ZOA: No Negotiations With Fatah Until It
Accepts Israel, Ends Terror & Incitement
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to the latest evidence of Palestinian Authority (PA)/Fatah duplicity and absence of peaceful intent which renders it unfit as a negotiating partner – an interview with Abbas Zaki, the PLO Ambassador to Lebanon, a long time loyalist of Fatah founder, Yasser Arafat, and member of PA president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, who said last week that:
“Even [Iranian president Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, leader of the rejectionists throughout the region, said he supports a two-state solution. Nobody fools anybody. With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward” (Interview with ANB TV, May 7, 2009, translation courtesy of Middle East Media Research Institute).
Zaki, a Fatah member since 1962, has also previously said the following:
· No acceptance of Israel’s legitimacy or permanence as a Jewish state: “The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.” (NBN TV, April 9, 2008, translation courtesy of Middle East Media Research Institute).
· Support for suicide bombing and other terrorist acts: “I now support any operation that will make the women and men in Israel cry … All those who always flex their muscles, and say they want to slaughter Israel – this is their opportunity … Currently, in light of what is happening to the children of Gaza, any martyrdom operation is permissible, I swear by Allah … You asked me if I support, in light of this bloodshed… Don’t forget we’re Arabs – we believe in blood vengeance … We should have afflicted them with three or four operations, and then their women would have said to those sons of bitches: ‘Come home, we are getting killed here.’ When Israel focuses on one front, other fronts should be activated” (interview on New TV, January 6, 2009, translation courtesy of Middle East Media Research Institute).
· Regards United States as an enemy: “We consider the U.S. to be an enemy because its only strategic alliance is with Israel [asked how can he consider Israel to be an enemy in view of the PLO signed agreements with Israel, Zaki replied] If I had the capabilities of the U.S. – would I be fighting it or negotiating with it? … [Israel is] An enemy country, which owes us certain things [asked about Abbas’ friendly references to America in some speeches, Zaki replied] Perhaps Abu Mazen [Abbas], in his position, needs to use diplomatic language, but he is the greatest critic of the U.S.” (interview on OTV, November 7, 2008, translation courtesy of Middle East Media Research Institute).
· Supports a dual policy of terrorism and negotiations: “The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results … We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn’t gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons … The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don’t want cases in which you don’t kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price” (NBN TV, April 9, 2008, translation courtesy of Middle East Media Research Institute).
Statements by Mahmoud Abbas and other senior Fatah figures rejecting Israel as Jewish state, opposing its existence and supporting terrorism
· Mahmoud Abbas, PA president and Fatah chairman: “Alluding to the dispute over whether the Palestinian government should recognize Israel and abide by past Palestinian agreements, Abbas noted that ‘forces don’t need to accept what the government accepts, and we say that the government has to accept the international legitimacy.’” (‘Abbas calls for all-inclusive unity government,’ Ma’an News [Palestinian wire service], April 27, 2009); “I say this clearly: I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will.” A smiling Abbas held up a large framed map of ‘Palestine’ covering the entire area of Israel, which was featured on the front page of both PA daily newspaper, with ‘Palestine’ printed in English (Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, ‘Mahmoud Abbas: “I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will,” Palestinian Media Watch, April 28, 2009).
· Abbas: “The Palestinians do not accept the formula that the state of Israel is a Jewish state.” (David Bedein, ‘Olmert reports to Israel Cabinet Meeting,’ Bulletin [Philadelphia], December 3, 2007).
· Abbas: “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 … 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, 2006, Itamar Marcus & Barbara Crook, ‘Abbas dupes US: “Recognition” is functional, not inherent,’ Palestinian Media Watch, October 5, 2006).
· Abbas: “[W]ith the will and determination of its sons, Fatah has and will continue. We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation…. We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation” (Khaled Abu Toameh, ‘Abbas: Aim guns against occupation,’ Jerusalem Post, January 11, 2007).
· Muhammad Dahlan, former commander of Fatah forces in Gaza: “[Hamas says] that the Fatah movement wants Hamas to recognize Israel. This is a gross deception. And I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today … We of the Fatah do not recognize Israel; we recognized [corrects himself] recognize that which the PLO recognized, but that does not obligate us as a Palestinian resistance faction. It is not being demanded of Hamas that it recognize Israel … The entire Palestinian economy is dependent on Israel. The government’s role is to manage the day-to-day life of the Palestinian people. I cannot force my thinking and my position [non-recognition of Israel] on the government, and then [were I to do so] – should the Palestinian people pay the price for this position? … It’s not the political parties [that must recognize]; it’s required of the government and not of the parties. It’s required of the government but not of Hamas; it’s required of the government but not of the Fatah” (Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, ‘Western funders misled: Fatah still refuses to recognize Israel, PA’s “recognition” only to receive international aid,’ Palestinian Media Watch, March 17, 2009).
