Last week, fourteen Palestinian Arab factions met in Algiers and signed a declaration to hold elections within a year. The “Algiers Declaration” would advance proportional representation in the Palestinian National Council (PNC) and confirms that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole representative of Palestinian Arabs. It was symbolically signed in the same hall as Yasser Arafat announced the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The Declaration was signed by a number of U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including HAMAS and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), as well as Fatah, the party of Mahmoud Abbas, the current president of the Palestinian Authority. The goal was seemingly to allow every Palestinian Arab – 14 million from around the world – and every “political” entity, including terrorist groups that seek the killing of Jews and destruction of Israel, to participate.
Fourteen Palestinian factions sign Algiers Declaration during a ceremony in the presence of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a statement that he “welcomes the signing on 13 October of the Declaration of Algiers” and “underscores the importance of Palestinian reconciliation for a politically stable, economically viable, sovereign and independent State of Palestine.” It is unclear if the UNSG views a State of Palestine as already in existence or aspirational. What is evident, is that he believes including terrorist groups in “reconciliation” and elections is commendable.
It is uncertain if elections will take place as envisioned. In the past, the PA has insisted on including Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem in elections which Israel forbade as it annexed the area. If Palestinians from around the world get to participate – including those in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as citizens in the U.S., Chile, Israel and elsewhere – perhaps Israel will permit Israeli Arabs to participate. Perhaps those countries which don’t recognize a Palestinian State or forbid dual citizenship would prohibit people from voting or force them to renounce their citizenship in their home countries.
However, it is likely that the various Palestinian groups will use this year for political advantage to prove they deserve support. This has historically been achieved through incitement and violent attacks against Israel. When Hamas launched missiles into Israel, its popularity soared according to Palestinian polls. When Abbas/Fatah praised “martyrs” and committed to continue the “pay-to-slay” program to fund terrorist actions against Israelis, it jumped in the polls.
President Abbas has already been reducing security coordination with Israel, as Palestinians see his rule as serving Israeli interests more than their own. His pullback has led to a spike in terrorist attacks against Israelis this year, and a need for more Israeli raids into PA territory to capture the terrorists, often uncoordinated with PA security teams. It has led to many more civilian deaths on both sides.
Almost all western countries and media have ignored this story, even while Qatar, a longtime supporter of the political-terrorist group Hamas, and Arab media have hailed the agreement. Perhaps the West is waiting for the Arab League Summit which is set to convene November 1 in Algiers. Can the larger Arab world or the more regional Palestinian factions unite in common cause? Perhaps, but historically, only with Jewish blood.
The attempt of some vocal members of the far left to suggest that being pro-Palestinian is a progressive value is an inversion of reality. The vast majority of Palestinian Arab society and leadership is systematically regressive, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and corrupt.
Gay Rights
Palestinian Arab society is extremely religious and abhors homosexuality. Many gay Palestinian Arabs flee lands under the control of the Palestinian Authority and seek asylum in Israel. One such man, Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, 25 years old, had been living in Israel for two years as he feared that his Palestinian Arab neighbors would kill him. This week, his decapitated body was found in Hebron, near his family home.
Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh (Social media)
Misogyny
Dozens of Palestinian women are killed every year in so-called “honor killings“, when family members kill a woman who brings “dishonor” to the family by not living a chaste lifestyle. Isra’a Ghrayeb was killed by her brother after she posted a video on Instagram of her meeting a man, bringing dozens of women out in protests. According to Palestinian law, Article 340 of the penal code allows a man to kill his wife if she committed adultery. Article 341 permits murder to protect “his honor, or somebody else’s life or honor,” essentially a double-“O” license to kill women.
Racism and Anti-Semitism
When Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs controlled Jewish holy sites, they banned Jews from visiting their sacred locations. In Hebron, they banned Jews from climbing above the seventh step of the Cave of The Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs. In Jerusalem, they banned Jews from living or visiting the Old City of Jerusalem, and destroyed all of the synagogues in the Old City from 1949-1967. Today, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority declared that in his vision of a future Palestinian State, there would not be a single Jew living anywhere.
The anti-Semitism is so blatant and systemic, that after the Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs ethnically cleansed Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem of all Jews in the 1948-9 war, it passed a citizenship act in 1954 that specifically gave Jordanian citizenship to everyone “not being Jewish.” The Jew hatred continues today, with 93 percent of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza holding anti-Semitic views according to the ADL, the most of any region in the world.
Climate Change
Palestinian Arabs have deliberately set fire to thousands of acres of Israeli land, burning forests and fields. A 2018 government report noted that “the entire eco-system of the western Negev has been affected. Trees that have stood for generations – preventing soil erosion, improving the carbon footprint and providing a habitat for birds and animals – have been destroyed. Wildlife – birds, turtles, snakes and lizards, jackals, foxes and wolves, wild boars, hedgehogs, bees and other insects – have been killed or lost their homes and their food sources. Experts estimate that it will take decades for the area to recover.” This is in addition to the thousands of tires that Palestinians burn which are extremely harmful to the environment.
The Carmia Nature Reserve burned by Palestinian arson attacks (Photo courtesy of Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
Reproductive Freedom
The Palestinian Authority bans abortion completely in any circumstance. It is one of only two dozen countries in the world with such severe restriction, together with countries including Haiti, Iraq and the Congo.
