Remember one of the big points on why Saddam was an international terror menace who needed to be removed was his payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers?
Well, the Times of London reports that the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran is similarly subsidizing rocket attacks on Israel by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. According to a “Palestinian intelligence official,” the deal is $10K for rocket attacks. Payments are routed from Teheran to the always helpful Syria, where Ibrahim Shehadeh, the head of PIJ’s overseas operations, is permitted to operated and is said to transfer the loot to the West Bank.
The good sign, if it’s true, is that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are reported to be helping the Israelis locate and destroy the safehouses where the rockets are being made. The bad sign, again – if it’s true – is that it underscores that Abbas cannot control the terrorist militias himself and needs Israel’s help – even assuming he really wants to destroy them, as to which many of us remain dubious.
Plus, because the terrorist factions in the territories are probably at least as strong if not stronger than the PA forces (which themselves are shady), Abbas is no doubt putting himself at great risk if he really is aligning with the Israelis against PIJ, which is backed by Hezbollah, Iran and Syria – not to mention Hamas.
Speaking of Hamas, the Times of London report oddly states that PIJ “is the only Palestinian group that calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.” That, of course, is not true. As I’ve previously noted, The Hamas charter states that “the purpose of HAMAS is to create an Islamic Palestinian state throughout Israel by eliminating the State of Israel through violent jihad.” Moreover, despite some sleight of hand to suggest the contrary, the Palestinian Authority and the PLO, in fact, have never fulfilled a commitment formally to amend the Palestinian National Charter (essentially, the constitution of the PLO) to remove clauses calling for the destruction of Israel.
Wishful thinking cannot alter the reality that an established Palestinian state, under current conditions which show no sign of meaningful change in the foreseeable future, would be a terrorist state, beholden to Iran, right on Israel’s doorstep.