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| The map of "Israel" as published by the Palestinian embassy in Britain |
The recent reconciliation between the PA and Hamas – including the announcement that Hamas will join the PLO – is further evidence that Mahmoud Abbas was never sincere in pursuing a peace agreement with Israel.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as it was Abbas who was the mastermind behind a 1968 PLO strategy document which sought the demise of Israel via more sophisticated means than merely terror.
Political warfare and deception were important elements in this strategy, which is rooted in Islamic concepts dealing with the status of non-Muslims (especially Jews) in the Dar-al Islam (territory of Islam).
Abbas’ refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is consistent with these concepts, as documented in Andrew Bostom’s book ‘The legacy of Islamic anti-Semitism’.
Such ideas played a significant role ever since the start of the Arab-Israeli conflict but have been largely ignored.
Now that the chimera of a “peace process” has been exposed the time has come to finally face the truth.
The Palestinian leadership has deceived Israel and the international community by speaking the language of “peace” to Western English-speaking audiences, while continually preaching hate and war to their own people in Arabic.
Duplicity and deceit have long concealed the true intentions of the Palestinian Authority, but its most recent actions and rhetoric have definitively revealed that it is not, and has never been, truly interested in peace and reconciliation with the Jewish state.
PSG report
A recent example of Palestinian deception is the manner in which the PA officially explains its refusal to negotiate with Israel.
The decision not to negotiate has been presented as a result of the Israeli insistence on building in Jerusalem and the in the settlements while, in reality, the deadlock is the result of a revised policy that the PA adopted more than two years ago.
An explanation for why the PA has not returned to negotiations with Israel during the 10 month building freeze in the West Bank can be found in a revised policy by the Palestine Strategy Group which formed the basis for the 13th program of the Palestinian Authority published in 2009.
The PSG report calls for ‘intelligent resistance’ – meaning law fare, boycott campaigns and propaganda – as a means of continuing the struggle against Israel.
This type of warfare was already on the agenda in 1968 when the Palestinian National Assembly adopted a resolution that stated the following:
“If we are to achieve victory and gain our objectives, we shall have to strike at the enemy wherever he may be, and at the nerve centers of his power.
This is to be achieved through the use of military, political and economic weapons and information media, as part of a unified and comprehensive plan designed to sap his strength, scatter his forces, destroy the links between them and undermine their common objectives.”
While terror has always been the main weapon in the Palestinian struggle against Israel, under Abbas’s leadership the strategy changed, and political warfare has proven to be more successful in winning over the international community to the Palestinian cause.
Other factors
But there is more. Other factors, which were not openly discussed by the Palestinians, contributed significantly to the failure of the peace process.
The absence of truth in Palestinian politics and society is one of those factors. Jihad or Ribat (a religious war for Allah), and Islamic anti-Semitism (including incitement against Jews and Israel) are the others.
Ever since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, deception has been a tactic to confuse Israel and the rest of the world.
Hudaibiya
The first time that this became apparent, was six days after the signing of the Oslo accords, when Yasser Arafat, during a speech in a mosque in South Africa, said: “I see this agreement (Oslo) as being no more than the (Hudaibiya) agreement signed between our Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh in Mecca”.
He then explained that “the prophet had been right when he breached that agreement, for it helped him defeat the Quraysh and take over their city of Mecca. In a similar spirit, we now accept the peace agreement, but [only in order] to continue on the road to Jerusalem.”
Taqiyyah
Conflicting reports about the meaning of Hamas’ membership in the PLO issued recently by Fatah and Hamas leaders are the latest example of this tactic of deception, which is called Al-Taqiyya and is primary based on the Quran (Sura 3:28).
According to the authoritative Arab text, Al-Taqiyya Fi Al-Islam, “Taqiyyah (deception) is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it…Taqiyyah is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.”
Muhammad practiced Taqiyyah during the Battle of the Trench (627AD) which pitted Muhammad and his army against several non-Muslim tribes known as “the Confederates”. Later he used Taqiyyah to murder the Jewish poet Kab bin al-Ashruf.
A young Muslim, Muhammad bin Maslama, volunteered to assassinate al-Ashruf, but with the caveat that he be allowed to lie to his victim (in order to win over his confidence).
Arafat referred repeatedly to the use of Taqiyyah by Muhammad when he spoke about the Oslo accords to Islamic audiences.
Duplicity
Arafat’s duplicity has been best documented by Daniel Polisar, the former director of Peace Watch, a NGO that worked with the Palestinian Authority. In an article for Azure in 2002, Polisar described how Arafat received the Nobel Prize for Peace while simultaneously building a Palestinian infrastructure of terrorism
In the end he had built a force of 80,000 fighters with whom he launched the deadly al-Aksa intifada in 2000
Exposed
Another Fatah leader, Abbas Zaki, has repeatedly revealed the duplicity of the PA leaders.
