RUTHFULLY YOURS

On a number of occasions over the past few months, US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has declared her support for the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. Last month, Harris said: “We must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.”

In July, she was quoted as saying that the two-state solution is the “only path” forward for Israel and the Palestinians. Less than two months after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis, including many of them being raped, tortured and burned alive, Harris, after meeting with a number of Arab leaders in the United Arab Emirates, talked about the need to “revitalize the Palestinian Authority” headed by Mahmoud Abbas and the need to “see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.” She added: “A two-state solution remains the best path, we believe, toward a durable peace. The President (Joe Biden) and I are committed to that goal.”

Harris’s repeated talk about the need to establish a Palestinian state in the aftermath of the October 7 atrocities against Israelis is the best gift the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group could have wished for. Harris is basically saying that, if elected, she will pursue the Biden administration’s policy of appeasing Iran and its terror proxies by helping them establish a Palestinian terror state that would undoubtedly be controlled by Hamas murderers and rapists.

If such a state is created in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or east Jerusalem, it will be used as a base from which to launch more October 7-style massacres and eliminate Israel.

Harris seems to ignore that a majority of Palestinians continue to support Hamas and the October 7 atrocities. A poll published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in June found that overall support for Hamas among the Palestinians stood at 40%, a six-point increase from a previous survey conducted three months earlier. According to the poll, only some 20% support the ruling Fatah faction headed by Abbas. In addition, the poll showed that more than half of the Palestinians, support the “armed struggle” (terrorism) against Israel. Two-thirds of the Palestinians said that the October 7 massacres were “correct.”

What is most disturbing about Harris’s advocacy for the establishment of an Iranian-controlled Palestinian state is that it is seen by many Palestinians as a reward for the October 7 atrocities. When asked by the PSR pollsters why they believe the Hamas-led attack was “correct,” 82% of the Palestinians said it was because the massacres “revived international attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and could lead to increased recognition of Palestinian statehood.”

So, when Harris talks about the need to establish a Palestinian state, she is sending a message to Hamas and other Palestinians that terrorism against Israel pays and brings them closer to achieving their goal of creating a terror state that would facilitate their goal of murdering more Jews and destroying Israel. She has, in fact, revived the hopes of Palestinian terrorists that they are closer than ever to fulfill their dream of replacing Israel with a jihadi-genocidal state armed and funded by Qatar and the mullahs in Iran.

If Harris wants the Palestinians to live in security and dignity, she should be urging them to revolt against the Hamas murders and rapists who, on October 7, 2023, launched the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. If Harris really cared about the Palestinians, she should be calling on Hamas to surrender; and calling on the Palestinian Authority (PA) stop glorifying terrorists and paying their families monthly salaries, dismantle all terror groups operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, stop poisoning the hearts and minds of their people, and recognize Israel’s right to exist. Unfortunately, she has done none of the above.

The absence of a firm and tough US policy towards Hamas and terrorism has led many Palestinians, including the PA’s Abbas, to believe that it is fine to seek unity with Iran’s Palestinian terror proxies. Moreover, the assumption that the PA can be “revitalized” and play a role in a post-war Gaza shows that Harris and the Biden administration are unfortunately clueless. As several PSR polls have shown, more than 80% of the Palestinians have no faith in Abbas and the PA. The latest poll, published in September, showed that a majority of 57% of the Palestinians believe that when the war ends, Hamas will continue to rule the Gaza Strip. The poll also found that if presidential elections were held today, Hamas arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar would receive 41% of the votes, while Abbas would get only 13%. A majority of 84% of the Palestinians want Abbas to resign.

Unlike Harris, Abbas is well aware that a vast majority of the Palestinians prefer Hamas over him and his PA. That is why he has so far refused to condemn the Hamas-led October 7 atrocities. Abbas is also well aware that the talk about “revitalizing” the corrupt PA is nothing but a farce. The PA was established more than 30 years ago and its leaders, first Yasser Arafat and now Abbas, have never shown any serious intention to combat rampant corruption, anarchy and lawlessness in areas under their control.

If Biden and Harris want to see a “revitalized” PA, the first thing they need to do is ask Abbas, whose term in office expired in 2009, to step down. If they want to see a “revitalized” PA, they should be asking the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank immediately to crack down on hundreds of Iran-backed militiamen who have formed terror groups to murder Jews. Biden and Harris are misguided if they think that Abbas would ever be able to return to the Gaza Strip, from where he and his PA were expelled by Hamas during a brutal and bloody coup in 2007.

Abbas does not even have the courage to publicly call on Hamas to relinquish control over the Gaza Strip. Instead, he is busy these days trying to forge an alliance with Hamas. According to reports in the Arab media, Abbas loyalists and Hamas leaders, who recently met in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, agreed to “form a joint committee to manage the Gaza Strip.” The committee, the reports said, consists of 10-15 “professional members” who are not affiliated with any Palestinian faction. If true, the reports demonstrate that Abbas continues to view Hamas, whose charter calls for the elimination of Israel through jihad, as a legitimate partner. Worse, it shows that Egypt, a key US ally in the Middle East, also sees Hamas as a legitimate player in the Palestinian arena.

Future meetings between Fatah and Hamas in Cairo will be based on four pillars, “in light of Egypt’s commitment to the Palestinian cause as a matter of national security,” according to Egyptian academic and political analyst Dr. Tarek Fahmy. “According to my understanding, these pillars include Cairo completing its efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation,” he said.

Ibrahim Al-Madhoun, a Palestinian political analyst close to Hamas, said that the Fatah-Hamas meetings are being held under Egyptian sponsorship to discuss ways of forming a new Palestinian unity government. Al-Madhoun believes that “the Egyptian sponsorship will facilitate the course of the talks in that meeting and will make everyone work with open hearts to reach agreements.”

Abbas and the Egyptians appear to have renewed their talks with Hamas because they sense that the Biden-Harris administration is not interested in ending the terror group’s rule over the Gaza Strip. If Biden and Harris really wanted to see Hamas removed from power and the Israeli hostages released, all they need to do, is issue an ultimatum to the ruler of Qatar, who funds and hosts the terror group’s leadership, that the US will withdraw its air base from the Gulf state and impose sanctions on the emirate if the issue is not resolved immediately.

If the Biden-Harris administration really wanted to get rid of Hamas, they would be calling out Abbas and the Egyptians for negotiating with a terror group about ways of incorporating it in a new administration in the Gaza Strip.

Talk about creating a Palestinian state emboldens terrorists everywhere and assures the world that the US is on their side.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.