Stop $700 Million-Yr In US Aid To Abbas

New York — The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) today strongly praised the 76 members of the US House of Representatives who have co-sponsored the resolution (H.Res.758)  introduced by Republican Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) and U.S. Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV), which “urges Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas, who is also leader of the Fatah party, to officially abrogate the 10 articles in the Fatah Constitution (the PLO Charter is a separate document), which call for Israel’s destruction and terrorism against Israel, oppose any political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and label Zionism as racism.” The resolution also “condemns the continuing existence of these articles as part of the Fatah Constitution.”  The measure now has a total of 76 co-sponsors from both parties: 21 Democrats and 55 Republicans.

The ZOA is proud to have been involved in initiating this resolution.

The Resolution “urges Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also Chairman of his Fatah party, to officially abrogate the 10 articles in the Fatah Constitution that call for Israel‘s destruction and terrorism against Israel, oppose any political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and label Zionism as racism”

The offending articles are:

(1) `Article (4): The Palestinian struggle is part and parcel of the world-wide struggle against Zionism, colonialism and international imperialism.’;

(2) `Article (7): The Zionist Movement is racial, colonial and aggressive in ideology, goals, organization and method.’;

(3) `Article (8): The Israeli existence in Palestine is a Zionist invasion with a colonial expansive base, and it is a natural ally to colonialism and international imperialism.’;

(4) `Article (12): Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.’;

(5) `Article (17): Armed public revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine.‘;

(6) `Article (19): Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People’s armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.’;

(7) `Article (22): Opposing any political solution offered as an alternative to demolishing the Zionist occupation in Palestine, as well as any project intended to liquidate the Palestinian case or impose any international mandate on its people.’;

(8) `Article (23): Maintaining relations with Arab countries . . . with the provision that the armed struggle is not negatively affected.’;

(9) `Article (24): Maintaining relations with all liberal forces supporting our just struggle in order to resist together Zionism and imperialism.’; and

(10) `Article (25): Convincing concerned countries in the world to prevent Jewish immigration to Palestine as a method of solving the problem.’:

The ZOA strongly praises and commends the following members of Congress for cosponsoring this resolution which is an important achievement in the continuing US war against terrorism:

Rep Baca, Joe [D-CA]

Rep Bachmann, Michele [R-MN]

Rep Berkley, Shelley [D-NV]

Rep Bilirakis, Gus M. [R-FL]

Rep Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. [D-GA]

Rep Boehner, John A. [R-OH]

Rep Boozman, John [R-AR]

Rep Boswell, Leonard L. [D-IA]

Rep Brady, Kevin [R-TX]

Rep Brady, Robert A. [D-PA]

Rep Broun, Paul C. [R-GA]

Rep Burton, Dan [R-IN]

Rep Cantor, Eric [R-VA]

Rep Carney, Christopher P. [D-PA]

Rep Chabot, Steve [R-OH]

Rep Coble, Howard [R-NC]

Rep Cohen, Steve [D-TN]

Rep Conaway, K. Michael [R-TX]

Rep Crowley, Joseph [D-NY]

Rep Davis, Lincoln [D-TN]

Rep Diaz-Balart, Lincoln [R-FL]

Rep Diaz-Balart, Mario [R-FL]

Rep Drake, Thelma D. [R-VA]

Rep Engel, Eliot L. [D-NY]

Rep Foxx, Virginia [R-NC]

Rep Franks, Trent [R-AZ]

Rep Gallegly, Elton [R-CA]

Rep Garrett, Scott [R-NJ]

Rep Gerlach, Jim [R-PA]

Rep Gohmert, Louie [R-TX]

Rep Goodlatte, Bob [R-VA]

Rep Hensarling, Jeb [R-TX]

Rep Hoekstra, Peter [R-MI]

Rep Holden, Tim [D-PA]

Rep Israel, Steve [D-NY]

Rep King, Peter T. [R-NY]

Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [R-IL]

Rep Klein, Ron [D-FL]

Rep Knollenberg, Joe [R-MI]

Rep Kuhl, John R. “Randy”, Jr. [R-NY]

Rep Lamborn, Doug [R-CO]

Rep Langevin, James R. [D-RI]

Rep Mahoney, Tim [D-FL]

Rep Manzullo, Donald A. [R-IL]

Rep Marchant, Kenny [R-TX]

Rep Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]

Rep Marshall, Jim [D-GA]

Rep McCaul, Michael T. [R-TX]

Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [R-MI]

Rep McHenry, Patrick T. [R-NC]

Rep Michaud, Michael H. [D-ME]

Rep Miller, Candice S. [R-MI]

Rep Moran, Jerry [R-KS]

Rep Pence, Mike [R-IN]

Rep Poe, Ted [R-TX]

Rep Porter, Jon C. [R-NV]

Rep Price, Tom [D-GA]

Rep Rogers, Mike J. [R-MI]

Rep Rohrabacher, Dana [R-CA]

Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [R-FL]

Rep Rothman, Steven R. [D-NJ]

Rep Saxton, Jim [R-NJ]

Rep Schwartz, Allyson Y. [D-PA]

Rep Shadegg, John B. [R-AZ]

Rep Shays, Christopher [R-CT]

Rep Shimkus, John [R-IL]

Rep Shuster, Bill [D-PA]

Rep Stearns, Cliff [R-FL]

Rep Tancredo, Thomas G. [R-CO]

Rep Terry, Lee [R-NE]

Rep Upton, Fred [R-MI]

Rep Walberg, Timothy [R-MI]

Rep Wamp, Zach [R-TN]

Rep Weiner, Anthony D. [D-NY]

Rep Wilson, Joe [R-SC]

The ZOA has repeatedly called for Abbas to rescind Fatah’s Constitution and has taken out full page ads in the New York Times and in Israeli newspapers to advocate this course.  This action was endorsed by the AIPAC Executive committee during their June 2008 meeting, where AIPAC urged  “the ruling Fatah party to formally renounce and abrogate the ten clauses of its charter which calls for the destruction of Israel by use of terrorism and opposes any political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.”  In addition, former Israeli Prime Minister and current Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu has also called on Fatah to eliminate the articles from its Constitution.

