Why Can’t the Arab World Accept One Small Jewish State?

“We will return to the sea of Jaffa, to the sands of Haifa, to the Palm trees of Beit She’an, and to the hills of Lod [near Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport] and Ramle. We in the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque await the legions of the conquerors. We await the armies from Tunisia, from Jordan, from Egypt, from Iraq, from the Maghreb (Northwest Africa), and from the Hejaz (Western Saudi Arabia).” (Al Jazeera TV, April 27, 2014).

These impassioned words were broadcast by Imam Raed Al-Daana at an Italian conference in April. Daana is the Iman from the al-Aqsa Mosque, third most holy place for Muslims and where Yeshua the Messiah once taught and healed in the Jewish Temple.

Daana promises there are “great and proud men [in Gaza] who have realized the darkness and [when] the Jewish state will vanish … that morning, the sun will rise on Palestine.”

Daana is not from Hamas. He is a religious Islamic cleric in Jerusalem under the Fatah-ruling Palestinian Authority. He lives to see an Islamic Arab state replace Israel. It is this common aspiration that unites all factions of Palestinians with the exception of a few evangelical Arab believers.

The only difference between the Fatah and Hamas parties is that Fatah strategizes to dissolve Israel through the United Nations, through diplomatic demonization, isolation, sanctions and world opinion, whereas Hamas is dedicated to out-and-out attacks on Jewish civilians, kidnappings and other acts of terrorism against Israel.

In 2006. Palestinians living in Gaza chose a Hamas government over the Fatah party in “democratic elections.” Soon afterwards, Hamas overthrew the entire Gazan governmental infrastructure and kicked out all Fatah civil servants in bloody street battles, leaving the Palestinian Authority only with the West Bank.

The End of the Peace Process

However, for his own reasons, at the end of April 2014, PA head Mahmoud Abbas decided it was time to reunite the Palestinian people by reconciling Fatah with Hamas. The main hitch, however, is that the PA was supposedly conducting peace talks with Israel, and now was suddenly merging with Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization.

Israel’s response has been what you would expect: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately ended the already disintegrating peace negotiations with the PA, exclaiming, “How can the Palestinians say they want peace if they forge an alliance with these killers? We don’t negotiate with Hamas as long as they seek our destruction.”

Hamas Dreams of Destruction

Indeed, what would keep Hamas from winning the next Palestinian election, and taking over the entire West Bank? Hamas’ dream would be to attack Israel, not just from Gaza, but also from Judea and Samaria.

This would mean Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and the whole center of Israel would be fair game for renewed terrorism. This would mean that planes landing at Ben Gurion International airport would be a couple of miles away from terrorist rockets and missiles.

In case anyone missed their intentions, Hamas’ leader Khaled Mashaal announced, “Our path is resistance and the rifle, and our choice is jihad,” confirming to the world that Hamas is most definitely still committed to holy war against Israel.

Mashaal said now that the two parties of the Palestinians have signed a reconciliation pact, they must produce a joint strategy that will lead to the “liberation of our lands and holy sites and the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes.”

He declared boldly that until Israel is destroyed and replaced with an Islamic state, “There is no past or future without jihad and resistance. Jihad is our path.”

Indeed, it is very important to Hamas leaders that the world understands its goal and its purpose for existence.

European Union Pleased With Reunification

In response to the new reunion, the ever-present EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton finds herself quite pleased with the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. True, she did politely explain to Hamas that they “must uphold the principle of non-violence, remain committed to a two-state solution and accept Israel’s legitimate right to exist.”

May I politely ask Ms. Ashton, “Who is the party that is to remain committed?” What planet is she living on?

Netanyahu replied that Hamas’ participation in “peace” talks is a non-starter for Israel. Abbas then claimed that Hamas wouldn’t really have any say in executing policy in the West Bank no matter who won the elections. Really? Is Abbas living in a fantasy land or is “truth” simply not a part of his DNA?

There is, of course, a good chance that nothing will come of the Fatah-Hamas reunification as the power struggles between the two factions will surely continue. Both parties’ immediate goal is to determine who will control the monthly financial largess pouring into the West Bank in the form of multiplied millions of dollars from the U.S. and Europe. It is well known for anyone who wants to know that this money lines the pockets of those in power and their cronies and workers, and funds families of prisoners in Israeli jails convicted of murder and terrorism. (The more Israelis a convict murdered, the greater the sum to the families.)