Religious Freedom
There is nothing so basic as freedom of religion, including changing one’s religion. Yet there are eight countries in the world – all Muslim – where the penalty for converting from Islam is death.
Palestinian Arabs are some of the most devoutly Islamic people in the world, with 89% supporting sharia law, only behind Afghanistan and Iraq. Among those Palestinians supporting sharia, 84% are in favor of stoning as the punishment for adultery and 66% believe Muslims who convert from Islam should be killed. Palestinian Arabs are only second to Pakistan in seeking a more sharia-based society.
Forever Wars
Nothing defines Palestinian society more than the active promotion of forever wars. To this day, the PA leadership refuses to recognize the legitimate historic and human rights of Jews to live in peace and sovereignty in their homeland. For over 100 years, Palestinian Arabs have been waging pogroms and wars slaughtering thousands of Jews with guns, bombs, rockets, knives, cars, stones and whatever implement they could use. The murderers become celebrated heroes in Palestinian society, with the PA paying the killers’ families thousands of dollars.
Supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement march with a poster of female militant Dalal al-Mughrabi, who took part in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, during a rally marking the 55th foundation anniversary of the political party in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on January 1, 2020. (Photo by Musa AL SHAER / AFP)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib said she is angry that people are “progressive except for Palestine,” but she has it upside down. It is Zionists and people who care about basic human rights who are shocked that anyone – let alone people who claim to care about human rights – can support the racist, homophobic, misogynistic, repressive Palestinian Arabs waging forever wars against the most persecuted people in the world.
There are some narratives that simply boggle the mind. Some are completely nonsensical and easily disproven. Others are seemingly spat out of desperation to belittle an enemy’s position. And a few are so twisted, they must have been hatched and sanctified by university professors.
Consider the phrase “European Settler Colonialism” to describe Jews moving to Israel.
Columbia University’s Rashid Khalidi was fond of the phrase. As recently as November 2017, on the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, he took the stage at the United Nations’ Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestine People. He used the expression in a number of ways:
“…Arab city dwellers, who observed with mounting concern the constant arrival of new European Jewish immigrants“
“the Declaration had been tailored to suit the desiderata of Zionism, a European colonizing project“
“The Palestinians were therefore in a triple bind, which may have been unique in the history of resistance of indigenous peoples to European colonialism. They faced the might of the British Empire in the era between the two world wars when not one single colonial possession, with the partial exception of Ireland, succeeded in freeing itself from the clutches of the European imperial powers.“
“Of the five European settler colonies established in Arab countries, only Algeria and Palestine remained colonised in the early 1960s“
“As the last two European settler-colonial powers in the Arab world, France and Israel formed a close alliance to coordinate the preservation of their settler colonies“
“Like France and Italy, the European Jewish Zionists claimed to be descendants of the ancient Palestinian Hebrews and to be merely “returning” to their ancient land.”
“the pan-Jewishism of European Zionism, which sought to recreate the “Judaic” glories of the Palestinian Hebrews, who were appropriated as the ancestors of European converts to Judaism, was depicted as progressive and socialist.”
“Unhappy with its isolation as the last European settler colony in the Arab world, the Israelis provided logistical support to the French colonists,...”
Students have caught on. At a vote to boycott Israel at the University of Wisconsin in March 2017, one of the students took the theme one step further:
“The Israeli state was founded using the same nationalistic and exclusive principles that exploited Jews in Eastern Europe. The foundation built Israel to be as oppressive as the countries that destroyed Jewish homes, lives and pushed them out of Eastern Europe. Israel in its inception is not a Jewish idea but a European one.”
Imagine the depravity of the anti-Zionist university mindset today, that Israel is not even considered a Jewish idea but simply a tool of European colonial imperialism.
The outrageous sentiments are given succor at the United Nations and anti-Zionist media. That they need to be addressed and disproved is shameful but it goes to the heart of the prevalent false anti-Israel narrative peddled by those who seek a Palestinian State and need an anchor for their anti-Semitic beliefs.
Colonialism – The Desire To Gain Versus The Desire To Rid
Many European countries set up colonies around the world, including France, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Each country set up outposts to gain particular advantages in far away lands. Some sought raw materials like grain and minerals to export home. Some sought trade routes and new markets. Others brought missionaries to spread Christianity. Each country sought to exploit the new territory for selfish gain.
All, except for one case falsely-framed as colonialism: Zionism as “European settler colonialism.”
The anti-Semitic narrative describing Zionism as “European colonialism” is founded on two principle beliefs: that European countries desired to shed the continent of its Jews; and the further wish to weaken Muslim Arabs in the Middle East.
On the first concocted rationale, anti-Semitic anti-Zionists try to argue that the great powers of Europe wanted to collectively purge the region of its Jews. It is anti-Semitism at its most base and ugly, suggesting that Jews were universally unwanted foreigners in their midst.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pushed this argument in April 2018 that “[Lord] Balfour hated the Jews, but nevertheless, he gave them a state. The Russian foreign minister was well known for his hatred of the Jews, yet he said to [the Jews]: “Come, I will give you a state in Palestine.”” Abbas claimed that all European leaders hated the Jews and wanted to get rid of them and used Palestine as their dumping ground. The phrase “European settler colonialism” is deeply anti-Semitic in that it conveys that Jews are vile and unwanted.
