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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| For Abbas, the cost of jumping off the ship | |
| 2011-09-17 | |
PA President hasn't lost hope US, Europeans will be able to reach face-saving compromise to allow him to back out in a dignified manner.
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... is caught in a catch-22 situation. If he succumbs to US, EU and Israeli calls to abandon his plan to seek full membership of a Paleostinian state in the UN next week, he will be condemned by many Paleostinians for capitulating to outside pressure. There are several disillusioned PA and Fatah officials who are not happy with Abbas, especially because of the way he has been handling the grinding of the peace processor with Israel, and are waiting for the right moment and the first opportunity to pounce on him. As one of his top aides put it on Thursday, "The president knows that if he jumps off the ship now, he will be devoured by the sharks." Abbas needs a life jacket that will prevent him from drowning, and something that will protect him against the jaws of the sharks, the official explained. Paleostinian officials say these are two things the Americans and Europeans have so far failed to provide. The officials are particularly angry with US President Barack B.O.Obama for failing to provide Abbas with a ladder to climb down from the high tree. Moreover, the PA officials accuse Obama of misleading them in the first place by giving them the impression that a Paleostinian state would be established by the time the UN General Assembly would meet this year. They point to his speech at the UN last year, when the US president declared: "When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that can lead to a new member of the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... , an independent, sovereign state of Paleostine." In his recent meetings with US government officials, Abbas reminded them of Obama's "promise" and said the Paleostinians were acting in accordance with the US president's ostensible pledge. Until this week, Paleostinian officials said Abbas was hoping Washington would accept his two conditions for returning to the negotiating table with Israel: a full cessation of settlement construction and Israeli recognition of the June 4, 1967, lines as the basis for peace talks aimed at achieving a two-state solution. In the past few weeks, Abbas's message to Obama and other world leaders has been: Hold me back from going to the UN by making Israel accept the two conditions for resuming the peace talks. Abbas still hasn't lost hope that the Americans and Europeans will be able to reach some kind of a face-saving compromise that will allow him to climb down from the high tree in a dignified manner. That's why he still hasn't submitted an official application for full membership in the UN. The Paleostinian leader is hoping daily statements from PA officials about their determination to proceed with the statehood bid will increase pressure on the Americans and Europeans to come up with a formula that can be presented to the Paleostinian public as a victory. Abbas knows very well he would be doomed if he dropped the statehood plan without gaining something significant in return. On the other hand, Abbas and many Paleostinians are well aware of the possibility that they would pay a heavy price if they insisted on going ahead with the statehood bid in defiance of the US and many EU countries. Abbas is hoping the Arab and Islamic countries would compensate the Paleostinians for the loss of American and EU funds. In wake of the Arab Spring, he is betting on the Arab and Mohammedan masses, and not the governments, which have not been financially supportive of the Paleostinians over the past two decades. This is why Abbas, during a visit to Cairo this week, appealed to all Arabs to take to the streets on September 23 to voice support for his statehood bid at the UN. The direct appeal to the Arab masses is an obvious sign that Abbas is not pinning high hopes on the governments and leaders. But there are still many Paleostinians who are worried that Abbas is leading them toward the abyss with his statehood initiative. The main concern is that the PA would go bankrupt without US and EU funding, leaving more than 150,000 civil servants without salaries. Other Paleostinians are also worried about the possibility of a third intifada erupting in the Paleostinian territories as tensions mount between Israel and the PA over the statehood bid. | |
| Posted by: |
| #4 Abbas? Didn't his term expire already? |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2011-09-17 18:58 |
| #3 Hopefully all of it, OP. |
| Posted by: Barbara 2011-09-17 18:19 |
| #2 Abbas will be dead within the year, no matter what he does. He's toast. The only question is how much of the "Paleostain state" he'll take down with him. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2011-09-17 18:08 |
| #1 seven metaphors (three belabored), two delusions, one farce, and a fraud. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-09-17 16:12 |