Official PA daily mocks Hamas for its false resistance
Excerpt of an editorial by the official PA daily
Headline: “The same broken record”
“In a short while Israel will be in a situation slightly worse than the situation in the wounded Gaza Strip; it will not have electricity, communications, or an economy because this time the resistance of [Hamas official Saleh] Al-Arouri will almost completely negate its air and water (refers to Al-Arouri threatening to close Israel’s airspace and sea -Ed.)! Saleh Al-Arouri announced this a few days ago, when he spoke about the comprehensive war of the resistance in the West Bank. He said that it is currently on the table and not below it (!!) [parentheses in source], and that the resistance is capable of closing the airspace and naval space of the occupation entity!
We have already heard this nonsense many times. If Al-Arouri forgot the rocket statements of [Hamas leader Yahya] Al-Sinwar, we want to inform him that the Palestinians do not have the memory of a fish, and that they never bought fish at sea, and that they still wonder where Al-Sinwar’s 1,111 rockets are after Israel carried out a number of acts of aggression against the Gaza Strip, and after its settlers’ invasions of the Al-Aqsa Mosque became clearly regular (refers to Al-Sinwar threatening in April 2022 that 1,111 rockets are ready to be fired at Israel in one volley to “defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque” -Ed.)!
Now the question is asked: Does the resistance have a table under which to hide the comprehensive war that will turn Israel into a hunger-stricken African state, or – like the Gaza Strip – into one that has electricity for two, three, or four hours a day, and an economy based on smuggling tunnels and wild taxation? And why was this war under the table to begin with, for what purpose is it currently above it, and how is it that no one has seen anything from it? Essentially, the real resistance has no table, but rather arenas of confrontation and fighting. Currently it is known and open to all that Hamas’ table of resistance is in practice a table of defeatist bargaining, which Hamas has achieved ceasefire understandings below it and also above it with the Israeli occupation state, understandings that are beginning to become clear as a long-term truce! …
Without doing any injustice and without falsifying, these statements by Al-Arouri will only cause Israel to tighten its fascist grip on the West Bank through more invasions, checkpoints, and arbitrary arrests…
A wise man once said: ‘The rain is what causes flowers to grow and open up. The rain, not the thunder.’ Another said: ‘If you want to strike with a hard stick, speak softly.’ Beyond this, reality says: ‘If you have decided to set out to war, do not tell your enemy about it.’ Since this is the truth, thunderous Al-Arouri only played the same record again, the record of arrogant words, empty claims, and populist criticism, which has already broken completely.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 27, 2023]