Everyone understands that politics is a messy business. One has to pretend that the actors in the dance are more powerful, honest and deserving of respect, especially when being hosted. But that doesn’t make the theater attractive, nor does it bring about peace.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the President-for-Life Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Area A, on January 31, 2023, just days after a series of attacks left many Israeli civilians and Palestinian terrorists dead. After a single sentence of welcome, Abbas launched a venomous rant against Israel with accusations of “changing the identity of Jerusalem and violating historical status quo, and the violation of sanctity of Al Aqsa Mosque.” He added that “our people will not accept the continuation of the occupation forever, and the regional security will not be strengthened by violating the sanctity of the holy sites.”
Blinken then responded.
After acknowledging the host and expressing condolences for Palestinian CIVILIANS who have been killed, he offered: “Palestinians and Israelis alike are experiencing growing insecurity, growing fear in their homes, in their communities, in their places of worship.”
Seven Jews had just been slaughtered outside of their synagogue the week before by a Palestinian gunman. The following day, a Palestinian youth shot a Jewish father and son walking to services on the Sabbath.
Jews fear for their physical well-being and safety as they pray amidst Arabs who want to ban them from their holiest city, and are killing Jews to drive them out of Jerusalem.
Among Palestinians, the “fear” is having Jews live in Jerusalem, visit their holiest site on the Temple Mount and pray there openly.
How are these two things remotely equivalent? How did the United States make such an outrageous smear, and endorse the Palestinian Arab narrative that Jews should be banned from praying at their holiest site with opposing “disruptions to the historic status quo of the holy sites”?
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken visited the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (photo: Majdi Mohammed, New York Times)
Blinken said that the United States will “work toward the goal of Palestinians and Israelis enjoying equal measures of democracy, of opportunity, of dignity in their lives.” But there is no dignity for Jews without achieving the basic human right to pray at their holiest location. There is no equal measure of democracy when Palestinians demand a country free of any Jews.
Jews are scared for their lives when they go to pray, while Arabs are outraged by the physical presence of Jews. That’s not an equivalence of a “growing fear in their places of worship,” but the basic feature of jihadi anti-Semitic dementia. The U.S. State Department excusing and endorsing such Palestinian racist worldview will not resolve the tension in the region.
Kanye / Ye has a large following, including 31.8 million on Twitter and millions more on other social media platforms. His espousal of Jewish hatred and incitement to antisemitism finally cost him in some manner, with Adidas and several other companies finally severing lucrative commercial deals with him.
Alas, not so with Palestinian Arabs.
Denying and Stealing Jewish Identity
Kanye said that Jews are imposters and not really descendants of the Children of Israel from the Bible. He claimed that those are actually Black people, with “When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are. This is who our people are.” He also offered “I can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew.” In an interview with Chris Cuomo he said “You’re saying it’s anti-Semitic, but I don’t believe in that term. One thing is, Black people are also Jew. I classify as Jew also, so I actually can’t be an anti-Semite. So the term is actually, it’s not factual.“
Palestinian Arabs say much the same.
The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas falsely stated “this land [Israel] belongs to the people who live on it. It belongs to the Canaanites, who lived here 5,000 years ago. We are the Canaanites!” His “mainstream” Palestinian party Fatah has posted frequently that Jesus was the first Palestinian martyr. Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American “activist” often promoted by leftists, tweeted that “Jesus was a Palestinian of Nazareth.” Nicolas Massard, a Palestinian-American professor at Columbia University calls the ancient Jews “Palestinian Hebrews.” Supermodel Bella Hadid with over 100 million Instagram followers tweeted that “Jesus was a Palestinian” with a hashtag to keep it an ongoing movement.
Palestinians and Kanye are not simply trying to claim a piece of history for themselves and embracing cultural appropriation of Jews. They are simultaneously trying to rob Jews of their history, and libel them as cheaters, imposters and thieves.
