Elan Journo’s latest op-ed is live at The Hill.

“Let’s Stop Normalizing the Palestinian Movement” hooks into a seemingly minor news item about a unity deal between Palestinian factions to illustrate a hugely important story: how the moral bankruptcy of American Mideast policy has normalized the Palestinian movement — an authoritarian movement deeply hostile to individual rights — and has now empowered jihadists seeking to destroy Israel.

From the text: 

Now if the “unity” agreement goes through, the two major Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, may reconcile. Thus: a militant authoritarian regime that Washington helped create and bankroll could become honeycombed with jihadists, who’ve redoubled their commitment to wipe Israel off the map.

That prospect is one more marker of the moral bankruptcy in America’s approach. By negating the need for objective moral judgment and acting on it, our policymakers have landed us in a dead-end situation that sells out our ideal of individual freedom and harms our regional ally, Israel.

We need to begin undoing that pattern. For a start: Stop normalizing the Palestinian movement. Stop brushing aside and playing down its crimes and vicious aims. Stop pretending that one faction, Fatah, is somehow well-intentioned — a fact refuted by its murderous, tyrannical history, not to mention its openness to allying with Hamas. Let’s recognize that the Palestinian movement is deeply hostile to individual freedom, and treat it accordingly.

Read the whole thing here.