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The Palestinian Authority Once Again Says It Supports Terrorism and Hamas
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) and former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, July 26, 2023. Photo: Reuters/Palestinian Presidents’ Office
Palestinian Media Watch has documented repeatedly that the Palestinian population embraces terror and that the Palestinian movements compete for popular support by arguing over who has committed more terror.
In a recent example, Mahmoud Abbas’ senior advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash bragged that the PLO/Fatah has been fighting Israel since 1964, whereas Hamas only “bore arms” in 1990.
Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “Since when did Hamas bear arms to say that its weapons are related to the existence of the occupation [i.e., Israel]? The occupation is 77 years old [i.e., since the establishment of modern Israel], or at least since 1967, and Hamas did not bear arms until 1990. On the contrary, it opposed the PLO, which has borne arms since 1964.”
[Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Oct. 26, 2025]
That declaration is not an occasional slip. Al-Habbash and other senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials embrace violence as a political tool and insist that the “armed struggle,” a euphemism for terror, is a Palestinian prerogative. This latest statement simply restates — with pride — the PLO/PA’s historic role as the original Palestinian terror movement.
The Al-Habbash admission must be read alongside recent statements by another top Fatah official, Jibril Rajoub, who has publicly urged that the PA unite with Hamas under the PLO framework.
Rajoub said that the successor to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh should both “maintain the unity of Hamas” and have “a strategic vision to integrate Hamas within the national framework”:
Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub:“One of the intelligence agency heads asked me after the Martyrdom of [Hamas Political Bureau Chairman] Ismail Haniyeh who I think might replace him. I told him: I want someone who, first of all, will be able to maintain the unity of Hamas, and secondly, who will calm the region and have a strategic vision to integrate Hamas within the national framework.”
[Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Sept. 11, 2025]
Rajoub went further in August 2025 and explicitly called on Hamas to partner with the PA:
Jibril Rajoub: “I say to our brothers in Hamas, we in Fatah tell you: Let us reach an agreement regarding the vision that will reap the fruits of the sacrifice that the Palestinian people have made from 1948 until today.
The Palestinian struggle did not start yesterday, two years ago, or 30 years ago. The Palestinian national struggle is the other side [of the coin] of the unilateral aggression that has been carried out against us for 77 years of struggle…
Sooner or later the Palestinian state will be established, and we will remain here, and they [Israelis] will go to the trash can of history.” [emphasis added]
[Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub, Facebook page, Aug. 21, 2025]
Those are the words of a leader openly planning a shared militant-national project with Hamas, rather than someone who is supposed to be representing the ruling party of a supposedly revitalized and Hamas-free Palestinian Authority.
This pattern reveals several dangerous messages from the PA:
- Hypocrisy toward the international community: On the one hand, the PA seeks international legitimacy and aid, claiming it fights terror. In reality, the PA’s senior officials publicly reaffirm and even boast of its terror history and a desire to ally with Hamas — the very organization the PA pretends to distance itself from in diplomatic settings. The statements by Al-Habbash and Rajoub together expose a dual strategy: feigning reform to cultivate international support while simultaneously supporting terror and strengthening ties with Hamas.
- Normalization of violence as statecraft: Al-Habbash’s factual framing (PLO “bore arms” since 1964; Hamas only from 1990) is presented as a point of pride. Rajoub’s public courting of Hamas — and his prediction that Israelis “will go to the trash can of history” — demonstrate that a long-term terror struggle plus the delegitimization of Israel are central to the PA’s strategy, not deviations from it.
- A strategic alliance, not actual rivalry: Where Western audiences and donors may imagine a Fatah-Hamas rivalry that favors moderation, Rajoub’s welcoming of Hamas shows that the PA does not really want to have Hamas destroyed. Rather, the PA seeks to have Hamas serve as a junior partner within the PLO as part of a Palestinian state that will fight to put Israel in said “trash can of history.”
Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). Itamar Marcus is the Founder and Director of PMW, where a version of this article first appeared.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’
Rep Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, on Sunday likened the Trump administration’s immigration rhetoric to Nazi depictions of Jews.
