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Escalation in Fatah's Position Toward Israel After Gaza Cease-Fire

[MEMRI ] C. Jacob - Under the tahdiah agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which went into effect on June 19, 2008, the Palestinians agreed to stop the rocket attacks on Israel in exchange for a cessation of Israel's military activity in Gaza. It was also agreed that there would be negotiations for opening the Rafah crossing, with the participation of Palestinian Authority, Hamas and EU representatives. The tahdiah has motivated Hamas to escalate the fighting in the West Bank - first, out of a sense that only force will compel Israel to make concessions, and second, as a signal that it has not sacrificed the West Bank in favor of Gaza, and that - in spite of the tahdiah - it has not relinquished the path of resistance. In the wake of the tahdiah, Fatah officials have also escalated their positions vis-a-vis Israel. According to the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, the PA is considering options regarding future contacts with Israel: the first is to terminate all contacts and to announce the end of the political process; the second is to unilaterally declare the establishment of a Palestinian state. PA senior officials have also escalated their positions concerning the armed conflict with Israel. This is reflected in statements praising Samir al-Quntar and Dalal al-Mughrabi, who perpetrated terrorist attacks in Israel. Senior officials have also stressed that Fatah will not give up armed resistance. Mahmoud Abbas, who, like Arafat before him, also heads Fatah, congratulated the families of Samir al-Quntar and the other released prisoners. A Fatah spokesman, Ahmad 'Abd al-Rahman, congratulated Hizbullah and all the resistance forces on their "victory" over Israel and on the return of "the heroes of freedom, the prisoners and the martyrs [to Lebanon] - especially the great fighter Samir al-Quntar and the martyred fighter Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the most glorious martyrdom operation in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."
2008-07-31 01:00:00
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