Assertion of Jewish Control
During Ye’s interview with Cuomo on October 17 he alleged that the “Jewish underground media mafia” run the entertainment industry and that “every celebrity has Jewish people in their contract.” He tweeted that “You guys [Jews] have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” He added “Ima use you [Diddy] as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.“
Palestinian Arabs have long complained that Jews seek to control them, denying their own ongoing violent rejection of coexistence. The very term “occupation” Arabs throw about carries with it the claim that Israel is unfairly controlling “Arab land,” as if the land isn’t the heartland of the Jewish people and that Jews have no right to live there. The Palestinian Arabs assert that Israel has an illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip, as if Hamas, the terrorist group sworn to the destruction of Israel, doesn’t rule the area. The ADL conducted a poll in Gaza and the West Bank in 2014 which showed that almost every single Arab believed that Jews control the global media, financial institutions and the US government.
Ye and Palestinian tropes about Jewish control are lifted from the notorious forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which in turn fed Henry Ford’s The International Jew and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. It led to millions of Jews being slaughtered.
Claiming Jews Just Want To Make Money Off Of People
Ye offered that “I prefer my kids knew Hannukah from Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.” He said that Jared Kushner put together the Abraham Accords in order “to make money” for himself, and “I think that’s what they’re about. I don’t think that they have the ability to make anything on their own. I think they were born into money.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a Palestinian-American said that Jews, “from Gaza to Detroit… control people… exploit the rest of us for their own profit… look behind the curtain, it’s the same people who make money – yes they do – off of racism.” Mahmoud Abbas said that hatred of Jews “was widespread throughout Europe was not against their religion but against their social function which relates to usury [unscrupulous money-lending] and banking and such.“
Combined with the notion of “Jewish control /power,” Ye and Palestinians foment an us-versus-them mentality. Jews are not part of the broad fabric of society but “others” who cheat, lie and seek to steal from everyone else.
Decrying Holocausts Of Their People
While the Holocaust is a term which is used by almost the entire world to describe the horrible slaughter of European Jewry at the hands of the Nazis and other antisemites, Kanye and the Palestinians use the term about the death of Blacks and Arabs.
“I want you to visit Planned Parenthood. That’s our Holocaust museum,” Kanye said about the millions of unborn Black babies killed in abortions. He blamed Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood and the Ku Klux Klan (all non-Jews) for promoting abortion to slow the birth rate of the Black population.
Mahmoud Abbas was much more disgusting. Standing in Berlin, Germany, at the epicenter of the brutal destruction of European Jewry, the leader of Palestinian Arabs said that the Jewish State had committed “50 massacres, 50 Holocausts, and until today, and every day there are casualties killed by the Israeli military.” The outrageous “monstrous lie” was met with global outrage. For a moment. The world continued to coddle him after a few days.
A Call To Kill Jews
Ye ultimately pressed further and threatened violence against Jews around the world, tweeting “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 [sic] on JEWISH PEOPLE.“
The foundational charter of Hamas not only falsely states that Jews control of the world and destroy decency wherever they go, but specifically calls for every Muslim in the world to kill Jews and destroy Israel. Palestinian Arabs voted Hamas to a majority of parliament with such charter and continue to support the political-terrorist group. The Palestinian Authority incites violence daily with its “pay-to-slay” in which in pays terrorist families salaries.
Ye’s rampant antisemitism was ignored by many, until his call to kill Jews made him impossible to ignore. Not so for Palestinian Arabs, who are being funded by the global community despite their rampant antisemitism and calls to kill Jews and destroy the Jewish State.
Kanye West performing in Israel in 2015 (photo: Yaron Brener)
There are few institutions as powerful as the teacher unions in the United States. Not only do they lock in amazing benefits and pensions for their constituents (that’s very much the teachers and not the students), the unions protect horrible teachers from being appropriately fired.
Terrible teachers, many accused of disgusting wrong-doings, end up in so-called “rubber rooms” where they don’t actively teach students anymore but sit around and mark time. All the while, they continue to be paid handsomely and accrue retirement benefits from taxpayers.
