by Isi Leibler
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Even the few delusional
apologists who maintain that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas is a genuine partner for peace must have been stunned by his
obscene and demagogic address on Rosh Hashana at the United Nations
General Assembly (click here to watch Abbas's UN address).
Abbas, whose 1982 doctoral
thesis promoted Holocaust denial, accused Israel of engaging in
genocide, terrorism and apartheid. He condemned “the racist occupying
state” of having “chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide
perpetrated against the Palestinian people.” He stated that “the
devastation caused by this recent aggression is unmatched in modern
times” and that “in the name of Palestine and its people, I affirm here
today: We will not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow
war criminals to escape punishment.”
Significantly, he even reverted
to the pre-Oslo Accords jargon of the radical rejectionists by referring
to Israel as the “colonial occupying power” and other derogatory terms.
He promised to “maintain the traditions of our national struggle
established by the Palestinian fedayeen … in early 1965” -- an
unequivocal endorsement of terror.
The speech was clearly a
calculated appeal to the Palestinian street to demonstrate that his
hatred of Israel matched that of Hamas. He was probably also desperate
to refocus attention on the Palestinian issue which had been relegated
to the sidelines because the world, including Arab countries, is
obsessed with the threat of ISIS. President Barack Obama’s address at
the General Assembly even contradicted his previous rigid stance by
conceding that “Iraq, Syria and Libya should cure... the illusion that
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main source of problems in the
region”.
None of this should shock us.
From the outset, Abbas has consistently followed the policy of his
predecessor. Like Yasser Arafat with Ehud Barak at Camp David, Abbas
rejected the offers of Ehud Olmert in 2008, which would have enabled the
creation of a Palestinian state on 94 percent of the territories
formerly occupied by Jordan.
Abbas intensified the demonic
hatred of Israel promoted in Palestinian schools, mosques and the media.
His brainwashing bred a criminal society suffused with hatred, to the
point at which proud mothers on Palestinian state television would
exuberantly thank Allah for enabling their children to become martyrs by
murdering the Jews while praying that their remaining offspring would
follow the same path. Only last week, the PA referred to the murderers
of the three Israeli teenagers as “shahids” -- martyrs.
Abbas has diverted vast sums of
money toward massive salaries to terrorists in Israeli prisons and
provided state pensions for families of suicide bombers and generous
endowments for released mass murderers who are sanctified as heroes. He
has honored perpetrators of the most dastardly suicide bombings and acts
of terrorism by establishing city squares, football clubs and
institutions in their names.
The duplicitous Abbas shares
precisely the same goal as Hamas -- the destruction of Israel. Like
Arafat, who denied the existence of the Jewish Temple, he too refutes
Jewish links to Israel. But he was savvy enough to realize that he could
tactically achieve far more by theoretically disavowing violence and
employing diplomatic pressure to seek to undo Jewish sovereignty in
stages.
The world is willfully blind to
his corruption and unperturbed by the PA’s siphoning of billions of
dollars of international funds designated to improve the living
conditions of Palestinians. Abbas also suspended elections for four
years, aware that the majority of his constituents were likely to
support Hamas because of the rampant corruption.
Until now, Abbas spoke with a
forked tongue, speaking softly and depicting himself as a man of peace
to the West, particularly to America, while simultaneously inciting his
people to vicious hatred.
Alas, due to a combination of
naiveté and U.S. pressure, Israel engaged in an Alice in Wonderland
charade of lip service to Abbas as a “moderate” and “peace partner”
instead of exposing him as a corrupt autocrat of a criminal society.
One of the most notable Israeli
apologists for Abbas is former President Shimon Peres who, still
desperate to uphold the discredited Oslo Accords, continues to defend
him as a moderate peace partner even when directly confronted with
evidence to the contrary.
