Fatah's Cheap Opportunism: The Clear
Aim Of Besmirching Hamas's Image
20 August 2012By Khalid Amayreh
Following last week's murderous attack in Rafah, in
which 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed, Fatah
officials and spokespersons viewed the incident as a
valuable propaganda asset to tarnish the image of
Hamas and incite the Egyptian government against the
Palestinian Islamist movement.
Hamas strongly condemned the attack, voicing its
willingness to help identify and capture the criminal
perpetrators.
However, Fatah deliberately and brazenly ignored the
obvious fact that Hamas had absolutely nothing to do
with the "takferi" Qaida-allied terrorists and was in
no way involved in or responsible for the nefarious
crime against Egyptian lives and national sovereignty
and dignity.
Fatah also seemed completely oblivious of the fact
that the attack collided head-on with Hamas's
political interests, especially after the successful
recent visit Prime Minister Ismael Haniya paid to
Egypt, during which he held extensive meetings with
President Muhammed Mursi as well as the leaders of the
Egyptian Muslim Brothers.
Instead, Fatah spokespersons began uttering and
issuing all sorts of disinformation and black
propaganda with the clear aim of besmirching Hamas's
image and creating the false impression that Hamas
beared at least part of the blame of what happened.
One of the PA mouthpieces, The Maan News Agency, which
is funded by the European Union and is expected to
practice a semblance of professional journalism,
stooped to the base level of becoming a cheap tool of
incitement against Hamas.
Citing "unnamed sources" as usual, the "news agency"
claimed that the perpetrators came originally from the
Gaza Strip and that Hamas helped and facilitated the
task of the killers in some way.
Not a shred of evidence was given to corroborate the
venomous accusations.
Similarly, a host of Fatah spokesmen, in whose
lexicons, words such honesty and veracity evidently
don't exist, claimed that that the Sinai attack was
made possible due to the network of underground
tunnels in the area and that Hamas bore the ultimate
responsibility.
One spokesman claimed that the Takferi elements
incubated from under the cloak of Hamas and that Hamas
was sharing them their extremist ideology.
They utterly forgot how Fatah sided with these
elements when Hamas cracked down on them a few years
ago.
Even PA president Mahmoud Abbas joined the tirade of
incitement. He urged the Egyptian authorities to
destroy all the tunnels in the area, claiming that
Gazans didn't need the tunnels in the first place.
He ignored the criminal 7-year siege by Israel which
forced the inhabitants of the coastal enclave to seek
vital consumer products from across the border in
Egypt in order to avert starvation.
Abbas's remarks decidedly put him on the side of
Israel, the US and remnants of the defunct Mubarak
regime which wanted to put Gaza and its 1.7 million
Palestinians completely at Israel's mercy.
Indeed, instead of voicing satisfaction at the new
arrangements at the Rafah border crossing whereby
travelers move relatively freely in both directions of
the borders without any Israeli interference, the PA
seemed to long for the days when the Israelis would
even know the color of a traveler's underwear, thanks
to the humiliating conditions stemming from the
disgraceful agreement to operate the Rafah Border
Crossing, which Israel and the U.S. imposed on a
shockingly pliant PA.
In the final analysis, the PA is willing to travel any
distant and go to any extent to spite off Hamas, even
if this meant colluding and coordinating positions
with the enemy.
Which really raises the question of whether it is wise
to seek unity with Fatah under existing circumstances.
The terrorist attack near Rafah has really unmasked
the real intensions of Fatah vis-à-vis Hamas.
The group, which had signed the perfidious Oslo
Accords and promised the Palestinian masses that the
treasonous agreement would lead to the establishment
of a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as
its capital, is now devoting all its energies to
undermine Hamas, not end the Israeli occupation.
Fatah is not really interested in a genuine
reconciliation with Hamas. Instead, Fatah would like
to use the reconciliation process in order to crush
Hamas and paralyze its role in the Palestinian
society.
The trouble with Fatah goes far beyond inciting Egypt
against Hamas. Fatah continues to detain Hamas's
supporters in the West Bank. Fatah continues to hound
and blacklist Islamists, barring them from public jobs
in education, hospitals and various other fields.
I really don't know how a real reconciliation can be
achieved when the Fatah leadership, including the bulk
of the security agencies in the West Bank, is still
haunted by the desire for revenge for "the loss of
Gaza."
Perhaps it is still not too late to hope for the
rebuilding of Palestinian national unity. However, it
is extremely important that the Islamist camp be
really vigilant and meticulous about every little
detail.
In the final analysis, Fatah will have to cleans its
hatefulness, vindictiveness and sullen hostility
toward Hamas. This is the main prerequisite for a
successful reconciliation. (end)
Khalid Amayreh is an American-educated
journalist living in the southern West Bank town of
Dura near Hebron. He graduated from the University of
Oklahoma in Norman in 1981. He also, received a Master
degree in Journalism from the University of Southern
Illinois at Carbondale in 1983.
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