Dear Friend of Israel, Friend of FLAME:
You may have recently heard the disappointing (yet not stunning) news out of the Middle East that Palestinian terrorist group Hamas and the Palestinian ruling Fatah party have reconciled. In this week's concise FLAME Hotline, Elliott Abrams describes the dangerous implications of this new unity deal between the two main Palestinian factions---and what it means to Israel's supporters.
The chairman of Fatah is Mahmoud Abbas, the same Mahomoud Abbas who is head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). With Abbas campaigning for support around the world for the declaration of a Palestinian state at the United Nations this fall, his intentions are clear. Naturally, he has tried to claim that since the PLO is the offical body representing the Palestinians in negociations with Israel, and it is Fatah that has made the deal with Hamas, the peace process will in no way be compromised.
This of course is utter nonsense, since Fatah, the PA, and the PLO are all run by Abbas. Hamas has always had its sights set on becoming the ruler of all Palestinians, as well as seeking the complete destruction of the state of Israel. This has been no secret at all. For Fatah to reconcile with Hamas is an insult to the United States and the billions of dollars it has invested in the PA, and the time it has invested in training PA security forces. But then again, the Palestinians have been playing the U.S. and the West as fools for decades now. Lee Smith says it best in a recent article in Tablet Magazine:
"Palestinian unification reveals the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the American and other Western policymakers who have been peddling a fantasy of Palestinian moderation and peaceful coexistence for more than 30 years. It is time for us to realize that the suggestion that fine words about peace will discourage people from shooting at each other is not clever or hopeful or even naïve: It is actively immoral. The Palestinians aren't the liars; we are."
The time has come for the West to stop lying to itself, and President Obama should be taking the lead role in this regard. It must be made loud and clear to the Palestinian people that as long as they support a terrorist organization like Hamas, they will receive not one dollar more in U.S. or international aid. At the same time, Israel's plea for the world to see that she has no peace partner should no longer fall on deaf ears. There is simply no prospect for peace with Hamas now in the fold.
We at FLAME cannot stress this enough: Israel is under attack from all corners and it has never been more crucial for us to stand by her side. We cannot allow the declaration of a Palestinian state in the United Nations and we cannot allow our precious tax dollars to be used to support terrorists, like Hamas, as they soon will. I would urge you, using the Forward to a Friend button below, to forward this powerful article to your friends, family, and colleagues. Israel needs us now.
Best Regards,
Dave Nogradi
FLAME Hotline Contributor
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Israel gets regularly battered in the media, and we pro-Israel advocates too often find ourselves on the defensive. But FLAME has begun to take a different tack in its hasbarah (clarifying) messages: Most recently we're calling the world's attention to the hypocrisy of unrelenting attacks on Israel by the U.N. in the face of horrible crimes against humanity committed by the Arab world. If you, too, believe we should seize the offense against Israel's enemies, I recommend you review FLAME's latest position paper: "Apartheid in the Arab Middle East: How can the U.N. turn a blind eye to hateful, state-sponsored discrimination against people because of their race, ethnicity, religion and gender?" This piece is just now appearing in magazines and newspapers, including college newspapers, with a combined circulation of nearly 5 million people. In addition, it is being sent to every member of the U.S. Congress. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're able---with $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to http://www.factsandlogic.org/make_a_donation.html. Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that Israel gets the support it needs---from the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people.
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The Damaging Deal Between Hamas and Fatah
by Elliott Abrams, The Weekly Standard, April 29, 2011
The agreement between Fatah and Hamas may not last very long. The last agreement, in 2007, failed and led to increased violence between the two groups—and finally to Hamas's coup in Gaza. Hamas and Fatah militants have been killing each other for decades and reconciliation seems more a ploy for public consumption than a serious goal.
But the deal will have extremely harmful effects that deserve attention. To understand them one must remember the tripartite division of roles in Palestinian politics. Fatah is a political party and movement, whose chairman is Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian government is the Palestinian Authority or PA, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The PLO is the organization that negotiates with Israel as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people," so recognized by the United Nations. The PLO is headed by … Mahmoud Abbas.
The agreement that has been announced is solely between Fatah and Hamas, and President Abbas has lately been saying that it will have no impact on the government run by the PA or the negotiations handled by the PLO. This cannot be right, and herein lie several great problems.
For one thing, this party-to-party agreement has already caused the end of the current PA government, and seems to require the departure of Prime Minister Fayyad. Fatah officials hate Fayyad because he has been the guarantor of fiscal probity. Few donors will trust Fatah to avoid old habits and escape corruption if Fayyad is gone. Hamas officials hate Fayyad because he is the real leader of the PA security forces, which have been trained by the United States in recent years. Those forces have established a working relationship with Israel's own, and together they have fought to stop terrorism in the West Bank. With Fayyad gone, PA financial agencies and PA security forces lose the man who has insisted on principled and effective work.
How is it possible that, in the context of this new agreement, President Abbas and the new prime minister will order PA security forces to continue to attack Hamas terrorists? How likely is it that cooperation with Israeli counterterrorist efforts will be maintained at the same level? It seems inevitable that the PA forces will step back, as their political masters order them to avoid creating confrontations. As the American effort to train PA forces is based on the assumption that they will fight terrorist groups like Hamas, our training program may come to an end. And far more important, of course, terrorist groups may reclaim lost ground in the West Bank.
The other change worth noting is that Hamas has never been part of the PLO, but has always seen conquering it as part of the long-term Hamas plan to take over. The new agreement appears to call for reconfiguring the PLO over the next year, permitting Hamas to enter the PLO and run in PLO elections. This is a grave development. How can negotiations be conducted between Israel and a PLO that contains a viciously anti-Semitic terrorist group dedicated to its destruction?
It is in this context that Israeli complaints that Abbas has chosen peace with Hamas over peace with Israel must be understood. Some argue that these are steps toward the ultimate moderation of Hamas, and its substitution of politics for terror. There is no evidence for this view. The argument that the IRA did the same thing is wrong in so many ways: to take only two, the IRA was not religiously motivated as Hamas is, and in any event gave up terror only when it had been conclusively defeated by the British Army.
This agreement between Hamas and Fatah may break down in months. Nevertheless it does great damage to any hope for Israeli-Palestinian peace, for now and in future years.
Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration.
