Fatah: Moderate Terrorists?
Andrew C. McCarthy wrote an interesting article for NRO about the Bush administration’s decision to isolate Hamas and (but) to embrace Fatah / Abbas. Andrew writes:
President Bush’s stirring post-9/11 message that regimes the world over have to choose between aligning with civilization or with terrorists should officially be interred in war-torn “Palestine.” Seriousness about the doctrine is the only realistic way to defeat our enemies, and now we make a mockery of it. A mockery built on the trifecta-fiction that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is an avatar of peace, that his Fatah faction has aligned with civilization, and that the Palestinian people — the ones who freely chose to install Hamas as their parliamentary majority and who have trademarked “Intifada” as an instrument of statecraft — are somehow worth prostituting ourselves over.
In the Palestinian civil war, the Bush administration has unabashedly cast its lot with Fatah. The United States, in the midst of its own global war against Islamic radicalism, is promising additional millions in foreign aid for a cabal which maintains its own jihadist wing, and which is so thoroughly corrupt — having pocketed much of the foreign aid billions that poured in over the last two decades — that Palestinians opted for the more transparent Hamas terrorists when given the option…
Abbas proceeded to urge a throng of 50,000 Palestinians to re-aim their guns at the “occupation” (that would be Israel) instead of turning them on each other: “[W]ith the will and determination of its sons, Fatah has and will continue,” he brayed. “We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation…. We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation….”
That was less than six months ago — despite administration assertions on Monday that Abbas is “a partner who is committed to peace.” And none of it was a surprise. When Abbas was seeking election in 2005, he declared to a cheering mob in Gaza that Palestinian terrorists being sought by Israel were “heroes fighting for freedom.”
After that, Andrew takes a closer look at Fatah’s constitution (which isn’t exactly filled with positive statements).
Although I understand Andrew’s reasoning: that the US has made a deal with the devil, I think that he is wrong, in so far that the West has to do something and that now is a great opportunity to force Abbas to moderate Fatah and to work on a lasting peace. Lord knows that I am not exactly a big fan of Fatah either, but in this case Fatah is - certainly - the lesser of two evils.
It is time for some true realism in America’s foreign policy. I agree with those who say that talking to Hamas is completely useless, but Fatah and Abbas have indicated on several occasions that they might be willing to compromise, which means that talking to Abbas and helping him might pay off.
Fatah is not ‘good,’ but a regime does not have to be ‘good’ for the West to deal with it: the regime must be willing to compromise and to give us something of value (with, of course, something for them in return).
