Abu Mazen aims to please
Aiming to please the West, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday swore in a new government comprised mainly of members of his Fatah Party, but without representation of his bitter rivals from the militant Islamic Hamas group.But JPost's Khaled Abu Toameh - who has his head to the ground more than, and is more free to report than, any 'Palestinian' stringer reporting for al-AP (like the one quoted above) - reports that even Fatah is not happy with this 'government.'
The move underlines the failure of attempts to bridge differences between the two movements, which have been negotiating to form a joint government that would reunite the West Bank and Gaza and open the way for renewed foreign aid.
...
In Gaza, Hamas official Mushir al-Masri rejected the new Cabinet.
"This government is illegal, unconstitutional and came with the blessing of the Zionist and American administrations, and it poses an obstacle on the way to national reconciliation talks," he said.
Hamas and Fatah decided to boycott the new government, each for its own reasons.What's going on here is that Abu Mazen is going through the motions of pretending he wants peace. By trying to make the Fatah congress in Jericho or Bethlehem - and not in an Arab country - he is trying to disenfranchise the rejectionist 'Palestinian diaspora' that he and his generation of 'Palestinian leadership' have represented for so many years. For a long time, it was believed that Israel could make peace with the 'Palestinians' who live in Judea and Samaria because - unlike the 'Palestinian diaspora' - they would yield on the 'right of return' in order to improve their own living situation.
In addition, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian People's (Communist) Party said they had turned down an offer to join the government.
Hamas officials said that Abbas's move was tantamount to a "death certificate" for Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks aimed at reaching agreement on the formation of a Palestinian unity government.
Fatah, on the other hand, said it decided to boycott the new Fayad government because its representatives had not been consulted beforehand.
Disagreements in Fatah prompted two officials to turn down Abbas's invitation to serve as ministers shortly before the swearing-in ceremony at the Mukata compound in Ramallah.
Despite Fatah's decision to boycott the government, 10 members of the faction accepted ministerial portfolios on an individual basis. Their decision is viewed as a sign of the deepening crisis in Fatah, which is already in turmoil over its failure to hold its sixth general assembly for the past two decades.
Last week Abbas announced that he would convene the long-awaited conference in Jericho or Bethlehem on July 1, triggering a crisis in Fatah between those who favor holding the meeting in the West Bank and those who insist it should be held in one of the Arab countries.
Abu Mazen knows he cannot make peace with Hamas, because he cannot give them what they want and remain alive.
But Abu Mazen has totally lost the support of his own 'people.' Were it not for the IDF's presence in Judea and Samaria, Hamas would already control the region. Abu Mazen's moves in reinstalling Fayyad in power and convening the Fatah Congress where the 'Palestinian diaspora' cannot or will not go are pandering to the desires of the Obama administration and the quartet. The moves are far too little and too late to 'save' Abu Mazen's position as anything other than a puppet for the quartet (US, UN, Russia and EU). The game is over for Abu Mazen. It's just a question of when and how he is deposed.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:54 AM
3 Comments:
Agreed, Carl. The irony is Israel will probably wind up having no one on the Palestinian side to talk to. So much for the so-called two state solution.
Abbas' demise could put the final nails in that coffin.
Heh
...but of course, the fall of Abu Mazzen will be blamed on the "extreme right-wing Netanyahu government" who single-handedly trashed the "peace-process" and the "road map".
Poor Abu...perhaps he will be better off going back to his academic studies on the denial of the Holocaust.
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!!!
The game is over for Abu Mazen. It's just a question of when and how he is deposed.It doesnt matter. If Abu Mazen did not exist, the US would have to invent him. When Mazen first tried to leave the scene, Abu Ala appeared. When Abu Ala left the scene, Abu Mazen was resurrected, until he wanted to leave again and then it was the honest Fayyad. When Fayyad goes, it will be Dahlan. When Dahlan goes it will be Barghouti. This will go on until the world tires of holding Hamas back, at which point, Hamas will become the new party receiving the international largesse and to whom Israel must grant concessions.
The US will never let the Israel as the obstacle to peace meme die, and so long as israel's existence is the obstacle to peace, it really doesnt matter who resides next door.
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