Now that Abbas has merged the PA
with Hamas, despite the fact that until recently they were still
murdering his supporters, he has decided to dispense with his
sugarcoated approach. With the nightmare of Hamastan extending to the
1949 armistice lines, Abbas now realizes that there is no way that
Israel will cede additional territories unless it can be assured of
total security -- currently impossible. Thus he has effectively
terminated the “peace process” and is focusing his efforts on
delegitimizing Israel and garnering popularity among the Palestinians by
expressing extremist views.
Abbas has effectively written
off the Obama administration but is aware that the vast majority of
countries affiliated to the United Nations would even endorse
resolutions that the world was flat if promoted by the 57 members of the
Islamic bloc and their allies. Besides, under the current grotesque
circumstances, many European nations will continue to debase themselves
by abstaining from even the most outrageous anti-Israeli resolutions.
However, the bellicose Abbas
address enabled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak at the U.N.
in an uninhibited manner for the first time, without recourse to the
mindless mantras expressing hopes for cooperation with our “peace
partner.” (click here to watch Netanyahu's UN address)
Even the U.S. State Department,
in rare criticism, condemned Abbas’ speech, saying it “included
offensive characterizations that were deeply disappointing and which we
reject” and are “counterproductive and undermined efforts to create a
positive atmosphere and restore trust between the parties.” It did,
however, dissociate the U.S. from Netanyahu’s equation of Hamas and ISIS
as both representing “branches of the same poisonous tree.”
We should be under no illusions.
Abbas has brought the phony American orchestrated peace process to an
end. He has effectively rejected any future negotiations based on
providing Israel with security. Aside from his incendiary libel, by
suggesting that Israel must accept the “right of return” of Arab
refugees, he is blatantly promoting eliminationism.
He will now seek to galvanize
the majority of nations -- Islamic countries, Third World countries and
rogue states -- to intensify efforts toward delegitimizing and
demonizing Israel. This will lead to an active campaign to criminalize
the IDF at the International Criminal Court, and to impose global
sanctions on Israel.
But that will only become a real
threat if Abbas obtains the support -- or even the abstention of -- the
United States and the major European countries.
To retain our relationship with
Western countries, Netanyahu must go further than exposing the criminal
nature of Palestinian society, which he did so belatedly but
articulately in his address at the U.N. General Assembly.
Implementing a two-state
solution is currently inconceivable. Even setting aside the fanatical
hatred of the PA, a Palestinian state today would effectively transform
the West Bank into Hamastan. Nor, in light of the repeated total
ineptitude of U.N. peacekeeping forces, can Israel be expected to
delegate security to international parties.
But the overwhelming majority of
Israelis do not wish to annex territories that will ultimately result
in millions of additional Arabs having voting rights and the ability to
transform Israel into a binational state. The government must therefore
announce that there is no intention of annexing Palestinian territories
other than the major settlement blocs -- less than 5 percent of the
formerly Jordanian-occupied West Bank -- based on demographic changes.
U.S. recognition of the settlement blocs as part of Israel would be
consistent with the commitment that President George W. Bush gave to
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2004 to encourage the disengagement from
Gaza.
The Israeli government should
freeze construction other than for natural growth in areas that are
located outside the settlement blocs.
Today we need Western support on
a number of critical issues: preventing the rearming of Hamas; avoiding
sanctions; combating the intensified efforts to demonize and
delegitimize Israel; and above all building a coalition to prevent Iran
becoming a nuclear power.
Even though it could generate
domestic problems among far right-wing elements, the government must
speak with one voice and commit itself to a separation from the
Palestinians if and when there shall be a genuine peace partner. In the
interim, it will seek to improve the living standards of Palestinians on
the West Bank.
Netanyahu must convey the
unequivocal message that Israel’s objective is to live in peace with its
neighbors, and it is only legitimate security concerns and a lack of a
peace partner that prevent us from moving forward immediately with a
separation.
If that can be communicated to
the U.S. and Western countries, the defamatory outburst by Abbas at the
General Assembly could prove to have well served our cause.
This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post and Israel Hayom
Isi Leibler may be contacted at ileibler@leibler.com His website can be viewed at www.wordfromjerusalem.com.
Source: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=5245
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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