A new video from "The Israel Project"
If anyone doubted whether there was real substance to the Hamas-Fatah “unity government,” Mahmoud Abbas' New York Times op-ed provides the proverbial teachable moment. After statehood, he dismisses even the pretense of working toward peace. Instead, he openly promises that Palestine would assault Israel relentlessly in international legal, political, and diplomatic fora. This is where Fatah and Hamas now join together in substance as well as appearance.
Until today, Fatah had convinced the world that it had submitted to the linkage of peace with statehood: a Palestinian state would only arise through negotiations with Israel that, at their completion, would require the Palestinians to cease their claims against the Jewish state and declare the conflict over. Hamas, on the other hand, has been perfectly happy to give its blessing to the creation of a Palestinian state - just so long as the continuation of terrorism and the quest for the ultimate destruction of Israel, diplomatically and otherwise, is preserved.
Today, Abbas has brought Fatah and Hamas together in this goal. It is an important moment. Both factions now agree on a strategy of statehood without peace.
(Commentary)
Was Mahmoud Abbas' Family Expelled from Palestine? -Jeffrey Goldberg
In an op-ed, Mahmoud Abbas writes about himself:
"Sixty-three years ago, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was forced to leave his home in the Galilean city of Safed and flee with his family to Syria."
This statement creates the impression that a certain group of people can't seem to help but oppress little boys from the Galilee. A second, clearer impression is that it was the Zionist army that "forced" Abbas' family to leave Safed. This does not seem to be true. On other occasions, Abbas has stated that his family left Safed out of a general fear that Jews would seek "retribution" against the Arabs of Safed for an earlier slaughter of Jews by Arabs.
Here is his 2007 recounting of his family's self-exile from Safed:
"People were motivated to run away....They realized the balance of forces was shifting and therefore the whole town was abandoned on the basis of this rationale - saving our lives and our belongings."
(Atlantic Monthly)
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