This is cross posted by Pesach Benson at the blog of Honest Reporting, Backspin.
Fatah and Hamas representatives reached a deal for national reconciliation. Many people are saying that the unity deal means Israel has a legitimate partner to negotiate peace.
Take the following quiz and see how well-informed you are about Hamas and Fatah coming together.
1) After Fatah and Hamas announced their unity deal, their first joint public meeting in Gaza was held in:
a. a neutral conference hall
b. a Fatah office
c. a Hamas office
d. a Palestinian Islamic Jihad office
Answer: Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It – along with other groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — signed on to the deal. Of all the smaller factions, the PIJ’s especially galling: It once described Daniel Wultz as “the ideal target” because he was a Jewish American teenager injured in a PIJ suicide bombing. Wultz eventually died of his injuries and was eulogized in Congress.
These are the Palestinians we should praise for reconciling?
2) Fatah and its militia, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade:
a. say they want peace
b. say they want violence
c. offer separate messages to English and Arab audiences
Answer: Offer separate messages. No surprise there. Yasser Arafat frequently talked peace in English and talked jihad in Arabic, elevating doublespeak to an art form.
3) Which movement’s charter specifically identifies itself as a Palestinian “wing” of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood, itself a designated terror organization?
a. Fatah
b. Hamas
c. Palestine Forum
d. PFLP
Answer: Hamas. Come to think of it, the PLO charter may need tweeking too, depending on who you ask.
4) Which Mideast statesman’s doctoral thesis denying the Holocaust is widely taught in public schools today?
a. Bashar Assad
b. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
c. Mahmoud Abbas
d. Tayyip Recep Erdogan
Answer: Mahmoud Abbas. Just three days ago, David Bedein said:
. . . with the sanction of both the Palestinian school system, and the head of the Palestinian Authority himself, a new generation of Palestinian pupils learn that the mass murder of Jews in World War II was carried out by Jews.
5) According to recent polls, who continues to give Osama Bin Laden the highest popularity ratings?
a. Pakistanis
b. Indonesians
c. Palestinians
d. Algerians
Answer: Palestinians. Indeed, 34 percent of Palestinians polled said they had confidence in Bin Laden to do the right thing in world affairs. Muslims in no other country were as supportive.
Which leaves one question hanging.
Who is Israel supposed to make peace with?
Hawkeye
Omar2
WellofSense
Medusa
The Alchemist
Louise
Tosca
Maimon
Telling the Truth
Israelinurse
Adam Levick
Margie in Tel Aviv
Guest/Cross Post
Hadar Sela
11 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 4, 2011 at 2:37 pm
sencar
“Who is Israel supposed to make peace with?”
Answer: Israel doesn’t want to make peace. As Wikileaks made clear, Mahmoud Abbas was prepared to offer humiliating terms for peace but Israeli negotiatiors turned him down. Why make a land for peace deal when you can stall for another decade or so and take yet more land?
It is ridiculous to judge Hamas’ negotiating position on the basis of a 30 year old charter. Hamas respected the 2008 ceasefire; Israel broke it then when Hamas responded they launched Cast Lead, which had been planned years in advance and was just waiting the right excuse. Hamas offered an indefinite ceasefire just days before Cast Lead in return for open border crossings and cessation of Israeli attacks on Gaza. Needless to say the Israeli response was massive aggression.
Turning to school curricula. Which Israeli prime minister banned the work of Israeli’s ‘new historians’ from school textbooks? Why, our peaceable friend, Aeiel Sharon.
May 4, 2011 at 4:11 pm
SerJew
“It is ridiculous to judge Hamas’ negotiating position on the basis of a 30 year old charter” sencar
And this, coming from someone who claims credibility based on “truth/logic”.
Give us a break. What is ridiculous is to hear people like you dismissing the genocidal intent of Hamas, *explicitely* and *openly* declared in their charter which they *never* changed in 30 years.
It is illogical (and suicidal and stupid) to negotiate with a “partner” whose declared objective is to destroy you.
And, in your curious selective “truth” finding, you smartly forgot to
mention that it was the oh-so-evil-monstrous Ariel Sharon that left Gaza and DISMANTLED settlements that you and your ilk love to whine about as the mais obstacle to peace. And we all know the result: the palestinians proceed to to what they know best, namely, lose yet another opportunity to make some constructive steps in serious state-building. Instead, they voted for Hamas, in full knowledge of what those gangsters stood for, who begin to pound Israel with rockets. And *THAT* led to Cast Lead, after 5 years of taking Qassam´s. Only mendacity explains that you didn´t mentioned these facts in your “truth/logic” quest.
So, again, ziontruth is right. You have no credibility nor authority whatsoever to pontificate about Israel. And you are definitely not interested in “truth/logic” but in demonization, delegitimization and double-standards.
May 4, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Yohoho
sencar, is this a smokescreen because your grasp of history is so appalling that you couldn’t answer anything in the quiz?
Come on, fess up. How many did you get right?
May 5, 2011 at 7:09 am
anon
A sixth question: What TV show combines copyright violation with incitement to genocide?
