Abbas Not “Moderate” as President Bush Believes
George W. Bush believes that there is a distinct difference between the visions of Palestinian political factions Hamas and Fatah.
On Thursday, President Bush met with Fatah-oriented Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a press conference in Ramallah. There Bush praised Fatah as the means to a peaceful two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and criticized Hamas for bringing misery and terrorism to Gaza. “There will be no better difference, a clear difference, than the vision of Hamas in Gaza and the vision of the president and the prime minister and his team based here in Ramallah,” he said.
President Bush’s comments echo the sentiments of much of the Western world. Fatah is viewed as the antithesis of Hamas. Fatah is supposed to be the group of peace-loving Palestinians who just want a land of their own, free from Jewish oppression, while Hamas is supposed to be the radical terrorist organization that wants to wipe Israel off the map.
That idea is flat wrong.
Here is what Abbas said in a Jan. 11, 2007, speech commemorating the 42nd anniversary of Fatah: “Shooting your brother is forbidden. Raising rifles against the occupation is our legitimate right, but raising rifles against each other is forbidden. We should put our internal fighting aside and raise our rifles only against the Israeli occupation.” This statement came shortly after America and Israel sent 7,000 assault rifles and 1 million rounds of ammunition to Fatah to use against Hamas. Abu Yousuf, a Fatah militant from Abbas’s Force 17 security force, stated the majority of these weapons would be used against the Zionists.
Clearly Abbas is not opposed to the use of violence to push forward his agenda. He has publicly stated that Palestinian rifles are to be used “against the Israeli occupation.” On Dec. 5, 2005, he approved financial aid for the families of suicide bombers—an unmistakable signal that he supports terrorist activities.
Fatah is viewed as the “two-state solution” party, but this year’s 43rd anniversary of Fatah is to be commemorated with a poster presenting all of Israel as Palestine. Like Hamas, Fatah’s ultimate goal is the transformation of Israel into a Palestinian state.
The difference between Fatah and Hamas is not in the two groups’ vision, but in their means. Hamas seeks Israel’s destruction through violence alone. Fatah continues its media war initiated by its founder Yasser Arafat.
Arafat was enraptured with Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh’s method of using the media to undermine his enemies. The Vietnamese manipulated America’s media to the point where America was so internally divided it could not continue to fight. Palestinian terrorist Abu Iyad wrote in his book Palestinian Without a Motherland that he traveled to Hanoi in early 1970 with a high-level Palestinian delegation to learn the art of Vietnamese propaganda. Arafat himself traveled to Vietnam on 10 separate occasions. The propaganda and media-manipulation techniques learned there established the foundation of Fatah’s “jihad” against Israel.
Through talk of peace and a two-state solution, Abbas has rallied most of the world behind him. Whereas Hamas’s methods have brought only criticism from the West, Fatah is receiving military arms, billions of dollars in aid, the support of the international community, and a visit from the U.S. president. Abbas’s plan worked in getting the Gaza Strip for the Palestinians. Now it has put him on the path to getting the West Bank. One step at a time, Abbas is striving to make all Israel look like his Fatah poster—draped in a Palestinian flag.
As the Philadelphia Daily News once put it, Abbas “has consistently held the hardline anti-Israel agenda since his years as a student. His doctoral dissertation was a full-blown foray into Holocaust denial and aimed to prove that Zionism and Nazism are branches of the same tree. … [Abbas] may wear a suit while Arafat wore fatigues, but much of their world view is still the same—the destruction of Israel remains on the ‘to do’ list” (Jan. 8, 2005).
There are not two visions among the Palestinians. Both Fatah and Hamas want the transformation of Israel into Palestine.
Watch as American support of Fatah continues to weaken the American-Israeli alliance. For more information on Abbas’s true intentions, read “U.S., Britain Resume Aid to Palestinian Authority.”