Mahmoud Abbas, the “moderate” leader of Fatah, declared today that the Palestinians reserve the “right” to “resistance.” But of course, he mouthed enough platitudes so that the anti-Israel media can pretend that he wants peace.
“Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law,” Abbas said in a policy speech, using a term that encompasses armed confrontation with Israel and non-violent protests.
That’s the Ha’aretz definition of “resistance.” When you count the fact that “resistance” and “armed struggle” also means “murdering civilians on buses, in shops, and in their homes,” there’s not a whole lot of peace-making coming out of the convention. And just in case you weren’t quite sure about it:
After a journalist asked Rajoub about a large picture of a young boy armed with a rifle that was displayed at the conference, the former Arafat aide responded that Fatah has not abandoned nor will it abandon the possibility of resuming “armed struggle,” which he says remains a tool at the Palestinians’ disposal.
Here are two versions of the AP spin on the issue. The first, from yesterday, is a piece insisting that the Palestinians have “marginalized” terror. And the article manages to contradict its headline in the very first paragraph.
Fatah commits to Israel peace talks in party draft
The proposed new platform of the Palestinians’ moderate Fatah party marginalizes the once central theme of “armed struggle” against Israel, but demands a complete Israeli settlement freeze before talks for a final peace deal can take place.
An interesting side note: I found this in the Canadian press and nowhere else. Look at the headline.
In party draft, Fatah commits to peace talks but asserts right to resist Israeli occupation
The Palestinian Fatah movement says it will keep pursuing peace talks but reserves the right to resist Israeli occupation.
And the definition of Fatah:
Fatah’s 1989 program called for “armed struggle” against Israel. The new platform, published Monday, is vague on violence but stresses negotiations and civil disobedience.
That’s very different from the larger article:
In Fatah’s 1989 program, a call to “armed struggle” against Israel played a central role. That idea is being pushed to the sidelines in the new draft, without being dropped altogether – a likely nod to Fatah’s hard-line wing, particularly delegates from Lebanon and Syria. Authors of the draft suggested that the party also needs to remain competitive with the populist appeal of the Islamic militant Hamas, which focuses on armed resistance.
And now that the conference is actually occurring, this is the AP spin:
Abbas: Palestinians must stick with peace talks
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched his Fatah movement’s first conference in two decades Tuesday with a call for his people to limit their resistance to Israel to marches and protests and not to abandon peace talks despite years of setbacks.
Note that the lead uses the Palestinian term, “resistance,” and spins it so that it looks like Abbas wants peace talks—yet glosses over the fact that Abbas refuses to sit down with Israel until the Obama settlement freeze is in place. And Israel, of course, is the instransigent player in this game—for refusing to move backwards in agreements that even the Palestinians have managed to live with.
And let’s check on the AP spin a bit more, as the editors buy into the PA pap:
Abbas said the Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation, but said such resistance is best embodied by the weekly marches and protests in Bilin and Naalin, two West Bank villages that have lost hundreds of acres to Israel’s separation barriers.
He said Fatah rejected terrorism when Arafat first unilaterally declared Palestinian independence in 1988. “We are not terrorists, and we reject a description of our legitimate struggle as terrorism,” he said. “This will be our firm and lasting position.”
Ah. There it is. “Resistance” and “armed struggle,” even when it comes in the form of bombs blowing up civilians, is not terrorism. Murdering “settlers” in their homes is not terrorism. It’s all just civil disobedience. Just like in Bi’ilin, where mobs hurl stones at soldiers on a weekly basis. And yet, if you look at this chart, you will see that Fatah has been actively launching terror attacks against Israelis since long before 1988. Let’s not forget that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is also Fatah, but Fatah itself claimed a suicide bombing as recently as 2002. When you erase the fiction that Al-Aqsa is separate from Fatah, the terror attacks have been continuous.
Abbas is also passing along conspiracy theories that blame Israel for causing the events that started the 1982 Lebanon war, and for Arafat’s death. Yes, he’s a moderate—moderately crazy, as evidenced by his master’s thesis in Holocaust denial.
While the world watches, absorbs the b.s. and passes along the lies, the IDF is watching, too. And waiting to see what happens before issuing an opinion about whether the PA is changing.
My money’s on “not.” As if you couldn’t tell.