Not content with collectively bragging about their upcoming "No Seriously, We Want To Wipe Out Israel" conference, the oh-so-moderate leaders of Fatah are also granting individual interviews:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Hatem Abd Al-Qader, former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs. The interview aired on Al-Quds TV on July 13, 2009.

Hatem Abd Al-Qader: "We must generate a contrived separation between the Fatah movement and the PA. The Fatah movement, as an organization, as a national enterprise, and as a liberation movement, must be detached from the PA, and must have its own platform, agenda, and strategy, which are based on the principles of Fatah... [it must have] its own resistance as well."...

Hatem Abd Al-Qader: "The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are still the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Perhaps, due to local political circumstances, the Brigades' operations have been disrupted. But let me tell you: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are out there, and they are ready to respond to the call of the Fatah movement in any future confrontation with Israel... [Fatah] is still a national liberation movement, which relies on resistance, as well as on politics.... whoever thinks that it is possible to reach peace with the Israelis in light of the present circumstances and the [political] constellation in Israel is definitely deluding himself.

Remember when Reuters journalist Atef Sa'ad "reported" that the Palestinians were meeting their Road Map obligations - and that Israel was not - because Fatah had totally dismantled the Al Aqsa Brigades? I wonder if that will come up the next time CAMERA calls him out for being a terrorist propagandist.

Presumably the nuanced take on this is that the Palestinians, sensing the US is about to "deliver" Israel, want to be able to claim a military victory for the history books. That was one of the long-running tropes during the Arafat years, with the upshot always being that the Israelis should roll with the humiliating punches: the Palestinians weren't really genocidal, they just wanted to kill a few last Jews before the timer ran out. Since it worked so well during the Oslo years it's nice to see the argument making a return.

Or it could be that when intransigent genocidal lunatics say things they actually kind of mean them:

With Fatah, ruler of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the PLO - in effect, Israel's Palestinian negotiating partner - planning to hold a rare congress to determine the group's future, it's a good time to examine its leadership, the Fatah Central Committee. Two important facts leap out at you: the high degree of both age and intransigence among those who lead the Palestinian movement. A generational struggle cannot be postponed forever, but the younger cohort may be even more radical. Almost all the members have been on the committee for more than 20 years; the last one was added in 1995. All are over age 65.

Why are Fatah's leaders so rarely discussed? Because to do so immediately shows there isn't going to be any comprehensive peace agreement in this generation and that the designation of Fatah as "moderate" rests on a rather broad definition of that word. PLO and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, 74 years old, is no dictator able to order around the other leaders. Even if he wanted to make a compromise deal - which he doesn't - he couldn't deliver his own purported followers, much less his Hamas rivals.

Nothing a little Hope and Change can't solve, I'm sure.

References:
* "Moderate" Palestinians Hold Conference, Demand Endless Warfare Against Israel [MR]
* Former PA Minister Hatem Abd Al-Qader: Fatah Should "Reactivate the Option of Resistance" [MEMRI]
* Fatah Security Chief: "There Is No Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Any More" Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades: "Yes There Is" [MR]
* UPDATED: September 27, 2004--Reuters: News Agency or PR Firm for Terrorists? [CAMERA]
* The Region: Fatah's power structure spells trouble for peace with Israel [JPost]

Previously:
* Palestinian Terrorists Hiding In West Bank Hospitals (Plus: Fatah Not So Much With The Anti-Terrorism Thing)
* Obama: A Fatah-Hamas Unity Government Is The Best Of Both Worlds!
* Fatah Moderates Respond To Billions In Aid By Stressing Unity With Terrorists