Palestinian Media Watch) Every year the United States gives the Palestinian Authority tens of millions of dollars to support its security forces. This aid is not affected by any of the provisions of US law that limit such aid, either as a result of the PA's terror-rewarding "pay-for-slay" policy or its promotion of an investigation against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

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The EU not only supports the PA security forces but has also plowed tens of millions of euros into the PA court system.

But do the US and the EU know what is happening with their aid, or what the PA security forces are actually doing? Does the EU know what is happening in PA courts?

Well, one thing they are busy with is arresting and punishing Palestinians who sell land to Jews – "the enemy."

According to a 2014 amendment to PA law approved by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the maximum sentence for selling land to Jews is life imprisonment with hard labor.

An Aug. 14 post on the Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, operated by Abbas's Fatah Party, declared that members of PA General Intelligence are enforcing this racist law and conducted a "quality operation" in accordance with it, arresting a Palestinian suspected of selling land to Jews. The severity the PA attaches to the crime was further emphasized by the nature of the arrest, which included an "armed confrontation."

The text of the post refers to "a complicated operation and long surveillance" in which "an armed confrontation [took place] between [PA] General Intelligence and armed men after a special unit of the General Intelligence carried out a quality operation whose goal was arresting a man who secretly transfers lands [to Israelis] and who intended to sell real estate to settlers in Hebron. He was arrested and the special force returned unharmed."

The arrest came soon after Fatah Movement Revolutionary Council member Osama Al-Qawasmi issued a sharp attack on those selling "Palestinian real estate" to Jews. On July 30, the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported that he said, "Whoever sells, transfers or aids in transferring Palestinian real estate, land or structures [to Israel] betrays Allah, the homeland and the religion, and is cursed by his people."

The article added that Al-Qawasmi called on "the relevant PA bodies" to "impose the maximum punishment on those who dare to do this despicable act" and "isolate them and excommunicate them popularly, nationally and socially." He also "demanded that all the families renounce them immediately so as to deter anyone thinking of doing this."

As Palestinian Media Watch has already reported here, here, here, here and here, the arrest described in the above Fatah post is not an isolated event, but rather just one instance of an open and clear PA policy.

The United States and the European Union argue that their aid to the PA and its security forces is designed to empower the PA to fight terror and establish a legitimate and honest court system. While these may indeed be the goals of the aid, the truth of the matter is that the PA is using the aid to train PA security officials to implement the PA's racist land laws by arresting suspects for selling land to Jews, who will then be persecuted (as opposed to prosecuted) in the PA's biased legal system.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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According to the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will continue to function "until the refugees return." In other words, what Shtayyeh is saying is that UNRWA will continue to function forever, catering to an ever-growing population.

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"We are working together to ensure the continuation of UNRWA's programs and its continuation as an international institution that over 5.5 million Palestinian refugees benefit from until a just and permanent solution is found for the Palestinian cause and until the refugees' return," Shtayyeh told UNRWA official Ronald Stinger, official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported on March 4.

As Palestinian Media Watch has already shown, the so-called "return" of the "Palestinian refugees" is a PA euphemism for forcing Israel to fundamentally change its demographic composition by settling and giving citizenship to six million Arabs who have never set foot in the country.

The number of "Palestinian refugees" had grown from 711,000 in 1948 to a staggering 5,703,546, as of Dec. 31, 2020. Outrageously, since 2010 alone, the number of "Palestinian refugees" has risen by 883,317 people.

In comparison, two days after the establishment of the State of Israel, the headline of The New York Times declared that Jews were "in grave danger in all the Moslem lands" and that 900,000 would "face the wrath of their foes."

According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the period of the creation of the State of Israel through the 1970s, 850,000 Jews were forced to become refugees and flee their homes in the Arab countries. While neither the Jews who survived the Holocaust nor those who fled Muslim countries when Israel was established were able to return to their homes, today the only Jewish refugees are those currently fleeing the war in Ukraine.

As the number of so-called Palestinian refugees continues to grow, UNRWA's already limited finances will have to stretch even further. As PMW has noted, UNRWA is not only a nursery for growing refugees and a bottomless pit for international money, it is also a prison for over 100,000 new refugees born every year.

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In the same way, as Jewish refugees found refuge in Israel, the time has come for the Arab countries – the countries who have hosted the Palestinian refugees for the last 73 years – UNRWA and the PA to stop using them as pawns in their scheme to destroy Israel. It is time they accepted that Israel will never agree to commit national suicide and will never agree to let the millions of Palestinian "refugees" flood Israel.

Featured on JNS.org, this article was first published by Palestinian Media Watch.

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Speaking after the recent meeting of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), its deputy chairman, Ali Faisal, clarified that there is a binding Palestinian decision to "renounce… all agreements with Israel." He added that from the point of view of the Palestinian leadership, the Palestinians "have entered a path of resistance in all its forms" – a phrase that clearly includes the use of violence and terror.

