Palestinians fool us again

It’s a curious thing, the inclination to perceive moderation in current Palestinian leadership when there is, in fact, precious little, if any.

The most recent case in point: On Oct. 12, the political “reconciliation” between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was received with optimism, by Egypt, Jordan, the EU and UN. This initiative, brokered by Egypt, is thought, perhaps, to signal serious intentions from the Palestinians to negotiate a lasting peace with Israel. Not likely. In February, Hamas put Sinwar in charge of the Gaza Strip. Even within Hamas circles (which are pretty hardcore) Sinwar is considered to be extreme, with deep ties to terrorist networks and the Hamas security and intelligence force. He is also reputed to have a penchant for executing alleged “collaborators” with Israel at point blank range.

Abbas, praised in the West as a “moderate,” rules the West Bank with an iron fist. The hatred between Hamas — listed as a terrorist organization in most civilized countries — and Abbas’s Fatah, a subgroup of the PLO and a political rival to Hamas, is deeply entrenched and is certainly no secret. They aren’t teaming up to negotiate peace.

Since 2006, Hamas has promoted its Islamist agenda in Gaza. Any whiff of democracy has been expunged. There are no civil or political rights to speak of. The significant foreign aid donated by the West for civilian use is diverted by Hamas to its over- and under-ground terrorist infrastructure and to enforce fundamentalist Islam throughout Gaza. Not only does that translate into unrelenting propaganda and anti-Israeli incitement, but oppression of women and the routine and socially accepted murder of homosexuals.

And then there’s Abbas and his Palestinian Authority. He was last elected for a fouryear term in 2005. His legitimacy, it seems, is his longevity. Like Hamas, his government has a less-than-liberal view of civil and political freedoms, particularly with respect to LGBTQ rights. Western “progressives” are, strangely, silent about that.

They are also silent on the very clear commitments in the PLO Charter, which functions as the Fatah political manifesto, and the Hamas Covenant. Both groups’ constitutions very unambiguously call for the destruction of the state of Israel. (In the post-Oslo period, Fatah failed to honour its commitment to appropriately amend its incendiary charter.) Hamas, consistent with its fundamentalist theocratic base, elevates it from a call to a sacred duty.

This “reconciliation,” ostensibly a boost to the possibility of meaningful talks between a unified Palestinian government and Israel, is in reality all about money and not any profound shift in ideology or sudden urge on the part of the Palestinians to engage in peace negotiations.

One of Hamas’s major funders is Qatar, which in June was hit with an embargo by a Sunni-led coalition to isolate it diplomatically and economically. The reason? Qatar’s support for Shiite extremists such as Hamas and Hezbollah (which, effectively controls Lebanon and swaths of Syria).

Qatari funds are drying up. Hamas has no money to pay its civil servants or improve living conditions for its people. The international aid it gets is being diverted to build and expand the stateof-the-art underground tunnel system it uses to attack civilians and soldiers inside Israel.

Abbas saw a political advantage and seized it, sidling up to Sinwar, and to try yet again, to regain control over the Gaza Strip that Hamas seized from the PA 10 years ago. He hopes to marginalize Hamas and expand his sphere of control. The reconciliation this month, portrayed as a Palestinian gesture to encourage peace negotiations with Israel, was in fact a straightforward power play in internal Palestinian politics.

When the announcement was made, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying he would negotiate peace with a unified Palestinian entity, with the following provisos: That the PA/Hamas government recognize the state of Israel; that Hamas disarm and renounce terror; and that Hamas’s relationship with Iran, another of its major supporters, be severed. All but the Iran condition are consistent with the Quartet Principles, developed by Russia, the U.K., U.S. and Germany and endorsed by the UN in 2008, to promote Palestinian-Israeli peace.

And so optimists and the naïve allowed themselves to wonder if this reconciliation would finally be the dawn of a new era in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Fun fact: There has been a different “reconciliation” ballyhooed almost every year since Hamas won the last open elections ever held in the Gaza Strip in 2006. And it wasn’t long before the hopes for this one were dashed, too.

Almost immediately following the “reconciliation” announcement, Yahya Sinwar declared that “Over is the time Hamas spent discussing recognizing Israel. Now Hamas will discuss when we will wipe out Israel.” As for Israel’s insistence that Hamas disarm, Sinwar said that would only happen “when Satan enters paradise.”

The reality is that neither the “moderate” Abbas nor the terrorist Sinwar have ever acceded to formal recognition of the state of Israel. In light of this continued rejectionism, it was particularly disheartening to hear the response of the otherwise very highly regarded UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nicholas Mladenov, to Sinwar’s threats. “I condemn the latest statements made by some Hamas leaders calling for the destruction of the State of Israel,” he said. “They do not serve the interest of peace and the goal of achieving a negotiated twostate solution.”

“Some” Hamas leaders? You won’t find a single dissenting voice among the entire Hamas leadership. Or among the PA leadership, for that matter.