A similar dynamic can be seen with the United Nations’ favorite constituents, the Palestinian Arabs, and their pathetic leader, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas addressing the United Nations in 2018
Abbas is a disgrace by every measure. The Palestinians hate him, with 73% unsatisfied with his performance and 77% demanding his resignation, according to a June 2022 poll. Roughly 86% of Palestinians consider the Palestinian Authority to be disgracefully corrupt according to the same poll.
Abbas’s four year term as President was supposed to expire in January 2009 but he has refused to hold new elections, as he knows that he would be trounced, even by the leaders of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization.
Abbas lost control over much of the territory and people he was supposed to govern shortly after he assumed power. He and his Fatah Party were routed from Gaza by Hamas in 2007. Abbas has failed to negotiate a unity government with Hamas over fifteen of his eighteen year reign.
With no mandate, support, standing, proven ability to negotiate with fellow Palestinians (let alone Israelis), one would imagine that Abbas would be sidelined by the global community. Why would anyone back such a failed leader and regime?
A thoughtful initial reaction might be that it’s what corrupt political bodies do. Just like teacher unions support corrupt teachers to the chagrin of students and their parents, the United Nations continues to support Abbas and the PA, to the annoyance of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Abbas has been given the podium to address the United Nations General Assembly every September since 2005. Last year, Abbas used the opportunity to declare that he will continue the “pay-to-slay” program in which the PA pays the families of terrorists who attack Israelis. During his address, he gave Israel one year – until now – to withdraw from the lands it took from Egypt and Transjordan in 1967, or he would abandon any attempts to negotiate a final agreement with Israel and would pursue a solution at the International Criminal Court.
Regardless of his track record and threat, US President Joe Biden paid Abbas a visit in Bethlehem and declared his administration’s support for Abbas. Abbas flew to Europe to meet the leaders of Romania and France. Abbas even went to Germany, where he outrageously accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinian Arabs.
“The rubber room. Please put him in a rubber room as quickly as possible,” were the calls from around the world. We all know he wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial and that he continues to funnel money to terrorists but we kept telling ourselves “Abbas is a moderate” despite the facts. Keep him away from governance. Stop rewarding him with official state visits. Even corrupt agencies like the UN cannot continue the ignominy of his addressing world leaders.
But they can’t stop because this farce is two-party tango.
Abbas is indeed an unpopular, corrupt, inept Holocaust denier who should be shuttled off the global stage. But he is the flimsy veneer that hides the deep anti-Semitism and rejection of peace ingrained in Palestinian Arab society. He might occasionally go off the scripts that far left-wing NGOs put before him to enable billions of dollars to flow into the PA, but he’s the only front man they have.
Palestinians have been saying consistently: they do not want a two-state solution; they do not want Jews in the Middle East; they proudly support the anti-Semitic political-terrorist group Hamas which has sworn to obliterate the Jewish State.
So western leaders shake hands with the 87-year old cartoon cutout Abbas and pretend he is a legitimate Palestinian leader. They send him billions of dollars of support, knowing much will be wasted and go to fund terrorists in the hope of placating the more radical jihadists. Abbas effectively sits in the rubber room but is trotted out to legitimize the fund flows and to make the masses feel like they are being treated with dignity.
Imagine if a horrible teacher who fomented racism and violence, was considered the best of the lot? The pretty face that covered up the greater evil that was being taught in the classroom by the rest of the staff. Would society allow that teacher to continue to teach, sit in a rubber room or be fired? To be escorted from school or be the public face to address students and parents? Would everyone recognize the systemic problem and demand that the entire institution be shuttered completely, or would they be too concerned about not having any teachers at school?
The veneer has worn through and Abbas’s dark stains are apparent. However, the anti-Semitic rot that lies behind him in Palestinian society continues to be willfully and actively ignored. All because the world is too reluctant to both consider and internalize that creating a neo-Nazi state alongside the sole Jewish State is a terrible idea.
