Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, on Sunday called for the murder of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad for "collaboration" with Israel and the US.Fatah is not the only terror group upset over the unelected "prime minister" of the PA. Islamic Jihad and Hamas took great offense at his sorrow over the murder of the two Israeli hikers last week. The pro-terror Palestine Today reports (autotranslated):
This was the first time the group has openly called for Fayad's assassination. In the past, the group distributed leaflets strongly condemning Fayad and calling for his dismissal.
Fayad has been under heavy criticism from some Fatah leaders and activists, who accuse him of denying them public funds and plotting to undermine Fatah's grip on power. Other Fatah leaders have also accused Fayad of seeking to consolidate his power with the hope of replacing Mahmoud Abbas as PA president.
The threat was made in a leaflet distributed by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip. Some Fatah officials in Ramallah sought to distance themselves from the threat, claiming that the leaflet had been forged. They even went as far as accusing Hamas of being behind it.
"The command of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the Gaza Strip calls on all its elements and striking forces in the West Bank to immediately eliminate the so-called Salaam Fayad," the leaflet said. It claimed that Fayad's Ramallah-based government was working for Israel and the US.
Islamic Jihad said such statements are a stab in the back of the Palestinian people and are outside the bounds of unanimity with the Palestinian resistance.Similarly, the Islamic Jihad Qudsway website criticized Fayyad for offering condolences to the families of the murdered Israeli boys, and for using the word "sad" to describe it.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that the statements detract from the extent of resistance, does not represent our people in any way.
I am about halfway through reading "Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948" and hope to write a review when I'm done. But this very reminiscent of the 1936-39 Arab riots: for about six months, the rival Arab factions in Palestine managed to hold together long enough to keep a strike going, but afterwards the Husseinis started accusing all of their political rivals of "collaboration" - leading to the murders of some thousand Palestinian Arabs. The Nashashibis, who were just as interested in a Palestinian Arab state as the Husseinis but who wanted to work with the British to achieve it, and who did not have a problem with speaking to Zionists when it suited their interests, were targeted and killed by the intolerant terrorist Husseini clan.
In 1937-38, as now, pragmatists had to be silent because of fear for their lives. The terrorists have a near-monopoly on public opinion because the comparative moderates are targeted and threatened for their views - a problem that the terrorists themselves rarely have within the Arab world. By the nature of that society, the extremists have a huge advantage because the moderates are usually not the type to advocate or execute political assassinations.
Fayyad, because he is more realistic and willing to talk to Zionists, gets called the worst name in the Arab vocabulary: a traitor to the cause. His desire to balance the PA budget gets him death threats. Such is the state of the enlightened Palestinian Arab society.