Tuesday, January 31, 2006 / 2 Shevat 5766

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=97653

The military wing of the Fatah party, the Al-Aksa Brigades, in a post-election effort to outflank the Hamas, says it will step up its terror offensive against Israel.

The group will attempt to drum up public support for more violence against Israel by emphasizing the need to "liberate all of historic Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] Sea."

As political leaders in Israel and around the world lament the fall of the Fatah and the rise of the Hamas to the forefront of the PA leadership, the Fatah, via its armed wing, is hardening its stance towards Israel.

The political goals of the Al-Aksa Brigades leave no room for a Jewish State in the Middle East. In what may be an effort to win back the voting public, the political line of the Brigades is moving closer and closer to that of the Hamas.

In an official announcement released in Gaza on January 30, the Brigades said that the Hamas victory in last week's election "will not affect the policies of the Al-Aksa Brigades or its resistance to the Zionist occupier."

"No Palestinian government will prevent the Brigades from continuing in its path of resistance until all Palestinian land is liberated from the defilement of the occupation," said the Brigades.

Using terminology reminiscent of the Hamas and other radical Islamic terror groups, the announcement continued, "The Al-Aksa Brigades will not be silent and will punish those who try to weaken Palestinian resistance and jihad against the occupier that blocks roads, arrests, and assassinates jihad fighters on the West Bank, and kills innocent children in Gaza."

Abu Zuheri, a leader of the Brigades, expressed satisfaction with the group's more militant image. "Palestine from the river to the Mediterranean, coincides with the policy of the Hamas and is a source of pride," he said.