Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Two more data points for the clueless Karl Vicks of the world

Yesterday I wrote about how Time magazine's Karl Vick was wedded to the idea of a moderating Hamas despite all evidence to the contrary.

Since then, Hamas' "political wing" member Sheikh Salah Aruri has emphasized that terrorism is a "right":

Our agreement with Fatah has nothing to do with the rest of our choices and our visions. We remain with our previous position, that all forms of resistance are a right and duty, with no restrictions on the resistance.

And Khaled Abu Toameh, the Arab that the liberals love to ignore even though his track record is orders of magnitude better than theirs, writes:

Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal have twice lied to the Palestinians in the past six months.

The first time was in May, when the two men announced in Cairo that they had reached a "historic" reconciliation agreement to end their differences and form a unity government. The second time was last week, when they met once again in the Egyptian capital and declared that they had agreed to open a new page in their relations and work as partners.

Palestinian Arab leaders lying? That concept is way too foreign for the intelligentsia who know that what they say in English must be the absolute truth.

(h/t Silke)

November 1947: Arab "students" attack Western offices

In the wake of the Iranian "students" attacking the British embassy in Iran today, here is what was happening in the Middle East on November 30, 1947:

Wow, who knew students were so violent?

Then again....

Religious quasi-police group organizes in Tunisia

A self-declared "Association of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" is being organized in Tunisia, in what appears to be patterned after the religious police in Saudi Arabia.

The organizers hope to create an Islamic legal authority that stands on its own and does not depend on rulings from imams in other countries.

While Tunisian law does not allow for the creation of political parties on a purely religious basis, this is not a political party.

Secularists in Tunisia are fearful that the group will start intimidating or forcing people to go to prayer services, or to stop eating during Ramadan.

The leader of the movement denies any intent to be like the Saudi religious police.

Praise for Bin Laden, threats to Jews in Tahrir Square

MEMRI translated the video showing cleric Tawfik al-Afni in Tahrir Square on November 18:

Tawfiq Al-Afni (in interview): First of all, Islamic law is the only source for legislation.

[…]

In addition, I would like to say to the whole world that the Prophet Muhammad prophesized that the return of Islam was inevitable. Why do they fear Islam? When Islam rules, justice, compassion, and goodness will prevail. So why do people fear Islam?

[…]

I say to the people who fear Islam: Are you thieves that should fear the chopping off of hands? Are you alcohol-drinkers that you should fear being flogged?

On stage:

Sheik Osama Bin Laden is a man who waged Jihad for the sake of Allah, and we pray that Allah will unite us with him and the martyrs in Paradise. My brothers, in Islam, we say with great pride that we adhere to the Jihad for the sake of Allah…

Crowd: Allah Akbar.

Allah Akbar.

Tawfiq Al-Afni: We are not waging Jihad for worldly benefits or for positions. By Allah, we have only come to pledge our allegiance to Islam. We wage Jihad for the sake of Allah and the Koran.

[…]

We respond to Your call. Please turn our skulls into a ladder for your glory.

Crowd: We respond to Your call. Please turn our skulls into a ladder for your glory.

Tawfiq Al-Afni: We say to infidel America: By Allah, if you contemplate coming to Egypt, you will encounter men who love death more than you Americans love life…

Crowd: Allah Akbar.

Allah Akbar.

Tawfiq Al-Afni: I say to the Jews: if you contemplate harming Egypt or its Muslim people, you will encounter men who seek death more than you seek life…

Crowd: Allah Akbar.

Allah Akbar.

Man in crowd: Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad is here.

Crowd: Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad is here.

Man in crowd: Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad is here.

Crowd: Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad is here.

[…]

Tawfiq Al-Afni: Oh Allah, grant us martyrdom for your sake.

Crowd: Amen.

Tawfiq Al-Afni: Say with me: [The revolution] is Islamic, Islamic…

Crowd: Islamic, Islamic…

Tawfiq Al-Afni: It is Islamic, Islamic…

Crowd: Islamic, Islamic…

Tawfiq Al-Afni: It is neither Eastern nor Western…

Crowd: Neither Eastern nor Western…

Tawfiq Al-Afni: It is neither Jewish nor American…

Crowd: Neither Jewish nor American…

Tawfiq Al-Afni: You return, oh Islam…

Crowd: You return, oh Islam…

Tawfiq Al-Afni: You will rule, oh Koran…

Crowd: You will rule, oh Koran…

Iranian "students" storm British embassy in Tehran

From NYT:

In the latest sign of deteriorating relations with the West, a group of Iranian protesters stormed the British Embassy compound in Tehran on Tuesday, chanting “death to England,” tearing down a British flag and ransacking offices, according to British officials and images broadcast live on state-run Iranian television.

