Mahmoud Abbas’ recent statements, unreported in the West, show that the wave of knifings and car-rammings against Israelis is a national campaign whose fighters act according to the directives of their leadership.
The editor of the Palestinian news agency Maan recently summarized remarks Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made in conversation with him, as well as in a speech to the people he gave in Bethlehem last week. Some of what Abbas said, according to this report – such as his statement that the PA would not collapse, but rather would disappear only after a Palestinian state was founded – were widely quoted in the media. But other remarks – like those made recently by Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub – did not reach Israeli or global media consumers. The latter heard only limited reports on statements by Rajoub and Abbas, who is very cosseted by the media overseas.
For example, Abbas said that the security situation in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is worse than in Gaza or Ramallah; that the “popular intifada will go on until the end of the occupation and there will be no return to negotiations without recognition of all the rights of the Palestinians”; that “progress toward an agreement must be achieved by international intervention”; that “the intifada would have been peaceful if the soldiers of the occupation had not killed Palestinian demonstrators, but now for every terror attack, for every knife and for every shooting by a Palestinian there is an explanation and the Israeli government is responsible for the bloodshed on both sides.”
With regard to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to the Jews of France to move to Israel, Abbas said he “puts his faith in time and a demographic struggle that will bring down the Zionist theory.”
Rajoub declared that Fatah regards the 17 “martyrs” who were buried on January 1 in Hebron (terrorists whose bodies were returned to the Palestinians) as heroes and Fatah encourages young Palestinians to follow their path. According to Rajoub, the issue came up in a meeting of the movement’s Central Committee (which Abbas heads) and it was decided to support these actions.
Instead of reporting these statements, Israeli and global media consumers received a report on the concerns of Israel’s security establishment over the collapse of the PA and signs it has uncovered that show a change in Abbas’ attitude to knife and car-ramming attacks, a change that would manifest itself in stopping young Palestinians on their way to areas of friction and in increasing efforts to restrict Hamas’ actions.
This is a misunderstanding of Abbas’ position, which continues to encourage terror not by means of firearms, and is prepared to cooperate on a limited basis with Israel in preventing Hamas from carrying out attacks with firearms. In any case these reports should have sufficed for Netanyahu to decide that we must do everything possible to prevent the collapse of the PA.
What can we learn from Abbas’ and Rajoub’s comments? First, whether they were responsible for the launching of the current wave of terror or not, they are now taking responsibility for it. Not only do they refrain from denouncing it, they encourage it. That is, no longer can the terror attacks be presented as an assemblage of individual acts. It should be recognized that this is a national campaign whose fighters, the knife-wielders and the ctar-rammers, are acting openly according to the directives of their leadership, which has no need to formally organize or direct these acts to ensure public response. The lack of security brought about by their actions in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is the tool by which the leadership expects to rack up achievements on the diplomatic level.
The second conclusion is that Abbas is more realistic than could be gathered from the threats of various officials in Israel and his own arrogant statements. Not only does he negate the possibility of the PA’s collapse, with which he used to threaten Israel, but he also admits for the first time that the entity he heads is an “authority” and not a state. All the external signs of statehood that he tried to adopt are therefore meaningless from his perspective as well. Moreover, since there will be no PA collapse, Israel will not need to deal with the warning by the Israeli left and many in the West that it will have to choose between a democratic and a Jewish state.
The third conclusion, perhaps the most important, is that Abbas continues to rely on the idea that time and demographics will bring about the end of Zionism. His strategic goals have not changed, and so he continues to refuse to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. This also explains his opposition to the involvement of Israeli Arabs in terror attacks – he fears that this will spur a process that will lead to transfer.
Israel must use these statements to expose the true face of the Palestinian leadership. Not to worry, the Palestinians won’t hate us more than they do already, but they might conclude that continuing terror is not worth their while.
Anyone who tries to sell the Israeli public the false picture that there is a partner for true peace on the Palestinian side does not know the Palestinian mindset. Abbas is prepared only for an agreement that does not contradict his strategic aim of bringing down Zionism. Those who present the achievement of such an agreement as Israel’s supreme objective should not be surprised when most of the public does not trust them. If the Israeli left and center awaken from this illusion, condemn Palestinian policy and call on the Western countries to do likewise, support for them will increase and there may be a chance that Palestinian aims will change. Meanwhile Abbas is leading his people to a perpetuation of suffering, because there is no chance that Israel will give in to terror.
The writer, a project director at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, was formerly director general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry and head of research for IDF Intelligence,
How is it possible to even think about peace with these despicable lunatics? Instead of peace they should be in constant supervision like any other lunatic. the GOI should cease this absurd charade that one can discuss peace or freedom for such lunatics who raise their children to be lunatics too. Their whole culture has to be changed and likely that means Islam. Until then only idiots can consider treating them like normal human beings, there is nothing human about such creatures.
I concur with woolymammoth
There is something mildly funny about this article appearing in “The Putrid Rag”.
The hypothetical questioner asks how many leftists had second thoughts about supporting Abbas and any part of his ludicrous demands after reading this article.
The answer is, not a single one. Hebrew is read from right to left and English is read from left to right, so to be perfectly unbiased the readers started at the bottom, read the following:
The writer a project director at The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs,formerly director general of the Strategic Affairs Ministry and head of research for IDF Intelligence.
That is probably as far as most of them got.
I may be wrong, but I believe the actions of Abbas and his followers qualifies Abbas to be picked up on genocide charges. The Israelis cannot act now for the same reason they could not indict him during the last 7 years. That is correct. Obama. If I am correct, Abbas will have a nice executive cell (extra large bucket), prepared for him about a year from now. Hopefully sooner. I am absolutely certain there is a plethora of evidence for conviction. In fact, the trial could take years. I hope the Israelis will stop this sort of nonsense. For one thing, it is making young Jewish singles want to opt out fearing the whole enterprise a curse to their offspring. In the U.S., most Jewish leadership are self appointed and coincidentally, scum, who indifferently treat regular Jews like dirt and actively chase them out.