Once again, the PA is betraying our people
By Khalid Amayreh
Al-Jazeera Cartoon: "Indirect Negotiation"
The PA decision to resume “indirect talks” with Israel is undoubtedly a clear expression of its moral and political bankruptcy. It is also an expression of its inability to lead the Palestinian people.The PA leadership had been saying ad nauseam that it won’t resume “peace talks” with Israel until and unless Israel agrees to freeze Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Fatah conference in Bethlehem, which was held last year, even took a unanimous decision backing the PA stance on the settlements.
Now, it seems that all Fatah’s vows and undertakings were nothing more than hot air. This really begs the question of whether the PA itself can really be taken seriously.
PA officials, who only keep parroting whatever Chairman Abbas wants to hear, are trying to mitigate the gravity of this scandalous decision.
They claim that the resumption of talks doesn’t really constitute a formal resumption of the chronically moribund peace process. More to the point, they claim that the resumption of talks will only last for four months in order to demonstrate to the international community, especially the Obama administration, that Israel doesn’t want peace.
Well, I really can’t understand why the PA, which is drowning from head to toe in the unforgivable sin of security coordination with the Israeli occupation army against its own people, is only agreeing to “indirect” rather than “direct” talks.
Is there still a psychological barrier between the two sides after all the walls of shame came down following the Oslo Accords? It was only a few months ago that Israel and the PA collaborated in the hounding and murder of Palestinian resistance fighters in the West Bank.
In fact, even today, the PA continues to arrest, torment, and torture Palestinians on Israel’s behalf. Indeed, not a day passes without the “heroic” security agencies, trained and funded by Gen. Keith Dayton, raiding Palestinian population centers to arrest and mistreat patriotic Palestinians for “security reasons,” a shameful euphemism for resisting Israel or supporting Hamas.
So, why is the scandalous deception and the sanctimonious self-righteousness. The PA has been up to its ears in the promiscuous collaborative relations with Israel which has never stopped murdering our children and women and stealing our land while the Abbas leadership is singing the songs of peace and romantic engagement with a nefarious regime at the helm of which stands some of the most cruel and racist war criminals in history, such as Netanyahu, Barak, Lieberman and Peres.
The PA is also using Arab backing of indirect talks with Israel as a pretext to commit political adultery by reneging on and retreating from erstwhile commitments to refrain from rejoining futile talks with Israel while the settlement aggrandizement scheme persisted unabated.
We all know that the Arab league is mostly made up of either dynastic sheikhdoms guarded and controlled by the CIA or tyrannical authoritarian regimes that deny their own people basic human rights and civil liberties. Hence, it would be more than naïve to expect these despotic regimes to play a truly constructive role in promoting the Palestinian cause.
Needless to say, regimes that can’t do any good to their own masses can’t really be entrusted with helping the Palestinian cause.
Besides, haven’t we had enough experience with the Arab league, a rotten body that should have been buried in the graveyard of history a long time ago?
Abbas is most likely to argue that he can’t remain outside Arab consensus as if Arab consensus were more important than safeguarding inalienable Arab and Muslim rights which are coming under attack especially in Jerusalem where Zionist Jews are trying, nearly on a daily basis, to arrogate a foothold at the Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine.
In fact, using “Arab consensus” as a pretext to make concessions to the Nazi-like Israeli regime is a dangerous precedent.
For those who still don’t know, the entire Palestinian cause means virtually nothing to certain Arab regimes, whose paramount goal and ultimate strategy doesn’t go beyond staying in power for as long as they shall live. The rest is just political hanky-panky.
Hence, entrusting the noble Palestinian cause to these bankrupt and stupid Arab leaders would be an irresponsible act bordering on treachery.
It is mostly correct to avoid using epithets that would incriminate people without strong corroborating evidence. However, precedents are a strong evidence, and if one agrees to entrust bankrupt regimes with the task of liberating Palestine, then we should expect certain catastrophes to happen, such as giving up on Jerusalem and the right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homeland and then making the claim that the Arabs accepted such a compromise and that “I can’t remain outside the Arab consensus.”
In addition to the travesty of “Arab consensus,” it is scandalously clear that the resumption of talks with the Zionist regime under the present circumstances represents a real victory for the Israeli prime minister and his fascist partners in government.
Netanyahu has been saying repeatedly that “Palestinian rejectionism” can’t be sustained for a long time and that if only Israel sticks to its declared stand, the PA would abandon all its conditions and reservations and return to talks, willy nilly.
Well, it is clear by now that Netanyahu’s views have been vindicated by the scandalous PA retreat which really emboldens and encourages the Israeli government to show further intransigence.
