Stephen Lendman
Israel (like America) needs manufactured enemies. Having them facilitates violence and instability. They help justify small and larger-scale wars.
Barack Obama meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Oval Office Thursday, May 28, 2009. The man sitting between them is an interpreter. Periodic “peacekeeping” efforts by the White House require the collaboration of Palestinian figures. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Note: This article was written before my two-month illness. It remained unsubmitted on my desktop.
[I]t’s appropriate now given Mahmoud Abbas’ less than wholehearted condemnation of Israeli mass murder and destruction in Gaza. It continues as this article is posted on my blog site and sent to web editors.
Abbas is a longtime Israeli co-conspirator and collaborator against his own people. He shames the office Israel arranged for him to hold. He governs illegitimately. Israel rigged his 2005 election. It was payback for enforcer services rendered. For betraying his own people.
He profited greatly. He serves illegitimately. His term expired in January 2009. He refuses to call new elections. He shames the office he holds. Why Palestinians put up with him, they’ll have to explain. He admitted collaborating with the enemy. Electronic Intifada co-founder Ali Abunimah explained. More on this below.
Deep-seated corruption and other crimes against his own people continue on his watch. Large-scale Palestinian resistance is badly needed. Submissiveness is self-defeating. A third Intifada is long overdue. Not on Abbas’ watch. “We will not go back to terrorism and violence,” he said. Israel wrote his lines.
He dutifully regurgitated them as ordered. “We will only operate through diplomacy and through peaceful means,” he said. He permits occupation harshness, passivity and acquiescence alone. Freedom isn’t in his vocabulary. Liberation struggles aren’t tolerated. Israeli rogues couldn’t say it better. Abbas serves them. He’s a convenient stooge. Months earlier, Israeli President Shimon Peres praised him, saying: He “condemned terror and has pledged that under his leadership there will not be a third intifada.”
“He understands very well that the solution to the Palestinian refugee problem cannot be within Israeli territory, so as not to change the demographic character of Israel. But he has put out a hand to Israel to renew the peace process.”
Israel values collaborationist Palestinians. Abbas sold out long ago. He’s more double agent than legitimate leader. The late Edward Said (1935 – 2003) met him in March 1977. At a Cairo National Council meeting. It launched secret PLO/Israeli meetings. It “made Oslo possible,” Said said. It didn’t matter.
Israelis came prepared. They “fielded an array of experts supported by maps, documents, statistics, and at least 17 prior drafts (before) Palestinians” accepted what demanded rejection, Said explained.
“Three PLO men” alone were allowed to negotiate. “(N)ot one of whom knew English or had a background in international (or any other kind of) law,” said Said. “The outcome was predictable, a one-sided agreement for Israel. Palestinians getting nothing besides anointment as ‘Israel’s sheriff,’ ” Said explained.
In his 1995 memoir, “Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo,” Abbas took unfair credit. He anointed himself Oslo’s architect. He never left Tunis. “Arafat pull(ed) all the strings,” said Said. He arranged his own capitulation. “No wonder then that the Oslo negotiations made the overall situation of the Palestinians a good deal worse.”
Said called Abbas “colorless, moderately corrupt, and without any clear ideas of his own, except that he wants to please the white man.” His “authenticity (was) lacking in the path” he chose to follow. He was a tailor-made stooge. Hugely corrupt later on.
Concerned solely for his own welfare. Mindless of Palestinian rights. He represents Quisling leadership. He’s against Palestine’s liberating struggle. He knew about Cast Lead in advance. A previous article explained. On November 30, 2010, Reuters headlined “Israel says Abbas, Egypt warned on Gaza war – leaks,” saying:
Ahead of Cast Lead, Israel “conferred with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership and with Egypt…”
Leaked US diplomatic cables quoted a senior Israeli official confirming it. Haaretz reported the same thing. Mubarak and Abbas were briefed in advance. Haaretz said “Israel tried to coordinate the Gaza war with the Palestinian authority.” WikiLeaks released US diplomatic cables confirming it.
In June 2009, months before Cast Lead, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with US congressional members. He “consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead.” He asked “if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas.” He “received negative answers from both.” Previous leaked information reported the same thing. WikiLeaks provided “the first documented proof.”
Abbas denied getting advance word. He lied. Mubarak said nothing either way. Reuters said Abbas “urged Israel to crush Hamas during the war.” Avigdor Lieberman held ministerial positions under Sharon and Ehud Olmert. In April 2009, he became Netanyahu’s Foreign Minister. He explained Abbas’ involvement, saying:
“Over the past year, I witnessed (Abbas) at his best. In Operation Cast Lead, (he) called us personally, applied pressure, and demanded that we topple Hamas and remove it from power.”
