The Palestine Liberation Organization or PLO was one of the first large scale international terrorists groups of the post-WW2 era. In Arabic the abbreviation for the PLO is FATAH. Fatah is commonly referred to in English language papers as the “political” wing of the PLO but Fatah is the PLO. I have on occasion been guilty of that sin myself for the sake of clarity. Most people have a hard enough time keeping straight the rather incestuous nature of the various terror sub-groups of the PLO.
I first noticed the trend in the main stream media for referring to the PLO as Fatah for political decisions rather than the PLO after the signing of the Oslo Accords. I would theorize that it was a conscious decision undertaken by the leadership of the PLO to refer to Fatah as the “political” wing in conversation with the Western press as a way to somehow sanitized and legitimize the PLO by wiping the name from the public’s memory of the very spectacular acts of carnage that the PLO executed all through the 60’s, 70’s, & 80’s in Europe and the Mid-East.
The PLO is terrorist organization and that created many sub-groups to carry out acts of terror and political violence in order to take full advantage of plausible deniability. Black September was just one branch of the PLO whose mandate was to carry out terrorists acts outside the Middle East. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was another. The PLO has a youth wing called Tanzim which is used to recruit youth operatives for the Al-Aqsa Marytr’s Brigade. The purpose of Al Aqsa’s Martyr’s brigade is to carry out terrorist acts against all Israeli citizens both in Israel and the disputed territories. PLO/Fatah and Tanzim also created another group to pool resources and act as conducts between the non-PLO sponsored groups called the Popular Resistance Committees. The Popular Resistance Committees are local grass root coalitions of terrorists groups whose members are drawn from Al-Aqsa, Islamic Jihad and Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza.
While it is true that PLO was suppose to renounce terror as a political weapon and revoke from its charter the aim of destroying the Jewish state it has never officially done so. Not under Arafat and not even under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas. While Arafat would issue pronouncements against violence used against Israelis in English for the world press the reality was he never stopped sending the terrorists to kill and maim. Never. Abbas this spring sign a Martyr’s family compensation bill until law. Furthermore, recognizing the right of the Jewish State to exist somewhere, sometime, someplace is not the same as saying that Israel has the right to exist where it is.
Despite the alleged “period” of calm negotiated by Abbas with the various terrorists organizations the last year the suicide bombers continued to denote in Israel. While the number of successful suicide attacks dropped down to five and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for those successful attacks that does not mean that there was only 5 suicide attacks were launched against Israel in the last year. In a point of irony the majority of failed attacks were discovered to be operatives of Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad did not officially sign on to the alleged period of calm and yet that group was represented during the Abbas negotiations with the various terror groups in Egypt. Islamic Jihad is the most under funded and it possesses the smallest network of all the terror groups operating in the West Bank. Its ideology is as pure as Hamas and yet it did not sign on the alleged period of calm. I would suggest that an act of omission can be just as revealing as an act.
If I were to put on my tinfoil hat I would suggest that the non-compliance with the period of calm was the result of deliberate negotiations in order to allow Hamas and Al-Aqsa both an outlet and cover for limited terror activities under the umbrella of Islamic Jihad. Islamic Jihad would claim the guts and the glory which would allow both groups to continue the carnage with an element of plausible deniability for any successful attacks. This has been a time tested strategy from very beginning of the PLO. It would also go a long way in explaining how in the last 12 months of being targeted as the IDF’s special “friend” Islamic Jihad has still been able to successfully carry out attacks. Prior to the negotiated period of calm the IDF was so successful in targeting the Hamas leadership that Hamas stopped publicly declaring who its' leaders were.
All of which brings us today and tomorrow. The world will continue to fund Hamas out of fear that the central axis of evil member will step up to the plate and pick up the tab if the world hesitates too long and thereby Iran will gain an opportunity to have influence over the activities of Hamas in the disputed territories and become a far greater existential threat to the continued existence of Israel. While the monthly tab for running the Palestinian Authority under Fatah leadership is billed at approximately US$60 million a month I would enjoy seeing Iran pick up the tab. It would certainly put a significant dent in Iran’s ability to bankroll carnage and mayhem elsewhere. I trust in the general competency of the IDF to be successfully able to take out any tactical advantage Hamas might feel the need to flex gained from the Iranian association. As well as show that the Palestinian people that the days when they could indulge in their blood thirst with impunity are long over.
