On May 15, 1974 three terrorists from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a group headed by Nayef Hawatmeh, infiltrated across the Lebanese border into the town of Ma’alot, where they murdered 31 Israelis, including 26 children in the Netiv Meir elementary school. The ‘reason’ for the attack was supposed to be a response to the “shuttle diplomacy” of Henry Kissinger, who was attempting to negotiate peace between Israel and the Arab nations.
Hawatmeh and the DFLP are now hosted by Syria. They have been responsible for various other terrorist acts, but since the mid-1990’s, their ‘military’ capabilities in the territories have declined. Maybe they’re getting old.
The Olmert government has apparently decided that, in the name of “strengthening Abbas”, it’s time to forgive and forget, or at least to forget:
In a move aimed at helping Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gain approval of the new PA government, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will approve allowing Nayef Hawatmeh, the Damascus-based leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), to travel to Ramallah on Wednesday to participate in a meeting of the PLO’s central assembly…
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i said on Friday that Israel should allow Hawatmeh into Ramallah since this could help strengthen Abbas in face of the growing Hamas threat in the Gaza Strip. — Jerusalem Post
The string of concessions, pardons, abasements, and humiliations that Israel seems bound to suffer in order to “bolster Abbas against Hamas” seems to never end. Each step is worse than the preceding one, as Israel and the US arm, finance, and appease the Fatah terrorists in an attempt to create a counterforce to Hamas.
And it’s all for naught. Didn’t they learn anything from the disaster in the Gaza strip where the well-armed Fatah men were routed by the better organized and highly motivated Hamas forces? Everything we gave Fatah ended up in the hands of Hamas.
Don’t they understand that the more they support the corrupt Fatah, the less popular it becomes among Palestinians?
Fatah is not going to defeat Hamas, and even if it could it would not be an alternative, being in principle no less rejectionist than Hamas.
Better simply put a bullet or 31 in the back of Hawatmeh’s head, and announce the end of another terrorist murderer. That kind of action will probably have a much more positive effect on the ultimate outcome than any more ‘strengthening’ or ‘bolstering’ that we do for Abbas.