by Peter Fernandez                                                                                                            

In August a delegation of 24 Democrat House of Representatives led by House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) visited Israel and the “Occupied Territories” to explore the prospects of judicial reform in the Jewish state and a future two-state solution with the Palestinians. According to a recent Reuters report, a majority of these delegates have “expressed frustration with the surging violence under Israel’s hard-right leadership.” 

Our very own Becca Balint,(D-VT) was also part of the delegation. It is hoped that Representative Balint, whose grandfather was murdered in the Holocaust, could answer questions pertaining to the Israel/Palestine Conflict. But it seems obvious that the Democrats are biased in favor of the Palestinians because they are probably unfamiliar or critical of the following-

Since 2006, the  Palestinians have not held general elections but it has nothing to do with “Israel’s hard-right leadership,”  as Bassam Tawil, a Palestinian journalist writes. It is rather “the ongoing power struggle between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip.” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister  Mohammad Shtayyeh preached, as he does to all foreign dignitaries and reporters “that Israel was attempting to combat Palestinian democracy” to a blue and adoring American politico-choir. 

Many Arab and Palestinian analysts, including Ramzy Baroud, editor of The Palestine Chronicle, have accused PLO/PA President Mohammed Abbas of using Israel as an excuse to cancel elections. “Resentment of the PA has been brewing for years,” he stated in ‘The Palestinian View’ – with Ramzy Baroud: Which Side is the PA On? (VIDEO) – Politics For The People

It is the Palestine Authority that requires judicial, police, and media reform wrote Baroud on  the arabnews.com in May 3, 2021: “The truth is Abbas canceled the elections because all credible public opinion polls showed that this month’s legislative vote would have decimated the ruling clique of his Fatah party and ushered in a whole new politician configuration.  This would have seen Abbas’s rivals Marwan Barghouti and Nasser Al-Qidwah emerge as the new leaders of Fatah….a whole new class of millionaires who turned the Palestinian struggle into a lucrative industry, generously funded by ‘donor countries,’ was at risk of losing everything.”

According to Palestinian journalist Bassam Tawil, “The Palestinians are actually controlled by two undemocratic, repressive regimes: the PA (Palestinian Authority) in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”  In that August 15 Gatestone article he also wrote stated that the PA “was viciously cracking down on Palestinian journalists, human rights activists, political opponents. The same holds true for the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has also  been targeting human rights workers, peaceful protesters, journalists, and political activists.”

Tawil also noted that Palestinians protested the killing of human rights activist, Nizar Banat, who was clubbed to death in June 2021 by PA security officers. For fear of their lives, many Palestinians will not criticize the PA.  Nizar Banat: The death shaking the Palestinian leadership – BBC News.

If foreign diplomats had not interceded this August, prominent Palestinian activists such as Ubay al-Aboudi could still be festering in drab PA jails, or worse, be tortured or murdered. “I’m not ashamed that I’m a critic of the PA,” said al-Aboudi to the BBC’s Yolande Knell. “They have failed politically, they have failed economically… We are sliding more and more into a dictatorship.” Still, an overwhelming amount of the Western media, particularly our own, continuously seeks to export Arabist propaganda touting “sexy” Israeli intransigence and ignoring “unsexy” Palestinian political corruption.  

According to an August Palestinian Quds (Jerusalem) news website, one of their employees, Mohammed Abed, was injured after being hit with a tear gas canister fired by Palestinian security. The e-publication condemned “recurring assaults and the intentional targeting of journalists by the PA.”

“Last year,” writes  BassamTawil, “even the Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde criticized corruption in the PA. Saying that widespread corruption was hindering Swedish economic aid to the Palestinians, she emphasized serious hesitation about Swedish economic support.”

On May 11, 2022, Palestinian-American Al Jazeera reporter, Shireen Abu Ekleh was shot and killed in what was to become a nearly year-long media-feeding frenzy. Finally, the US conducted ballistics of the bullet after the PA refused Israel’s offer. The results were in- conclusive but showed that the Jewish state was in all probability at fault. 

Abu Ekleh’s death became a worldwide cause celebre, but Nazar Banat’s murder by the PA was ignored or buried as a back page sidebar. The PA & the media suppress  Palestinian killed by Palestinian, but a Palestinian killed by an Israeli soldier, well, that’s just good business. It keeps the popular “political” uprising fueled with donor nations’ solicitous blood money for the lavish lifestyles of the Rich and the Infamous PA fat cats, gangsters and button men.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, co-founder of Hamas, the Islamist terrorist organization that rules Gaza. Tired of the hypocrisy, violence, and corruption of its members and PA, Mosab gambled with his legacy and life by becoming a spy for Israel. “Hamas doesn’t care about the lives of Palestinians,” stated Yousef in a March 3 2010 interview: Hamas founder’s son: I spied for Israel – CNN.com

 “Hamas leaders are billionaires,”  declared Suheib Yousef, his younger brother to CNN. “They have money in Turkey, in Qatar, in all over the world. They are investing in real estate and businesses while their own people are suffering.”

In his documentary, Yousef states that “the Palestinian cause became a business for many people. They are using it to get donations, to get sympathy, to get political support. They are not really fighting for freedom or democracy or human rights.”

The author is a children’s book author and Vermont resident.