“It reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany,” Omar said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, commenting on a social media post by Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, in which he suggested that “migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.” Miller, who is Jewish, is the architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Omar called Miller’s comments “white supremist rhetoric” and also drew parallels between his characterization of migrants seeking refuge in the U.S. to how Jews were demonized and treated when they fled Nazi-era Germany. “As we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants,” she said.
Now serving as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, Miller is central to the White House’s plans for mass deportations and expanded barriers to asylum. During Trump’s first term, Miller led the implementation of the so-called Muslim travel ban in 2017, which barred entry to the U.S. for individuals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and pushed to further reduce a longtime refugee program.
Rep. Ilhan Omar: “When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.” pic.twitter.com/GAjIMqFq26
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 7, 2025
Miller’s comments echoed similar rhetoric by Trump after an Afghan refugee was accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House last month, killing one.
Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting last week that Somali immigrants are “garbage” and that he wanted them to be sent “back to where they came from.” The president also singled out Omar, a Somali native who represents Minnesota’s large Somali-American community. “She should be thrown the hell out of our country,” Trump said.
In the Sunday interview, Omar called Trump’s remarks “completely disgusting” and accused him of having “an unhealthy obsession” with her and the Somali community. “This kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president,” she said.
The post Rep. Ilhan Omar says Stephen Miller’s comments on immigrants sound like how ‘Nazis described Jewish people’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Nigeria Seeks French Help to Combat Insecurity, Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has sought more help from France to fight widespread violence in the north of the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, weeks after the United States threatened to intervene to protect Nigeria’s Christians.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has witnessed an upsurge in attacks in volatile northern areas in the past month, including mass kidnappings from schools and a church.
US President Donald Trump has raised the prospect of possible military action in Nigeria, accusing it of mistreating Christians. The government says the allegations misrepresent a complex security situation in which armed groups target both faith groups.
Macron said he had a phone call with Tinubu on Sunday, where he conveyed France’s support to Nigeria as it grapples with several security challenges, “particularly the terrorist threat in the North.”
“At his request, we will strengthen our partnership with the authorities and our support for the affected populations. We call on all our partners to step up their engagement,” Macron said in a post on X.
Macron did not say what help would be offered by France, which has withdrawn its troops from West and Central Africa and plans to focus on training, intelligence sharing and responding to requests from countries for assistance.
Nigeria is grappling with a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed kidnapping gangs in the northwest and deadly clashes between largely Muslim cattle herders and mostly Christian farmers in the central parts of the country, stretching its security forces.
Washington said last month that it was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel Nigeria to better protect its Christian communities.
The Nigerian government has said it welcomes help to fight insecurity as long as its sovereignty is respected. France has previously supported efforts to curtail the actions of armed groups, the US has shared intelligence and sold arms, including fighter jets, and Britain has trained Nigerian troops.
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Netanyahu Says He Will Not Quit Politics if He Receives a Pardon
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in the state memorial ceremony for the fallen of the Iron Swords War on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem on Oct. 16, 2025. Photo: Alex Kolomoisky/POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he would not retire from politics if he receives a pardon from the country’s president in his years-long corruption trial.
Asked by a reporter if planned on retiring from political life if he receives a pardon, Netanyahu replied: “no”.
Netanyahu last month asked President Isaac Herzog for a pardon, with lawyers for the prime minister arguing that frequent court appearances were hindering Netanyahu’s ability to govern and that a pardon would be good for the country.
Pardons in Israel have typically been granted only after legal proceedings have concluded and the accused has been convicted. There is no precedent for issuing a pardon mid-trial.
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in response to the charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and his lawyers have said that the prime minister still believes the legal proceedings, if concluded, would result in a complete acquittal.
US President Donald Trump wrote to Herzog, before Netanyahu made his request, urging the Israeli president to consider granting the prime minister a pardon.
Some Israeli opposition politicians have argued that any pardon should be conditional on Netanyahu retiring from politics and admitting guilt. Others have said the prime minister must first call national elections, which are due by October 2026.