In an interview with Reuters published Thursday, jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti expressed satisfaction with the outcome of this summer’s war against Israel.

Without mentioning Hamas, he praised the 50-day war the Islamists and other militant groups in Gaza fought against Israel, calling it a victory for all Palestinians. More than 2,100 Gazans, most of them civilians, were killed in the conflict, while 67 Israeli soldiers and six civilians also died.

“We consider that the battle represents a victory for the resistance,” he wrote. “(It) proved that Israel cannot and does not have the ability to resolve the conflict by military force, and that the only way to end the conflict is to end the occupation in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.”

Barghouti, who is affiliated with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, is serving five consecutive life terms for murder for his orchestration of violence during the second intifada. One of the most popular Palestinian leaders, he topped a poll of possible PA presidential candidates in May. In the wake of Operation Protective Edge, he was still popular, but was narrowly edged out in a similar poll by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

In Hammered: The Palestinian Peace Paradox, which appeared in the March 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, associate editor Benjamin Kerstein observed that despite its reputation as “moderate,” the Fatah movement’s history indicates otherwise:

Even if a future Palestinian state does not fall to Hamas, such an agreement would still leave Israeli security dependent on the good will of Fatah, the party that refused peace in 2000 and then embarked on the terrorist war known as the second intifada, which killed hundreds of Israelis and did substantial damage to Israel’s economy.

[Photo: Journeyman Pictures / YouTube ]