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"The decision of the [Palestinian] National Council was a recommendation to the [PLO] Central Council to renounce all the commitments of the Oslo Accords and stop the security coordination [with Israel]. Now there is a binding decision. The Central Council decided to renounce the commitments of all the agreements with the State of Israel, whether by the PLO or the PA," Faisal said on official PA television on Feb. 18.

"Currently we are outside the path of Oslo, the security coordination, and the economic Paris Agreement [see note-M.H.], and we have entered a path of resistance in all its forms and a realization of sovereignty," he added.

To understand the ostensible importance of this statement, it is necessary to explain what the PNC is and what authority it carries.

Constitutionally, the PNC is the highest authority in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and is responsible for formulating its policies and programs.

The PLO Central Council was established by the 11th PNC meeting, in January 1973, as a legislative organ to function when the PNC is not in session and to follow up and implement its resolutions. The central council's members are drawn from the PNC (including the entire PLO Executive Committee) and it is chaired by the PNC president.

The Executive Committee is the PLO's primary executive organ, its "cabinet," and represents the organization internationally. The Executive Committee answers to the PNC.

In other words, the PNC is the primary and most senior organ of the PLO. Its decisions are binding on the entire organization.

What impact do decisions of the PNC have on the Palestinian Authority?

According to the PLO, the PA – created by the Oslo Accords – is merely an interim governing body that functions within, and subject to, the PLO. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, the head of the PLO has also held the position of PA chairman. Accordingly, to this day, the PLO governing bodies appear to make all the major decisions on behalf of the Palestinians, expecting the head of the organization and the chairman of the PA to implement those decisions.

When the PLO makes an internal decision to "renounce … all agreements with Israel," with an impact on both the security coordination and economic relations (referred to by Faisal as the "economic Paris Agreement") between Israel and the PA, that decision should have a binding effect. A decision of that nature, taken by the highest Palestinian source of authority, should not only bind the PLO and PA, but should also have ramifications vis-à-vis Israel.

However, despite the ostensible severity of the PNC decision, nothing on the ground has changed. Neither the PLO nor the PA has announced any severing of the security coordination with Israel, and they certainly did not decide to stop taking the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes Israel collects every month and gives to the PA

In stark contrast, in May 2020, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas decided alone and announced to renounce all agreements with Israel, including those regarding security coordination and tax revenues. That decision held for six months, after which the coordination was renewed and the PA agreed to accept the billions of shekels (over a billion dollars) in tax revenue that had accrued during that period.

PLO declarations aside, the reality is that everyone – including the Palestinians themselves – knows that the PLO is a defunct institution that lacks any real legitimacy. Both the PLO and the PA are run as a de facto dictatorship, in which decisions are made by one person. The PLO only continues to exist thanks to the hundreds of millions of dollars given annually from the PA budget to the "PLO institutions." No one truly puts any stock in the decisions made by the PLO, and the organization itself is incapable of enforcing the decisions it and its institutions make.

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In a recent report, Palestinian Media Watch concluded that the PLO decision to revoke its recognition of Israel's right to exist was devoid of any real meaning or influence. That conclusion was based on the fact that the PLO recognition of Israel's right to exist was always empty. The most dominant organization in the PLO is Fatah. To date, the head of Fatah – first Yasser Arafat and then Mahmoud Abbas – has been the head of the PLO. The head of the PLO has always been the chairman of the PA. Similar to other PLO members, Fatah never recognized Israel's right to exist.

For many years, the PLO enjoyed the title of the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." That historic role brought Israel to sign peace agreements with the PLO. However, with the passage of time, the reality is that the PLO has lost its unique status. Surveys conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research show even declining Palestinian support for the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." The March 2019 survey showed that only 54% of those surveyed still viewed the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative" of the Palestinians, down from 69% in 2006.

While the PLO may have renounced all agreements with Israel, the reality is that the PLO is simply irrelevant.

IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch is the director of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch. He served for 19 years in the IDF Military Advocate General Corps. In his last position, he served as director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria.

Featured on JNS.org, this article was first published by Palestinian Media Watch.

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Each day, it becomes clearer that the Israeli Civil Administration is one of the greatest dangers to the Jewish people's realization of the goal to resettle the Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria. Since the signing of the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords, the Civil Administration has lost its way.

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Despite being a branch of the Israeli Defense Ministry/Israel Defense Forces, the Civil Administration is more concerned with facilitating the creation of the "State of Palestine" than it is with ensuring the rights of the Jewish people in its ancestral homeland.

A recent report from Israeli NGO Ad Kan exposed that a Palestinian in a senior position in the Israeli Civil Administration was arrested by the Palestinian Authority. Before his arrest, he had been given permission by his boss in the Civil Administration to take sensitive, secret information to his home in Nablus. This was the second such incident reported in just a few months.

