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The Palestinians and the October 7 Massacre

(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs) Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch - The barbarism of Oct. 7 came as no surprise for anyone who actually listens to what the Palestinian leadership has been telling its population for decades. For Israel, the Oslo Accords were yet another Jewish attempt to create peaceful co-existence between Jews and Arabs. For Palestinian leaders, the accords were the embodiment of the Islamic principle of "Taqiyya," or deceit. Feigning historic reconciliation, in the view of the Palestinian leadership, the Oslo Accords were nothing more than an opportunity to further the implementation of the Palestine Liberation Organization's "Plan of Stages," to secure a solid territorial foothold from which it could pursue the goal to destroy Israel. While the international community did its utmost to promote the fallacy of a moderate PLO-Fatah against a fanatical Hamas, the truth is that there is no real difference between the groups. Both equally strive to destroy Israel. 72% of all Palestinians (82% in Judea and Samaria) believed that Hamas's decision to launch the Oct. 7 massacre was correct. 87% of Palestinians still reject the fact that the Gaza terrorists carried out atrocities during the massacre. For decades, the PLO/PA and Hamas have indoctrinated Palestinian society to embrace martyrdom, telling the Palestinians that terror and murder are a religious imperative - a Jihad - of good against evil. For this reason, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas did not unequivocally condemn the massacre and has not rejected Hamas because in its essence, the massacre was an integral part of the PLO-PA plan to destroy Israel. The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center.
2025-10-09 00:00:00
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