One Iranian news agency said six embassy workers had been taken hostage , but withdrew the report from its Web site minutes later with no explanation, Reuters reported. The semi-official Mehr news agency initially said: “Students from universities in Tehran took hostage six people working for the British embassy in Qolhak garden,” referring to the compound that protesters stormed earlier on Tuesday.

The episode came a day after Iran enacted legislation to downgrade relations with Britain in retaliation for intensified sanctions imposed by Western nations last week to punish the Iranians for their suspected nuclear development program. Britain promised to respond “robustly.”

The British Foreign Office in London said in a statement Tuesday that there had been an “incursion by a significant number of demonstrators into our embassy premises, including vandalism to our property.”

Iran's Mehr News says:

Iranian students stormed the British Embassy compound in Tehran on Tuesday, smashing windows and setting the British flag on fire during a protest against new sanctions imposed on Iran by Britain.

Protesters threw petrol bombs and one waved a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth apparently found inside the compound, the Iranian TV showed.

The incident followed London's imposition of new sanctions on the Islamic Republic last week over its nuclear program.

In 1979, during the Islamic revolution in Iran, the protesters were usually referred to as "students."

November 29, 1947: Arab nations continue to plan division of Palestine

As a follow-up to this post from Sunday:

From the Palestine Post, November 30, 1947:

Again, no Arab nation is talking about accepting a Palestinian Arab state! It's as if they didn't think that Palestinian Arabs were a nation.

You can almost imagine them saying words to the effect that there were no such thing as a "Palestinian people" in 1947.

So when the UN declared in 1977 that November 29 should be considered an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, they must have had in mind the previous thirty years of cynical use of the Palestinian Arab cause by the Arab nations who never had any interest in their Palestinian brethren except as pawns to hurt Israel.

Foreign Policy praises a lying conspiracy theorist as a "global thinker"

Foreign Policy magazine put out their annual list of Top 100 Global Thinkers, and coming in at #28 are Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, "for forging a path between violence and surrender."

"Enough, enough, enough." With those words at the U.N. General Assembly, Mahmoud Abbas finally stepped out of Yasir Arafat's shadow and began to build his own legacy as a Palestinian nationalist. Abbas, who has guided the Palestinian Authority through nearly seven post-Arafat years, took the bold step in 2011 of giving voice to Palestinians' widespread exasperation with a 20-year "peace process" by taking their cause directly to the United Nations, where he appealed to the world's preeminent international body for recognition. The U.N. statehood gambit, conceived last winter after negotiations with Israel ground to a halt, may have been greeted with cries of dismay in Washington and Tel Aviv, but it galvanized the world's attention in a way that dozens of suicide bombers never could.

I never knew that repeatedly saying "no" to negotiations and adding condition after condition to peace talks makes someone a great thinker, but then again, I must not be as smart as the rocket scientists at Foreign Policy, who define "making serious compromises for peace" as "surrender."

After all, Abbas' speech at the UN was brilliant, just brilliant. It takes real skill to write a speech with dozens of lies and still be considered a serious statesman. It takes brains to brag about intransigence in Arabic and pretend to be a peacemaker in English. And it takes a very high IQ to calculate that you can blatantly lie about what the leader of the free world said only a year before - and get a pass from place like Foreign Policy magazine.

The world needs to know that one of Foreign Policy's top global thinkers believes that Israelis raise and train wild dogs and boars to attack Palestinian Arabs.

One thing is for sure:

Abbas is a lot smarter than the folks at Foreign Policy.

Useless UNIFIL contradicts itself after Lebanon rocket fire into Israel

From YNet:

One of the Katyushas

The IDF confirmed Tuesday that two Katyusha rockets were fired at the western Galilee from Lebanon on Monday night. No injuries were reported, but several structures sustained damage.

The IDF's Northern Command has been placed on high alert following the fire. The military stressed that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the indicent.

