A Palestinian militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades marches in front of a poster showing late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during a rally marking the 42nd anniversary of the Fatah Movement in the West Bank city of Hebron,Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007.... (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)
Oriana Fallaci (1976): Interview with History, pp. 130-131:
Arafat: “We won’t accept [a peaceful agreement]! Never! We will continue to make war on Israel by ourselves until we get Palestine back. The end of Israel is the goal of our struggle, and it allows for neither compromise nor mediation. The issues of this struggle, whether our [Arab] friends like it or not, will always remain fixed by the principles we enumerated in 1965 with the creation of Al Fatah. First: revolutionary violence is the only system for liberating the land of our fathers; second: the purpose of this violence is to liquidate Zionism in all its political, economic and military forms, and to drive it out of Palestine forever; third: our revolutionary action must be independent of any control by party or state; fourth; this action will be of long duration. We know the intentions of certain Arab leaders: to resolve the conflict with a peaceful agreement. When this happens, we will oppose it.Fallaci: Conclusion: you don’t at all want the peace that everyone is hoping for.
Arafat: No! We don’t want peace. We want war, victory. Peace for us means the destruction of Israel and nothing else. What you call peace is peace for Israel and the imperialists. For us it is injustice and shame. We will fight until victory. Decades if necessary. Generations.
Like the man said, "The end of Israel is the goal of our struggle.... the purpose ... is to liquidate Zionism ... and to drive it out of Palestine forever." And they will fight for "decades if necessary. Generations." As Jeff Jacoby said of the keffiyeh, "It is a message of war without end."
There may be no end in sight, but let's not be too vague about the beginnings. Palestinians mark the beginning of Fatah from their first attack within Israel, when they tried -but failed- to bomb Israel's National Water Carrier on January 1, 1965.
Do the math. 1965 was two years before the Six Day War, two years before Israel came to control Gaza and the West Bank, two years before the liberation and unification of Jerusalem. But it makes no never mind. 1965, 1967, Fallaci's interview in 1976, Abu Mazen's Fatah anniversary speech this month, this year -- it's all the same. Same goal, same war, same keffiyehs, same bloodthirsty terrorists.
The only thing that's changed is that now you can buy a keffiyeh online at Urban Outfitters.
Oh, and Israel is stuck with the most unpopular leader in all its history.
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