Hamas And Palestinian Authority To Meet, Attempt to Work Out Differences

From the New York Times:

JERUSALEM — The rival Palestinian leaderships of the West Bank and Gaza appeared to be taking practical steps on Wednesday toward ending their schism, in a rare response to public pressure for national unity after years of deep division.

The new talk of unity came as Israel displayed weaponry it seized after intercepting a merchant ship on Tuesday. Israeli leaders said the weapons, including six advanced land-to-sea missiles, originated in Iran, were loaded aboard in Syria and were ultimately bound for Gaza.

President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who leads the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, said Wednesday that he was ready to go to Gaza and meet with Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Hamas government who on Tuesday had invited Mr. Abbas and Fatah to resume unity talks. Mr. Abbas said the purpose would be to reach agreement on the formation of a new government that could prepare for Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections within six months.

Mr. Haniya issued a statement saying that he had started discussions with other Hamas leaders and aides to arrange to receive Mr. Abbas. It would be Mr. Abbas’s first visit to Gaza since Hamas, the Islamic militant group, took control of the Palestinian coastal enclave in June 2007. 

Hamas and Fatah (also called the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization) share the same goal of destroying Israel.


From the Charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (which, as you can see, is proudly displayed on the United Nations website):

Article 11: The Palestinian people firmly believe in Arab unity, and in order to play its role in realizing this goal, it must, at this stage of its struggle, preserve its Palestinian personality and all its constituents. It must strengthen the consciousness of its existence and stance and stand against any attempt or plan that may weaken or disintegrate its personality.

Article 12: Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary goals; each prepares for the attainment of the other. Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine, and the liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity. Working for both must go side by side.

Article 17: The partitioning of Palestine, which took place in 1947, and the establishment of Israel are illegal and null and void, regardless of the loss of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and its natural right to its homeland, and were in violation of the basic principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, foremost among which is the right to self-determination.

Article 18: The Balfour Declaration, the Palestine Mandate System, and all that has been based on them are considered null and void. The claims of historic and spiritual ties between Jews and Palestine are not in agreement with the facts of history or with the true basis of sound statehood. Judaism, because it is a divine religion, is not a nationality with independent existence. Furthermore, the Jews are not one people with an independent personality because they are citizens to their states.

Article 19: Zionism is a colonialist movement in its inception, aggressive and expansionist in its goal, racist in its configurations, and fascist in its means and aims. Israel, in its capacity as the spearhead of this destructive movement and as the pillar of colonialism, is a permanent source of tension and turmoil in the Middle East, in particular, and to the international community in general. Because of this, the people of Palestine are worthy of the support and sustenance of the community of nations.

Article 22: The Palestinian people believe in peaceful co-existence on the basis of legal existence, for there can be no coexistence with aggression, nor can there be peace with occupation and colonialism.

Article 23: In realizing the goals and principles of this Convent, the Palestine Liberation Organization carries out its full role to liberate Palestine in accordance with the basic law of this Organization.

Article 24: This Organization does not exercise any territorial sovereignty over the West Bank in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on the Gaza Strip or in the Himmah Area. Its activities will be on the national popular level in the liberational, organizational, political and financial fields.

So,


1) the PLO declares the land/nation of Israel (which was created by the U.N.), the Balfour Declaration, and "the establishment of the Israel" to be null and void.


2) They declare Zionism (the idea that Israel should be a nation for the Jewish people) to be "coloniaism".


and


3) They declare their can be no peace with "colonialism".


Obviously this means there can be no peace with Israel, or any Israeli who wants to work towards the continued existence of Israel.

Meanwhile, Hamas is much clearer in their Charter, using far fewer words to say the same thing: 

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree,  would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim).

Both Hamas and the PLO/Fatah clearly state their intention to destroy Israel. Still, they have remained adversaries for years. They have functioned, up to this time, by playing a game of good cop/bad cop with the Western World. Fatah always affecting the posture that if we don't do what they, "the good guys", want, well then, we will just have to deal with the alternative in Hamas. 

Why now would these two, supposed, adversaries, suddenly decide to meet and hammer out their differences? Two reasons,

1) they are not adversaries when, in truth, they have the same policy, though articulated in different language

and

2) they believe that, in coming together at this time, when the United States is only "regrettably" backing Israel at the UN, they can together deliver a coup de grace blow to Israel.

I think they are overplaying their hand. I don't think the Arab world has built up the necessary good will to be able to force through the annihilation of the Jewish state at this point. The rioting and instability across the Muslim world, of late, has not exactly enamored the people of the West of the cause of further Islamization.

Just a few weeks ago, a poll of Egyptians showed that fully 84% want apostates and gays stoned to death. This is what we get when we give the people of the Arab world the Freedom to create the governments they want. 

The people of the Western world know this, even if our government bureaucrats refuse to admit it.

Hamas is what the people of Egypt want, and vice versa. As it says in the PLO Charter, 

Arab unity and the liberation of Palestine are two complementary goals; each prepares for the attainment of the other. Arab unity leads to the liberation of Palestine, and the liberation of Palestine leads to Arab unity. Working for both must go side by side.

If we give the Egyptians what they want, they want Sharia. If we give the land of Israel to Hamas and the PLO, we will have created yet another Sharia state. That is "Arab unity". A people living under the 7th century law of Allah.

Is that what we want? I don't think so.