Hezbollah sources denied any connection to the rocket fire. UNIFIL, which has a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, has launched an investigation into the incident, but a spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was quoted by Beirut's radio as saying that "UNIFIL rejects reports suggesting any violation of UN Resolution 1701 and is working to restore normalcy."

Really? Rockets are fired into Israel and UNIFIL rejects the idea that there was a violation of 1701?

The UNIFIL website says the exact opposite:

UNIFIL radars detected firing of at least one rocket into Israel shortly after midnight last night from the general area of Rumaysh in south Lebanon. Israeli authorities indicated to UNIFIL that a number of rockets impacted in northern Israel.

The IDF returned artillery fire directed at the location from where the rocket fire originated.

At this time, no casualties have been reported from either side. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

UNIFIL, in cooperation with the parties, is currently investigating on the ground to determine the facts and circumstances of the incident as well as to locate the launching site of the rocket fire.

UNIFIL Force Commander Major-General Alberto Asarta Cuevas is maintaining close contact with the parties and has called for maximum restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation.

The Force Commander said: “This is a serious incident in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701 and is clearly directed at undermining stability in the area. It is imperative to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of this attack and we will spare no efforts to this end working in cooperation with the LAF. Additional troops have been deployed on the ground and patrols have been intensified across our area of operations to prevent any further incidents.”

So either UNIFIL has no clue what it is saying, or Beirut radio lies.

From all accounts, Hezbollah has an iron grip on southern Lebanon. The idea that some tiny armed group can get a hold of Katyushas and fire them without Hezbollah's knowledge is possible but seems unlikely.

Of course, the idea that the LAF or UNIFIL will be able to investigate this and find anything out is a lot more far-fetched.

Time's Karl Vick remains clueless

How many times do we have to see people who pretend to be analysts prove themselves so incredibly, irredeemably wrong?

Here's Time magazine's Karl Vick:

[W]hat if Abbas is holding still, and Hamas is moving closer to Abbas? That's what's been happening, from nearly all appearances, for the last two or three years, and everything coming out of the Cairo meeting points in the same direction. The head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, and Abbas spoke for two hours, Abbas in the big chair, Meshaal on the couch with two others. Afterwards both met the cameras smiling. "There are no differences between us now," Abbas said. Mashaal went with: "We have opened a new page of partnership." And on whose terms? Hamas stands for resistance, its formal name being the Islamic Resistance Movement. But in the Gaza Strip where it governs, Hamas has largely enforced a truce with Israel since January 2009. And in Cairo it signed a paper committing itself to "popular resistance" against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. That's "popular" in contrast to "violent" or "military" resistance. We're talking marches here. Chanting and signs, not booby traps or suicide bombs.

"Every people has the right to fight against occupation in every way, with weapons or otherwise. But at the moment, we want to cooperate with the popular resistance," Meshaal told AFP. "We believe in armed resistance but popular resistance is a program which is common to all the factions."

For the past three years, Abbas has gone from someone actively participating in negotiations to someone who adamantly refuses to even talk with Israel under identical circumstances that the PLO negotiated for fourteen years. He has furthermore made unilateral moves, such as his UN stunt, to avoid any possible compromise with Israel - and has bragged about his intransigence. He has upset the US and the EU with his refusal to negotiate.

So much for Abbas "standing still."

Now, as far as Hamas is concerned, let's look at what they have been saying and doing in just the past week or so.

From all evidence, Hamas sacked every member of its security forces that was not explicitly a Hamas member.

Hamas reiterated that it will continue armed resistance against Israel.
Hamas named a school in Gaza after a mass murderer.
Hamas arrested four Fatah youth leaders, right after the "unity" meeting.
Another Hamas leader again reiterated that armed resistance remains an option, forever.
An analyst was quoted in Hamas' website as saying that Palestinian Arabs could never drop the option of armed resistance, because this right is (according to them) enshrined by the UN. Another emphasized that the current truce is simply to help strengthen Hamas and help Gaza recover, but it not a strategic option.
Hamas' Gaza leaders expressed great skepticism about unity with Fatah, an initiative spearheaded by Hamas' Damascus leaders.
And there is credible evidence that Hamas continues to import imported surface to air missiles into Gaza.

