicity of Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah and the PA and renews its call for Washington to end all relations with the PA and Mahmoud Abbas.”