"Moderate" Fatah, Jerusalem Arabs honor Bin Laden

From YNet:

Dozens of Arab residents held a rally in support of assassinated al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood Monday evening.

Some of the participants at the site hurled stones at Israel Police forces deployed in the area. Police officers responded with crowd dispersal means.

I haven't yet seen a statement by Mahmoud Abbas on the assassination. But he is a peace-seeking moderate, as we are constantly told, so no doubt this is merely an oversight. He's probably been too busy to issue a statement. Let's just assume that he is really happy and not ask him to actually commit to saying it.

After all, it might upset his natural constituency - members of the Fatah organization he leads.

Ma'an reports:

The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades mourned Tuesday the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, following his assassination Sunday by American troops in Pakistan.

His death, a statement said, "won't stop our Jihad mission against injustice and occupation," adding doubt over the veracity of claims that the fundamentalist had indeed been killed.

In a statement received by Ma'an the brigades said: "The Islamic nation was shocked with the news that bin Laden had been killed by the non-believers."

He left a generation who follows the education he gave in Jihad, the statement continued.

"The fighters in Palestine and around the world who have lost their leaders did not stop their mission and will continue in the tutelage of their masters."

Concluding, the statement said "we tell the Israeli and the American occupiers that we have leaders who have changed history with their Jihad and their steadfastness. We are ready to sacrifice our lives to bring back peace."

See? They want peace!

So the scorecard is: Some Fatah members are on the record as supporting Bin Laden, Hamas and Islamic Jihad concur, Abbas refuses to denounce him, and the only person who said anything positive about the assassination is Salam Fayyad who is probably on his way out in the new unity government.

And the world overwhelmingly demands that this group of terror supporters and enablers should have their own independent state.

(h/t Joel)

UPDATE: A different Al Aqsa spokesman denies the remarks above.