Finally, it is really hard to see any logic in the renewal of talks between Israel and the PA. The PA leadership declared only a few months ago that 18 years of talks with Israel produced a zero-result.
So, one wonders what has changed ever since to warrant a resumption of “peace” talks with Israel, even for the duration of four months as we have been told?
Besides, since when was the resumption of talks with the Zionist regime the real problem impeding a prospective peace settlement between the two sides? Haven’t the two sides held exhaustive talks for many years but to no avail?
Moreover, if peace talks with supposedly “moderate” Zionist governments produced a zero-result, would it not be insane and foolish to expect that additional talks with one of the most fascist governments in the history of the Zionist regime would make peace around the corner.
I realize that the PA is facing a real plight stemming from a feeling of betrayal by the US, Europe and the Arab world.
Well, the PA has only itself to blame. It acted from day one as a beggar, even a treacherous one. And as we all know, beggars can’t be choosers.
Nonetheless, the PA still retains the ability to fix what can be fixed. First and foremost, it should fix relations with Hamas, even if this leads to Israeli rejection and American objection. Israel might then frown in our faces and go wild for a few days or weeks, but eventually it would come to terms with the fact that all Palestinians are united in their determination to end the criminal occupation.
In short, the PA must first gain the support and respect of its own people. This is because those who don’t respect themselves won’t be respected by others.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
Needless to say, regimes that can’t do any good to their own masses can’t really be entrusted with helping the Palestinian cause.
Besides, haven’t we had enough experience with the Arab league, a rotten body that should have been buried in the graveyard of history a long time ago?
Abbas is most likely to argue that he can’t remain outside Arab consensus as if Arab consensus were more important than safeguarding inalienable Arab and Muslim rights which are coming under attack especially in Jerusalem where Zionist Jews are trying, nearly on a daily basis, to arrogate a foothold at the Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine.
In fact, using “Arab consensus” as a pretext to make concessions to the Nazi-like Israeli regime is a dangerous precedent.
For those who still don’t know, the entire Palestinian cause means virtually nothing to certain Arab regimes, whose paramount goal and ultimate strategy doesn’t go beyond staying in power for as long as they shall live. The rest is just political hanky-panky.
Hence, entrusting the noble Palestinian cause to these bankrupt and stupid Arab leaders would be an irresponsible act bordering on treachery.
It is mostly correct to avoid using epithets that would incriminate people without strong corroborating evidence. However, precedents are a strong evidence, and if one agrees to entrust bankrupt regimes with the task of liberating Palestine, then we should expect certain catastrophes to happen, such as giving up on Jerusalem and the right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homeland and then making the claim that the Arabs accepted such a compromise and that “I can’t remain outside the Arab consensus.”
In addition to the travesty of “Arab consensus,” it is scandalously clear that the resumption of talks with the Zionist regime under the present circumstances represents a real victory for the Israeli prime minister and his fascist partners in government.
Netanyahu has been saying repeatedly that “Palestinian rejectionism” can’t be sustained for a long time and that if only Israel sticks to its declared stand, the PA would abandon all its conditions and reservations and return to talks, willy nilly.
Well, it is clear by now that Netanyahu’s views have been vindicated by the scandalous PA retreat which really emboldens and encourages the Israeli government to show further intransigence.
Finally, it is really hard to see any logic in the renewal of talks between Israel and the PA. The PA leadership declared only a few months ago that 18 years of talks with Israel produced a zero-result.
So, one wonders what has changed ever since to warrant a resumption of “peace” talks with Israel, even for the duration of four months as we have been told?
Besides, since when was the resumption of talks with the Zionist regime the real problem impeding a prospective peace settlement between the two sides? Haven’t the two sides held exhaustive talks for many years but to no avail?
Moreover, if peace talks with supposedly “moderate” Zionist governments produced a zero-result, would it not be insane and foolish to expect that additional talks with one of the most fascist governments in the history of the Zionist regime would make peace around the corner.
I realize that the PA is facing a real plight stemming from a feeling of betrayal by the US, Europe and the Arab world.
Well, the PA has only itself to blame. It acted from day one as a beggar, even a treacherous one. And as we all know, beggars can’t be choosers.
Nonetheless, the PA still retains the ability to fix what can be fixed. First and foremost, it should fix relations with Hamas, even if this leads to Israeli rejection and American objection. Israel might then frown in our faces and go wild for a few days or weeks, but eventually it would come to terms with the fact that all Palestinians are united in their determination to end the criminal occupation.
In short, the PA must first gain the support and respect of its own people. This is because those who don’t respect themselves won’t be respected by others.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
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