Fatah still refuses to recognize Israel? Is it really news?

In the clip above you can see one of the Fatah's big cheeses indulging in some verbal acrobatics (on March 16, 2009) to tell you that Fatah is the same good ole Fatah of thirty years ago and no worries on that account:

I want to say for the thousandth time, in my own name and in the name of all of my fellow members of the Fatah movement: We do not demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. On the contrary, we demand of the Hamas movement not to recognize Israel, because the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel even today.

In fact, what Mr Dahlan is explaining in the rest of his interview is that the recognition of Israel by PLO was an act of financial prudence and shouldn't be viewed as anything else.

So it doesn't leave me any choice but to quote (again, it's the third time, but it only gets better with repeating) Akaky Bashmachkin:

So let me get this straight: people are annoyed that the party that wants to destroy Israel won the elections against the other party that wants to destroy Israel, but won't actually come out and say so at the moment. Since everyone knew that the governing party that wants to destroy Israel but wont come out and say so really does want to destroy Israel whether they say so or not, why is everyone so concerned that the party that wants to destroy Israel won the election, since by definition both of the parties involved want to destroy Israel, except that the second party that wants to destroy Israel finds it politic at the moment not to mention that they want to destroy Israel just as much as the other party that wants to destroy Israel but has no qualms about bringing up the fact that they want to destroy Israel, unlike the party that wants to destroy Israel but doesn't want to come out and say that they want to destroy Israel. There is a theme here, isn't there, or have I missed something along the way?

The above dates back to beginning of 2006, but it is as true and as definitive as it was then.

Via Palestinian Media Watch.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com