Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that runs Gaza, is mourning
the death of Osama bin Laden. He is a “martyr” to these jihadists.
And Hamas has just concluded a pact with the so-called Palestinian
Authority (PA), or Fatah, the group that the U.S. recognizes and to
whom we give lavish foreign aid. We are currently giving $600
million to the so-called Palestinian Authority.
Fatah has held an increasingly precarious control over
much of the West Bank of the Jordan River since 1988. It was then
that the U.S. brokered a deal in which the PLO morphed into the
Palestinian Authority (PA), promised to give up terrorism, and
promised to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Many of us never
thought the PLO would keep any of those promises — but we knew
they would cash our checks and pocket as well huge sums from the
European Union. All of this in the name of “peace.”
Among the things that the PLO has done on the West Bank is
to terrorize Christian Arabs, to name public squares after suicide
bombers, and to conduct an all-out Hate Israel propaganda campaign
in their schools, universities, and controlled media.
Good faith? Arafat instigated yet another
intifada against Israel when he got 98% of his territorial
demands met and not 100%. Intifadas are uprisings characterized by
stone-throwing Palestinian youths confronting Israeli troops. The
visuals are great for their propaganda purposes. Israeli soldiers
in armored personnel carriers or tanks are shown confronting a hail
of stones. But less often noted in the leftist media — BBC, CNN,
Reuters, AFP — is that these young warriors of the intifada are
deadly accurate. Their stones have been a deadly form of action in
that region since biblical times.
Now, the PLO has made a pact with Hamas, their supposed
rivals who control the Gaza Strip. For a decade, Hamas and Fatah
have been fighting each other. Hamas is openly committed to the
eradication of Israel. All maps of the Mideast produced by Hamas
show Arab lands with no Jewish state — what they call the Zionist
Entity — at all. But Fatah’s maps likewise show no
Israel.
The somber news of the Fatah-Hamas deal came out of —
Cairo. Apparently, the post-Mubarak government is being strongly
influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is merely
the Palestinian branch of the MB. So this is the “Arab Spring”
we’ve heard so much about?
Look at the map of Israel. You can still find it on our
maps. With Hamas firmly in control in Gaza, Israel’s main
population centers are now within easy range of their missile
fire.
Add to the threat of Hamas, Fatah in the West Bank, and
you see Israelis caught in a lethal crossfire.
The Israeli government’s response to these menacing moves
was sober and restrained:
“The Palestinian Authority (Fatah) must choose either
peace with Israel or peace with Hamas.”
Our U.S. response was terribly weak: “The United States
supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the
cause of peace. Hamas, however, is a terrorist organization which
targets civilians.”
It’s time to put teeth into U.S. policy. Yasser Arafat was
the man who invented airline hijacking for terror purposes. He
murdered Americans. It was never a good idea to trust his word or
to trust any organization formed by him. We have gotten nothing for
the billions we have showered on him and his corrupt and murderous
cronies.
What we see with the Hamas-Fatah rapprochement is merely
the open and brazen acknowledgment of what has always been the
case: Both Hamas and Fatah are terrorist organizations. Only now
has Fatah dropped its mask.
Secretary Clinton urged us to send Fatah another $160
million on top of the $600 million.
Here’s a fine candidate for cuts. Let’s cut off
all U.S. support to these organizations. And we should
press our European allies to do the same. It’s time to follow up
the brave actions of our U.S. Navy SEALs with brave action in the
diplomatic arena.
