Friday, March 07, 2008

Those Peace-Lovin' Palestinians and their Moderate Fatah Leaders   [Andy McCarthy]

The irrepressible Caroline Glick pens a scathing critique of Secretary of State Condi Rice in this Jerusalem Post op-ed, obviously written before Thursday's massacre of eight students — including one American — at the rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem (which atrocity — as Jonah and the AP both observed earlier today, has Palestinians dancing for joy).  (Those would be the same Palestinians 70 percent of whom, according to Madam Secretary, just want to live in peace with their neighbors — notwithstanding more scientific polling that shows a percentage even higher than that actually wants their neighbor obliterated).

As always, all of Caroline's column is worth reading, but I thought the most telling part involved the delusion the State Department and the administration refuse to abandon, regardless of the evidence:  that the Arafat party, Fatah, and its Arafat protege, Abbas, are "moderates" who represent the solution rather than a big part of the problem: 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left many Israelis and supporters of Israel scratching their heads in disbelief this week. Rice arrived in Israel in a week marked by Fatah-incited violence against Israel and Israelis, both in Judea and Samaria and within sovereign Israel.

On Monday, a well organized group of hundreds of Arab thugs threw rocks at Jewish motorists in Jerusalem. A dozen hoodlums nearly lynched two municipal inspectors when, after blocking traffic on Salah a-Din Street with burning tires, they stoned the inspectors' vehicle and began shattering their windshield with a metal pipe. The two escaped by the skin of their teeth.

Outside Hebron, an Israeli was attacked by yet another mob and escaped alive only by opening fire at his assailants. In another incident, Fatah forces murdered a Palestinian and seriously wounded an Israeli outside of Hebron. The US-financed group claimed its operatives lured the Israeli to the scene.

In Ramallah and Hebron, thousands of Fatah members rallied in support of Hamas and its missile offensive against the western Negev. Israeli Arabs also escalated their verbal and physical assaults on Israel and Israeli Jews, in a series of demonstrations that culminated in a mass demonstration in support of Hamas that took place on Tuesday evening in Umm el-Fahm.

In Judea and Samaria, Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas referred to the IDF's operations in Gaza as an attempted "holocaust." He praised terrorists, suspended negotiations with Israel and reiterated his refusal to recognize Israel. His deputies and associates echoed his incendiary remarks and also spoke in support of armed attacks against US forces in Iraq....  

One might think, in the face of Fatah's obvious support for Hamas's efforts to destroy Israel, that Rice might have begun to question her devotion to Palestinian statehood and support for Fatah.... But none of these developments had any impact on Rice, or for that matter on her boss President George W. Bush. Ignoring Fatah's obvious involvement in terror and increasingly overt support for Hamas's missile war against Israeli civilians, Bush overrode a congressional ban on the transfer of $150 million to Fatah. Similarly, in her visit to Egypt this week, Rice announced that the administration was overriding a congressional decision to block the transfer of $120m. to Egypt due to its refusal to prevent Hamas weapons smuggling operations from Egypt.

ME:  Earlier this week, I noted with relief that the administration had announced it would not intervene in federal court on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which is complaining about a $174 million judgment against it (and the PLO) for the terrorist murder of an American citizen.  But of course, the president's virtually simultaneous decision to pay Fatah an extra $150M over Congress’s objection will just about make the PA whole — in the unlikely event they ever actually make any effort to pay the American victims.  Thus, if it wasn't clear enough already, U.S. taxpayers are now also paying the fines imposed on Palestinians for their acts of terrorism against Americans.

03/07 07:03 PMShare