Documenting Palestinian Criminality
We are told, day after day, that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is a genuine moderate committed to achieving a peace settlement with Israel. In addition to the international community, even some Israelis – admittedly a dwindling minority – also chant this mantra…writes Isi Leibler.
Isi Leibler
Abbas and his spokesman Saeb Erekat bolster this theme by uttering soothing statements in English, endorsing peace to the gullible international community. Yet they speak with forked tongues because in Arabic to their own people, they deny Israel’s right to exist and promote vicious hatred against Jews.
They also claim to have reneged violence. But the PA never conceded that terrorism was immoral. They simply concluded that having failed to achieve their objectives by violence, their goals could best be promoted by temporarily suspending terrorism in order to gain Western support. Abbas made it clear that he “had the honor of firing the first shot in 1965” and was only opposed to terrorist attacks “at this time” for tactical reasons and that “in the future things may change.” Yet, even within this framework, Fatah has still succeeded in killing more Israelis than Hamas.
The true objectives of the PA are reflected in the poisonous hatred against Jews and Israel inculcated to their people through the broad range of institutions they control, permeating every level of society– from kindergarten and upwards.
This can be traced to the very inception of the Oslo Accords. Before that, the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis, whilst far from ideal, was certainly better than now, when polls indicate that 84% of Palestinians endorse the murder of Israelis.
In addition to denying Jewish sovereignty, the PA from the outset indulged in the most horrendous demonization, describing Jews as the descendants of apes and pigs, comparing them to Nazis whilst simultaneously praising Hitler, accusing them of stealing Palestinian body parts, using human blood during Passover, promoting AIDs, and many other loathsome blood libels.
This defamatory torrent impacts directly on Israel’s diminished standing in the international community.
In response to this, an important book compiled by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik titled “Deception: Betraying the Peace Process”, has just been released. It meticulously documents the poisonous behavior of the Palestinian Authority during 2010 and 2011 throughout the broad range of institutions they control. It will become an important source for pro-Israeli activists and provide irrefutable evidence in response to those denying the criminality pervading Palestinian society.
Itamar Marcus founded Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) in 1966 as a nonprofit organization to monitor the Palestinian media. Its documentation of Palestinian behavior, including systematically taping State Palestinian TV, became important sources for parliamentarians and serious journalists throughout the world. His briefing of U.S. legislators was a major factor contributing towards the prevailing pro-Israel orientation of Congress and the American people.
The book and the PMW website (www.palwatch.org) chronicle obscene examples of incitement, especially in the wake of the release of the terrorists in the Schalit exchange. Chairman Abbas, who publicly embraced these mass murderers, summed up the PA approach when he stated “every prisoner is for us a saint and we must exult him”. He subsequently appointed Mahmoud Damra, a notorious terrorist, as his advisor.
The state-controlled Palestinian media sanctified the murders committed by the released terrorists. Thus Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who orchestrated the suicide bombing at the Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant which killed 22 civilians including seven children, was quoted proudly proclaiming she would do it again; Abbas al-Sayed who perpetrated the Passover suicide attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya which killed 30 Israelis was described by Abbas as a “hero” and “symbol of the Palestinian Authority”.
Only recently, whilst commemorating the 47th anniversary of Fatah, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, the PAs highest religious authority appointed by Abbas, proclaimed that the killing of Jews was a major Islamic goal required before the Islamic Resurrection. The moderator introducing him, reiterated that “our war against the descendants of apes and pigs is a war of religion and faith”.
And just last week PMW reported how the PA State TV conveyed “greetings” to Hakim Awad, the barbaric and unrepentant murderer of the Vogel family which included a 4 month infant and children aged 3 and 11 years. His mother was honored on the program and conveyed “greetings to dear Hakim, the apple of my eye, who carried out the operation in Itamar, sentenced to 5 life sentences”. His aunt also related to “Hakim Awad, the hero, the legend”. How can people claiming to be promoting human rights conceivably associate themselves with a regime which adulates such monsters on its controlled TV outlets?
The book itself chillingly provides documentation demonstrating how an entire generation is brainwashed into absorbing a culture of death and slaughter. The Palestinian children’s programs promoting hatred and evil are incorporated into textbooks, music videos and summer camps all blatantly indoctrinating the sanctity of Shahada (martyrdom) and murder of Jews.
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, purportedly the most moderate of all Palestinian leaders, is cited for his speech praising four terrorists and sponsoring of a Palestinian children’s summer camp in which the participants were divided into groups labeled with the names of terrorists including a notorious bus hijacker.
Marcus and Zilberdik point out how, in the course of one day, a Palestinian child can walk on a street named after the mass murderer Abu Jihad, to a school named after the founder of Hamas, where he will read hate-filled textbooks, work in a computer room named after a suicide bomber, spend the afternoon at a soccer tournament with the teams named after suicide bombers, go in the evening to the Abu Iyad community center, the orchestrator of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and finally return home to view antisemitic cartoons on TV before going to bed.
After reading this book, a number of questions come to mind.
The U.S. Congress was considering terminating the funding of the PA general budget unless it terminated incitement, glorification of suicide bombers as heroic role models, payment of over $5 million a month for “salaries” to 5500 terrorists in Israeli prisons, and pensions to the families of terrorists. Why did Prime Minister Netanyahu ask them to desist?
