Who Is Fatah?
Fatah, started by Arafat and an outgrowth of the PLO, has been the ruling party since Oslo in 1993. Pres Abbas, who is of the Fatah party, and who remains the duly elected President, failed to adequately address the corruption, stop the settlement building, or even improve the daily lives of ordinary Palestinians. Israel demanded, and the RoadMap required, that Abbas disarm and dismantle the militant groups, including Hamas. His method was to draw them into the political process, and coax them to eventually disarm. But in order to accomplish this he would have had to show progress toward statehood. He could not show this. He and Fatah failed to accomplish these things for many years because of their own shortcomings, but for other important reasons too. Who Else Contributed? US policies in Israel/Palestine have been increasingly one sided in favor of Israel. This has not fostered peace, but only perpetuated the conflict and even made it worse. We have looked the other way and even allo
