The difference between a peace partner and a terrorist

The United States, the EU and Leftists in Israel want Israel to sign a ‘peace’ agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA (ruled by Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party) has been called Israel’s legitimate peace partner. Depending on your point of view, that might be good. But then, the PA and its Fatah have established a unity government with Hamas. That’s a problem.

It’s a problem because the US and Israel consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization. By Charter, Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. How is Israel supposed to talk ‘peace’ with someone dedicated to killing it?  

The EU has an answer for this question: it makes believe Hamas isn’t a terror organization. Then, because it doesn’t see Hamas as terrorists, the EU turns on Israel. It asks Israel, what the hell is wrong with you? You’ve got a legitimate peace partner (Fatah-Hamas). Why are you so intransigent?

It works. The EU does very nicely berating Israel. They’ve become experts at it.

Of course, the US doesn’t behave so stupidly. The US is smarter that the EU.

The US doesn’t make believe Hamas is an innocent organization. It simply ignores the fact that Hamas is part of the Fatah-Hamas unity government. It simply says to Israel, what the hell is wrong with you? You’ve got a bona fide peace partner in Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel’s Left does the same thing. It says, the US is right.

Here’s a different look at the Fatah-Hamas unity PA peace partner Israel confronts. This look comes from recent events in and around Jerusalem, capital of Israel.

During the period April 20-27, 2015, there have been at least seven Arab attacks against Jews. These attacks were unprovoked. They include attack by vehicle, a fire-bomb attack, knife attacks and stone-throwing attacks—including, by the way, the stoning of a car carrying Jerusalem’s Jewish Mayor. Several of the Jewish victims have been hospitalized. There has been, I believe, just one Jewish fatality (thank G-d).

What follows is a brief report on what Israel’s peace partners (Fatah, Hamas and officials of the PA) have said about these attacks. Their reactions to the attacks might give you an insight into how Israel’s peace partners view violence against their peace partner, Israel.

First, our ‘legitimate’ peace partner, the PA, has come out with a strongly worded statement. It condemned Israel. It claimed that the attack stories had been fabricated by Israel to justify the "racially motivated assassination" of two Arab attackers, who had been killed during their (separate) attacks by IDF soldiers (“Palestinian Responses To Attacks In Jerusalem Area: Palestinian Authority – Attacks Are An Israeli Fabrication; Hamas – The Attackers Are Martyrs; On Social Media, Calls For Intifada In Jerusalem”, MEMRI, April 27, 2015). The PA further declared that the death of the two Arab attackers (who died while attempting to commit murder) had been “a crime against humanity” (ibid).

The ‘assassination’ of these two Arab attackers, the PA Foreign Ministry said, was a formal invitation by Israel to [begin] a cycle of violence (ibid). Israel was initiating [emphasis mine] these attacks because it wanted to create a crisis in order to avoid making peace (ibid).

In a statement that is a mirror image of virtually all other ‘war crime’ accusations against Israel, the PA said, “"the assassination of the 17-year-old 'Ali Abu Ghannam from Jerusalem [one of the attackers], who was murdered in cold blood," was "an integral part of the roster of ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, [crimes] which the PA intends to refer to the International Criminal Court." The PA said it held Israel and its Prime Minister fully responsible for the "barbaric and racist crime", and called on the international community to condemn it and to "punish the perpetrators" (ibid).

Remember, the Arabs referred to in this essay are both young men who walked up to armed IDF soldiers on guard duty and began slashing at one of them. Near-by soldiers shot and killed them; oh, wait, sorry. That’s not what happened. What happened was, according to our legitimate peace partner, the IDF occupation army ‘assassinated’ them in cold blood. Those soldiers committed war crimes and then fabricated the attack story. Got that?

If you read PA responses to violence against Israel, this is what you get: the PA accuses the victim [the Jews] of aggression, then rushes to the ‘international community’ crying ‘crime against humanity’. Such behaviour seems ridiculous and morally offensive—until you see how gullible that ‘international community’ is’; Israel’s Left is, unfortunately, no different. 

Regarding a second attack, in which the Arab attacker was also killed during his attack (again by near-by IDF soldiers), the PA said the incident "exposes the ugly face of the occupation, its crimes against the helpless [emphasis mine] Palestinian people and the baseless excuses it invents to justify its crimes" (ibid).

Regarding these attacks, the PA said, "This is a grave and systematic escalation by the occupation government, intended to drag the region into a cycle of violence. This Israeli crime, the second in 24 hours, comes on top of the occupation's previous crimes and will not go unpunished” (ibid).

Notice the repetition of 'occupation', 'crime' and 'escalation'. It's the diplomatic vocabulary the PA reserves exclusively for its peace partner Israel.

In another statement, this time by Fatah, the ruling party of the PA, Fatah declared that Abu Ghannam's (the assailant) death  was "organized terror"; Israel is motivated by racism; its soldiers are impulsive and "bloodthirsty" (ibid). The attacker’s father was then quoted as denying that his son had attempted to stab anyone (ibid).

Hamas, meanwhile, didn’t react like our peace partner Fatah. It didn’t use inflammatory rhetoric to accuse Israel of ‘war crimes’, ‘assassination’ or ‘racism’. Hamas didn’t called IDF soldiers ‘bloodthirsty’.

Hamas simply welcomed the attacks. It praised them. It said, “These operations [their characterization] were unique [acts of] heroism and courage that deserve everyone's appreciation and respect” (ibid). ..

These acts sound more like ‘suicide by cop’ than heroism. But this isn’t America; it’s the Middle East, where Jew-hate reaches mind-bending proportions.

These statements by the PA, Hamas and Fatah tell you everything you need to know about ‘peace’ prospects here. They also show you the difference between a ‘peace partner’ (Fatah and the PA) and a ‘terrorist organization’ (Hamas).

There is no difference. As one headline put it last summer during the 2014 Gaza-Israel war: “Israel's Peace Partners [Fatah]: We Killed More Jews Than Hamas!” (Israel Today, August 11, 2014).

How would you react if the US came to you and demanded,  ‘make peace with them!’? How would you react if the EU and the UN used the Fatah, PA and Hamas language above to demonize you for ‘war crimes’ against the helpless ‘Palestinians’?

Here's a quiz for you: in 50 words or less, describe how you would handle Israel's situation vis a vis the US, the EU, the UN, Fatah, Hamas and the PA. You have five minutes to complete your answer.