US President Joe Biden announced on July 31 that he had ordered the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a mastermind of several terrorist attacks against the United States. In his comments about the targeted assassination of one of the leaders of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Biden said “Justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more.”
Biden added that “We make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.” However, it is unclear whether al-Zawahiri posed any current threat to the United States. Biden administration officials made no attempt to relay any planned attacks and did not offer whether there was any attempt to arrest al-Zawahiri instead of killing him.
The justice was seemingly solely based on al-Zawahiri’s past actions killing thousands of innocent lives.
Biden’s view of justice served to terrorists is in sharp contrast to the Palestinian Authority that same day.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of Palestinian Arabs blowing up a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, murdering nine and injuring over 80, the Palestinian Authority raised the salaries of four terrorists by 14.29%.
As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, “Four of the members of the terrorist cell that carried out the attack – Wael Qassem, Wassim Abbasi, Alla Aldin Abbasi and Muhammed Odeh – were arrested shortly after [the bombing], in August 2002. Having now spent 20 years in prison, this month, the PA will give each of the terrorists a 14.29% rise in their basic salary, from 7,000 ($2,251) to 8,000 shekels/month ($2,572). Since the terrorists were residents of Jerusalem, the PA pays them an additional supplement of 300 shekels/month ($96). To date, the PA has paid each of the these four terrorists a sum of 1,034,500 shekels ($332,637). Four of the other terrorists convicted for their part in the attack on the university and other attacks include Muhammad Arman, Walid Anjas, Abdallah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed. Each of these terrorists is similarly receiving a monthly salary from the PA.
“To date, the PA rewarded the terrorists responsible for the bombing 8,022,600 shekels ($2,579,614).”
PA President Mahmoud Abbas defended these payment before the United Nations in September when he said “Why should we have to clarify and justify providing assistance to families of prisoners and martyrs, who are the victims of the occupation and its oppressive policies? We cannot abandon our people and we will continue striving to free all our prisoners.“
US President Joe Biden and PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, July 2022. The leaders have very different views of how to deal with terrorists. (photo: Reuters)
The murder of innocent civilians is reprehensible. While it is unfortunate that the offending terrorists are killed instead of tried and imprisoned, it is often necessary. Justice requires as much.
The stain of inhumanity is not confined to the terrorists but permeates those who support, encourage and incentivize them. The Palestinian Authority has shown its moral code in its twisted definition of justice as rewarding terrorists.
In the United States, justice for terrorists and their victims means punishing terrorists. For Palestinian Arabs, justice requires cash compensation for the murderers and falsely labeling the slain victims as foreign invaders.
The White House announced that President Biden “will visit the Middle East region from July 13th to July 16th with stops in Israel, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia.” The release added that Biden would meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “reaffirming his lifelong commitment to a two-state solution.“
The stampede of elephants in the room is that the Abbas has no authority, no mandate, no control and no abilities, and that Palestinian Arabs have no interest in a two state solution, preferring war.
Then U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden (L) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 9, 2016. (photo: REUTERS/Debbie Hill/Pool)
Mahmoud Abbas – The Straw Man
No Authority. Abbas won presidential election in January 2005. That four-year term ended in January 2009, over 13 years ago. Abbas continues to suspend elections as he knows he would lose. According to a June 2022 Palestinian poll, if elections were held now, Abbas would lose to Ismail Haniyeh of the political-terrorist group HAMAS by 55% to 33%.
No Mandate. That same poll shows that Palestinian Arabs in both the “West Bank” and Gaza despise Abbas, noting that “demand for Abbas’ resignation stands at 72% in the West Bank and 84% in the Gaza Strip.” Further, “perception of corruption in PA institutions stands at 86%.“
No Control. The PA only controls Areas A and B in the West Bank. It has no control over Gaza after getting routed from the territory by HAMAS in 2007. Abbas has no control over a significant percent of his land and people, and cannot deliver anything to Palestinian Arabs or Israelis.