On April 9th 2008 he told NBN TV the following: “The PLO has not changed its platform even one iota….The PLO proceeds through phases…..Allah willing we will drive them out of all of Palestine.
The same Zaki said the following this year on Lebanon TV: “When we say that the settlement should be based upon these (1967) borders, President [Abbas] understands, we understand, and everybody knows that the greater goal cannot be accomplished in one go.If Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, evacuates the 650,000 settlers and dismantles the wall – what will become of Israel? It will come to an end’.
He then said: it is not acceptable policy to say that we want to wipe Israel out. Don’t say these things to the world, keep it to yourself Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas is less outspoken but is no less involved in the deceiving the international community. Take for example an interview with European reporters about the unity agreement with Hamas two weeks ago, in which he said the following:
“We set the agreement’s pillars, and Hamas agreed with us that resistance will be popular and adopt peaceful ways, rather than military resistance.”
Peaceful resistance?
Well, when Hamas celebrated its 23th anniversary in Gaza the same week, Hamas PM Haniyeh called upon the Muslim Brotherhood to start a war to liberate Jerusalem (Al Quds). He also said the following:
“We affirm that armed resistance is our strategic option and the only way to liberate our land, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the River [Jordan]. God willing, Hamas will lead the people… to the uprising until we liberate Palestine, all of Palestine”.
Excerpt of Hamas PM Haniyeh’s speech during 24th anniversary Hamas in Gaza earlier this month
Last week Hamas reiterated that it would never give up armed resistance against Israel. Salah al-Bardwil a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau said that the issue was never raised in the negotiations between Fatah and Hamas.
Arekat
Sa’eb Arekat is another PA official who repeatedly has been caught deceiving international audiences.
In a recent JPost op-ed titled ‘The moment of truth’, Arekat got caught in his own lies. He wrote: “the settlements, wall and related infrastructure now de facto control almost half of the West Bank”.
However, a month earlier Ha’aretz published an interview with Arekat in which he said that he was in possession of aerial evidence showing that the settlements have been built on approximately 1,1 % of the West Bank. That interview was meant to make the case for an Israeli withdrawal behind the pre-1967 line.
Water issues
Deception and incitement have also been the hallmark of the way Palestinians inform the world about the day to day situation in the West Bank and in Gaza.
This summer our organization, Missing Peace (www.missingpeace.eu ), revealed in a JPost article that the PA continually lies about water issues in the West Bank in order to advance the narrative of Israeli repression and Palestinian victimhood. Additionally, the PA has actually failed to implement approved water projects and ignored undeniable evidence of Palestinian water theft.
Reports by individual Palestinian citizens or Palestinian NGO’s often contain similar false claims. Over the last year we published several rebuttals to such erroneous reports.
PMW book
Palestinian Media Watch just published a book titled ‘Deception’ which documents the the hate, incitement, glorification of terrorists and promotion of violence by PA officials and media in 2010 and 2011.
The book also demonstrates how the Palestinian public, and especially children, are brainwashed into believing the most outrageous lies about Palestinian history, Israel and Jews.
The book also recounts a meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and president Obama in the White House on June 9, 2010. During that meeting Abbas said:” “And I say in front of you, Mr. President, that we have nothing to do with incitement against Israel, and we’re not doing that
European Union
During a recent interview with PMW director Itamar Marcus on US TV the idea was raised to send every news editor a copy of Deception
News editors however, are not the ones who finance the Palestinian Authority, nor do they have direct power to change the way in which the Palestinian Israeli conflict is handled
The EU Foreign Affairs commission (AFET) does possess this ability and should certainly read the book, but it is highly doubtful they will
In fact, in September PMW director Marcus was in Europe to present evidence of the PA use of foreign funding for the payment of salaries to terrorists in Israeli jails. When we suggested a presentation to the EU, the chairman of the EU commission for relations with Israel told us that there was too much resistance in AFET to such a presentation
At the same time the EU raised its contribution to the PA by 100 million Euro for 2012 and keeps admonishing Israel for building activities in the West Bank and Jerusalem
Palestinian leaders have succeeded to turn the tables on Israel by using lies, distortions and doublespeak directed at the international community.
Its real intentions have become clear by unilateral moves, its boycott policy towards Israel and the reconciliation with Hamas
Until foreign interlocutors like the EU will start to address this deception and the root cause of the conflict, peace will remain a pipe dream and war will become, once again, a very real option
Technorati Tag: Israel and Abbas and Hamas and Peace Process.
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