The Palestinian in question holds a position that gives him direct access to land transactions carried out in Judea and Samaria. This means that he had direct access to the names of both the buyers and the sellers.

In a normal reality, who would care?

The problem is that Israel does not live in a normal reality. It's a reality in which Palestinians own land that they cannot use and are looking to sell, and in which Jews are willing to pay exorbitant prices for land in Judea and Samaria. According to PA law, a Palestinian who sells land to a Jew is committing a severe crime. PA leader Mahmoud Abbas considers this such a serious crime that he amended the legislation in 2014, raising the maximum sentence to life imprisonment with hard labor.

Under these circumstances, a Palestinian with access to sensitive land transactions is courting danger. I am not suggesting that a Palestinian, inherently, cannot be trusted. There are literally thousands of Palestinians who risk their lives daily for the security of the Jewish people. However, when a Palestinian who lives with his family in an area controlled by the PA has direct access to information desperately desired by the PA and its unscrupulous security forces, then the path to disaster is clear.

This obvious danger apparently did not bother the Civil Administration.

The Civil Administration was established in 1981 by then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon to be the civilian arm of the Israeli government in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Originally, the Civil Administration was a large body with extensive powers and responsibilities. That changed dramatically in 1995, when, pursuant to the Oslo Accords, almost all the functions of the Civil Administration were transferred to the newly established PA

In the new reality, the powers and responsibilities of the Civil Administration were limited to being the intermediary between Israel and the PA and Area C, which, under the Accords, remained under full Israeli authority.

Over time, however, the Civil Administration lost its way.

According to the Israeli NGO Regavim, since the implementation of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians have built tens of thousands of illegal structures in Area C. Some of these structures were built in cooperation with, or even entirely funded by, the European Union. While the move was part of official PA policy, the Civil Administration failed completely in its task to prevent the open land theft. The failure is so catastrophic that is has caused genuine strategic damage to the State of Israel and the Jewish people.

Since its establishment, the PA has paid huge rewards to Palestinian terrorists. In 2004, it even entrenched the policy in law. The Civil Administration completely missed this or decided to look the other way.

Had Palestinian Media Watch not exposed these PA terror rewards in 2011, and presented what it uncovered to the U.S. Congress, European governments and the Knesset, the world would still not know about it, due to the silence of the Civil Administration. Indeed, when MK's Avi Dichter and Elazar Stern proposed legislation to punish the PA for its "pay for slay" policy, the Civil Administration was the first to come to the PA's defense.

As part of the Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to waive, in favor of the PA, billions of shekels of tax income. The PA then used the money it received from Israel to bankroll its terror-funding policy. The Dichter-Stern law stipulates that every year, Israel will punish the PA by deducting the sum it spent the previous year on its terror payments from the tax incomes of the following year.

Despite the clear logic and morality of the law, the Civil Administration did its best to torpedo it. Defending the PA, the Civil Administration repeatedly falsely claimed that implementation of the law would cause the financial collapse of the PA Thankfully, the MKs ignored the empty warnings of the Civil Administration and enacted the law. So far, pursuant to the law, the PA has been penalized with the deduction of more than 1.25 billion shekels ($390 million). And the PA has not collapsed.

Having failed to prevent the passage of the law, and while its financial predictions had proven to be false, the Civil Administration, through persistent moaning, in April 2020, persuaded then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett to promote the idea of circumventing the law by Israel's providing the PA with a "loan" equivalent of the sums deducted. While the 2020 "loan" never came to fruition, two months ago, the Civil Administration repeated the same failed recommendation.

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Employing Palestinians in strategically sensitive positions, allowing the Palestinians to steal land and trying to prevent the passage of a law to punish the PA for paying rewards to terrorists who murder Jews are just three of the countless systematic failures of the Civil Administration.

While I would like to believe that those who serve in the Civil Administration are good people, the entire mechanism is rotten to its core. It has failed entirely to fulfill its functions. As long as it continues to exist in its current capacity, these systemic failures, and others, will continue to cause irreparable damage to the State of Israel.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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One need look no further than the recent speech by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas before the UN General Assembly (via video conference) to understand why he is not a partner for peace. Referring to the creation of the State of Israel as a "catastrophe," rewriting history, rejecting criticism of the PA's terror-reward payments and telling outright lies were just some of the highlights.

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Here's a quick overview:

The creation of Israel was a 'catastrophe.'

Abbas started his speech by noting, "This year marks the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba."

The word nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe," is the Palestinian terminology used to refer to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. For Abbas and the PA, the problem is not the Israeli settlements built in Judea and Samaria after the 1967 Six-Day War, but rather the very existence of Israel.

This opening did not prevent Abbas later in his speech from arguing that there are many potential solutions to the situation, "including returning to a solution based on the partition plan of resolution 181 (II) adopted in 1947."

