Abu Mazen: Beneath the Moderate Veneer

Abu Mazen: Beneath the Moderate Veneer

By Arlene Kushner*

FrontPageMagazine.com | February 25, 2005

"If anyone deserves to be given a chance, this is the guy."

So declared Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, referring to
PA Chair Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), in an address just this past
Friday.

Abbas has been working hard to lend just that impression and he
certainly seems to be succeeding. But precisely what does he
"deserve?" Does this ostensible moderate truly seek the cessation of
violence and genuine peace?

Does he accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state?

More than 11 years ago now, on September 13, 1993, Yasser Arafat,
Chairman of the PLO, shook the hand of a reluctant Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin as the Declaration of Principles was signed on the
White House lawn. A culmination of the negotiations in Oslo, the
Declaration called for putting an end to "decades of confrontation
and conflict" and stated that the parties would "strive to live in
peaceful coexistence."

Within 24 hours Arafat had gone on Jordan TV and explained his
position (in Arabic) with remarkable candor:
"Since we cannot defeat Israel in war; we do this in stages. We take
any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish
sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When
the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final
blow against Israel," he said.

At the end of 1995, a formal pact was established between Hamas and
the Palestinian Authority. Signed in the names of Yasser Arafat and
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, it called on the PA to "cease all preventative
security." That is, in flagrant violation of Oslo agreements, the PA
was agreeing to look the other way as Hamas continued terrorist
attacks, and in fact viewed such terrorist acts - from which it
publicly disassociated itself - as a means of pushing Israel harder
in negotiations.

In the summer of 2002, well after Oslo had collapsed, Dennis Ross,
who had been President Clinton's special envoy in the Middle East,
addressed this approach when he wrote about Arafat's tactics in
Foreign Affairs:
"Not withstanding his commitment to renounce violence, he has never
relinquished the terror card," Ross said.

Now we see Mahmoud Abbas standing in Yasser Arafat's stead. Far more
polished than Arafat ever was, certainly a good deal less abrasive,
and likely considerably smarter, Abbas chooses to be seen as his
antithesis - a new, moderate leader for a new time. Arafat was so
deeply detested in so many quarters that it's not hard for Abbas to
project this persona successfully. Worn down by the need to cope with
Arafat, people are ready to embrace someone new. The current
euphoria, the expressed hope that we may be on the cusp of peace,
would not be possible without a vision of Abbas as the man of the
hour.

Abbas understands that Arafat's belligerent style had become
counterproductive and that terror attacks were not working to further
Palestinian interests. Thus he is eager to project that appearance of
moderation, and to bring to the area a period of "quietness." There
is no question about this. But at the end of the day he was Arafat's
buddy - someone who shared goals and values with him. At the end of
the day Abbas has no more intention of relinquishing that terror card
than Arafat did.

Born in S'fat in 1935, he fled to Syria with his family in 1948. By
the mid-50s he had landed in Kuwait, where he hooked up with Arafat
and helped to found Fatah - which, it should be noted, still
advocates "liberation" of the entire land. As Arafat moved about over
the years, Abbas went with him - to Jordan (where he became involved
with the PLO when Fatah gained ascendancy in that group), to Lebanon
and to Tunis.

For many years, Abbas was Arafat's deputy, his prot?g? and his
constant companion:

"He was party to the plan to take Israel in stages. A formal PLO
resolution outlining this strategy, called the 'Phased Plan,' was
adopted in 1974," according to Arafat was referring to after the Oslo
signing.

He was privy to the advice from North Vietnamese revolutionaries that
the PLO should conceal its true intent and appear flexible. In fact,
Fatah had the works of the North Vietnamese General Giap translated
into Arabic.

He was cognizant of, if not deeply involved in, decisions to formally
ally the PA with Hamas.

And, it must be added, he was the signatory on behalf of the PLO for
the Declaration of Principles. While Arafat shook hands, it was Abbas
who penned his name. Quite clearly, he was privy to Arafat's
declaration a day later - which is to say, privy to the lack of
sincerity that accompanied the show on the White House lawn to which
he had lent his name. He has been partner to it all.

At one point in his career, Abbas went to Oriental College in Moscow,
ostensibly to earn a doctorate in history.

His thesis was expanded it into a book, called The Other Side: The
Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement. In it he
explained that: "[the Zionists gave] permission to every racist in
the world, led by Hitler and the Nazis, to treat Jews as they wished,
so long as it guaranteed immigration to Palestine."

He is a Holocaust denier when he wrote that and remains one. In an
interview he gave on official Palestinian TV, he charged that the
Nazis had no specific plans to murder the Jews.

All indications are, however, that Abbas was in Moscow for a great
deal more than academic study. By the 1970s, the Soviet Union had
become a prime source of training in terrorism, espionage and
indoctrination. It has been noted as more than coincidence that one
of the first places Abbas visited after his election was Russia,
where he met with President Putin, formerly of the KBG.

