The PA Doesn't Recognize Israel, Renounce Violence Nor Keep It's Agreements--So How Can You Give Them A State?

The Quartet has repeatedly demanded that any Palestinian government renounce violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist and respect previous agreements between the PLO and Israel as a condition for receiving Western aid.
Khaled Abu Toameh, Fatah: No Need To End Violence, June 17, 2010

In that article, Toameh writes that:

The Palestinian Authority is not demanding that Hamas recognize Israel’s right to exist or accept any of the Quartet’s demands, including the renunciation of violence, as a condition for the establishment of a Palestinian unity government, Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official and former PA foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Actually, you could go one step further--the Palestinian Authority itself does not meet any of the 3 demands that have been consistently demanded of Hamas.

Remember the big 3?

• Recognize Israel
• Renounce violence
• Maintain previous agreements with Israel

Let's face it: Abbas and the Palestinian Authority do not fulfill any of these--


Does Abbas and the Palestinian Authority recognize Israel? No, they don't.

Joel Mowbray wrote in 2008 that Abbas does not recognize Israel:

Discussing the question of whether or not Hamas must recognize Israel, Mr. Abbas explained, I don’t demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. I only demanded of the [Palestinian] national unity government that would work opposite Israel in recognition of it.

This comment raised eyebrows because it shifted the common understanding of what it means to recognize the Jewish state. Most understand recognition to be fairly straightforward: The acknowledgement of the right of Israel to exist peacefully as a Jewish state neighboring a Palestinian one. Mr. Abbas, however, now defines recognition as acknowledging in a literal sense that an entity named Israel is the country at the other end of the negotiating table.

Mr. Abbas does not deserve the benefit of the doubt on this count. Defending his recognition of Israel on TV network Al-Arabiya in October 2006, he explained that it was more a practical reality than a meaningful political position. He cited as an example the need for the PA to get $500 million from Israel: The Palestinian finance minister has to come to an agreement with the Israeli finance minister about the transfer of the money. So how can he make an agreement with him if [the PA finance minister] does not recognize him? So I do not demand of Hamas nor any other to recognize Israel. But from the government that works with Israelis in day to day life, yes. [emphasis added]

Does Abbas and the Palestinian Authority renounce violence against Israel? No way

In that same article, Mowbray writes:

Appearing much less careful than when speaking in English, Mr. Abbas last week told the Arabic-language Al-Dastur, I was honored to be the one to shoot the first bullet in 1965, the year his organization, Fatah, initiated terrorism against Israel. (Transcript provided by PMW.) The renowned moderate Palestinian leader then explained his pride in having taught resistance to many in this area and around the world ... including Hezbollah, who were trained in [PLO] camps.

But there's more to it than that--a lot more.

Israel Behind The News has published  reports of how the Palestinian Authority has incited hatred of Israel:

• Palestinian incitement from November 2009 to January 2010
• Palestinian incitement during January and February 2010
• Palestinian incitement during March 2010

Palestinian Media Watch has also been keeping track of the incitement of hate towards Israel by Abbas and the PA.

In May 2010, Itamar Marcus presented on Capitol Hill his report, From Terrorists to Role Models: The Palestinian Authority’s Institutionalization of Incitement reporting on the Palestinian Authority policy of naming schools, streets, sporting events, summer camps and ceremonies after terrorists.

• PMW also issued reports on Palestinian incitement for May and June
• PMW also issued a report for Palestinian incitement during July and August

This year, the Israeli Prime Minister's office came out with a list of Palestinian incitement over the last number of months--including 5 incidences of Palestinian hatred towards Israel during this year alone:

On 9.3.11, Abu Mazen's advisor Sabri Saidam, delivered a speech in which he emphasized that Palestinian weapons must be turned towards Israel. He demanded that the Palestinian people be attentive to the living conditions of martyrs' families and said that the anniversary of the death of Dalal Mughrabi (one of the perpetrators of 1978 coastal highway massacre) should be marked by inaugurating a square in her name in the city of El-Bireh.

On 6.3.11, the PA's official newspaper, Al Hayat Al-Jadida, published an item to the effect that the management of a youth club in Ramallah planned to hold a soccer tournament in memory of Wafa Idris, a suicide bomber.

On 9.2.11, the official Palestinian television station broadcast a clip from a campaign entitled "Women as Exemplars", during which Dalal Mughrabi (see above) was extolled. In the summer of 2010, several children's summer camps were named after her.

On 24.1.11, the Governor of Jenin issued a Presidential Grant worth $2,000 to the family of Palestinian terrorist, Khaldoun Samoudi, who was killed while trying to detonate two bombs against IDF soldiers at the Beka'ot Crossing.

On 2.1.11, Al Hayat Al-Jadida reported that Azzam Al-Ahmed, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, attended a gathering on the 46th anniversary of the establishment of Fatah, held in the village of Turah, south-west of Jenin, during which models of settlement buildings were blown up. He reviewed terrorist attacks that had been perpetrated by Fatah and said that, "Fatah is a mass movement which believed in popular revolution and wrested its right to use all means of resistance in order to achieve its aim."

In fact, the massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar came just 3 weeks after Abbas' Palestinian Authority televised a video praising terrorist "martyrs"--including one terrorist who murdered Israelis in Itamar in 2002:

A Palestinian Authority video TV tribute to "Martyrs" three weeks ago included the terrorist who killed three Israelis in a 2002 terror attack in the West Bank town of Itamar. Itamar was the scene of Friday's terror attack, in which Ruth and Udi Fogel and their three children were murdered.

The video was in honor of the anniversary of the founding of the DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine), and was broadcast on PA TV several times daily for four days. It featured a collage with photographs labeled "Martyrs (Shahids) of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Nablus." It included the picture of terrorist Habash Hanani, who in May 2002 entered Itamar and murdered three students in the local high school.

The constant incitement of hatred towards Israel by Abbas and the Palestinian Authority has never ceased.
By providing their people with a constant flow of praise of terrorists, it is clear--especially to the Palestinian Arabs themselves--that neither Abbas nor the Palestinian Authority renounce violence against Israel.

Have Abbas and the Palestinian Authority maintained previous agreements with Israel? No, they haven't.

Remember: Phase one of the Road Map requires Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to "Issue unequivocal statement affirming Israel’s right to exist in peace and security." Abbas's watered down version of what recognition means--as well as the regular honoring of terrorists--run counter to that. 

Then of course there is Abbas's releasing murderers of Israelis from prison, and the time a Palestinian police officer was sentenced to death for helping Israel with counter-terrorism--which Eli Lake at the time noted "is a precondition under agreements for the relinquishment of land for a Palestinian Arab state".

So the question really is: if recognition of Hamas is based on recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and agreeing to follow past Israeli-Palestinian agreements--on what basis can Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, who fulfill none of these 3 requirements, be given their own state?

Why are Abbas and the Palestinian Authority held to a lower standard than Hamas for the exact same requirements?

Technorati Tag: Palestine and Abbas and Fayyad and West Bank.