If Abbas wanted peace, he would have said that Shubaki was wrong to participate in terror attacks, serve as a terrorist leader, or purchase tons of weapons.
By MOSHE PHILLIPS | Dec 30, 2024
Who cares what Mahmoud Abbas said in his eulogy for the late PLO finance director Fuad Shubaki?
We should all care – very much. Because in Abbas’s words, we see all too clearly the true attitudes and intentions of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority.
According to the PA’s Wafa news agency, Abbas “expressed deep sorrow” at Shubaki’s passing last week, at the age of 84. Abbas “praised Shubaki’s exceptional life and contributions to the Palestinian cause,” Wafa announced.
He “highlighted the late leader’s steadfast commitment to the Palestinian Revolution, his leadership role within the Fatah movement, and his tireless efforts in defending the rights of the Palestinian people and their just struggle for freedom and independence.”
Abbas also “offered his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased” and to “his fellow comrades in the struggle.”
So who was this man that Abbas considers such a wonderful hero?
Fuad Shubaki devoted his entire life to murdering Israeli Jews and seeking the destruction of Israel. He started on the path before there were any “settlements” or “occupied territories.” Wafa tells us that Shubaki “was one of the first to join the Palestinian fedayeen movement in the mid-1960s.”
In other words, the territory Shubaki and his fellow terrorists were trying to “liberate” was pre-1967 Israel.
We may not know exactly which attacks Shubaki carried out, but his Wafa obituary makes it clear that he had plenty of Jewish blood on his hands: “He underwent training in the camps of the Palestinian revolution and participated in its battles.”
Shubaki soon rose to the leadership ranks of the terror movement.
He became a member of both the Palestinian National Council and Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. Then Yasser Arafat appointed him to manage Fatah’s “military financial administration,” Wafa reports.
Shubaki followed Arafat from Gaza to Jordan. When the Jordanians expelled them, Shubaki followed Arafat to Lebanon, then from there to Tunisia, all the while devoting himself to financing the bombers, snipers, grenade-hurlers, stabbers, and rock-throwers waging jihad against Israel.
Then came Oslo. Arafat, Abbas, and Shubaki declared they would live in peace with Israel. They signed the first Oslo Accord in 1993 and the second (Oslo II) in 1995. They pledged they were giving up terrorism, promised to arrest and extradite terrorists, and to stop teaching anti-Jewish hatred in their schools.
Those promises didn’t hold up very well. Within weeks, terrorism resumed. Arafat set up thinly disguised front groups, such as the “Fatah Hawks” and the “Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,” to carry out the attacks so that he would not be directly blamed.
Israel requested the extradition of terrorists; Arafat ignored them. Israel asked Arafat to stop making jihad speeches; Arafat laughed at them. And Shubaki continued arranging the funds for terror.
On the morning of January 3, 2002, the Oslo myth was shattered, once and for all. That was when Israeli forces intercepted the Karine A, the ship carrying 50 tons of weapons to Gaza. It was Shubaki who arranged to purchase them from Iran.
Fifty tons – 100,000 pounds – of Katyusha rockets, mortar shells, Kalashnikov assault rifles, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles, anti-tank mines, ammunition, and explosives.
Abbas is no “man of peace”
In short, Arafat, Abbas and Shubaki, the “men of peace,” were stocking up for war. The Oslo agreements had been a ruse. The Palestinian Arab leader had never intended to live in peace with Israel. The accords were just a way for them to gain control of Gaza and the major Arab cities in Judea-Samaria; to create a de facto army posing as a security force; to shelter fugitive terrorists; and to build up a vast arsenal of weapons.
If Abbas really wants peace – as J Street and the State Department keep telling us – he would not have heaped praise on Shubaki in his eulogy. He would have said that Shubaki was wrong to participate in terrorist attacks, wrong to serve as a leader of a terrorist movement, and wrong to arrange the purchase of 50 tons of weapons.
If Abbas is really a moderate – as most of the international news media keep claiming – he would have announced that the PA will not be providing any payments to Shubaki’s family. But instead, the Shubaki family will be added to the ever-growing list of families of dead terrorists that receive monthly payments from the PA.
That’s what Abbas does for those whom he considers heroes.
So if you want to know what Mahmoud Abbas really thinks about Israel, peace, and terrorism, just read his eulogy for Fuad Shubaki. Everything you need to know can be found there.
The writer is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.
