A member of the central committee of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party has said in a fiery speech that using “the rifle” always is an alternative for the Palestinian Authority if it does not get what it wants through diplomatic pressure, which it calls negotiations.

Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi, speaking last week at a ceremony in Abbas in support of Abbas, reiterated Fatah’s adherence to the use of weapons as “one of the methods of struggle.”

His speech was translated into English and reported by Palestinian Media Watch, which also provided a video of the speech with English subtitles, as seen below. The Palestinian Authority’s official television station telecast the speech live.

Shouting that “the rifle is here, and it can burst forth at any moment,” Tirawi stated that the rifle “will burst forth from this [current] leadership… and if we are no longer alive… [from] our sons, our young lions

“A national enterprise cannot succeed without the National Liberation Movement, Fatah. We in this movement have not cast down the rifle and have not let go of the rifle. The rifle is here! The method of struggle we are adopting now [negotiations] is [only] one of the methods of struggle.

“But the rifle is here, and it can burst forth at any moment, with a new method and a new leadership. It will burst forth from this [current] leadership if we remain alive, because we are its people; and if we are no longer alive, [then] our sons, our young lions and you will be its people. Revolution until victory, until victory, until victory.”

Fatah also posted on its Facebook page a cartoon showing a small boy pulling the hand of a man carrying a rifle and dressed in a military uniform and wearing a traditional Palestinian headscarf. The child says to the armed man, “We have missed you, come back.”

Earlier this year, Tirawi said on a Palestinian Authority television program, “The negotiations are giving us nothing. The only thing that is possible is [what is called] the ‘sphere of activity’. We – all Palestinian organizations – must return to the ‘sphere of activity…. Resistance… All forms of resistance….

“Weapons or popular resistance. There are a hundred ways of resistance…. What you are hearing from Fatah isn’t anything new… At our Sixth Convention, held in Bethlehem, we did not rule out any of our options for resistance, of which armed struggle is one.”

Tirawi’s statements are logical considering the opening he was given earlier this year by  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who blurted out to an Israeli interviewer, “What do you want? Another Intifada,” meaning that Israel should give Abbas what he wants through “talks” or end up giving everything after a supposed “victory” through violence.

But that can’t possibly be the stand of the Fatah party or of Abbas because none other than President Barack Obama, who as president of the United States of America certainly has inside knowledge, states time after time that Abbas actually does not incite to violence.

It is hard to believe that Obama is on Planet Earth, but here are the man’s words last week, when Abbas graced his presence at the White House:

Abbas “has been somebody who has consistently renounced violence.”

And who knows better than President Obama?

The Palestinian Authority hurriedly denied an Israeli report Thursday night that its security forced arrested Hamas terrorists in Hebron who were planning to take explosive devices with them to Israeli population centers.

“We have no information about this issue,” Palestinian Authority Adnan al-Dumieri told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency. The original Israeli report by the Walla! news site said that another Hamas cell based in Bethlehem was behind plans for the attack and was arrested, also.

Terrorists who are Israeli citizens and are freed before their terms end as part of political deals will not be allowed to collect assistance from the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) to help them readjust, if the Knesset passes into law a bill sponsored by Liked-Beiteinu Knesset Member Yariv Levin.

The proposed legislation would not stop Palestinian Authority payments to its terrorists, who receive a handsome salary for each month they are in jail.

Avidan Ofer is in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital recovering from head and face wounds at the hands of Arab attackers, but a widely-quoted Palestinian Authority media agency has reported that Ofer and several other Jews were the attackers and Arabs were the victims in Monday’s terrorist attack between Kiryat Arba-Hebron and Arad-Be’er Sheba.

Ofer told The Jewish Press the Jews that he and other farmers from Mitzpeh Yair, were plowing their fields when 10 Arabs chased after them and beat them with rods and sticks. The land was clearly part of Mitzpeh Yair. I know that for a fact because it is located two miles from my house in Beit Yatir.

He said he could identify the assailants, who are from an illegally built village a mile to the south and which has grown thanks to assistance from foreign leftists and the European Union.

The IDF confirmed there was a fight” between “settlers and Arabs” and that one Arab and three Jews were “lightly injured.” One of those suffering from light injuries is also in Hadassah Hospital with a set of broken teeth and wounds to his jaw, after having been beaten by the attackers until soldiers responded to a distress call.

A military spokeswoman told The Jewish Press that police arrested seven Jews and two Arabs but could not comment on who initiated the attack. However, since the Jewish farmers were farming their land, the answer is clear.

Why didn’t the Jews defend themselves? After all, they had guns.

The answer is disturbingly simple. Any Jew who shoots a bullet, even in the air, is going to be arrested by the friendly Israeli police, and his weapon will be taken away from him. The Jews use their guns only when they are on the verge of having to say “Shema Yisrael,” the first words of the prayer said before someone dies. That is the extent of Jewish self-defense  in most of Judea and Samaria.

The IDF “protects” Jews by tearing up their farms and blindly accepting Arab claims that the land is theirs, and the police dutifully record Jews’ complaints and often end up arrest them after an Arab files a complaint. Arabs almost never are arrested in “routine” assaults and stealing.

