Abbas Chooses Hamas
So long, Mahmoud.
PA President Abbas -- still smarting from the humiliation of al-Jazeera's Palestine Papers -- has thrown in his lot with Hamas, agreeing to participate in "unity talks" with the thugs of Gaza to take place in Cairo in April. He has also instructed PA legislators to draft a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, to be submitted to the UN in September. This all amounts, in short, to telling the Israelis to go to hell. He's not going to be caught red-handed making concessions for peace again -- no way, no how. That's not how this leader of men rolls.
Most strikingly of all, Abbas has said he will sacrifice the aid money the PA receives from the United States if they quibble about his rapprochement with Hamas. This is more than mere chutzpa: it is full-on, bull-by-the-horns, future-destroying recklessness. A whopping sixty percent of the Palestinian Authority's GDP comes from foreign aid. Take away a significant chunk of it and the PA's economy becomes unsustainable.
So what's he thinking? Maybe he can't do math. Maybe he's as unconcerned about the consequences for the Palestinian citizens of the West Bank as his Hamas partners-for-peace are about the consequences for the Palestinian citizens of Gaza. Maybe he's decided there's honor in honesty, and he may as well acknowledge that Oslo-Shmoslo, he is as much devoted to the total conquest of Israel as was his Fatah predecessor, Arafat. Or maybe he's just convinced that the Americans will shovel money at him no matter what he does, and Hamas is a safe short-term bet right now.
How the machers of Hamas must be loving this. They just finished warning Abbas that they couldn't (read: wouldn't) guarantee his safety if he traveled to Gaza, and he responds by throwing American aid money back where it came from and begging to be let onto the Good Ship Jihad. It's baklawas all around at HQ in Damascus.
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Comments :
Re: Abbas Chooses Hamas
The obvious question is who's offered to match that money.
Feb '11
Re: Abbas Chooses Hamas
Can you imagine? There are folks who actually thought this was a decent guy with whom one could do honest business.
Those same folks will think that of his successor as well.
May '10
Re: Abbas Chooses Hamas
I wonder (or someone else wondered and I'm ripping it off) if this has anything to do with the overthrow of Mubarak. If the new Pharaoh is more Gaza-friendly, that strengthens the hand of Hamas.
At least it gives us a chance to cut the PA loose. That's money down a literal rathole. The Honest Broker is a silly, costly and often disastrous thing Americans say about the mideast, along with "if you break it, you buy it", "inflaming the Arab Street", "the Peace Process", "the Sunni-Shia divide", "winning hearts and minds" and "it's a genuine artifact from the Third Dynasty".
Sep '10
Re: Abbas Chooses Hamas
Wow
This has the scary ring of Bin Laden's "strong horse, weak horse" argument. Will a strong, unyielding, warlike political movement always dominate a more moderate movement in the end?
Or is it just because the Palestinians are welfare cases that don't have to make their own way economically so in this particular case they can focus on the one issue of who is tougher on Israel?
I may be totally wrong and I am reading too much into this, but it seems to me that Hamas is steadily gaining ground against the PA.
Nov '10
Re: Abbas Chooses Hamas
But will we? We will, won't we? Please somebody tell me we will. We must.
May '10
Re: Abbas Chooses Hamas
Layla
But will we? We will, won't we? Please somebody tell me we will. We must. · Mar 29 at 6:43am
Like Libya, it's a golden opportunity that a real president would gladly take. Does that make you feel better? Me neither.
Then again, would he veto a budget with a bipartisan rider saying defund the PA? No way, so there's hope. Even Weiner might back that.
Edited on Mar 29, 2011 at 7:24am