The second premise of European colonialism in the desire to insert a foreign entity to weaken the supposed unity of Muslim Arabs in the Middle East is foolish as various European powers were dealing with many tribes in the region and building them up into functioning governments and countries. The British Mandate of Palestine is put forward by Arabists as something unique, when there were mandates for all of the lands that were to become independent countries like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, with the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Jews Have Nothing To Do With Ancient Israelites And Never Lived In Israel
The anti-Semitism of “European settler colonialism” extends beyond the invective that Zionism was launched by European leaders to ethnically-cleanse Europe of its Jews. It mocks Jewish history.
The acting President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas wrote his doctoral thesis on a particular form of Holocaust denial, which claimed that Jews have no connection or history in Israel, so early Zionists conspired with the Nazis to make life unbearable so that the Jews would be forced to emigrate to a foreign land. Abbas falsely asserted that Jews are descendants of Khazars, much like Columbia University’s Massad absurdly claimed that Jews pretend to be descended from “Palestinian Hebrews” (whatever that ridiculous phrase means), but really are a bunch of European converts who “appropriated” someone else’s history.
This repulsive narrative is a critical component for anti-Zionists because the definition of a “colony” means an “area under full or partial control of another country.” While France may have set up a foreign colony in Algeria, it is nonsensical to say that the entire European continent set up a joint colony for everyone’s benefit. But what choice do the anti-Semites have? If they are forced to recognize that Jews are from Judea and the land of Israel, then by definition it is not a Jewish colony but a righteous return of Jews from their diaspora. The phrase “European settler colonialism” is anti-Semitic in denying Jews their basic history in the land of Israel.
Jews Came To Palestine Before The Palestine Mandate
Anti-Semitic anti-Zionists argue that the European colonial project launched with Lord Balfour’s 1917 declaration and then the Mandate of Palestine in 1922. Those slightly more knowledgeable about history might point to Theodore Herzl’s First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland.
The reality is that Jews have always lived and moved to the land of Israel. During the last century of Ottoman rule (1800 to 1914), the Jewish population jumped more than 13.4 times. The Christian population only grew by 3.2 times over that period while the Muslim population barely moved, increasing only 2.1 times, meaning that no Muslims migrated to the holy land during that time, as such growth is the natural trend of births minus deaths.
The reason the Jews moved to the land is that the land is holy to Jews. Jews from all over the world pray facing Jerusalem, the only religion to do so. Jews are commanded to visit Jerusalem three times every year. There are commandments that Jews can only keep in Israel.
Saying that Zionism is a “European colonial project” is anti-Semitic as it denies the centrality and holiness of the land to Jews.
Israeli Jews Are Not European
The smear that “Zionism is Racism” was hatched by Muslim nations in the 1970’s, after the Arab world failed to destroy Israel for the third time (1948-9, 1967 and 1973 wars). The outrageous UN resolution was overturned by the United States in 1991, but the charge has been re-launched in modern times under the banner of “white supremacy”, “imperialism” and “European colonialism.”
The simple fact is less than one-third of Israelis have ancestors from Europe. As of 2018, only 31.8% of Jews were Ashkenazi, of European heritage, and 12.4% were from the former USSR. That compares to 44.9% who are Mizrahi and 3.0% from Ethiopia. The balance of Jews (7.9%) are of mixed heritage. Then there are 21.1% who are Arab (Muslim and Christian) and 5% are other groups including Ba’hai (a religion banned in several neighboring countries), Samaritans and others.
Saying that Israel is a creature of “European colonialism” is non-sensical at its most fundamental, as most Israelis do not come from Europe.
Poor Attempt To Distract From Muslim Arab Anti-Semitic Edicts
The charge that Zionism is based on European colonialism is anti-Semitic on many levels. It is used in a pathetic attempt to advance the cause of a Palestinian state, when in fact, it does the opposite by showing that Arabs are terrible anti-Jewish neighbors.
Admitting that Jews predate Arabs by thousands of years does not mean that Arabs have no history in the land, so stop pretending otherwise.
Admitting that the Temple Mount is only the holiest place for Jews does not mean that it holds no significance for Christians or Muslims.
Admitting that Jordanian/Palestinian Muslim Arabs banned Jews from entering the Old City of Jerusalem and the Cave of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron while they controlled it, does not mean that Jews will ban other religions from entering these sacred locations.
Admitting that Jordan issued an anti-Semitic citizenship law in 1954 that granted citizenship to people in Judea and Samaria, as long as they weren’t Jewish, doesn’t mean that the Jewish State of Israel will ban non-Jews from becoming citizens.
Admitting that most Israelis are not European Jews does not mean that Israel will constantly point out that the largest demographic in Israel are the Jews who came from Muslim Arab lands who were expelled and driven out of their homes.
The modern state of Israel is simply the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in their historic homeland. The attempts to vilify Israel as a product of European colonialism and imperialism is both false and deeply anti-Semitic, and actually hurts the Palestinian cause in showing their inability to live peacefully with the Jewish people.
The president of the Palestinian Authority always fails to impress at the annual United Nations General Assembly forum. This year, he outdid himself in spectacular fashion, showcasing why there is no chance for peace anytime soon.
The 48 minute ramble was a disgrace from beginning to end. It is not worth a detailed review of the spouted delusions, but a summary is important to consider the mental and emotional state of this restless people. In short, Abbas believes the world is stuck with him in 1947; deems the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the PA dead; considers Israelis as racist terrorists; and glorifies terrorists openly.
