Fight Back! News is circulating the following statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

PFLP: Obama's threats and PA submission are a dead end for the Palestinian people

Comrade Dr. Maher al-Taher, member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and leader of its branch in exile, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera on July 30, 2010 that the Palestinian leadership must protect the interests of the Palestinian people, not the interests of the U.S. and the Obama administration. Comrade Taher affirmed that the interests of Obama are the interests of the U.S./Israeli alliance and run counter to those of the Palestinian people, and that the Palestinian people will not assist the U.S. agendas on Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran and U.S. mid-term elections. “Our task is to maintain and uphold the interests of the Palestinian people,” said Taher.

Comrade Taher strongly condemned the action of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee to urge a return to direct negotiations, saying that this is an extremely serious matter and that the Front will not accept that the PLO and its institutions provide a cover for destructive policies. He affirmed that “the Front will take a serious stand on this issue in the internal Palestinian framework, with all Palestinian forces.”

In response to the news that the Obama administration had delivered a letter to PA President Mahmoud Abbas listing 16 points, conditions and demands upon Palestinians, Comrade Taher said that this is nothing more than blackmail and threats. It is clear, Comrade Taher said, that the U.S. administration does not take Abbas seriously, dismissing utterly any involvement of the United Nations and saying that Israeli commitment to withdraw from occupied land is unnecessary and unwarranted except as a potential end point of negotiations.

Comrade Taher said that more than once, decisions have been made in the PLO Central Council and Executive Committee and then overturned and flouted by Abu Mazen. In the face of American threats, in the meeting of the Executive Committee of the PLO, all of the factions have refused any return to direct negotiations, saying that the price for not returning to negotiations is certainly much less than the price that will be paid by returning. This is the position of the Executive Committee of the PLO, said Comrade Taher, but this has not translated to the Arab follow-up committee.

Reliance and dependency on the U.S. administration, the strategic partner, ally, and military supplier of Israel, leads to a complete dead end for the Palestinian people, said Comrade Taher, noting that the PA and the Arab Monitoring Committee have succumbed to the dictates of the U.S. and its threats to stop aid to the PA. He emphasized that serious Palestinian unity is necessary to build popular resistance that is self-reliant and will not bend to U.S. agendas and conditions. Israel is now, more than ever, rejected by the people of the world, subject to increasing pressure, boycott, isolation and investigation, and the actions of the PA and the Arab Monitoring Committee to support direct negotiations only lessens this much-needed presure on Israel and provides it with cover for its ongoing crimes.

The PFLP also expressed its anger over the continuing policy of Arab cover for U.S./Israeli demands upon Palestinians, saying that this represents Arab governments' refusal to take on their responsibility to support the Palestinian struggle, pushing Palestinians toward direct negotiations with the occupier while that occupier continues and expands its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people in a statement.

The PFLP said in its statement on August 1, 2010 that “direct negotiations” with the Zionist enemy have only encouraged the ongoing annexation of land, settlement-building, the Judaization of Jerusalem and the siege against our entire people of racist policies and practices in the West Bank, Gaza, and occupied Palestine 48. The Front said that ethnic cleansing and Zionist atrocities will not stop due to capitulation and appeasement of U.S./Israeli conditions or subservience to the outrageous demands of U.S. President Barack Obama. Instead, the Front said, now is the time to provide support to the Palestinian people's struggle, expose Zionist atrocities and U.S. support and endorsement of occupation crimes, and pursue all efforts to prosecute the war criminals in all national and international courts and arenas, and build popular and official campaigns to entirely isolate Israel at a popular and official level. The Front urged that it is necessary to bring to a final end the pursuit of a mirage and illusory solutions proven to be futile, fruitless and damaging to the future and the cause of our people.

The Front said further that it should be clear to all, following the release of Obama's “conditions” presented to the Palestinian people, that the U.S. is in no way a friend of the Palestinian people, an honest broker or a mediator, and that Obama and the U.S. government are arm in arm with the occupation and its atrocities against our people, and that any illusions regarding Obama as an “improvement” upon previous administrations should be cast aside.

The Front confirmed that our people and our nation will suffer greatly as a result of the Palestinian Authority and Arab subservience to U.S./Israeli conditions. At the same time, the Front's statement confirmed that despite all U.S./Israeli demands and conditions, and all PA subservience, our people and our forces of resistance will continue to struggle, to expose the policies of cowardice and compromise that will never succeed and will be doomed to failure.

The PFLP noted that the latest occupation assault on Gaza, which killed 5 Palestinians, wounded 10 and destroyed many homes, buildings and public institutions on July 30, 2010, came as the Arab Monitoring Committee provided an official cover for a return to direct negotiations with the Netanyahu regime, confirming that the policy of submission to U.S. and Israeli threats and dictates only lead to more crimes against our people and the strengthening of the occupier. Comrade Dr. Zulfiqar Swairjo, member of the Central Committee of the PFLP, said that the alleged “safeguards” and “assurances” provided to PA President Abbas by the U.S. are “as reliable as the 'assurances' provided to the late President Yasser Arafat as Palestinian fighters left Beirut under the pretext of protecting Palestinians in the refugee camps; this was followed directly by the massacre of over three thousand Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila camps under Israeli cover and without any forces to defend the Palestinian people against the attackers.” He noted that “these new so-called 'assurances' will be nothing but another disaster for the Palestinian people.”

In conclusion, the Front's statement emphasized that steadfastness and resistance are the strategic guardians of the rights and interests of our people and our nation, and that the Palestinian Authority will pay a heavy price for its continued pursuit of the illusions that only cover the ongoing crimes and violations against our people by the occupier.

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