Israel recently announced plans to release funds to "Fatah" dominated Palestinian authority on the West Bank as both Israel and the United States have wanted to bolster Fatah viewing them as a more moderate movement to Hamas.
Pro-Israel Republican Presidential Candidate Rudy Giuliani speaking this week said, "...we must not be fooled again...let us not become starry romantics like we were with Arafat, where he was leading us down the promise path and we were helping him get the Noble Peace Prize..." Mr. Giuliani suggested that we need to bolster Fatah with the help of Israel, Egypt & Jordan.
Just wait for a moment Mr. Giuliani, lets slow down, take a breath, step back and look at this again.
A policy paper published by former Brigadier General Shalom Harari (now a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel) said that he "...estimates that 40% of Fatah's fighting groups are funded by Iran...On January 3, 2002 a chartered ship from Karine-A was intercepted by Israel on its way to deliver a large cache of weapons to the Palestinian Authority (PA) from Iran. The PA was led by Fatah and Arafat, the cache contained a large supply of explosives and missiles to use against Israel. Just two months later, an Israel raid on a Jericho Prison yielded a number of documents detailing the arms deal between the PA and Iran, some of the documents included lists submitted by the Al-Aqsa Brigades cell itemizing ammunition needs and machinery needed for making explosive devices...a key player was Fuad al-Shobaki who admitted during questioning by Mossad how he was tasked by Arafat to purchase weapons using funds provided from aid money sent from U.S. Charities..."
In an Intelligence Assessment presented to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee by Brigadier General Ronen Cohen of IDF Intelligence yesterday, Brig. General Cohen said, "...despite the brutal process Gaza has gone through...Hamas desires to return to dialogue with regional Arab states as well as with the PA Leader Mahmoud Abbas....preparations can be made for the existence of two PA entities for a long period of time in Central Gaza. Hamas is now in Control with the support of an Islamic regime that will try to prove to the people that it is not corrupt...as Hamas establishes itself in Gaza, it's ability to transmit money and weapons will grow and it will increase its military strength, the long term goal is to spread the Islamic regime over the region."
We must remember that it was Fatah's Abbas that refused to disarm militants even after continued terrorist attacks, that a Palestinian Mother of two became a suicide bomber and blew herself up at the main crossing between Israel and Gaza in 2004 killing 4 innocent people, she was later identified as a Hamas member Reem Al-Reyashi. Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility. Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) has called Israel, "...the Zionist enemy and had written a book, "The Other Side: The Secret Relations between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement" (his doctoral dissertation) in which he like Iranian President Ahmadinejad, denies the Holocaust. In a speech in January, Abbas claimed, "...our rifles all our rifles are aimed at Israel..." that spilling the blood of Israelis was permitted while explicitly saying that spilling the blood of Islamics was a crime.
A tiger can not change his stripes and there is no difference between the terrorist groups Fatah and Hamas.
