A Lesson at Sukkot Time ....From the Haggadah

In a famous passage, the Pesach Haggadah states:

Go forth and learn what Laban the Aramean wanted to do to our father Jacob. While Pharaoh had issued a decree against the male children only, Laban wanted to uproot everyone - as it is said: "An Aramean tried to destroy my father."

In his commentary to the Haggadah, Hazon Ovadiah (II), Rav Ovadiah Yosef (שלח לו ה' רפו"ש), observes that the difference between Pharaoh and Laban lay in their honest and dishonesty, respectively. Pharaoh was very straight about who he was. He was the enemy, the oppressor and the enslaver of the Children of Israel.
Laban, however, was a totally different story. When he caught up with Jacob, after the latter had fled Aram, he protested (Gen. 31, 27): 'Why did you flee in secret, and outwit me; and you didn't not tell me, so that I could have sent you away with joy and with song, with a tambourine and with a lyre.'

Very nice. Right after that, however, Laban betrayed his true feelings. 'It is in my power to do you evil; but the God of your father spoke unto me yesternight, saying: Take heed to yourself that you speak to Jacob neither good or ill (v. 29).' In other words, Laban was a fruad. He pretended to be the loving father and grandfather. Behind the facade, however, lurked a vicious enemy who could only be restrained through Divine intervention. Pharaoh, thus, was the better enemy. At least he was straight.

In the great tradition of Pharaoh, came today's open declaration from Al-Fatah:

Fatah member: Abbas recognition of Israel political
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades leader explains PA president's ultimate goal is to destroy Jewish state
Aaron Klein, WND
Published: 10.04.06, 14:52

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' stated recognition of Israel's right to exist is part of a "political calculation" aimed at ultimately destroying the Jewish state, a terror group leader and member of Abbas' Fatah party told WND in an interview.

The leader said the Fatah party does not recognize Israel and that any final accord that doesn't include flooding the Jewish state with millions of Palestinians will not be supported by the Fatah party and will lead to Palestinian civil war. "The base of our Fatah movement keeps dreaming of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Akko," said Abu Ahmed, Fatah member and leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip. "There is no change in our position. Abbas recognizes Israel because of pressure that the Zionists and the Americans are exercising on him. We understand this is part of his obligations and political calculations."

The Brigades is the declared "military wing" of Abbas' Fatah party. Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Brigades has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing inside Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv this past April that killed an American teenager and nine Israelis. The Brigades also has carried out scores of deadly shooting and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians in recent months.
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Abu Ahmed explained Fatah itself has never officially recognized Israel.
"It is the PLO, which is a separate entity, that recognized Israel,and this was a step, a tactical step that had as its goal to bring the resistance and the revolution closer to the lands of Palestine," Abu Ahmed said. The PLO was the official governing body of the Palestinians until the A was formed following the Oslo Accords. Subsequent Israeli-Palestinian agreements were signed officially by the Fatah-led PA but not by Fatah as a party.

Still, Fatah leaders, including Abbas, have made scores of statements recognizing the Jewish state. But Abu Ahmed commented, "There is an opportunistic class at the head of the Fatah leadership that for personal and political interests says it accepts the existence of Israel. There is no change in our official position. Fatah as a movement never recognized Israel. It is the PLO who did so for the reasons I mentioned."