No Ability To Negotiate. Since 2007, Abbas has been unable to negotiate even a unity government between his Fatah party and the rival HAMAS. How could anyone imagine he has the skill or ability to negotiate with Israelis?
Why would anyone negotiate with such a person on the most fundamental principles that the person has no ability to deliver? Because it supplies multiple fig leaves: that the Palestinian Arabs have set up a government and are capable of ruling themselves to ultimately become an independent state to show the world on one hand; and on the other, to make the Palestinian Arabs feel like the world cares.
Mahmoud Abbas – Against Basic U.S. Principles and Human Rights
The United States – and the civilized world – have basic principles regarding human rights which Abbas tramples upon.
Funding terrorism. The US Congress passed the Taylor Force Act which “condition[ed] assistance to the West Bank and Gaza on steps by the Palestinian Authority to end violence and terrorism against Israeli citizens.” Abbas doesn’t care, and told the world at the United Nations that he celebrated martyrs and was commited to pay Palestinian terrorist families “even if it costs PA its last penny.”
Inciting terrorism. Abbas fans the flames of a violent jihad against Jews. He frequently lies that the Al Aqsa Mosque is in danger of being attacked by Jews to foment violence by any means.
Denying Jewish History. Abbas wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial, pretty abhorrent on its face. He further denies over 3,000 years of Jewish history in the Jewish holy land, calling Jews “colonial invaders.” He denies that the Jewish temples stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and mocks Jews that they are trying to “Judaize” Jerusalem.
The world pretends that this anti-Semitic extremist is a moderate. The sad reality is that he is a moderate, solely by Palestinian Arab standards.
Palestinian Arabs Don’t Want Two States, They Want ’48
Jews Have No Rights Whatsoever In The Land. The average Palestinian Arab in the Palestinian territories believes that the land is 100% Arab and that Jews have no rights to be there. Their position is plain that they do not want to share the land. It is founded on a national narrative that Jews are “colonial invaders” who came to the land as a function of “European imperialism.” That is why pro-Palestinian supporters shout “we don’t want two states, we want ’48,” and “from the river to the sea,” that the entirety of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River will be Arab.
No Interest In A Two State Solution. Not surprisingly believing that Jews have no history or rights, Palestinian Arabs have no interest in a two state solution. They’ve rejected it from the 1947 Partition Plan until the latest June 2022 poll, when only 28% of respondents favored the idea, with 69% opposed.
Preference For War. Rejecting coexistence, Palestinian Arabs want either the global community to pressure Israel out of existence or to wage war for Israel’s destruction. In June 2022, 56% want the PA to join more international organizations (counter to the parameters of the Oslo Accords signed between the PA and Israel to advance peace), and 55% want to start another armed “initifada,” meaning jihadist terrorism. Currently, 56% of Palestinian Arabs favor attacking Jewish civilians inside of Israel, with 59% believing the terrorism “contributes to the national interest.“
Deeply Embedded Anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League conducted a poll in 2014 about anti-Semitic attitudes around the world. Palestinian Arabs were by far the most anti-Semitic, with almost every single person – a sickening 93% – hating Jews.
It is no wonder that there are so many Palestinian terrorist groups and that the Palestinians intend on voting for one should elections ever be held again.
The US President Honors Anti-Semitism And Wastes Political Capital
Despite the plain facts that Abbas is a straw man who leads anti-Semites not interested in making peace with Israel, President Biden is going to travel to meet him. In doing so, Biden will be giving honor to this despised leader and upsetting 65% of Palestinian Arabs who don’t want the PA to engage with Biden. Even worse, decent Americans will be forced to watch their president listen to the rants and demands of an anti-Semite who supports terrorism, knowing that Biden will just smile and hand Abbas millions of dollars.