Abbas seems to have forgotten that the Arab countries completely rejected UN Resolution 181 – also known as the "Partition Plan" – and instead attacked and tried to destroy the new State of Israel and, in doing so, forfeited that option.

Abbas rejected the most generous offer of peace.

Abbas continued with a bold challenge saying: "To those who claim there is no Palestinian partner for peace and that we do not 'miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity,' I challenge them to demonstrate that we have rejected even once a genuine and serious initiative to achieve peace, and I accept the judgement of the world in this regard."

Clearly, Abbas has forgotten Israel's multiple previous offers of peace, most recently that made by (now former) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Referring to the offer, then-Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said:

"I heard [former Israeli Prime Minister] Olmert say that he offered [Abbas] 100% of the West Bank territory. This is true. I'll testify to this. He [Olmert] presented a map [to Abbas], and said, 'I want [Israel] to take 6.5% of the West Bank and I'll give [the PA] 6.5% of the 1948 territory [i.e., land in Israel] in return." [Olmert] said to Abbas, 'The area of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on the eve of June 4, 1967 was 6,235 sq. km. [I said to Abbas], 'There are 50 sq. km. of no man's land in Jerusalem and Latrun.' We'll split them between us, so the territory will be 6,260 sq. km. Olmert wants to give you 20 sq. km. more, so that you could say [to Palestinians]: 'I got more than the 1967 territories.' Regarding Jerusalem, [Olmert said]: 'What's Arab is Arab, and what's Jewish is Jewish, and we'll keep it an open city.' Regarding the refugees, [Olmert] offered [Abbas] 150,000 refugees … [Olmert] said: 'The refugees' right to return to the State of Palestine is your law. But regarding Israel, we will accept 150,000 refugees over 10 years. 15,000 [per year] over 10 years.'" [Official PA TV, "Philosophy of Endurance," Dec. 1, 2018]

Thus, according to Erekat, Israel did make the best possible offer to Abbas, yet he refused it.

Israel must agree to be flooded with millions of so-called Palestinian 'refugees.'

According to Abbas, any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must include a solution for the Palestinian people who "were uprooted from their land and deprived of their property." According to Abbas, these "refugees" have a right "to return to their homeland."

When making these claims, Abbas neglects a number of cardinal factors. Firstly, he ignores his own explanation of why he, his family and many other Arab inhabitants of Israel fled. As Palestinian Media Watch has shown, in many cases, the Arabs fled at the behest of the Arab armies.

Abbas himself explained that his family fled Safed of their own initiative, fearing the Jews would avenge the 1929 Arab massacres in Hebron and Safed:

Abbas: "The [Arab] Salvation Army withdrew from the city [Safed in 1948], causing the [Arab] people to begin emigrating. In Safed, just like Hebron, people were afraid that the Jews would take revenge for the [Arab] massacre in 1929 (Note: 65 Jews were murdered in Hebron, 18 in Safed) … [In 1948] the people were overcome with fear, and it caused them to leave the city in a disorderly way." [Official PA TV, Jan. 1, 2013]

As PMW has shown, when Abbas demands the "return" of the millions of Palestinians who have never set foot in Israel, what he is really saying is that Israel should commit national demographic suicide, and agree to its own democratic destruction.

While Abbas claimed that the Palestinians remain "committed to all of [the Oslo Accords] elements to this day," he simultaneously demonstrated and defended the PA breaches of the agreements.

Despite multiple requirements in the Oslo Accords that the Palestinians prevent incitement and the promotion of violence, Abbas rejected the international criticism of the content of the PA school curriculum, asking why the Palestinians are required "to explain and justify what appears in our curriculum, which reflects our narrative and national identity."

Despite multiple requirements in the Oslo Accords that the Palestinians prevent terror, Abbas justified the PA's "Pay-for-Slay" terror-reward policy. As part of this policy, the PA spends tens of millions of shekels/dollars/euros on monthly payments to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists, as exposed by PMW since 2011.

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The recipients of these payments include murderers, members of internationally designated terror organizations and the families of suicide bombers. While the international community condemns these payments, Abbas stood at the United Nations to "salute" the "prisoners' heroic stand."

He indirectly confirmed the continued payment of rewards to terrorists, asking: "Why should we have to clarify and justify providing assistance to families of prisoners and martyrs?"

Clearly, when the PA incentivizes and rewards terror, this is a fundamental breach of the Oslo Peace Accords.

While Abbas claimed that the PA is committed to "combating terrorism in all its forms," he simultaneously claimed that the PA "will continue striving to create the necessary conditions for the formation of a successful unity government."

In other words, Abbas is striving to form a Palestinian government with Hamas. Hamas is a homicidal organization whose goal is the destruction of Israel. As a result of its involvement in terror, Hamas has been designated as a terror organization by the United States, the European Union, Israel and others.

