There Are No Unicorns, No Monsters Under Your Bed, and PA President Abbas' Party is Not Moderate

Growing up we all believe what we want to. For years my son believed that there were monsters under his bed at night, my daughter believed that a unicorn would show up for her to ride away. Both of them believed in the tooth fairy (there was one of those, but it was just me in a costume). Part of the growing process is that we realize that these childish myths are not real by any means.

Surprisingly there is one childish myth that many otherwise intelligent adults cling on to. That's the myth that the Fatah Party run by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is moderate. People ignore what Abbas' party says and does so they can cling on to the myth that he is a moderate, sadly they are just being immature. Let me suggest you are more likely to look up into the winter sky and see a fat guy with a red coat and white beard on a sled being pulled by flying reindeer, than see a Moderate Member of the Fatah party.

Allow me to give you an example. During the most recent Fatah convention (2009), a senior Fatah member Rafik Natsheh announced that their group will never recognize Israel, and will continue to call for war against Israel.

Fatah does not recognize Israel's right to exist, nor have we ever asked others to do so.

Fatah has never stopped performing terrorist acts against Israeli citizens, Fatah claimed credit for the recent attack in Itamar Israel where, two terrorists slipped into the house of the Fogel family, murdered both parents, two of their sons and slashed their infant daughter’s throat. Only they didn't call it Fatah.

Like most terrorist groups Fatah has a scam that governments and media buys into. Its called a "military wing." Fatah's military wing is called the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Whenever they carry out a new attack on innocent civilians, it is the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who carries it out. The group is part of Fatah, takes its orders from Fatah, but because they have a different name Fatah gets a pass. It would be like President Obama getting on the television to announce that the United State's "military wing" was responsible for killing Bin Laden.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has another role, to make the more radical statements so President Abbas can preserve his role as a faux-peacemaker. Therefore Abbas did not say anything about the death of Bin Laden, he didn't have to, his "military wing" handled it for him.

They called the killing of their fellow terrorist a "catastrophe." And those who killed Bin Laden were "gangs of heretics."

"The [military wing of Fatah] Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades announced the death of Sheikh Osama bin Laden (Abu Abdallah), and said that if bin Laden had indeed died as a Shahid (Martyr), this would not deter the resistance fighters from the path of Jihad against injustice, oppression and occupation in the world.

In their announcement, a copy of which reached MAAN [private Palestinian news agency], the [Al-Aqsa Martyrs'] Brigades said:

'The Islamic nation awoke to a catastrophe the reports of the Shahid - (Martyr-) death of the Sheikh, Jihad-fighter Osama bin Laden, in a treacherous manner, by the gangs of the heretics and those who stray.'

They continued: 'The path irrigated with the blood of its leaders is the path of victory, Allah willing. If Abu Abdallah [Bin Laden] was killed, then he merited the Shahada (Death for Allah) which he had sought, and inscribed with his blood the landmarks of Jihad, leaving behind an entire generation that follows the path of Sheikh Osama.'

They said: 'The military wings of the Jihad fighters in Palestine and outside of it, who have in the past lost many of their commanders and their men, will not stop. This has only strengthened their determination, their resolve and their loyalty to theirShahids (Martyrs), who have turned their words into a reality testifying to their honesty, and which in fact bolsters the drive and the strength of their brothers on the path to victory or Shahdada (Death for Allah)'.

The announcement continued: 'We say to the American and Israeli occupier: the [Islamic] nation which produced leaders who changed the course of history through their Jihad and their endurance, is a nation that is capable of supplying an abundance of new blood into the arteries of the resistance and is capable of restoring the glory of Islam and the flag of Allah's oneness, Allah willing.'"

Yikes, now that didn't sound very moderate to me. In fact it sounded very much like Hamas, which is recognized a terrorist group. As the NY Times reported;

Hamas officials here condemned on Monday the American operation that killed Osama Bin Laden, with Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government, calling it a “continuation of the United States policy of destruction.”

Ismail al-Ashqar, a Hamas lawmaker, described it as “state terrorism that America carries out against Muslims.”

There in itself is the reason why Fatah is more dangerous than Hamas. You see, Hamas doesn't try to hide its intentions, both its political and "military arms" (yes they have one of those also) are honest in their hatred of Israel. Fatah, on the other hand tries to show its moderation through its political arm, but its true intentions via Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Sadly most of the world believes there is a difference between Hamas and Fatah, but as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades prove, that belief should be filed in the same place as other childhood fantasies.