Not surprisingly, there is evidence that Abbas has been complicit in
terrorism. A couple of years ago a charge surfaced that he was the
man who financed the massacre of Israeli athletes in Munich. The
charge was made credible because it was leveled by Abu Daoud, the
terrorist who planned the operation. More recently (in March 2003 in
the Arabic paper Al-Sharq al-Awsat) he has sanctioned the killing of
(civilian) Jews outside the Green Line.
Yossi Beilin, the left wing Israeli politician who worked with Abbas,
believes that his positions during the Oslo negotiations were
actually more extreme than Arafat's. Beilin says Abbas "was among
Arafat's 'restrictors' during the Camp David summit."
And indeed, Abbas lauded Arafat's rejection of Barak's offer at Camp
David in 2000, saying:

"I do not feel any regret. What we did was the right thing to do. [No
opportunity was missed since] the opportunity did not exist.they say
'we offered 95 percent [of the territory],' and I ask why not 100
percent."
He has sustained his uncompromising demand for full return to
pre-1967 borders. He is even on record as questioning whether there
was really ever a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount, saying, "I
challenge the assertion. But even if it were true, we do not accept
it."

Coupled with this is his consistent position over the years pushing
for the "return" of refugees:

"The refugees.have the right reserved to return to their homeland and
every place they have left.this is not only limited to land under the
sovereignty of the PA. We demand their return to Jaffa, to Haifa and
the other regions they came from."

Were Israel to accede to the demands of Abbas, she would find herself
with indefensible borders, and overrun by hostile population within
those borders: She would be facing her own destruction.

Abbas's present intentions, then, are clear for anyone who is ready
to put aside wishful thinking and see that he will give the
impression of moderation, and he will disarm people with his spoken
commitment to peace. "We have agreed on halting all violent actions
against.Israelis wherever they are," he intoned at the Sharm el-Sheik
summit on February 8."

He will make loud noises about how the terrorists groups must
cooperate in achieving quiet - which is in the interest of the
Palestinian people. He will dispatch police - whose allegiance is
dubious to begin with and who are not truly empowered to take strong
action in any event. The "quiet" he stitches together will be a
temporary quiet, however, merely consented to voluntarily by groups
such as Hamas, who reserve the right to initiate terror again if and
as they deem it appropriate.

At no time has Mahmoud Abbas committed to dismantling the terrorist
infrastructure. He has made it clear that he will not do battle with
the terrorists - who, he has indicated, are his brothers. Nor will he
ask them to surrender weapons. Neither has he uttered a word about
re-vamping the PA-published textbooks, which do not acknowledge
Israel's legitimate existence and teach yet another generation of
Palestinians about "jihad" and "martyrdom."

Abbas's immediate goal is withdrawal of the IDF to the pre-Intifada
position of 2000. He would follow this with a rush to final status
negotiations with Israel. It is nothing short of astonishing how
frequently officials of the PA refer to the need to get to these
negotiations quickly, when they haven't met even preliminary
obligations under the roadmap. Abbas is clearly counting on the
goodwill and impressions of moderation he is generating to lessen the
stringency of the international community in requiring him to meet
these obligations.
Is it possible that a rush to final status negotiations might bring a
lasting peace and a genuine two-state solution?

Consider the words of one Sheikh Mudeiris. The Sheikh is in the
employ of the Palestinian Authority. He offered a sermon (in Arabic)
on official PA TV on February 4. In it, he said:

"We tell you Palestine, we shall return to you, by Allah's will, We
shall return to every village, every town, and every grain of earth
which was quenched by the blood of our grandparents.Our willingness
to return to the 1967 borders does not mean that we have given up on
the land of Palestine. No!.We might be able to use diplomacy in order
to return to the 1967 borders, but we shall not be able to use
diplomacy in order to return to the 1948 borders [i.e., to the
situation before Israel existed]. No one on this earth recognizes
[our right to] the 1948 borders. Therefore, we shall return to the
1967 borders, but it does not mean that we have given up on Jerusalem
and Haifa, Jaffa, Lod, Ramle, Natanyah .and Tel Aviv. Never. We shall
return to every village we had been expelled from, by Allah's
will.Our approval to return to the 1967 borders is not a concession
for our other rights. No!... Palestinians will return the way
Muhammad returned there, as a conqueror." (Palestinian Media Watch
translation).

These words would not have made it on to PA TV without the sanction
of the PA head - Mahmoud Abbas. The PLO "Phased Plan," you see, is
alive and well in the Palestinian Authority headed now by Arafat's
good disciple. His goal is still the eventual destruction of Israel.
Arafat would be proud of him.

*Arlene Kushner lives and writes in Jerusalem. She had done three
major reports on UNRWA for the Center for Near East Policy Research.
Her book, Disclosed: Inside the Palestinian Authority and the PLO,
has just been released and is available at
www.IsraelBehindtheNews.com