Abbas Now Accepts the 1947 UN Partition Plan
Abbas said that Israel has been colonizing Palestine for 75 years, since its very founding. He built on his term for Israel of a “painful historic settlement“, illegal as far as he is concerned for the past 100 years, not only since 1967.
He demanded that the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1922 Mandate of Palestine, and the entire Zionist enterprise. He put it forward as an “official request” for the “major crime” and sought remedy and compensation.
Abbas also asked the entire UN to enforce Resolution 181 (@25:30). That resolution was the partition plan put forward in November 1947, which was accepted by Zionists but rejected by the entire Arab world, opting instead for war to destroy the Jews. Abbas said with a pointed finger, “Resolution 181 which you have adopted. Resolution 181 is the resolution that we want to be implemented. We want you to implement Resolution 181.”
It boggles the mind how the party which rejected the resolution – 75 years ago! – launched a war which killed one percent of the Israeli population – just a few years after the European Holocaust! – can somehow state that it has changed his mind. If the Arabs had known then that they’d lose the war and more territory, they might have accepted the plan.
Should Abbas figure out how to bring back the thousands of Jews murdered by Arabs over the past 75 years, I’m sure Israel would agree to go back to the borders proposed by the UN in 1947.
Oslo Accords Are Dead
Abbas made clear that he considers the Oslo Accords of 1993 (and 1995) to be dead, as he mistakenly believes that Israel tramples on the accords and only the Palestinians abide by them.
Somehow the multi-year 2000-2004 intifada-terrorism didn’t register in Abbas’ memory. The several wars from Hamas since the terrorist-political group took over Gaza, with over 20,000 rockets fired into Israel, did not trample on the accords. Israel giving the PA Areas A and B and the Gaza Strip was completely ignored.
Did Abbas even read the accords? Nowhere does it say that Israel cannot build homes for Jews in Area C. It says exactly the opposite, that Israel has sole control of the region until it gives more territory to the PA.
One of the conditions of the accords was that the PA would not seek recognition at any UN bodies – which it nevertheless did. Abbas said that the PA will now seek admission to even more organizations.
If Abbas truly wants to end the relationship with Israel established with the Accords, he must realize that he is inviting Israel to take back all of the land that was given to the PA under those same agreements.
Abbas Smears Israelis As Racist Terrorist
Abbas attacked Israel at 12:26, saying “Israel is enacting racist laws, consecrating the apartheid regime. Yes, apartheid, and if they do not like the appellation, this is the truth. They are an apartheid regime.” It was quite a comment, after Abbas had just said at 7:43 of the speech that “Israel did not leave us any land on which we can establish an independent state, in the frame of its frantic expansion. Where will our people live in freedom and dignity? Where can we build our independent state that will live in peace with its neighbors? We want to live in peace with them, with Israel. The settlements unfortunately constitute 751,000 [Jews], or 25% of the total population. 25 percent in the West Bank. The Palestinian land which remains for us. Israel is killing our people with impunity.”
Doesn’t Abbas realize that 26% of Israel’s population is not Jewish? If he believes that so many Jews possibly living in a new Palestinian State prevents Arabs from living in freedom and dignity, how does he possibly suggest Israel take in millions of Arab refugees when the country is only 74% Jewish now? How does he accuse Israel of being an apartheid regime when so many Arabs have full citizenship? Does Abbas blush at his hypocrisy as he demands a new country free of Jews and has existing laws against selling any land to Jews?
To make sure that the entire world and not just Israel was disgusted by his charges, Abbas doubled down on his heinous comment of a few weeks ago in Berlin, Germany when he accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians. At 16:30 of his rant Abbas said that “Israel has committed more than 50 massacres since 1948 until today.” The disgusting charge was clearly intended to simultaneously satisfy his Palestinian Arab constituents and repulse the civilized world.
Abbas Glorifies Terrorists
After the long an rambling tirade meant to insult Israel in every manner possible, Abbas wrapped up his speech glorifying Arabs who killed Israelis, and promised that the Palestinian Authority will forever support the terrorists’ families.
For the last seven minutes of his speech, starting at 41:30, Abbas declared that no foreign body can dictate anything to the PA and they will do whatever they choose. (This comment, after demanding the UN and other countries place pressure on Israel.) He used that lead-in to say that he supports the martyrs and prisoners who are Palestinian heroes. They will get the full support of the PA, in the much criticized “pay-to-slay” program, which the world has rightly condemned as funding terror.
Abbas flipped the bird to the world and said he didn’t care.
Abbas specifically singled out Nasser Abu Hamid as a “martyr” and “a hero” several times. Hamid was convicted in 1990 by Israel of killing five people but he was released as part of the Oslo Accords. In the Second Intifada-terrorism wave, Hamid began killing again. He confessed to killing seven people in five attacks between 2000 and 2002, including the infamous lynching and desecration of the bodies of IDF Corporal Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami during the Ramallah Lynching in October 2000.
Abbas called this murderer a “hero” to the Palestinian people over and again.
President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations, September 23, 2022
Mahmoud Abbas demonstrated to the world his intransigence, hypocrisy, insanity, and consequently, why there is no peace with Israel. The Arab world has grown tired of him and his cause, disavowing the terrorism that he and the Iranian regime support, and are beginning to deepen their countries’ relationships with Israel.
