By Steve Kramer
KFAR SABA, Israel — I recently received a note from a long-term, close buddy: “I wish your country could stop trying to take over Gazaville and get over its Napoleonic complex and try reasonable compromise.” Some of you may have the same wish.
I‘ve pointed out in many articles how Hamas, the Palestinian Authority (PLO), and the Palestinian Arabs en masse are committed to usurping Israel and replacing it with a “State of Palestine.” Along the way they have turned down several too-generous offers for a state, not even counting the 1947 League of Nations Partition Plan for an Arab and a Jewish state – which the Jews accepted and the Arabs rejected. The Arabs living in Palestine at that time rejected being named Palestinian Arabs.
It’s a fact that more than 71% of Israelis, and our terrorist antagonists, do not want “two states side by side living in peace.” It’s a Western delusion to think Muslim terrorists will settle for that. Hamas and the PLO both insist on the extirpation of Israel – their topmost goal. A main distinction between the two is that Hamas is a religious movement and the PLO is more nationalistic.
Look at the Hamas and PLO mission statements below. (Hamas are the guys in keffiyehs and PLO members sometimes wear suits. They both reward the killers of Israelis.) The PLO even pays a bounty for each Israeli murdered.
The Hamas Covenant, founded in 1988: Excerpts from the actual document:
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it. 8. Allah is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Koran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes. 11. The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Muslim land forever] consecrated for future Muslim generations. It, nor any part of it, cannot be given up by any Arab country, a king or president, nor any organization, be they Palestinian or Arab ….
13: Abusing any part of Palestine is abuse directed against part of its religion…. There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim. In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses…. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.
It is necessary that scientists, educators and teachers, information and media people, as well as the educated masses, especially the youth and sheikhs of the Islamic movements, should take part in the operation of awakening the masses.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO/Palestinian Authority) founded in 1964. Excerpts from the original document:
Article 1: Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland, and the people of Palestine are part of the Arab nation. 2: Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British mandate is an integral regional unit. [From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea] 8: The phase in which the people of Palestine is living is that of national struggle for the liberation of Palestine.
9: Armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine and is therefore a strategy and not a tactic. The Palestinian Arab people affirms its absolute resolution and abiding determination to pursue the armed struggle and to liberate its homeland and restore its right to a natural life, and to exercise its right of self-determination and national sovereignty.15: The liberation of Palestine from the Arab view point is a national duty to repulse the Zionist, imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge it from the Zionist presence . ….
19: The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of Israel is null and void from the very beginning, whatever time has elapsed because it was done contrary to the wish of the people of Palestine and their national right to their homeland. It contradicts the principles embodied in the charter of the UN, the first of which is the right of self- determination. 21: The Palestinian Arab people, in expressing itself through the armed Palestinian revolution, which rejects every solution that is a substitute for a complete liberation of Palestine and rejects all alternative plans that aim at resolving the Palestinian issue.
The disastrous Oslo Agreement (1996) called for some changes to the above document. Exerpts:
First: Amend the articles in the National charter that contradict with the letters exchanged between the PLO and the government of Israel on Sept. 9-10, 1993. Second: The PNC [Palestine National Council] authorizes the Legal Committee to draft a new charter to be presented at the first meeting to be held by the Central Council.
Until today an amended charter has never materialized.
The documents tell a sordid story to annihilate the Jews. But what is being said publicly to the Palestinian Arabs lately? Here are a few examples:
- On May 7, 2021, on a broadcast on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV, senior Hamas official Fathi Hammad called for Palestinians in Jerusalem to “cut off the heads of the Jews.”
- On December 12, 2022, on a broadcast on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV, head of the Hamas Women’s Movement Rajaa Al-Halabi explained that a girl who sets out to be a “martyrdom-seeker” has “only one thing on her mind – to meet her Lord by means of her blood and her body parts,” noting that kindergarten teachers raise children to love Jihad.
- On April 8, 2022, on a broadcast on Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas official Talal Nassar opined, “I believe that the occupation is heading towards annihilation, and on this platform, I swear by Allah, and let everybody remember this pledge: Those of us who will still be alive will tread with their pure feet… After we trample with our feet all over the skulls of the Zionists, we will tread on the land of Haifa, Jaffa, Tiberias, Jerusalem, and all of the West Bank and our dear [Gaza] Strip. There is no difference between the [borders of] 1967 and 1948.”
- And the PLO/Palestine Authority: Besides its ‘security forces’ who double as terrorists, the PA provides so-called welfare payments to the families of Palestinian Arabs imprisoned in Israeli jails for maiming and killing Israelis, its “Pay to slay” program. Lately the PLO claims that that practice is ended, If you believe him, I’ve got a bridge over the East River in New York to sell you.
Though Hamas and the PLO are unfriendly rivals, they each desire to destroy Israel and establish Muslim rule from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. They both use subterfuge, pretending to negotiate for a peaceful settlement while credulous Israelis and the West believe that negotiations will result in a compromise. But the Palestinian Arabs do not compromise; it’s all or nothing for them. They turn down offer after offer while feckless Israeli and American diplomats give in, little by little.
It’s fortunate that the US, Israel’s most significant ally, has finally caught on – somewhat – to the Arabs’ negotiating tactics. According to President Trump, with the agreement of Prime Minister Netanyahu, there will be no more negotiations other than a comprehensive deal to return all hostages; Hamas members (at least the ones that can be identified) will leave the Land of Israel; and there will be no role for the PA in the government of the proposed Gaza entity.
It’s true that many Israelis are in favor of negotiating – that is giving in – to Hamas and losing this war. They fear that the 50 remaining captives (20 of whom are still alive) will never return home otherwise. I think that the 20 captives still alive will be starved or tortured to death if Israel does not enter Gaza City in great force. I also believe that defeating Hamas is the only chance to free all the captives, not dithering negotiations.
Suggestions for an improved strategy can be sent to the Prime Minister’s office.
*
Steve Kramer is an American-Israeli freelance writer residing in Kfar Saba, Israel.