A senior adviser of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has promised that the current Arab terror wave, which has left 29 murdered since last September, will soon move from stabbings to shootings.
Sultan Abu Al-Einein, Abbas's adviser on NGOs and a member of the Fatah Central Committee, praised the "popular uprising" in an interview published two weeks ago on the website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, and revealed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) on Thursday.
"We in the Fatah movement are proud of all the martyrs, regardless of their (political) affiliation," Al-Einein said, blessing the murderers and singling out terrorists from the Hamas stronghold of Hevron in Judea who "have sown fear in all of this cancerous Israeli body."
"We bow before every drop of blood that has dripped from our children and women, and bow the head before every martyr and martyr's mother, who carried her child in her belly and brought him up until he became a young man, and when they notified her of his death as a martyr, she let out cries of joy to the Heavens," said Abbas's adviser.
He called for the current terror wave to develop, quoting the Koran (Sura 4:104): "And do not weaken in pursuit of the enemy. If you should be suffering - so are they suffering as you are suffering, but you expect from Allah that which they expect not." Extrapolating, he said, "therefore the occupation, all parts of it that are on our Palestinian land, must suffer."
Claiming IDF soldiers "are thirsty for our sons' blood," he said the PA has "a right to educate our children to avenge our pure blood that is being spilled. We are the victims, and it is the right of the victim to protect himself before he breathes his last breath."
"Seeking rifles tomorrow"
The open incitement reached a peak as Al-Einein said the terror wave, which has largely consisted of stabbings, will soon escalate to focus on shooting attacks.
"What is being carried out daily against our Palestinian people is what stirs the emotions of our people in the street and what causes them to seek a knife. In my opinion, those seeking knives today will seek rifles and weapons tomorrow due to this (Israeli) terror. If the power and pace of the uprising wane a bit, that does not mean it has been stopped, but rather that it is preparing for stronger waves of rage against the Zionist enemy."
He added a call "to confront the enemy directly, and keep him in a state of vigilance, anxiety, and fear."
The call from within Fatah for the terror wave to shift to shooting attacks raises concerns, particularly in light of the aftermath of the 1994 Oslo Accords which removed the terror status of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah, established the PA and armed it. The Accords largely ignited the 2000 Oslo War or Second Intifada in which well over 1,000 Israelis were murdered by Arab terrorists.
A Fatah official later bragged that 70% of the attacks in the terror war were conducted by the PA Security Forces that were created and armed in Oslo.
Earlier this month Fatah blessed the shooting attack in Tel Aviv by Israeli Arab Nashat Melhem, further showing the open support for a shift to shooting attacks.