This week, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced that before the end of the year there would be elections held for the Palestinian National Council, the legislative body of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), consisting of 300 members. In addition to his activity in the PA, Abbas is Chair of the PLO.
If the election is actually held, it will be the first one since 2006.
(I note here that Abbas is routinely referred to as “president” of the PA, but I refrain from doing so: Abbas was elected president of the PA in 2005, for a four-year term, a term which was then extended by one year. Subsequently, he was permitted to remain in office indefinitely; there has been no presidential election in 20 years.)
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The motivation for this announcement by Abbas is clear: he is looking forward to the end of the war in Gaza and the possibility of an administrative role there for the PA. Thus does he wish to present the PLO as democratic and reformed.
Israel is unequivocally opposed to PA involvement in Gaza. At this point it is important to stop and take a hard look at what the PA and the PLO truly are.
This is a posting that should be saved for future reference and broadly shared.
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On July 10, there was a combined shooting and stabbing terror attack in front of a supermarket at the Gush Etzion junction, during which 22-year-old Israeli Shalev Zevuloni was murdered.
The two terrorists who perpetrated the attack had studied in Qatar and then returned to Judea & Samaria. They were taken out by Israeli security at the scene of the murder.
They were both members of the Palestinian Authority Security Services.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-860679
The PA did not condemn the murder of Zevuloni; rather it praised the terrorists by referring to them as shahids, martyrs.
The ultimate irony in this instance is that at about the same time that the terror attack occurred, Abbas was reaching out to the US with a proposal that the PA be included in the negotiations for the Gaza ceasefire – in particular, he suggested that the PA should be involved in discussions for long-term security arrangements in Gaza because they may be involved in the control of Gaza after the war.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-860550
The effrontery of this move takes the breath away! It signals clearly that the PA plays a double-game and thinks they can get away with it.
What renders all of this so very offensive is that the Gush Etzion attack was hardly an exception; the PA Security Forces (PASF) are deeply embroiled in terrorism.
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In 2021, Jabil Rajoub, secretary-general of the Fatah Central Committee (Fatah is the predominant party of the PA and PLO), declared that “12% of all the prisoners in [Israeli] prisons are members of the [PA] security forces…I salute our prisoners and the families of our martyrs in Jenin and everywhere in our homeland. I believe that they are models of heroism.”
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Just three days after the murder of Zevuloni, Palestinian Media Watch released a report: “Terrorists in Uniform: A Study of Palestinian Authority Security Forces’ Terror Involvement.”
From its conclusions: “The Palestinian Authority’s Security Forces are deeply and fundamentally involved in terror. Their terror involvement is not condemned by the PA or Fatah, rather it is glorified as an essential and heroic part of their role in the PASF.” (Emphasis in the original.)
https://palwatch.org/page/37213
An executive summary of the Report can be found here:
https://palwatch.org/page/37213#terrorists-in-uniform
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Abbas wears a suit and tie, but he should not thus be mistaken for a moderate: he is essentially Hamas in a suit and tie: different façade and operating tactics, same ideology and ultimate goal.
Not only has Abbas never condemned the atrocities of October 7, there was praise for this massacre from the PA. Jabil Rajoub (cited above) referred to it as a “defensive war full of epics and heroics that the Palestinian people have been fighting for 75 years.” Iyad Jarrad, Fatah Tulkarm Branch Secretary, declared that October 7 was “a source of pride, heroism and honor for the Palestinian people.”
There were calls for the PA to emulate what Hamas had done. Jamal al-Huwail, a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, declared, “Inshallah, we may see similar scenes in the West Bank”.
And in fact, Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed that its fighters had participated in October 7. Its spokesperson released “videos of terrorists abducting and taunting victims from Israel, wearing clearly recognizable yellow scarves associated with Fatah (as opposed to the green color associated with Hamas). “
https://idsf.org.il/en/papers/palestinian-authority-and-fatah/
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But it is not just PA/Fatah leaders that take pride in what happened on October 7: it is the people more broadly. According to a poll released on June 12, 2024, by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, “More than two-thirds of Palestinians support Hamas’s decision to launch a killing spree.” (Other sources say three-quarters.) Only nine percent of Palestinian Arabs think that Hamas has committed war crimes; 63 percent support armed intifada.
There is a very basic explanation for this attitude, which is pervasive amongst Palestinian Arabs in Judea & Samaria: education.
For many years, PA schools have relied heavily upon educational materials provided by UNRWA – the very same educational materials that were utilized by UNRWA schools in Gaza and fostered the Hamas mentality.
IMPACT-se, an NGO dedicated to the study of education in the Middle East, recently released a new report exposing the inciteful and anti-Semitic nature of these textbooks and curricular materials. It’s all there: glorifying acts of terrorism and promoting extremist ideologies. The more recent textbooks justify and praise the October 7 massacre.
See:
I hope to have additional information on this situation shortly. But what is clear is that a “moderate” PA is not possible without years of re-education of the populace. There are no genuine moderates in the PA. Depending upon a sham “reform” – such as was promoted by a clueless Antony Blinken when he was secretary of state – is a dangerous delusion.
