Israel Matzav

It's not that Obama doesn't get Abu Mazen

What so many people seem not to get - whether because they don't understand it or because they don't want to admit it - is that it's not that Barack Hussein Obama doesn't understand that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has no interest in peace. It's that Obama shares Abu Mazen's visceral hatred for Israel. Take for example, Jackson Diehl, who has really come to see Abu Mazen for what he is over the last five years, but doesn't quite follow through in Sunday's Washington Post.

Obama, as he made clear in the Goldberg interview, perceives Abbas as the golden key to Mideast peace — “the most politically moderate leader the Palestinians may ever have,” as Goldberg paraphrased it — and Netanyahu as the potential spoiler. “I believe that President Abbas is sincere about his willingness to recognize Israel and its right to exist,” the president said. “You’ve got a partner on the other side who is prepared to negotiate seriously . . . for us not to seize this moment I think would be a great mistake.”

But is Obama right about Abbas? Netanyahu, like most Israelis, doesn’t think so — and with some reason. The Palestinian president — who was elected to a four-year term in 2005 and has remained in office for five years after its expiration — turned down President George W. Bush’s request that he sign on to a similar framework in 2008. In 2010, after Obama strong-armed Netanyahu into declaring a moratorium on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank, Abbas refused to negotiate for nine of the designated 10 months, then broke off the talks after two meetings.

Abbas agreed to Kerry’s proposal for another nine-month negotiating window last year in exchange for Israel’s release of more than 100 Palestinian prisoners, including many convicted of murdering civilians. Abbas hailed them as heroes. Then he embarked on a public campaign to deep-six the two principal provisions Israel has sought in the U.S. framework, both of which have had Washington’s support. One would allow Israeli soldiers to remain along the Palestinian-Jordanian border during an extended transition period; the other would involve Palestinian recognition that Israel is a Jewish state.

The “Jewish state” question is hard for many non-Israelis to understand: Who cares what Arabs call Israel, so long as they accept it? But for Netanyahu and his followers, the question is essential. Arab leaders have never conceded that a non-Arab state can hold a permanent place in the Middle East, they say. Until they do so, there will be no real peace, because Palestinians will keep pressing to weaken and eventually eliminate Israel’s Jewish majority. 

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Why does Abbas dare to publicly campaign against the U.S. and Israeli position even before arriving in Washington? Simple: “Abbas believes he can say no to Obama because the U.S. administration will not take any retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority,” writes the veteran Israeli-Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. Instead, Abbas expects to sit back if the talks fail, submit petitions to the United Nations and watch the anti-Israel boycotts mushroom, while paying no price of his own.

The problem is that to Obama, that's an acceptable outcome. At least it's an acceptable outcome until the 'Palestinians' are God forbid strong enough to extirpate the Jewish state and eliminate all of us. That's something the American media and most American Jews have a hard time admitting. But until the baby is called by its name, nothing will change.

So what happened Monday at the White House? Next post....

Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel is a Jewish state, Jackson Diehl

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:05 AM