December 3, 2015
https://www.algemeiner.com/2015/12/03/news-flash-mahmoud-abbas-helped-plan-and-finance-the-munich-massacre/
@Adam
Like Edgar, I remember the event quite well, and it was very well covered in the MSM. It was known as the Karine A affair, so perhaps you are more familiar with this reference. Here is the coverage in the NY Post:
https://nypost.com/2002/01/05/israels-bold-arms-raid-grabs-iran-made-rockets-bound-for-palestinians/
It should be recalled that this was at the height of the Intifada and that Arafat was being fawned over by many in the Press. So this revelation of an illegal arms shipment of this size coming from Iran to support the Pal’s insurrection was particularly significant and the resulting publicity arround this event caused a great deal of damage to the Pals and Arafat in particular.
Here is the coverage in the NYT from Janu 12
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/12/world/seized-arms-would-have-vastly-extended-arafat-arsenal.html
It was covered in all major papers at the time, including the usual Israel bashing likes of the Guardian. It was also aired on the nightly news for some time with video of the array of advanced arms which the Pals were prohibited from acquiring.
Just FYI
ADAM-
I suppose the weapons refer to those caught stacked in an innocent fishing boat coming indolently to land -consigned to Arafat….I recall the ‘catch” well.
Abbas the liar, thief, murderer, terrorist. ++….
A7 reports tat Abbas now wants Israel to hand over Gaza to his rule.
Yes indeed, after thousands of Jews murdered, killed, wounded Massive Jewish blood spilled.
A free gift for fat bottomed animal Abbas who should long ago have joined his friends Rabin the ALTALENA Murderer, Peres the snake and squanderer, Beilin te soft-egg jelly baby, et all, who cursed the Holy Land with their own presence as well as those of Arafat, Abbas and Co.
And for israpundit to display that ridiculous heading that the animal is now
showing his true colours. ……Hasn’t he been showing them far and wide since before 1973, and ever since, brazenly waving them around free of any well deserved reprisals and deservedly lethal punishment from soft-headed Israelis…..
I don’t know why anyone would bother to make an article from such an obvious and extremely sordid piece of dung.
I supose Phillips was short of a few “bob”- and got paid for it, that’s why……!!
Phoo….!!
I like that Israel has gone back to extrajudicial executions on foreign soil. Abbas is a perfect target.
The two female Canadian Cabinet members who basically drooled on Abbas in a photo shoot holding hands and giving adoring stares, like high school girls, need to be strapped to him, palletised and pushed out the back of a C130 over Gaza at 10,000 ft. That way there is enough oxygen for them to not pass out and they will enjoy the full ride. A Youtube of their experience would be a nice touch too for their families to have as a memento.
The west in general were not happy to have egg all over their faces when mishaps happen like the intercept of so many weapons and ammunition which could only be have aimed at Israel. Just think what this has done to the arms industry! Instead if putting up loads of money or other treasures (think of brains), they actually grabbed a 50 ton supply of weapons they themselves could put to good use!
I know, my cynicism knows no bounds but it seems to be a predictable story that the so-called Palestinians will be glad to sign agreements they have no intention of abiding by, and that the west are quite happy to knowingly endorse.
A very timely reminder of the past treachery of the PLO and the insincerity of their promise to coexist peacefully with Israel.
I don’t recall reading or hearing about the intercepted weapons shipment before now. Many thanks to Moshe Phillips calling my and all of our attention to it, even twenty-two years later. I may not have noticed it at the time, since the American MSM did not publicize it.
But I was aware that the PLO continued its terrorist attacks after signing the Oslo accords, and after Israel admitted the PLO military forces to the land of Israel, and handed over Gaza and parts of Judea-Samaria to them.
Despite the efforts of the USG and the American-British MSM to deny that Arafat was responsible for the continuing terror, it was not possible to entirely cover up his involvement and that of the other other PLO leaders in it, despite their “peace-loving: statements to Western politicians and journalists. One give-away was when Arafat attended the funeral of a particularly “ingenious” terrorist bomb-maker who was known as “the engineer,” whose bombs killed and maimed large numbers of Jews, and delivered a very laudetory eulogy to this murder. Another giveaway came when Arafat delivered a speech to Muslims in South Africa in which he praised the prophet Muhammed’s “hudna,” or ten-year truce with the Qureish rulers of Mecca, who were still polytheists at the time .Muhammed broke his word and attacked Mecca only two years after agreeing to the truce,and seized the city. Arafat suggested to his Muslim audience that his agreement to the Oslo accords was just another such ‘hudna,” and he would break it very soon, following the example of his, and his audiences’ revered prophet.