Throughout Cast Lead, a senior Olmert official called his comments “essentially accurate.” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said this information “reaffirms the fact that Mahmoud Abbas is no longer fit to represent our people, who conspired against his people during a war.”
Abbas was never fit to serve. That’s why Israel and Washington chose him. WikiLeaks disclosed that Hamas spokesman Salah Al-Bardaweel said:
“We have not ruled out that Fatah and the Palestinian Authority could have contributed in one way or another in the war against Gaza for political reasons such as bringing down the Hamas movement and regaining control.”
Washington’s Tel Aviv embassy said Fatah officials asked Israel to attack Hamas. Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin said “demoralized” Fatah officials wanted help to destroy Hamas.
“They are approaching a zero-sum situation,” he said. “(Y)et they ask us to attack Hamas. They are desperate. This is a new development. We have never seen this before.”
“Fatah is in a very bad shape in Gaza. We have received requests to train their forces in Egypt and Yemen. We would like them to get the training they need, and to be more powerful, but they do not have anyone to lead them.”
Shin Bet has a “very good working relationship” with Abbas. His internal security service collaborates with Israel. He understands “Israel’s security is central to (his) survival in the struggle with Hamas…”
At the time, Fatah collaborated with Washington to oust Hamas. An abortive coup failed. More information surfaced. WikiLeaks published a June 12, 2007 cable. It said Israeli military intelligence head Amos Yadlin told US embassy officials that Hamas retaining power in Gaza was advantageous. “Although not necessarily representing a GOI (government of Israel) consensus view,” said Yadlin, “Israel would be ‘happy’ if Hamas took over Gaza because the IDF could then deal with (it) as a hostile state.”
Israel needs manufactured enemies. Having them facilitates violence and instability. They help justify small and larger-scale wars. Cast Lead and Pillar of Cloud were planned months in advance. Their aim was advancing Israel’s imperium.
Doing so involves controlling all valued parts of Judea and Samaria, depopulating much of Palestine, and confining remaining population elements to canonized worthless scrubland.
Both conflicts were more about weakening Hamas than destroying it. They involved waging war on noncombatant men, women, children, infants and the elderly. It’s official Israeli policy. Abbas and other Fatah officials knew about Cast Lead and Pillar of Cloud in advance. They urged them.
Abbas did nothing to help beleaguered Gazans. He approved Israeli slaughter and mass destruction. It bears repeating. Abbas is a longtime Israeli collaborator. According to Abunimah, he “told Israeli journalists and business people that his collaboration with Israeli occupation forces is ‘sacred’ and would continue even if the PA forms a ‘government’ backed by the Palestinian military resistance organization Hamas.”
“The security relationship…and I say it on air, security coordination is sacred, is sacred,” Abbas stressed. “And we’ll continue it whether we disagree or agree over policy.”
“US-financed PA intelligence and security forces work closely with Israeli occupation forces and Shin Bet secret police to suppress any Palestinian resistance to occupation,” said Abunimah. Abbas showed which side he’s on numerous times before.
“In 2012, he pleaded with a visiting Israel lobby delegation to help him secure weapons from Israel to stop resistance,” Abunimah explained. “If they help me to get weapons, I’m helping them because I’m promoting security,” Abbas said.
He praised Oslo at the same time. He did so disgracefully. It was unilateral surrender. A Palestinian Versailles. A vaguely defined negotiating process was agreed on. No fixed timeline or outcome were specified. Israeli officials obstructed and delayed. They refused to make concessions. They kept stealing Palestinian land. They never stopped.
Colonization is policy. Occupation harshness enforces it. Negotiating with Israel is fruitless. Palestinians got nothing for renouncing armed struggle, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and agreeing to leave major unresolved issues for later final status talks. They’re still waiting.
Major issues include Palestinian self-determination. Free from occupation. Inside 1967 borders. The right of return. Settlements. Clearly defined borders. Water and other resource rights. Air and coastal water rights. East Jerusalem as Palestine’s exclusive capital.
Abbas feigns support. Privately he backs Israeli delay and deny tactics. He openly declared opposition to boycotting Israel. He wants diaspora Palestinians denied their right of return. He said so publicly. It bears repeating. He’s a longtime Israeli collaborator. He’s a world class traitor. He’s a scoundrel writ large. He betrayed his own people.
He did so for special benefits he derives. He’s more Zionist than Palestinian. Liberation is impossible with him in charge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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