If Abbas were truly committed to "combating terrorism in all its forms," as required by the Oslo Accords, and as he himself claims to be doing, the PA would and should be arresting and prosecuting the Hamas terrorists, not striving to form a government with them.

Further in his speech, without batting an eyelid, Abbas set a year-long ultimatum for Israel, during which he called for "solving all final-status issues under the auspices of the international Quartet."

The "final-status issues" is a term taken from the Oslo Accords (Article XVII), referring to a number of issues that were left for future negotiations. Included in these subjects are "Jerusalem, settlements, specified military locations, Palestinian refugees, borders, foreign relations and Israelis."

According to Abbas, there really isn't anything to negotiate on these subjects. Rather, his expectation is that Israel simply capitulate to Palestinian demands.

Who controlled the areas Israel captured in 1967?

This question was at the heart of the speech. According to Abbas, Israel must "withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967." The question that must be asked is: When did the areas captured by Israel in 1967 become "Palestinian territory?"

As the world knows, before June 1967, Judea, Samaria and part of Jerusalem were part of Jordan. Jordan had illegally occupied the areas in 1948 as part of the Arab rejection of the U.N. Partition Plan. While broadly rejected by the international community, Jordan even officially annexed these areas, claiming them to be part of Jordan. From 1948 to 1967, the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt. During this period, no one referred to these areas as "Palestinian territory" or considered declaring them to be the "State of Palestine."

In fact, examination of the UN Resolutions 181, 242 and 338 lack any reference to the term the "Palestinian territories."

Historical accuracy, it would appear, is irrelevant to Abbas.

In his speech, Abbas made a point of "reitera[ing] that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people."

The PLO is dominated by Abbas's Fatah Party. Hamas, the main Fatah rival that controls the Gaza Strip and won the last general elections held in the PA in 2006, is not a member of the PLO.

Surveys conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research show a consistent decline in Palestinian support for the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people." The March 2019 survey showed that only 54% of respondents still viewed the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative" of the Palestinians, down from 58% in June 2018 and 69% in 2006.

While Abbas demands that the international community continue to see the PLO as the "sole representative of the Palestinian people," it is highly questionable whether the Palestinians themselves still see the PLO as their representative.

In the worldview of Abbas, the creation of Israel was a catastrophe. For there to be peace, Israel must submit to an invented Palestinian narrative and self-destruct. In the meantime, according to Abbas, the PA can promote violence, and incite and reward terrorism.

Despite having rejected an Israeli offer for peace, in which for the first time in history a "State of Palestine" would have been created on land larger than the areas captured by Israel in 1967, Abbas still claims that he is committed to achieving peace.

While Abbas paid lip service to "dedicat[ing] his life to achieving peace," his actions and positions were, and remain, the main obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The sun has set on the dictatorship of Mahmoud Abbas, and it is now just a matter of time until he leaves the scene.

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Initially elected as Palestinian Authority president in 2005, Abbas is now in his sixteenth year of what, according to PA law, was meant to be a four-year term. Since his election, Abbas has rejected or quashed any attempt to hold new elections. In January this year, under pressure from the United States and European Union, Abbas announced that the PA would hold its first general elections since 2006. The general elections were to be followed by presidential elections.

Abbas did not want to hold elections, because he knew that his Fatah faction would lose to rival Hamas – an internationally designated terror organization. After four months of maintaining the pretense that the elections would actually happen, Abbas expectedly cancelled them, much to the despair of Palestinian voters.

A recent poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that "two-thirds of the [Palestinian] public believe that Abbas postponed the elections because he was worried about the results." Only 25% of those surveyed believed Abbas's excuse that he canceled the elections due to the alleged Israeli refusal to allow the elections to take place in Jerusalem.

Responding to Abbas's decision, and in an attempt to bolster its popularity, Hamas attacked Israel, firing over 4,300 missiles indiscriminately targeting Israel's civilian population. Hamas's violent response led to a sharp decline in popular support for the already beleaguered Abbas.

Following the Hamas aggression, the PCPSR poll found that if elections for the position of PA chairman were held now, between Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, Abbas would receive 27% and Haniyeh 59% of the votes, this compared to 46% for Haniyeh and 47% for Abbas three months ago.

For Abbas, the PA elections exposed not only the external danger from Hamas, but also the internal fragmentation of his own Fatah party.

Until the recent elections, the prevailing conception among those unfamiliar with internal Palestinian affairs had been to view Palestinian politics as a two-horse race – Fatah versus Hamas. The preparations for the PA elections, however, showed this conception to be fundamentally flawed.

