Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
Strengthening terrorists doesn’t stop terror. Israel and the rest of the world should have learned this basic truth by now. After the Oslo accords disaster created the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist dictatorship regime and brought Arafat and thousands of his Palestinian terrorists into the heart of Judea and Samaria, the result was that Arab terrorists murdered or maimed 10,000 Jews in bombings, shootings, knifings and terror wars.
The current insane, dangerous, bad idea is that if we strengthen the PA, the PA will stop and disarm the terrorists in Jenin, Nablus and other terrorist strongholds who have murdered over 50 innocent Jewish civilians in the past year. In fact, the PA and terror operatives from its ruling party, Fatah, are active participants in and inciters of the terror emanating from Jenin and related hornets’ nests. As Palestinian Media Watch thoroughly documented from Palestinian Arab sources, 5 of the 12 terrorists killed in the recent operation in Jenin were affiliated with Fatah. Also, Fatah and PA officials (including PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh) endorsed, supported and praised the Jenin terrorists and called for holy war against Israel, and to “strike the Zionist enemy and its settlers wherever they are.”
Similarly, the Jenin Brigade terrorist cell eliminated by an Israeli air strike on June 21, 2023 consisted of two PIJ terrorists and a Fatah (Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade) terrorist.
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center likewise explained that the “Jenin Brigade” terrorist cells founded by Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) include operatives from PIJ, Hamas and Fatah, and that the Jenin Brigade, which is responsible for much of the recent terror emanating from Jenin, is “uniting coordination among the prominent terrorist organizations and overcoming the schism within Palestinian society.” The Jenin Brigade model of coordinated Fatah-Hamas-PIJ cells has also been copied by the Nablus Battalion and similar groups in Tulkarm and Bethlehem.
Strengthening the PA will not cause the PA to stop or disarm terror brigades populated by operatives from the PA’s own ruling Fatah party, or to end terror attacks that PA officials incite and support.
Yet, against all facts and reason, the erroneous dangerous idea of strengthening the PA is still being promoted. For instance, this past November (2022), Biden’s then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr pressured Israeli officials to strengthen the Palestinian Authority, using the situation in Jenin and Nablus as an excuse. (Hady Amr, who is now Biden’s Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs, also infamously said he was “inspired” by the Palestinian Arab intifada [terror wars] against Israel; condemned U.S. recognition of Israel’s capital Jerusalem; and calls for Palestinian terror groups to combine forces; etc.)
And on July 4, 2023, the High Representative of the European Union (which has been funding the Palestinian Authority’s illegal building, designed to seize Israel’s Area C) “call[ed] to strengthen the Palestinian Authority so that it can re-establish security control of all of Area A of the occupied Palestinian territory [the EU’s euphemism for lawful Jewish lands] in accordance with the agreements in place.”
If we are serious about ending terror attacks, we must strike down the terrorists – and not strengthen the Fatah/Palestinian Authority regime that participates in, supports, pays for and incites terror.