Israel Matzav

Abu Mazen threatens to resign (again)

Another day, another resignation threat from 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen.

He said Abbas, in a series of phone conversations with Arab, American and EU leaders and government officials, strongly condemned Israel's attacks as a "severe blow" to the peace process.

"The President has said that he will resign if the military escalation and daily killings continue," the official said. "Israel's actions undermine the Palestinian Authority and drive more Palestinians into the open arms of Hamas and Islamic Jihad."

According to the official, Abbas was particularly enraged by the fact that Israel has stepped up its military operations shortly after US President George W. Bush's visit to the region. "The military escalation is being seen as a direct result of Bush's visit to Ramallah," the official added. "This puts President Abbas in an uncomfortable position and makes him look as if he's part of the aggression."

And we all know that Abu Mazen's first and only instinct is self-preservation and therefore it would never occur to him to call on Hamas to stop the Kassam bombardment - more than 100 in the last three days - as a means to getting Israel to stop hitting back.

Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, accused Israel of seeking to sabotage the peace talks in the aftermath of the Annapolis peace conference. "President Abbas's position is that the Israeli military aggression and the settlements not only cause harm to the peace process, but will destroy it," he said. "Israel must halt its military attacks immediately to save the peace process."

Abu Rudaineh urged the US to exert pressure on Israel to stop the attacks to create a better atmosphere for resuming the peace talks.

Asked if the PA was considering suspending peace talks with Israel, he said: "Such a decision should not be taken by the Palestinians alone. This should be a decision of all Arab parties."

In other words, once again, Abu Mazen isn't going to decide anything himself. Why does anyone think this lemming-like 'leader' can bring 'peace'?

The committee condemned the IDF''s operations as "terrorism" that jeopardized the peace process.

Terrorism by definition attacks non-combatants at random. How is targeting terrorists "terrorism"?

The interesting angle to all this is whether it will bring Fatah and Hamas together and if so will Israel and the West stop dealing with Abu Mazen. My bet is that it will bring them together and that no one will stop dealing with Abu Mazen.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:12 PM