While Hamas maintained the uniformity of its ranks, Fatah split into separate units, each claiming to represent the "real Fatah." Aside from Abbas, the leading claimants to the title included the nephew of Yasser Arafat, Nasser al-Qidwa, who formed an independent list and was therefore kicked out of Fatah by Abbas. The once-popular leader Muhammad Dahlan, who fell out of grace with Abbas years ago, was subsequently indicted and convicted of corruption (in absentia) and has been living abroad since. And convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti is serving five consecutive life sentences in an Israeli prison for the five people he was responsible for murdering.

Each of these contenders enjoy substantial followings that would have resulted in a split of the "Fatah" vote had the elections been held.

While Abbas technically still holds the title of the leader of Fatah, it is clear that his support, even from within his own party, is very limited.

Abbas responded to the mounting criticism and dissatisfaction with his performance in the manner any other true despot would respond – with violence.

In the last few weeks, the Abbas-loyal PA Security Forces have been carrying out a concerted campaign against Abbas's rivals and critics. The violent crackdown reached its peak (at least for now) with the arrest, beating and June 24 death of outspoken Abbas critic Nizar Banat.

While the PA has announced it will conduct a thorough investigation of the circumstances of Banat's death, the Palestinian street is not waiting for the predictable results of the investigation. Instead, Palestinians are demonstrating, demanding that Abbas resign.

Alongside his political woes, one final point must be mentioned. At 85 (born November 1935), Abbas is the fourth oldest serving state leader (after the Queen of England and the presidents of Cameroon and Lebanon).

In normal circumstances, Abbas's age, and his reported ill health, would most likely have been the most dominant factor when discussing the subject of his departure from the Palestinian political scene. However, having enjoyed the luxuries of being the PA leader for so long, and having amassed a huge fortune, both personally and for his children, for Abbas, age will never be a factor or impediment.

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Abbas holds three central roles in Palestinian politics – head of Fatah, head of the PLO and chairman of the PA The questions now are how and when will Abbas leave, who will replace him, and will any replacement continue to hold all three of the central positions.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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There is nothing that boosts Palestinian leaders' popularity like their leading terror campaigns against Israel. This is the reason why suddenly, after months of relative quiet, Jerusalem Arabs and Palestinians throughout Judea and Samaria started attacking Israeli citizens and soldiers, and Hamas launched more than 40 missiles into Israel last week.

Here's what happened.

Forced by the United States and the European Union, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas – now in his 16th year of a four-year term – announced in January that the PA will hold elections on May 23. Since the announcement, it became clear that Abbas's Fatah was far behind in the polls and facing the loss of political power. To counter the trend, official PA TV suddenly raised its incitement to violence to levels we have not seen in more than a year.

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The intensified incitement started on The Tune of the Homeland, a quiz show broadcasting highly violent, pro-terror songs. To ensure maximum effect, the show was broadcast during the 4:00-5:00 p.m. time slot for children's programming.

From March 13 to March 17, The Tune of the Homeland repeatedly (at least 10 times) broadcast the song My Machine Gun is in My Hand, the lyrics of which are the following:

"My machine gun is in my hand, and I want to continue marching; Our occupied land will not return for free; I want to continue marching, I want to continue marching; My machine gun and my bullets are the path to  salvation."

As the tunes played, the PA TV narrator added, nonchalantly, "We play the most beautiful tunes. And in every tune – a bullet; and in every lyric – a rifle."

As the holy Muslim month of Ramadan approached, the PA TV's machine guns were replaced with suicide belts. From April 2 to April 10, The Tune of the Homeland broadcast, on at least 20 occasions, a clip in which Palestinians declared, "I fired my shots, I threw my bomb, I detonated, detonated, detonated my [explosive] belts … My brother, throw my blood on the enemy like bullets."

As the tunes played, the narrator interjected, "We will defend Palestine with our bodies. Our bullets will make sounds of joy to herald signs of victory in order to cut off the invading occupiers, who came from across the sea and settled in our lands."

Primed by this PA incitement, soon after Ramadan started, Palestinian youth and Jerusalem Arabs started indiscriminately attacking Jews and uploading the videos of the attacks to Tiktok, a social-media platform particularly popular with young people.

Whether traveling on the Jerusalem light railway, walking dogs or entering Jerusalem's old city via the Damascus gate, Jews everywhere became targets.

As the violence erupted, Abbas' Fatah took to social media to fuel the flames.

"Death and not submission … Millions of Martyrs are marching to Jerusalem; with spirit, with blood, we will redeem you Al-Aqsa Mosque … A blessing for the Molotov cocktail … Warm blessings to the stone … O Martyr, we swear, we will not withdraw from the Al-Aqsa Mosque," declared the official Fatah Facebook page on April 24.

"Millions of Martyrs are marching to Jerusalem" echoed Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul, on his Facebook page.

Each call to violence was intensified with images of the violence.

The PA prime minister hailed the "scenes of heroism emerging from the streets and alleys of the city of Jerusalem."

