Fatah official:Fatah never recognized Israel's right to exist

Dahlan to Hamas: Never recognize Israel

Mar. 17, 2009
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST

Former Fatah security commander Muhammad Dahlan on Tuesday called on Hamas not to recognize Israel's right to exist, pointing out that Fatah had never recognized it.

This was the first time since the beginning of the peace process 15 years ago that a senior Fatah official has said that his faction does not recognize Israel's right to exist.

Dahlan's remarks were made in an interview with the Palestinian Authority's official Palestine TV station.

Dahlan, who has kept a low profile ever since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, resurfaced during Operation Cast Lead. Since then, he has made several public appearances, the latest being last Friday when he was seen praying next to PA President Mahmoud Abbas in a Ramallah mosque.

Fatah officials said that Dahlan's return to the center stage is an indication of his desire to play a role in any post-Abbas administration. They said that Dahlan was recently appointed as a special adviser to Abbas.

Dahlan confirmed that he was "providing advice and ideas" to Abbas, especially regarding to the reconciliation talks with Hamas that were launched in Cairo last week.

Until Operation Cast Lead, Dahlan was rarely seen in public. His aides said that after the Hamas "coup," he and scores of top Fatah operatives moved to Egypt.

Hamas said it was forced to drive the Fatah men out of the Gaza Strip because they were preparing, with the help of the US, to stage a coup against the Hamas government.

In the interview, Dahlan was asked about reports that Fatah was demanding that Hamas recognize Israel's right to exist as a precondition for the establishment of a Palestinian "unity government." He called the reports "misleading" and said Hamas was "putting words in our mouths."

Dahlan added: "They say that Fatah has asked them to recognize Israel's right to exist and this is a big deception. For the one thousandth time, I want to reaffirm that we are not asking Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist. Rather, we are asking Hamas not to do so because Fatah never recognized Israel's right to exist."

He explained that it was the PLO, and not Fatah, which recognized Israel's right to exist when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

Fatah is the largest faction in the PLO. The second largest faction is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

"We acknowledge that the PLO did recognize Israel's right to exist, but we are not bound by it as a resistance faction," he added.

Dahlan boasted that the PA under Yasser Arafat had killed more Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel than Hamas.

"I want to point out that the Palestinian Authority under Abu Ammar [Arafat's nom du guerre] targeted collaborators 10 times more than Hamas," he said. "We put many of them on trial and executed many others. But we did this in accordance with the law and not the Hamas way."

Dahlan revealed that Hamas had executed without trial a number of bodyguards who escorted Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam, who was killed in an IAF raid on his brother's house in Gaza City during Operation Cast Lead.

Dahlan expressed discontent over Fatah's failure to convene its long-awaited sixth general conference, ever since the last general conference meeting 20 years ago. The conference is supposed to pave the way for holding internal elections in Fatah - a move that is likely to see the rise of "young guard" Fatah members like Dahlan to key decision-making positions in the faction.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1237114855755&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

A senior Fatah leader, Muhammad Dahlan, admitted March 16, 2009 on Palestinian Authority television that Fatah - just like Hamas - still does not recognize Israel.

Furthermore, he said that the Palestinian Authority's apparent "recognition" is to make the PA "acceptable" to the international community, and therefore allow it to continue to receive international aid:


"I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel even today."


It is only the Palestinian Authority government, Dahlan insisted, that must "recognize" Israel - not out of conviction or sincerity, but in order to receive the needed help of the international community. This help would not come, says Dahlan, if the PA government did not "recognize" Israel.

The inherent contradiction between the Fatah, headed by "Chairman" Mahmoud Abbas, not recognizing Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, headed by "President" Mahmoud Abbas, "recognizing" Israel, was not challenged by the interviewer.

This is not merely Dahlan's opinion but apparently official PA ideology. It is nearly identical to the 2006 declaration made by Mahmoud Abbas himself that while PA ministers have to "recognize" Israeli ministers across a negotiating table, for functional purposes, this does not imply political recognition by Fatah of Israel:


"Hamas is not required to recognize Israel... It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel."
-- From Palestinian Media Watch http://www.pmw.org.il

Olmert: This is our final offer to Hamas

After meeting with Shalit family, Olmert gives special address to nation to explain failure of talks aimed at releasing abducted soldier: 'Israel's government, as long as it is headed by me, will not agree to Hamas' dictations,' he says
Roni Sofer  Ynetnews   March 17, 2009

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a special address to the nation on Tuesday evening, in which he elaborated on the failure of the negotiations aimed at securing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release.

 

"We won't agree to the release of additional prisoners from Hamas' list beyond the hundreds we have agreed to release," he said, stressing that "we will not relay a new offer to Hamas."

 

The prime minister stressed that the cabinet ministers had chosen not to hold a detailed discussion on the matter due to its sensitivity.

