Fatah still calls to "liquidate the Zionist entity"

From the BBC:

International observers have been watching to see if Fatah, which committed itself to peace negotiations in the early 1990s, would rule out armed struggle.

But according to conference delegates, most of the movement's old charter was maintained, including its call to "liquidate the Zionist entity".

A commitment to "two states for two people" was added, specifying that a Palestinian state be established on the basis of 1967 borders - meaning all of the West Bank and Gaza, delegates said.

Fatah members said a clause was also included stating that "peace is a strategic choice", but Fatah "maintains the right of resistance... by all means possible", in line with a statement made by Mr Abbas on Tuesday.

How can these be reconciled?

The 4th Fatah conference in 1980 was one time that Fatah used the terminology "liquidate the Zionist entity," and it made no doubts about what it meant then:

“Al-Fatah is an independent national revolutionary movement, whose aim is to liberate Palestine completely and to liquidate the Zionist entity politically, economically, militarily, culturally and ideologically.

The battle for liberating Palestine is part of the nationalist (pan-Arab) struggle and, therefore, it is the duty of the entire Arab nation to support this battle with all its moral and material means.

“The only way to achieve our aim is through the armed popular revolution. The armed revolution of the Palestinian Arab people is a decisive factor in the battle of liberation and the liquidation of the Zionist presence.

“This struggle will not stop until the Zionist entity is liquidated and Palestine is liberated.”

Its call to merely liquidate the Zionist entity seems positively moderate by comparison!

So one needs to be very skeptical when Fatah supposedly also says it supports "two states for two people[s]." It has made very clear that the idea of a Jewish state is anathema, so it cannot possibly mean a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. More likely, it would be a Palestinian Arab state within the Green Line - created by a massive forcible "return" of Arabs to Israel - besides the Palestinian Arab state in the territories. The words "two states for two peoples" does not mean that it cannot be 40% of a state for one people and 60% of a state - plus another 100% of another - for the other.

Which fits in with the idea that "peace is a strategic choice" - one that they hope, via demographics and the cynical "right of return," would lead to the destruction of Israel.

The only modification from the 1980 platform is the third paragraph shown above: they see that a fake "peace process" is an additional way to achieve the aim of liquidating Israel, not only "armed popular revolution."