Abu Mazen blows away all the positive things he accomplished this year with one senseless remark.
Abba Eban, Israel’s legendary representative to the United Nations, once famously remarked that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas proved Eban’s point Friday, in an incendiary speech to the U.N. General Assembly in which he accused Israel of “a new war of genocide” against the Palestinian people.
Another opportunity squandered. During the Gaza War this summer, Abbas had positioned himself as a picture of moderation. When Hamas was accused of having kidnapped the three teenagers whose abduction set off this summer’s violence, Abbas condemned the kidnapping in no uncertain terms. As the war with Hamas dragged on, the Palestinian Authority was party to the cease-fire negotiations. When Israel and Egypt hammered out the details of who would monitor border crossings and the use of construction material in Gaza to prevent the construction of new tunnels, even Hamas accepted the notion of Palestinian Authority monitors.
Israelis are not terribly inclined to make grand gestures for peace right now – the region is in too much turmoil for anyone to know what a smart move would be. Yet many Israelis also know that international pressure for some accommodation of Palestinian national aspirations will only grow. Prominent Israeli public intellectuals continue to worry about the corrosive effect of keeping millions of Palestinians under our military thumb on our national moral well-being. So suddenly, Israelis had begun to wonder whether Abbas might be the guy with whom to make the deal.
Read more here: Another Palestinian leader makes a mistake at UN Other Views The News Tribune
Abba Eban, Israel’s legendary representative to the United Nations, once famously remarked that “the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas proved Eban’s point Friday, in an incendiary speech to the U.N. General Assembly in which he accused Israel of “a new war of genocide” against the Palestinian people.
Another opportunity squandered. During the Gaza War this summer, Abbas had positioned himself as a picture of moderation. When Hamas was accused of having kidnapped the three teenagers whose abduction set off this summer’s violence, Abbas condemned the kidnapping in no uncertain terms. As the war with Hamas dragged on, the Palestinian Authority was party to the cease-fire negotiations. When Israel and Egypt hammered out the details of who would monitor border crossings and the use of construction material in Gaza to prevent the construction of new tunnels, even Hamas accepted the notion of Palestinian Authority monitors.
Israelis are not terribly inclined to make grand gestures for peace right now – the region is in too much turmoil for anyone to know what a smart move would be. Yet many Israelis also know that international pressure for some accommodation of Palestinian national aspirations will only grow. Prominent Israeli public intellectuals continue to worry about the corrosive effect of keeping millions of Palestinians under our military thumb on our national moral well-being. So suddenly, Israelis had begun to wonder whether Abbas might be the guy with whom to make the deal.
Read more here: Another Palestinian leader makes a mistake at UN Other Views The News Tribune