Not wanting to be upstaged by the new anti-Israel "uprising" coming from Abbas's Fatah, Hamas realized that it had to compete with Abbas or lose political points. And so, one night without warning, Hamas competed with Fatah in the manner that it knows has the most influence, and launched more than 40 missiles at southern Israel in "defense of Jerusalem."

Abbas' PA was furious that Hamas's terrorism was sharing center stage with its own terror in Jerusalem terror. The PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida countered, declaring that "Jerusalem's protectors and guardians have well understood that the elections in Jerusalem are a battle of national sovereignty."

It further warned Hamas that its rocket fire will give the "occupation" – Israel – the opportunity to "divert the compass from Jerusalem."

"This is the call of Jerusalem now, because the confrontation is here, and the struggle is here," continued the official PA daily. The struggle is being waged through "the popular resistance," a term used by Palestinians that also refers to the use of violence and terror. No one, continued the PA daily referring to Hamas, "can allow the occupation to divert the compass."

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With both Fatah and Hamas fighting against Israel in parallel, Abbas realized that the political gain he hoped to achieve had been neutralized. He also realized that after years of abusing his own people, directing a few weeks of violence in Jerusalem is not enough to change his political image or that of Fatah as a corrupt failure. So, he has apparently decided to do what any other dictator would do when faced with an electoral defeat: reports are that he is about to announce the cancellation of the elections altogether.

Carl von Clausewitz, the 18th-century military theorist, famously quipped, "War is the continuation of politics by other means."

For Abbas, Fatah and Hamas, violence directed at Israel "in defense of Jerusalem" is just another one of the methods of playing internal Palestinian politics and campaigning before elections. While Hamas fires rockets, Abbas, the PA and Fatah prefer the more subtle approach of inciting and recruiting Palestinian youth, and sending them out to attack Israelis, as part of the PA's child-terrorist army.

Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch, is one of the foremost authorities on Palestinian ideology and policy.

Lt. Col. (res.) Adv. Maurice Hirsch is the Head of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch. He served for 19 years in the IDF Military Advocate General Corps. In his last position, he served as director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria. 

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the International Criminal Court's decision to open a war-crimes investigation against Israel by calling the decision "undiluted anti-Semitism and the height of hypocrisy." He made the same claim after the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber on Feb. 5 invented a "State of Palestine" and set its "borders" based on the 1949 armistice lines.

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Netanyahu is of course entirely correct. The ICC was meant to be an independent, permanent court that would serve as a forum of last resort for punishing the worst of war criminals. In reality, when it comes to Israel, the ICC, similar to the United Nations, has allowed itself to be hijacked and manipulated by Ramallah and Gaza, to be used as a weapon to persecute the Jews.

For the past six years, since "Palestine" joined the ICC, the Israeli legal and diplomatic establishments have tried to engage, directly and indirectly, with the court to avert its anti-Semitic decisions. These efforts have failed.

In this war, words, reason, facts and legal arguments, whatever their merit, have limited value. Quiet diplomacy has failed. Now is the time for real action.
Considering the new ICC aggression, here are four real actions Israel must adopt.

Expel UN personnel: The body most responsible for perpetuating the fallacy that a "State of Palestine" exists is the United Nations. The UN representatives in Israel spend all their waking hours supporting the Palestinian claims to statehood. They run working groups comprising Israel-hating NGOs – many of which have close ties to internationally designated terror groups – that invent alternate realities and churn out report after report accusing Israel of a plethora of offenses.

Since the UN and its representatives are responsible for the vile anti-Semitism reflected by the ICC prosecutor, Israel's first step must be to expel all UN personnel from Israel. The intention to adopt this course of action should have been declared months ago and should have been implemented the moment the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber decided to invent "Palestine."

Stop funding the Palestinian Authority: The decision of the Palestinian Authority to join the ICC was a fundamental breach of the Oslo Accords. Every year, pursuant to the breached Oslo Accords, Israel gives the PA billions of shekels. These funds are over 50 percent of the PA's entire revenue. The PA uses the money to fund its ICC drive and as such, in practice, Israel is funding the PA's actions at the ICC. The PA's other use for the funds provided by Israel is to fund its pugnacious "Pay for Slay" terror reward policy.

This ludicrous situation cannot continue. If the "State of Palestine" exists, independent of and in breach of the Oslo Accords, then Israel must stop giving the PA the means to promote its anti-Semitism in the ICC. Until the fictitious "State of Palestine" pulls out of the ICC, Israel should stop transferring any funds or providing any services and privileges to the PA and its representatives.

End the confusion: For over five decades, Israel has failed to make a clear claim to any part of Judea and Samaria, merely arguing that they are "disputed areas." This policy allowed the ICC prosecutor to make the following argument: Since Israel has never fully claimed Judea and Samaria, but the Palestinians have clearly claimed the "West Bank," the area must belong to the Palestinians.

