JERUSALEM \u2013 The new Palestinian Authority (PA) government sworn into office this week by PA President Mahmoud Abbas \u2013 and warmly welcomed by the White House and the State Department \u2013 includes at least two ministers who hold extreme and racist views toward Israel and Jews, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israeli organization that draws attention to Palestinian extremism, has revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Citing articles in the Palestinian media and video clips from recent public events, PMW revealed how the new minister of religious affairs, Muhammad\u00a0Mustafa Najem, has openly incited violence against Israelis as a religious imperative, characterizing Jews as evil and treacherous, and quoted a verse from the Quran that refers to Jews as \u2018apes and pigs.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another member of the new government, Minister of Women\u2019s Affairs Muna Al-Khalili, is shown to have praised Palestinian terror and, as recently as last month at a conference in Egypt, claimed that the brutal Hamas terror attacks on Oct. 7 \u2013 the worst atrocity committed against Jews since the Holocaust in World War II \u2013 was an act of legitimate resistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since Hamas\u2019 attacks and the subsequent war with Israel that has ravaged much of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. administration has been urging Abbas to reform and revitalize his governing authority, which has long been accused of corruption and extremism, so that it might be part of a solution for governing Gaza \u2013 in addition to the West Bank \u2013 after the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The changes made this week, which Abbas said would include plans for institutional reform, restructuring and unifying institutions, as well as fighting corruption, raising the level of services and a digital transformation, are being viewed by the U.S. as part of its desired reformation.<\/p>\n
However, many Palestinians have said no real change can take place as long as Abbas remains at the helm; and Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, remain steadfast in rejecting the idea that the authority will be part of any post-war solution for Gaza, pointing out that it is just as problematic as Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The assumption that a \u2018revitalized\u2019 Palestinian Authority will bring moderate and pragmatic figures, or soften the Palestinian position toward Israel, is totally false,\u2019 Khaled Abu Toameh, a Palestinian affairs analyst based in Jerusalem,\u00a0told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said it was totally unrealistic to expect the new cabinet ministers to \u2018endorse a pragmatic approach toward Israel,\u2019 especially with the war in Gaza raging, and pointed out that even \u2018many Palestinians do not understand the difference between the new Palestinian government and the previous one.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018In his first speech at the cabinet meeting, the new prime minister, Mohammed Mustafa, also employed hardline rhetoric against Israel because of the war in Gaza, while completely ignoring Hamas\u2019 responsibility,\u2019 Abu Toameh said, adding, \u2018in this regard, he sounded exactly like his predecessor, Mohammed Shtayyeh.\u2019<\/p>\n
He said that Shtayyeh, who quit as prime minister in February, also spoke about refoming the authority but \u2018not much happened.\u2019<\/p>\n
Change will not happen \u2018as long as President Mahmoud Abbas and his inner circle are the real and sole decision-makers,\u2019 Abu Toameh said. \u2018At the end of the day, the cabinet reshuffle came to appease the U.S. administration, and not out of a sincere desire to introduce financial and administrative reforms or engage in a peace process with Israel.\u2019<\/p>\n
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv who closely follows events in Palestinian society, also said the new Palestinian Authority leadership was unlikely to bring about any significant changes if Abbas was still in charge.<\/p>\n
\u2018The appointment of Mohammed Mustafa is really just replacing one Mohammed with another Mohammed,\u2019 he said. \u2018He is part of the same production line.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael said Mustafa, who previously served as the deputy prime minister and minister of the economy, was a close ally and adviser of Abbas and \u2018he will do whatever Abbas tells him to do.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018He is there in order to preserve the interests of Abbas and the last interest of Abbas is reform,\u2019 Michael said, calling the current Palestinian Authority \u2018a lost cause.\u2019<\/p>\n
Responding to the announcement of the new Palestinian government, however, State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said in a statement that \u2018the United States looks forward to working with the new cabinet to promote peace, security, and prosperity and will be engaging this new government to deliver on credible reforms.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018A revitalized PA is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza and establishing the conditions for stability in the broader region,\u2019 he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Responding to a Fox News Digital request for a comment about the racist and inciting public statements attributed to newly appointed Palestinian ministers, a State Department Spokesman said \u2018We are aware of reports that certain P.A. cabinet members have used unacceptable language.\u00a0We have been absolutely clear on this score: Inflammatory, hateful, or dehumanizing speech by any party does not advance peace.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Palestinian Authority spokesman contacted by Fox News Digital did not comment on the claims by publication time.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington,\u00a0told Fox News Digital that the U.S. was \u2018perpetuating the fiction of a reformed Palestinian government\u2019 and was ignoring its problematic nature in order to achieve its own objectives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Mohammed Mustafa is not a reformer, he is\u00a0a longtime crony of Mahmoud Abbas who has benefited from the corrupt system that Abbas has presided over now for nearly two decades,\u2019 he said. \u2018I think it\u2019s important to note that if\u00a0Abbas remains president of this government \u2013 and he is now 19 years into a four-year term \u2013 this is not reform.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018When we see the rhetoric of some of these individuals, we can see that not only are they not reformers, but they are also in fact radicals, and this should undermine the entire process that is underway,\u2019 said Schanzer, adding that the administration was so focused on its objective of having the Palestinian Authority \u2018inherit the Gaza Strip,\u2019 that it was \u2018willing to turn a blind eye to a wide range of problems in order to try to achieve this objective.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I believe that ignoring these problems will ultimately lead us down the same path we have been on for years and years and years,\u2019 he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
JERUSALEM \u2013 The new Palestinian Authority (PA) government sworn into office this week by PA President Mahmoud Abbas \u2013 and warmly welcomed by the White House and the State Department \u2013 includes at least two ministers who hold extreme and racist views toward Israel and Jews, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an Israeli organization that draws <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}