When Representative Blunt introduced this resolution in the House, he said: “There can be no reasonable expectation of a broad-based, long-term reconciliation between the Israelis and Palestinians while one side’s constituting document calls for the complete destruction of the other. I believe it’s absolutely critical that the insidious nature of [this] be brought to light — and that those with a genuine interest in working toward peace insist its most unconstructive provisions be abrogated from the text … As long as Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah Party continue to promote the wholesale destruction of Israel, there can be no possibility for peace — whether in our time, or any other. It goes without saying that a basic condition of negotiating with someone is recognizing their right to exist — and once that’s granted, the right to live without fear of terrorism. But, at least according to the ruling party’s constitution, even these fundamental concessions continue to be rejected by the Palestinian leadership.”

Only recently, Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas lowered Palestinian flags to half mast and declared three days of mourning when veteran terrorist and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine founder George Habash died. Abbas also visited the freed terrorist Samir Kuntar and embraced him for his murderous attack on a small child, among others.  To honor the 43^rd anniversary of Fatah’s first terrorist attack against Israel and the West, Fatah released a poster that featured a picture of Yassir Arafat, a Kalashnikov rifle, and worst of all, a map of all of Israel draped in a Palestinian headdress labeled “Palestine.” The Palestinian President has also strongly hinted he would restart violence against Israel if Fatah were stonger. (‘Abbas: Armed ‘resistance’ not ruled out,’ Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2008).

Abbas stated in an interview on PA television on Oct. 7, 2006 that “Hamas is not required to recognize Israel. It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel.” Abu Ahmed, a senior Fatah member and Al-Aqsa leader 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 no change in our official position. Fatah as a movement never recognized Israel.”

In President Abbas’s P.A.-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps, incitement to hatred and murder of Jews and glorification of terrorism as a religious and national duty is routine. To this day, P.A. maps and atlases pretend Israel does not exist; P.A.-salaried clerics call for murdering “the sons of monkeys and pigs”; TV and radio, popular songs and poetry extol the glories of suicide attacks; textbooks teach that Israel is a Nazi-like state; and streets, sports teams and schools are named in honor of suicide bombers.

Daniel Pollak & Josh London, Co-directors of Government Relations for the ZOA said: “The fact that there are 76 cosponsors shows that many members of Congress are aware of Fatah’s avoidance of the real issue. This Constitution further highlights the unreconstructed and immoderate character of Mahmoud Abbas and his ruling Fatah party.  This anti-peace, pro-war, pro-terror constitution makes clear that the ongoing perception that Abbas and Fatah are ‘moderates’ is completely unwarranted. Tragically the goals of Hamas of Fatah are quite similar. The Fatah movement’s constitution makes clear, extremism and violence remain essential components of their strategy towards the State of Israel. The United States Congress has signaled Mahmoud Abbas that he should immediately and publicly, in Arabic as well as in English, repudiate these ten clauses from the Fatah Constitution.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “This Fatah Constitution is one that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would proudly support. Why should Israel make concessions to the ruling Fatah when Fatah’s own Constitution calls for its destruction? If Abbas fails to condemn the Fatah Constitution or abrogate its clauses, then it will be crystal clear that he and Fatah are not the peace-desiring moderates they claim to be. Concomitantly, Abbas must fulfill the Palestinians’ commitments under the signed Oslo and Roadmap agreements — including arresting terrorists, confiscating terrorist weapons, and ending the incitement of hatred and murder in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools, and youth camps. It is clear that any Israeli concessions must come after, and in response to, these fundamental changes in Fatah, not the other way around.  Fatah is openly and doctrinally committed to terrorism and the destruction of Israel. The effort by so much of the media and diplomatic corps to present Fatah as ‘moderate’ shows a very troubling eagerness to ignore terrorist acts, public statements and even Fatah’s own governing document in an attempt to continue a so-called ‘peace process’ with Palestinian entities that have no interest in peace.”

We urge the Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration to discontinue granting $700 million a year to the Palestinians in US taxpayer funds while this constitution exists and while their other peace agreement obligations remain unfulfilled. Abbas has consistently failed to implement long-standing Palestinian obligations under the Oslo agreements and the Roadmap peace plan to arrest and jail terrorists, close the bomb factories and end the incitement to hatred and murder in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps that feeds terrorism.

“As ZOA made clear in our full page NYTimes ad on this issue: ‘President Bush said that we need to end terrorist states. We dare not create a new one in the Middle East.’ This resolution, H.Res.758, will hopefully serve to help inform and focus Congressional thinking as to why now is not the time to push for a Palestinian state, but rather to push for the removal and renunciation of these ten hateful clauses in the Fatah Constitution.”