by David M. Weinberg
The world judges
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his government by
truly meek standards. How else can you explain the rot that the
Palestinians get away with, while supposedly engaged in a peace process
with Israel?
Abbas' minions can
savage U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, cast ugly aspersions on his
motivations, organize demonstrations against him, brutally mock his
proposals, intransigently reject any moves towards Israel, threaten
renewed warfare against Israel, cozy up to Iranian officials in
preparation for such future battle, and glorify terrorism against Israel
-- yet the Obama administration and European leaders remain mum.
The State Department
doesn't get offended when Yasser Abed Rabbo, the PLO's secretary-general
and one of the closest advisors to Abbas, accuses Kerry of seeking to
"appease Israel." No apologies were demanded by the State Department
when Jamal Muhaissen, a senior Fatah official, called for Kerry to be
indicted in the International Criminal Court (for supposedly spelling
out to Abbas, in private of course, the implications of diplomatic
failure).
The State Department
doesn't loudly denounce as unacceptable the protests in Ramallah and
Bethlehem where Palestinians cry, "Oh Kerry, you coward, you have no
room in Palestine," and carry placards accusing Kerry of working toward
"liquidating" the Palestinian cause and trying to extort the
Palestinians.
Nor does it seem to
bother Kerry's State Department when senior representatives of Abbas's
ruling Fatah faction, such as Jibril Rajoub and Tawfik Tirawi, both
former commanders of Palestinian security forces in the West Bank and
close allies of Abbas, issue a string of increasingly strident
statements in support of "armed resistance" against Israel. Or when they
fly to Iran to seek the support of Ayatollahs Mohammad Khatami and
Hassan Rouhani.
In fact, the State
Department has had nothing to say at all about a series of recent
stories that detail a Palestinian political culture that remains
violent, anti-democratic, and wedded to historical lies.
The stories and
statements ignored by Washington include Abbas' venal assertion that
Jesus was a Palestinian persecuted by the Zionists. They include chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat's accusation that Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu wants Abbas assassinated, and Erekat's outrageous
claim to be an indigenous descendant of the biblical Canaanites. (Erekat
excreted that "Joshua Bin Nun burned my hometown Jericho"). They
include Abbas' classic double-talk: Swearing commitment to peace when
speaking to Israeli students, while glorifying the murder of Israeli
students by Palestinian terrorists, when speaking in Arabic to his home
base.
More American silence
has resounded in response to a well-documented new report detailing the
hate that is routinely broadcast on Palestinian television, published in
Palestinian newspapers, and taught in PA schools -- demonizing Jews and
inculcating the notion that the evil Jews and Zionists have no rights
to any part of the country.
Next is complete
American disregard of new reports that detail gross human rights abuses
in the PA -- including arbitrary detentions, torture and cruel
punishment, restriction of freedom of the press, denial of religious and
minority rights, and more.
Utter disregard has
been the reaction of the international community to the PA's large cash
payouts to terrorists released from Israeli jails as part of Kerry's
peace process. The terrorists are getting PA grants of up to $50,000
each and monthly stipends ranging from $1,000 to $4,000; sums that are
about four times the average monthly salary in the PA.
The PA also makes large
monthly payments to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs still in jail, as
long as they were imprisoned for terrorism against Israel. This included
prisoners serving multiple life sentences for murder. Their families
receive the stipends. Arabs from Jerusalem and Israeli Arabs imprisoned
for terror offenses get additional supplements, in honor of their
"exceptional heroism."
In short, the more
heinous the act of terrorism and the longer the prison sentence, the
higher the salary. And note: The PA is an equal opportunity terrorist
employer. Its salaries for terrorists are granted to members of Fatah,
Hamas, and Islamic Jihad alike.
It is estimated that at
least six percent of the Palestinian budget is diverted to directly
paying terrorist salaries. All this money comes from donor countries
like the U.S., U.K., Norway, and Denmark. I've scratched my head again
and again wondering why. Shouldn't abjuring terror, refraining from
glorifying terror, and stopping to pay for terror, be a central
international demand of the Palestinians in the current peace talks?
Over the past two
years, the Shin Bet security agency has identified and pre-empted more
than 80 plans for attacks in the West Bank, plans that originated with
individuals released by Israel as part of the Gilad Schalit deal. Hamas
headquarters in Gaza transmits detailed instructions as well as funds
for these attacks to the West Bank Palestinian terrorists; and Abbas' PA
has been mainly inactive and ineffective in doing anything about this
Hamas infiltration.
Despite all this, Kerry
and his State Department seem religiously wedded to the cheery fiction
that a Palestinian state would be a stabilizing force for peace. All
evidence to the contrary mysteriously escapes them.
They are tremendously
exorcised about the urgency of establishing a Palestinian state, but
much less worried about the character of that state and what it portends
for that state's relationship with Israel down the road.
Then there is Abbas'
diplomatic intransigence. By all accounts, Abbas is not prepared to make
any significant concessions on the key issues of recognition, refugees,
security, settlements and Jerusalem. Abbas says he will "never"
recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, "never"
forgo the so-called right of return to Israel of Palestinian refugees,
"never" accept Israeli security control of Jordan Valley and other key
air and ground security assets, "never" allow Jews to live in Judea, and
"never" accept Israeli sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem's Old City.
In short, "never" will there be a peace agreement.
Yet I haven't heard
Kerry publicly strong-arming Abbas, as he has notoriously done with
Netanyahu. I haven't heard Kerry warn Abbas of PA diplomatic isolation
or economic collapse if progress isn't made.
In fact, Kerry has
failed to even hint that Palestinian intransigence could be a possible
cause of failure. Kerry has signaled that failure would be/could be
Israel's fault, but not the PA's fault.
The American ear also
seems deaf to the broader context in which the current talks are taking
place. Netanyahu is under great pressure from within his own coalition
government and beyond to make enormous concessions to the Palestinians.
Abbas is under no such domestic or regional pressure at all. In fact,
nobody in the Fatah leadership (never mind Hamas or the Saudis) is
pushing Abbas to cut Kerry some slack or show some flexibility in order
to obtain a peace deal with Israel.
After all, the
Palestinians feel no urgent need for an agreement. They don't really
crave the "statelet" along the 1967 lines that Israel might be offering,
and they think that have a better route (through the international
courts and international boycotts) to cut Israel down to size.
So why on earth is
Kerry publicly pressuring Netanyahu but not Abbas? As we painfully know
only too well, every Israeli official who speaks out of line with regard
to the terrific Kerry process is pummeled by the Obama administration.
Any Israeli statement that questions the wisdom or direction of the
diplomatic process led by Kerry becomes an international scandal; and
Washington responds to the wayward official with fury.
Just ask Defense
Minister Moshe Ya'alon or Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett.
For doubting Kerry's effort, the Obama administration has gone after
them like a hotly provoked bull in a bullfight. Their criticisms of
Kerry have been called offensive and unacceptable by Washington, and
apologies have been loudly demanded.
Yet Abbas and his
insolent, defiant Palestinian Authority apparently are international
angels. The toughest criticism Abbas ever has faced from the U.S. is
"disappointment and concern" over anti-Israel rhetoric. This gentle
comment came yesterday in a background briefing, noticed by few, of the
State Department deputy spokesman. "Personal attacks are unhelpful,"
murmured the tender spokesman almost apologetically. Kerry himself has
said nothing critical of Abbas.
And so you know for sure: No
matter what happens, no matter how recalcitrant and contemptuous Abbas
is, no matter how militant and hard-line the PA proves -- no failure of
the peace process will ever be pinned on the Palestinians.
David M. Weinberg
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7437
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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