There are few institutions as powerful as the teacher unions in the United States. Not only do they lock in amazing benefits and pensions for their constituents (that’s very much the teachers and not the students), the unions protect horrible teachers from being appropriately fired.
Terrible teachers, many accused of disgusting wrong-doings, end up in so-called “rubber rooms” where they don’t actively teach students anymore but sit around and mark time. All the while, they continue to be paid handsomely and accrue retirement benefits from taxpayers.
A similar dynamic can be seen with the United Nations’ favorite constituents, the Palestinian Arabs, and their pathetic leader, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas addressing the United Nations in 2018
Abbas is a disgrace by every measure. The Palestinians hate him, with 73% unsatisfied with his performance and 77% demanding his resignation, according to a June 2022 poll. Roughly 86% of Palestinians consider the Palestinian Authority to be disgracefully corrupt according to the same poll.
Abbas’s four year term as President was supposed to expire in January 2009 but he has refused to hold new elections, as he knows that he would be trounced, even by the leaders of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist organization.
Abbas lost control over much of the territory and people he was supposed to govern shortly after he assumed power. He and his Fatah Party were routed from Gaza by Hamas in 2007. Abbas has failed to negotiate a unity government with Hamas over fifteen of his eighteen year reign.
With no mandate, support, standing, proven ability to negotiate with fellow Palestinians (let alone Israelis), one would imagine that Abbas would be sidelined by the global community. Why would anyone back such a failed leader and regime?
A thoughtful initial reaction might be that it’s what corrupt political bodies do. Just like teacher unions support corrupt teachers to the chagrin of students and their parents, the United Nations continues to support Abbas and the PA, to the annoyance of Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Abbas has been given the podium to address the United Nations General Assembly every September since 2005. Last year, Abbas used the opportunity to declare that he will continue the “pay-to-slay” program in which the PA pays the families of terrorists who attack Israelis. During his address, he gave Israel one year – until now – to withdraw from the lands it took from Egypt and Transjordan in 1967, or he would abandon any attempts to negotiate a final agreement with Israel and would pursue a solution at the International Criminal Court.
Regardless of his track record and threat, US President Joe Biden paid Abbas a visit in Bethlehem and declared his administration’s support for Abbas. Abbas flew to Europe to meet the leaders of Romania and France. Abbas even went to Germany, where he outrageously accused Israel of committing “50 Holocausts” against Palestinian Arabs.
“The rubber room. Please put him in a rubber room as quickly as possible,” were the calls from around the world. We all know he wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial and that he continues to funnel money to terrorists but we kept telling ourselves “Abbas is a moderate” despite the facts. Keep him away from governance. Stop rewarding him with official state visits. Even corrupt agencies like the UN cannot continue the ignominy of his addressing world leaders.
But they can’t stop because this farce is two-party tango.
Abbas is indeed an unpopular, corrupt, inept Holocaust denier who should be shuttled off the global stage. But he is the flimsy veneer that hides the deep anti-Semitism and rejection of peace ingrained in Palestinian Arab society. He might occasionally go off the scripts that far left-wing NGOs put before him to enable billions of dollars to flow into the PA, but he’s the only front man they have.
Palestinians have been saying consistently: they do not want a two-state solution; they do not want Jews in the Middle East; they proudly support the anti-Semitic political-terrorist group Hamas which has sworn to obliterate the Jewish State.
So western leaders shake hands with the 87-year old cartoon cutout Abbas and pretend he is a legitimate Palestinian leader. They send him billions of dollars of support, knowing much will be wasted and go to fund terrorists in the hope of placating the more radical jihadists. Abbas effectively sits in the rubber room but is trotted out to legitimize the fund flows and to make the masses feel like they are being treated with dignity.
Imagine if a horrible teacher who fomented racism and violence, was considered the best of the lot? The pretty face that covered up the greater evil that was being taught in the classroom by the rest of the staff. Would society allow that teacher to continue to teach, sit in a rubber room or be fired? To be escorted from school or be the public face to address students and parents? Would everyone recognize the systemic problem and demand that the entire institution be shuttered completely, or would they be too concerned about not having any teachers at school?
The veneer has worn through and Abbas’s dark stains are apparent. However, the anti-Semitic rot that lies behind him in Palestinian society continues to be willfully and actively ignored. All because the world is too reluctant to both consider and internalize that creating a neo-Nazi state alongside the sole Jewish State is a terrible idea.
Much of the global media covered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ disgusting comments while he was in Germany, as he tried to gain international support for his approach to dealing with Israel. Their coverage was quite different.
While standing alongside German Chancellor Olaf Schloz, a reporter asked Abbas if he would apologize to Israel for the Palestinian kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, as Germany was set to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event in a few weeks. Abbas ignored the question, and instead offered “From 1947 to the present day, Israel has committed 50 massacres in Palestinian villages and cities, in Deir Yassin, Tantura, Kafr Qasim and many others, 50 massacres, 50 Holocausts.“
The condemnations for the Palestinian leader’s trivialization of the Holocaust – in Germany of all places – in response to a question about Palestinian terrorism, and inverting Jewish victim to murderer, came from around the world. Some news organization opted to focus squarely on the Holocaust denial and rebukes, while other for-profit media companies decided to provide context.
