As we noted on Thursday, the main point to be gleaned from Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s address to the General Assembly of the United Nations was his utter irrelevance. That Abbas was reduced to pleading with a friendly audience not to ignore his cause was both pathetic and a clear sign he is painfully aware that the international community has lost interest in him, if not the Palestinians as a whole. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who spoke from the same podium shortly after Abbas spoke, confirmed Abbas’s insignificance by only briefly mentioning the Palestinians in remarks that were centered on the Iranian nuclear threat. But the PA head’s latest insults directed at Israel did not go completely unanswered by Israel. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, never one to pull his punches, pointed out the obvious when he said, as Haaretz reports:
Lieberman characterized Abbas as “the biggest obstacle to peace…everyone who heard Abbas’s speech understands that he does not intend, and does not want, to be a partner in a peace agreement,” while in a meeting in New York with foreign ministers of France, Spain, Russia and others.
Lieberman is right about all of this, but his desire to see Abbas replaced as head of the Palestinian Authority generated a response from his cabinet colleague, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who characterized Lieberman’s statement as detrimental to Israel’s interests. Barak said the alternative to Abbas’s rule in the West Bank is Hamas. That both men are basically right about Abbas sums up Israel’s peace process dilemma in a nutshell.
Though Lieberman is generally dismissed as a bull in the diplomatic china shop, his disgust with Abbas is entirely justified. The Palestinian’s stated desire for negotiations is given the lie by the fact that he has refused to negotiate for the past four years, even during a period when Israel adopted a West Bank settlement freeze. That followed his refusal even to discuss a generous peace offer from Israel in 2008 that would have given the Palestinians an independent state in almost the entire West Bank, Gaza and a share of Jerusalem. Abbas has neither the interest nor the will to make peace. Whatever his personal inclinations, he knows the Palestinians won’t accept any accord that legitimizes a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn, and he will never sign any treaty that would conclusively end the conflict. The PA leader sanctions the fomenting of anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel in his official media. Abbas is also corrupt and undemocratic, as he is currently serving in the eighth year of a four-year presidential term because he is afraid of facing his Hamas rivals in a free election.
But Barak is right when he notes that the alternative to Abbas is far worse. Were the Islamists of Hamas who currently run Gaza to extend their rule to the West Bank, it would produce a security nightmare for Israel. Abbas is an obstacle to a peace settlement. But the choice for Israel is not between peace with the PA or war with Hamas, but between the unsatisfactory status quo and a worsening security situation with a Hamas that has gained strength at Abbas’s expense.
The notion of a “Palestinian Spring” in which West Bankers would rise up and throw out a corrupt Fatah would not lead to either democracy or peace, but a Hamas government that would be a formula for further instability and violence.
Critics of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu like to blame him and Israel for the stalemate in the peace process, but Israelis understand that peace simply isn’t an option until there is a sea change in the political culture of the Palestinians that might make it a possibility. The best scenario they can hope for is a continuation of a situation where terrorism is under control. For that, as Barak argues, they need Abbas and Fatah. He may be an enemy, but under the current circumstances, he appears to be a necessary one. That’s a hard truth that both left-wing Israel-haters and Israeli right-wingers must make their peace with.
While enduring a child custody battle recently I discovered how mediation works. In the ideal, the mediator works with both parties to reach an acceptable compromise. But if the mediator finds one party to be intractable, and the other flexible, the burden of compromise will fall on the more flexible party. n nOnce I realized the mediator was simply working to extract more concessions from me, I pulled back all my offers and was rewarded when the mediator reported to the judge that I was the intractable party. n nThis has happened in the Middle East. and the world's mediators and judges, in their desire to solve the problem as quickly as possible, only pressure Israel for concessions and never expect any from the Palestinians. Israel has abandoned their wishy-washy leaders and are standing firmly behind Netanyahu because they've finally learned that it's a one way street in dealing with the Palestinians. n
Pretty sad situation that Israel, through the Oslo Accords and Rabin's disastrous decision to implant these monsters in Judea and Samaria all those years ago, now finds itself having to split hairs and read tea leaves as to which genocidal corrupted group of savages is better long term for Israel. n nWhat about another alternative to Abbas? What about cancelling Oslo, and expelling the entire Palestinian leadership back to Tunis? And giving the 'west bankers' 'Jordanian' citizenship, which is no less a fraudulent concept than "Palestinian"? n nAnd if so much as one firecracker makes it over the border from Gaza, decapitating that regime and placing the whole Gaza mess back in the lap of Egypt, where it rightfully belongs? n nWhat about that alternative to Abbas? n n(a man can dream about justice, can't he?)