Answer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZi-wBHxtpQ&feature=player_embedded
May 5, 2011 at 9:22 am
sencar
SerJew
All negotiations start between declared enemies. Britain negotiated with the IRA whose declared intention was to bomb Britain out of Northern Ireland. Ex IRA chiefs now share democratic power in Northern Ireland.
Sharon’s withdrawal from Gaza was never about peace; it was mainly intended to put off the ‘demographic problem’ (non-jewish people outnumbering jewish in Israel and the occupied territories). Just to emphasise the point, in the year that 8000 settlers left Gaza, 16000 moved to the West Bank.
I’m afraid you’re plain wrong in saying that rockets from Hamas were the cause of Cast Lead. Ephraim Halevy, former head of Mossad is on record as saying that “the government in Jerusalem could have stopped the rocket attacks long ago by lifting its siege of Gaza”. Moreover Yuval Diskin, then head of Shin Bet, told the Israeli cabinet on 23 December 2008 that Hamas would continue the truce but wanted an end to the blockade and an Israeli ceasefire on the West Bank; the cabinet chose the invasion option. The main motives for going ahead with Cast Lead were probably pressure from the military, who wanted to demonstrate IDF power after their failure in Lebanon in 2006, and a desire to crush Hamas thus giving more authority to the more pliant Fatah.
May 5, 2011 at 10:11 am
Thank God I'm An Infidel
sencar, Please tell us which Arab/Muslim peace groups exist?
Which Arab/Muslim peace groups exist that demonstrate AGAINST hamass, hezbullah, the genocidal islamofascist regime of iran?
Which Arab/Muslim group exists to advocate that Arabs/Musilms REFUSE to participate in racist demonization of Jews, Hindu, Buddhists, Christians?
Which Arab/Muslim group demands that hamass change its racist charter of 1988 and excise the racist articles of the charter?
Where is “Salaam Now”?
Where is “Bet-Salaam”?
May 5, 2011 at 10:35 am
ziontruth
“It is ridiculous to judge Hamas’ negotiating position on the basis of a 30 year old charter.”
It would be ridiculous only if it were established beyond all reasonable doubt that the charter no longer reflected their beliefs. That is not the case. Far from it, both words and deeds coming from Hamas and its leadership affirm that their goal remains as it has ever been, the obliteration of the Jewish State and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine of all Jewish presence (God forbid). See Palestinian Media Watch for a constant flow of evidence.
“Turning to school curricula. Which Israeli prime minister banned the work of Israeli’s ‘new historians’ from school textbooks?”
Not comparable to school textbooks that teach children to aspire to be suicide-murderers. Moral equivalence fail again, anti-Zionist stooge.
May 5, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Invicta
Everyone keeps writing about the ‘genocidal’ intent of Hamas but forgets to mention that it is the Palestinians in Gaza who are imprisoned behind a wall and it is they who are killed in their hundreds by the Israeli army. So what does that make the Israeli army?
May 5, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Jane
I’ve got an idea. Why don’t the judeo fascists in Israel give the Palestinians a chance for once? Instead of constantly putting up barriers to peace (like illegal blockades, illegal settlements, killing innocent protesters) talk to the Palestinians and actually try to be honest and fair.
Fatah was prepared to give so much – as has been revealed by leaked documents – but still the judeo fascists wanted more. Or rather they did not want anything other than occupation and death.
May 5, 2011 at 12:34 pm
ziontruth
Invicta,
“Everyone keeps writing about the ‘genocidal’ intent of Hamas…”
Unfortunately not enough, judging from the apologists for them here.
“…but forgets to mention that it is the Palestinians in Gaza who are imprisoned behind a wall…”
If the Arab settlers didn’t have the habit of blowing themselves up among the indigenous Palestinians (=the Jews), that wall wouldn’t be here.
Jane,
“Why don’t the judeo fascists in Israel give the Palestinians a chance for once?”
We already gave the Arab settlers squatting on our land three chances: 1947 (the U.N. partition plan), 1993 (the Oslo Accords) and 2005 (the evacuation of all Jewish presence in Gaza). We did them each time a courtesy (for the land is really ours, as we Jews are the indigenous Palestinians), but they opened hostilities every time.
“…illegal settlements,…”
By definition it is impossible for Jews to be settlers on Palestine, being their indigenous territory. It is the Arabs who are the illegal settlers in Palestine, even if they illicitly take the name of “Palestinians” for themselves.
“Or rather they did not want anything other than occupation and death.”
We want self-determination on our indigenous lands, free of encroachment from land-thieves such as the Arab settlers. The Arab settlers are the ones who want death, raising their children to aspire to be suicide-murderers.
May 5, 2011 at 12:36 pm
SerJew
Hey, Vindicta and JaneFonda. At least bring some new lies, ´cause those above are already so worn out that only brings laughter.
Meanwhile, it´s glad to know that moronic trolls of your type are pissed at Israel. Success causes resentment, and you losers have to vent your frustrations somewhere.
It´s great to know you are pissed! Happy little nakba/kabna/ankba for you and your tribe!