The United States invested billions of dollars in Israel and got a strong reliable ally in the Middle East with a vibrant democracy, economy and record of human rights. The US also invested billions of dollars into the Palestinian Arabs, which remains corrupt, inept and hostile to peace and decency. When will people pause to reflect on the return on investments from human and monetary capital?
Mahmoud Abbas still remains the acting president of the Palestinian Authority, having started his four-year term back in 2005. He has refused to hold elections since then, fearing he would lose, and now, sixteen years on and 85 years old, the moment of truth is upon him.
In January 2021, Abbas said that he would hold presidential and parliamentary elections in 2021 even though he has always faired poorly in Palestinian polls. In a two-way race between Abbas (head of the Fatah party) and Ismail Haniyeh of the terrorist group Hamas, it is a toss-up as to who will win. According to the March 2021 PCPSR poll, Abbas would get 47% of the vote to 46% for Haniyeh but the December 2020 poll had Haniyeh with 50% and Abbas at 43%. Other questions in the poll indicated that Palestinians believed that there would be negative ramifications if Hamas was elected which may have helped Abbas’s numbers.
The majority of Palestinians think Abbas is corrupt and want him to step down. Their preferred candidate to replace him is a convicted terrorist named Marwan Barghouti who is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for the murder of five people during several terrorist attacks. From his cell, Barghouti declared that he is considering a run for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, and if Abbas doesn’t name him as his heir apparent of Fatah, he will run on his own ticket and put forward his own slate for legislative elections.
Seafood Market restaurant in which three Israelis were killed in March 2002 was one of several terrorist attacks attributed to convicted terrorist and one of the leaders of the Second “Intifada,” Marwan Barghouti
According to the same Palestinian poll, should Barghouti run on his own, he gather 48% of the vote, Haniyeh would net 29% and Abbas just 19%.
The polls leave Abbas with a choice: 1) he can run for president and hope that Barghouti doesn’t run and be in a neck-and-neck race with Hamas; 2) run for president and show up last in a three horse race with Barghouti and his slate being victorious; or 3) name Barghouti as his successor and retire.
It seems that Abbas will pick the fourth choice: delay the elections again. That’s an option likely to appeal to the Biden Administration which is trying to donate American taxpayer dollars to the Palestinians, which would likely get complicated if Abbas names a convicted terrorist as head of the Palestinian Authority. But Abbas is 85 years old and should he opt to name a wild card like Mohammad Shtayyeh (who refuses to recognize Israel and endorses the pay-to-slay program) he will likely both be retired and watch Fatah get ousted by Hamas.
The world must ponder what to make of a society that will soon be headed by either a convicted jailed terrorist or the leader of a terrorist organization. Regrettably, it is still unlikely to internalize the reason of why there has been no progress in “peace talks” with Israel.
The New York Times once again wrote an article about Palestinians considering holding elections that could only be called #AlternativeFacts if one wanted to be charitable.
Page A10 of The New York Times of January 16, 2021
The article wrote that “Mr. Abbas was now seeking to renew his legitimacy in the eyes of the international community, especially with the imminent arrival of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the White House, which they said Mr. Abbas hoped would herald a return to negotiations with Israel.”
Nowhere in the article did it state that Abbas has no legitimacy with Palestinian Arabs.
The Palestinians poll themselves every quarter and the last results were released on December 15, 2020. There are important results to share with the public which were omitted by the Times:
86.3% of Palestinians think the Palestinian Authority is corrupt
That 86.3% compares to 63.4% who think Hamas-led institutions are corrupt
64.4% of Palestinians are not satisfied with the job of Abbas as president
66.0% of Palestinians want Abbas to resign
If Abbas was in an election against the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, he would lose 42.8% to 50.2%
If it were a three-way race including jailed terrorist Marwan Barghouti, Abbas would place third, with Barghouti at 41.2%, Haniyeh at 32.3% and Abbas at 24.5%
75.9% of people polled do not expect Abbas’s Fatah party to accept the results if Hamas wins
37.7% and 21.0% of Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank, respectively, seek to emigrate
The number one concern for Palestinians is unemployment and poverty. The “occupation and settlements” was number two
Marwan Barghouti, a convicted terrorist, is the leading contender to win Palestinian presidential elections, yet his name did not make it into the Times article at all. How not surprising – on both fronts.