Some of the background proffered was shocking and says much about the news organization’s biases, their readers and sponsors.
Basically all news groups focused on Abbas’ “50 Holocaust” statement and the condemnations. Almost all – including AP News and The Guardian – provided background that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, except for Axios, which delivers news in an abbreviated bullet point format. None of the major news outlets informed readers that Holocaust denial is illegal in Germany, as the country feels a moral duty to not obfuscate its historic crimes against humanity. Depending on when the story broke, the media reported on the “clarification” posted on Abbas’s political party’s website.
The 1972 Palestinian massacre of Israeli athletes, the focus of the question to Abbas, was only referred to as an “attack” by Axios and Reuters. Each declined to write that eleven athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists.
Very few media shops gave their readership color that Abbas has a long history of Holocaust denial, including writing his doctoral thesis on the idea that Zionists conspired with the Nazis to make life unbearable for European Jews to get the Jews to move to Palestine. Abbas falsely alleges – to this day – that Jews have neither history in, nor interest to move to Palestine, so Zionists worked with the German government to prod the Jews to move. Both CNN and The New York Times gave some color on Abbas’ history of anti-Semitism.
On the fringe, CNN, Reuters and The New York Times tried to explain Abbas’s revolting comments.
CNN and Reuters essentially reprinted the Palestinian “clarification” statement which wrongfully stated that “Israeli forces” have been engaged in “massacres” of Palestinians since the “Nakba” of the founding of Israel. Reuters and The New York Times elected to write about recent battles between Palestinian Arabs and Israel that left many Arabs dead, as if somehow the slaughter of defenseless Jewish Germans by the Nazi government is akin to a war between two armed groups.
The New York Times went even further. It quoted a disgraced former Prime Minister from over a decade ago who served time in prison, who “welcomed” the Palestinian non-apology, making the matter seem like water-under-the-bridge. Such ridiculous editorializing could only happen at the anti-Zionist Times. Or maybe Qatari-owned al Jazeera.
The New York Times attempted to soften the vile Holocaust comments by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on August 18, 2022.
In case readers were not satisfied that Abbas was cleared of charges of anti-Semitism by four prime ministers ago-Ehud Olmert, the Times added a bunch of information that has absolutely nothing to do with the story. It wrote that Abbas has worked closely with Israeli security to prevent violence, and that “right-wing Israeli politicians” try to isolate and demonize Abbas, even though he helps keep the peace. If that doesn’t convince the reader to absolve Abbas, the Times added that Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinian Arabs anyway.
The New York Times has long peddled in anti-Israel editorializing. It has now added Holocaust denial-enablement to its revolting repertoire.
US President Joe Biden announced on July 31 that he had ordered the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, a mastermind of several terrorist attacks against the United States. In his comments about the targeted assassination of one of the leaders of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Biden said “Justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more.”
Biden added that “We make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.” However, it is unclear whether al-Zawahiri posed any current threat to the United States. Biden administration officials made no attempt to relay any planned attacks and did not offer whether there was any attempt to arrest al-Zawahiri instead of killing him.
The justice was seemingly solely based on al-Zawahiri’s past actions killing thousands of innocent lives.
Biden’s view of justice served to terrorists is in sharp contrast to the Palestinian Authority that same day.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of Palestinian Arabs blowing up a cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, murdering nine and injuring over 80, the Palestinian Authority raised the salaries of four terrorists by 14.29%.
As reported by Palestinian Media Watch, “Four of the members of the terrorist cell that carried out the attack – Wael Qassem, Wassim Abbasi, Alla Aldin Abbasi and Muhammed Odeh – were arrested shortly after [the bombing], in August 2002. Having now spent 20 years in prison, this month, the PA will give each of the terrorists a 14.29% rise in their basic salary, from 7,000 ($2,251) to 8,000 shekels/month ($2,572). Since the terrorists were residents of Jerusalem, the PA pays them an additional supplement of 300 shekels/month ($96). To date, the PA has paid each of the these four terrorists a sum of 1,034,500 shekels ($332,637). Four of the other terrorists convicted for their part in the attack on the university and other attacks include Muhammad Arman, Walid Anjas, Abdallah Barghouti and Ibrahim Hamed. Each of these terrorists is similarly receiving a monthly salary from the PA.
“To date, the PA rewarded the terrorists responsible for the bombing 8,022,600 shekels ($2,579,614).”
PA President Mahmoud Abbas defended these payment before the United Nations in September when he said “Why should we have to clarify and justify providing assistance to families of prisoners and martyrs, who are the victims of the occupation and its oppressive policies? We cannot abandon our people and we will continue striving to free all our prisoners.“
US President Joe Biden and PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, July 2022. The leaders have very different views of how to deal with terrorists. (photo: Reuters)
The murder of innocent civilians is reprehensible. While it is unfortunate that the offending terrorists are killed instead of tried and imprisoned, it is often necessary. Justice requires as much.
The stain of inhumanity is not confined to the terrorists but permeates those who support, encourage and incentivize them. The Palestinian Authority has shown its moral code in its twisted definition of justice as rewarding terrorists.
In the United States, justice for terrorists and their victims means punishing terrorists. For Palestinian Arabs, justice requires cash compensation for the murderers and falsely labeling the slain victims as foreign invaders.
