A Palestinian Leader Who "Get's It"

Israel & Palestine Forum

Interesting words from former PA Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. I think this is old, but I just read it.

"Contrary to Thomas Friedman’s Feb. 5 and Feb. 12 suggestions that Abbas failed because Sharon did not sufficiently “strengthen Abbas’ hand,” the former Palestinian Prime Minister has denied that Sharon played a role in his decision to resign, pointing a finger at Arafat instead:

Former Palestinian Authority Prime Miinister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has dismissed the widely accepted notion that it was Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's lack of gestures that forced him to resign, hinting that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and his inner circle had "thwarted" his mission. . . .

He was speaking to local journalists in Ramallah for the first time since he quit. . . . "I have talked about Sharon's role in aborting this experience, but, unfortunately, it was our brothers who thwarted this mission. . . .

Abbas said he would not rescind his decision to resign from the Fatah Central Committee and suspend his membership in the PLO Executive until the two bodies endorse large-scale reforms. "I didn't resign from Fatah, but only from its Central Council because it has failed to bring about change," he explained. "And I didn't resign from the PLO Executive Committee, but I'm boycotting its meetings because it's paralyzed and it's not doing anything."

Abbas lashed out at the PA for failing to enforce law and order and called for implementing security, administrative, and financial reforms in all PA institutions.

"The PA must prove its existence, and there's nothing that prevents it from doing so," he said. "There are certain things it must do, first and foremost the unification of all the security forces under one command. We accepted the road map [which calls for security reforms in the PA] and we must implement it so that we can demand our rights.

"The PA must carry out its obligations regardless of whether or not Israel and the US acknowledge this. I know very well that there is a problem and it's the the Israeli occupation, but when the PA proves its capabilities it will put the occupation in the corner, embarrass it, and force it to leave the territories. . . ." (Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post, March 28, 2004)"

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_c...6&x_article=636

Well hes right, there needs to be change in the PA, they arent doing the best for the Palestinians.

In Haaretz, there is an article about Mahmoud Abbas fearing for his life.

Abbas: I quit in part because of threats on my life

By Haaretz Service

Mahmoud Abbas resigned as Palestinian prime minister in part because of threats on his life, he said in a Newsweek interview published this week.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasite/images/iht_daily/D130604/abbas147.jpg
Mahmoud Abbas: I don't have any relationship with Yasser Arafat. (Archives)

Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was reluctant to identify the source of the threats.

Abbas resigned as prime minister in September 2003, two months after attending a trilateral summit in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, where he held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and United States President George W. Bush to mark the launch of the internationally brokered road map to Middle East peace.

He was replaced by the current prime minister, Ahmed Qureia.

Abbas told Newsweek that his resignation had been motivated by three factors:"Sharon didn't give me anything. Secondly, I was attacked by my colleagues, and thirdly, Bush was reluctant to help."

The former prime minister conceded that leaders must be able to cope with criticism and even incitement, but said that the decision to resign came when he "felt that someone was going to kill" him or "cause bloodshed within Fatah itself."

Abbas dodged the question of whether Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat had been involved in the incitement against him, but did say, "I don't have any relationship with the chairman from the resignation to this day."

Abbas concluded the interview by saying that under "no circumstances whatsoever" would he return to his former post.


Link-

Haaretz Daily - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/438596.html

Thanks for the article. I didn't know that his life had been threatened, but it doesn't surprise me. If anyone who's moderate and wants to broker a peace deal with Israel is threatened either by Hamas or by more radicial elements within the PA, it gives me very little hope for the peace process.

Israel its self kills the peace process, but you guys are always in denial.

I don't deny that Sharon's regime is an obstacle to the peace process. Actually, it isn't so much Sharon himself as the whole Likud party.

It's you who denies that the terrorist attacks and corruption in the PA are also obstacles to the peace process. That's denial.

For god's sake, first OneOfPeace who keeps on saying that i think that the Palestinians are angels and are not in fault, even though that i denied it several times, and now your saying that i deny that the terrorist attacks and corruption in the PA are also obstacles to the peace process.

I dont see the attacks as terrorism, for several reasons, i will make a thread about it later.

and i am aware that the corruption in the PA does hurt the peace process.

You can keep your threads TWBR, I believe I speak for many when I've said "we've seen enough of them" to know your take on things. However let me clue you into some facts here.

Your leadership has failed your people miserably. After 56 yrs of Israel being declared a state, they have lost little. On the contrary after 56 years of rejecting Israel as a state, your people have lost much.

It's time for new thinking and ideologies amongst your own. After more than a half century of rejection and more than a century of conflict, you would think that they would finally get the picture but they don't. It's almost as if they are incapable of learning how to adapt to change of any kind.

Call it what you will but Israel has had the better of this deal by leaps and bounds. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Maybe the answer to relief lies among your own people. However since their incapable of any kind of rationale, a mentality passed on to the likes of you and many other young impressionables, I'm sure they will continue to struggle in their oppressions.

Well I don't think they are literally incapable if thinking rationally. See the comments of Abbas that I posted above. He clearly sees corruption and inaction within the PA as a major issue, and he sees the Palestinians as having obligations that must be met in order for the peace process to be successful, not just the Israelis.

The real problem is that moderate voices like Abbas are too few, and when someone like that is in a position of power, he finds that his life is threatened. Sharon probably should have done more to strengthen Abbas' hand. The problem is that Sharon is also captive of extremists in his own political party. Witness the fact that he had a vote of no confidence from Likud voters because he wanted to pull Israeli settlements out of Gaza. They took another vote and decided to approve it, but only because the issue threatened to fractionalize the Likud party and hand the government over to Labour. Sharon isn't facing death threats for wanting to make concessions, but his own political survival seems to be at stake every time he wants to pursue any policy of moderation.

I'd say that on the whole the vast majority of Palestinians are way too extreme in their views, and very distorted in their perception of reality. The extremists among the Israelis are not in the majority, but they are however a significantly large minority that is causing a problem right now.

- woolfe