Hamas Leaders Safe in Gaza; Fatah's True Colors

The Palestinian group Hamas has committed dozens of suicide bombings, not to mention other terrorist attacks, which have killed hundreds of Israelis. Wouldn't you think Hamas leaders would make for legitimate targets? Why should they be allowed to roam free in Gaza, which they now govern?

The Associated Press has published a photo of all of Hamas's senior leadership at a rally in Gaza on January 2. I'd like to hear Israel's justification for not eliminating them right then and there.

Meantime, in the Balata refugee camp on the West Bank, at a rally marking Fatah's 45th anniversary, young Palestinian girls carried rifles. Wouldn't you expect Fatah -- which the West trumpets as the "moderate" alternative to Hamas and whose leader, Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S. bankrolls and helps legitimize -- to encourage future generations to pursue conflict resolution through non-violence? Why is it so outragous to demand that Fatah not equip Palestinian children with weapons -- real or plastic -- at public rallies? Where are U.S. complaints? If the U.S. takes issue with Israeli housing construction in Israel's capital city, then certainly it ought to take issue as well with Fatah's encouraging violence among Palestinian kids.

The photos were published in this news story which appeared at WashingtonPost.com on January 2.

Fatah Disappoints Again

The Palestinian Fatah movement (we won't call them a "political party" because many, if not all, of its members happen to rhetorically or materially support the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's terrorist offshoot) held a leadership and policy conference in Ramallah, West Bank, last week.

In this opinion article, Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh predicts that younger Fatah members, who've been angling for greater leadership responsibility in Fatah, aren't necessarily going to be more pro-reform or less violent.

Sadly, the failures of Arafat and Abbas to bring peace to the Palestinian people, coupled with Fatah's humiliating defeat in Gaza to Hamas, haven't turned Fatah into a more respectable, effective movement with which Israel might deal.