Why does Prime Minister Netanyahu so frequently pay lip service to Abbas as a peace partner and, other than very recently, fail to systematically highlight the criminality of the Palestinian leaders? If our Prime Minister agreed not to publicly highlight these evils in order to placate President Obama, we are likely to pay a bitter price. If the civilized world is made aware of the culture of death and hatred which permeate Palestinian society, we would be in a far stronger position in the ongoing war of ideas.
And finally, how can President Obama and Western countries justify their repeated vitriolic condemnations of Israeli construction in Jewish suburbs of Jerusalem and yet have so little to say about a society which indoctrinates its children with such a barbaric worldview? How can Secretary of State Hillary Clinton validate her silence over these issues after having so passionately condemned Palestinian incitement against Israel when she was a Senator?
After reviewing these horrific texts which document such a savage state-imposed Jihadi culture, it is surely delusional to view the current Palestinian leadership as peace partners. Such a calculated policy of deception reflected by the disparity between reality and duplicitous statements designed for foreign consumption is not merely an expression of malice. It is a manifestation of a determined policy to poison the people against any possible accommodation with Israel. It provides a devastating response to the question raised in the introduction to the book. Was a genuine peace process ever intended?
Isi Leibler lives in Jerusalem. He is a former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
To be fair and realistic, the palestinian idea and subsequent entity has been one of the most valuable political instrument for a VARIETY of ideological/pragmatic bases,some seemingly of conflicting posits. The most intriguing to some is the latter use of the palestinian argument by certain factions in the Pentagon, using the relevance of the palestinian issue in advanving certain policies in US’s international strategies. Hence the increasing problems Israel is having with the US Admninistration. The hezbolisation of Egypt, while NOT a result of the single palestinian factor, is bound to radicalise further the US ( and European ) contetion for reason with Israel. Mind you, any concession possible ( but most definitely NOT desired ) by Israel toward the palestinian most unreasonable demands, will NOT change the mapped direction of a Muslim Bros. lead Egypt, but the inclination and exploitation of the new circumstance by the pals. shall gain even greater momentum on this account. As an aside, at least, the radical muslim entities shall entertain the notion of a palestinian relevance to their fundamentals.
In this context, all tactics available to the palestinians are such an open slather that the wildest imagination cannot predict what could possibly be encountered on this ME “front”. Increase in terror is so imminently schedulled that any sign of timidity by Israel on these issues is bound to exacerbate the problems for Israel. To this extent, Paul Winter’s disposition is more than warranted.
Truly, the world has no excuse for its ignorance. I’m an uneducated person in an isolated backwater and even I know what’s going on. The truth is obvious and in-your-face. To believe the lies is to do it wilfully. The World is a grown-up now, it should know crap when it hears it. It has no excuse. It shouldn’t need a detailed book explaining everything to it.
But, it’s got one, now. So even those people raised in a cardboard box can have no excuse. So, now what? I think Paul Winter gave some good suggestions.
Well, no Isi, the mohammedans never inteded to make peace with the hated and dispised Jews. The PLO pretended to take the road to peace when it lost Arab support for brown-nosing Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait. It was evident that Arafat was a liar when he smuggled three terrorists into Gaza despite Rabin telling him those men were excluded. It was evident that Arafat was lying when he declared in Cape Town just a few months after he inked the Oslo Accords that they were like Treaty of Hubbeyuida which Mohammed broke as soon as his forces were strong enough and when he started a mini-war in 1996 when a tunnel under the Temple Mount was opened. It was obvious that peace was never intended when the PA security forces were increased beyond agreed levels, when incitement was not discontinued, when terror was lauded and of course when Arafat launched his war. It has continued with continued incitement, hate indoctrination, glorification of terrorists and terrorism and political initiatives to denigrate Israel and to undermine its security and legitimacy. For Israel to sit down and pretend they have a partner in degenerates who regard the child killer Samir al Kantar or the murderer of Mrs Hatuel and her 4 daughters, or the Gazan Arabs who disputed who was the most heroic – the ones who blew up a tank or the ones who possessed more body parts including a soldier’s head in a bucket – is an act of masochistic surrender in dispair.
Instead of appeasing the Arabs and their Western supporters Israeli political leaders should dictate surrender terms to their defeated enemies and tell them the punative measures that would be imposed for any deviation from the terms set. It should also immediately cease fund transfers to the Arabs, retake Gaza an reimpose road blocks. It should facilitate the emigration of Arabs who will not swear loyalty to the state of the Jews though a program of grants from taxes it now collects for the PA. It should demolish PA & Hamas communications and media, demolish houses of terrorists and close any mosques where a hate sermon is preached. It must disarm and disband the PA army, expel its US trainers and close the US Consulate-General in Jerusalem which functions as its embassy to the PA and Hamas. It must also expel EU meddlers and foreign NGOs and it must disband Arab NGOs which call for BDS. The Israeli politicians must stop bickering over slices of pie for their constituents long enough to assert national sovereignty and recognise that the country is a war and certain loberties must be curtailed, like that of the lying Israel bashing media .
If Israelis fail to respect themselves, nobody will. If Israelis do not defend tehmselves, no other nation will. If the ever so clever diplomats stop being so in love with their cleverness and just spoke plainly, they would save themselves the trouble of needing to think so much. But that would never work, because then they would see what failures they are and what fools they were to have kept listening to the peace industrialists after all the evidence of Arab mohammedan ill-will emerged.
There are many who would never understand this concept. Seeking only superficial resolutions.