Sounds very good Michael. If Tunisia will not accept them (the PA and Hamas leadership), then leave them on a leaky boat offshore. As was done to Jewish refugees with Arab and the West's connivance just before WWII offshore of Turkey, I believe.
Abbas is the best quisling the Zionists could find. Live with him until you're ready for more ethnic cleansing.
Tell us your vision, Wise Old Sage that you are. n nWhat, exactly should the Israelis do? What would they have to do to make you a Happy Old Man? n nTell us your mind. n nIf you won't, then have the decency to piss off and not desecrate these pages again, for if you continue to hang around, we will know you are what we think you are, a one note obsessive Jew hater.
Not my problem. The problem of Americans is to prevent Israel and its supporters here from embroiling us in yet another war. If we benignly neglected the place–no aid, no weapons, no diplomatic cover, Israel-Palestine need not be a major policy concern of the United States. n nIf I had to make a prediction, it would be threefold: n n1. Many Jews in Israel will continue to keep their valid passports and their suitcases ready. Remember the pieds noirs, who all left Algeria for France when Algeria became independent. n n2. When the next war comes, Israel will further ethnically cleanse the West Bank. The world will cluck, but Israel will get away with it. n n3. 100 years from now it won't matter. Like the Crusader states, Israel will disappear.
Not interested in your 'predictions'. n nYou have no suggestions for Israel, and its clear nothing she can do, other than die, will satisfy you. n nWelcome to scroll over land, Dr. Paul. n n
Another war? Are you saying that Israel has embroiled us in wars in the past? If so, you are a bigger and more shameless liar than even I suspected. n
I am really getting to hate grown adults who want to draw out the destructive “peace process” “talks” by shuffling bad actors for worse ones.
This so-called “palestinian” fiasco has lasted more than 45 YEARS too long.
It’s over-baked and it isn’t improving with age.
I’d like to see Israel get out of the way and let God drop a big load of the Book of Obadiah right on the “palestinians” heads, along with everyone else ILLEGALLY occupying legitimate Israeli lands and holdings.
These dances are silly and more to the point, terribly destructive.
The cookie crumbled for Israel and for America about 60 yrs ago – time to let the chips fall where they may.
The alternative to Abbas is not worse because anything they do they do to continue to fail. It doesn't matter who's in charge of that. If they dug up Arafat and reanimated his corpse HE'D be no better or worse because he never was when he was alive. And if they go full Salafist and put a completely insane genocidal flying monkey in charge then how is that worse? They will suffer far worse than anyone else and it could even possibly lead to the fall of Jordan in which case the "Palestinians" can reunite across the Jordan river and make one big happy bomb factory. All you're quibbling about is whether they have the logistical capability to hurt Jews because of that, not whether they want to. I say let them come down like the Hammer of God on their own people like they always do. Let them flush their whole 'country' down the toilet.
The Netanyahu government, like nearly all Israeli governments before it, is indeed waiting for that "sea change in the political culture of the Palestinians" even as it buries the Levy report, blocks any new Jewish settlement building, and simultaneously accommodates illegal Palestinian Arab development in Area C, financed by the Arabist Europeans. n nIn fact, I would suggest that responsibility for the Palestine Mandate has simply been transferred from the Brits to the Israelis who are now holding 98% of the land in trust for that auspicious day when the Palestinians are magically transformed into a benign, peace-loving people that embrace a Jewish sovereign as a neighbor. n nSorry to disappoint, but that day will never come. And those Jewish naifs who, despite more than a century of the most heinous Arab barbarism, do not understand that at the end of this conflict, only one side will be left standing (in Jerusalem), understand nothing.
It's not just the interest or the will to make peace. (Not that Arafat y'sh had either one, or that Abu Mazen does). It's also the ability. No "palestinian" leader has yet surfaced who could command the allegiance of his followers if he actually signed a peace agreement. Any so-called leader would be dead within weeks after signing a peace agreement with Israel, no matter how good a deal he got in return. Any treaty would be nothing more than a worthless piece of paper.