The Mahmoud Abbas Victory and Israel
For some reason, much of the world has a lot of hope in Abbas as the new Palestinian leader. After Sunday’s election (1/8/05), on Monday Reuters World News Service had the headline “Abbas Victory Stirs Peace Hopes.” I don’t know why, considering all the facts. However, Mahmoud Abbas won the election with 62%, considered a landslide by anyone’s definition of a democratic election, even those one group of militants boycotted the elections.
In describing Abbas, Shimon Peres, Leader of the Israeli Labor Party said; “A moderate man was elected, an intelligent man, an experienced man. Let’s give him a change.” Please remember, it was Shimon Peres that said the same thing about Yasser Arafat. His intense longing for peace at any cost has cost him to live at times in a kind of dream world. Is Mahmoud Abbas the bright shining hope of peace that everybody claims? Let look at his history.
Abbas was born in Israel in 1935. He was educated in Syria and Moscow, earning a PH. D. in history at the Moscow University. His doctrinal dissertation asserted that the Zionist movement conspired with the Nazis to force the surviving Jews to immigrate to Israel. Mahmoud Abbas, born Abu Mazen, co-founded the Fatah movement along with Yasser Arafat and has been a member of the Palestinian National counsel since 1968. He was elected by the PLO executive committee as it Secretary General in 1996, confirming his position as Arafat’s deputy. Abbas has been in the Palestinian struggle from the beginning. He was complicit in everything Arafat did. His hands are no less bloodstained than Arafat’s. When Yasser Arafat walked away from the Camp David Accords and plunged his people into a four year war of attrition with Israel, he did so on the advice of Mahmoud Abbas! His counsel was to refuse any peace offering that did not include the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees.
The issue of the “right of return” is what makes the labeling of Abbas so puzzling. The so-called “right of return” doesn’t mean that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to a new Palestinian state. No, the “right of return” specifically demands that they and their descendants be allowed to return to Israel as automatic full Israeli citizens. If Israel agreed to this, the Jews would become an instant minority and Israel would become a majority Arab state. In the very first election, Israel would cease to exist.
While campaigning for Arafat’s job, Abbas promised that he would follow in Arafat’s footsteps. He promised that he would never give up his demand for the “right of return.” He also declared his solidarity with the terrorist groups. He promised them funding and protection and promised to defend their cause. Mahmoud Abbas also promised to refuse any compromise over the division of Jerusalem for their use as a Palestinian capitol. He also promised to fight for the freedom of all Palestinians in Israeli prison for terrorism and murder.
In short, his promises of peace comes with conditions that he knows that Israel cannot accept. That is why he imposed these conditions in the first place. Exactly as Arafat did! It’s deja vu all over again. To call Mahmoud Abbas a moderate is to take a plunge into self induced delusion. It is no less bizarre than when they called Yasser Arafat a peace maker and gave him the Nobel peace prize. For what? For being one of the world’s foremost terrorists and the father of modern terrorism as we know it, the inspiration for Osama bin Laden. Abu Mazen, alias Mahmoud Abbas is a terrorist himself by all reality and definition as much as Arafat.
Furthermore, the Palestinians of today were invented by Yasser Arafat. This act of invention occurred after Israel won the six day war in 1967. After driving out the invading Arab nations, Israel kept the so-called West Bank and Gaza strip. On June first of 1967, West Bank residents were Jordanian and Gaza residents were Egyptian. Yet on June 7th, 1967 they were miraculously transformed into Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Mahmoud Abbas is walking as he promised, in Yasser Arafat’s footsteps. As president of a non-existent people, the Palestinians, in a non-existent country, Palestine, and that he wants Israel to hand over it’s capitol, Jerusalem, to his mythical state as its capitol. As preposterous as this is to those who know true history, in the Middle East (not to leave out such other idiots as the leader of France) it seems to sound perfectly reasonable to everyone except of course, the Israelis.
What seemed like some possibility of hope at the death of Yasser Arafat for things to change and peace to come was quickly dashed by Mahmoud Abbas, even before the election. The day after New Years on a stage surrounded by armed militants Abbas offered his protection for the terrorists fighting against Israel.
Today, 1/14/05 Israel has broken off communication ties with Mahmoud Abbas and cancelled a meeting between the two leaders because of the recent attacks by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which has ties to Abbas’ ruling Fatah movement. As soon as the elections were over, the military attacks and suicide bombings restarted. According to the top Hamas official in the West Bank, Hassan Yousef, he has freedom to act and attack Israel as long as there is no agreement between Hamas and the government. Israel now basically is saying, we gave you a chance, but now you’re going to have to prove you want peace and to do something to reign in the terrorism before we can talk peace. Makes logical sense to any logical mind, but there seems to be a shortage of those among the Palestinian leadership. Arafat kept trying to place the two faced game for years, acting like he wanted peace on one side to the world while preaching and teaching and leading terrorism to Palestinians.
