PMW: Fatah: If Hamas is a terrorist organization, so are we
Today the UN General Assembly will be voting on a US-proposed resolution to condemn Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and inciting violence. The resolution demands that Hamas and other terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad cease their "militant" activities, including the use of airborne incendiaries.
Despite the rift between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah, Fatah has come to the defense of Hamas. - In fact it has come to the defense of all Palestinian terrorists!
The resolution prompted one Fatah official to declare that if Hamas is considered a terrorist organization, then the entire Palestinian people is "involved in terrorism." Rather, he claimed, all the Palestinian factions are "national liberation movements":
Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: "If Hamas, which is involved in resistance, is considered a terrorist movement, this means that all groups of the Palestinian people are involved in terrorism. This contradicts reality, as Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions are national liberation movements that are involved in resisting an Israeli occupation that is implementing terrorism against the members of our people... Hamas is part of us and we are part of it if a resolution is passed against it that defines its resistance as a crime. This is because Hamas - regardless of the internal and political differences of opinion - constitutes a state of resistance, whether we want it or not. It has a broad Palestinian presence, and we cannot abandon it to fight alone on the battlefield."
[Palestine Today, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 2, 2018]
Similarly reacting to the proposed UN resolution, Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Shtayyeh denied all Palestinian terrorism. He stated that Abbas' Fatah Movement will not accept that "any Palestinian organization" be declared a terrorist organization:
Senior Fatah official: 'If Hamas... is considered a terrorist movement, this means that all groups of the Palestinian people are involved in terrorism."
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) December 6, 2018
Read more here: https://t.co/uyqvFniYgT pic.twitter.com/I0NBOxsB5R
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: No Difference Between Hamas and Fatah
It is supposedly fine for Abbas and his officials to condemn Hamas on a daily basis. It is supposedly not fine, however, for the US administration to condemn Hamas for its terrorist attacks against Israel. This is the logic of the Palestinian Authority, which has also been imposing financial and economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip in the past year. The sanctions include, among other things, the suspension of salaries to thousands of civil servants, cutting financial aid to needy families in the Gaza Strip, and refusing to pay for fuel and electricity supplied by Israel to the residents living under Hamas.IDF finds 2nd Hezbollah tunnel inside Israel; calls on UN, Lebanon to destroy it
Abbas and Hamas have been working separately to thwart the US draft resolution at the UN General Assembly. Abbas has instructed his envoy to the UN to make an effort to foil the anti-Hamas resolution, while Hamas leaders have been urging Arab and Muslim leaders and governments to help thwart the US initiative.
"Despite all our differences with Hamas, we are categorically opposed to the American and Israeli attempt to label Hamas a terrorist group," explained Osama Qawassmeh, a senior Fatah official. We will fight to thwart the US resolution."
Another senior Fatah official, Abbas Zaki, was even more adamant in his defense of Hamas. "Hamas belongs to us and we belong to Hamas," he said. "If Hamas, which is practicing resistance, is considered a terrorist organization, this would mean that all Palestinians are practicing terrorism. Hamas, like all Palestinian factions, is a national liberation movement."
Abbas and Fatah are defending Hamas not out of love for Hamas, but because they despise the Trump administration to the extent that they are willing to go to bat for their arch-rivals in Hamas. Judging from the statements of some of Abbas's top officials, it is nevertheless clear that they fear that a condemnation of Hamas would pave the way for similar moves against other Palestinian factions, including the Palestinian president's own Fatah.
As Palestinian political analyst Emad Omar put it, "The proposed US resolution is harmful to the Palestinians' right of resistance. As president of the Palestinians, Abbas is forced to defend Hamas and any other Palestinian faction."
Hamas, for its part, has expressed gratitude to Abbas and Fatah for their strong opposition to the US-sponsored draft resolution.
Does all this mean that Fatah and Hamas have agreed to patch up their differences and open a new page in their relations? The answer, of course, is no. This is obviously a short-lived honeymoon that will end the day after the UN General Assembly vote on the anti-Hamas resolution. Abbas wants to score points on the Palestinian street by showing that he is capable of challenging the US administration at the UN. For now, Abbas is prepared to swallow the bitter pill of defending Hamas. The morning after the vote, Abbas will wake up to the realization that Hamas was a strange bedfellow indeed.
The Israeli military on Thursday located a second Hezbollah cross-border attack tunnel today in the western Galilee, after uncovering an underground passage two days earlier in the eastern part of the region, the army said.
The tunnel originated in the Lebanese village of Ramyeh underneath a number of homes and crossed into Israeli territory near the village of Zarit, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Israel launched its operation to find and destroy Hezbollah tunnels — called Northern Shield — late Monday night, announcing it publicly the next morning.
The first tunnel was discovered south of the Israeli village of Metulla in the northern tip of the Galilee panhandle.
The Israeli military said it believes the tunnels were meant to be used by Hezbollah as a surprise component of an opening salvo in a future war, alongside the mass infiltration of operatives above ground and the launching of rockets, missiles and mortar shells at northern Israel.
A senior Israeli official on Thursday said the tunnels discovered inside Israel were large enough to be used by “entire battalions” to enter Israeli territory in order to “carry out killing sprees and kidnappings and to capture Israeli towns and villages.”