Fatah Vows Retaliation Against US for Statehood Vote

Fatah central committee member Abbas Zaki says the United States is an "enemy" and "the cobra's head," following a failed U.N. bid.

In a recent interview with Russian news network RT, Fatah central committee member Abbas Zaki threatened the U.S. following the Palestinian Authority's (PA) failed U.N. bid demanding recognition and Israeli withdrawals.

"The whole world should understand that the U.S. is an enemy, pushing Israeli extremists to carry on with their actions, depriving us of our rights, and supporting Israel in everything,"said Zaki, despite the fact that American and Israeli funding keeps the PA afloat.

The RT report went on to say that  “Zaki vowed retaliation if America doesn’t change its current stance.”

Zaki, who is the former representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to Lebanon, was interviewed in the wake of the PA's unsuccessful bid to secure a U.N. Security Council resolution in favor of Palestinian statehood this week.

Zaki insisted that the latest developments were not a failure for Palestinian Arab diplomacy.

“It’s just the persistent unwillingness of the U.S. administration to give the Palestinian people its lawful right of self-determination. It’s a very dangerous precedent," he said.

"The U.S. administration realizes very well that 138 states support Palestine as having U.N. observer status. The U.S. knows that there are many decisions and resolutions of international organizations condemning the Israeli crimes and injustice towards the Palestinian people.”

“Regardless of all that, the current U.S. administration still uses its right to veto,” he complained, despite that the US didn't use its veto to shoot down the resolution, which fell a vote short of the required nine votes. “In such a way, the U.S. wants to tell Palestine not to address the U.N., neither today nor in the future.’

Zaki described the U.S. administration’s stance as “unprincipled and unacceptable,” with Washington “always making decisions in favor of Israel.”

“We can’t tolerate anymore the crimes committed against us during the whole ‘peace process’ led by the U.S.,” he explained. “Israel has gone too far, destroying our sacred places, taking our land, killing our citizens . . . Israel commits crimes and the U.S. can’t stop this in any way.”

Zaki concluded by stating that the “civilized world stands on our side, in particular, France, Luxembourg, Russia, and China." All four voted in favor of the PA resolution.

Zaki has a long history of venomous statements. He recently opposed his organization's aspirations to sue Israel for "war crimes" at the International Criminal Court, explaining that it would hinder terrorism.

"I'm against signing the Rome statute as long as our country is occupied,” he explained. “If tomorrow you shoot, they'll say you signed an agreement.”

On official PA TV in March, Zaki called Israelis "an advanced instrument of evil," claiming "Allah will gather them so that we can kill them."

A few weeks earlier, he said on TV "none of us, especially in Fatah, has ruled out the military options" against Israel. The month before that, he told Syrian TV that any agreement Abbas reaches with Israel will merely be the "first stage" in destroying Israel.

Zaki similarly revealed the not-so-secret intentions of the PA back in 2011, when he said "if Israel withdraws from Jerusalem, evacuates the 650,000 settlers, and dismantles the wall, what will become of Israel? It will come to an end."

“If we say that we want to wipe Israel out . . . C'mon, it's too difficult. It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say these things to the world,” he warned. “Keep it to yourself.”

Mark Langfan is an Arutz Sheva contributor who specializes in security issues. He is chairman of Americans for a Safe Israel, is a senior fellow of the London Center, and is the Artuz Sheva correspondent to the United Nations. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.