Today Fatah adopted a position paper that not only is unhelpful to the peace process but just gives everyone an excuse to disengage from the process and gives the right wing Israeli government ammunition to say it has no partner for peace.
Specifics below the fold....
The statement Fatah adopted in its position paper was,
Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem will be returned [to the Palestinians], clean of settlements and settlers.
It is also reported that the paper states,
"that the Palestinian national enterprise will not reach fruition until all of Jerusalem, including the outlying villages, come under Palestinian sovereignty."
This is coming from Haaretz which is considered Israel's mainstream left wing media and is considered the most reliable of Israel's media.
Now before everyone jumps on me and says well Likuds charter talks about having an Israel that extends to the Jordan River and calls for a greater Israel... that is all 100% true but Fatah doing this while they are re-electing Abbas the SAME DAY is just not helpful to the peace process.
I understand the need to pander but this was just not the time to do it. You have Obama who seems more willing than most to put pressure on Israel, more willing to put the ball in Israel's court and then now Fatah does this and kills any pressure that the US would put on Israel.
Now Netanyahu can just say well look that position is a non-starter I am willing to stop construction on the outskirts of Jerusalem and West Bank and stop settlements and they want all of Jerusalem which is more than anything in pre-1967 borders and make Netanyahu look like the moderate one!!
This is more of a rant I guess but I feel its important when we are very worried about getting a public option and fixing the economy internally that people see whats going on in the mideast.
UPDATE: I have been attacked for analyzing the so-called "internal politics" of Fatah. My main response to this is no matter how you look at this statement was unncessary. Yes it was a party conference, but there was no sitting there at the end of the conference going hmmm I wonder what our position on Jerusalem is... If there was no statement released is the Palestinian street going to go. Yeah I like Fatah but I dunno where they stand Jerusalem...
Lets be real, without the statement it would Abbas was re-elected overwhelmingly and Fatah is united. To me, there was no need for the position paper.