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Since Israel's lack of a clear claim is being used against it politically, it is time for this ambiguous Israeli policy to end. Israel must make clear to the world that it has the right to all of this land and that it is our claim that has all the legal backing. Israel must stake its legal and historically justified claim unequivocally, leaving no room for any misconception, so that no one can argue that Israel's lack of such a claim proves that the land is Palestinian.

Sanction NGOs promoting anti-Semitism: The PA's efforts to demonize Israel are supported by foreign-funded Israeli NGOs such as B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence. These organizations and the others like them should be banned and prevented from conducting any activities in Israel.

The dangers to Israel and Israelis posed by the ICC are substantial. For years, Israel has tried the soft, legal-diplomatic approach. As this approach has clearly failed, Israel must now adopt a much more comprehensive and aggressive approach. The gloves must come off.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Richard Engel of the Council on Foreign Relations, a prestigious and influential US think tank, held an exclusive webinar on Nov. 17 hosting Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.

While anyone still believing in the value of truth would have had a field day with the entire presentation, the six minutes in which Shtayyeh tried to explain and justify the PA's "pay-for-slay" policy were, by far, the most offensive.

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Every year, the PA spends hundreds of millions of dollars on salaries for imprisoned terrorists and released terrorists and allowances to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. The PA pays these terrorists because, as Deputy PA Prime Minister Nabil Abu Rudeina recently said, "It is impossible to send a soldier to war and then not take care of his family. We are talking about someone who acts on our behalf and receives orders from us."

Among the thousands of recipients of the PA payments are mass murderers like Abdallah Barghouti, who is responsible for multiple terror attacks in which 67 people were murdered, and the family of Abd Al-Basset Odeh, the suicide bomber who carried out the Passover attack at the Park Hotel in Netanya on March 27, 2002, murdering 30 Israelis.

The beneficiaries of the payments include terrorists from all the Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine – all internationally designated terror organizations – as well as members of Fatah. Many of the terrorists are responsible not only for the murder of Israelis – Jews and Arabs alike – but also for the murder of foreigners, including, but not limited to, US, UK, French, Dutch, Australian and Russian citizens.

When it comes to "pay for slay," the only requirement to receive payment is that you were engaged in terrorism against Israel. When it comes to rewarding terror, the PA is truly an equal opportunity employer.

What made Shtayyeh's presentation so offensive was his resort to outright lies.

Shtayyeh opened his defense of the PA's squandering of billions of dollars of US and international aid by claiming that Yigal Amir, who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on Nov. 4, 1995, "is getting a social security pension from the State of Israel."

In fact, there are multiple provisions in Israeli law that deny any state benefits whatsoever to any person being held in prison.

Shtayyeh went on to explain that the PA policy does not incentivize terror but rather compensates for the "collective punishment" he claimed Israel imposes on the terrorists and their families. According to Shtayyeh, Israel destroys the house of every terrorist arrested.

This too is a lie. The Israeli practice of employing home demolitions as a deterrent measure is reserved for cases of murder. Accordingly, of the thousands of terrorists arrested every year, the houses of only a handful are actually demolished.

Doubling down, Shtayyeh tried to explain that the PA policy is – pass the tissues – focused on the terrorists' "orphans" and "kids."

What Shtayyeh failed to mention is that according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports, later confirmed by the Israeli Prison Service, 70% of the imprisoned terrorists are single. Many of them are minors, such as Morad Adais, the 16-year-old murderer of nurse Dafna Meir; Khalil Jabarin, also 16, who murdered Ari Fuld; or Iham Tzabach, who at the tender age of 14 convinced three of his friends to participate in the terror attack that led to the murderer of Tuvia Yanai Weissman. If "pay for slay" is all about the "orphans" why are single terrorists receiving a payment?

Shtayyeh argued that the payments were actually in Israel's security interests, claiming the IDF Military Governorate had called him to ensure the PA renewed the canteen payments to the imprisoned terrorists. Shtayyeh obviously "forgot" that it was actually Israel, following a PMW report, that stopped the canteen payments, and that only after the terrorists threatened a hunger strike did the Israeli government temporarily capitulate.

Finally, Shtayyeh tried to justify "pay for slay" by asking about the recidivism rate of terrorists who had benefited from the payments.

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Before joining PMW, I spent almost 20 years in the IDF Military Advocate General's Corps. In my last position, I served as director of the IDF Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria. In total, I spent 14 years of my service dealing with Palestinian terrorism. The answer to your question, Shtayyeh, is about 60%.

While Shtayyeh may hope to deceive an uninformed audience, the reality is clear. For the PA, rewarding terrorists is not about social welfare. It is about incentivizing and rewarding terror and murder. "Pay for slay" is an abomination that should enjoy universal condemnation.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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