But Vick cannot be bothered to actually read Hamas websites in Arabic. No, if he can find an AFP interview in English, well, that must reflect the entire reality!

Hold on, though. Vick thinks he found a new piece of information!

Quite possibly biggest news out of Cairo was deep in the fine print: Efforts are under way to bring Hamas into the PLO, or Palestine Liberation Organization, the umbrella for all Palestinian factions. The PLO is the one "brand" that still resonates with ordinary Palestinians, and Hamas has wanted to join it since at least 2005. If Hamas finally gets in, the implications would appear to be immense. It would mean agreeing to the positions and agreements the PLO has already made. This includes recognizing Israel, and renouncing terror -- two things Hamas has never been willing to do. "Yes, when they are in they have to agree to the political program of the PLO," says Shaban. "This will take time." But should it occur, it would complete Hamas' move toward the center, and open the door to the international recognition craved by many in the organization.

Only one problem. It will never happen without the PLO changing its current stated positions.

Hamas cannot and will not recognize Israel. It cannot and will not accept a Jewish state in any form whatsoever. Literally. Its entire charter is based on Israel's destruction, and if Hamas can be counted upon for anything, it is to remain true to its principles. They have been remarkably consistent in their stated positions since their inception. If Vick actually believes that Hamas is one bit closer to recognizing Israel than they were in 2005 or 1995, then he is an idiot who simply refuses to open his eyes.

I can see the PLO muddying the language of its recognition of Israel to accommodate Hamas. But it is absolutely inconceivable that Hamas would accept the current stated PLO position of recognizing Israel and officially being against terrorism (a position the PLO roundly ignored only a few short years ago anyway.)

Vick, like so many other journalists, cannot distinguish between reality and what he wants to believe. And then he feeds this misinformation into the minds of equally clueless decision makers who want to believe that peace is possible as much as Vick does, and who rely on clueless pundits like him to buy the myth of a flexible Palestinian Arab leadership (and, naturally, the intransigent Israelis - the only ones who have actually made real concessions for peace, multiple times, over decades of conflict.)

Hamas is not moderating, and it never will. Just as there were people who were convinced that Hamas had moderated during the 2005 elections, and that Hamas had moderated before Cast Lead, there will always be credulous and utterly incompetent analysts who believe that Hamas is becoming more peaceful now.

And no matter how many times these pundits are proven wrong, they will continue to push their hopes and dreams as if they are reality.

Egyptian stone thrower arrested; found to have 50 shekels

Al Ahram reports that a stone thrower in Alexandria was arrested - and found to have 50 shekels in Israeli currency on him.

Michael Awad Hanna , 21, is a clothing salesman from the Giza governate, and was apprehended while throwing stones. He said that another protester gave the money to him.

The implication, of course, is that Israel is fomenting riots in Egypt.

To their credit, the commenters are mercilessly ripping apart the story, asking if the Mossad is so stupid as to pay in shekels, which are pretty worthless in Egypt, rather than euros or dollars.

But don't you see? That's their brilliance! Paying protesters - and making fools of Egyptian security at the same time!

Syrian army shoots at family attempting to flee to Jordan

From Jordan Times:

Shots rang out at the Jordanian-Syrian border late Sunday as Syrian forces attempted to prevent civilians from entering the Kingdom, hours after an Arab League decision to impose sanctions on Damascus.

Syrian soldiers opened fire on a married couple and their young child as they attempted to enter the Kingdom late yesterday near the Jaber border crossing, some 90 kilometres north of the capital, according to Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government Spokesperson Rakan Majali.

The Syrian family arrived in the Kingdom and received emergency medical attention, Majali indicated.

Incidents like this one, which occurred hours after the Arab League endorsed a series of economic sanctions targeting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, have become “commonplace” over the past few months, he said.

“This has now become a very normal incident that happens nearly every day, but often without notice,” Majali told The Jordan Times.

According to Majali, the woman was rushed to Mafraq Military Hospital where medical sources indicated she was listed in serious condition as of late yesterday, adding that her husband and child were not injured in the incident.

The incident will not register a response from the Jordanian government, the spokesperson said, noting that the Kingdom will continue to extend efforts to “ensure the humanitarian protection” of Syrian civilians.

The humanitarian impact of the Syrian crisis has become an increasing concern for Jordan, which has hosted thousands of civilians fleeing violence since mid-February, with over 1,500 Syrians registered with the UN refugee agency.