Joseph Massad teaches at Columbia University on Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History. In addition to his coursework, he publishes essays in places like Middle East Eye which give the general public a small taste of what he is teaching to students at the Ivy League institution.
Tenured Columbia University professor Joseph Massad appearing on Russian news
Massad concocted a bizarre phrase called “Palestinian Hebrews” in recent articles. In order to understand this new noun, it is best to see how Massad used his invented term.
In one article, Massad wrote “Zionists deployed this originally antisemitic claim to argue that modern European Jews are somehow rooted in Palestine in order to render them fantastically the descendants of ancient Palestinian Hebrews.“
“Like France and Italy, the European Jewish Zionists claimed to be descendants of the ancient Palestinian Hebrews and to be merely “returning” to their ancient land. Israel, which established a Jewish majority by expelling the majority of the Palestinian people in 1948, voted against the 1952 UN resolution recognising Tunisian and Moroccan self-determination.“
“Socialist pan-Arab nationalism was castigated by the French as reactionary and seeking to re-establish “Islamic” glories. By contrast, the pan-Jewishism of European Zionism, which sought to recreate the “Judaic” glories of the Palestinian Hebrews, who were appropriated as the ancestors of European converts to Judaism, was depicted as progressive and socialist.“
The absurd phrase reveals Massad’s anti-Semitism on two levels.
The first anti-Semitic assertion of this Columbia professor is that Jews are not really Jews. According to this professor’s narrative, today’s “European Jews” who peddle “European Zionism” are not ancestors of biblical Jews but only of “European converts to Judaism.” Jews have lied to themselves and the world that they are descendants of the Jews in the bible.
Massad believes that the small number of European Jews who managed to survive the forced expulsions, conversions, Inquisitions, pogroms and the Holocaust are disgraceful liars. They’re just a band of thieves who adopted a story from the bible. The anti-Semitic world which persecuted Jews for their faith were in truth attacking charlatans according to this tenured anti-Semitic Palestinian professor.
The second anti-Semitic lie told by Massad is that the real Jews in the Old Testament are “ancient Palestinian Hebrews.” He attempts to strip the Jews out of the bible and replace them – presumably – with a new group of people who are somehow tied to Arabs.
The claim is of course, nonsense. Arabs did not come to the Jewish holy land en masse until the Muslim invasions of the 7th and 8th century, over 1,000 years from the writings of the Old Testament and over 500 years from the writing of the New Testament. The land wasn’t rebranded “Syria Palestina” until the year 135CE, well after Jesus died. The Koran, written hundreds of years later, never used the word “Palestine.”
But Massad has absurdly attempted to purge the ancient Jews from the holy land and replace them with an early version of today’s Palestinian Arabs called “ancient Palestinian Hebrews.” Not Jews of Judea, the way Roman historian Josephus wrote then (Judea is mentioned over 100 times in The War of the Jews), but Palestinian Hebrews.
The transparent purposes of stripping Jews of their history and falsely replacing them with “ancient Palestinian Hebrews” is a pathetic attempt to assert that Jews do not have thousands of years of history in the land of Israel, and that Palestinian Arabs are somehow the real biblical Jews. It is cultural appropriation of the most heinous kind, breeding lies and anti-Semitism. In its most gentle form, it presents as the idiocy behind Linda Sarsour and Bella Hadid claims that Jesus was a Palestinian. In its most violent, it manifests in the foundational Hamas Charter which calls for the destruction of Jews and the Jewish State because of their “usurption of Palestine.”
The anti-Semitic Lexicon has a new phrase, “Palestinian Hebrews”, courtesy of a tenured professor at Columbia University. Expect to see it wherever anti-Semites and anti-Zionists are found.
The too familiar routine of a Palestinian Arab viciously attacking a Jewish civilian unfolded again. An Arab repeatedly stabbed a Jewish civilian, and then another Jewish civilian witnessed the crime and shot the terrorist.
The sequence is straightforward. The perpetrator and victim are clear.
But only if you see the actions through the lens of coexistence, as most Israelis and the western world perceive.
For Palestinian Arabs and their sympathizers, Jews have no right to even be next to the Arab. The basic presence of Jews was the offense, and therefore the Arab is the actual victim twice over – first having to live with Jews, and then to be shot by those same “settlers.”
Palestinian media covered the event with the header “Israeli settler shoots Palestinian in Jerusalem,” making the incident appear as an unprovoked Israeli attack on Arabs, absolution via inversion.
The Jerusalem Post headline was the opposite: “Jerusalem stabbing attack: 41-year-old in moderate condition.” The audience readily understood that the terrorist was an Arab who attacked a Jewish civilian.
The Jerusalem Post article continued with “Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the stabbing was ‘a natural response to the occupation’s crimes against our Islamic and Christian sanctities in the city of Jerusalem. This act of resistance confirms once again the failure of all attempts to stop the escalation of the act of resistance in the occupied West Bank and the city of Jerusalem,’ he said.“
While Israelis attempt to live lives of coexistence, Palestinian Arabs believe that Jews have no history or rights to live in the land, especially in Jerusalem. The Arab street, political parties and media openly support violence to “resist” the presence of Jews.
The nature of the conflict is clear: an Israeli vision of coexistence compared to an Arab vision of a Jew-free land.
