[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

What's the PC way to handle the Fatah resolution that Jerusalem "is awaiting
our sacrifices" and Fatah pledges to continue to make sacrifices "until
Jerusalem returns to the Palestinians void of settlers and settlements."

The folks at Fatah certainly didn't mean the "sacrifice" of Palestinian
lives as they engage in attacks against Israel in the struggle to liberate
Jerusalem.

OK. Here we go:

You know that when someone calls for a "jihad" the PC interpretation is
that they mean "a very sincere and intensive intellectual effort to achieve
a noble goal"?

Right.

So why not try this on for size: When Fatah pledges to continue to make
sacrifices "until Jerusalem returns to the Palestinians void of settlers and
settlements," they mean the "sacrifice" of not having Palestinian
sovereignty as long as that sovereignty doesn't include Jerusalem.

Oops.

All that effort by U.S. General Dayton to arm and train the "moderate"
gunmen that were ostensibly going to clean up the area under the PA's
control and it turns out that the "moderaet" Fatah states for the record
that their "armed wing" aka "illegal militia" aka terror group is here to
stay.

I have an idea!

Let's put all the terrorists from the Aksa Martyrs Brigades on salaries as
PA cops.

They can be PA security men as their day jobs and terrorists during off
hours.

So technically then we can say that there are no illegally armed men - since
as PA cops it is legal for them to have weapons.

Sound familiar?

It should.]

Fatah: Return J'lem before talks go on
Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, BETHLEHEM , THE JERUSALEM POST Aug.
8, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418552346&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Fatah's sixth General Assembly on Saturday approved a resolution saying
Jerusalem is an "integral part of the Palestinian homeland and political
entity" and vowing to foil Israel's alleged efforts to erase the city's Arab
and Islamic character.
The resolution is the latest in a series of hard-line decisions that were
adopted by the conference over the past few days.

The new resolution says that Fatah considers Jerusalem a "red line" that no
one could cross. It defines Jerusalem as the "eternal capital of Palestine,
the Arab world and the Islamic and Christian worlds."

The city "is awaiting our sacrifices" and Fatah pledges to continue to make
sacrifices "until Jerusalem returns to the Palestinians void of settlers and
settlements," according to the resolution.

The conference also endorsed the Aksa Martyrs Brigades as Fatah's official
armed wing.

Zakariya Zubeidi, one of the commanders of the armed group who delivered a
speech before the assembly over the weekend, hailed the decision.

He said the decision to endorse his group was announced by Othman Abu
Gharbiyeh, chairman of Fatah's sixth General Assembly.

"Abu Gharbiyeh announced before the conference that Fatah would never give
up the Aksa Martyrs Brigades," Zubeidi said. "He stressed that the
endorsement of our group was parallel to the continued brandishing of the
olive branch as a symbol for peace."

Zubeidi is among some 700 delegates who have presented their candidacy for
the 120-member Revolutionary Council. He said that if elected he would
represent the Aksa Martyrs Brigades in the council.

Fatah leaders had initially banned Zubeidi, who for many years was wanted by
Israel for his involvement in terrorism, from participating in the meetings
of the conference.

However, under pressure from many Fatah members, he was eventually permitted
to attend as a delegate representing the armed group.

The Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which was established shortly after the beginning
of the second intifada in September 2000, has been responsible for many
terrorist attacks - including suicide bombings - that killed and wounded
hundreds of people.

Zubeidi was not the only member of the Brigades to attend the conference.
Another top operative of the armed group, Rabi Hamed from Ramallah, also
attended the meetings.

The endorsement of the group as Fatah's official armed wing contradicts
promises made by the Fatah leadership to the effect that the Aksa Martyrs
Brigades have been dismantled.

Moreover, it shows that the group is still active in the West Bank and that
its gunmen are active members in some of Fatah's institutions.

The conference also decided to appoint 20 Fatah security prisoners held in
Israeli jails as members of the Revolutionary Council, "in honor of the
sacrifices and devotion of all the prisoners."

Issa Qaraqi, the Palestinian Authority's minister for prisoners affairs,
said the decision was aimed at sending a message to Israel that the
Palestinian prisoners are not "murderers and terrorists."

Also on Saturday, the conference unanimously elected PA President Mahmoud
Abbas as "general commander" of Fatah for another five-year term. Abbas was
the only candidate for the top post.

His election was received with thunderous applause by a majority of
delegates.

"Everyone came to the conference with a desire to achieve the goal of
liberating the land," Abbas said in a short speech after his election.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Israeli government had no comment on
the statements coming from the conference.

Delegates were supposed to vote on Friday for new members of the
Revolutionary Council and the Central Committee of Fatah. However, the vote
was postponed until Sunday due to a row over the participation of delegates
from the Gaza Strip.

Hundreds of Fatah members have been banned by Hamas from leaving the Strip
to attend the conference. Their absence has been exploited by the Fatah
leadership in the West Bank to squeeze the Gaza Strip representatives out of
the faction's key decision-making bodies.

To avoid a deepening crisis, some Fatah operatives have raised the
possibility that the faction's members in the Gaza Strip would cast their
votes either by phone or e-mail or at ballot boxes stationed inside the
Qatari Embassy in Gaza City or on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border
crossing.

At least 110 delegates have presented their candidacy for membership of the
Central Committee, considered the most important Fatah institution. The
committee, which has only 21 members, has long been dominated by old guard
leaders of Fatah.

Veteran Fatah leaders appeared determined over the weekend to retain
exclusive control over the committee. About 85 percent of the candidates are
considered representatives of the old guard.

On Friday, the conference witnessed yet another stormy session as delegates
discussed the circumstances that led to Fatah's collapse in the Gaza Strip
in the summer of 2007.

Addressing the conference, the former Fatah security commander in the Gaza
Strip, Muhammad Dahlan, held the movement's political leadership responsible
for the Hamas victory.

He accused the Fatah leadership of failing to take action to prevent the
Gaza Strip from falling into the hands of Hamas. He said that the Fatah
Central Committee even refused to issue a statement condemning the
assassination attempt on the life of Tarek Abu Rajab, then head of the PA's
General Intelligence Service in the Strip.

Dahlan added that when Hamas militiamen surrounded the home of Muhammad
Gharib, another Fatah security commander, for 12 hours before murdering him
in cold blood, the Fatah leadership failed to act to save his life.

Dahlan criticized the findings of a special commission of inquiry that was
formed after the defeat of Fatah, saying it had indicted those who fought
but lost instead of blaming those who "colluded" with Hamas.

Haviv Rettig Gur contributed to this report.