"Moderate" Fatah Undergoing Radicalization -Barry Rubin[Palestinian p]ublic opinion is extreme, with support for terrorism zooming upward. Fatah both heeds and feeds the trend.
[T]he Fatah leadership strategy is not to fight but ally with Hamas. That's the kind of thinking that makes the movement so impossible to change or move toward peace.
Many in the West believe that whenever Palestinian leaders reject peace, it must be because they were not offered enough. Westerners think Fatah and the PA merely need to raise Palestinian living standards and get a state to show their people that Hamas is a failure and the PA a success. Yet, as horrible as it sounds, in Palestinian politics success is still measured by the number of Israelis killed and by who never gives up the chance for total victory and Israel's disappearance some day.
Given the strategic realities, Israel must deal with the PA and try to keep Fatah in power on the West Bank. But there should be no illusions. Solving the conflict won't happen. Putting it atop Western governments' agenda, blaming Israel for Palestinian intransigence, and romanticizing Fatah and the PA is a big mistake.
(Jerusalem Post)
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