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The PLO – which was subsequently recognized as representing all Palestinian Arabs – was founded in 1964, at a meeting of the Arab League, in Jordan-occupied eastern Jerusalem. Influential in this decision was Egypt’s president, Gamal Abdul Nasser. The first chair was Ahmad Shuqueiri, a Nasser protégé.
Its goal was the “liberation” of Palestine: “Palestine,” for their purposes, was Israel within the Green Line. Egypt had occupied Gaza since the War of Independence, as Jordan occupied Judea & Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. The original PLO charter made it clear that there were no claims against Egypt or Jordan – no attempt to “liberate” the areas they occupied because they belonged to the Palestinian Arabs.
After 1967, when Israel liberated Gaza, Judea & Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, then, suddenly, there were claims against Israel’s control of there areas. The goal, quite simply, was to take down Israel.
Once Israel secured control of eastern Jerusalem, the PLO moved to Jordan. By 1968, Fatah, which embraced a militant nationalist position, had become its dominant faction. Yasser Arafat, a founder of Fatah, became the chair and remained in that position until his death in 2004.
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Arafat was a terrorist and an advocate of violence to the core. He never modified. Under his direction, the PLO established connections with radicals and revolutionaries in places such as Cuba, the Soviet Union, China and Algeria, and in later days with Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Members of the PLO received instruction and assistance from these various groups. The PLO – with its penchant for violence and causing disruptions – was forced to leave Jordan, moved to Lebanon, and subsequently to Algeria.
In the 1970s, the PLO adopted a policy of massive terror attacks: the murder of Israeli athletes at 1972 Munich Olympics; a raid in Ma’alot that killed 21 Israeli youngsters; hijacking of the Achille Lauro; etc.
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The original policy of the PLO had been securing the “liberation” of all of “Palestine” in one operation. After the Yom Kippur War in 1973, it became obvious that this was not going to happen.
And so, the PLO adopted what was called the “Phased Program.” It is essential to understand this in order to understand the PLO/PA today.
With this policy, the PLO established a readiness to give an impression of moderation – even for the first time including operating in the political arena, thus securing international credibility. This new policy condoned diplomatic agreements with Israel, if these agreements served the purpose of weakening Israel and providing the PLO with a foothold in the land. As PA minister Nabil Sha’ath said, “We decided to liberate our homeland step by step.” (www.middleeastfacts.com/quotes.html)
This policy made possible the Oslo Accords (signed in 1993 and 95). Unfortunately, the Israeli government, which was eager for peace, failed to recognize the duplicity of the PLO. It took only a day after Arafat signed the first accord for him to privately reassure his followers that they should not be disturbed – when the time was right, he would turn on Israel, emulating the practice of Mohammed.
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The Palestinian National Authority came into being as a function of Oslo: In 1994, a Gaza-Jericho First agreement was signed. Israel withdrew from those areas, and the PA, a quasi-governmental administrative entity, was established to administer them. It was anticipated that it would exist only for five years, after which time a final resolution was to have been negotiated.
Over time, an additional area was accorded to the PA, in roughly 39% of Judea & Samaria. (The PA lost control of Gaza when Hamas instituted a violent coup in 2007, and it is this area over which the PA seeks to again secure control).
A final resolution was never achieved because Arafat had no intention of signing on to a peace agreement that would recognize the existence of Israel, in any defined borders, with end of conflict. That would have been a betrayal of the defined goals of the PLO and in an interview he confessed that he would probably have been killed by his people had he been guilty of this betrayal. He (thankfully) turned down very generous offers made first by then prime minister Ehud Barak (2000) and then prime minister Ehud Olmert (2008).
Arafat never honored the terms of the Accords. Most importantly, while he signed on to an agreement requiring him to combat terrorism, he continued to promote it viciously. The accord that was supposed to bring peace, brought a PLO presence inside our borders, and resulted in a painful number of Israeli deaths.
(There is great overlap in PA and PLO personnel and policy. Oft-times focus is on the PA.)
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It should not be imagined, even remotely, that all that I wrote above is relevant only with regard to Yasser Arafat, and that Abbas is more moderate!! He was a co-founder of Fatah and a protégé of Arafat. He espouses the same radical ideology as Arafat did and continues to foster and incite terrorism.
Neither Abbas nor anyone else speaking for the PA/PLO, should ever be accorded authority in any area of Israel, including Gaza. No one speaking for the PA/PLO should be trusted with regard to their professed motivations.
The last time the PLO charter was amended was 1968. Within its extensive text we find these statements:
“The phase in their history through which the Palestinian people are now living is that of national struggle for the liberation of Palestine (8)….Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine…The Palestinian Arab people assert their absolute determination…to continue their armed struggle (9)…The participation of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal (19)…The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history.”
https://www.gov.il/en/pages/the-palestinian-national-charter
Be forewarned. Let us pray that we are stronger and wiser now.
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I ask for prayers for all of Am Yisrael.
Pray for the wisdom and courage of our leaders.
Pray for the safety of our soldiers as they fight.
Pray for the recovery of all hostages.
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©Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by independent journalist Arlene Kushner. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution.