How long it takes for the world to come to the collective decision that not financing Hamas is not in the best interests of the Palestinians ‘innocents' or the stability of neighborhood depends on what signals the Israeli government sends. If Israel comes firmly down on the side of ‘no fracking way’ it would be practically impossible for any Western government to do so. The diplomatic fall-out in the world community would be extreme. Apparently, the Saudis might possibly step into the breach and pick-up the tab for the Palestinian Authority this month in order to give the world some breathing room reports the Jerusalem Post.
Saudi Arabia could bail the Palestinian Authority out of an impending fiscal crisis following the landslide victory of Hamas if it transfers the $100 million to the Palestinian Authority that it pledged to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas when he visited there in late December.
In addition to bailing out the PA, the money would also give Israel and the world more time to ponder how to deal with the PA following Wednesday's Hamas victory. According to western diplomatic sources, Saudi Arabia pledged the money to Abbas because the European Union refused to transfer payment of some $60 million in November after the PA embarked on campaign economics: raising salaries and putting more people on its payroll. The Saudi money would be enough for the PA to pay January's salaries - about $60 million - and give it some additional breathing room.
Israel is scheduled to transfer to the PA some $60 million in taxes and customs revenues it collects for the PA on Friday. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at Sunday's cabinet meeting that Israel still had not decided whether - in light of the Hamas victory - it would indeed transfer the funds.
In the evening, at a press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Olmert said that Israel "has no intention of transferring funds" that will aid terrorists. Underscoring that Israel was "very sensitive" to Abbas's position, he said Israel had to be very careful that money it transferred would not later be used against Israel. Merkel said that Europe should not fund the PA as long as Hamas does not recognize Israel and disarm.
While acting Prime Minister Olmert is talking tough for the world press the ground work yea to funding of a Hamas dominated PA is already being laid by none other than the Israeli Defense Minister reports Arutz Sheva:
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Israeli cabinet on Sunday that since Hamas won a sweeping victory in last Wednesday’s PA parliamentary election, the extreme Islamic terror group was acting “responsibly.” Mofaz also said that in the short term, he thinks Hamas will refrain from terror attacks.
He added that it was likely that the Hamas will also attempt to block the Islamic Jihad from carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel. Islamic Jihad, trying to portray itself as more radical than Hamas, boycotted last week’s election. They claimed that the elections were based on the Oslo accords and played into the hands of the United States.
Mindy you, Hamas is not going to make this easy for the Israelis as shortly after Mofaz opinion was released to the press a Hamas leader on CNN had this to say:
“Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said from Gaza that Israel must change its flag. "Israel must remove the two blue stripes from its national flag", said Zahar. “The stripes on the flag are symbols of occupation. They signify Israel's borders stretching from the River Euphrates to the River Nile."
Israel’s national flag, a blue Star of David set between two blue stripes was designed to resemble a Jewish prayer shawl which traditionally has stripes.
Even now the United States is actively seeking solutions to the funding dilemma the Hamas victory represents reports the Jerusalem Post:
The US won't deal with Hamas ministers in a future Palestinian Authority government, but will also not cut off ties with the PA as a result of Hamas's inclusion, diplomatic officials said Monday. According to the officials, the US formula for dealing with a PA government following Wednesday's elections would be based on the "Lebanese model." In Lebanon, the officials said, the US continues to have strong ties with the government in Beirut even though Hizbullah is part of it. It does not, however, have any contact with the one Hizbullah minister.
The officials said that since Hamas was on the US list of terrorist organizations, the US would be legally proscribed from having contact or dealing with Hamas officials, even if they were PA ministers. At the same time, they said, the law would not necessarily proscribe the US from continuing to deal with the PA or contributing money to it. These comments came as Israeli diplomats were quietly holding conversations with their counterparts in Europe and the US over the steps they should take if Hamas became the dominant force inside the PA.
The US Congress passed a resolution late last year condemning Hamas's participation in the election, and warning that financial assistance to the PA could be blocked if Hamas's terrorist infrastructure was not dismantled.
I cannot see Israel changing its flag to placate the Hamastan but everything else is fair game and it is only a matter of time before the West, once again, finds a way around their scruples for the 'greater good'. There already exists a precedent for it.
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