Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Sunday 27 April 2014

Abeyant Abbas

As David Gerstman observes on the Legal Insurrection blog here, Fatah's recent reconciliation with Hamas has excited relatively little media comment, and, moreover,
"The position of the EU endorsing the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement, as expressed by [Catherine] Ashton’s office, isn’t just illogical, it violates the principles the EU once claimed were necessary for peace.
Of course there’s a reason for the silence in the face of this Palestinian rejection of peace....
This is the reality that the peace processors refuse to accept. Since 1993 the Palestinians have made no significant, lasting concessions to Israel. (And the ones that they made were violated repeatedly.) If this is true they’ve been spinning their wheels for the past twenty years or more. It’s much easier to blame Israel that to re-examine their own assumptions. Israel can always be persuaded or pressured to make some concession to keep the illusion of a process going. So the charade continues."
Now, it's not often I find a praiseworthy article in the leftwing and frequently downright poisonous (to its country's own interests) Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, but (hat tip David Gerstman's post citing Professor William Jacobson here) columnist Avi Shavit has perceptive points to make about Mahmoud Abbas.

Shavit's article, recounting the milestone moments since 1997 when Abbas appeared to have
"overcome the ghosts of the past and the ideas of the past, and was willing to build a joint Israeli-Palestinian future, based on coexistence," concludes that such appearances, and the hopes they raised among Israelis, are chimeric:
"....In early 1997, Yossi Beilin decided to trust me, and show me the document that proved that peace was within reach. The then-prominent and creative politician from the Labor movement opened up a safe, took out a stack of printed pages, and laid them down on the table like a player with a winning poker hand.
Rumors were rife about the Beilin-Abu Mazen agreement, but only a few had the opportunity to see the document with their own eyes or hold it in their hands. I was one of those few. With mouth agape I read the comprehensive outline for peace that had been formulated 18 months earlier by two brilliant champions of peace — one, Israeli, and one, Palestinian. The document left nothing to chance: Mahmoud Abbas is ready to sign a permanent agreement.....
If we could only get out from under the Likud’s thumb, and get Benjamin Netanyahu out of office, he will join us, hand in hand, walking toward the two-state solution. Abbas is a serious partner for true peace, the one with whom we can make a historic breakthrough toward reconciliation.
We understood. We did what was necessary. In 1999, we ousted Likud and Netanyahu. In 2000, we went to the peace summit at Camp David. Whoops, surprise: Abbas didn’t bring the Beilin-Abu Mazen plan to Camp David, or any other draft of a peace proposal. The opposite was true: He was one of the staunchest objectors, and his demand for the right of return prevented any progress.
But don’t believe we’d give up so quickly. During the fall of 2003, as the Geneva Accord was being formulated, it was clear to us that there were no more excuses, and that now, Abbas would sign the new peace agreement and adopt its principles. Whoops, surprise: Abu Mazen sent Yasser Abed Rabbo (a former Palestinian Authority minister) instead, while he stayed in his comfy Ramallah office. No signature, no accord.
But people as steadfast as us don’t give up on our dreams. So in 2008 we got behind Ehud Olmert, and the marathon talks he held with Abbas, and the offer that couldn’t be refused. Whoops, surprise: Abu Mazen didn’t actually refuse, he just disappeared. He didn’t say yes, he didn’t say no, he just vanished without a trace.
....In the summer of 2009, we even supported Netanyahu, when he made overtures to Abbas with his Bar-Ilan speech, and the settlement freeze. Whoops, surprise: the sophisticated objector didn’t blink, or trip up. He simple refused to dance the tango of peace with the right-wing Israeli leader.
Have we opened our eyes? Of course not. Again, we blamed Netanyahu and Likud, and believed that in 2014, Abu Mazen wouldn’t dare to say no, not to John Kerry. Whoops, surprise: In his own sophisticated, polite way, Abbas has said no in recent months to both Kerry and Barack Obama. Again, the Palestinian president’s position is clear and consistent: The Palestinians must not be required to make concessions. It’s a complicated game – squeezing more and more compromises out of the Israelis, without the Palestinians granting a single real, compromise of their own.
Take heed: Twenty years of fruitless talks have led to nothing. There is no document that contains any real Palestinian concession with Abbas’ signature. None. There never was, and there never will be...."
 Like Beilin, he (i.e. Shavit) himself has been taught that lesson through repeated experience:

"But many others haven’t learned a thing. They’re still allowing Abbas to make fools of them, as they wait for the Palestinian Godot, who will never show up."
Indeed, regarding his trickiness it's worth remembering such statement's of Abbas's as these (hat tip: B.C.).

First, in defending his “recognition” of Israel on TV network Al-Arabiya in October 2006, he explained that it was more a practical reality than a meaningful political position, citing as an example the need for the Palestinian Authority to procure $500 million from Israel: “The Palestinian finance minister has to come to an agreement with the Israeli finance minister about the transfer of the money. So how can he make an agreement with him if [the PA finance minister] does not recognize him? So I do not demand of Hamas nor any other to recognise Israel. But from the government that works with Israelis in day to day life, yes.” (See here)

Second, defending his “recognition” of Israel on TV network Al-Arabiya in October 2006, he [Abbas] explained that it was more a practical reality than a meaningful political position. He cited as an example the need for the PA to get $500 million from Israel: “The Palestinian finance minister has to come to an agreement with the Israeli finance minister about the transfer of the money. So how can he make an agreement with him if [the PA finance minister] does not recognize him? So I do not demand of Hamas nor any other to recognize Israel. But from the government that works with Israelis in day to day life, yes.”  Abbas even said that the Qassam rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel are "Israel's problem" and that he does not intend to interfere. "Let the Israelis deal with it," he said.  (See here)

As William Jacobson remarks:
"With Abbas’ latest move of a unity government with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, maybe it finally will sink in, Bibi is not the problem." [Emphasis added]

3 comments:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gknpeK5ZxoM
    (It's long but worth looking at for a Palestinian Christian woman's lowdown on the way her co-religionists suffered under the PA - she's now in the UK)

    ReplyDelete
  2. God, Ashton is one thick b***. The EU defines Hamas as a terrorist organisation (duh). Doesn't the stupid waste of space understand what the word t-e-r-r-o-r-i-s-t means?

    ReplyDelete
  3. What gibbering retarded insanity this is. "Unity" government? For what? The 25 minutes it takes to start screaming "Jew" at each other? Tell you what, let the different factions of this unity government rape, kill and eat other to the last man standing and whomever that is, we can kill some more time pretending to negotiate with.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.