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Fatah Says the "Campaign for Jerusalem" Has Begun
(Wall Street Journal) Daniel Pipes - PA President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah Party announced Saturday that the "campaign for Jerusalem has effectively begun, and will not stop until a Palestinian victory and the release of the holy sites from Israeli occupation." The Temple Mount crisis highlights why a steady 80% of Palestinians believe they can eliminate the Jewish state. Islam carries with it the expectation that any land once under Muslim control is an endowment that must inevitably revert to Muslim rule. Palestinians consistently report their belief that the State of Israel will collapse within a few decades. A confrontation over the Temple Mount uniquely excites this expectation because it reaches far beyond the local population to arouse the passions of many of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. Palestinians rejoice in their role as the tip of an enormous spear. The writer is president of the Middle East Forum.