Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met on Tuesday, and as expected the Israeli media was full of reports asserting that Israel does in fact have a sincere peace partner on the Palestinian side.
Handshakes and smiles, however, do not necessarily make Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, a sincere peace partner, and they certainly don’t make him a viable one.
It is very debatable that Abbas has ever renounced, even privately in his own heart, the ultimate goal of one day totally supplanting Israel west of the Jordan River. It is the policy that forms the base of the PLO that Abbas today heads in place of his deceased mentor, Yasser Arafat.
But let’s pretend that Abbas truly is willing to give up the quest to remove the Jewish state and replace it with an Arab entity. Does that make him a partner for peace? Maybe on a personal level, but not on a national one.
The truth is that Abbas remains either unable or unwilling to do the one thing Israel has asked of the Palestinians in this peace process: eliminate the threat of Palestinian terrorism against Israel’s Jews.
Abbas will never put Hamas and Islamic Jihad out of business. Heck, he won’t even get rid of the terrorist “armed wing” of his own Fatah movement. And those groups are not going to recognize and accept Israel’s existence. So how can a real peace be concluded with Abbas if he can’t deliver the goods?
Of course, this won’t matter to the current Israeli and American leaderships, who are just looking to get some signatures on a piece of paper labeled “peace agreement” and thereby solidify their own legacies as peacemakers. Whether it sticks or not is apparently not their problem.
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4 comments so far ↓
1 Rob // Aug 29, 2007 at 6:45 pm
As I have heard Abbas termed so succinctly before, he’s nothing more than an Arafat in a suit.
2 Marsha Carol Watson // Aug 30, 2007 at 5:14 am
This desire to have a signed Peace Agreement as a part of their Legacy may well backfire on Olmert and Bush….They will be in the History Books….but what may be written about them may not be to their “liking!”
3 Charles // Aug 31, 2007 at 12:09 am
Olmert can’t be that gullible , as well as the Minister of Defence , Bush is still putting pressure on them to comply with the Saudi plan for the destruction of Israel . Bush is a hard headed non informed delusional that is steering America through this world full steam ahead on the same course as the Titanic . He will not listen to anyone .
4 David in Oregon // Oct 8, 2007 at 7:02 am
Marsha: The way this thing is going, there may not be enough history left to write the book.
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