If the authors had read the poll results, they would have known that the Palestinians are more concerned with their economy than negotiations with Israel.
The Times called Abbas’s Fatah as “the mainstream Palestinian party,” even though it is highly unpopular and likely to lose the elections.
The Times continued that “The United States and much of the west refused to work with the unity government [of Fatah and Hamas] because Hamas, which they consider a terrorist organization, would not accept international demands such as renouncing violence and recognizing Israel’s right to exist.” There was no commentary on how Biden would work with a PA president who was either a convicted killer (Barghouti) or leader of a terrorist group (HAMAS).
Making sure Israel could be cast in a negative light, the article added that “Israel may also decide to bar Palestinians from voting in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.” The December poll states that 56% of Palestinians favor such people being able to vote in West Bank polling stations, if Israel does not allow a foreign election to take place on its soil.
The Times coverage of the Palestinians is an alternative universe of peaceful Democracy-loving people being unfairly cast in a negative light by right-wing Israeli and American governments. It will be interesting to see how the paper’s language evolves during a year in which the U.S., Israel and Palestinian Authority might all change administrations.
Not long after Donald Trump assumed the presidency of the United States, he made overtures to the Palestinians in the hopes of brokering a peace deal. He invited the acting-President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to the White House on May 3, 2017. They discussed tackling terrorism and building economic prosperity for Palestinian Arabs and the promise of working together to build a better future for the region.
Shortly thereafter, on May 23rd, President Trump visited Abbas in Bethlehem and reiterated the need to confront terrorism, “Peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded and even rewarded…. The terrorists and extremists, and those who give them aid and comfort, must be driven out from our society forever. This wicked ideology must be obliterated — and I mean completely obliterated — and innocent life must be protected.”
Just a week later, Trump handed a peculiar gift to Abbas: on June 1 he removed the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
ANO was part of the October 1997 initial class of FTO’s along with HAMAS and Hizbullah. ANO carried out roughly 90 hijackings, assassinations and kidnappings of diplomats, and attacks on synagogues during the period 1974-1992 killing about 300 people to earn the FTO designation. The group targeted people viewed as moderates – including Palestinians – who contemplated the ongoing existence of the Jewish State. When Abu Nidal died in 2002, the group went inactive.
Which begs the question of why Trump took a 15-year defunct group off of the FTO list, right after meeting with Abbas.
Terrorist Sabri al-Banna, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Nidal
Abbas was (and remains) a very unpopular leader among Palestinian Arabs who have wanted him to resign according to each poll taken over the last many years, with 64% holding such opinion at the time of the Abbas-Trump meeting. Abbas polled to come in third in a theoretical three-candidate presidential race at that time!
So Trump threw Abbas a bone to boost his standing among Palestinians, to demonstrate that he could deliver results with the new U.S. President. It was arguably a meaningless gesture as the group was inactive, but it was symbolic in clearing the name of one of the most radical and notorious Palestinian terrorist groups.
In exchange for the Trump pardon of the ANO, Abbas advanced the idea of stopping the pay-to-slay program in which the PA paid the families of terrorists in Israeli jails. The proposal landed with a thud among the Palestinians, with a nearly unanimous 91% of Palestinians standing opposed to messing with the martyr-moolah.
Things then soured at the United Nations.
Abbas met with Trump on September 20, 2017 and voiced optimism regarding the efforts Trump’s team had made with over 20 meetings with Palestinian officials in the first months in office, but he then launched his habitual screed before the United Nations General Assembly with comments about Israeli Jews living in “East Jerusalem” which will “stir religious animosity and may lead to a violent religious conflict,… playing with fire … drag[ing] us into a religious war. This is dangerous, extremely dangerous for you and us,” in a not so subtle threat of a global jihad against Jews.