 

He added, however, that "all ministers accepted the conclusions of the delegates (to the negotiations), that Hamas' current conditions prevent the possibility of completing the talks and returning Gilad Shalit home."

 

Olmert stressed that he would not give in to Hamas. "The Israeli government, as long as it is headed by me, will not agree to Hamas' dictations as presented to the negotiating team.

 

"The Israeli offers presented to the other side were generous and far-reaching and were meant to lead to Gilad's release. I approved these offers, whose practical meaning was to release hundreds of terrorists, including murderers of Israelis, in return for Shalit's possible release. These offers were rejected."

 

'Our red lines won't be crossed'

The prime minister said that he would not relay additional offers to Hamas' representatives and put the ball in their court. "We won’t agree to the release of additional prisoners from the Hamas list beyond the hundreds we agreed to release and informed them of," he said.

 

Shalit family watches PM's address (Photo: Orly Zeiler)

 

Olmert stated that he had made every effort to release the kidnapped soldier. "We have acted over the years tirelessly, in hidden, bold, unprecedented ways in order to return our children home. That's what we did to bring Gilad back, so far unsuccessfully."

 

He said that he plans to continue his efforts to release Shalit. "We'll talk to whomever we can. We won't cease our efforts. Throughout these years we held meetings on numerous channels – in different places in the world, in the region and in distant places – in order to create a route which would cause the efforts for Gilad's release to mature.

 

"We were assisted by different mediators, leaders and heads of states, as well as unofficial representatives. We didn’t spare any effort," he said.

 

The prime minister went on to point a finger to the Gaza Strip. "Unfortunately, we encountered a cruel, murderous and merciless body, lacking any basic human emotions, which was unwilling to accept the challenge.

 

"I would like to say here on behalf of the State of Israel and its government: We have red lines. We won't cross them. We are not a defeated nation, we are not a beaten country. A people which wishes to live and is surrounded by hostile countries, threatened by murderous terror organizations, cannot, is unwilling and will not give in to their dictations."

 

Olmert said he embraced the Shalit family and would continue the efforts to release Gilad. "We will continue the efforts to bring about Gilad Shalit's release these days as well."

 

He said that the Shalit family "knows that I am committed wholeheartedly to work with the entire government in order to bring Gilad back home. That's what I have done and that's what I will do," Olmert concluded.

 

Prisoners' conditions to be worsened?

In a special cabinet meeting convened Tuesday afternoon, the government appointed a special ministerial committee headed by Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to examine ways to pressure Hamas, including forming regulations which would compare the conditions of Hamas prisoners jailed in Israel to those of Gilad Shalit.

 

The kidnapped soldier's family met with the prime minister at the end of the meeting. Gilad's father, Noam, sounded slightly optimistic, saying shortly afterwards, "Olmert has not given up."

 

All the defense officials who spoke during the cabinet meeting said that accepting Hamas' conditions would heavily damage the State of Israel, excluding IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

 

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, Olmert's special emissary Ofer Dekel, Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin and other professionals stressed that holding the negotiations at the same time as the comprehensive public and media campaign damaged the Israeli side.

 

According to the defense officials, Hamas went back on agreements reached in the past and was convinced that due to the public pressure Israel would agree to release all 450 prisoners, although Israel only agreed to free 320 of them.

 

Basically, the Palestinians are still fighting the War of 1948

 

Commentator Yossi Klein Halevi, in a column in the Globe & Mail, notes  " [T]he continuing refusal of the Palestinian leadership, and much of the Arab leadership generally, to accept the legitimacy of a Jewish state in any borders.

 

 Not even moderate Palestinian leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas have told their people that the Jews are here to stay, that this land must be shared by two peoples.

 

Instead, the Palestinian media — of Fatah as well as Hamas — continues to tell its people that the Jews are thieves and usurpers, and that eventually the entirety of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River will belong to them."

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wessay0314/BNStory/specialComment/home

 

Yet how many people believe that:

 

(a) the Palestinian leadership is only posturing?

(b) the real issue in the conflict is the presence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank?

(c) Fatah, with its Al Aksa Martyr's Brigade, is ready to deliver peace?

(d)  the Palestinian people are prepared to accept peace with Israel?

(e) there is a real possibility that Hamas can change its positions?

 

And we can go on listing other improbable assumptions.

