Israel Matzav: A 'peaceful' intifada?

A 'peaceful' intifada?

Speaking in a Johannesburg mosque in May 1994, and thinking he was only among friends, Yasser Arafat called for a jihad to 'liberate' Jerusalem. When it turned out that there was an Israeli reporter inside the mosque who had recorded his words, both Arafat and his aides claimed that he meant a 'peaceful' jihad. Of course, he meant nothing of the sort. Six years later, it all came crashing down on us.

I was reminded of that story when I saw last week that aides to Arafat's successor, the Holocaust-denying Mahmoud Abbas, are claiming that they are planning a 'peaceful' intifada. You know, the kind where all the 'Palestinians' will sit in the streets wearing their keffiyahs and singing Kumbaya.

The new “popular intifada” that Fatah is planning in the West Bank won’t be an armed one, Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official, said on Thursday.

Shaath’s clarification came a day after he and some of his colleagues in Fatah called on Palestinians to escalate the “popular resistance” in protest against the settlements, the West Bank security barrier and the decision to build new homes in east Jerusalem.

“Apparently the Palestinian leaderships in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are in control of the situation to make sure that the intifada is not transformed into an armed confrontation,” Shaath explained. “This was not the case during the second intifada.”

Shaath ruled out the possibility that the “popular resistance” would deteriorate into an armed confrontation “in spite of continued Israeli attempts to drag the Palestinians in this direction by using excessive force to confront the protesters.”

According to Shaath, the option of an armed intifada under the current circumstances, where Israel “fully occupies the West Bank and is besieging the Gaza Strip, is impossible.”

However, he stressed that this does not mean that the Palestinians don’t have the right to launch an armed intifada “against an armed occupation and an armed settlement on Palestinian lands.”

He added: “We’re not talking here about whether we have the right to do so or not; obviously, we have the right, but we are talking about whether it would be effective and whether we have the capabilities and desire.”

Whether the 'Palestinians' can or cannot launch an armed intifada (and if they can't it only shows how wise it is to keep the IDF in Judea and Samaria), that line about the leadership being in control is totally disingenuous. The leadership was in control from 2000 to 2003 as well, as we found out when IDF troops raided Arafat's Ramallah headquarters known as the Mukhata. Although the 'Palestinians' had claimed that the shooters were not under their control, it turns out that they were being paid and orchestrated by none other than Yasser Arafat himself.

If there is another intifada, it will be violent. There is no such thing as a 'peaceful' intifada. The 'Palestinians' don't know how to sing Kumbaya.

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: A 'peaceful' intifada?