Abbas further threatened Jews and insulted Trump by declaring at the end of his speech “I salute our glorious martyrs and our courageous prisoners in Israeli jails,” to appease his Arab base. This embrace of terrorism and public challenge of Trump’s demand to stop rewarding terrorism was too much. Less than three months later, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State.
Abbas squandered Trump’s gift of removing an evil jihadist group from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations to gain Palestinian support. Instead, he elected to boost his own jihadi bona fides and stood before the world glorifying Palestinian terrorists who killed Israelis and threatening a global jihad if Jews continued to live in their holiest city of Jerusalem. Trump’s reaction was swift in recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Abbas’s political self-immolation continues to burn to this day.
There is a new placard being burnished around the world. It calls for justice and an end to the hatred and excuses for the racist, misogynistic, antisemitic and homophobic actions of Palestinian Arabs. #PalestinianActionsMatter
The PA publishes anti-Semitic textbooks for children in school that demonizes Jews, claims they have no connection to the holy land, and glorifies “martyrs”
Since the Palestinians gained control of Gaza, they launched three wars (2008, 2012 and 2014), fired thousands of rockets at Israeli cities, and dug tunnels to penetrate Israel for attacks, rather than build an economy
Palestinians set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus and painted the dome green, the color of Islam
The world is waking up to the systemic racism and antisemitism of Palestinians with calls to defund the Palestinian Authority and questions whether yet an additional Arab state in the region should be created which has been instilled with such a toxic culture.
There has rarely been a pro-Palestinian march around the world without the chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free.” It is a chant for the destruction of the only Jewish State.
Pro-Palestinian protest in London
One sees the phrase on placards in Europe. One hears it in the streets of the United States.
It is the official charter of HAMAS, a terrorist organization and an official Palestinian political party, the ruling authority of Gaza.
The destruction of Israel has long been the desire of its neighbors since the state was re-established in 1948, prompting five Arab armies to invade the country to destroy it. Through wars, boycotts and terrorism, the craving has persisted in much of the Muslim world.
Yet the liberal media has decided to ignore the genocidal antisemitic intent of the chant. In Europe, the slogan is considered a pro-Palestinian anthem which has nothing to do with the destruction of Israel. In the United States, The New York Times is loathe to call any actions or comments by the Palestinians or their supporters as antisemitic.
So as Israel considers breaking the impasse in the region in which the Palestinian Authority refuses to negotiate with Israel and Hamas continues to attack Israel, it is remarkable to see The New York Times suddenly address the call “from the river to the sea” as a right-wing ISRAELI message.
On May 20, 2020, the paper published an article about acting-President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas calling to cancel security agreements with Israel because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for applying sovereignty to areas of the West Bank which were acknowledged by the PA to be under full-Israeli control in the 1995 Oslo Accords. The article wrote:
“With the peace talks non-existent for years, many right-wing Israelis have urged Mr. Netanyahu to extend sovereignty over the West Bank on ideological and religious grounds, believing the Jewish state should control the entire Holy Land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Evangelical Christians who are key supporters of President Trump have also backed the effort.”
The article failed to mention that the Israeli government gave much of the “West Bank” to the Palestinians in 1995 and 1997 despite repeated terrorist attacks. It did not mention that Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005. The paper did not refer to the April 14, 2004 letter from US President George W Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon which stated clearly:
“In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.”
Instead, the anti-Zionist paper called the application of sovereignty a move by religious radicals, not people who seek a secure Jewish State and an end to the stalemate.
The New York Times has been an apologist for radical Palestinian antisemitism for years. It has now re-branded the anti-Zionist chant “from the river to the sea” as a Zionist one, and newly cast it as the mantra of Jewish and Christian religious zealots.
FirstOneThrough 