 

//Mark Finkelstein

March 18: Public meeting with Israel's Consul General to the Midwest

The Jewish Community Relations Commission of the Jewish Federation and Beth El Jacob Synagogue are honored to announce a public meeting with

 

                                               Consul General Orli Gil

                                               Head of Mission

                                               Israel Consulate to the Midwest,  Chicago

 

 

 

                                               Wednesday, March 18, 2009

 

                                                              7:00 pm

                                            

                                  at  Beth El Jacob Synagogue  954 Cummins Parkway in Des Moines

 

 

For further information, contact  jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

FW: Letter in today's Ames Tribune

http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2009/03/05/ames_tribune/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/doc49b00364b8fb1468017397.prt

Ames Tribune > Opinion

Israel doesn¹t need to be justified

Published: Thursday, March 5, 2009

Why do Irish, Brazilians, Moroccans or Germans need a homeland? Has a letter in The Tribune ever posed the question ³Why do Irish, Brazilians, Moroccans or Germans need a homeland?² Obviously not! Yet, a letter titled: ³Why do Jews need a homeland?² (R.K. Richards, Feb. 13) singles out the Jewish nation and Israel to justify its existence. Indeed, this very question reveals ignorance, bias, anti-Semitism, or a combination thereof.

History records the endless saga of shifting borders, population movements and the creation of new countries. Of the world¹s 195 countries, 112 were established after 1948, the year of Israel¹s founding. Israel¹s existence is a fact grounded in reality, and it does not need to be justified any more than the existence of Azerbaijan, Chad, Greece or the U.S.

Moreover, it was the Arab and Palestinian rejection in 1947 of U.N. Partition Resolution 181 followed by the attempt in 1948 of five Arab countries to obliterate Israel, which resulted in the flight of 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes. Many of those Palestinians were newcomers, recent arrivals from neighboring Arab countries.

In parallel, 850,000 Jews were expelled from, or fled, Arab countries in the wake of bloody pogroms. Most of those Jewish refugees settled in Israel, became productive citizens, and their descendants now comprise half of Israel¹s Jewish population, refuting the depiction of Israel as a European entity. Palestinian leaders and Arab countries, on the other hand, continue to classify the original Palestinian refugees and their descendents as refugees, all the while blaming Israel for this situation. For 60 years, they have refused to dismantle the refugee camps, maintaining them as a constant source of terrorists.

No established country is expected to ³justify² its existence. Nevertheless, replying to Richards¹ seemingly innocent question, why do Jews need their own homeland any more than Baptists, atheists, or left-handed people, serves an educational purpose.

Judaism consists of two major components: nationhood and religion. Judaism emerged 4,000 years ago in the form of the Hebrew nation residing in Canaan.. That new nation introduced a religious/philosophical revolution - ethical monotheism. From 1250 B.C. until 70 A.D., a span of 1320 years, this nation possessed a state in the Land of Israel, rendering the Jewish nation indigenous to that land. Following the Roman Empire¹s destruction of the country in 70 AD, accompanied by the slaying and expulsion of most of its population, Jews found themselves stripped of their homeland and state. Nevertheless, for the next 1,900 years, they continually maintained a community in Israel, while their Diaspora brethren were subjected to endless persecution, pogroms, expulsions, discrimination, forced conversions, and finally genocide - the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were systematically annihilated by Nazi Germany and its many willing European collaborators.  Fortunately, the feverish attempts by the foremost Palestinian leader, Hajj Amin Al Husseini, a Nazi collaborator, to extend the Jewish genocide to Palestine, were foiled by the termination of World War II.

Jews, as a nation, need a homeland for the same reasons that Greeks, French, or Brazilians need one, to protect their physical integrity and to nurture their unique culture. Israel is the only place where Jews can defend themselves without relying on the goodwill of others, which historically rarely existed. In fact, 80 percent of Israeli Jews do not consider themselves religious, but rather members of the Jewish nation and citizens of the State of Israel.

Israel¹s Law of Return is very similar to the present Greek law, which does not require an ancestor who held citizenship, or who was born in the ³homeland², requiring only some evidence of membership in the ethnic and religious community of the ancient Greek Diaspora. Other countries that provide immigration privileges to individuals with a measure of ethnic ties include Ireland, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Chile, and the United Kingdom.

In ³Why the Jews? The reasons for anti-Semitism², Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin write: ³The major difference between anti-Semites throughout Jewish history and today¹s anti-Zionists is only which component of Judaism each found the most intolerable: Medieval Christian anti-Semites found the Jews religious beliefs intolerable; today anti-Zionists loathe the Jews' national commitment.²

Ronata Dermansky

West Des Moines

Palestinian tractor driver shot while rampaging in central Jerusalem

March 5, 2009, 1:46 PM Israel time (GMT+02:00)

The Palestinian tractor hoisted a police van, injuring two police officers, in downtown Jerusalem at the corner of the Begin and Golomb highways in heavy traffic near the Malha shopping mall. As the tractor driver tried to toss the police van with his shovel onto a bus packed with schoolgirls, a passing taxi driver pulled a gun and shot him dead, cutting the rampage short before it claimed more victims on the jampacked highway.

This was the third time a Palestinian terrorist used a tractor to smash vehicles in downtown Jerusalem.