· Abu Ahmed, Fatah commander: ‘“The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Acco. …There is no change in our official position. Fatah as a movement never recognized Israel” (David Bedein, ‘The American Sanitizing of a Terrorist Group,’ Israel National News, October 5, 2006).
Fatah’s anti-Americanism:
· Abu Ali Shahin, a former Palestinian Authority Minister from Abbas’s Fatah party [responding to a statement by Al-Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, criticizing Palestinian Fatah leaders for contacts with the US]: “Oh [Al-Qaeda] brother, leave us and focus on your business. You have Bush! Do to Bush what you want, and we wish you success with Bush, even more. I, Abu Ali Shahin, wish you success with Bush… Whoever is interested in creating a split in the Palestinian camp, is not serving anyone but the Americans and their protégé, the Zionist Imperialist Project. We are fighting the Americans and hate the Americans more than you! We know we are described as enemies of the Americans. About Americans, we say, publicly: the central, head enemy to the Arab Palestinian people and to the national struggle, is this American leadership embodied by the White House and this George Bush sitting there.” (PA TV, January 1, 2007).
· Abu Muhammad, a senior leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades in Jenin: “The Americans even now are doing everything to bring our hostility and hatred to higher levels and bring us to wait impatiently for the next great big event …They deserve one more coup of this kind (like 9/11), and I am sure it is only a question of time. September 11 was the beginning of the collapse of this empire of evil” (‘Al-Aqsa leader: Another 9/11 “on its way,”’ Yediot Ahronot, September 12, 2006).
· Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA-controlled Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily newspaper, a mouthpiece of the Abbas regime: “There is a new ideological Nazism which has started to dominate the West. It doesn’t speak openly about its totalitarian Nazism, but carries it out in practice. I see in many minor and senior Western officials copies of Hitler… the neo-conservative idea is derived from the remnants of the Nazi idea. It is an Aryan supremacy doctrine with new terminology” (March 4, 2006, quoted in Jerusalem Newswire, March 10, 2006)
· Hafez Barghouti: “The extremism in Arab societies is an outcome of American policy… Washington has its own agenda, distinct domineering and imperialistic aspirations. The service of democracy is not among them…” (March 8, 2006, quoted in Jerusalem Newswire, March 10, 2006).
Fatah’s Constitution, to this day calls for the “complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence” (Article 12) and for terrorism as “a strategy and not a tactic … this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished” (Article 19). Fatah’s own Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has murdered over 500 Israelis in eight years of suicide bombing, roadside attacks and shootings.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is high time to bring to an end the duplicitous policy charade of Fatah – engaging in negotiations and securing concessions from Israel, a country it has never recognized or whose existence it accepts, coupled with terrorism. This renders Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah unfit as peace partners.
“Both Israel and the United States should only be rewarding moderation and acceptance and fulfillment of the written agreements of Oslo, Wye and the Roadmap. Rewards, concession, financial and diplomatic support should be a reward for moderation not a down payment in some vague hope of obtaining it.
“By continuing with the flawed, old, failed policies of successive U.S. administrations to recognize and deal with Fatah, we simply send a tragically mistaken and counterproductive message to Palestinians that they need to do nothing but accept unilateral Israeli concessions, rather than extirpate their armed extremists and reform their society for peace with and acceptance of Israel.
“PA maps do not show a country called ‘Israel.’ Nor does Fatah’s 43rd anniversary emblem, which shows Israel labeled ‘Palestine’ and draped in a Palestinian headdress.
Under prevailing conditions, there is no sound basis for working to create a Palestinian Arab state governed by Fatah, which would become simply another terror state. It’s the height of naiveté to think that sovereignty will resolve this conflict. It would not cause Palestinians to moderate or their leaders to act like good neighbors. On the contrary, it would give Palestinians enhanced capacity to wage war against Israel and further their rejectionist agenda. Remember, Iran, North Korea and Syria are sovereign states. Has that made them peace-loving and moderate?
“Since the Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994, Palestinian Arab society has been educated for terrorism, war and the destruction of Israel. Remember, Palestinians turned down offers of statehood in 1937, 1947 and 2000. If they truly desire statehood, they could obtain it by stopping terrorism. They haven’t, because they prefer to pursue Israel’s elimination. We need to end terror states, not create new ones.”