Jordan has been keeping a very low profile in regards to Syrian refugees; we hear about the ones who fled to Turkey and Lebanon but not much about Syrians who flee to Jordan. I'm surprised that there are 1,500 of them.

Satellite image of damage from November 12th Iranian explosion

From ISIS:

ISIS has acquired commercial satellite imagery of a military compound near the town of Bid Kaneh1 in Iran where a large explosion occurred on November 12, 2011. Compared to an earlier picture of the site, an image taken on November 22, 2011 shows that most of the buildings on the compound appear extensively damaged (see figures 1 and 2). Some buildings appear to have been completely destroyed. Some of the destruction seen in the image may have also resulted from subsequent controlled demolition of buildings and removal of debris. There do not appear to be many pieces of heavy equipment such as cranes or dump trucks on the site, and a considerable amount of debris is still present. About the same number of trucks are visible in the image after the blast as in an image from approximately two months prior to the blast. Thus, most of the damage seen in the November 22, 2011 image likely resulted from the explosion.

ISIS learned that the blast occurred as Iran had achieved a major milestone in the development of a new missile. Iran was apparently performing a volatile procedure involving a missile engine at the site when the blast occurred.

Before:

After:

Huge explosion in Isfahan, Iran - home to nuclear weapons program (plus insta-poster!, updated)

UPDATE 11/30: Confirmation that the explosion was at a nuclear facility. New blog post here.

FARS News is reporting on a huge explosion in Isfahan, Iran. No details yet.

Isfahan hosts a Nuclear Technology Center, a Uranium Conversion Facility and a Zirconium Production Plant that helps make alloys for nuclear reactors.

According to the article, it happened at 2:40 AM.

For the occasion, a poster:

UPDATE: The FARS story has disappeared. Here's what the autotranslate looked like before it went down the memory hole:

Twitter updates/rumors:

A BBC reporter tweets his father in Isfahan heard the explosion.

Israel's Channel 10 reports that an explosion was at Shahab 4 ballistic missile site; unclear if it is the same one or where they got the information from.

Second Iranian news source confirms it, unclear if it was 2:40 AM or PM.

And another confirmation.

Iranian tweeters are all saying it was either an arms depot or an ammunition depot.

Isfahan's governor is now claiming that it was from a "military exercise."

Deputy governor says, "I dunno."

I've seen a few stories saying it happened near the gate to Shiraz University.

Mehr claims it was from a gas station explosion.

PressTV quotes officials denying the story altogether.

The secret flotilla negotiations between Turkey and Israel

Claire Berlinski, one of the best observers and reporters out of Turkey, has a must-read article on what happened during the negotiations between Israel and Turkey over the Palmer report on the flotilla:

The Turkish journalist Kadri Gürsel published an interesting piece the other day inMillyet about the failure of the negotiations between Turkey and Israel to normalize relations in the wake of the Mavi Marmara fiasco. Kadri Gürsel is a journalist whose work and opinions I take seriously; here, for example, he's written a thoughtful piece in Turkish Policy Quarterly that will help you locate him in the spectrum of Turkish political opinion.

Gürsel first places the blame for the failure of the negotiations on the Turkish foreign ministry's incompetence (he uses the more tactful phrase "lack of experience," but the Turkish foreign ministry is hardly inexperienced, so I assume we're to read between the lines). He then moves to what has become something of a standard narrative in Turkey and elsewhere: that the deal was "95 percent completed," but fell through only because of Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman's intransigence:

But the deal was never “100 percent complete” because in Israel, the obstacle, the extreme of the extreme Lieberman was not overcome. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could not persuade Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for an apology and compensation. And the Turkey-Israel secret negotiations that started after the U.N. Investigation Panel was formed in August 2010, collapsed in June following the days when the draft agreement was prepared.

Matters in this “duplex channel” were held tight. The Israeli member of the U.N. Investigation Committee, Joseph Ciechanover and Ambassador Özdem Sanberk, who represented Turkey on the panel, were also negotiating through the duplex channel. The head of the panel Geoffrey Palmer and his deputy Alvaro Uribe, even if they were aware of that secret negotiations were conducted between the two countries, they did not know that Ciechanover and Sanberk were the participants. The “duplex channel” held meetings in Geneva, Bucharest and Rome.