The White House announced that President Biden “will visit the Middle East region from July 13th to July 16th with stops in Israel, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia.” The release added that Biden would meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “reaffirming his lifelong commitment to a two-state solution.“
The stampede of elephants in the room is that the Abbas has no authority, no mandate, no control and no abilities, and that Palestinian Arabs have no interest in a two state solution, preferring war.
Then U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden (L) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 9, 2016. (photo: REUTERS/Debbie Hill/Pool)
Mahmoud Abbas – The Straw Man
No Authority. Abbas won presidential election in January 2005. That four-year term ended in January 2009, over 13 years ago. Abbas continues to suspend elections as he knows he would lose. According to a June 2022 Palestinian poll, if elections were held now, Abbas would lose to Ismail Haniyeh of the political-terrorist group HAMAS by 55% to 33%.
No Mandate. That same poll shows that Palestinian Arabs in both the “West Bank” and Gaza despise Abbas, noting that “demand for Abbas’ resignation stands at 72% in the West Bank and 84% in the Gaza Strip.” Further, “perception of corruption in PA institutions stands at 86%.“
No Control. The PA only controls Areas A and B in the West Bank. It has no control over Gaza after getting routed from the territory by HAMAS in 2007. Abbas has no control over a significant percent of his land and people, and cannot deliver anything to Palestinian Arabs or Israelis.
No Ability To Negotiate. Since 2007, Abbas has been unable to negotiate even a unity government between his Fatah party and the rival HAMAS. How could anyone imagine he has the skill or ability to negotiate with Israelis?
Why would anyone negotiate with such a person on the most fundamental principles that the person has no ability to deliver? Because it supplies multiple fig leaves: that the Palestinian Arabs have set up a government and are capable of ruling themselves to ultimately become an independent state to show the world on one hand; and on the other, to make the Palestinian Arabs feel like the world cares.
Mahmoud Abbas – Against Basic U.S. Principles and Human Rights
The United States – and the civilized world – have basic principles regarding human rights which Abbas tramples upon.
Funding terrorism. The US Congress passed the Taylor Force Act which “condition[ed] assistance to the West Bank and Gaza on steps by the Palestinian Authority to end violence and terrorism against Israeli citizens.” Abbas doesn’t care, and told the world at the United Nations that he celebrated martyrs and was commited to pay Palestinian terrorist families “even if it costs PA its last penny.”
Inciting terrorism. Abbas fans the flames of a violent jihad against Jews. He frequently lies that the Al Aqsa Mosque is in danger of being attacked by Jews to foment violence by any means.
Denying Jewish History. Abbas wrote his doctoral thesis on Holocaust denial, pretty abhorrent on its face. He further denies over 3,000 years of Jewish history in the Jewish holy land, calling Jews “colonial invaders.” He denies that the Jewish temples stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and mocks Jews that they are trying to “Judaize” Jerusalem.
The world pretends that this anti-Semitic extremist is a moderate. The sad reality is that he is a moderate, solely by Palestinian Arab standards.
Palestinian Arabs Don’t Want Two States, They Want ’48
Jews Have No Rights Whatsoever In The Land. The average Palestinian Arab in the Palestinian territories believes that the land is 100% Arab and that Jews have no rights to be there. Their position is plain that they do not want to share the land. It is founded on a national narrative that Jews are “colonial invaders” who came to the land as a function of “European imperialism.” That is why pro-Palestinian supporters shout “we don’t want two states, we want ’48,” and “from the river to the sea,” that the entirety of the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River will be Arab.
No Interest In A Two State Solution. Not surprisingly believing that Jews have no history or rights, Palestinian Arabs have no interest in a two state solution. They’ve rejected it from the 1947 Partition Plan until the latest June 2022 poll, when only 28% of respondents favored the idea, with 69% opposed.
Preference For War. Rejecting coexistence, Palestinian Arabs want either the global community to pressure Israel out of existence or to wage war for Israel’s destruction. In June 2022, 56% want the PA to join more international organizations (counter to the parameters of the Oslo Accords signed between the PA and Israel to advance peace), and 55% want to start another armed “initifada,” meaning jihadist terrorism. Currently, 56% of Palestinian Arabs favor attacking Jewish civilians inside of Israel, with 59% believing the terrorism “contributes to the national interest.“
Deeply Embedded Anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League conducted a poll in 2014 about anti-Semitic attitudes around the world. Palestinian Arabs were by far the most anti-Semitic, with almost every single person – a sickening 93% – hating Jews.
It is no wonder that there are so many Palestinian terrorist groups and that the Palestinians intend on voting for one should elections ever be held again.
The US President Honors Anti-Semitism And Wastes Political Capital
Despite the plain facts that Abbas is a straw man who leads anti-Semites not interested in making peace with Israel, President Biden is going to travel to meet him. In doing so, Biden will be giving honor to this despised leader and upsetting 65% of Palestinian Arabs who don’t want the PA to engage with Biden. Even worse, decent Americans will be forced to watch their president listen to the rants and demands of an anti-Semite who supports terrorism, knowing that Biden will just smile and hand Abbas millions of dollars.
The United States invested billions of dollars in Israel and got a strong reliable ally in the Middle East with a vibrant democracy, economy and record of human rights. The US also invested billions of dollars into the Palestinian Arabs, which remains corrupt, inept and hostile to peace and decency. When will people pause to reflect on the return on investments from human and monetary capital?
First One Through 