Abbas’ Demonic Wonderland

The Fellowship | July 25, 2017

PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-JERUSALEM-ABBAS — Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas addresses a meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah on July 21, 2017, during which he announced freezing contacts with Israel over new security measures at the highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site of Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after deadly clashes erupted earlier the same day. The new security measures include metal detectors, security cameras, and barring men under 50 from entering the Old City for Friday Muslim prayers, and came after an attack that killed two Israeli policemen the previous week. / AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI (Photo credit should read ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

As tensions continue to simmer over the Temple Mount, Palestinian leadership is still up to its old tricks. Gatestone Institute’s Bassam Tawil writes that Mahmoud Abbas claims that he desires a peaceful solution to the crisis, while at the same time urging his followers to murder more Israelis:

The conflicting reports emerging from Ramallah concerning security coordination with Israel serve as yet another reminder of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders’ astounding hypocrisy.

Israel, for its part, has brushed aside reports about a suspension of the security coordination with the Palestinian Authority as yet another Abbas gimmick.

It is far from lost on Mahmoud Abbas and his PA that such security coordination is what stands between a very hungry Hamas and Abbas served up on toast for breakfast…

Abbas is still playing his old game: terrified of the raging Palestinian street, he released a terse statement on July 23 claiming that the decision to suspend contacts with Israel does indeed include security coordination. This latest statement, however, flies in the face of assertions by Israel and some Palestinian officials that suggest the exact opposite. Israeli security officials have scoffed at Abbas’s decision, calling it symbolic and saying that security coordination is continuing by telephone.

So who is taking Abbas’s threats to suspend security cooperation with Israel seriously? Not Israel, not the Americans, and certainly not many Palestinians. Abbas is caught between two bad places — both of his very own making. On the one hand, he knows that security cooperation with Israel is his only insurance policy to remain in power and alive. On the other hand, Abbas is acutely aware of his status among many Palestinians, who would be more than happy to replace him with someone more… to their taste.

Abbas lives in a demonic Wonderland. Out of one side of his mouth he claimed a desire for a peaceful solution to the metal detectors crisis, and out of the other side, he egged his people on to murder more and more Israelis. As it turns out, whether security coordination is “sacred” or “suspended,” Abbas is in it for one person only: himself.