Despite all, this draft agreement could be the operational basis for a new normalization process between Turkey and Israel. Of course, if it is possible to persuade Lieberman in the light of new situations in the Middle East.

I asked an Israeli official who was close to these negotiations--and who has thus far never provided me with information that has proved unreliable--for comment. This is what he said:

I've seen the "draft deal" and the formula for apology includes indeed the English word "apologize", though the phrase “operational mistakes that caused life losses and injuries to Turkish people” was preceded by an "if." (I can't remember the exact wording, but it went something like: Israel apologizes if there were any operational mistakes etc ... ) This was the mutually agreed formula, and by using the conditional mode, it was possible for us to apologize without admitting that we actually did something wrong, which of course we believe we didn't.

It is also correct that we agreed to pay compensations (through a bi-national fund, not directly), though the Turks did not specify at that point how much they thought would be reasonable. We thought the details and the sum could be worked out later on, based on mutual trust that would arise from the approval of the package deal.

Turkey, however, did not guarantee that "Turkish citizens and their legal representatives would not take legal action against Israel." It agreed to promise not to prosecute Israelis, but explained it could commit itself on behalf of private citizens in Turkey or abroad. This made some Israelis suspicious: what would happen if we endorsed the deal, and then had to face suits by members of the Turkish public, maybe even with covert assistance by the government? What guarantee did we have that the "deal" would actually end all claims and enable Israel and Turkey to reconcile and restart their relationship? This suspicion grew stronger in light of Turkey's insistence that the text should state that Israeli soldiers killed activists "intentionally." Why insist on this admission of guilt if not to enable legal action? As Gürsel himself says, this text which the Israeli government was supposed to approve was not completely agreed upon by Turkey, because they still wanted to include the intentionality wording. Even if the Israeli government had approved the draft, it would have left us with Turkish disavowal and discontent.

Another condition set forth by the Turks, and agreed to by Israel, was shelving the Palmer Report. Strange that Gürsel should say nothing of this, since he starts his discussion with the meaning of the Report to Turkey. The Turks were very keen on making the report disappear …

Finally, when it all came down to a discussion in the Israeli Cabinet, it wasn't just Lieberman who was reluctant to approve the whole package deal. Others, too, did not exactly trust Erdoğan, and raised doubts as to his real intentions: what would we get in return for the (indirect) apology, the compensations and the shelving of the report? Restoring ties with Ankara and an "end of conflict." But what if, after all was said and done, Erdoğan would claim that not all of his conditions were met? That Israel did not fulfill the requirements? All of a sudden, he speaks about lifting the siege on Gaza as a condition – but it was never mentioned in the negotiations nor in the draft! How easily it could have served as a pretext not to restore ties. And as for taking legal action against Israelis, well … With the intentionality clause still open, and with Turkey's non-commitment to stop private suits, and with the Palmer Report scrapped, where would it all lead us? Certainly not to an end of conflict, but rather to a further deterioration, with us in an inferior position.

This is the reason why quite a few ministers refused to endorse the draft. The Turkish anger at the leak of the Palmer Report, and Davutoğlu's hot-headed reaction and statements, only seemed to confirm our worst doubts: they were never in earnest to begin with.

(h/t Mike)

Hamas again emphasizes "armed resistance;" Fatah tacitly agrees

From Ma'an:

Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan said Sunday that armed resistance remains a strategic option for Palestinians, while affirming that popular action was also an integral part of challenging Israel's policies.

Radwan told Ma'an: "All aspects of resistance are open and permissible and open to us."

But he stressed that it is the Palestinian factions who must decide on the ways to challenge Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.

The comments come after Islamic Jihad said on Sunday it would support a Palestinian consensus on strategies to resist the occupation, but on condition that popular actions do not become a substitute for armed resistance.

After Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal and Fatah leader President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo on Thursday to progress implementation of a unity deal between the two largest political parties, the leaders said they were united in their approach to the Palestinian cause.

As we have shown countless times before, even the so-called "moderates" of Fatah and the PA have not once denounced terrorism on moral grounds, but only because it was counterproductive at that time. But if they decide it is desirable again, terrorism is back on the table.

Meaning that there is no difference between Fatah and Hamas in terms of "resistance."

Indeed, in that aspect, they are united.