As the Jerusalem Post's Palestinian affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh reported Monday, over the weekend he and the newspaper fell victim to a Fatah hoax. Saturday, Abu Toameh was "summoned" to Fatah's General Intelligence headquarters in Ramallah where he was given a "scoop" - a graphic videotape of the murder of a 16-year-old girl in July perpetrated as a so-called "honor killing." The Fatah officer in Ramallah supplied Abu Toameh with the phone numbers of two "eye-witnesses" to the episode who would corroborate the story.
It later worked out that the "eye-witnesses" were Fatah militiamen in Gaza. The story was a fabrication. The video was taken in Iraq in April. The purpose of the elaborately crafted tale was clear. Fatah wished to use the Post to project itself as a credible, moderate actor battling the forces of evil and darkness in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Abu Toameh had written up the story and it appeared on The Jerusalem Post's Web site on Saturday night. It was removed when the Post was alerted to the hoax and did not appear in the Sunday paper.
Abu Toameh's forthright admission of his error and his report in Monday's paper of the anatomy of the Fatah ruse is a testament to his own journalistic integrity. But he is not the issue here. The issue here is Fatah and what the hoax tells us about the organization on which the Olmert government and the Bush administration are basing all their plans for a future peace between the Palestinians and the State of Israel.
As Abu Toameh noted, the false videotape was Fatah's second propaganda story last week. Wednesday, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's terrorist organization's propaganda services announced that its forces in Bethlehem had intercepted two rockets "ready for launch" against Israel in the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala. They further announced that they had turned the rockets over to the IDF. This story, which came as Abbas was meeting with US President George W. Bush and other world leaders at the UN in New York, of course projected the image of Fatah as a terror-fighting, Israel-protecting, peace-seeking, credible, moderate actor.
SPEAKING to The Washington Post on Thursday, Abbas used the story to explain why Israel should feel comfortable giving Fatah all of Judea and Samaria and half of Jerusalem. Responding to a question regarding his view of Israel's concern that areas transferred to Palestinian control will be used as operational bases for carrying out attacks against its cities Abbas said, "Last night, [our security forces] seized two rockets. We handed [them] over to the Israelis. We are very worried about these deeds and I think we can put an end to all this. Our security apparatus is ready to stop all kinds of violence."
The Washington Post published the interview without noting that the story was a total fabrication. The "rockets" that Fatah transferred to the IDF were just a pile of metal pipes which had apparently been used as toys by local children. The IDF had already noted that the rockets weren't real when The Washington Post conducted its interview with Abbas. Unlike Abu Toameh and The Jerusalem Post, The Washington Post and its veteran reporter Lally Weymouth saw no reason to mention that Abbas's anti-terror credentials were based on nothing but lies manufactured by his own propaganda arms.
AND THAT'S the thing. Since Fatah's creation in 1959 its primary weapon has been disinformation and its primary asset has been the Western media's willingness to be duped and stay duped. What is notable about the honor killing video story is not that it was false, but that The Jerusalem Post acknowledged that it had been lied to.
But today, even the media's complicity with Fatah's lies cannot hold a candle to Fatah's newfound, greatest asset - the Israeli government.
In reacting to the rocket hoax, which caused a minor panic among Jerusalem residents, the IDF went out if its way to cover for Fatah. Although they noted that the rockets were fake, the IDF spokespeople applauded Fatah for giving its metal pipes to Israel.
Yet, the IDF's embrace of Fatah's hoax is nothing compared to the treatment the terror organization receives from the Olmert government. Monday the government enthusiastically released 87 mainly Fatah-affiliated terrorists from prison. Speaking to a delegation of policemen and women on Sunday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised that these of prisoners - many of whom police officers like the ones who met with Olmert risked their lives arresting - were only the first batch of many still to be set free.
My government, Olmert stated happily, wants to drastically reduce the number of terrorists in our prisons. Actually, he didn't call them terrorists. He called them "security prisoners." Among those sent home on Monday were men who conducted shooting attacks at Israeli motorists and laid bombs to murder Israelis. Some of the men had held contacts with state sponsors of terrorism. Racad Sallam, for instance oversaw terror financing ties with Saddam Hussein's regime. In short the men released on Monday are enemies of the State of Israel who have dedicated themselves to the murder of Israelis. They were convicted and imprisoned for their actions by duly authorized Israeli courts.
But none of this is mentioned by the government. Olmert and his colleagues extol Monday's move as a confidence building gesture towards Abbas. Its aim is to shore up his support among the Palestinians to give them confidence in Abbas's ability to secure their interests.
No mention is made of the fact that there is something terribly wrong with Palestinian society which views these attempted murderers as heroes and champions of their cause. The fact that Abbas says there is a direct link between his political strength and the freeing of these terrorists is not viewed as significant. The basic immorality of a society that praises the murderers of innocent people is similarly given no attention whatsoever by the government in its mad rush to "strengthen Abbas."