The IDF is very aggressive when it comes to talking about protecting Gaza Belt residents from Kassam rockets, even if their actions don’t match their words. When it comes to “settlements,” the military plays down almost every incident except clear murders.

It is a lot easier to pretend there is no trouble with the Arabs. No extra work. Peace and quiet.

So the IDF confirmed their was a “fight.” The government does not want to ruin U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempt to convince himself that Mahmoud Abbas really wants Jews to stay alive and in peace.

One of the debilitating factors in the efforts of Jews to hold on to any inch of land they can in the southern Hebron Hills is the Palestinian Authority propaganda machine and the silent guns of the Israeli government media folks.

Here is how the Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency reported Monday morning’s attack, under the headline “Palestinian farmers clash with settlers in south Hebron hills.”

The report stated, “The clashes occurred after settlers attacked a group of farmers tending their land. Ismail al-Adra said that ten settlers attacked him and several other farmers while they were on their way to tend their fields…. Another farmer, Mousa al-Adra, was also attacked and injured, together with a foreign solidarity activist who was filming the settler attack….Israeli forces arrived at the scene and detained a number of farmers, accusing them of attacking settlers….

“There are several radical Jewish outposts in the south Hebron hills, with settlers regularly attacking local Palestinians with impunity.”

This conflicting report is obviously a lie, even to those who have not taken Journalism 101.

In every Palestinian Authority report of alleged Jewish attacks, some of them true and many of them questionable, the location is noted. Bethlehem-based Ma’an apparently decided not to define the area because it would open it to counter-claims of a confirmed lie. If, as the article states, Jews attacked the Arabs who were “tending their land,” where was that land? The answer is clear. “Their” land was in Mitzpeh Yair, just like all of the land in Judea and Samaria is “their” land.

Jerusalem Arabs hurled a firebomb at a “pillbox” guard tower at the Jewish neighborhood of Ma’aleh HaZeitim (Ras al Amud) guardhouse Thursday afternoon.

No one was injured, but the guard tower was damaged. Firefighting crews put out the fire.

Rock-throwing ambushes are common in the neighborhood, which is under the sovereignty of Israel but where Arabs frequently riot.

The Supreme Court ruled in rare 2-1 split  decision Monday evening that the government can free 26 more terrorists, including five from Jerusalem.

The minority ruling implied that the Cabinet acted hastily and did not fulfill its promise last July not to release terrorists with Israel citizenship without thoroughly examining the issue.

In virtually every previous appeal challenging the release of murders, the court has ruled unanimously, Justice Eliyakim Rubinstein, in a dissenting opinion, said  that the government should have provided more information to show that it understands the ramifications of releasing terrorists living in Jerusalem and holding Israeli citizenship.

Supreme Court President Asher Grunis and Justice Tzvi Zilberthal said they did not see any reason to make a distinction between terrorists who do not have Israeli citizenship and those who do.

The court handed down its ruling as approximately 200 protesters marched in a drizzle to the Old City home of one of the terrorists. Only 15 of the demonstrators were permitted to protest outside his home due to fears of violence. The court earlier in the day overruled a decision by authorities to ban the protest.

In his dissenting opinion on the appeal by the Almagor Terror Victims association, Justice Rubinstein wrote, “There is a question if the government of Israel and the Cabinet ministers weighed their opinion on the subject and the ramifications beyond considering only the information that is noted in the list [of terrorists].”

He added that the government should hold further discussions on the subject of “freeing Eastern Jerusalem residents” before the court could decide whether to release them.

Justice Rubinstein noted that the court questioned the government several times on the issue but did not receive answers concerning whether the government held discussions specifically freeing Arabs from eastern Jerusalem, despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s statements that the issue would be addressed.

“Residents in eastern Jerusalem have the rights of Israelis,” such as receiving welfare and health insurance benefits,” Rubinstein added.

Approximately three hours after the decision, eight terrorists already were on their way to their homes in Gaza and eastern Jerusalem. Eighteen others were to leave the Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, after midnight.

Israel agreed last July to free 104 terrorists in four batches in return for the resumption of  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s so-called “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The last batch of 32 terrorists is to be freed towards the end of the nine-month period Kerry set for the discussions.

The IDF is returning an Iron Dome anti-missile system to the Sderot, located less than a mile from northern Gaza, in wake of the escalation of terrorist attacks from Gaza.

Terrorists on Tuesday killed an Israeli citizen working for the army at the Gaza security fence, and the IDF retaliated with strikes on terror targets. Two people were killed.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon reiterated statements made dozens of times over more than a decade by him and his predecessors that Israel will make sure there will no clam in Gaza if there is no calm in Israel.

The U.S. State Dept. was quick to respond to Sunday’s bus bomb terror attack in metropolitan Tel Aviv and assure Israel it has nothing to worry about because it has the back of the United States.

“We strongly condemn the bombing of a bus near Tel Aviv today,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

She added, “Our thoughts are with those affected and with the Israeli people at this time. Violent acts targeting civilians are deplorable. We reaffirm our unshakable bond with Israel and our solidarity with the Israeli people.”

She made no mention of numerous comments in the past by her boss, John Kerry, that Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has stopped terrorist attacks against Jews.