Mahmoud Abbas has now been sworn in as the new Palestinian prime minister. Reducing Arafat’s power was one requirement for a US-brokered “roadmap” to peace. So, there is hope that this will help lead to a successful peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Abbas pledged action on key Israeli demands to crack down on illegal weapons, corruption and incitement to violence.
Presumably Israel would not agree to peace if terror attacks were continuing. That would be no peace at all.
Tragically, terrorists picked the moment of Abbas’s swearing in to mount a suicide bombing, which killed at least three and wounded at least 40. The timing looks like a message, although it may be a coincidence.
So, will Mahmoud Abbas succeed in ending Palestinian terrorism, and lead to a real peace in the region, as well as a Palestinain state? Or, will there be no change, as terrorist organizations continue to call the tune?
If the standard is that Abu Mazen has to magically control the uncontrollable than this is yet one more sham position in a long history of sham positions.
What will allow the ending of terror attacks is mutual progress.
Abu Mazen demonstrates a good faith government.
Israel freezes illegal settlement activities, stops expropriations and land siezures for ‘security’ reasons.
Then you have political ground for Abu Mazen to reign in the angry.
As far as Haaretz’s characterization, of course Abu Mazen does not intend to confront Hamas et al, they’re stronger physically than the remainder of PA security forces that Israel just spent a year destroying.
Confrontation would only send the PA into civil war – which no doubt Likoudistes would love but is not in the best interests of anyone but perhaps Sharon.
So, either the Israeli government negotiates in good faith and promply with the best partner they could hope for, or we just throw away the charade and go for ethnic cleansing.
’Terrorism’ will likely always exist, or at least surpass in time the establishment of a Palestinain nation state because what some of those concerned with terrorism do; they find their personal power base seeping away so they become de facto armed criminals (drug dealing, protection rackets, extorion, etc) – some ‘terrorism’ morphs into crime, other kinds, more committed to the political process than their own status and position, fade away or join the political process.
But as we know one man’s ‘terrorist’ is anothers’ ‘freedom fighter’ and in the case of Gerry Adams, political leader as well. AIt all depends on what it is you want to see and how important the ultimate goal of peace is to you. Sometimes it’s not very important at all and one wonders, for example, about Sharon’s motivations.
The lesson from Ireland is not to focus on the ‘terrorists’ but on the main (political) prize and anyone wishing to do otherwise - involved, pundit, commentator, etc - isn’t interested in progress and is rather more interested in their own personal agenda and use the fact of (still) existing terrorism as a convenient distraction.
But we all know that, december perhaps most of all.
Question: Will Israel still get the $5 – 8 billion a year from the US and the UN-free carte blanche once the US public wakes up (as they might if the ‘Road Map’ progresses) to the fact there is no threat to the State of Israel ?
Does Sharon have some sort of mind-control beam he uses to force some Palestineans to commit acts of terrorism? If not, I don’t really see what he has done to deserve being singled out as a cause of terrorism. Oh, I know! He is ‘unliked’. That’s the ticket.
Mahmoud Abbas is merely virulently anti-semitic, but unlike Arafat, doesn’t actually have blood on his hands, so he is a (small) step in the right direction. With Arafat still on the scene, he will be largely impotent, so it will be impossible to judge how effective (or ineffective) he may be in reining in the terrorists. Heck, I wouldn’t be suprised if Arafat was behind the latest bombings, to let Abbas know who still called the ‘shots’.
Wonderous, Brutus joins us to share some flailing if unlearned observations:
Well, a rather poorly tied together straw man my dear fellow.
Sharon does have control over policies such as the expansion of West Bank settlements with illegal land siezures and all that enrage Palestians.
And this characterization is based on what factual knowledge? Or is this like your recent assertion in re ‘experts’ having been in control of Middle Eastern policy, something you pulled out of the recesses.
You are surely aware that Sharon has just as much blood on his hands as Arafat?
And I do believe in all fairness that it ought to be mentioned that terrorism was used by jewish groups pursuing the birth of Israel. Heck it was just some twenty years ago that Israel had a prominent ex-terrorist for Prime Minister…
I am aware that many want to erroneously lay the blame for the actions of the Lebanese Forces on Sharon. But that is irrelevant. The misdeeds or purported misdeeds of one leader do not justify misdeeds of another.
