Hamas-Fatah Unity vs. U.S. Policy
“You personally instructed to kill Muslims. You should know that soon you’ll hang together with Bush Junior.”
Those words were directed at President Obama by a Palestinian imam in reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden (article and video here). The imam spoke from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem — that is, under the aegis of the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, not of Hamas-run Gaza. Or as he put it:
The western dogs are rejoicing after killing one of our Islamic lions. From Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the future caliphate will originate with the help of God, we say to them — the dogs will not rejoice too much for killing the lions. The dogs will remain dogs and the lion, even if he is dead, will remain a lion.
Earlier, when Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had reacted to bin Laden’s death by slamming “the American policy” and “the killing of an Arab holy warrior,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner had called the remarks “outrageous.” Yet, again, the Fatah-good-guys/Hamas-bad-guys dichotomy won’t hold. On Tuesday, a day after Haniyeh’s condemnation, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade released its own statement.
The Martyrs’ Brigade is the military wing of Fatah, directly subordinate to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. It declared:
The Islamic nation awoke to a catastrophe—the reports of the Shahid [Martyr] death of the Sheikh, Jihad-fighter Osama bin Laden, in a treacherous manner, by the gangs of the heretics….We say to the American and Israeli occupier: the [Islamic] nation…is a nation that is capable of supplying an abundance of new blood into the arteries of the resistance and is capable of restoring the glory of Islam and the flag of Allah’s oneness, Allah willing.
Even though Fatah is supposed to be the “secular, moderate” good guy, the recipient of American largess and military training, the peace partner of Israel, it is hard to see any ideological difference between the Martyrs’ Brigade statement and those of the imam or Haniyeh. Yet, predictably, the words of the Martyrs’ Brigade did not elicit a peep from Washington. For if the myth of “moderate” Fatah falls, where is the “peace process,” and where is a U.S. policy built on illusion?
It’s really ironic how Al Qaeda is perceived as pure evil while Hamas is given all kinds of indulgence and open doors. Both organizations stem from the Muslim Brotherhood and both are totalitarian and fanatic to the same degree. Hamas currently wields political power so it has to make some deals and compromises with Fatah. Totally typical of totalitarian movements once they’re in power but haven’t yet attained total power over an entity.
When assessing a threat it is important to balance the intent of that threat versus the ability to carry it out.
Alongside this line of thought, it is also important to look solely at intent and reason out what would happen were it to be fully enabled.
In the case of Fatah-Hamas, we are definitely looking at Adolph Hitler without an army. The amount of hatred and disdain Islam’s radicals from the Muslim Brotherhood to Shia Iran, to salafis to Wahhabis have for America is monumental.
Why in the world we don’t look at these people as occupying the exact same philosophical space as the Nazi Party is something I don’t understand. Moderates like Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota are simply the dumb enablers of a hate group.
Islam and all its adherents should be banned from the United States as a subversive hate group, a fifth column within our midst. They announce their intentions to the world for all to hear and we sit like the dumb, deaf and blind monkeys.
Wave bye-bye America.
James May:
As always, your comments and analysis of the subjects at hand is amazing. I enjoy reading your comments, at times much better than the article you are commenting on (no offense please…). Please keep it up.
There are muslims within the U.S. who will use our Constitution only to whatever extent they can destroy it. The reality of such a thing is problematic but the ever increasing numbers of muslims from our nearly mindless immigration policy will only make life in the U.S. more heavily exposed to their crazy doctrines and hatreds and embroil us ever more in stupid feuds I want nothing to do with.
you want nothing to do with their stupid feuds? their feud is with you mr may
Please don’t associate me with our moronic immigration policies.
What is so disheartening is that 10 years after 9/11 it is still the same crazy anti-Western rhetoric that I believe led to 9/11 in the first place.
They whip each other into a frenzy with their madness and urban myths. Despite the “moderate” muslims in the U.S. who applauded the death of Bin Laden, there is not a single doubt in my mind that those same muslims emotionally side with the utterly moronic comments that come out of the middle east about America and Israel.
I cannot imagine why any thinking person would practice that religion and were it in my power I would ban it in the U.S. so strongly do I feel that it is nothing more than Nazism parading around as a culture hurt by Imperialism and colonialism. They are just plain nuts and they are wrecking an America that used to be a lot more peaceful in certain areas. I do not want this BS here and CAIR should be banned as a hate group. Let them all reside in their holy and fantastic land they will not shut up about for one single second.
true, and they want to kill us all, you, me, everybody, so we’re embroiled in their feud, like it or not.
And we still want to give Fatah foreign aid? We must do these stupid things for either one of two reasons: 1) We have people in the State Department who just hate Israel and want to support terrorists, or (2) We’re just plain stupid. Fatah always promised that they would be part of the “peace process” in exchange for big foreign aid, but they never delivered on anything. As long as they “talked” peace, they got the aid. Now they’re not even bothering to talk peace anymore. Don’t give them a dime. It was always wasted money, especially when Yassir Arafat was running Fatah. So let’s stop being fools for once and treat Fatah just like Hamas, a terrorist organization. It’s what Fatah always was and will be.
“Will the United States continue to give the PA $600 million a year in foreign aid . . .”
No, of course not. In light of the new Hamas-Fatah unity, Obama will triple that sum.
One of the strangest beliefs in Palestinian society, and one that is most harmful to their own self interest, is the idea that they can somehow turn back the hands of time itself. There seems to be the persistant idea that historical events can be treated as if they never happened.
In 1947 they sought to return to the 1800′s. Then they want to return to 1949, to 1967, to before Olso, before the second intifada… Rather than learn from mistakes and seeing what could be better this time they just insist that there is a reset button somewhere in Israel which can be pushed by whining enough.
Now they think they can return to the days before their election disaster and subsequent split.
By contrast Israeli culture is distinctively forward looking and self critical. Every event is taken apart and debated. ‘This is what happened and this is how we can do it better in the future.’
New ideas are constantly rising to the top. Leadership is informal. There is little hero worship. In operations and planning there is little deference to authority. A junior officer could walk right up to a general and say “look Yossi, you are doing it wrong. This will never work” without any thought of insubordination.
Palestinians are in a perpetual state of self denial and self delusion. No amount of aid, concession, or negotiation is going to fix that.
they’re not in perpetual denial and delusion. They like to kill, and they do.
arabs were shadow collaborators with the nazis during ww2 yet they were never dealt with as the axis was. this was and is the problem, they escaped “correction”.