Arafat has always been, and will be until his dying days (barring some sort of epiphany) a terrorist. This is known fact. Comparing him to the democratically elected leader of Israel is rank moral relativism.
Collounsbury, Mahmoud Abbas wrote a book called The Other Side: The Secret Relations Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement that combines holocaust revisionism/denial, claims of ties between Hitler and leaders of the Zionist movement to allow for the killing of Jews if they would get Palestine, and claims of Zionist conspiracies. It was written over 20 years ago and I don’t know if he still holds those views today.
Thanks for starting this thread. I had something similar in mind, and was pleased to see this AM that someone had already done it.
As I’ve said on other threads, I really do believe that w/ Iraq out of the picture (at least for the time being) this opens up new opportunities. I don’t know much about Abbas, but any diminution of Arafat’s authority will help the Israelis come to the bargaining table. If we can get:
Palestinian authority to demonstrate they are doing their best to stop the suicied bombers
and
Israel to make some moevement on halting settlements
We’ll be well on our way to some sort of peace settlement. I just hope Bush and Powell have the *cajones[/] to lean on Israel real hard. They can do if they want, and it needs to be done.
Here’s the big problem. They’ll have to do it in such a way that they will be believed by thier people and Israel. A very hard line to walk. The terrorism will not end 100%. There will be people who for numerous reasons will still carry out acts of terrorism against Israel of that there is no question.
Will the Israeli’s be able to deal with a Palestinian Admin. while some of it’s constituents(acting independently, hopefully) are still bombing Israel?
Not sure what you mean. Are you implying that a majority of Palestinians support suicide bombers? I hope not. If so, the process is doomed. I can’t bring myself to believe that. Especiallly if we could get the Israelis to move on the settlement issue.
But you’re right about terrorism not stopping. There are the hard core (on both sides) that want only one state. Abbas just needs to show that he is truely committed to stopping it. I’m not exactly sure how he does that. Especially since it seems that the hard liners on his side of the border seem to step up terrorism whenever peace talks get started. Look at what happened yesterday.
No **John ** I don’t mean that I mean that the majority don’t trust Israel or the US and if the new Admin seem to be just giving in to Israeli/US demands then they’ll lose the support the people and the hardliners will rush back in.
As to the rest of your post, we’re reading from the same hymn book
I would support freezing or even undoing the settlements if that would bring peace and security. However, I do not believe that the Jewish settlements are a real issue to those other Arab countries that support Palestinian terrorists. These countries are not interested in the well-being of the Palestinian people. Their leaders foment Palestinian problems and hatred of Israel in order to placate their own people.
A couple of posters have suggested that Abbas needs to demonstrate a good-faith effort to stop terrorism. Maybe so, but it’s hard to see Israel being satisfied unless terrorism actually ends. A sincere effort won’t be enough IMHO.
So support for suicide bombers is dwindling, but is still the majority opinion.
I’ve done some looking around and it seems that Abbas has “sort of” distanced himself from the opinions in his book (which was actually originally his college dissertation) claiming that the slant was due to being at war with Israel. I’d like to see him succeed but he’s going to have a hard time trying to crack down on suicide bombers without being seen as a sellout.
So, december, you are arguing that the Israelis do not have to give back the Palestinian land they taken in the West Bank because some other countries (not the Palestinians) don’t care about the issue, but that the Israelis are free to discntinue the peace process if any Palestinian individual (even if acting alone) manages to commit a terrorist act?
Just so we’re clear that you really seem to enjoy the idea of a protracted war. (Or are you simply setting the rules so that ethnic cleansing is the only option?)
Thanks for the stats. That’s a bit scary. Call me an optimist, but I wonder what the polls would show if Israel announced that they would stop settlements and eventually withdraw as part of a braoder peace plan. That is what I hope Bush pushes for. The Israelis are a tough lot. I can certainly envision them going their own way even if we threatened to cut off funds. Let’s hope the leverage we have works.
Glad to see that you recognize the extent of my awesome power, tomndebb. Yes, I am the person designated to set the rules for all middle east peace negotiations.
Seriously, all I’m doing is predicting what I think will happen, just like the rest of the posters. Frankly, I am pessimistic about the situation. I’ll be happily surprised if the “roadmap to peace” actually brings peace.
